Thursday, Oct. 4

Slept late, until around 8 a.m. After breakfast, I did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises. Got ready for the day, and then did a few things around the house, like some more fall decorating, while Hubbie spent his morning outdoors repotting house plants.

Around 10:30, he accompanied Mother to our house, where she had her usual lunch of Ramen Noodle soup at 11:30. Later, Hubbie and I had pimento cheese sandwiches. Hubbie went back outside to continue repotting plants, while Mother and I met haircut appointments. It was a gorgeous day for an outing for Mother...sunny, with temps in the 80s.

My hairdresser was full of stories today about her daughter's wedding next June. She, her daughter, and other relatives and friends, recently went on a successful wedding dress shopping trip, finding exactly the gown suited to her daughter. Then they shopped for appropriate bridesmaids dresses. For these, they reasoned that the style of dress that looked good on the most full-figured bridesmaid would look good on the slender women, who look good in almost anything.

The other topic the hairdresser talked about was her five-month-old dog, who xomehow contracted parvo, even though he's an indoor dog. The dog was plagued with vomiting and diarrhea that made for a lot of clean-up work when the hairdresser got home in the evenings. The dog was confined to a bathroom, but still, it was pretty bad. She said she was instructed to use a water/bleach solution to kill the parvo in the bathroom.

She also had to give the dog a handful of medicine each day, which the dog resisted, of course. The dog, which lost weight until he was emaciated, is now on the upswing, and eating his favorite puppy chow...he's finicky, and only wants this one brand of puppy chow.

We were back home around 2 p.m., and Mother was ready to head to the couch for a nap. I spent some time completing a Literacy Council monthly report, and then I played on my laptop for a while, before settling in to read a John Grisham novel I started yesterday..."The Last Juror."

When Hubbie had finished his outdoor work, he changed clothes and we ran a couple of errands...to a home improvement store to buy three large pots of mums for an outdoor fall arrangement; to the bank; and to a grocery store for a gallon of milk.

At home, I got a call from Hubbie's sister, who wanted me to explain in detail what happens during a catheter procedure to implant stents. She is to undergo the procedure tomorrow, because of a bundle branch blockage. She's not sure yet if stents will be required, or if all she'll need is medication to take care of it. The catheter procedure will reveal what needs to be done.

She commented that she probably had a mild heart attack in the recent past, but it was such that she didn't know it. She was given nitroglycerin tablets, in case she experiences heart attack symptoms tonight, which is improbable. I think prescribing the nitro only served to stress her more, when she's already stressed enough about the procedure. But I guess it's a safety precaution.

Supper was leftover split pea soup from last night, served this time with PB&J sandwiches. Afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house.

Hubbie and I spent the rest of the evening watching TV, including a 2012 movie from the library..."The Woman in Black." In this British film, a young widowed lawyer in the Edwardian era travels to a remote village to take care of the affairs of a recently deceased eccentric, and finds that the ghost of a vengeful woman is terrorizing the town. Stars Daniel Radcliffe (of Harry Potter fame). A big old gothic mansion, cobwebs, strange voices in the mist, things suddenly flying out at you, all make this just the right kind of scary movie for October. Rated PG-13.