Tuesday, April 23

Up around 7:30 this morning, and did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30. She was already dressed for an outing to the hospital conference room for a lunch/talk.

After exercising, I looked for something to wear to the event. I decided it was warm enough today for a light knit shirt under a three-quarter length blouse, worn over khaki slacks...if I could have found the khaki slacks I wanted. I searched high and low in my closet, and in the laundry room. Where in the world were they? Then I remembered that Hubbie did a load of laundry yesterday, including his khaki slacks, so I asked him to go through his closet to see if he'd washed mine and hung them with his. Yep, that's what happened.

I wasn't pleased that he'd thrown my slacks in the dryer. I always hang them to dry, so they won't shrink. I feared I wouldn't be able to squeeze into them again. But I did, although I had to do several deep-knee squats to stretch them back to comfort size.

At 11:30, we headed to the hospital. On the way, we were quite surprised to see eight to ten state police cars, with lights blazing, and cops milling about, at a motel. We don't know what was going on, though we speculate it was a drug bust. Our local newspaper will probably have a story about it tomorrow evening.

Not far down the road from that, local sheriff's patrolmen were guiding traffic around a crash. A pickup with the front end smashed was in the wrong lane (the lane we were traveling in), but we didn't see the vehicle that had crashed into it. People were standing on the shoulder of the road, but there was no ambulance, so we don't know if anyone was hurt or not.

When we arrived at the hospital, Hubbie stopped near the door, where we helped Mother into her wheelchair. Even though it was balmy warm today, the wind was very brisk and it was blowing our hair all over. So I hurried Mother into the hospital, and went ahead to the conference room. We usually sit in about the same area, so I knew Hubbie would have no problem finding us.

Lunch today sort of surprised me, since the talk was about healthy eating. The meal included chicken prepared with cheese, and potatoes prepared with cheese, plus green beans, fresh fruit, and a roll.

The speaker, a dietician with the cardiac unit of the hospital, is a young woman who worked with me during my cardiac therapy. She stepped over to our table to ask how I was doing. I mentioned that I wondered what the hospital chef was thinking when he served such a high-fat meal on a day when a diatician was speaking. She said several others had wondered the same thing.

I did the best I could with the meal, scraping the cheese off the meat and potatoes. I not only didn't want the fat, I also wasn't sure if the cheese had yellow dye in it.

The diatician did a good job with her slide show talk. I didn't learn anything I didn't already know, but it was a nice outing, especially for Mother, who enjoys these lunches. It's a way to get her out of the house and among people, which is good for her.

Back home, Mother and I worked up the strawberries bought yesterday at the roadside market. We got five quarts for the freezer, plus enough to sugar and enjoy the next couple of days.

We relaxed after that and finished watching "Dancing With the Stars."

Later, we prepared a supper of beef strips with peppers and onions, baked potatoes, and whole kernel corn, along with homemade biscuits from last night. Mother sliced the onions and peppers, and cut the beef into strips, and Hubbie washed the potatoes. I did the rest.

After supper, Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house. She had a headache today, which she said she noticed first thing this morning, though she didn't mention it to me until after she'd sliced strawberries. I gave her a couple of Tylonol and a cup of coffee, and the headache eased by suppertime. I sent her home with a couple more Tylonol to take before bedtime. She has these headaches from time-to-time, which I think are partly caused by her being dehydrated. But getting her to drink water is nearly impossible.

Hubbie and I spent the evening watching TV, including a History Channel episode of "Vikings," and PBS episodes of "Mr. Selfridge," and "Call the Midwife."