Wednesday, May 8

Slept a little later than I meant to this morning, until 7 a.m. I was scheduled to attend a home medical services meeting at 8 a.m., so I hurried to get ready. Skipped breakfast since I knew there would be something offered at the meeting.

And there was...a choice of chocolate chip or berry scones, wrapped fiber breakfast bars, Greek yogurt (yuk), orange juice, and coffee. I opted for a chocolate chip scone and orange juice, since I can't stand Greek yogurt, and only caffeine coffee was available. When the meeting ended, several of us wrapped scones to bring home. I also took a couple of the breakfast bars in flavors we haven't tried.

The meeting lasted longer than expected...over two hours. A lot of ground was covered. One bit of interesting information was about who or what consumers trust for medical advice. The speaker said that folks 65 and older trust the advice of their doctors; baby boomers favor advice from family; Generation X look to friends; and Generation Y favor social media. I think most of us use all those sources to gather information for making decisions about our health.

I was also interested in information about hospice care, because when our plumber was here, he mentioned that his dad has terminal cancer, but doesn't want to go to a nursing home. He is also hesitant about hospice care, since he isn't ready to accept his prognosis of six months to live.

But as the director of hospice pointed out, if terminal patients allow hospice to work with them, the quality of their lives is enhanced, and in some cases,  even extended, because of monitoring, proper diet, etc. I was provided with written information, which I hoped would help the patient and his family to accept hospice care.

Back home around 10 a.m., Hubbie was ready to run errands. As part of errands, he took the hospice care information to the family of the terminal patient. He said they were interested in the service and would encourage their loved one to access it.

Since I had nothing else scheduled for the morning, Mother and I watched Monday night's episode of "Dancing With the Stars."

Hubbie returned around noon. I heated leftover macaroni and cheese, chicken, and English peas for Mother's lunch, and Hubbie made grilled cheese sandwiches for the two of us. Afterward, Hubbie took the office computer to the repair service in another town about twenty minutes away, and Mother and I attempted to watch Tuesday night's elimination episode of "Dancing With the Stars."

The problem was the show, programmed on the DVR, pixilated to the point that it wouldn't even fast forward. So we watched a video of it on my e-reader tablet.

Later, we called the cable company, but were informed that a tech could not visit until Monday.  We're not willing to accept that, so Hubbie will go by the cable office tomorrow to see if a someone can be scared up sooner than that.

While Hubbie was on his way to take the computer to the shop, he called to say the hot tub repairman was on his way to do something or other to the tub. I had really wanted to run a few errands for myself, but I waited until the repairman left.

Around 3 p.m., I was ready to go, but first I searched for a jigsaw puzzle for Mother to work on. Once I helped her set one up, I headed to town. My first stop was the public library to leave the ones we borrowed last week, and pick up a couple of more "Prime Suspect" DVD's.

From there, I went to the greeting card shop to use a $5 coupon to buy a new jigsaw puzzle to give to Mother for Mother's Day. My last stop was at a gift shop to buy a pound of Jelly Belly jelly beans for Mother.

Back home, I saw that a truck and small trailer were in the yard, so I parked behind our truck. The truck and trailer were from the John Deere place...a guy was here to pick up the lawnmower for repairs. Apparently gumballs knocked the belt off of it.

Always something.

By now, it was time to start supper, so I peeled potatoes and set them to boil, then put leftover Swiss steak, and a dish of green beans in the oven to heat.

Didn't do much else before suppertime. The meal was satisfying, and afterward, I accompanied Mother to her house. Then, Hubbie and I watched TV, as usual.