Saturday, April 26

Up at 6:30 this morning, so Hubbie could get ready to go to the armory to help with the Master Gardener plant sale.

I headed to the shower before breakfast, because I wanted to be dressed and ready to take Mother to the sale around 8 a.m.

Hubbie left the house around 7:30. Before I left, I gathered picnic food and supplies for a trip to another town about an hour away, where Mother and I planned to meet Daughter for lunch and afternoon movie.

At 8 a.m., I went to Mother's house and accompanied her to the van. The armory is less than five minutes from our house, so I thought we would arrive at the armory before the rush. But I was wrong. There were no parking spaces around the armory, and I had to park behind a state agency building, which is next door to the armory.

There are handicap spaces there, but I had to wheel Mother over potholes, and up a paved road to the armory. The wheelchair ramp is pretty steep at the armory, so I got my exercise pushing Mother up it.

We spent about 45 minutes at the sale, and Mother bought several plants. The armory was packed wall-to-wall with people, who swooped down on the plants, and then formed a long line to the checkout table. We let the crowd thin out a little before we left.

Back home, we relaxed for a little while, then headed to the other town about 10:30. When we arrived, Daughter was already there. Somehow we miscued, and Daughter had already paid for lunches at the restaurant. 

We enjoyed the meal, though. After lunch, we went to the town's city park (where I had planned to picnic, since it was such a nice day), and walked the one-mile loop around the park. Daughter pushed Mother in her wheelchair.

We stopped along the way to take snapshots, then relaxed in the picnic area until around 1:15, when we went to the movie theater to see "Heaven is for Real."

We're not crazy about this theater, in which there is only one aisle from which to access the seats. We preferred to sit in a row toward the back, but it seemed so did everyone else. After we'd gotten Mother comfortably seated on the aisle, several people...couples and families...asked us to let them pass.

Well, the seats were so packed in the theater that there was just inches between the rows. Mother could not stand up every time somebody wanted to go past us. The first couple that tried it was elderly...a bent-over woman, and a wobbly man with a cane. How on earth did they hope to crawl over us?  When they saw we weren't going to get up, they went to the row in front of us.

The next couple was obese...the woman probably weighed 300 pounds, and the man was upwards of that. We explained that Mother could not get up. They decided to go down a few rows.

After that, a family of obese people, carrying giant tubs of popcorn and huge drinks, tried it. At this point, Mother became irritated and snapped, "I'm disabled and I can't get up!" They moved on.

It wasn't as if the theater was full. There were only a handful of people there, and about a hundred seats, but everyone wanted on our row. Too bad...we weren't about to let them in.

Which wasn't very Christian of us, considering the movie we came to see. But I do believe folks should be able to recognize that a very old woman would have difficulty hopping up and down to let folks pass. Since there were so many empty seats available, there really wasn't a good excuse to disturb us.

The movie was good. It has something for the skeptics, and something for the believers, and it doesn't try to land squarely on either side, though it leans toward the believers. The little boy who plays the lead is very appealing in his innocent sincerity. The movie has its critics, as well as its champions, of course.

The film ended around 4 p.m., and we all headed to our respective home. It was a fun afternoon, and I think Daughter really enjoyed our "girls day out."

Back home, Hubbie was working in the yard. He'd had a busy day, too...all work, unfortunately. Mother was ready to go home as soon as we got back, so I accompanied her. Later, I took a chicken salad sandwich, chips, and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped topping.

At home, Hubbie and I watched the annual red/white game of our favorite state college football team. This is an exhibition game to show how the team might perform in real games.

After that, we watched episodes of "Bones."