Monday, May 19

Up at 8 a.m., and did stair stepping, resistance band, and leg weights exercises after breakfast. Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house mid-morning, and she went to her jigsaw puzzle. Once I was ready for the day, I made a few sympathy cards for Caring Hands.

For lunch, I fixed scrambled egg substitute, with Vidalia onion, microwave bacon, cheese, and spices. Served the meal with toast and choice of homemade strawberry, apple, or pineapple jellies.

Afterward, Mother went back to her puzzle, and Hubbie and I ran errands...to the bank, to the post office to mail coupons to Granddaughter, to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, to the Caring Hands Hospice office to deliver the cards, and to the WDCS for a few grocery items.

At the Caring Hands office, the volunteer coordinator asked that I continue making sympathy cards, since those are the ones most needed. Today, I provided a dozen cards, but that's not nearly enough. So when we got back home, I spent the afternoon making more. Finished about six of them. I'll do more as time permits.

While I was making cards, the central heating and air repairman came to check and see if there was a gas leak at the unit. For weeks I have, from time to time, when the heater was on, smelled an odor in the stairwell and at the top of the stairs that I thought must be gas.

But as usual, Hubbie was not able to smell it, so he attributed it to my overly sensitive nose. Today, though, I insisted he call the repairman. He arrived shortly, since he was in the neighborhood. Hubbie escorted him upstairs, and then he started to go outdoors to work in the yard. But within a few seconds, the repairman called downstairs, "I found it!"

I gave Hubbie a smug "I-told-you-so" look.

This is the second time that Hubbie did not believe me when I said I smelled gas. The first time was in the spare bedroom. The odor persisted for weeks before he agreed to get the propane guy in to check it. That time, repairs had to be made not only in the bedroom but in the line leading to the tank out in the yard.

It only took a few minutes for the repairman to fix the problem, which could have been done a lot sooner, if Hubbie had just listened to me.

Later, I put dishes of leftovers from the Japanese restaurant in the oven for supper. It was a good meal again. Afterward, I made a strawberry cake using fresh sugared strawberries in an angel food cake mix. Since it was so heavy with fruit, it fell in the middle after it was baked, but it's tasty just the same.

After the cake was baked, Mother was ready to go home, so I accompanied her. It was a nice evening...mildly warm, with a little breeze that carried the sweet scent of honeysuckle.

At home, Hubbie and I watched TV for the evening, including a 2010 movie called, "Legendary." After being bullied, a brainy high school boy decides to join the wrestling team, following in the footsteps of his older brother, who was a college wrestling legend. The brother was estranged from the family following the death of the father. But the younger brother finds a way to smooth the path for his return to the family.

Around 9 p.m., I went back to Mother's house to put drops in her eyes...or at least in the tiny slits of her eyes, since she had them so firmly clamped shut.