First thing this morning, catch up on the bushel of ironing then I cleaned up my office by putting away “stuff” I had dumped in here all week. It was late morning before I finally got to the house cleaning chores. After I finished those up I cleaned off my desk and paid the bills.
It’s time for a shower and lunch. Kit stuff this afternoon. It has rained on and off all morning with more of the same the rest of the day.
With thunderstorms in the forecast for weekend the thought crossed my mind last night after dinner to mow but I was too tired and hoped that perhaps the storms would not move in until late on Saturday. This morning when I checked the radar rain was on the way but not for a couple of hours. I mowed and edged finishing up about half an hour before the rain came in.
After lunch I had several errands to run on the way over to visit dad. He was sitting up in bed. He is still getting sick which I think is from the antibiotics but his color looked good and he was alert. He was a little confused talking at times but I just went along with what ever he was saying and answered his questions as best I could.
Bob has kit stuff for me to work on this afternoon.
I am reading a new Tea Shop mystery by Laura Childs, Sweet Tea Revenge.
Summer has finally arrived with temperatures in the mid to high 80′s most of this week. Bob stopped by to see dad today. He was not doing too well. Not sure if it is the antibiotics, the infection itself, or just everything else. Frances and mom are going over tonight. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home then fixed a nice dinner.
I saw this post on Face Book yesterday: Strength of character isnt always about how much you can handle before you break, its also about how much you can handle after youve broken. Oh boy, is that true for me and Frances right now!
Frances and I had an assessment meeting at Brian Center yesterday afternoon to see how dad was doing and what our goals for him are. From there I stopped to pick up me some take out and headed over to Creekside to spend the night with mom. I took a vacation day to spend the morning with mom, take her to the bank and out to lunch then to a doctor appointment.
Dad also had an appointment this morning. Brian Center transported him and Frances met him over there. It was not good news, as we expected. Between his failing heart and kidneys there is not much more can be done for dad except keep him comfortable. They did some blood work and gave us some options which we need to discuss. The doctor called me back this afternoon to let me know dad has another UTI and his potassium count was high. He phoned that report into the Brian Center since they are now handling his medications.
For some reason they did not find the clean clothing he had in his closet and instead had dressed him for his doctor appointment in some extra, clean clothing they keep for spare. While mom and I were out between lunch and doctor we stopped at the Hanes Outlet Store and picked him up three more sets of lounging pants and t-shirts.
After mom’s appointment I dropped her off back at Creekside. Her helper was waiting for her at the front door and I came home. Bob climbed up on the ladder to brush as much of the seed mess from the porch roof gullies as he could without getting up on the roof. I raked as many as I could off the natural areas, watered the plants I put out Saturday, and cleaned up that project. In the meantime Bob had been over at Creekside earlier this afternoon to get dad’s dirty clothing. He was not back from his doctor visit yet so he left after calling to tell me why dad was wearing the reported strange clothing Frances had told me about earlier.
I finished up outside, put on a dry t-shirt, and Bob and I took off back to the Brian Center to deliver dad’s clean and new clothing. I put one of his new t-shirts on him and the nurse put a pair of his new pants on him. He was pretty tired from his doctor outing so we left after I put all his cloths in the closet and drawers. We stopped at Coppola’s for dinner on the way home.
Mom is doing pretty good considering she just came home from the hospital on Monday. She gets around good and did find last night. I don’t think she needs someone all day but instead perhaps a couple hours a few days a week to help with daily chores in the apartment. She will have to get over her fear of being there alone at night again. She did it once before, I know she can do it again.
Frances went to the hospital this afternoon to get mom discharged then I met them at the hospital supply place which is just across the street where mom test drove a Rollator. Once she found one she liked Frances and mom headed to Creekside while I went to the drugstore to get her prescription filled.
We got mom settled in then I took off for home and she went out to pick up dinner for them. She will stay with mom tonight, I will stay tomorrow night. We will continue to stay with her until we and/or she feels like she is strong enough to stay by herself.We have someone staying with her during the day tomorrow. She will be getting both physical and occupational therapy.
I e-mailed Bob earlier today to let him know I made an appointment with the driveway guy to come out Wednesday. We need it resurfaced or sealed or whatever. It’s been since 2005 that we had it done last. Since the driveway is covered in those maple seed/helicopters I asked him if he minded blowing off the drive while I mowed. When I got home he had the top part of the drive finished and was working on the flat area in the back.
Happy Mother’s Day to my mom who will unfortunately be celebrating in the hospital. Frances and I are meeting up late this afternoon to have dinner with her in her room. Before I get to the hospital I need to run by the nursing home to see how dad is doing.
This morning I cleaned and put away my laundry from yesterday then washed my car. Hopefully most of the yellow stuff has finished falling. We had some routine thunderstorms last night bringing close to an inch of rain overnight. Sunny and very breezy today. This afternoon I put together slide set and petri dishes for the new life science kits.
I took off around 9:15 to run errands then Frances and I were meeting up at the apartment around 1. All my stops were in the area of where the apartment is so I headed off in that direction stopping at Lowe’ first. With it being Mother’s Day week I knew it would get busy in the garden area. I bought two flats of vinca and another hanging pot pole plus a small bag of potting soil. I called Frances and learned she was still at home getting ready to leave on her errands. I asked her if she minded doing the apartment first.
I took up two of the six packs of vinca for mom’s pots along with the potting soil. I washed up the dishes in the sink and noticed there were still ants everywhere. When I stopped in Thursday night to get dad clothing I noticed a trail of them all over the counter and sink. I told them in the office on the way out but I guess they did not come up and spray.
We spruced up the apartment and sorted the mail. With them not there the cleaning girls are not able to come in. I went down to the office to get ant spray and gave the counter area and floor along the counter a good dosing.
We left there and met up at Newks for lunch then headed off in different directions to finish our errands. She was going over to the hospital to see mom. Bob went over to see dad for me this afternoon.
I planted most of the vinca in the bed out front when I got home. Now that we no longer have the big deck and stairs I created a little garden spot with my new hanging pot pole and rest of the flowers.
It’s been warm and breezy today. The forecast earlier in the week had been for rain most of the day but so far, none has shown up.
I am reading a new author Janet Bolin. Dire Threads, the first book in her cozy Threadville mystery series, is set in Elderberry Bay, PA nicknamed Threadville. Willow Vanderling left the corporate life in New York to follow her dream of opening a machine embroidery shop. Several years ago three women revived an almost ghost town into shops offering various types of sewing and crafts, a general store, irons works. etc. A tour bus brings women to Threadville for sewing classes, lunch, and shopping. Although I can not do much more than sew on a button I enjoying reading mysteries based on a wide range of topics. And, of course, when I found out Janet owns two border collies and features them in her books I was further motivated to give the first one a try.
I drove over to the hospital this morning to get dad organized for his transfer to the Brian Center. Once they no longer needed me for anything I headed to the nursing home to get started on paperwork.
By the time I had his paperwork finished he was up in his room. His roommate, who had not yet arrived, is friend of our family. What a nice surprise. He is in for rehab as well though he about thirty years younger than my dad.
While I was getting dad settled in Bob showed up. Several of the older staff are still there from when Lenore was there and remembered us. When he came in they gave him a bath, combed his hair, and shaved him then brought him a lunch tray. Bob and I left to come back home.
It is a nice, sunny warm day. Since I finished up getting dad checked in much earlier than I expected it gave me a nice free afternoon to do some outdoor chores. I mowed the back yard, pulled up the winter pansies and sprayed some grass killer. Last weekend at Lowe’s when I picked up mom a garden arrangement for a pot on her deck I picked up two potting plants for me. I put one in the big pot by the porch the other one in a hanging pot. I bought a cute little tripod hanging plant holder that sits on a deck or porch so I could put a hanging pot on my deck.
Working straight through from 8:10 to 3:30 I was able to get almost my full 7.5 hours in for today. I had a very busy morning with the project I needed to get started on. I was able to get at least get the first phase finished since I have to take tomorrow off.
Dad will be discharged from the hospital in the morning to the same nursing home Lenore was in for the last year of her life, The Brian Center. It is supposed to be good place for rehab which is what we hope will help dad to get back on his feet. My friend Bonnie’s mother is there on the first floor where the more ambulatory patients live. Hopefully he will go from the second floor to the first floor soon if a room opens up.
I left at 3:30 to go visit mom since I had not been since she was admitted. She is doing better though they are still trying to determine exactly what is going on with her cough and lungs. She looked much better and said she felt better than she did a few days ago. I stayed for an hour an half then headed on home.
While I was cooking dinner I checked the weather. There were a few tiny little showers in the area but nothing showed up for us. The little block in the left hand corner said “expect dry conditions for the next six hours”. We ate a quick dinner then I headed out to mow. Just as I was about finished with the front it started sprinkling then turned into one of those fine rain soaker downpours. I finished the front and called it a night. I can mow the back tomorrow after or evening depending on how the day goes.
