Sun!

We had the most glorious afternoon. The sky was brilliant blue and the sun was highlighting all of those gorgeous dogwood trees. I should have borrowed Alex's camera to take a picture. Morning, of course, was stormy and wet (I ran around in my rubber garden shoes all day) and everything is looking mighty green.

When the sun comes out, even if it is still very cold, I want to step into crop pants, tee shirts, and sandals.

Mom continues to improve in very small increments. She was ordering Beef Stroganoff for dinner this evening with carrot salad -- and I would suppose noodles or rice or something. I think she is sort of enjoying the whole room service part of this. I know I would love to have her food choices. Her kitchen has a small dining table with two white wicker arm chairs, so she gets to eat in solitary splendor and in her robe.

Crab Feed

Tonight was the annual Soroptimist/Kiwanis Crab Feed. In past years we fed as many as 675 people. Numbers have been down the last two years and this year's event was not a sell out. Nevertheless, we probably hosted between 550 and 600 people for crab, pasta, salad, and a cookie dessert.

My tables were neither big eaters nor drinkers this year. One small Asian woman did eat a good bit of crab, but nothing amazing. We Doigs also followed our personal tradition by not winning any of the raffle prizes. My friend Joanne, a long-time tea drinker, won the Starbucks gift basket. I had hoped to win the gas barbecue (we really don't have room for a 42" television, the big prize) but somebody else took it home. That's probably a good thing. My purist husband thinks that barbecue is best when charcoal is used. I'm the one who wants the gas machine and barbecue really isn't a woman's place anyway. I would probably forget myself and go on a grilling frenzy if it were easy to start the flames.

Thursday Evening

This will be very short. Mom was not feeling well at all today. She isn't accustomed to having colds and she is almost 90. Sometimes I wonder if this thing so many of have had this winter is really the famous H1N1 and we just don't have enough sense to realize it. We are hoping she will be much better by early next week.

Also, I can think of no amusing spin on this one. I certainly understand why they ask people visiting senior residences not to do so if they have any sort of illness.

We Are Doing Better

The antibiotics and the thermoses of tea and the absolute rest are working their magic. Mom is feeling better today. The people at Merrill Gardens are bringing her meals (such as they are) to her. I had envisioned taking food over for lunch and for dinner, but I am absolutely not needed.

Lesson learned: When I reach a certain age I will hope to remember that moving to a Senior Facility is a great choice. I will hope to have enough money left to do so. I hope to be there while I can still enjoy the jazz concerts, and the classes, and all of the special little things they have access to. Yep. Everybody is old, but I will be old too. There are couples as well as singles at MG. Everyone has a real apartment, not just a room. I'm sure I will miss the freedom to come and go as I please, but you lose that freedom even if you stay in your own home after your driving days are past.

A Mom Monday

We had a bit of a scare this morning. Mom called at about 8:30 and told me I needed to get to her apartment now because she thought she had pneumonia. Never a thing to ignore, you pay close attention to pneumonia when an 89-year-old woman is involved.

I moved fast. I didn't so much dress as I covered my body: Jeans, a sweatshirt, tennies, and a baseball hat to cover hair that was yet to be washed. No makeup adorned this 66 years young face (the whole eyebrows and lashes look was just not there). Luckily my teeth had been brushed before the call.

When I got to Merrill Gardens she sounded terrible and felt like she just might be joining daddy sooner rather than later. I requested a visit from the nurse at the facility office and got on the phone to Kaiser while we waited for her. At this point I wasn't sure whether to load Mom in the car or call 911.

The nurse arrived while I was on the phone to Kaiser and kept telling me she needed to go to the doctor.

"You need to take her to the doctor"
"I'm on hold for Kaiser now"
"You need to take her to the doctor"
"Yes, I'm trying to call them"
"She needs to go to the doctor"
"I'm holding for Kaiser"
"Does she have Kaiser?"
"NO. I am just calling them and sitting in the queue because I'm hoping they can give me the number for a Sutter Doctor." (Well, no I didn't say that, but I felt like it.)

We did get an appointment late morning with a very nice young doctor, who told us that she just has a really bad cold, a bit of bronchitis or sinusitis, and needs to rest. She gave Mom prescriptions for an antibiotic, cough medicine, and an albuterol inhaler "just in case". I brought her home and made a grocery run for chicken broth ("I don't want food") and a loaf of bread.

Note that the dogwood and tulip trees are blooming here and I cheerfully pointed them out to her all the way home. She was about as uninterested in those trees as a person can be and probably was ready to strangle her daughter.

She's going to feel really lousy for a couple of days but will probably recover from the cold long before she recovers from the shame of being seen with me in public with my morning face.

Closet Enhancement

I went shopping today and had a great new experience. An FA friend runs a shopping service from her home. She shops thrift stores for her clients, you make an appointment, and she puts together several outfits for you to try. Some work and some don't. If something doesn't come together on you she will pull out another garment and try it. She asks that you be willing to try something that isn't your usual style. She refuses to sell her clients anything that doesn't look good on them. She likes to shop and always looks smashing herself.

When I got there she had six outfits put together for me and three dresses to try. Some of the pants just didn't fit, but I had something similar at home, so tops worked. There was one blouse I really liked that just didn't cut it (rats!). One dress that she liked on me didn't suit my needs. In the end I came home with five sweaters, a gorgeous white blouse, three little knit tops, two jackets, dressy grey slacks, and a dress -- for $150. Many of the brands were for stores I wouldn't ordinarily think of , like J Crew and Banana Republic, but they were not age inappropriate. She tells me it's time to start thinking outside the box when I buy clothing.

I know I could do this on my own if I simply trusted my taste and was willing to take the time to check out the thrift stores. In the meantime, this Second Hand Rose is going to be looking chic, and is grateful for Carol's fashion sense and time.

Day Three

Another mostly uneventful day.

My dear husband has been trying to get the Shingles Vaccine, as prescribed by his doctor. We (I) made the requisite calls to Medicare then to Anthem Blue Cross and then to MedCo (drug provider for CalPERS) to find out where he should be getting this vaccine/where they will pay for all or most of it. We were directed to the Walgreen Pharmacy in our neighborhood, told that they don't actually have the serum yet, redirected to the Bel Air Pharmacy, and he was told that none of the paperwork he was given by the doctor suffices and that he needs a regular prescription. He called the doctor and asked that a prescription be mailed to him. Nothing. He called the doctor's office again and asked for a phone call. Nothing. Repeat call and repeat nothing. He finally went there and made an in-person fuss (as only a seventy-something man with nothing better to do can make one). Turns out that Dr. B's assistant FAXED the prescription to the pharmacy February 9 but they didn't know how to get hold of Alex so nobody told him. He was out when the doc's office called today and I explained to them that Alex really does not relate to electronic methods. They need to call or mail him the information.

Sacramento is a company town. Lots of us have CalPERS insurance and any doctor's office should have the information relating to us at their fingertips -- or at least in their files. Much as I love my computer, not everyone communicates this way. If you want to reach the geezer set you have to use Ma Bell or USPS. Now I do sound like a grumpy little old lady, don't I?

Day Two

Daily. I said daily and I nearly forgot today. Nothing in the rules says that I have to write a lot.

Today it suddenly seemed to be spring. As I drove to my meeting the dogwood was in bloom beside the freeway. The blossoms just popped overnight. The clouds of white and pink were like gifts all along my route. The camellias are also finally out and I'm thinking the azaleas can't be far behind.

I stopped at the mall on the way home. When I got out of the car I realized that I was too warm in my coat and I left it in the trunk of the car. I wish we could export some of this lovely weather to the east coast.

Lenten Promise

No, I'm not Roman Catholic. No schmoot on my forehead today. Lent just seems to be a good time to promise to do something or do without something. I'm already doing without eating everything I don't need to maintain and a host of other things. What to do?

It was suggested that I blog daily for the 40 days. Gulp. Here we go. I have been meaning to do this for a long time.

This was a busy day -- started out by taking Mom to Kaiser for an earlyish appointment (which took all morning) and will end with a Chieftains concert with the McCarrolls at the Modavi Center.

Mom's blood pressure is fine now, but her pulse is low (after 88 it's patch, patch, patch) so she is changing medication yet again. I find myself wondering why they always start you with the full three months prescription, then you end out tossing two-and-a-half-months worth if it doesn't work out. Got to buy stock in some drug companies. They have to be making a fortune just on what we flush down the toilet. My Mother is amazingly patient with the whole system. I'm sure she would rather be doing something fun rather than spending time at Kaiser.

Letter -- Part Two

I majored in Journalism and wrote advertising copy as a brand new college grad. I do know better. I really do!

However, I wrote that annual letter, printed out a bunch of copies, and stuck 30-some in sealed envelopes without waiting 24 hours or having somebody else read it. As soon as I was done and I picked up that leftover copy I saw several things I should edit/delete. Aaargh! I'm not starting over -- too lazy to address new envelopes.

When you blog or post on Facebook you can be excused some awkward wording, a typo or two, a bit of redundancy. When the printed word is involved, however, we need to be more careful.

Chalk this one up as a learning experience.

Those Annual Letters

We really love getting annual Christmas letters. There are so many old friends from school or work that we rarely see, and the annual card/letter is the only way we know what is going on with them. Well, now there is Facebook, but the letters have more detail.

A few years ago the holidays were very busy and we didn't get cards, letters, or anything out. We decided to send out an "annual report" in January. Having received letters from friends more as Valentines than Christmas cards, we know that those are the ones you really have time to read and digest properly. Last year we didn't even send those. I'm not quite sure what happened, but we completely blew it.

Today I sat down and composed the letter for 2009. We all did some travelling, but there were few real changes this year. Mom moved to Sacramento -- and that had more impact on our lives than anything else. I lost 50 pounds, but that had less effect than I thought it might, so I didn't include that bit. All of us are doing pretty much what we did last year at this time.

I realized how hard it has become for me to write and I need to rectify that problem. I am going to play columnist and try to blog more often even if I don't really have much to say. Like any good journalist, I ought to be able to fill space even if nothing much is happening.