A DAY IN THE LIFE

Some of you know that my mother Mary [94] took a couple of tumbles two weeks ago, so I traveled to Indiana to help out with the day to day since she was not able to do much and father Ed [almost 96] is not particularly handy around the house [understatement!].  I wrote a daily report to the family, and below is an example of how we spent our days.  For many of you, it will be boring and perhaps not worth your time, while others will appreciate the transition in their lives that is taking place.
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Tuesday Night

Halftime of the Notre Dame/Baylor women’s b ball championship, so it’s time to write a bit.  Ed is in the groove for breakfast at the County Seat – it seems to be the place where most of the crew goes most of the time.  They gave up on Lux and most had abandoned the Fairway before it finally closed down.  Interestingly the Fairway reopened as a Vietnamese restaurant – the Golden Monkey.  Breakfast Ed Special = ½ order of oatmeal, brown sugar and milk.  Decaf coffee.  I mix it up a bit; pancake; eggs; toast J  Regular coffee.  Mary had requested a ½ order of mush, so we brought that back, and topped with the local maple syrup, it was pretty good.  She said that she could not go back to sleep after waking up earlier, so she was rather tired today.  Her pain and getting around were about the same today as yesterday, and she decided that she probably would not make it to this week’s hair appointment on Friday.

At 10, Ed and I went over to Greencroft to meet with a marketing person and get a tour of the Senior Center and of Evergreen, the assisted living facility.  There are only two empty units, and both are the Balsam model – a one bedroom with a large walk-in closet, one bath and the standard living-dining-kitchenette set-up.  One is on the first floor and one is on the second floor.  It was interesting to note that during our tour, Ed met at least a half dozen folks that he knew.  The second floor unit is ready for occupants, but the first floor unit is a couple of weeks away from being finished – they always paint, put in new carpet, and generally fix up between occupants.  Of course as we all know, Ed was ready to move in!  We learned that you can ‘hold’ a room with a refundable $500 deposit, and after some discussion, they decided to put a hold on 109, the first floor unit, and to put their name on the waiting list for a two bedroom Tamarak unit.  Although there they are not first on the list, the marketing person said that in essence they are because the people in front of them don’t really want to move.  There is no way of predicting when units might be available, so many folks move into an available unit and then decide later if they want to move to a larger or smaller unit.  The 109 unit is nicely located – not too far from the main entrance and dining area; across the hall from the beauty salon/barber shop; and on the side that is closest to the SideBoard.

I had prepared the sticky topping for cinnamon rolls last night, so this morning I put them in the pans to raise whilst we went to breakfast and then got them baked before we headed to Greencroft – they turned out better this time!  I played noon-ball at GC and then got lunch around for E&M.  A Troyer-restaurant-lady brought some rivel soup, so I heated that up; Ed finished the egg drop soup and pork fried rice from Memories of China; we also had some apple salad, bbq chicken, and of course cinnamon rolls!   Mary said that tomorrow she is ready for some tacos – not sure what I will get for Ed J

When E&M were discussing moving to Evergreen, kinda out of the blue they decided that they only need one car – not in the future but now!  Mary got on the phone with Eby Ford and on Thursday they will discuss their lease on the Lincoln – save them over quite a bit per month I believe.  One of the nice things about Evergreen is that the monthly cost includes virtually everything – all utilities, TV, phone, meals, transportation options, activities......

Supper was quite small for them [and naturally not for me], and they watched their usual evening line up, although Ed slept through a good portion of Wheel and some of Jeopardy.  They made it to half time of the game, and then hit the hay.  Ed has called one of his Shipshe friends to say that he, Slugger and I would be at the Corral for breakfast tomorrow.  We will also make a stop at EDDS.  Linda and Anna Belle are planning on being here whilst we are gone.  Anna Belle called this afternoon to have handyman Doug come down and look at one of her pantry shelves that one of Nickie’s kids had ‘displaced’ – it went back onto the track fairly easily.  No charge. 

Looks like Baylor is burying Notre Dame – not a big surprise – Baylor will be 40 and 0 after this game.  Game over.  At least it is not midnight like last night and the men’s championship!

nite