What a difference a couple of days can make. First, an update on the appliance malfunctions:
- Refrigerator – needed a new filter, and now having been replaced, the ice flow is restored and we are happy little first-worlders again.
- Dishwasher – another load was run through the machine and everything ran perfectly, confirming my suspicion that someone had simply forgotten to rinse out an article that had been soaking with dish soap, which then resulted in the explosion of bubbles. And so we are happy little first-worlders again.
- Stove-top – which was really user error rather than malfunction, but I digress… the new stove top is on order, and in the meantime, we are able to use the burners on the left side, rather than being forced to use an outdoor fire. HLFW are we.
The date has been set for the Conifer Apocalypse: tomorrow the tree men will be here to remove all the dead wood. I wonder if we could have them cut it into firewood for us — that would make for an awful lot of bonfires at the ranch…
In Oma news:
- A low blood count in the 7s on Friday led to another blood transfusion, which didn’t get finished until after midnight, so she had a bit of a groggy Saturday. By evening when we came to visit, however, she was very perky, and doing so well transferring between her chair and bed almost unassisted (although they don’t want anyone doing that unassisted around there – which is wise). She took us on a tour, down the hall to the family room which is a large recreation area with tables, cupboards with a variety of games, some couches, a big screen TV, a computer for patient and family use, and of all things, a gorgeous old grand piano, with real ivory keys! We popped the lid open and she rolled up and played a couple of tunes. The A sticks, but one can work around such things. 😀 She’s still got her pedal foot, but I don’t think she can reach from her chair. Anyway, we’ll have to bring over some music so she can practice (in her spare time… they work her pretty hard in PT!).Then we went downstairs to look at the gym. At fist we found the doors locked and figured that was that, but as we wandered around the floor, we found a back way in that had been left open by the janitor who was bopping around doing some cleaning, so we got to go in after all and see it. It’s really huge, I was shocked actually at both the size of the room(s) and the extensive variety of equipment. They’ve got quite a program going there. No wonder they call it the Rehabilitation Institute!
- Sunday, we did not make it over to see her at all, but our day was unusually packed. It was our Fearless Leader’s final Sunday as choir director, and so the whole choir stayed to sing both the 9am and 11am masses. It was brilliant. We got to sing some of our favorites, including:
Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd:
and Ave Maria by Tomas Luis de Victoria:
and Ubi Caritas by Ola Gjeilo
We will miss Garold so much – what a consummate musician, gifted teacher, and learned liturgist. It’s been a great privilege to have spent two years working with him, and I pray God will bless him as he moves on to the next chapter.
- Anyway, after singing two masses, I was pretty well immobilized for the rest of the day and just had to rest my feet and back. We didn’t get to lunch till 1pm, and then it was almost two when we got home, and the girls had to leave before 4 to go sing the 5pm mass. I talked to mum several times via cell though, and she seemed to have such a good day! She got to watch the mass on TV in the morning, and then had a visitor from St. Mary’s Basilica who brought her communion and had a delightful visit with her. She got her Kindle connected to the wireless (always tricky in hospitals), and got to watch Serena Williams playing in the U.S. Open (my mom is such a sports fanatic – you name it, tennis, basketball, volleyball, hockey, soccer, football, ice skating, Olympic sports, even table tennis – she’s game for anything).
- Mother also expressed that she is finding the meals so tasty, and that she can’t remember the last time she enjoyed eating! That bad foot was taking more out of her than we knew… what a blessing to enjoy the taste of food again!
And now, for a little amputee humor.
- From our jovial RCIA leader, Jeff Pietro, as we chatted after church: “I wanted to ask your mom if she was trying to get into heaven piece by piece. I can just see your dad, holding this leg, and saying ‘What the h*%! am I gonna do with this??'” (This is especially amusing since my dad would never say “the h*%!” anything, except when he was preaching fire and brimstone – so the incongruity is quite hilarious!)
- And on a related note, from my brother Jeff, who suggested that with all she’s gone through, she’s already got a foot in the door.
- And Paul, who simply asserts that she is now “Foot-less and fancy free!”
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Just returned from a little workout at the gym – walking to the spicy Latin music in the aerobics room was a treat! I don’t have the rhythm for that class, but the music is fun, fun, fun.
This afternoon I’ll take the kids over with me and Megan will attend PT with mom, while the youngers and I hang out and do some school in the family room. (Hopefully it wont be too distracting in there, I’m not sure how busy it gets during the day).
