Friday, April 10, 2009

Holding Court

We were supposed to go to the wound nurse today. The appointment had been rescheduled from the day before, when the nurse was out sick. But then they called from Kaiser and said that since she already had an appointment for Friday, why don't we just skip the Thursday appointment.

This gave us the day off and it gave my mother the opportunity to "hold court."

Jim came at 7:30 or 8. He's a friend from her days working with the Bank of America. I'd heard about Jim for years and found him a delightful, gregarious man whose first love is obviously golf. He wants to be invited to my mother's 90th birthday party in September and my mother had told me that he had all sorts of ideas and would probably end up running the thing, but he really was more interested in chatting with my mother about gossip about mutual friends and only mentioned in passing that if there was anything he could do, he was more than happy to help.

We had breakfast after Jim left and then, two hours later (because it was noon and thus lunch time), lunch. I finished off the last of the lamb that I had roasted earlier in the week. I love lamb sandwiches and it's been great to have this left over roast to use for sandwiches. It's the next best thing to cracked crab, I think.

She had several phone calls through the day, people calling to see how she is and to offer to help. I think since I've been here she has had more personal phone calls than I get in a month.

We played canasta, of course. And perhaps the less said about that the better. My canasta Karma has done up and gone. By the time we gave up, she had nearly 5000 points and I hadn't reached 1000 yet. When you are dealt 13 cards and ELEVEN of them are neither pairs or wild cards, don't expect much out of your hand...and I had two hands in a row like that.

After the canasta catastrophe, I went down to the mall to do some shopping. It's no longer the glorious days that we had when I first came here a week ago, but it was still nice to get out for a bit. I considered stopping and snubbing my nose at Starbucks again, but didn't.

Shortly after I returned home, my mother's best friend, Paula, arrived for a visit. Paula's just great. I love her dearly, though it was Paula for whom my mother was rushing downstairs to get medication from the pharmacy when she slipped and her her fall nearly two and a half years ago. She's still paying the price for that!

But we laugh a lot around Paula and today was no exception. Paula is also a dog person and so I pulled up my Flickr page and showed her the Royal puppies in all their nakedness, when they first came to live with us (they are looking more "normal" every day now).

Not long after Paul left, Ed arrived. Ed is my mother's stepson and her right hand man (with Peach's husband Bob, I guess, being her left-hand man since the two of them keep all of the repairs done around here).

Ed had volunteered to come and cook dinner and it was nice to sit back and turn the kitchen over to him. I just love Ed and if there is any up side to my mother's two-plus year battle to get this leg of hers back to normal it is that it has given me a chance to know Ed better, after about 30 years!, and to get to know his brother Fred, Jr., with whom I share many interests (and who is one of my Facebook friends). Some day I might also have the chance to get to know their sister as well, perhaps as we plan the 90th birthday party.

Ed fixed terriyake chicken, which was yummy, and he brought salad greens from his garden and fresh asparagus from a local farmers market (you know, of course, that the only reason you eat asparagus and artichokes is that it gives you an excuse to eat lots of mayonnaise!)

When dinner was over we laughed about insignificant things until it was time for CSI. My mother and Ed are huge CSI fans and there is a great debate about whether Lawrence Fishburn can adequately replace the guy who was playing Grisham (I don't watch the show often enough to know all the names). The general concensus is that he is not, at least not in the minds of these two rabid CSI fans.

Ed has now gone home, my mother has gone to bed, and I'm hoping that my tenuous connection to the internet will last long enough for me to get this journal entry posted!

I didn't sleep well last night and I'm ready for bed myself. I'm going home tomorrow, after the appointment with the wound nurse. Peach and Bob arrive on Saturday and I'll be back here Sunday for Easter dinner.

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