Birthdays and Dogs

As promised, I fixed French toast for Alice Nan for her birthday.

She was able to get on the road early and should be on her way back to Santa Barbara.  We will miss her.  She's such fun to have around, and always looks on the bright side of things, a talent I don't always have.  Polly has accepted her, so there hasn't been a lot of barking, which is a blessing.

I was up too late and up way too early in order to start the French toast so after she left, I was very, very sleepy and, in fact, fell asleep with my head on my desk, waking when the phone rang.  I was so disoriented I couldn't place where that noise was coming from.  I"ve been sleeping so well these past several months that 3 hours just doesn't cut it for a night of sleep any more, though it used to be my norm.

Diana Ross was one of the few "names" that I recognized on the Grammys last night, a vision in red.

Someone said she was 75 years old and I thought to myself "I'd like to look like that at 75," and then laughed since I will turn 76 next week!  Too late!

The tree guys finally showed up to trim two of our trees.  We expected them 2 weeks ago, but their "cherry picker" (the machine that lets them ride up to the top of the trees) was broken and they had to wait for it to be fixed.

But it's fixed now and our trees are finally trimmed.

Norm came by around noon.  The schedule had him arriving early in the morning and spending the night, but he had to work in the morning and has to work tomorrow morning as well, so he just came for a few hours.  When the schedule was set up, we needed a lot more help than we do now, but with Walt close to back to normal--or at least a new normal--we don't really need physical help as much as we have appreciated the mental stimulation of having a rotating number of folks in the house.

Norm and I ended up watching the Westminster Dog Show (Day 1).  In truth, I think contests to see which dog is the most beautiful is as dumb as a contest to see which woman is the most beautiful, but I do love looking at the dogs.  This one, unlike the coverage of the National Dog Show, which only shows the Best of Grou and Best of Show categories, this coverage was of the Best of Breeds.  Polly was unimpressed by the Chihuahuas but I thought seeing so many altogether was cute:

I also decided I want a Xolo.  Not so much because I like the look (or description of the dog) but because I want to tell everyone I have a Xoloitzcuintli (once I learn how to pronounce it!)

We also learned about poodles.  Norm looked up the story behind the silly poodle cut and discovered it's not so silly after all.

The traditional poodle look stems from the 17th century.  Poodles are water dogs and since a Poodle's thick outer coat can get heavy when wet, the bottom half of the body was shorn back to help keep the dog afloat. To keep his organs warm in cold waters, the hair was kept long over the chest and head. Bracelets of ankle hair were left to protect joints from rheumatism, and a topknot was used to keep long hair out of the eyes when swimming.  So now you know it's just not some sort of frou frou affectation on the part of owners.

After Norm left, I watched the Westminster agility trials, which were so much more fun.  Watching dogs competing in athletic competitions made more sense than conformation.  Those dogs are amazing.  Even when things go wrong....

...they pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and continue on.

I believe this dog was in the top 5.  The dog that won was tiny and barked through the entire course.

We are on our own for the next two or three nights, then Norm will be back and Ned will be home.  I think Ned is going to be very pleased to see the progress his father has made during his absence.

Miss Congeniality

Alice Nan's last day here.  We had a quiet morning.  AN and Walt went off to Mass and then came home for breakfast, so Polly could have her Sunday sausage.

At 2, Alice Nan and I went to Atria to visit my mother.  It's good for people who don't see her for long intervals to come and visit.  The distraction is good for her and it helps people to understand how she is now.

All of my life, my mother was the perfect hostess.  She threw wonderful parties and always kept the conversation going. She was such a good conversationalist that it is amazing to me how tongue tied I get when I should be chatting.

It used to drive me crazy when we drove to Santa Barbara with my mother and Walt's mother.  My mother has always been uncomfortable with silences and she kept the conversation going for 300 miles till I just longed for a bit of silence.  What she said was often interesting, but there was just never a chance to sit back and enjoy the scenery without having to be in a conversation.

(Ironic how much I miss conversation these days!)

But even now that she is in the throes of dementia, she has not lost that need to fill the silence with conversation.  Only now she makes no sense.  She is also losing more and more words so that the thought she's trying to express, which is already unintelligible, often ends in "blah, blah, blah..." with waving hands and a laugh because she can't find the words.

I took a picture of her and Alice Nan.

I texted it off to Jeri and Tom and within 5 minutes the phone rang and it was Jeri.  Jeri tries to call her grandmother often and 99% of the time gets no answer.  I haven't figured out if it's because she not in her room or if she just doesn't know what that ringing is.  But since Jeri could see that I was there, she rang and they had a nice, brief conversation where my mother asked what she always asks "when are you coming to see me?"  But it was nice that they touched bases with each other.

We went off to the market to do "a little" shopping.  Nugget Market has added a ton of new products and my "little" shopping ended up costing $155.  Good thing I wasn't doing a "big" shopping!  Fortunately (or not) the total can be somewhat explained by the fact that I bought more meat than I usually do.

We watched the Grammys, which is weird since NONE of us is into today's music.  In fact, I think I only knew the name of about 5 people involved but it took more than an hour for us to admit that nobody was watching it and we were looking forward to turning it off.

Walt and Alice Nan went upstairs early and I was going to watch the one episode of Outlander that I watch each night (I'm working my way through Season 1).  However I started watching too early and ended up watching three episodes, which was great fun.  I'd forgotten how terrific Season 1 was.

It is 3 a.m. as I'm writing this.  I have wrapped a birthday present for Alice Nan, whose birthday is today, and I'm going to make her some French toast before she gets on the road and heads home to celebrate her birthday with her husband.

Visitors

A wonderfully quiet day at home with no doctor visits!!!!  Not only that, but Atria is under quarantine because some people have the flu, so I couldn't go see my mother even if I wanted to.  Guilt-free!

Walt and I apparently had a good night.  He slept in his bed and Ned got up a few times to check on him, but he got a good night of sleep and I fell asleep during the DVR recording of God Friended Me and except for a bref trip to the bathroom woke when I received a phone call at 7:30.  What a nice normal night!

Walt's brother Norm came up in the late morning and stayed until after dinner.  He is a golf fan and there was a televised golf tournament from their old neighborhood in Hawaii so they watched that for awhile.

Ned gave Norm the "how to take care of Dad" session and then went off to run errands.  Fortunately, Dad didn't need taking care of, but Norm was ready.

Alice Nan left Santa Barbara at 8:30 and was here sometime after 3.  She's staying a few days.  She also got the "how to take care of Dad" seminar.

Jessica dropped by with another batch of soup and some rolls.  Polly has given up attacking everybody who comes in.  So many people have been here the past few months, that she pretty much gives up.  Though with a handful of popcorn, Norm discovered that you CAN buy her love.

We had a nice instantpot dinner and as we were finishing up, everybody's cell phone rang at the same time.  Jeri has been coordinating things so that when Ned is gone for 3 weeks, someone will be here to help with Walt and she was sending everyone (except Walt) a chart of who was coming here when.

About this time we learned there was an active shooter in downtown Davis, who had shot a female officer.  She had been taken to Sutter Davis Hospital and was in serious condition.  No other information other than that she had responded to a call about a 3-car collision.  But there are messages all over Twitter, Facebook, and Neighborhood about everyone staying indoors because they are still looking for the shooter.

When Norm decided it was time to leave, I reassured him that nobody was going to mistake him for a 20 year old shooter.

As of this writing (10 p.m.) the shooter is still at large and they are evacuating houses for people's safety.  

But Walt is about to be safely tucked away in bed for the night and hopefully all the excitement will have died down by the time he wakes up.