Saturday 9 / Time Goes By so Slowly

Saturday 9: Lazy Bones (1975) (Leon Redbone)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) This song is about a guy who'd rather nap than do his chores. Are there things you should be doing right now, instead of hanging around the blogosphere, answering these questions?
Pick a chore, any chore.  There are always things I should be doing instead of hanging around on the blogosphere and answering questions. 

2) This song mentions a lazy afternoon of fishing. When did you last go fishing?
I was a little kid.  I have no clue how old.  It was the only time (that I can remember) that I ever fished.  We were on my grandfather's boat in Tomales Bay (Inverness) and I was fishing for crab using string and bacon.  I don't remember catching anything.

3) The lyrics catch our hero sleeping in both the sun and the shade. Do you have a nice, shady place to nap on your front lawn? Or would we catch you lying in the sun?
You will never catch me lying in the sun.  It drains my energy and I burn easily.  As for a place to nap on our front lawn, it's a minor traffic thoroughfare so even if I would like to lie in the sun, that would definitely not be the place.

4) This week's featured artist, Leon Redbone, is a difficult man to nail down. Over the years he's claimed to be born in Ontario, and Philadelphia, and even Cyprus. Tell us about a time you got caught in a fib.
Nothing comes immediately to mind.

5) Mr. Redbone has said that taking himself too seriously would be "the gentle kiss of death." What's something that you always take seriously and just can't joke about?
Hey, Leon.  Death can be funny!  Heartbreak is nothing to joke about.

6) He has retired from public life, and that includes his Facebook page, which is no longer available. What did you last post to your Facebook page?
I post many things a day.  The last thing I posted before writing this was a link to an article about Trump ditching LGBT Pride Month celebrations.  I added the comment:  "Of course. I think I've reached outrage burnout."

7) Leon always wore dark glasses when he performed. Do your sunglasses have gray, green, brown or rose colored lenses?
They are sunglasses that go over my regular glasses and are tinted kind of a greyish blue, I think.

8) Recently Dick Van Dyke performed this song at a charity benefit, aided by his a capella quartet, The Vantastix. Last year, at age 90, he campaigned for Bernie Sanders. So Mr. Van Dyke is certainly not a "lazy bones." Who's the most active, energetic person in your life?
Granddaughter Brianna (age 9), who has more energy than anybody else I know.  She's the Energizer Bunny.

9) Random question: You're at dinner with friends and someone begins a very long joke with, "Stop me if you've heard this before." You have heard it, many times before. Do you stop him? Or do you just sit through it again?
Hey...my mother has dementia.  I sit through it again and again and again and again and then once again.

PART 2:  TIME GOES BY SO SLOWLY

My mother often comments that time passes too quickly and that you can't slow it down, but I've discovered that time in the memory unit passes by very slowly.  At least if you don't live there full time.

Today Walt and I went to visit her, and shortly before noon, someone came to make sure she was coming to lunch.  We went to the dining room, and no tables were set.  We sat there for about 20 minutes before they finally got silverware and napkins on, eventually a cup of soup, and finally some fish tacos.  This all took about half an hour before we actually started eating.

The parade of residents into the dining room is one of those things that make you wonder if my mother belongs there.  There are people like her (we sat with a woman like that, who appears to be in better shape, until you try to follow her conversation and then realize that she is not) and then there are the people who seem almost catatonic.  There is one table where they always seat four women who need a lot of help, each of whom seems to be in a daze, one whose body is so rigid that she can't right herself if she tips to the side.  She has to be fed and can barely get the food into her mouth.

In the main restaurant, not in the memory unit, lunch usually lasts about 30 minutes.  Lunch today lasted nearly an hour and a half.  But then...what does anybody in the memory unit need to rush for...?

Still trying to get money ironed out.  The $18,000 bill, for example.  Which the bookkeeper assures me is not correct.  But it bothers me that the woman who bills people, who deals with the books, cannot tell me for sure what the fixed rent in the memory unit is without doing a lot of searching through the computer and ultimately had to tell me that she would send me an e-mail and let me know  She also asked if I had an e-mail address.  I said "it's on the e-mail I sent you" (which she appeared not to have read)

Also, the boss lady of the memory unit received my note with about 8 questions, of which she answered one and assured me she was always available for me to ask questions (though since my mother moved in, I have not seen her).  Also, the woman who was in charge when she was in her old apartment seems totally disinterested now that she is in the memory unit, about which she says she knows nothing.

Fortunately these are my frustrations, but time goes by so slowly and I'm sure that in Atria Time all of the questions will be answered.  In the meantime, with increased social interaction, my mother actually seems much better than she used to -- at least she's not spending all her time in her room looking at trees.  That's worth the price of my own frustrations.