Stress and drinking

Reading back over my posts, I realized that I didn't mention that my mother came home from the hospital 'Against Medical Advice' (AMA) last Friday.

My brother has been staying with my parents, but he is going home tomorrow.

Dad has already been doing nearly all of Mom's care, but with Bro1's departure, he won't have anyone big and strong to help him move Mom.

Already last weekend I noticed that Dad was having a strong drink at about noon, and chasing it with beer. When he noticed me noticing his drink, he said 'liquid courage'. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, and she reported that when her mother broke her foot, her father also increased his drinking. Neither of our fathers have a history of drinking problems. It it helps him get through this time, then I guess it's what he needs to do.

Meanwhile, my mother is working on figuring-out how she's going to get her stitches removed. She is unable to go to the doctor's office. But she insisted on going home and not to a rehab facility, so now she's got a problem....

Things are getting better

I visited my Mom and it was a nice visit. I am happy to report that she's doing better, although she still has an incredibly long and difficult recovery ahead of her.


I did write a post late last week, but I lost my network connection and lost my post. It was about acting before thinking when I saw a jumping spider on the edge of the table. It appeared to be sizing-up the possibility of jumping on to my knee, six-inches away. It was stepping forward, looking this way, looking that way, and then backing-up a few steps... I thought, "I wonder if it is trying to jumpt to my knee.", and I reached-out and put my hand between my knee and the table - and she liketty-split jumped to my hand, then dropped to my knee, skittered down my leg and was off and running away.

Now I read in wikipedia that jumping spiders are considered inquisitive, and may even jump on your hand if you put it near them. Now they tell me...

The news could be better

Photo from last year. The hawk was hunting a lizard or skink. She was sitting not 10 feet from the trail on a sign that said 'Environmentally sensitive area'.

Mom is still in the hospital. She had a bad reaction to the IV antibiotic they are using to treat the infection in her hip, it was damaging her kidneys. So a week after surgery to remove the infected prosthetic hip, she is still in the hospital. She sounded pretty good this afternoon, but by this evening she called and sounded much worse.

I'm glad my Dad's there. I'm wondering if I need to go visit sooner than I was planning to. My Aunt's memorial service is this weekend, and I was planning to be there Saturday and Sunday...

Sunday Morning

The pelicans have been meeting-up at our local estuary every morning after they get their breakfast. They fly in by the 10's and 20's every minute or so. Once they land, they join the flock and preen vigorously. The other day we counted more than 150 arrivals.

5 hours of sorting and packing later...

Kimberly arrived at 9:45 and stopped at 2:45. We went through nearly everything in our Den, and boxed-up the stuff we are keeping.

Thing2 and I are wiped-out. We went swimming, which helped my back, but I'm still feeling pretty gimpy.

This evening we've just been lying back and watching TV. It's nice.

TGIF

I know I promised pictures, but all my pictures are my desktop in the kitchen, and I generally use that in the morning. In the evening, I use my work-issued laptop so I can watch TV, socialize with Thing2 and surf/play/blog. All that is a long way of saying that you are going to have to wait a little longer for any pictures.

And I don't suggest holding your breath, tomorrow is going to be another busy day for us. When Thing2 was so sick, we got seriously behind in all the household management chores. Long story short, our house went to hell in a handbasket. We're still working on cleaning-out and cleaning-up. And this isn't easy. We've tried hiring a number of different people to help us. Everyone has their advantages and disadvantages -- but it seems like things are going so slowly even though I feel like I'm killing myself working so hard. Tomorrow we have our first appointment with someone who specializes in helping people get organized to move. I have high hopes that this will get us unstuck and moving forward.

Go Giants!

I've been a Giants fan ever since I listened to their games with my grandmother.
I am enjoying the race to the finish line this season. It isn't often that their games are still significant at this time of the season.

Maybe next year Thing2 will be well enough to go to a game. Their ball park is supposed to be really nice, but I have never been there.

This seems like a very lame post, but I wanted to put up something tonight, and I couldn't think of anything else that wouldn't take a lot of time.

Here's what I would write about if I had the time...
--- Our desire to live somewhere else
--- Girl Kitty's obsession with a baby opposum that's frequenting the back yard in the evenings
--- New lawnmower saga
--- Aunt who recently passed away
--- Transformation of Boss from hell who micromanages and is incredibly critical, to a reasonable facsimile of a decent boss -- following his one-month vacation to India. Let's hope it sticks.
--- Google recruiter who cold-called me. I owe her a resume, but I haven't written it yet. This week has not been good.