Anger word Puzzles

So much is taken for granted, it seems to me. I, for one, take being able to do a crossword (or even a happy word) puzzle as a fairly straightforward sort of task. Not that I can do the tough ones easily (that's why they are considered tough, I would guess) but at least I can figure out the mechanics of the puzzle. Mom can't. I was surprised that she had a hard time figuring out the relationship between the clues and the boxes in the puzzle. And trying to help her do it, well, it didn't help. I came up with the idea of her writing the words for the answers to the clues right beside the clues. Seemed like a good idea. Something to get her using what is left of her noggin's capabilities. She did two words on her own. Not a hugely self-motivated person is my mom. So, yesterday, we played puzzle for half an hour. I sat with the puzzle book and read clues to her, while she would try and guess the answer. This is an easy puzzle book, so the clues are pretty straightforward. When the clues weren't straightforward, I would modify them a bit to make them a little easier. And when possible, gave her letters in the word to help her along if she was having trouble. She was delighted. Kept saying "I am pretty good at this when you are helping me." And "We are having fun, aren't we!?" I guess we will be doing some of this as long as she is able!

I stopped in at the Smith yesterday to ask a quick question and ended up staying half an hour and with several tasks assigned to me. Yay. Note to self - don't go to the Smith unless I want stuff to do. I also went to the bank and saw Hannah who is leaving to go back to college in a week or so. Ok, I didn't go to see her, but she was there and happily gave me a roll of quarters. Which I needed so I could do laundry. Speaking of laundry, I feel a little disloyal because I have been using the downtown laundromat instead of the one nearer us, in the plaza. I just like the different sized washers at the downtown one and the fact that every quarter is worth 8 minutes in their dryers.

While there I stopped in a the medical supply place. Turns out that they were the ones (sort of) calling us about parts for mom's cpap machine. They are going to stop the calling now. Yay!

After laundering, I went to Staples and got an actual white board with which I am much happier than I was with the weird dry erase board I got from Wegman's. I think it will be a good thing for mom to have and hold onto letting her know where I am and such. And I also did some grocery shopping.

Mom can't eat things in tortillas. I just have to face that fact and move on with my life. I thought she could manage it and I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Sigh. So, next time we have tacos, she gets to have taco salad and eat it with a fork - or her fingers if she wants - but no more tribulations with taco skins. I must admit I got slightly exasperated at the mess she was able to make of herself before I realized that it was not, of course, something she was doing on purpose. Double Sigh.

Wild night on the town last evening! Tuesdays are my regular night to go out and hang out. Red Dove was busy but the end seat at the bar was invitingly open and waiting for me. I sat and had a beer and chatted with whomever wandered or sat nearby. Then, just as I was thinking of leaving, a few friends showed up. We went off to play pool - how I do enjoy playing pool! - and hang out next door at Trotta's. They have two pool tables that are rarely in use on Tuesday nights. Yay. Then back to Red Dove for a night cap. I left them there around midnight and headed back home, were I checked in with mom and then played for a while before finally falling into bed around 2 in the morning. Huzzuh!

30 Days Hath September...

How do you remember how many days there are in each month? The rhyme? I love the word "hath"! Or the back of the hand knuckle thing? Weird how that works...I still have to do one of them to figure out how many days a month has - though I mostly just guess. This is July and it has, er, hold on, 31! Yay! So today is not the last day of the month. We still have one more day. It has been a weird month for me, time wise. Interminable. And yet not long enough. Always another thing I would like to have accomplished, and actually accomplished a good bit. I do, though, need to get back to the stuff I was doing, and get cranking on the stuff that I would like to crank out. But today, laundry is definitely in the cards. Baby needs a new pair (or at least clean pair) of under-there. (To answer the question of under-where...)

Is that enough words yet, or do I need a few more to reach sufficiency? Wow, spelled that right the first time. Go me!

Yesterday was a Monday. Part of it was spent at the Smith. I had to leave before mom was awake, which freaked her out a bit. I bought an erasable board upon which I was planning to write where I was and leave it for her - but I don't like it. I think I will try again today and get an actual white board. I have always been enamored of that technology. Chalkboards just aren't available readily. Where to put it is one question that has been unanswered. Hmm. More thought is necessary.

At the Smith, I went up into the rafters to trace a sound cable that was run from the projection booth to backstage (apparently). It was kinda scary up there - not as scary as it could have been - but the possibility of stepping through the plaster was always there - and the fall would not have been pleasant. Still, overall, I wasn't all that scared. We tracked the cable and found out that the end on stage had been cut - which I am guessing means that the cable is no longer functional - not that it is no longer functional because of being cut - rather it was cut because it didn't work anymore and it was too much trouble to re-run the cable or remove it (bundled as it was with other cables). Sigh. Still, we will try to get it spliced and working and see what happens.

We also spent a little time working in a storage space, neatening it up. The difference was shocking and so easily accomplished. It looks worlds better in there. And I learned of a third key repository in the space. Sigh. So many keys, so little time. That's another thing I would like to get a handle on when I take over Technical Management of the theatre. First thing, though, is cleaning out the manager's office. It is unworkable in there. Totally. Anyway, I think that is all we did. We did not do any work on the cyclorama (Hey, just because you don't recognize a word, application, doesn't mean it is misspelled!) lights. I don't know that Guys and Dolls (not sure I am going to go see this - or take mom - time will tell) plan on using them. They already have moved in a lot of stuff! I guess it is going to be a big show.

I am going to miss David not being around at the Smith.

Galloping to the end

The end of the month is nigh. Yippee? Soon it will be my month - Augustus! Yay! I can hardly wait. There is so much going on in August. Like, um, er...well, ok, so there isn't a lot planned for August now, but every day there is potential for something extraordinary to occur. True, most days nothing too outside the norm actually does occur, but the potential is always there.

Today, for instance, could be the end of the world. Or aliens could land in Washington, DC. Or I could get a splinter. Hmm, which of these is most likely and which least? I am heading to Smith today to do some puttering with David. We don't have a lot to do - just setting up the sound system, I believe. And maybe tracing a cable or two. We might or might not have a staff meeting. And I need to call a bride and see what her expectations are for her wedding ceremony she is having at the Smith in August. See, I might get a splinter.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, no exciting news to share. Mom watched Seabiscuit the other day. I didn't, so I can't really re-report on it. We saw it when it came out. I think she liked it. So hard to tell. My GPS is all happily updated. The coins remain unsorted. Books uncatalogued. Laundry unwashed. Glarp. Baby steps. Life moves forward even while standing still or moving backward. Not that I am moving backward, thank you very much.

For those who read my blog from Facebook, you may have seen the question about how to pronounce ghoti. The answer is, of course, fish. I know, weird, right? I can't recall where I first learned about this, but looking it up on Wikipedia just now, I found out that, although often attributed to George Bernard Shaw, there is no evidence to support it being something he actually wrote about. Still, I thought it was interesting.

And one more thing

One more thing that I am going to try to find the will to accomplish in the not too distant future is to update the map in my GPS. It keeps telling me that I last updated it more than a year ago! Time flies whenever. So, add that to the list of things that haven't been done but need to be completed. One day.

There seems to be a conflict between an app on my machine and my USB ports. My mac laptop is old, and the software on it ranges in age from when the thing was purchased to much more modern software - though little of it is trés up to date. So it is not really surprising that there are glitches here and there. Still, it is sigh-ighing! (That is a fff gh). The only fix I have found so far is restarting the computer - which takes time and a teeny weeny bit of effort. The reason I need to do this is so that I can download the pictures from my camera. Oh, and it might make updating my GPS map feasible.

Yesterdays Eisenhower College Reunion lunch was, overall, enjoyable. At least it was for me. Hard to tell if it was for mom. My guess is that, other than the food, she was bored. How do I guess this? For most of the ride back from Seneca Falls mom told me how boring the whole thing must have been for me. I assured her it wasn't. And truly, it wasn't. I like meeting new people and re-meeting old people. You know what I mean. Chatting about this and that and the other thing. And there was free food - not scintillating, but satisfactory. I started with dessert. Not as many people came and talked with mom as did last year. Still, a few did. Sadly, mom doesn't remember being honored. She keeps asking me if she was. But I remember. I have asked Pamela for the remarks and hope she will send them.

Hey, I did something! I got my GPS updated! It took a little while, but I managed. Phew! I feel like my day is complete since I can cross one thing off my mental to-did (sic) list! Apparently (sic) isn't used anymore, according to a friend who does some professional editing. Too bad. I am still going to use it! Phbbbt!

Weird Dream

I dreamt that "they" were after me. First, I jumped out of my car as it was moving down a street or alley - lucky I did because a large delivery van exploded and careened into the car from behind! Eeeek. I ran to look for someplace to hide and destroyed two little recon drone type flying thingies that were chasing me. Then, after things had seemed to calm down for a second, I went to look for my car to see if I could find it - I couldn't. Some guy helped me locate where it had been taken - apparently to be dismantled. I eventually found a box that contained things that had been in the car - but never examined all the stuff - because they started to attack me again - this time with a river of sludge - but my alter ego found a vehicle - some sort of tractor-let - that enabled us to escape for the time being. I am sure there was a bit more and more details could be dragged out of my brain, but I think you all get the picture.

So, I didn't do much of anything yesterday, despite my desires and my hopes. No laundry, no coin counting, no books added to my database. Sigh. I did, though, go out to do some food shopping. I also stopped for a beer at the Smoke House - the new place that opened in earlier July. It was dead. Only one bartender and a bar manager (who wasn't behind the bar all that much). Lots of servers, but few customers. The bartender barely spoke to me, despite me being the only person at the bar and her not getting any orders to speak of. I did chat with the bar manager a bit. Mostly about the high price of her flight of beers - $10 for 20ish ounces of beer. That seemed high to me. She said she had had no complaints. I didn't point out that people don't complain unless they are really pissed, usually. But my math showed it was pretty expensive. Two pints of their most expensive beer (32ish ounces) is only $11. Doing the math we have $.50 per ounce versus $.34 per ounce for the a pint. Quite a difference, n'est-ce pas? Whatever. I don't plan to go there for another two or three weeks. At least.

I also went Wegman's for groceries for dinner. I made mom some baked salmon, an ear of corn and broccoli. And for me, pizza with pepperoni, banana peppers (what is the difference between banana peppers and pepperoncini?) and artichoke hearts. Yum. I have left over pizza for lunch for the next few days. Aren't I the luckiest guy on the planet?

Speaking of lucky, mom and I get to have a free lunch today. Luckily, we woke up early and will have plenty of time to get dressed and get out. Yay!

Shuffled off...

Yes, I shuffled off to Buffalo last night. A friend offered to go to Anchor Bar with me to try the original wings. Glad I went. I have never really spent much time in Buffalo, thinking it was far from Geneva. It really isn't, in the greater scope of things. 1:40 to downtown, door-to-door, I think. Not even going too much over the speed limit. Anyway, Anchor Bar was fun. Then we went and caught the end of Measure for Measure done country style by an outdoor Shakespeare company. Fun! Lastly, I got a driving tour of that part of Buffalo! Yay!

I was curious how big the city was, population-wise. I always thought it was twice as big as Rochester and Syracuse. And it might have been, once upon a time. Sadly, it has shrunk tremendously. I do hope that as the weather gets hotter, more people will move back up into these great northern cities. Well, a lot of coastal cities will become uninhabitable, so...

On a completely different front, there are things that I would like to do that I am not doing. I know I will do them eventually (or not) but still...Top of the list, count my change. I normally do this every six months (as some of you know from reading this blog that long)(really? - Yes, really, I have been doing this blog for more than a year. I think...) in June and January. Heck, it is almost August. (Every time I type August, my fingers type Augustus with out me being aware of it until too late...) I also want to do more books - add them to my database, that is. Then again, I am trying to figure out if there is a way to export the list from there in case I want to manipulate the data in some fashion. Hmm. And do laundry - which is actually the lowest thing on my wish list - but high on my actually might get done, list. And mom is threatening that she will go with me. Might be good for her to get out. And I could make her do some actual work! Sit back and have her load the washer and transfer the clothes to the dryer. I could relax, maybe do my nails and read a good romance novel...(Is that an oxymoron?)

Less Miserables

Last night was movie night, here at Chez Schoen-René. The movie was Les Miserables - the movie of the musical of the book by the same name. I am glad I watched it - but I was underwhelmed. Maybe it was more overwhelming in the movie theatre. I know that I enjoyed the live production of it I saw - I think it was a touring company in Rochester a long while ago. Part of it is the music - there are really only about three different themes in the whole show. Part of it was that I don't really like the story that much. Not sure why. All the death perhaps? Or the amazing coincidences. Whatever. And it didn't help that mom asked me (after about an hour of silence) who people were all the time. I think by the very end of the movie she figured out which was Jean ValJean. Hurrah for small blessings.

I spent a lot of the day yesterday at The Smith - helping clean out the projection booth - which has needed it in a big way for at least a few years. There is satisfaction in making a place that looked jumbled and messy look like it is organized and clean. It took a little longer than I had envisioned, but that is the way of things sometimes.

Today was partly a Smith day too. We had a meeting about the new air conditioning system that was recently installed. After that we did a little tour of the space looking to see in what condition the contractors had left the spaces. Overall, they left them pretty neat! Yay!

I feel dull today. I posted a response to a challenge on Daily Challenge and so far, not one person has commented on it. Sigh.

Wow, and this sure is a dull post. I will do differently tomorrow. Promise!

Opera is finished

Mixed feelings abound regarding the end of the opera. I am glad that mom and I will be able to get back to a more regular schedule. I am sad that I won't have the opera to work on and the people associated with it to see and hang out with. Sigh.

I felt like my life, such as it is, was on hold while I was working/focused on the opera. I do knw that some stuff got neglected. Like my blog. And the mail/bills. I hope to get to them today - at least that is my plan.

Ok, so where were we? Oh, yes. The opera is over. Sunday was a long day. So was Monday, come to think of it. Each will be examined minutely (or not) in due time or course or whatever saying is most apt. Let's start with Sunday.

Sunday was the second and last performance of Don Pasquale. Matinees are odd - like going to a movie in the afternoon. It comes as a little bit of a shock when the performance is over and one walks out into the daylight! The show went smoothly - I think Robert and I finally got the curtains to go at the perfect-ish time. After the show, we had to do strike - remove all evidence of the opera having ever been there. It went pretty well and quickly. Everyone helped, even though they weren't required to. And the piano got moved back - honestly, I had forgotten about the piano. Moving an $80k Steinway is heavy and nerve-wracking (nerve-racking even...) work. Though, truth be told, this is the second (or third?) time for me, so it wasn't nearly as scary. We finally got everything that we were planning on getting done done. By 6:00 pm. Yay!

The "Cast" party started at 6:30 - I didn't get there till seven. I went home, fed mom badly (McDonald's fish sandwich), tried to get her situated with something to watch on television and changed my clothes. The party was at The Cobblestone - a tradtion apparently. We had a much smaller group than in years past, so only took over the top floor. Quite a spread! Lobster, sushi grade tuna, roast beef, lasagna, all sorts of other things - yummy desserts, decent selections at the bar. I stayed for a while after dinner and listened to the performing, but, since Al had decided he wanted to be up and out early - sigh - I wanted to make an early night of it, leaving around 9:30 pm.

Once I got home, I spent some time with mom, checking in. I do feel that I have neglected her a good bit over the past couple of weeks. Poo. But she has probably forgotten already. Yay! And then I stayed up too late playing.

That is part of the reason that Monday was a long day. I went to bed late, slept fitfully (yes, a combination of lots of rich foods does tend to make my sleep a smidge uncomfortable) and woke early. I did get a little done before heading off to the Smith to stuff Al's van full of props, costumes, backdrops and furniture. We had help toting things, which was great. I think it took all of half an hour to load his vehicle and see him off.

Back home, I thought to nap, but somehow never managed to sleep for more than a few minutes at a time. A new person is working for the aide service and she wanted to come and see if mom's service plan (like a car?) needed an overhaul. It didn't. Then Jenny came and helped mom out a bit by dusting her corner of her bedroom. I made lunch and headed to the Smith for a staff meeting. After which, back to the house for more attempted napping. Again, mostly unsuccessful! Eventually I headed to the grocery store to get victuals for dinner - left over chicken (from the fridge, not from the store), corn on the cob (yummy), artichokes (not good - too woody) and green beans (which I managed to cook just about perfectly). Huzzuh!

Somewhere in here, I had an epiphany-let: there probably exists a book cataloging app for my iPhone. Sure enough, there was. I bought it. $1.99 which is a bargain. It can scan an ISBN number and put all the data it can find from the web into the local database. Sure, it's a few issues, but it is way better than having to enter every book by hand. I keep telling people that there are 15k books in the house. I think that was the number I entered into a database back in 1999-2000 when I last cataloged the books. We shall see. I have already entered 15 or so. One book at a time until a room is done. Then another room and another...we shall see. Anyone want to guess?

Quick post

Last day of the opera (mostly) today. And it is a matinee. So I need to be out and about or up and out quickly and soon. I was going to skip posting again today, but instead, I decided to do a quick post.

Got up, did stuff, went to bed!

All done!

Thank you for reading and goodnight!

Ok, not really. But it is going to be a quick-ish post. I have an owie on my neck, which I hope is a non-lethal bug bite and will just go away. Owies scare me sometimes. Especially when I can't see them and don't know whence they came. Eeek.

Yesterday's focus was a reception held out at Houghton House for the company that produces the Opera. I got there early to help with setting up and spent my time puttering around doing this and that. One of my tasks was to open bottles of wine, though I didn't end up bartending. Yay. I like bartending, I do. It just gets old in a function like that one. In fact the whole thing brought back memories of working in catering in my interim job as a service captain (between serving and being a Private Events Director (catering sales).

The event went smoothly. The food, which was tasty, was catered by the company that does food for HWS. The program was good with lots of varied performances and performers. Al, the director, did a patter song, even. I will eventually share some pictures. Eventually. I have gotten lazy about taking pictures off of my camera. Bad Augustus!

And there, that is it. Really. Stop reading now. Go back to your lives and lead them! Rah!

One down, one to go

Last night was opening night for the opera. Sadly, there were not very many people in the audience. Happily, the show went pretty well. There were a couple of mistakes. One late curtain. One forgotten hatstand. And one forgotten bench. Luckily the last one was the actors' fault and not the stage crew's fault. I also had the added difficulty of having to run from backstage to the Mezzanine, set up a quick exception in the HVAC system to turn the air conditioning on again and then back to continue resetting the stage for the next act.

The performers came alive on show night. All four of the leads did a great job. And the chorus really came together. No, I am not forgetting Garsevan, who did a funny job as the notary. I am happy to be associated with this production!

After the show, we were all treated to an Indian meal at the restaurant across the street from the Smith: Pure. I had some beef dish that was a smidge spicier than was comfortable, but I struggled through it. Happily.

Other than that, not a lot of interest occurred. I think I got up, made mom lunch and puttered around while waiting to head to the theatre.

One performance down, one to go!

Last hot day for a while?

My mom is melting! And I can't really do anything about it. At least the hot weather broke a smidge yesterday and is supposed to break again either tonight or tomorrow - or Sunday at the latest. Yay for living in a cooler clime! Though in hotter climes, AC is de rigueur. I try to convince mom that going downstairs is cooler, but she remains in her room most of the day. At least she does have windows and a good sized fan! (Everytime I use that work, I think of fans (short of fanatics) and want to make some comment like "besides me" 'cause I am her fan - most of the time.)

Had my first staff meeting at The Smith yesterday. Yay communication!

And it was a "dark" day for the Opera. I feel a little guilty that I didn't go out of my way to do anything with any of the Opera people. I thought this morning, or was it last night, that it would have been nice to invite Al to dinner at our house. But that would have entailed getting mom dressed - and in this heat, I have been avoiding that even more than usual. Tonight, though, she will have to wear clothes as she is coming to the opera with me! Yippee.

What did I do with my day off? Caught up a little on writing (no blog, I know - until the opera is over, I don't know how blogful my life will be - ok, speaking of blogging, I don't seem able to see comments anymore without going to each page and looking for them. I don't know what is up with that - I need to write to the blogger help people and see if they can shed some light on this issue for me). Made dinner that was, somewhat, from scratch. Played a bit. Oh, had that Smith meeting. Helped mom navigate the tv as well as helped her watch a Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movie. Looks like she actually only likes two of them - Top Hat and Gay Divorcee. Mom has a memory of Fred Astaire dancing on the walls and ceiling of a room - turns out that was from a 50s movie called Royal Wedding - we don't have that in our collection - yet.)

Since I didn't write yesterday - let me think - what the heck happened. Oh, right, we had Tech/Dress Rehearsal for the Opera, Don Pasquale. It went very smoothly. Sure there were glitches - a lot of the curtains were slow - probably my mistakes for not calling them soon enough. I need to anticipate them a little since the curtain is massive and takes a little bit to get it going. And the performers had a few missteps, but overall, very smooth. It really is an easy show, which isn't a bad thing. I hope we get an audience!

I hope everyone is well and happy! And keeping cool!

Late post - day and time

Physically a bit on the tired side yesterday. The call for the opera was 11 because we didn't really have a lot to do - just rehang a few pieces of set decoration. Ha! Al decided that it was time to clean the stage area. Sigh. Had I known this, I would have planned it - asked David and perhaps someone else to come in - started earlier and all. But that wasn't the case. So Al and I did it all. If it were up to me, the theatre/stage area would be this clean after every show. And perhaps before every show (production/event). But it isn't up to me. Yet. At least I have been educated in how to run the air conditioning system. A little bit. That is a good thing.

When I was back at home for lunch, I sat and chatted with mom for a little while she ate her lunch. But I could barely keep my eyes open. Yes, I am looking forward to the opera being over. Not in a bad way, but so that I can get more beauty rest.

Monday was a really long, full day of rehearsing. Luckily for mom, Jenny, the aide, came. After a lot of prodding, mom allowed Jenny to dust off the top of her desk. That is great! It was getting thick there. Now if we can just get her to do more dusting in mom's room. And vacuuming perhaps. I would really like to do a deep cleaning in there. And get her a different bed. And I am toying with getting her an air conditioning/window unit. I don't know how much they cost. And to think I had three or four of them down in the house in NC that I abandoned to my friend Ted - or did Paul end up with them. Who the heck knows? I certainly don't!

Mom likes the lemon bars that I made. I think she is tired of watermelon though. I wonder, do coconut and watermelon go together? Hmm. I like coconut but never think of it. Dinner Monday night was frozen Bertoli's pasta dinner. Tuesday was take-out buffet from Ling Ling Chinese Buffet. I am, mostly, looking forward to having time to cook again.

Brain Doubly tired now...

I just wrote a decent post - not great or anything, but decent. I hit save. It seemed to save. But each time I hit publish, nothing happened - well, not what was supposed to happen. So I hit save again and then left the page to see if I could figure out what was going on. Well, I figured out what wasn't going on. My post wasn't being saved. Sigh. So, let's start again, shall we? Joy and Rapture.

I haven't been able to focus on much except for the opera just now. It is very time consuming, enervating and takes over my life a bit. As does any show, actually. I think it is hard on my mom when I am away as much as I need to be for this production. I am not in her head, but I get the feeling that she feels extra special lonely when she remembers that I am out of the house. I basically drop in a few times a day and then go to bed.

Here is a fairly typical day: starts with rehearsal at 10 which goes until 12. Then when I manage to extricate myself, I head home to create lunch for mom. At 2 rehearsal starts again, so back to the rehearsal space. Rehearsal generally stops at 5. Then I have to zip home again - usually with a shopping trip to Wegman's being required - to make dinner. When I am home I try to give my mom some quality time. Doesn't usually work, but I try. Then around 7 I am supposed to be back at the theatre. Optimally, I would be earlier to each of the rehearsal sessions. But I am also picking up one of my staff - and there is travel time and parking time and such that eats into the time. Suffice it to say that I feel like I have little time for mom or for me recently. Rehearsal ends at 10. Actors may not be called or they might be let out early, I get to go to every rehearsal and stay till the end. Yippee! It makes for a long day.

Mom asks me what I do during all of that time. Not an easy answer, really. In this show I am the stage manager/tech liaison and general dog's body for Al the director. Let's look at today for example - I fixed a piece of furniture, moved a lot of furniture, raised and lowered a lot of drops, helped hang a set piece, unknotted a coil of fishing line, photocopied a prop for the show, and tried to pay attention to what was happening on the stage. Physically demanding, mind tiring, and all around intense work, interspersed with times of doing little. And things change from day to day. Luckily, I really do enjoy doing just about anything related to theatre. My favoritist thing, as I have probably said many times, is direct. Maybe again one day...

One of the upsides to this production, this year I am actually hanging out with some people from the opera after rehearsal. I don't get a lot of adult companionship most of the time here in Geneva. Not that these are dates or anything. Just getting together for a beer and talk. Yay!

All of this is to explain why my brain is tired and I haven't been blogging as awesomefully as I normally do. Your understanding and patience is appreciated!

Cloud Atlas anyone?

Sometimes I get a little carried away with my responses to my Daily Challenge posts. Too many words. Not as many (or as boring, I hope) as some of my connections on there. But still, I feel like my 200 words was easily accomplished and don't feel like I have any more left for my blog post. Yet, I mostly struggle on and attempt to come up with more verbiage.

Last night's movie was Cloud Atlas. I enjoyed the movie. It was really, really long and I admit to taking one break from it - nature called. The stories were all interesting, the actors all did a good job, visually it had a lot of great moments. I guess I will have to read the book at some point. (I just looked and my library system doesn't have a copy on CD. Hmm. We will see what happens here...)

More thoughts on things to do in the future. Move to Canada - Toronto or Montreal - Toronto because it is not that far from Geneva. Montreal, because Cirque headquarters there and I could again try to find work with them. Or move to Las Vegas for the same reason - though I think I would rather work a touring show or at the home office than work a show in Las Vegas. Find some other circus to work with. I could also start trying to find backers again for Sirius Theatre.

After rehearsal last night, I went to Parker's to watch Al, the director, eat. Ok, that wasn't my primary reason for going. I like Al and enjoy hanging out with him. I had a beer or two while he had dinner. It had been a long while since I was last in Parker's. Certainly not my favorite place in town - but it wasn't terrible. I noticed on the way out that they had Dogfish Head 90 minute - I am guessing it was on tap. Which means I will have to go and have at least one beer there sometime soon. 90 minute doesn't last long, usually.

Cooking to do

I have things I would like to do in the kitchen and I am busy not doing them. Like making lemon bars. I just like lemon bars so would like to try my hand at them. One day. And I have a seedless watermelon that desperately needs to be de-rind(ed?) so that just the edible bits are left. Which is everything since it has no seeds. And I am not doing that either. Sigh. Maybe I will get to them both. One day soon.

Wednesday night, as I was putting out the recylcing - which didn't get taken last week because it was July 4th - I decided to be a little ruthless - I put out a large bit of the pile of mom's New York Review of Books newspaper like things. Yay! If, after mom leaves the house, I leave the house too - because as I noted, so far, there is nothing keeping me here - and I am not, surprisingly, getting any younger - then I need to clean it out a good bit - either to rent it or to sell it. I would prefer to rent it for the time being, as I have a lot of stuff that I am not going to find it easy to let go of - like my pool table and my GiJoes and having the house means that there is storage space for stuff. Hmm.

Wednesday night I dreamt that a woman (who I knew in the dream, but upon waking didn't recognize) asked me out before I could get up the nerve to ask her out. Made me wake feeling hopeful. Then again, I often feel that hopeful. Until I eat something. Weird?

Wow, Thursday night was surprising and depressing, all at the same time. After rehearsal for the opera, I was determined to go to Red Dove to have a beer and to say hi to Sarah in her new position as Thursday night bartender. So despite there only being one seat available again, at least it was a corner chair, which really made all the difference. As soon as I walked in, though, I saw lots of people I knew, which was mildly surprising. And they all said hi, which was nice (not surprising or depressing). But they were all in couples - which was the depressing bit. Add to that the fact that Jessica no longer works at Red Dove - which is good for her and sad for me - well, it wasn't an optimal experience. One of the couples did buy my beer for me - that was surprising and nice. Almost made up for the seemingly "rub it in your face that you aren't in a relationship" aspect of the night.

I ate a whole sleeve of saltines while watching Star Trek (original series - only many episodes left to go). Yup. For no particular reason. Well, except that if I didn't eat all of them, there would have been some left, which would have necessitated some sort of storage or they would have gone stale. Few things are worse than stale saltines. I did notice that the sleeve was at least 10 saltines less full than similar sleeves had seemed to be in the past - another example of product amount shrinkage to maintain the same price point. Sigh.

Mom's current memory is "A noisy noise annoys an oyster!" How cute is that? Not one with which I was familiar.

Mid Week Madness!

From the title, one might be thinking that something exciting or crazy or at least midly interesting and out of the ordinary might have occurred. Well, nope, that just isn't the case. Just had to put something there...As long time readers of this blog know, my life is, well, not that over the top right now in terms of thrills. Still, it wasn't a bad day. Few are.

I had thought I was going to spend the afternoon and evening in rehearsal for the opera. But that didn't happen. As I was starting to pack up (I take my laptop) to go to afternoon rehearsal, I noticed a call from the director - Al - saying that they were taking the afternoon off. Yippee! The next rehearsal segment was at 7, which was fine by me.

At 5, there was a "volunteer appreciation" event at the Smith Opera House. I was surprised at how many people there were! I hadn't really realized just how many volunteers there are who help out around the place. A lot of familiar faces were in attendance. There was yummy food, from Club 86 I think I heard someone say, of which I had a decent amount. I even had a piece of cake! Awards were given out, speeches were made. Apparently I am going to take over for David as Technical Director or Production Coordinator or some such thing after he leaves as I was introduced to the volunteers as such. Not sure what all that entails at this point, but I do hope to find out sometime.

I didn't get out of there as early as I had thought I might. That, combined with me being full-ish from grazing at the party, made me reconsider my food plans for the evening. Not in a huge way - I just decided to give mom some leftover salmon for her protein rather than a pre-cooked chicken from Wegman's. I think I will do that tonight instead. I still got veggies and some other things at the grocery store and hurried home to prepare them for her before heading to rehearsal.

The opera is progressing nicely. I love rehearsals. I really hope that I will do some directing in the not too distant future. How that will work with the time I need to devote to mom, I don't have a clue. After rehearsal, Al and I roughed out the rehearsal/production schedule for the next few days. I love making schedules!

Sneaky Me

I am a sneaky Augustus. Devious even. Yup, that about sums it up. When mom and I were at my sister's in Maine the other week, we were talking about coffee. Mom loves coffee (ewww). She would drink it all day if she could. At 10 at night, she asks for coffee. Much as I love her, I am not going to give her coffee at 10 at night. Even Decaf coffee. Personally, the idea of decaf coffee (isn't that an oxymoron) sounds horrible. And somewhere, a long time ago, I read that to make coffee caffeine-less, the processors used a lot of icky chemicals - making decaf coffee even ickier than regular coffee. That all being said, I do know that caffeine does affect my mom's stomach. Sometimes her "sick stomach" feeling is nothing more than a result of unmitigated caffeine, causing an over caffeinated stomach. I do my best to give her food when I give her coffee - a lot of food. I think it helps. But, here comes the sneaky bit, since I am trying to avoid mom having "stomach" issues, I broke down and bought a tub of decaf coffee and have started mixing it into her regular coffee! I am not sure what the percentage is - but I plan to increase the amount over time. I wonder if Gevalia offers decaf coffee. I also wonder if I ought to stop the mail order coffee deliveries from them. I probably ought to...

I had another epiphany-let the other day and finally acted on it. As some of you know, I listen to audio books in the kitchen (primarily). I have destroyed a few playback devices so far, probably from putting the books on pause and leaving them that way for 12+ hours. That can't be good for the machines. Though there must be some sort of digital way for machines to remember where they are on a CD rather than a physical way that most of them seem to use. Whatever. With the current CD player, I have been stopping the disc and turning the player off - conserving power and hopefully conserving the life of the CD player. That would be nifty. Anyway, my memory is ok. Not awesomely excellent. I tried to remember what track I was on (and about where on the track I stopped) but was not doing a great job at it. So, I have this perpetual calendar (that often languished next to my bed - unused for months) and thought - heck, it has numbers that I could set to the correct track. Which I did. And it works pretty well. Or at least has so far! Yay!

The daily recap - what day was it? Oh, yes - Tuesday. The biggest news was that I walked downtown to Red Dove for a beer last night, sauntered in, found the place packed to the gunwales and turned around and walked home again. Yes, there was one seat at the bar, but I just didn't feel like being there. But I had a great walk. I do like walking, fortunately. Yippee! Other than that, nothing too interesting of note.

Oh well, one semi-interesting note. I went into the Smith to work with David for a little bit. Dimmers are being rented for the Opera and we needed to guesstimate how long the cables would need to be in order for there to be light! I don't understand how the whole system is wired - where the cables run etc, but we did what we could. Hopefully it will be sufficient for the lighting company to do what they need to do.

Ok, that really is it for interesting stuff. At least for now. We don't want this to become too exciting a post.

Uncertainty Rules!

There are rules for uncertainty, aren't there?

First, a quick catch-up from Monday. Nothing too exciting or out of the way to write about. Jenny, mom's aide, did not come, which was a mixed blessing. Mom was not eager for a shower - which is nothing new. I called the service provider and discovered that they somehow thought our being away for a week meant we were still away two weeks later. I know, working with a calendar can be challenging. I also know that I could have called them last week to tell them we were back. But I didn't. Because I thought we had an understanding. Which we apparently didn't. Which is not surprising. Nor exciting. But it is uncertain...

I also spent part of the day watching rehearsal for the Opera at the Smith. Don Pasquale has a fairly straightforward Commedia plot - young lovers thwarted by Pantalone (Don Pasquale) who are aided by Dottore in this case (who is more like a Harlequin character than a Dottore). Rah. I could direct this. Heck, I could direct anything. I miss directing. Sigh. Maybe I will get back to it one day.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, two papers I was looking for turned up in exactly the place they were supposed to be. I am not the most organized person on the planet. I hope for either a helper or for stripping my life waaaaaay down so I don't have too much to keep organized. I don't really want a stripper (combination of stripping and helper...) - though that might not be a bad thing...

Which brings to me to this morning's contemplation: what will the future - the larger future - have in store for me. I wish we could shop for our futures. Sigh. Anyway, I do think about it once in a while. At this point, my options are pretty much unlimited in terms of choice. Sure, I doubt I will choose to become a concert pianist or an opera singer. Both are possible, both are pretty unlikely. My thoughts vacillate between sticking it out here in Geneva - trying to cobble together a life and livelihood - or taking to the road either here in the US - buy an energy efficient/alternate energy vehicle of some kind - preferably a Type whatever the small type of RV is - and drive around a lot - or head abroad - I have never been to South America and I must admit to a fascination with Brazilians - what better place to find Brazilians than Brazil...Or maybe a trip to Asia - Russia and India are both high on my list of places I wouldn't mind visiting/living a bit before I exit the world. Yippee and yay for possibilities!

Today is another day, apparently.

Oops, I think I didn't do it again...

Here it is Monday and it looks like I have neglected my posting duties. I think I just needed a break. That and, well, not much really happened in the intervening days. Or maybe a lot happened but none of it too darn exciting. Or unmentionable stuff happened, so I didn't mention it. Hmm. I guess we will see as I sort through my memories and see what pops up on the page. No, mom and I haven't died or we didn't have a terrible accident or anything like that.

Drove to Rochester Friday, not for fun. Suffice it to say that a ball has been set rolling which will hopefully help me to breathe (metaphorically) more easily. Yay!

I, Clavdius was not a winner here in Geneva. As a communal, shared event it might have gone over better, but I had no desire to subject myself to the many hours of the series just to enable mom to watch it. She tried one episode and said it was too much for her. But we tried. It goes back to the library today.

Rango was good fun! I rented in hopes that mom might like it, but after watching it by myself, I think it would have been too confusing for her. The story really zips all over the place. I loved the singing owls/mariachi band and lots of other bits here and there, but way too much for mom, I think. I am still thinking we might go see Monster University, if things work out that way.

Of course, we have eaten lots of food over the past few days. On Saturday, I made pizza and was going to make some chicken wings for dinner. I was shocked to find that chicken wings were hard to buy. I remember buying a huge bag of them for next to nothing. The only ones I could find readily at Wegman's cost $3.50 a pound! About as much as boneless chicken breasts (how the chickens walk around without bones has always been something I have been curious about)! So I got us some drumsticks instead - at $1.70 a pound. I offered hot sauce to mom but did not make her have it - she has lost her taste for hot/spicy foods. I had some though - yum!

Yesterday, Sunday, my nephew Sam, his son Lewis and his fiancée Abby came for a drop in on their way from Buffalo to Ithaca. It was lovely to see them and to catch up on their news and lives. Sadly, mom had a hard time with the visit - mainly because she couldn't wrap her mind around who they were. She mostly got who Sam was, but Abby and Lewis kind of escaped her ken. Sigh.

Which brings me to my latest soul searching. I read a(n) FB page's posts about alzheimer's and caregivers. (Quick aside - when using an abbreviation, like FB, do you use an article for the expanded work or for the abbreviation - is it a FB page or an FB page?) Recently there have been a few posts about people being very happy about having placed their loved ones into assisted living facilities. The facilities they mention sound idyllic! Memory wards or areas of care abound with trained staff who seem to really care about their patients. Though I do recall lots of the other kinds of stories as well. I think I know my mom. At least I hope I do. And I just can't see her being happiest someplace else. Then again, I don't really know how far gone she is. Is her reality built up each day as she wakes and finds her way? Does she know where she is? Does she feel safer here than she would someplace else? Am I being selfish keeping her at home? Glarg.

Ok, sorry for the rant. I do question myself sometimes. I find waterboarding especially fruitful...

The opera is in town. I went to help out a bit yesterday. Got the clown van (which I mean in the most bestest way) partially unloaded - only the things that were actually needed for rehearsals - and the costumes (so they could be sorted and such) came out - there is still a good bunch in there - Al does an amazing job packing his van-let! Later, I went and watched an hour of rehearsal. Most of the case are people I have worked with before. Yippee! I didn't go to their inaugural dinner/grilling thing. C'est fromage.

And there we have it. Not the most exciting post, but it catches us all up. Which was the intention.

Some interesting title

Toothpaste tubes are weird. I swear that the one I am using is empty. Really. Yet, whenever I go to brush my teeth, I do the tube-squeeze dance and low and behold another toothbrushful comes out! Maybe I have a never ending tube of toothpaste?! Anything is possible.

I had a minor epiphany yesterday. In the past, I have given mom a large mug filled with coffee. When she asks for more, I tended to balk a little and maybe gave her half of the large mug filled up again. Yes, I am evil, I am trying to limit my mom's consumption of coffee. And none after 2 especially. Anyway, she often complains that she didn't get enough coffee and sometimes forgets that she had any coffee at all. Yesterday, I realized (for the umpteenth time) that her perception is her reality. So, I decided to use a smaller cup and to fill it twice. And boy was she happier! Yay!

Kind of a quiet Fourth of July for us here. Mom watched a show on TV - A Capital Fourth - which she said wasn't very good and that the fireworks weren't as good as the ones at the Legion. I napped. Sadly, I didn't tell mom (not that she would necessarily have remembered) that I was going to nap. So she thought I had gone out - and fretted a little about that. I am sad that she frets when I am gone.

Though I did have a scare myself yesterday along the same lines. I had been playing for a little bit and came upstairs to check on mom. I called out and heard no response. Initial thought, she was in the bathroom. Or dead. (Yes, I think about this happening now and again.) I checked in her room - not there. I called out again - no response - so not in the bathroom either. I know that mom went out once without telling me - she went to cut some flowers in the garden. So I thought - this is it, she has started to wander - I guess I will need to do all of that stuff to keep her locked in the house. Then, I realized, that she sometimes sits on the porch to read - not frequently, but every once in a while. This was one of those occasions! Yippee and phew!

Dinner was corn on the cob, asparagus (a little less cooked than last time, but still over done for my taste) and fajita flavored chicken tacos. Yay! Easy and tasty. And hopefully mostly nutritious.

As I said, not the most exciting July Fourth - but it had its share of eventful occurrences!

Oh, I dreamt that I was in a romantic relationship. One can dream, right?

Had a good title and forgot it

Sigh and double sigh. I hate it when that happens. But it is likely to happen again, I am sure. Thinking of a good title and then forgetting it, that is. Maybe it will come back to me. Maybe not. C'est fromage.

Yesterday, for all intents and purposes in Chez Schoen-René, was the Fourth of July. But it was a near thing. Part of mom's disease is the inability to make decisions easily. Or at all sometimes. I do my best to limit her choices, so that choosing becomes either/or or yes/no. Even those decisions can be trying for her. And for me. I don't mind choosing and making decisions for her, yet, I am eager to have her make as many decisions for herself as she can. I think that choosing is important in life (life is, after all, choice in my universe). Only she can tell me if there is some small part of her that actually knows what she wants. Sometimes it is like pulling nails from hardwood with a pair of tweezers getting it out of her.

Over the past few days mom has vacillated between wanting to go to see fireworks to wanting to watch the fireworks on TV. On again, off again, on again, off again. And so on. The last flop, flip, whatever on Wednesday morning was in favor of staying in and watching fireworks on television. So around 4, I went to run errands: bank (new teller), library (audio CD and I, Clavdius DVDs and a sullen librarian), and food shopping at Wegman's (momma's got to have her pistachio ice cream). I also stopped in for some deliciousness at Leaf Kitchen - Southern Tier's Crème Brûlée Stout. (I don't know if they use all of the diacriticals - but if one uses one, I guess one must use them all...) My goodness that beer is so yummy! I hope they get it at Wegman's soon. Had a lovely time hanging with Tatiana and a new to me guy named David.

I got home, ready to start thinking about cooking dinner and mom asks about when we are going to go and see fireworks. What? Again? Really? Well, I had learned last night (Tuesday while drinking beer at the FLounge) that our localist fireworks at the American Legion were happening on Wednesday, not on the Fourth. I guess so that they had a rain day available? Who knows? That being the case, I told mom that if she wanted to go, she needed to get dressed and shoed (shod?). I put out some great stretchy red pants that Juliet had purchased for her, and a dark blue, warm (but short sleeve - which I didn't hear the end of for a couple of hours) shirt for her to wear. Typically it takes mom about an hour to get dressed. Most of that is time taken to get herself motivated. I wandered off thinking to check back in about half an hour. Barely had I started my laptop to check FB and DC and OKC and such when mom asked where her shoes were! Who is this person? What had she done with my mom?! Dressed in less than five minutes from me putting out her clothes! Eeeek! She found her shoes, I gave her a shoe horn and she was ready.

There might have been a schedule posted somewhere about what time things were happening at the Legion. The last time we went, we took the three young women from Turkey and I didn't remember what the deal was at all. But I like to be early and not rushed, so we left almost immediately. Turns out we probably could have stayed home and watched the BBC news first. Who knew?

Early is good. One gets a decent vantage point from which to watch the fireworks, one gets to scope out all the food and rides and such. And people watching opportunities abound. Since I was with mom, we utilized her handicapped placard and parked really close to the hill where people sit for fireworks gazing. I carried her big heavy folding chair (which I bought at Big Lots a couple of years ago) and a blanket and staked out our place. Fearing wetness seeping through the blanket, I went back to the car and got out my emergency blanket (bright orange on one side, silver on the other) that is water proof and put that under the woolen blanket. Yay for having too much stuff in the trunk of the car! (Later, when mom said she was cold - trunk yielded a hoodie that helped immeasurably!)

And then we found we had about four hours to pass waiting for the fireworks. Four. Hours. First off, food for mom - she ended up eating two hamburgers, some french fries, some fried dough and some popcorn over the course of the evening. I had two beers (maybe three - it was a lengthy four hours) some fries, some popcorn and a sausage. Yay food. And yay for getting up and having to get food. My favorite part of the experience was all the people watching. I was not tempted by the rides that had been set up, at all. Ok, the slide ride looked kinda fun. But I didn't do it. And I liked one of the games - the spray the water into the mouth of the clown game always appeals. But I didn't do it. Too abstemious. And no one to impress really. Mom has enough stuffed animals for the time being.

We mostly sat and stared at people around us. Mom got nasty whenever someone sat to her right or in front of her. And that is not pleasant for me or anyone. Especially the people who are the focus of her vituperation. She generally isn't very loud about it, but still, it is not pleasant. I did point out to her that the fireworks were going to be up in the air and no one in front of her was going to block her view. But as she has pointed out to me frequently, and as I have learned through trial and error and observation, logic really doesn't work with her at this stage of her disease. Not that it actually worked all that well earlier in her life either...

Finally, at 10, kaboom! Nice set of fireworks! I still maintain that I could do a better job designing a display. It seems like fireworks are musical when people are as close as we were where we could here the fwump of the fireworks leaping up and then all of the sundry explosions and whistles. Designing for just light would be a different thing - but still I could do better. Though these were pretty good. Yay fireworks!

Home again. Mom was exhausted and went almost straight to bed. I played for a while and put out the recycling. As I was putting it by the curb, I realized that the recyclers might not come since it is a holiday. Then again, they might - we shall know after noon - if they have come it will be gone - if they haven't come - will they come on Friday? I can call on Friday and find out. Maybe they will just skip this week. In which case, will they charge us less for recycling? Hmm. What deep and pithy speculations I share with you all...after the recycling was out, I went to bed. Yay sleep!

Mom rocking the 4th of July!

Umbrellas are a good thing

I was on Facebook briefly before walking downtown to get a beer at Red Dove and a friend mentioned that it was raining hard in Western New York - which is West of where I live here in Geneva (Central) NY. So I took my umbrella, just in case. Sometimes I can walk and balance it on one finger - usually only for a few steps - sometimes as many as ten. It is a huge umbrella - not the hugest but pretty big - one I have had for 20 years maybe? Can it be that long? 1993 perhaps? Anyway, thank you Rosanne for giving me the umbrella from your basement so long ago! It saved me from getting wet, and also altered my evening - for the better. But I am way ahead of myself. Stepping into the way-back machine, we find ourselves waking up to a new day Tuesday...

We are experiencing a lot of overcast and drippy days here in Central NY. The overcast is pretty normal actually, but the drippiness isn't. But I am ok with it. All things considered, I would rather live a little damp than extremely dry, arid, desert-like. Just sayin! So waking up was more like sidling into wakefulness. I did have a plan for the shape of the day - like many days in the past and perhaps many days in the future. Get up, work on the computer (like writing this blog - yes, although I enjoy it, it is still work - work in the force times distance sense - my fingers are working - my brain is working - functioning...), get mom some lunch, do business-y things (I don't know why I like to do businessy things after lunch - around 2, but I do), food shopping, cook dinner and then, since it was Tuesday, head out into the world and see what minor adventures I can have here in the mini-metropolis of Geneva.

Everything went according to plan. Yay! I like it when that happens. Especially when the planned events are better/other/more different than I had envisioned. Starting with dinner.

As some of you know, menu planning gets challenging now and again. Last night, I really had no idea what I was doing for dinner until about 10 minutes before I drove to Wegman's. I decided we would have bbq ribs with home made bbq sauce. I checked the recipes and found we had most all of the ingredients in our larder. Yippee! All I had to get was the ribs. And some vegetables. I had thought about doing french fries with the ribs, but we already had corn lying around, so I opted for green beans, which mom likes a lot. I am beginning to run into more people that I am acquainted with at Wegman's. Mixed blessing. Anyway, food shopping accomplished, back to the domicile to do the actual food preparation.

Post dinner, I headed out to the newest restaurant in the Geneva area - they smoke meat and serve beer - eventually they will have 26 taps apparently. But for now, they are only running ten or so. I went because of the beer, primarily. I was hoping for, well, I don't know what. Maybe a place that shouted out to me to be the place I wanted to hang out a lot. This wasn't that place. It has been open less than a week. I was surprised to find a person I know as one of the bartenders. She and her boyfriend are out and about a lot so we have chatted on many occasions. That was a good thing. Their beer selection was pretty poor, considering. And the one bottle of beer I requested they were out of - Dogfish Head 90 minute. Sigh. I hung out for about an hour and will probably go back again sometime. But I am not in any hurry to do so. Not terrible, but nothing that was that huge a draw for me. Decent scenery, the food looked ok, and the beer was ok. OK?

Since that was a decent experience but short, I decided to pop back to the house for a minute and then to head downtown for a known quantity - the Red Dove. Jessica would be bartending since it was Tuesday. During my pop in I put on a movie for mom (which she thought was really bad - another Fred and Ginger movie - Swing Time or Shall We Dance - I don't remember which I put on for her  - I think the latter) and checked my messages and such which is where I discovered the potential for rain.

Walking downtown is great. It is one of the things I like best about living here in Geneva. Yay! Saw a guy I know who works at the Smith. And later - after the rain had started, I saw David coming back from trivia. Another couple, who I had seen at the restaurant, acknowledged me, connected me with the restaurant and told me that Red Dove was closed. I figured I would walk there and see what the note on the door said, but never made it. As I was walking near the FLounge, David and Wendy were huddled in a doorway - so I gallantly offered them to share my umbrella - which is almost big enough for three. They were going to stop in at their place - the Flounge - for a bit before heading to dinner and invited me in! We had a nice time talking about all sorts of things - politics and religion too - and having some beer. Naked Dove Porter! Yay and yum. I hope I didn't overstay my welcome, but it was nice to chat with two intelligent adults for a change! People near my own age - mostly.

See, so, umbrellas are a good thing!

Charley Horse - Still

Sunday morning I got the first leg cramp that I have gotten in a long time. I think it was because I was a bit dehydrated. Can't many dis-eases and illnesses be traced back to a lack of enough hydrangeas? I mean, hydration? Flowers are cool, too, but a bit off target just now. Anyway, I have been drinking a lot of water over the past few days to get my sogginess quotient raised but I still feel a knot in my left calf. I really do need to get a massage. Soon. Hopefully, some time this month.

Butter was the movie last night. Darn fun, weird, quirky film. I had "Butter" dreams all night. I thought the casting was good and the content was enjoyable. Yay!

The first full day back in Geneva, home after a week in Maine, was very relaxing. Yippee for relaxing. I think mom was very happy to be back, safe and sound in her home and own bed. Neither of us did a lot. I went shopping and ran a few errands. Mom lay around and thought deep thoughts. Or maybe she read. Or both. Or neither. I cooked dinner after mom husked the corn. She watched Antiques Roadshow while I played on the xBox. I wish there was great excitement to share, but there just plain wasn't. And no major or minor epiphanies. Just a nice day of kicking back and relishing homeness.

So, come visit! We will be here all summer! There is still plenty of it left to go around. Summer, that is.

Post Travel Day

Finally home again - one of the things mom remembered this week was the rhyme: To Market, to market to buy a fat pig - home again, home again, jiggety-jig. Turns out that isn't actually the wording. I thought it was too - but it is "dancing a jig" apparently. I thought there was one about buying a fat hen. But no, not the case. Memories continue to be strange and wonderful things.

Yesterday was a travel day. We got up really early - well, I got up earlier than normal for me - around 7:15 I think. Packed my room up first - took apart my game, put my clothes back in the suitcase, stripped the bed. Then I headed for mom's room - woke her up and started to pack up her stuff. She had more than she came with - Juliet provided lots more clothes and a lovely Thermos bag for mom for late birthday presents! How generous and thoughtful! Mom was much better dressed over the week than I usually put out for her! Anyway, that went quickly enough. Getting mom moving was slow going, but eventually she got up and got ready to go. I really didn't want to leave anything behind - so did a good job of looking in closets and drawers and under the bed to gather all of mom's stuff together. One thing had been missing for a few days - mom's angora "chest" sweater - a sweater that she typically uses to place on her chest at night for a bit of extra warmth. A search of the house revealed nothing. As I was packing, Juliet mentioned that one of mom's sweaters was drying in a room on the first floor - I went to get it and discovered mom's chest sweater on the back of a chair in there. Yay! I do hope that nothing got left behind.

We got out and on the road around 9. It took a while, a few stops and 2 of my mix CDs to get us home around 7 pm - through a bit of a deluge near Albany, over hill, through dale, a teeny bit of traffic and a good amount of clear sailing. Yippee!

The day before - Saturday - was definitely not a travel day. My last day of semi-autonomy for a long while, I got up and got out and drove to where we were meeting later in the afternoon - when I am not familiar with a place, I like to check it out, when I can, ahead of time so I am not unpleasantly surprised. Found the place - in the middle of nowhere - and then stopped to figure out my next move. I guess I sat there a little too long as some guy came up and asked if I needed help. Not in a mean way, but I could tell he was not pleased with my sitting in the parking lot of his (closed) establishment. Whatever. I moved to the parking lot of a building that was under-construction. Only to find that the beer place I wanted to check out was only open on Fridays. Ooops. So I decided to go get a bite of lunch.

On my travels I finished my audio book - Seabiscuit! Great stuff and very glad I listened to it. Now I think I might want to see the movie again...

For lunch, I chose a place I have visited in the past - The Whale's Tooth. Good food - some local beer. I had an Andrew's beer - the place I had wanted to visit. And I had a ham and cheese melt with house made chips. Wow! It was really, really good! The whole schmoo. The house made chips were about the best I have ever, ever had. I wish I could make home made chips like they made those. Sigh.

Then off to rendezvous with my mom and sister at Hope Elephants, in Hope, Maine. I had read a little about it on the internet, after Juliet mentioned that we were planning on going to visit. But it didn't really prepare me for the experience. The deal is that there are two ex-circus elephants being looked after by a one-time circus worker who later became a vet in order to continue a life taking care of elephants. It is a small place - with a decent sized enclosure for the elephants to wander in and a specially built building for their indoor use. The main man, Jim, had worked with these two particular elephants back in a circus many years ago. He had done various elephant related activities in his life and then chose to help one particular elephant, which meant - for her health, that he needed to have two elephants. He told us all sorts of interesting facts about elephants in general and the two he had in particular. Fed them lots of carrots and some sticks (which they actually do a decent job of digesting apparently) and answered questions. We got to hold one of their old molars (wow - they have huge teeth - only four of them at a time - but still huge)! All in all, good stuff. Then a short visit to the inside building and suddenly we were done. I would recommend the visit to anyone who likes the idea of pachyderms. I think they ought to reverse the order of the experience because I, for one, would rather end up with viewing the elephants...

I think mom enjoyed the experience a little. Hard to tell recently. She is not doing that great. I know that she was eager to leave Maine starting about Wednesday. Sigh. I don't think we are going to be doing much traveling ever again. Double sigh.

Anyway, our next rendezvous was at 7 for dinner. I said "ta-ta" and headed off - ending up at Front Street Pub having a happy hour beer. Played a game of pool with a nice young woman, gave her a ride back to her abode and zipped back down to Lincolnville for dinner with Juliet, Paul and Mom.

Chez Michele is open only during "the season." Good food, decent atmosphere - I can see why Paul and Juliet like the place. I had duck and ordered a seafood combination dinner for mom. Lots of food! I felt way too pudgy at the end of the meal.

Good day - and a great way to end our week's visit to Maine! I have posted pictures on Facebook of the whole trip. Yippee!