Priceville, Ontario
The night and the early morning hours
of Thursday, Apr. 25th pretty much went by undisturbed. Except for
my own paranoia of worrying that I wouldn’t hear Clemson jump off the bed, I otherwise slept pretty good. He
has been up through the night for the last 4 at least.
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| There is the little ball of curls drying off in the sun "What did you do to me, Mom?" |
So, it was a fitful sleep for a
couple of hours between 12:30 and 2:30 until I was sure he was settled down for
the night. He came under the covers and snuggled right next to me. That in
itself gave me a different kind of sleep but at least I didn’t have to get up.
He was a good boy for Mom when Daddy is away. I woke and got up at 6:45 and
opened the blinds.
It was down to 62F/16C inside but
felt cooler so I turned the heaters up. It would have been a nice but cool
morning to walk at 32F/0C but I had to stick around home until Clemson got up. I
was going to clean this morning but instead I had my tea and took our furry
little guy up to have a shower. Not me, him. He has a lot of varying sized hair
follicles, common to small, older dogs, and a couple are bigger than the rest.
His hair gets matted when they ooze and he won't let us touch them. Sorry for that vision.
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| Breakfast, not what I expected |
I had already decided that that would be a
chore before taking him in for a haircut next week. I got him an appointment
with Kate on Tuesday. The one on his head seemed to have detached from his skin
but was caught in a mess. The warm soapy shower fixed that as I’d counted on it
doing. I just don't know if it will remain that way. He was such a good boy in the shower and I was as quick as possible
getting him in and out. He looked like a little drowned rat when I brought him
out so dried him as best as I could before letting him sit in the sun. Such a
performer.
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| Going down the road, he didn't mind his leash |
I communicated back and forth with
Nicole (Bill’s boss) and Bill in London about his hours next week and then made
up a batch of Black Cherry Jell-o to set. Sugar-free, of course. Can’t beat 5
calories per serving. The added cream and cream cheese is right up the paleo/keto
alley and as you all know, we enjoy the guilt-free treat. I thought I’d attempt
to make the Low Carb I.P. Yogourt but after mixing the 3 ingredients together, realized
that I don’t have that setting on Madame IP.
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| New grass to sniff |
I posed a question to the IP for
Beginners 101 group on FB and I very quickly was directed to new
instructions. Hmm. Bottom line is that I had taken it too far to make the
change, plus, it needs to cook for 8 hours. I’d missed that key instruction. No, that isn't going to happen. Oh
well, I’ll use the mix of milk, heavy cream and yogourt for a milk shake. I
just need to pick up some ingredients to add.
For breakfast, I made a batch of
scrambled eggs with a twist of cuke and green pepper. I ate it but it was
basically ‘blah’. I’ll be going back to making quiche for the mornings when I
don’t feel like bacon and eggs while trying to avoid the carbs in bread. There
is some weight around my belly that I want to get serious about losing over the
summer. We have a Cancun holiday in our future! Carbs are not our friend.
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| A pretty little church Baptist Church on Baptist Church Road |
Clemson was dry now so we went for a
walk down the lane. It was too early for the mail. Once there, since I had his
leash, I decided we could go to the corner to get some exercise and add to my steps at the same time.
The temperature has risen to 56F/14C and with a sky of some blue, some yellow
and some white, this is a lovely day. I
had a coffee around 10:30 and then got ready for a trip into town. I was
meeting Donna at Rockwood around 1.
Every year now we need to
get Mom to the Owen Sound hospital to get her pacemaker checked. She has had it
since 2007 and each time they do a check, they discover that she hardly uses
it. We found Mom in the hair salon with curlers in her hair. Pam had just set
her up under the dryer. Oh-oh, somebody goofed! The nurses knew that Mom had an
appointment and had to leave by 1:15. So we let her sit there for another 15
minutes before the curlers were removed and we scooted her out to Donna’s car. We borrowed a hair pic (curly hair owners know what I mean)
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| We laughed at Mom's shadow - Alfalfa from Little Rascals |
We needn’t have worried, we made it
to O.S. with 15 minutes to spare. I combed Mom's 'ringlets' out now that it was dry. They ask that you be there 15 minutes early to register.
What was a nice drive with Mom talking about the trees, houses and our destination, changed dramatically when we arrived at the hospital. I won’t go into detail because it is too
painful but the effects of her dementia were visible in ways neither of us had
witnessed before. We don’t know if it was triggered by the wheelchair or what.
Who knows how a dementia’s victim’s mind works?
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| The drive TO Owen Sound was great Here is Mom sporting her ringlets Unfortunately, the day didn't call for other pictures after I combed them out |
Once we were all in the room, I remembered
Mom showing some of these same symptoms last year. It sure makes you appreciate
the nurses who deal with this a lot. It took no more than 10 minutes and we were out in the hall again. As quickly as the personality changed, it
changed back and we had our Mom back again by the time we got in the car.
That didn’t last
and within 10 minutes of ‘home’ we watched as her mood changed again. It was hard to leave
her in her room; she was very upset and there was no reasoning with her. Donna
and I were both fighting back tears as we walked down the hall after saying
goodbye. We think we’re tough. Not so. We saw that Aunt Mary was at her table for dinner so we stopped
to say hello and to wish her well on our way out.
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| I was too slow to catch this log house but it was a pretty picture anyway |
We sat on the bench outside and
discussed what had happened, realizing that this is only the beginning. We all
know that taking her out of Rockwood for events is not a good idea and stopped doing so
last spring. There are circumstances, such as today’s, where that couldn’t be
helped. I’m just glad there were two of us, each supporting the other. It was
a very difficult afternoon. After such a great 'one on one' just two days ago, it
rattled me. Hopefully, there will still be more of those this summer for each
of us. Donna and I parted ways in our own vehicles.
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| Owen Sound hospital on 8th Street |
Before leaving Durham, I dropped Mom’s
income tax slips off at Tim Summers’ office. He was right on the ball; he said he had seen Mom’s name earlier and expected to see me soon. I drove home to a
pooch who was waiting for his supper. I didn’t realize it was after 5 already.
At 5:45, I heard from Bill and he was on his way home. That would mean 8:30 so
I suggested he grab something to eat on his route. I had the second chicken
thigh and carrots to eat so warmed that up for me.
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| Supper was good |
Clemson and I sat in my recliner
after I did dishes and I basically crashed. It sure takes special people to
look after those like Mom and Donna and I applaud them, especially after today.
They see it all the time and deal with it through pleasant communication. My
head was pounding so I just laid back and relaxed. My brain wouldn’t settle
down so I turned to a new book by Stuart Woods to wait for my sweetie to come
home. This one is Short Straw and it started out good right off the bat. That was what I needed.
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| I snapped this through the screen on the window Clemson was on my lap and I wasn't about to move him |
Bill drove in with Ptooties at 8:30 and unloaded his
stuff and the groceries that he picked up at Costco. He’s had a long couple of
days so it was a quiet evening before we went to bed. I hope Clemson manages to
stay put through the night again. This was a good day with some trials and some
triumphs. I hope you had a good day too.
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| And Bill drove up in the middle of this blurred pink reflection Good night y'all! |
Thank you for checking in on us.