Friday, March 11, 2005
What an overwhelming welcome on my return!
Please, sit down, you're embarrassing me!
I know, it's been awhile. Mom's begun her spring thaw. She's arising earlier than before, staying up longer, and showing a bit more interest in moving. I may even get her to Costco tomorrow. The weather's been glorious; warm and bright. Although we're still hitting freezing at night, downtown Prescott is dipping down only to about 40 or the high 30's. For the last two days all windows and doors (except for the screen doors) have been open from the time I awaken until about 1800.
It's funny, I recognized a couple of intertwining patterns tonight. Winter is my mother's worst season. I know I've mentioned it before: I tell myself this all winter long but, the truth is, I don't believe it. What I tend to believe every winter is that she's in decline. I think I'm finally, after all these years, beginning to understand that she's actually hibernating like an amphibian. Of course, I will continue to keep in the back of my mind that winter, especially the holiday season, is a busy season for decline and death. But when I look at her health history I notice she displays worrisome declines in all seasons as well as felicitious revivals, so it's anyone's guess which season she'll finally pick as her death season, let alone which year.
I've been absent from here for a couple of reasons. The first is that as Mom thaws she becomes more interactive, which is a pleasure but doesn't leave much time for me to report on how life is proceeding for us. The second is income taxes. Although in February I easily gathered all the stuff that came in January that's necessary, all the final reports, etc., my big mess this year involves going through boxes of papers to find all receipts and cancelled checks connected to her very busy medical doings last year and our move. Toward the end of February I procured a promise from an acquaintance up here who indicated to me that she'd be available, for a small fee for a couple of days during the first week in March to go through all the boxes under my supervision while I attended to my mother and pull out everything I need. By Thursday of last week it became apparent that she wasn't going to make herself available to me. By Friday she confirmed this. So, I'm doing it, as I can. It's frustrating since my mother is now requiring more attention, which I am pleased to give. I started on Tuesday, expecting to be done by tomorrow and able to Fed-Ex everything to my mother's CPA. It's proceeding much slower than I expected. I've wished that I had someplace to easily send my mother for a couple of days so that I wouldn't have to stop frequently in my methodical document search then go back, reorient myself and continue. But, well, wishes aren't horses, nor are they available friends or relatives who would take her in for a couple of days. My best guess is that I'll be ready to send everything off on Monday. At least this is a good three weeks earlier than last year. I've vowed that one of our projects, after this spate of accelerated paperwork activity is done, will be to get my mother's files reordered. They've been a fright since the move. My only lucky horseshoe has been that I haven't thrown anything away. Nothing. God, did we generate a lot of tax specific paperwork last year! Jesus! Computing her taxes will be easy for her CPA; it's this part that's the trial!
Our yard is going to be wilder than ever this year. I'm itching to work on it and have a guy coming by Monday to look around and see if he's interested in doing some cutting and hauling, as well as some minor house repair, like caulking the psuedo-cathedral windows. I'm not sure he'll take on the caulking. The windows are extremely high and he'll have to negotiate them with a ladder that can be seated and remain stable in a bed of gravel. If he doesn't have the tools or the insurance to cover the possibilities I expect him to refuse this job, which I will understand. But he's an odd jobs guy and seems interested in the clean-up work that our yard could use. One of the roses I thought I'd killed, the purple one, is coming back with a vengence this year, much to our delight. The compost pile I started last summer is full of soil; a little wetter than I'd like but we're now getting some dry weather and I'm leaving the top open to dehydration and elimination the anaerobia that developed during our recent heavy rain and snow. We're due for more next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our compost will be ready to work into the soil in a couple of weeks.
It remains true, my favorite season is any season that brings lots of precipitation, cloudy weather and cool air but, I have to admit, it's a thrill to watch my mother unfold as her joints warm and her brain simmers in the sun. It gives me an energy boosrt just to anticipate the possibility of getting her out and about.
After watching a TV ad, tonight, Mom announced that she thinks we should add Mary Poppins to our movie collection. It's funny because I remember watching the movie when it came out. When I was a child I wasn't much for children's movies, animated or not. Even now kids movies have to be really unusual to attract me. I do remember, though, becoming excited about the possibility of seeing Mary Poppins just before it was originally released, although I don't remember why. I also remember the disappointment once I saw the movie, thinking, yeah, well, that's Disney for you, absolutely unreliable when it comes to my interests; I didn't even like Disneyland the one time I visited when I was 9: Too much like coloring books, which I never liked. I can't remember what I was expecting from Mary Poppins. I was 12 when I saw it so I was probably expecting much more than, say, a kid below the age of 10. It isn't a movie I've ever wanted to watch again, although my sisters and I sang the songs from the movie to distraction. But tonight, while Mom was humming along to the ad and pumping herself up, thinking that the movie was going to play shortly after the ad I thought, yeah, you know, even if I find the movie little more interesting than I did in 1964, it would be fun to sing those songs again and watch Mom transformed by the movie. So I guess we'll be picking that one up soon.
Well, I've got to hit the sack. I'll be back sooner than later, I think, but probably not until I'm done with gathering the tax stuff.
Oh, in case you're interested, I updated her stats in brief then attached a review of the last 10 days. It's all good, no unpleasant surprises.
I know, it's been awhile. Mom's begun her spring thaw. She's arising earlier than before, staying up longer, and showing a bit more interest in moving. I may even get her to Costco tomorrow. The weather's been glorious; warm and bright. Although we're still hitting freezing at night, downtown Prescott is dipping down only to about 40 or the high 30's. For the last two days all windows and doors (except for the screen doors) have been open from the time I awaken until about 1800.
It's funny, I recognized a couple of intertwining patterns tonight. Winter is my mother's worst season. I know I've mentioned it before: I tell myself this all winter long but, the truth is, I don't believe it. What I tend to believe every winter is that she's in decline. I think I'm finally, after all these years, beginning to understand that she's actually hibernating like an amphibian. Of course, I will continue to keep in the back of my mind that winter, especially the holiday season, is a busy season for decline and death. But when I look at her health history I notice she displays worrisome declines in all seasons as well as felicitious revivals, so it's anyone's guess which season she'll finally pick as her death season, let alone which year.
I've been absent from here for a couple of reasons. The first is that as Mom thaws she becomes more interactive, which is a pleasure but doesn't leave much time for me to report on how life is proceeding for us. The second is income taxes. Although in February I easily gathered all the stuff that came in January that's necessary, all the final reports, etc., my big mess this year involves going through boxes of papers to find all receipts and cancelled checks connected to her very busy medical doings last year and our move. Toward the end of February I procured a promise from an acquaintance up here who indicated to me that she'd be available, for a small fee for a couple of days during the first week in March to go through all the boxes under my supervision while I attended to my mother and pull out everything I need. By Thursday of last week it became apparent that she wasn't going to make herself available to me. By Friday she confirmed this. So, I'm doing it, as I can. It's frustrating since my mother is now requiring more attention, which I am pleased to give. I started on Tuesday, expecting to be done by tomorrow and able to Fed-Ex everything to my mother's CPA. It's proceeding much slower than I expected. I've wished that I had someplace to easily send my mother for a couple of days so that I wouldn't have to stop frequently in my methodical document search then go back, reorient myself and continue. But, well, wishes aren't horses, nor are they available friends or relatives who would take her in for a couple of days. My best guess is that I'll be ready to send everything off on Monday. At least this is a good three weeks earlier than last year. I've vowed that one of our projects, after this spate of accelerated paperwork activity is done, will be to get my mother's files reordered. They've been a fright since the move. My only lucky horseshoe has been that I haven't thrown anything away. Nothing. God, did we generate a lot of tax specific paperwork last year! Jesus! Computing her taxes will be easy for her CPA; it's this part that's the trial!
Our yard is going to be wilder than ever this year. I'm itching to work on it and have a guy coming by Monday to look around and see if he's interested in doing some cutting and hauling, as well as some minor house repair, like caulking the psuedo-cathedral windows. I'm not sure he'll take on the caulking. The windows are extremely high and he'll have to negotiate them with a ladder that can be seated and remain stable in a bed of gravel. If he doesn't have the tools or the insurance to cover the possibilities I expect him to refuse this job, which I will understand. But he's an odd jobs guy and seems interested in the clean-up work that our yard could use. One of the roses I thought I'd killed, the purple one, is coming back with a vengence this year, much to our delight. The compost pile I started last summer is full of soil; a little wetter than I'd like but we're now getting some dry weather and I'm leaving the top open to dehydration and elimination the anaerobia that developed during our recent heavy rain and snow. We're due for more next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that our compost will be ready to work into the soil in a couple of weeks.
It remains true, my favorite season is any season that brings lots of precipitation, cloudy weather and cool air but, I have to admit, it's a thrill to watch my mother unfold as her joints warm and her brain simmers in the sun. It gives me an energy boosrt just to anticipate the possibility of getting her out and about.
After watching a TV ad, tonight, Mom announced that she thinks we should add Mary Poppins to our movie collection. It's funny because I remember watching the movie when it came out. When I was a child I wasn't much for children's movies, animated or not. Even now kids movies have to be really unusual to attract me. I do remember, though, becoming excited about the possibility of seeing Mary Poppins just before it was originally released, although I don't remember why. I also remember the disappointment once I saw the movie, thinking, yeah, well, that's Disney for you, absolutely unreliable when it comes to my interests; I didn't even like Disneyland the one time I visited when I was 9: Too much like coloring books, which I never liked. I can't remember what I was expecting from Mary Poppins. I was 12 when I saw it so I was probably expecting much more than, say, a kid below the age of 10. It isn't a movie I've ever wanted to watch again, although my sisters and I sang the songs from the movie to distraction. But tonight, while Mom was humming along to the ad and pumping herself up, thinking that the movie was going to play shortly after the ad I thought, yeah, you know, even if I find the movie little more interesting than I did in 1964, it would be fun to sing those songs again and watch Mom transformed by the movie. So I guess we'll be picking that one up soon.
Well, I've got to hit the sack. I'll be back sooner than later, I think, but probably not until I'm done with gathering the tax stuff.
Oh, in case you're interested, I updated her stats in brief then attached a review of the last 10 days. It's all good, no unpleasant surprises.
