I Will Dare - Grandma Update

Friday was crazy weatherwise here in Southeastern Michigan. I, being me, hadn't really paid all that much attention to the weather report. I knew it was supposed to rain, but that was the extent of it. I picked up a friend of Marianne's who lives by me and I had met a number of times before (with the price of gas it seemed stupid to have two of driving from the same place to the same place) and we got there a little before 6:30. As we walked up the walk, it started to rain a little bit. We made it into the house before all hell broke loose. Marianne's kids were in the basement as her city had sounded the weather warning siren and they were insistent that they get in the basement along with the two guinea pigs, the two mice and the killer cat (locked in the basement bathroom). We stood in the living room window and watched this huge mother branch from the tree next door fall into the street. At that point, I got a little worried about my car (it survived unscathed, thankfully) and thought that maybe the kids had the right idea. We three grabbed the food and took it to the basement where we hung out until the worst was over. Marianne's 9-year-old daughter was completely freaked out and was on her knees under a blanket praying with tears streaming down her face. Poor sweetie.

Obviously we all survived the storm which I heard brought five tornados to Fenton, MI where my aunt lives. I was quite worried because their house is up on a hill, but it turns out that it all happened north of them and they actually got hardly any rain and my aunt needed to water her garden the next morning. Marianne's street, on the other hand, was flooded, although thankfully, not too badly that the ol' Focus made it through no problem.

The rest of the partygoers showed up finally and we had a lovely adult type party just sitting around and chatting. I got home around midnight to hear that the score of the Tigers-Yankees game was 5-2 (or something like that) in the bottom of the 3rd inning. WTF??? The game ended at 3:30 a.m. with a Carlos Guillen walk off home run. No, I didn't stay up. I was tired. I managed to sleep in until 11:00 a.m., so that was one goal accomplished for the weekend – and pretty much the only one as I got no laundry done, I didn't get to PetSmart for cat food, nor Borders with my 20% off coupon.

My massage was not as deep tissue as I prefer, so it was a little disappointing, even though it was VERY relaxing. I spent hours on the phone over the weekend with Panasonic & Comcast trying to get my new DVD-R (I bought it Friday after work) to record (still completely unsuccessful) which means I'll be staying up to 10:00 tonight to watch Eureka, since I can't count on my DVD-R yet. Dammit.

I had a second party to attend on Saturday and although I was a little nervous about it as I only knew the hosts (and one other person who wasn't going to show up until 11:00 or so because he was going to the Tigers game). I’m not shy, generally, anymore, but I still have tentative moments about meeting new people, but everybody was very friendly and like-minded, so I got to talk to music, movies, hockey, Tigers, etc. I had such a lovely time that I didn't get home until 3:00 a.m. I had gotten a phone call from Mom telling me that she was leaving for CA Sunday morning so she wouldn't be at church. Whew! That meant I didn't have to go. I would have gone, except that the Champ Car race was on at 8:00 a.m. and church starts at 10:00 a.m. And with my DVD-R still not set up properly (although from all accounts it is), I didn't trust it to record the race. Good thing since it didn't. I called Panasonic again and the girl had me adjust something. I test recorded the Champ Car race re-broadcast at 2:00 a.m. Monday and yup, still not working. Mom called me around 11:30 from the Dallas airport and asked surprised, "You're out of church already?" "No, I didn't go." "Oh." "If you didn't ask, you wouldn't know I missed." She made it sound like she didn't care but I'm not sure the Champ Car race is a good reason to miss church in Mom's eyes.

After the race (won by Sebastien Bourdais – his sixth win of the season), I showered and got dressed and then called Grandma. She wasn't sure she was going to be hungry for sushi, because she wasn't sure what time I'd be calling, so she had had an Ensure first thing when she woke up and a slice of toast just before I called. I teased her saying, "Ooooh, an Ensure and a piece of toast. That's the Breakfast of Champions, Grandma." I told her I'd be there in 45 minutes and headed out. She looked fabulous as always in her tan pants, black sweater and tan/black jacket-y thing (which she didn't need). She agreed with me that I can't wear beige/tan/khaki pants.

First stop was CVS for batteries for her husband's hearing aid, then it was on to sushi where she had the Shrimp Tempura sushi and I had the asparagus tempura (YUMMY!). She couldn't finish the last piece of sushi as she was just stuffed. She was weak enough that she let me drop her off at the door while I parked the car, although she insisted she could walk to the car after lunch. I had parked it as closely as I could, but it was still a bit of a walk for Shortstuff's little legs. She actually let me help her, although I thought she was doing pretty darn well for 88.

She had run out of her Estee Lauder lifting serum three weeks previously, so she had me take her to the store for that. After giving me a hard time for spending $130 on the DVD-R, she proceeded to spend $175 on her lifting serum. I didn't say a word, but I noted it. ;-)

From there I took her to the hospice to visit her husband who got in either Friday or Saturday. My mom said to me, "Your Grandma took care of him for the past 3-4 months, but his daughter takes care of him for a week and he's in hospice. I guess she figured out how much work he really is." Grandma has been spending almost all day every day visiting with him, even though she's supposed to be resting to build up her strength. I don't blame her, really, he is her husband. It's just that while I was there, I noticed that he's a tad cranky. He would say something mumbling and she would ask him to repeat it. And he would, LOUDLY.AND.ONE.WORD.AT.A.TIME as if she were an idiot. That annoyed me, but Grandma just accepted it and responded to whatever he asked.

My mom is certain that he's going to die soon and that she's going to have to cut her vacation short, but I don't think so. He didn't look that bad to me, but what do I know about Alzheimer's? Mom said something about his cancer being back, too, but that’s the first I had heard of it.

I went for PT yesterday and now have a whole series of exercises designed to build up my knee strength which includes stretches. I'm terrible at stretching because it's so darn boring. Still, if I'm serious about this, I'm going to have to do it. Soyon gave me the name of an acupuncturist yesterday. Now to get up the nerve to call. Grandma told me on Sunday that she had gone to an acupuncturist years before for her osteoporosis. After five visits, the acupuncturist told her that it wasn't going to help her and that she should save her money. I thought that was very honorable of him. I don't think she remembers his name, though.

I guess that's it for now. In case, I don't update again before the end of the week, I hope you all have a lovely Labor Day weekend.