April 28, 2015

Long Days Are Becoming a Habit

April 28, 2015

More flowers are starting to bloom

Since Tuesday was a long day, this is actually being written early Wednesday morning, following my allergy shots.  Tuesday morning I did get up early and made Ron's coffee before waking him.  I had to be ready to leave the house by 9:15.  It was a beautiful, but windy day.  The temperature was comfortable and the air was clean, but the wind was blowing about 25 miles an hour much of the day.

The windy day created nice cloud patterns

Mom had a couple of appointments and I had arranged to not go to the office until after lunch.  I picked Mom up and took her to have a bone density test.  There is a series of treatments that her doctor wants her to have to strengthen her bones, but it is expensive and Medicare refuses to pay for it.  The entire series would run thousands of dollars. It is a lot of money, but only a drop in the bucket to what Medicare has paid for the fractured vertebrae that has been the cause of all the problems since last September.  I fully understand that it is expensive, but you would think they would see the need to do everything possible to prevent future expenses.

Intensity!

When we finished there, we made a stop at her bank and then I took her to a store at the mall so she could shop a little for clothes.  She ended up with two tops and so did I, thanks to Mom.  We had a good time and both are so pleased that the fashions this year (at least at this one store) are so much prettier than in recent years.  The colors appeal to both of us and it would have been easy to spend more time and more money there.  It is probably good that we were limited on both. 

Non-players in this game, kept busy with sidewalk chalk

The main limitation was that she had another appointment and it was to see her regular doctor to get some orders for prescription refills.  One of them requires a monthly appointment with the doctor.  I must say that this doctor is VERY hard for me to hear.  He speaks softly and rapidly.  He keeps his head down and sort of mumbles.  The vast majority of his patients are elderly.  So sad.  I wonder how many leave not fully understanding him.  We got the needed prescriptions for the refills and he was not real encouraging about the pain Mom has been having the last few days.  He said he could send her to a pain specialist, or a back specialist, but he seems to be out of options other than the medications he is currently giving her.  He is going to wait for the results of the bone density test.

 There is a lot of "waiting" in baseball

From there, I took Mom home.  Carmen had gone to take care of a variety of personal errands.  She had left early and was gone all day.  That is fine.  She does go to a few of her own activities, but she is there most of the time and I am sure needs a break some days.  She had gotten her hair done, went to the dentist, the bank, and shopped a little.  What an amazing blessing she is to our family.

 Practicing the moves

Before going to the office, I picked up lunch for Ron and myself.  We talked for a while as we ate our lunch and as very often happens, (we joke about this) our customers seem to smell when we have food and that is when they come in to do their shopping.  Ron was interrupted often as he tried to eat his lunch.  I spent the afternoon doing bookkeeping and preparing a bank deposit.

 Those long fingers are what makes him a great pianist.

When I took the deposit to the bank I had given them a list of change that I needed.  When they had it ready a young man brought it out to the car for me because it would have been hard for me to lift from the drawer.  When I looked, I spotted a problem - I had asked for one roll of dimes and 2 were in the box.  So I put it in the drawer and sent it back.  Then I saw I was short one roll of quarters.  So the young man came back to the car, looked at the box and saw that he had also given me too many pennies (20 rolls instead of 10).  He took the box back inside and then returned it to me with the corrections made.

 Looks like they are practicing signals

When I got to the office, I got out of the car and a roll of quarters fell out of the deposit bag.  I think he had started to put all the change in the bank bag as per normal, but realized that wouldn't work, so he put them all in a box, forgetting he already had a roll in my bag.  So I drove back to the bank to take the extra roll to him.  We laughed about it, but I sure hope they keep an eye on him.

 This guy loves baseball!

I have so much trouble hearing at the drive-up window, I was very thankful the young man came out to my car.  He was very nice and I hope he can get more efficient in his job because I will enjoy dealing with him if I don't have to worry about mistakes all the time.

 Getting ready for a good hit - which he got

During the afternoon I had a text from our daughter-in-law here in town that our grandson would have a baseball game that evening.  After work I went by Mom's to return her glasses case that she had misplaced in my car that morning and asked if she would like to go to the game.  She was delighted to go.  The weather was perfect - cool and a light breeze.  That beats some really hot games last year.  We watched as our grandson's team was defeated by a team of bigger boys who are really good batters! When our grandson was up to bat, he got a hit right away but sadly it went toward first base and  he was quickly "out".   He was having a good time and from these photos, you can tell he has all the "moves" down real well.  We had a good time and I am so glad we all went.  Ron joined us part way through after he had supper with his mom.  She was having a rough day with pain.

Little sister's favorite part of ball game is the snacks!

On the way home I stopped for gas.  By the time I got home, I had been gone 12 hours and was too tired to do anything except curl up in the recliner, but I had not yet had supper so I fixed a sandwich and our daughter-in-law in New Mexico called.  She apologized for interrupting me, but I said the only thing I was going to do was sit in the recliner and would be delighted to chat.  She had spent her day running errands and was also exhausted, so we had a good talk.  They are starting to look for a replacement for their car and she had been out test driving some different models of cars. 

 Sunset set colors as we watch the game