The Visible Woman...July 19, 2000

Wednedsay

July 19, 2000

"Duty is what one expects from others."

Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance

too many in the kitchen?

Physically: The weird rash fades...but still doesn't hurt. Heat perhaps? It is unbearably and unbelievably hot weather. It is killing people who work outside without precautions. Is it August yet?

Emotionally: Feel at a loss about my mother's medical problems.

Meta: I'm running behind on the posting but will catch up!

what makes a house a home

I get up and get dressed early. At my parent's house, trash day is Wednesday and there is lots of trash. We forgot to put the stuff on the curb last night. Dad and Mom are still abed so I go out there and put out the garbage and recycling and cut up some boxes that had plants in them, putting the soiled pieces in the garbage and the clean ones out for recyling. Then I head home to help the folks. They are packing up their suitcases and clothes to try to move into their place. We load up the van and head to the house. We get all that stuff inside and I go shopping.

Mom needs a new mattress pad and I need to get phones in a couple more places and they need a few food essentials. I'm getting an electric kettle since the stove at the new place requires magnetic cookware and all kettles seem to have an aluminum core. I do some quick strike shopping and get back in time to make some sandwiches and send Dad off to supervise moving a second refrigerator into the place. While we are eating, I idly pick up the top of a sugar bowl. Inside are a couple of packets of Equal and a little strip of wood with January and February stamped on it in gold. Ah, yes. I make Mom's bed up and set up a couple more phones and then I go to work for a meeting.

After my meeting, I go back and we take Mom to the GP's office. The resident at the hospital wanted a follow-up blood test. Mom also hurts. Her right side, in a kind of non-specific way. She is clearly in pain. The doctor doesn't know why. He can hardly add meds to the extant stack and advises her to try her Tylenol and orders the test. He hasn't seen the hospital dismissal. It's the computer age, but these things move inexorably. It's no wonder that care is so hard for these older folks. I go in with Mom to make sure the doctor knows her meds and what happened. I get the idea she wouldn't have gotten the message across but I could be wrong.

We go back to the house. I call FFP and he has a meeting. The new electric kettle that successfully heated water in my demo to Mom has leaked water all over the counter. The parents to to eat at the Luby's near our house since I'm going to wait for FFFP. I stop by the linen store and trade in the kettle for another brand. Mom and Dad come by and take some food and things they've bought while here and go off to spend their first night in their house.

FFP isn't home at seven so I turn on the hose end sprinklers on. Must use the water when it's allowed under rationing.

When FFP gets home, we start out to go to Fonda. But we see a ton of cars. So we go to 34th St. Deli. What a good idea! Eddie rushes up an asks after my mother. (FFP walked over there when Mom was in the hospital last week.) We sit by a woman who runs a gallery and talk. We talk to other patrons, to Eddie. I have some great crab cakes and some pork with this great sauce and crepes.

Home, bed. Just the two of us (and Chalow, of course) all alone in the house.