HOLYCOW

Mom is being released on TUESDAY. As in, a mere two weeks after a major bone graft surgery, her third in six days, which had her in ICU for 36 hours. After only one week in the rehab hospital. The rehabilitation director of said hospital came to visit her and told her she was the most inspirational patient he had ever had, considering what she has gone through, her progress, and her attitude. Well, yeah. Meet my mom.

Today she got to go outside, and had some Retail Therapy. OT covers all the bases, so Mom found a few nifty items in the gift shop.

I just don't know with what to follow all that good news, so I won't. Here - enjoy this. Just when you think you know how something is going to go, it doesn't, to your delight. I understand!

Generic NaBloPoMo Post #12

I just talked with Mom. She truly feels like she has turned a corner (hooray!) Most of all, she is looking forward to not being in the hospital. Last night was a little tough; she needed a friend to visit with; a daughter wouldn't do. She misses her friends. I have her number, if you would like to call.

In addition to PT, she has OT - occupational therapy. They will be making sure she can do the things she needs to do to take care of herself once she gets home. On Saturday, she gets to cook. They're bringing salmon and wild rice, and going over the techniques she'll use to make do while her lifting and carrying limitations are in place.

In other news, we have entered the Cuddle Season, when Pickwick decides we are an excellent source of warm. He snuggles and purrs, and seeks out our laps whenever we are seated. We wake up to find him between our ankles. He is also fuzzier every day. I'll find some summer/winter pictures to show you the dramatic difference. He becomes quite the snugglebunny in the winter, but we aren't complaining. A purring throw kitty is just the thing on a cold evening.

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Thanks, and Ever Thanks

Knitterish

As I am typing, Mom is being packed up and transported a couple of miles away from UCSF Medical Center to St. Mary's rehabilitation hospital. Surprise! She is making excellent progress, and they will be dealing with whichever medical issues she still has going and getting her ready to go HOME. Well, HERE, for a week or two, and then HOME. Huzzah! I still need a kitty home for her cat Maggie Mae. Please help.

There was an essay out there in the 80's entitled All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. Watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Eschew obfuscation, my dear internets. Things aren't always as complicated as we think.

I am finding that not everything, but a great deal of what I need to know, I can learn from knitting. I've been using a daily calendar from the writings of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Never Not Knitting. A year in review of the pages I kept because they spoke to me at some level, or just amused me excessively, is showing me that I've picked the right hobby. What I do with my days, I want to do well, and take joy in it. Things aren't as complicated as I think. After all, in knitting there's just one stitch - it's what you do with it that makes all the difference.

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or doing it better. -John Updike

We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. -Charles Kingsley

There is a fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness." -Dave Barry

A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame and money but even practices it without any hope of doing it well. -G. K. Chesterton

Habits are first cobwebs, then cables. -Spanish Proverb

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, "Where have I gone wrong?" Then a voice says to me, "This is going to take more than one night." -Charles M. Schultz

It is a long road from conception to completion. -Moliere

Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit, either. - Elizabeth Zimmerman

When you follow your bliss...doors will open where you would not have thought there would be doors; and where there wouldn't be a door for anyone else. -Joseph Campbell

Knitting is a human activity. It's okay if it looks like a human did it. -Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

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Hello, my dear Internets. All the news that's fit to post is that Mom is days away from the rehab hospital and so very ready to be sprung. There are just a few medical issues to button up. Rehab will be for gaining physical strength and adjusting to the limitations that have been placed on her body, both during the healing process and afterward. I'm looking forward to having her here for a couple of weeks. She already feels different, better, with just a different level of discomfort and pain than she had pre-surgery.

The rest of this post is a phone-in - sorry, I just need to go to bed. Here is something entertaining for you all. Good night.

Free to Good Home

Today was a full day! We went to first service, then hit the road directly to go visit Mom. She is allowed to sit up for 40 minutes at a time with her brace on, and can go for short walks whenever she wants. Her energy is still low, though, and she poops out quickly. We entertained her while she sat and had lunch, then walked with her down to the solarium on her floor (12th, on a hill) to enjoy the corner windows looking out over north San Francisco. Most importantly, we delivered the chocolate chip nurse bribery cookies she requested.

Mom has decided that she can't keep her cat. Maggie Mae is a sweetie but a little persnickety, likes to play speed bump in the hall while Mom is walking and sometimes wakes Mom up at night by doing things like walking on her face. I'm searching for a home for her, with the no-kill shelter as a last resort. I feel bad about this. It doesn't mean that Mom can't have a cat in the future; it's just too hard to take care of her properly during her recovery, and the threat of being tripped is too high. Anyone want a kitty?

After our visit, we zoomed back to Sacramento for the remainder of play practice, and got home from music practice about 20 minutes ago. I found a dress - in my closet. It's a pink and ivory floral, and with a pair of nude footless tights will work very well. I put it on and gave the director one of my lines, and she liked my "expressive feet" so much I was asked to play the role barefoot. I think I curled my toes and stood a bit pigeon-toed or something. I curled my toes because I really need a pedicure, or at least to paint my toenails!

When we got home, Rick decided he needed a good fire in the fireplace, and has been fiddling with it for over 20 minutes. Between raking leaves yesterday and just over four hours of driving today, I need a hot bath!

'Tis the Season

Fa la la la la.
This was taken with a zoom lens, so the true depth and height of this pile of leaves in the center of which I was standing over knee high can not be fully appreciated. There were a lot of leaves, and the tree is only beginning its annual dump on our lawn. Soon, it will start shoving wads of the suckers into our back gutters and carpeting our roof. We got a late start this morning, and only the back lawn and some of the beds were attended to today. It had been a while over two weeks since we last mowed, so Rick had to do a few passes.