Not much new to report. Had a busy week at work – very excited to find out that our wellness program is going to receive an award at a conference they are attending in October. It is wonderful to see the staff and volunteers who worked so hard on the Serenamente program (serene minds in English) be honored by a statewide group for their incredible dedication.
September 11 was the seventh anniversary of my dad‘s death and I got to spend a little time with mom and a couple of my sisters. It’s still so strange to think it’s been that long since he passed away. It makes me even more grateful that Mom is in a much better rehab hospital than the one dad was in. Also very grateful that he was able to be at home and we got help from hospice the last couple of months of his life.
On my walk in the neighborhood on Thursday morning, I saw a bike train going down the street – a contingent of over a dozen bikes ridden by parents and students headed to the local elementary school. It was such a cool site to see! I also passed a little girl with random braids in her scraggly hair, wearing a patterned dress with different patterned tights, a pink jacket with sequins and sparkly pink shoes. I wanted so bad to take a picture, she reminded me so much of Annemarie at that age.
On Friday afternoon, my sister Christina and I worked with Mom‘s PT to practice transferring her from a wheelchair to my car and back again in preparation for a trip to the orthopedist next week. Medicare does not cover the cost of transportation from the rehab hospital to any appointments, even if they’re medically necessary, so we decided to see if we could safely move her ourselves. Luckily her strength is coming back and it went really well, the PT was very impressed with how Mom did. I think she really enjoyed having a bit of time outside feeling the breeze. It’ll be quite an adventure for her to go in a car to a doctor’s appointment. She will probably be wiped out the rest of the day. Later I had time to take a short walk through part of the bird sanctuary that is near the rehab place, I’ve never been out there before and it’s absolutely beautiful. So quiet and peaceful.
On Saturday, I decided to hike up to the Laurel Trail. It was very, very foggy, in fact when I was on the upper section of trail that’s covered in trees I was literally getting rained on. It was funny to be on the Marin View trail and not see anything except fog! It was just the invigorating hike I needed.
Spent the rest of the morning in front of the fire getting some work done, then headed to the place that I will be house and cat sitting for the next couple of weeks. The cat, Rocky, is 13 years old and takes a while to warm up to strangers. We hung out a little bit where he was comfortable, and he is slowly getting used to me. I watched a funny English movie called Wicked Little Letters based on a true story of a “spinster“ from a small English town back in the 1920s who sent herself (and later, other people in town) letters that had lots of swearwords and were very disparaging as a way to get attention and to show what a proper Christian woman she was. Her next-door neighbor was accused of sending the letters, but ultimately, her friends and a woman police officer worked to prove she was the real culprit. As it is with many English movies, I recognized many of the actors. Olivia Colman starred in the main role. She seems to be the Maggie Smith of her generation.
