Heart and soul

It is so muggy here today, that it makes me long for fall!

I have been listening to music most of the day. I have played the American Prayer video a million times. I became inspired by the democratic convention and I think I may even volunteer some time to it. No matter what happens, it is an important and historical election, and I want to contribute in any small way that I can.

In general I love music. I am uplifted and moved by it, sometimes I play songs over and over again because I feel like I can't quite get enough and because I don't want the feelings to end when the song does. Over and over, sometimes if it is a new song, I want to learn every word and lick, even though I can't sing, or play an instrument. So I can't say I wasted the day, because music not a waste. It was feeding the heart and soul day.

Tomorrow we are taking my son back to college. It will be a quick visit up north and it is supposed to be a nice day, so the drive will be pleasant. He has been home most of the day packing and we have been all spending time talking politics, family, and everything in between. As usual, it is always a little bit sad when he leaves and we return to our empty nest, but we adjust pretty quickly.

So everyone have a happy and safe Labor Day weekend!

Become inspired

American Prayer

Over the hump day

I am sitting out on the deck after supper and it is actually chilly enough for a jacket. Just a reminder that summer is fading away.

I went back to work this week after 2 weeks away and it felt good to be back. I enjoyed diving right in and getting things accomplished. The students come back next Tuesday, so we were all busy with orientation and getting the place all spruced up. So many new staff to get to know.

In my job, I go back and forth between 4 buildings so I don't work side by side with enough of the folks long enough to really get to know them so their names don't stick with me. Every year we grow bigger, and I didn't even master the all the names from last year yet. I have to figure out a way to remember every one's name! It is embarrassing to be walking down the hall and need to call out to someone and go blank when it comes to their name.

Other news:

My son's girlfriend was bitten by a dog the other day. It is so ironic because we were all at the dog park in the morning with about 70 dogs running loose, all behaving and not one incident with any of the dogs.

Later in the day, after playing tennis she was walking to her car and a dog on a leash came over to her. When she gently put her hand out to let the dog smell her hand, (as the dog whisperer says to do) the dog bit her. The owner started yelling at her and when she lifted her arm and saw blood dripping down, the owner ran away with his dog. He fled off to the condo buildings across the street.

Unfortunately, now she has to get all the shots for rabies. She had 6 the first time at the hospital and is on a schedule to go back for more. The police are on the look out for the guy and the dog, but I doubt they will find them.

It is hard to believe that someone would run off like that and he was an an older person, not a kid.

I admire how well she is handling the situation, and although the shots are not pleasant, thank goodness there are shots available to cover all the risks involved.

Well, it is cold enough now to go inside and make a hot cup of tea and maybe I will finally make some zucchini bread.

An Award

Jamie of Grace, too chose me as one recipient of this award, my very first blogging award ever! Thank you, Jamie!

Here are the rules,

1. Only five people are to receive this award.
2. Four of them are followers of your blog.
3. One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to the person who gave you this award.

Now I have to choose five blog friends to pass this along to. I have chosen the following:

Forsythia, Life in Merlin USA

Patty, Patty's Perspective USA

Ruth, Visions and Revisions USA

Kelly Jene, The Moohaa USA

At this point I don't have anyone new to my blog from another part of the world, but if I ever do, I will pass this on to them. Hope that is O.K. I am not usually a rule breaker, lol!!

Doggie park

I have been home a couple of days now and have tried to catch up on house stuff and I also lounged quite a bit reading a novel called, Flowers in the Attic, by V.C. Andrews. It is a creepy sort of story about some children locked away in the attic, but it was also quite a page turner. I believe it was made into a movie, but I never saw it. I discovered that there are a couple of sequels to it and I have one of them on hold at the library already. I don't usually like creepy stories and if I have bad dreams tonight, I will cancel the hold! LoL.

This morning we went to the dog park to visit with my son and his friends and our grand-dog, as we like to call him. There is Tucker on the left. Dog parks are becoming all the rage on the East coast now. Since the swimming season is over for the summer, the Humane Society was charging $5.00 to let the dogs run free on the beach and swim in the pond, and their owners have to pay $1.00. All the money benefits the Humane Society, and they bring in dogs that they want to find homes for, so some good matches are made.

I was sitting reading my book and a beautiful Golden Retriever came and dropped his ball in front of me and barked at me until I picked it up and threw it for him to fetch. So he kept coming over to me dropping his ball for me to throw. One time, the ball rolled underneath the bench. My friend was behind the bench at the time and she picked it up and gave it to me to throw for the dog. Well, the dog didn't chase the ball this time. Instead, he looked at it and then he walked behind the bench to see if the ball was still there. When he realized that his ball wasn't there, he ran to fetch it realizing it was the one I threw.

I am guessing because he didn't see me pick up the ball, he didn't think it was the ball he dropped. I was impressed that he only wanted to fetch his ball. A very smart dog.

It was fun to watch the dogs all running free and playing together, even though at times we got a soaking when they were shaking themselves dry.

More museums

In the garden at Hildene

Hildene - home of Robert Todd Lincoln

The marble quarry

Today we spent the morning at the Bennington Museum home of the Grandma Moses collection as well as antique furniture, glassware, pottery, etc. I enjoyed this museum quite a bit and especially loved the Grandma Moses wing.

Later we drove over to Dorset and hung out at the nation's oldest quarry, which happens to be all marble. It is beautiful spot and if it had been warmer out today, we would have taken a swim. But it was good to just lounge in a chair and read.

On the way home we took a wrong turn (and we were glad we did) and ended up on the road to Hildene, the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln (Abe's son). So we decided to go and take the tour. It is a beautiful home and the scenery breath-taking, as noted in the pictures above.

Something about the hills of Vermont that make me swell with emotion. I love them and I always feel sad when we head back to the flatlands. We will be back soon when we take our son to school in a couple of weeks, so it won't be long until we meet again.

Bits of Bennington

Later this afternoon we drove on over to Vermont. I am posting pictures of sculptures that are scattered all over downtown. It is unnerving because you think they are real people and it is always startling that they aren't.

I think they come alive and take over the town at night fall.

The Clark

Today we visited The Clark which is an art museum and research center founded by the Singer sewing machine heir, Robert Sterling Clark and his wife. The museum is built on their collection of art which was very substantial, and includes sculpture, silver, porcelain, and early photographs.

We saw works of James Whistler, Winslow Homer, Monet, Renoir and other Impressionists. Many familiar paintings we have seen reproduced elsewhere, except these were the originals!

My husband just started taking art lessons and began painting a couple of years ago. He had a couple of relatives who were Impressionist artists on his side of the family so he grew up around a great deal of art that was a part of our local history.

So he is the knowledgeable one in the family when it comes to art. He slowly goes through the museums and reads and studies just about every piece. He thinks about what technique he will try next. I just walk through much faster and I am guided more by my emotional reactions to different works. I usually end up sitting and waiting for him to be done.

I can't pretend to be any sort of art connoisseur, I never even took an art history class in college, and I can barely draw. When I was studying for my masters degree in Holistic Thinking we had one assignment that involved going to an art museum. We had to pick out one piece that we had a strong positive emotional reaction to and another piece that we had a negative reaction to. Then we had to research the artist and talk about what our reactions were.

After we had written our paper we had to exchange it with another student in our class and write our reactions to their reactions. It was a very interesting and enjoyable assignment for a farm girl like me who had no art background growing up and was very intimidated by the art world. I learned that my emotional reactions were all I needed to understand in order to appreciate art.

Mass MoCA

This afternoon we stopped in the MASS MoCA. The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. It is always an interesting place to spend an afternoon. I tend to enjoy the text based exhibits best and they only had one today. Sometimes I don't always know why some particular installation resonates with me, and many of them I just don't get.

My favorite installation today was Jenny Holzer Projections. It was displayed in a gallery that is the length of a football field. Holzer medium is language and has been doing text based work since the 1970's.

In this particular indoor installation the text will change through out the exhibition. Holzer creates an immersive environment by using two projectors on opposite walls facing each other. The words scroll like the credits at the end of a movie, and they expand and contract and change their order. The meaning can change depending on your perspective. People can walk through the gallery and also sit on gigantic bean bag chairs scattered through out the gallery to watch.

We took some pictures sitting on the bean bag chairs in the middle of the gallery and some pictures sitting on the stairs at the very beginning of the installation.

It was a very tempting for young children not to run and jump on the bean bags, so they kept the museum staff rather busy!

Enjoy.

Change of pace

We are on our get a way. Today we drove the Mohawk Trail in the Berkshires. Very beautiful scenery, I can only imagine it come fall.

Some very retro gift shops along the way.

Photo credits to The husband.

ER was a show I used to watch

I went for my massage yesterday as it was pouring rain outside and I was completely soaked when I got there. But not to worry, I was soon on the table as relaxed as could be. I came home later and found out that our house guest connected with his ride and would be on his way. I was excited to have my space back! Things were looking good.

I decided to make a nice homemade spaghetti sauce and we could have a quiet dinner. All was well. I was looking forward to the season finale of My Life on the D-List, when my phone rang. It was my older son who lives in an apartment not too far from us. He was feeling awful, so bad that he needed us to come over. We raced over there. My son is never sick and is not one to over react, so I was very worried.

I don't want to go into all of his medical, but when we got there we determined that he needed to go to the ER so off we went. I stayed with him for a couple of hours and left him in good hands with his girlfriend. We texted for the next few hours until he was released. He is following up with his own physician, so I am crossing my fingers that all will be well.

Today I spent the morning with my parents and the VNA and the home health care aide. I took three pages of notes. When I got there my dad had me move some hoses out of the garden and some other things, and then he tells me that he planned to hoe the garden sitting down. I know it is hard for him, but he promised to stay out of the garden! I didn't say a word because I knew the nurse was coming. When she came I told her about his plan for the day and she read him the riot act. He is only to sit and walk, no working in the garden in the hot sun and humidity! I hope he listens.

My husband called while I was there to tell me that he was at the ER again, this time with his own dad. Unbelievable. Expected more with the elderly, but a break would be nice.

I am home now and off to take a nap. This blogger is tired!

Musings and such

I am having sort of a anxious start to my day. Feeling overwhelmed with so much I want to do and no motivation.

Dad was having a hard day yesterday and I was going to send my son over there today to stay with dad while my mom had an appointment. She called to say her appointment was canceled because the machine broke so he didn't have to rush up there.

Work called me because they couldn't find some important information. I figured out where they needed to look and felt happy that I didn't have to go in to find it!

I haven't mentioned that I have had a house guest here going on three weeks now. Long story. He is a friend of my son's. I have no complaints about him personally. He is polite, friendly, helpful, etc. etc. That being said, it is hard to have a house guest and I am anxious for them to leave on Friday.

Off to do some errands before I can enjoy my massage scheduled for later today.

Over the hump day

Two days in a row of sleeping in. I am starting to relax and get into the groove of being off from work. Yesterday I had a leisurely lunch with my good friend. We were able to get an outside table, and since it was a beautiful day we just hung out for a long time. Later I went for a manicure. I am so bad with manicures. I ruined two nails just taking my hands out of the dryer. So she fixed them. I ruined another one when I was paying and made that one worse when I went to get my seat belt on. I always do that!

I had a funny dream last night that I was in the hospital and a nurse swore at me. I yelled back at her and told her I could get her fired and she fainted. Guess too much hospital on my mind, although every single nurse I met there who took care of dad was absolutely wonderful. Dreams are funny like that.

Home sweet home

For a vacation day, I woke up early. I had to go to an eye doctor appointment before I picked up my dad and I was worried that it would run over and I would be late picking him up. Although the nurse told me to take my time and they would do the paperwork when I got there, I knew he would be anxious to leave (who could blame him) so I wanted to be there as close to 11:00 A.M. as possible.

So I had my appointment, but the eye doctor wanted to do a field vision test, which would have taken another half hour. I said I couldn't stay so I am going back on Wednesday to take that test.

I rushed off to the rehab and arrived around 11:04 A.M. Mom was already there and she was done with the discharge and he was ready to leave. I was concerned because Mom's hearing is not very good and I wanted to make sure we both understood all the instructions. But I was clearly too late (4 minutes). Seems he was so anxious to leave that he called her all morning long until she came early.

So we weren't home for an hour yet and I had to call the nurse from the rehab center. He came home with so many medications and instructions. My poor mom couldn't remember them all. Had I been there when everything was discussed, I would have taken copious notes. I felt foolish calling the nurse so soon after he left, but she was very nice. I suppose that must happen all the time. It is over whelming to be a caretaker especially with unfamiliar new medications. Even though there was a list, not all the meds name on the list and the names on the packages matched. My mom and I aren't nurses, we didn't know! I don't know how they expect people to remember everything.

I was annoyed that I left the eye Dr. early and then didn't end up being there for the discharge information, but I didn't say a word. I knew he just wanted out. I should have just rescheduled and not tried to do both. At least I was there to help him up the stairs and into the house and run to the drug store to get him other things he needed.

I will stop in and check on them on Wednesday, when I return to the eye doctor.

Tomorrow I have a lunch date with a good friend of mine.

Sunday night

My son turns 24 tomorrow. We usually have a big cookout over the weekend with all the family, but since my dad is in rehab, we all went to visit him and I brought my son's birthday cake there. We all sat outside on the patio and sang Happy Birthday and ate cake. It was a good afternoon.

Tomorrow starts my 2 weeks off from work. I have to pick up my dad in the morning and bring him home. I am wondering how the transition will go. They are recommending home care services and he already is saying he wants no part of them. So more talking him into stuff he doesn't want but needs.

There is so much I want to do these next 2 weeks that I don't know where to start. I guess just start with tomorrow and then take it one day at a time. I hope to get some personal stuff done, some house stuff, and time with the elders, and time with my son before he goes off to work at the heart camp. And time for our get a way next week!

Saturday evening sunset

Every year on Aug. 9 we go to the beach to celebrate my friend's birthday. We pack some sandwiches for dinner and have a nice time chatting or playing boccie ball or just people watching.

The sunset is always the highlight of the evening. We all say good-bye and exclaim that we had such a nice evening and we need to do it more often and especially before the summer ends. But we never do... thankfully Aug. 9th comes around again.

Spider web on deck

Moving forward

My dad is doing extremely well. He looks better than he has in a couple of years. Rehab is doing him a world of good. He has followed all instructions to the tee and will be discharged on Monday morning. Although he will never admit it, it looks like he is enjoying the social life there. When he is home, he refuses to go anywhere and mostly sits on the couch watching television and goes out side to his garden. He waits for Sundays when the family all comes over, but it is a long week for him.

At rehab and he is walking up and down the halls chatting up a storm with all the other patients and appears to be really enjoying their company. He would benefit from going to adult day care, where he can socialize and give my mom a break a day or two a week. My best friend runs a program and they even have transportation to pick him up, but as with everything he is resistant. We will have to bring it up once again and find a way to make it appealing to him.

I am on vacation for the next couple of weeks and I will be able to help out with him at home and not have to worry about juggling work. What a relief!

Later in the day

The husband and I visited Dad tonight and he seemed to be settling in nicely. He was raving, actually raving about how wonderful the staff was treating him and how hard they are working. I was glad to get that positive feedback about the place as I knew that if he was feeling comfortable with the staff, he would let his guard down.

So after we left him, we stopped back at the house to see my mother and my husband was able to tend to the garden that dad has planted for the summer. Dad swears he won't go near it again, as that is where he was when he fell to the ground.

My sister wants to plow it under so that he won't go try to work in it. I don't agree. He loves his garden and even if he can't work in it, he will still enjoy what he can reap from it. I think that he will not take any chances as he does not want to end up in the hospital and go through this ordeal ever again.

Good morning

I woke up early today and could not fall back to sleep, so I got up around 4:45 A.M. and got to work. I cleaned my freezer, emptied the dishwasher, and cooked up a big breakfast, worthy of the weekend. Zucchini and wheat bran pancakes with turkey bacon! And on a work day, too! I told my husband it was his thank you breakfast for helping out with my dad on Sunday.

I am just feeling stressed, I can see the blemishes erupting on my face today and I am waking up way too early with a lot on my mind. This too shall pass.

Dad didn't feel well yesterday, so I hope he is better today. My son went up to see him and dad told him that he was going to work really hard at therapy so he could come home soon. My dad is a real homebody. I can count times he went off for a "vacation" on one hand, well I can only think of twice that he actually went away over night. He lived across the street from his parents until they passed away, so you can say that he never really left home.

At least we were able to find a rehab in his hometown, so in a small way he is home.

Admitted

This morning started off lovely. I sat outside with my cup of tea on the deck looking through Yankee Magazine trying to pick out a get away place for the middle of August. After that I decided to make an eggplant Parmesan, since it was cool enough to bear turning on the oven. After lunch my husband and I sat under our shady maple tree and I decided to start re-reading Little Women.

When I was young I had a relative who worked at the city library. She would bring me all the books that they were getting rid of and I recently found the copy of Little Women she brought to me when I was in the 4th grade! I really don't remember the details of the story except that one sister dies, so I thought it would be a good summer read. I got in the first chapter and a bit, before the phone rang and it was my mom.

Time to go rushing up to the hospital.

Today was the day that we needed to decide upon a discharge plan for my 88 year old dad. The doctors recommended rehab because my dad is just too weak to go home and my 83 year old mother just can't give him all the physical support that he needs. But my dad was telling the Dr. that his wife would take good care of him and he wanted to go home and that was FINAL!

So we had to be the bad guys and try to talk him into going. I can't even write about how frustrating and emotionally draining it was getting him to look at the whole picture. He finally agreed to go "to make peace" in the family, but even after he agreed he still argued with us for all the HOURS we had to sit and wait for him to be discharged. And he kept threatening to get his lawyer. Please........ can I just SCREAM??? ARGH!!!!!!!!

I know he is scared and I know how much he loves to be home, but he really made this a very difficult day. We had to drive him to the Rehab center and we didn't get him admitted until 8:00 P.M. just in time for bed!

They are saying that he will only need 1-2 weeks and he should be good to go home, but I know this will be a long and difficult two weeks for him and all relations!

Sunday morning

I guess in summertime people are outside and away and not posting so much. Not very frequent updates on the blogs, so I have been reading some new ones. So many to choose from out there. But I really don't want to get hooked on too many more, as when everyone does up date, it sure takes lots of time to read them all.

Rosie is taking a month break from her blog, just to see if she can find a balance. Since she is a celeb she gets thousands of questions in her Ask RO section every day. She was updating pretty faithfully, unless she was doing a show or away on the R cruises. So going a whole month is a long time. I could not manage not posting for one week when we were away. I was off to the library to get my Internet fix.

The husband and I are trying to come up with a few days get-a-way place for vacation. I usually enjoy just staying home for 2 weeks, but I think I would like to go somewhere not too far for another break.

Come fall one of my sisters is going to Italy, so I know I will have more responsibility with the elders. I think I will try to take the time while I can.

It was my day with dad at the hospital today. He was in fairly good spirits and ate what I brought him, which is huge because he hasn't been eating. I spent a few hours with him and then stopped my mom's house on my way home.

We all have to figure out a discharge plan. Can we get the help we need to get him home, or will he need to go to a nursing home for rehab? Big questions. Of course he believes he is going home and will resume the activity level he was at before the crisis. He refuses to admit defeat ever. But in this case, for safety reasons he has to face the facts. This part won't be pleasant, and I can predict all of the drama that will come of it. But no need worrying about it now.

The husband had a good father/son weekend. Friday night he went with the oldest to a ball game, with the tickets he gave him for Father's day. Today he went with the youngest to the Newport Folk Festival. The weather was awful though and they got soaked and left much earlier than planned. That was OK with me though, because I was thrilled they got back early and I ordered pizza pies when they arrived home. So we all hung out and that is always fun.

One more week of work and then I am off for a couple of weeks! I am not sure exactly what I will do, but it will be just wonderful not to be at work!

Seems all the blogs are working just fine tonight, and that pleases me very much!

More of the same

I have been looking forward to today all week. Saturday. No work. No juggling work and visits to the hospital. It was a long week.

Dad ended up in the ICU with complications for one day, but by the afternoon he was back on the floor. He finally became oriented and began to act like his old self for the most part. Some minor confusion, but nothing like he was the day before.

He is still in the hospital and we are hoping to have him home by Monday. Everyday we get more information about issues that need to be addressed, so we are educating ourselves about new medical issues none of us have heard of. Thank goodness for the Internet.

We had some extended family drama that caused a bit of stress. I e-mailed some relatives and let them know dad's situation, which triggered calls to my mom. A cousin called when he was not doing well and she alarmed some other family members and before you know it word was going around that dad was much more critical than he was. This misinformed news went to other cousins who then got upset that we never called them.

So instead of getting support from some family members, we were also getting scolded by them. Long story, but after a tough week of juggling jobs, family, and the crisis with dad, it was not expected that we owed family apologies!

Lots of EGO in their need to know and anger over not getting personal calls, and I just let it all go, and encouraged my sisters to as well.

Blogger is not allowing me to get on some of my favorite blogs. I don't get it, as it has never happened before.