Hello on Saturday Morning

Dear Friends,

Our day didn't go as planned on Saturday. I left the house at 8 AM, and headed to the hospital for a visit with Mom. Mom was feeding herself breakfast, which was a good sign. The doctors and residents all showed up around 9:30 AM, and decided that she was well enough to be discharged. The paperwork process began around 10 AM. The case worker set up all the details from the ambulance to take her to the new nursing home, finding a nursing home that had a bed for a female patient (which many did not have), transferring medical history, etc.
Linda joined me at the hospital (after a body maintenance procedure) around lunch time, helped Mom eat a good lunch, and waited until the ambulance crew arrived to take her to Kimble Farms Nursing home which is located about 5 miles south of the hospital. The ambulance departed from the hospital at 1 PM.
After taking a 30 minute lunch break at home, we headed off to do one errand before going to Mom's new nursing home. We were having cell phone issues. I would send Linda a text message, but she wouldn't receive it. We tried to figure out why these text messages weren't being received. The cell phone store people said that our text message system was not activated. We don't remember ever shutting it off.
We also found 9 text messages on the cell phone sent on December 8, 2008 sent by some unknown person. We didn't get my new cell phone until February 14, 2009. We asked the cell phone people if they sold us a refurbished telephone. The cell phone people, who weren't the same ones who sold us my new cell phone, said that they don't sell refurbished cell phones in their store. He said that this phone was probably a display cell phone, and someone forgot to clear those text messages before they sold it. We would have gotten a brand new cell phone except for the fact that I sent in the 30 dollar rebate slip a day ago. Linda, who his good at making deals, asked to be compensated for our pain and suffering. I now possess a device so that I can charge the cell phone in my car.

We went from the cell phone place to the new nursing home, and remained there through supper. So essentially, I spent from 8:30 AM until 6 PM dealing with the saga of an aging parent. I was so tired that I went to bed too early, and here I am typing an e-mail, and it is not even 5 AM.
We did go to our favorite seafood place for supper, and we walked right in and sat down. The place was kind of dead which is unusual for a Friday night.

Social Calendar -- I can only deal with parent issues for half of the day. Linda and I are hooking up with another couple and we are driving to the Albany area to Proctor's Theater to see a musical called "Happy Days" which is an offshoot of the television sitcom of the same name. The reviews have been fabulous!

Politics -- The mayors of the big cities met with Obama to hopefully get some help to survive through these tough economic times.

How about the bungee jumper who survived a bungee cord break , and lived to talk about it, and was well enough to be interviewed on a local television station? The 49 year old guy can't wait to go back and do it again.

Well, I have to finish my morning routine, and decide where I am going first. I think that I will head off to Lee and see how dad is doing, and then go off to the nursing home to check on Mom.

I decided that sharing this personal stuff with respect to my parents is good for me mentally. It is also a preview of coming attractions for all you youngsters on my e-mail list. The first wave of us baby boomers hit 65 years of age in 2011. The medicare system (and health care in general), social security, will be the largest part of the Federal budget in the United States. Let us hope that our economic crisis will be but a distant memory.

Have a great Saturday and Sunday.
Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad