New dimensions in odd dreams

    Or directions, perhaps. Well in real life I was horizontal at the time, so maybe that affected it, but in the dream I was horizontal too, but more like quadrupedal. I've been hanging out with kitties too long I guess. My friend Robert had phoned me, but I received it on a gigantic unit built into the wall, like a combination computer/TV/phone, which as I say I was stretched out to. I couldn't quite reach it though. What he was sending me was a program that allowed me to scream out all my stresses and anxieties. Although I couldn't reach it, I gave it a pretty good shot, quadrupedally or not.
    The rest of the night I kept dreaming I was getting phone calls as in hearing the ring. This may be a shortcoming of a) listening to old-time radio shows that might feature ringing phones and b) choosing an old-time phone sound for my cell phone ring tone. Calls in the middle of the night are never good news, so I wasn't the least bit bothered, just relieved that there were no real calls and thus no real bad news.
    Margaret hit her leg with her cane, causing a painful bruise, so she isn't up to visiting Dad today. I may or may not go just to show the flag and make sure he has his football game on. I now remember that there was additional craziness yesterday that I left out of the craziness post. That was high levels of potty-mouth behavior on Dad's hall. Not us, for a change! There must have been something in the water yesterday. Or tryptophan flashbacks.

Too much crazy

    We had a pleasant visit with Dad this afternoon, except a lady from somewhere on the hall was loose in her wheelchair and kept rolling in. She just mumbled to herself, so there was no way to find out what she wanted; all we wanted was for her to leave. The first time it happened, I had stepped out due to a phone/WiFi problem, so I missed much of the adventure. Later, though, she tried to come in again. I told her politely but firmly (and fairly loudly) that it wasn't her room and she couldn't come in; eventually a staff member turned up and rolled her away.
    Dad said she comes in now and again; Margaret didn't like that. When we were leaving, we just about closed the door, and I said to the same staff member (probably not as softly as I should have), "We're just closing the door to keep the crazy lady out. Everybody else is welcome." She said that that lady would be having her medication soon. Presumably, that will slow her down.
    Not that it's cray-cray exactly, but the other issue of the evening was that Dad's egg salad sandwich was cold. I didn't tell Margaret that all the other 8 billion people on Earth eat their egg salad sandwiches cold on purpose; I just let her run down, and it warmed up by itself anyway. I did suggest putting the saucer on top of the bowl of soup that was too hot, but this idea did not seem to appeal.
    Dad's OK, but he still thinks it's a good idea to burp like b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b, i.e., exactly like crazy people have been portrayed in cartoons for the last 80 years or so. Pointing out that this isn't actually burping doesn't make any impression either. No big problem, so long as he doesn't mind going to the dementia ward with wheelchair grannie.

College gets easy

    I've mentioned and others have mentioned the often-seen dream where you're back in college and it's finals time and you completely forgot to drop a class that you never attended and OMG! And I've noted that recently my college-type dreams have gotten a lot more warm and friendly. Last night's entered a new realm, however. I was getting a little stressed about my classes and somebody (official) told me that it was no problem, all I had to do was keep a count of how much time I spent in the library. A few hours per day would be enough to ensure good grades, regardless of my actual class performance or grasp of the material.
    Now things in real life are getting pretty damn bad when your stress dreams are taking a stand and trying to help you chill out. I admit that I was rather delighted. Also I was in school with a lot of my Facebook friends (a lot of whom of course were people I was really in school with decades back) which was also fun.
    The family got together at Pizzeria Uno for a late lunch, early dinner. Grand-niece Mia had had enormous fun at EdVenture children's museum, so she was quite well-behaved and even smiled for a picture. (The other 95 or so pictures were also cute.) A lovely time was had by all.

A sweet Thanksgiving

    Well I for one was a little anxious about how Thanksgiving would go, because we couldn't bring Dad to Margaret's family's gathering without an ambulance, or rather two, one coming and one going. So that wasn't too workable. And we all wanted to go, but we none of us wanted to leave Dad alone on Thanksgiving. A quandary.
    As luck turned out, all planning was thrown off by a toddler having tantrums. My brother Malcolm was with Dad waiting on my sister Anne, who was waiting on her son James, his wife Cristina and especially their two-year-old Mia. This left all of them hungry except for Mia, but Dad was never left alone. When Anne arrived at Lowman Home, Malcolm joined us for Thanksgiving food and fellowship; shortly afterwards, I joined Anne. When James and family arrived, they visited briefly, then I led them to Bunny's house. Anne found her way when Malcolm came back to sit with Dad. Everybody had a pretty fabulous time. Well, Dad would have preferred to have the staff put him back to bed, but I know he was delighted with both visits from Mia. And we got some cool pictures. So hey-- everything turned out well. It's good to have a Thanksgiving you can be thankful for!

Slave to habit

    I've noted before what a slave I am to force of habit. Still am. My front door no longer closes too well. In short, you don't need to use the doorknob to open it; you can just shove your way in, even if it's locked. No problem; I can just turn the deadbolt. However, six years of habit do not shake loose easily. I cannot get myself to remember not to bother to lock the bottom lock nor to lock the deadbolt. Ever. Not once. I'm sure I'll get used to it, or it will get warm again and the door will expand. No bets on which happens first.
    Surprisingly, Dad has dialysis today. Normally on holidays at the other facility, he and everyone else would get all their days rearranged to give staff a day off. I guess ambulance cases get priority because of the number of personnel involved. I wouldn't have guessed.

Turned out well, though

    By today, sister Anne was feeling enough better to visit with Dad, so she, brother Malcolm, Margaret and I made a very nice visit. Malcolm and Anne had gotten Dad a new TV, which they set up for him, miraculously just in time for "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" Then we found TCM and were captivated by "That's Entertainment" sequels, which everyone should go out of their way to see.
    All but Dad were joined by William at Lizard's Thicket, where we had a lengthy wait but then were pleasantly surprised by the much better than usual food. Well I wasn't, but I only order one thing (baked chicken, dark meat) and it's always good. But everybody else was. Other than that, due to grody weather, it wasn't such a great day. But hey! The cat's behaved. That counts as a miracle in my book every time!

Rotten stinking luck

    My sister Anne has been sick all month, so she couldn't come down to see Dad. (She, brother Malcolm, and her son James and his young family, all live in the Boston area.) As of Sunday, she thought she was getting better so she made her drive down. But unfortunately, she got worse instead, so now she's in town but can't see any of us for fear of passing it on to Dad, if not directly than through us. It's nothing serious, just a bad cold/flu type thing, but nothing to share with 94-year-olds. I'm sure it will clear up enough not to be contagious, and anyway there's such a thing as surgical masks. But it's just rotten stinking luck, and just not Thanksgivingy.
    I've been buying art and furniture. Cheap art and cheap furniture, of course, but still. It's almost like I've finally decided to move here after 6 years. Or like I've finally admitted that I won't ever be moving out with a girlfriend (since the place isn't big enough for two).