Saturday, July 10, 2004
Well, Mom's day isn't going to start at 0900...
...but 1000 or some minutes after depending on how long it takes for me to perk up. I didn't awaken until 0900, which was a surprise. My first thought was, "I should have set the alarm." My second thought was, "No, if I couldn't get up earlier without an alarm then I needed the sleep." I've set up the house for her, I've gone through my email addresses and cleaned them out, now I'm sipping coffee and contemplating the day ahead.
I noticed, when I peaked in on her, that Mom awoke in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and, wonder of wonders, remembered to keep on the oxygen cannula.
Although we need to make a supply run sometime today, the day will be focused on her since yesterday was focused on business even after I returned from the emergency business duty. I've got some boxes of paperwork to go through this weekend but I expect we'll work that in. Monday we're expecting visitors, friends we intended to visit in the Valley yesterday but whom I cancelled Thursday evening because of Mom's dragginess. Canceling the visit was actually a stroke of luck, as the business emergency would have happened whether we'd been here or not and would have become even more critical if I'd missed the call yesterday. I'm looking forward to MCF's visit and so is Mom. These are the people who've done exactly what I'm doing for their father/grandfather and, simply from having done this, don't generate the kind of distraction from Mom and the expectation that their needs come before Mom's (the generation of which I no longer pay attention to but from which I feel the weight anyway) that other visitors do. Most of the time the only people who get it are people who've done it...and not with the "developing" young but with "declining" Ancient Ones. It's funny, I've noticed lately, because I've become verbal on this, that it is impossible to convince people who've raised kids that they have no idea what it is like to tend to an Ancient One. Across the board they are absolutely sure that caring for children is so similar to caring for an Ancient One that it may as well be the same. This, of course, speaks to the reluctance within the Northern European Cultural parts of our society to take care of Ancient Ones within the family and to consider "family" a larger group of people and relationships than the nuclear model suggests.
I can see where my thoughts are headed this morning. Time to switch to Mom mode.
We've got to plant that daisy today, too. That should be vitalizing for both of us.
I'll get to my online "to do" list...
...later.
I noticed, when I peaked in on her, that Mom awoke in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and, wonder of wonders, remembered to keep on the oxygen cannula.
Although we need to make a supply run sometime today, the day will be focused on her since yesterday was focused on business even after I returned from the emergency business duty. I've got some boxes of paperwork to go through this weekend but I expect we'll work that in. Monday we're expecting visitors, friends we intended to visit in the Valley yesterday but whom I cancelled Thursday evening because of Mom's dragginess. Canceling the visit was actually a stroke of luck, as the business emergency would have happened whether we'd been here or not and would have become even more critical if I'd missed the call yesterday. I'm looking forward to MCF's visit and so is Mom. These are the people who've done exactly what I'm doing for their father/grandfather and, simply from having done this, don't generate the kind of distraction from Mom and the expectation that their needs come before Mom's (the generation of which I no longer pay attention to but from which I feel the weight anyway) that other visitors do. Most of the time the only people who get it are people who've done it...and not with the "developing" young but with "declining" Ancient Ones. It's funny, I've noticed lately, because I've become verbal on this, that it is impossible to convince people who've raised kids that they have no idea what it is like to tend to an Ancient One. Across the board they are absolutely sure that caring for children is so similar to caring for an Ancient One that it may as well be the same. This, of course, speaks to the reluctance within the Northern European Cultural parts of our society to take care of Ancient Ones within the family and to consider "family" a larger group of people and relationships than the nuclear model suggests.
I can see where my thoughts are headed this morning. Time to switch to Mom mode.
We've got to plant that daisy today, too. That should be vitalizing for both of us.
I'll get to my online "to do" list...
...later.
