doesn't look like a desert! Now that winter seems to have arrived the sun's relentless brutality is just a painful memory. No Parking signs made it nearly impossible to get these shots last week. I love the silhouettes of the palm trees against the sky. The bottom left photo, not a very good one from a moving car!, is of the entrance to the million dollar homes right next door to the complex I live in. The entrance took over a year to build and includes a horse and rider statue. Andalusia even sounds nicer than Trilogy! Who came up with the name Trilogy? All I can say though is that whenever anyone asks where I live they know where Trilogy is and how far out in the desert it is. And, most people say, "Oh that's a great place."Woke to snow capped mountains Sunday morning; what a glorious sight. Two rainstorms in two weeks have caused a bit of stress in the garden, what doesn't? We also now know that gutters are needed for the roof along the front entrance to the house! I need a sign that says, Flood zone.
The results of the MRI done on my foot last week are: Plantar fascia fibromatosis which often requires surgery. Not! I don't do crutches and seeing how I'm the caregiver for mom and Stacy I don't have 3 weeks of down time available that is necessary for healing. So, the PFF will just have to go back to wherever it came from!! A bone spur on my other foot is bad enough, but with the right shoes it's doable.
I started physical therapy yesterday for me aching aging knees and weak hips. It was kinda fun, though I'm not one for exercise and it will take a lot of effort on my part to keep doing the exercises. At the end of the session I had 15 minutes of a TENS machine and ice packs. I nearly fell asleep, that's how comfortable I was. I felt pampered.
Have-labeler-will-travel! All of the remote controls in mom's room are now labeled according to their use. On Sunday she couldn't figure out how to get the sound turned down on the TV so it seems that if one remote doesn't do what she thinks it should then maybe the next one will work!! Everything ended up being turned on including, the VCR, the overhead fan and the CD player. She arrived in my bedroom looking like a crazed person and couldn't even talk, "Come," is all she could say. I followed her and she then she said, "The room is out of whack." You can say that again! It took some doing to figure out what she was trying to do. "The TV won't shut up," is what she finally said.
I don't know if the labels will work. She seems to have some odd way of thinking that I can't tap into. I guess that it's a part of Alzheimer's but it sure sucks!
Last week she phoned me at about 8pm and said, "come out here." I ran out to her room only to find that she was still on the phone telling me that she couldn't figure out a phone call she'd just had. I hung up the phone but it kept beeping at me. I have no idea what she had done, but the phone wouldn't stop beeping until I unplugged it and then plugged it back in. Anyway, my aunt and uncle had been in a car accident and mom couldn't figure out the details and insisted that my 92 year-old uncle had been driving. Nope, he hasn't driven in years. I phoned my aunt and got the details. A woman had plowed into them in the library parking lot because she thought my aunt might try and take the space she'd been waiting for. Of course the woman didn't have a drivers license or insurance. My uncle ended up with some scratches on his leg that needed stitches. Not clear how that happened, my aunt is 85 and pretty sharp, but when she's stressed it's difficult to figure out what she is saying. At least I got the picture which is something mom absolutely couldn't piece together.
A former neighbor from Huntington Beach phoned mom last night and all mom could tell me about the conversation was, "That woman who used to live next to us called and rambled on forever. I don't think anything was new or important so I didn't remember anything to tell you." Took me awhile to find out who "that woman" was.
And so it goes.
