Update May 17, 2025

News

Saturday

Saturday, I wrote a letter while IL6 watched “The Empire Strikes Back.” Then he and I went to the hospital to visit dad. Afterwards, I slept, trying to make up the sleep lost the night before.

Sunday

Sunday (Mother’s Day), I thought dad was going to be discharged, so I rushed over there to get him. After an hour of waiting, we were told he wouldn’t be discharged. I came home and mostly relaxed for the rest of the day. Aaron grilled.

Monday

Monday, after some morning activities (water the grass seed, give Polyphemus his antibiotic, get IL6 to school), I drove to the hospital for dad’s discharge. He’d been making a stink trying to get released, so they were ready to get him out of there. A couple hours later, we were on our way.

I then made 6 phone calls to various medical providers to get appointments set up (not just for dad). I ran errands. I prepared dad’s med box with the new instructions. Ordered groceries. Then IL6 arrived home. Cooked dinner. Troubleshot IL6’s Scratch program. And went to work. It was a successful day.

Tuesday

Monday I had an appointment and then I put more dandelion killer down. D15 had a field trip to a river for some survey work. In the evening, my friend Liz came over to watch Dr Who.

Wednesday

Wednesday, I went to the dentist about my jaw aching. He gave me a TMJ specialist reference, and gave me instructions on how to get rid of the pain. I’m supposed to keep my jaw relaxed, but I already knew that. I have realized it is not natural to relax my jaw. I clench and pull it backwards naturally. I have to consciously think about a relaxed position. I will try following the instructions, including reducing caffeine. I need to do that, anyway.

Then I took dad to see his PCP. Dad has trouble understanding that he’s supposed to do cardiovascular work in order to help his heart. He claims he has been doing it, but he hasn’t even been walking more than around the block.

I took a walk with dad for an hour (about a mile to the post office and back. I’m going to try to do a better job of getting him out of the house, if I can.

I watered my field of dead dandelions (very ugly) and weeding. The weeding gave me an appreciation for how much work Aaron went through last year when he did most of the weeding (with Deirdre’s help). Dad wanted to compose an ode to appreciate them, so I had ChatGPT compose one. It was fantastic.

I tried to cook some Mongolian beef in the instant pot. I tried two troubleshoots after the first “burn food” message, but the rice kept burning.

Aaron and D15 worked on their 6000 piece puzzle. It was my day to hang out with M12, but he said no for the second week in a row.

Thursday

Thursday was another day. I tried to make some chickpea curry, but apparently thought I was going to make some white chili when I shopped, so I made curry-flavored chicken and sweet potato chili, instead.

I mowed over the dead dandelion field, and it looks better. I was expecting to receive some more dandelion killer from Amazon, but instead received a C-section recovery kit. That is being returned, and I will order from Home Depot.

I took M12 to the orthodontist, and bot is his mouth messed up. It will require braces and oral surgery to remove an impacted tooth, plus 4 that are already in. That will cost a fortune.

In the evening, I read to D15 and Aaron played Minecraft with IL6.

Friday

Friday, IL6 had a morning appointment. Then I wrote a letter and relaxed the rest of the day. In the evening, dad, Aaron, IL6, D15, and I went to a restaurant for dinner. But they’d changed since the last time we were there, and none of us were happy with the change. Dad and I watched the first episode of Handmaid’s Tale. I thought it was a pretty reasonable rendition of the book (which, granted, I read a long time ago), but dad was displeased by it).

Week’s Photos

Reading to myself

Great World Religions: Islam, by John L Esposito
A Survey of Hinduism, by Klaus K Klostermaier
The Economist: All Grown Up
Children of Anguish and Anarchy, by Tomi Adeyemi
Champion of the Titan Games, by Brandon Mull
Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett

Reading to IL5

Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds, by Dav Pilkey
The Bad Guys and the Dawn of the Underlord], by Aaron Blabey 28 minutes
Stitch Head: The Monster Hunter, by Guy Bass
Rumble of the Coaster Ghost, by Troy Cummings

D14 reading

Lodestar, by Shannon Messenger
Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare

Media Completed

George and Harold save Mr Krupp from certain death at the hands of evil lunch ladies. Very funny.

Is Snake evil? Also funny.

Alexander, Rip, and Nikki go to a haunted amusement park. Pretty good.

The Magi have been kidnapped by warmongering savages. They must save their country from almost certain destruction.

Honestly, I was starting to get tired of the trilogy by this book. Don’t get me wrong. It’s a great trilogy. But all the emotions that it dredged up with little conclusion at the end of the second book. It was exhausting to me.