THE GREAT ESCAPE

Only to dinner, and only to the Dreamaway, a roadhouse about 8 minutes away, but still. Amazing what a vodka and tonic and pasta primavera can do to one's mood. David Jenkins' treat, too. David who was going to drop off the 4x6 rubber-horse-mat-soon-to-be-kitchen-flooring if we can figure how to cut the sucker, seems his friend Scott over in Middelfield broke his circular saw trying to do this once. Anyhow we couldn't unload it from the pick-up, too heavy, and we are not wimps (it is HEAVY), so guess will have to enlist help from Outside Bob on Monday. Am starting to be sorry I bought this horse mat.
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STAFF ON CALL:

Terri, who Odd-sat while I hit the Dreamaway, also did some secretarial work and scanning for me. One thing all this caregiving has taught me is how to delegate. In fact I now excel at delegating. If a staff member were here at this very moment, for example, I would delegate one of them to shoot out the television screen at the butcher block where Odd is presently glued to North To Alaska with John Wayne and Ernie Kovacs, at peak volume. 
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HIGHLIGHTS:

Went to see Peg today. She is fine but wants to see the dog. She wants us to bring the dog to the nursing home for a visit. I said over my dead body; Bonnie, also here today, said "sure". This is a dog that jumps a foot in the air and disappears around the corner in a panic whenever you: a) drop a tissue; b) call "Come!"; c) turn on the kitchen tap; d) hold out a biscuit; e) push back your chair to leave the table. And about twelve hundred other normal actions. I want no part of leading it into an environment full of wheelchairs, walkers, trolleys, beeping oxygen machines and people with Huntington's disease who, the poor buggers, have no control over their arms and legs and flail around like windmills and are in the lobby a lot. We're going to be peeling this dog off the ceiling. Well, Bonnie will be. I will be having a coffee somewhere.


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WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO STOP DOING:

- Coming over here to this part of the kitchen carrying something to go in the microwave but opening the door to fridge, not the microwave, and trying to work out what I am doing. 

- Tripping over the phone cord when I set the phone on Odd's hospital table so he can speak to Peg.

- Wishing I were somewhere else.