10 January 2014: Friday ... sleety, slippery this morning as I let Dancer out ... will warm up to low 40s ... omelette maker in the making ... Skeesha, Hospice CNA, arrives ...

The day is grey and sleety and slippery as I walk outside, in my dad's slippers, to give Dancer her morning bathroom break. It is after 7, so the sun is up but it is a bit dismal. Today is Jean Rahaim's 58th birthday and I did wish her wonderful one on Facebook.

It is the day that Skeesha, a CNA from Delaware Hospice, arrived in the early afternoon and got acquainted with mom almost instantaneously and she is bathing her as I type this and there is a total comfort factor. Mom is at ease and loves the physical attention from a highly skilled person, who went straight to the closet and found what she needed. I remember her from her stopping by to deliver some breathing supplies for dad maybe two months ago. She was waiting in the driveway in the dimming light, so patient as I arrived after a trip to Pathmark, I believe, but it was a serendipitous arrival and allowed me to get a vital item for dad's oxygenator. She is a delightful person. 

I asked to take a picture of the two of them and got this picture on the bed and sent it to Doug. I did ask beforehand and Skeesha was more than willing. Mom was happy in this photo even though she looks a bit glum. She was purty and smelling good, in fact, as I type this I can smell the aroma of bath powder wafting into the television room all the way down the hall and up the stairs. It is distinctive and appealing. On a sober note, Skeesha just lost her Jamaican father. She is one of 11 children, six of whom are full blood siblings. I don't believe her father ever married her mother. She has siblings in England where he lived for a time. They are working to ship the body to Jamaica and have the funeral there, although there will be a service here in Delaware. Skeesha is hoping to be able to make it down to the Caribbean nation with her two children.  

Am listening to, and getting a heads up on the concert tomorrow with Serafin Quartet, on the Mendelssohn Quartet No. 1, Opus 12 with the music being flashed up on the screen as the playing progresses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHgkyhh4S8I 

Felix Mendelssohn

Born: Feb­ru­a­ry 3, 1809, Ham­burg, Ger­ma­ny.

Died: No­vem­ber, 4, 1847, Leip­zig, Ger­ma­ny.

Just finished 33 minute workout on the elliptical -- Octane Express -- and wound up short of 5 miles at 4.97 with an avg. heart rate of 125 and maximum of 150.

I really like this machine at the Western "Y". 

Listened to a tried and true sales spiel, once again, only this time it was refined for the digital age -- a conference call and a web presentation. Pretty slick. A smooth, continuous talking sales rep went on for over 20 minutes and then hit you with the amount that removing, in "perpetuity", the maintenance fees from our time shares would cost for our unit, which came to over $800 this year, would be over $4,000 dollars. A call afterward from a slick and oily friendly salesperson, Kathleen Nichols (310-584-8409), who represents the company Interval Relief, promised a lower price but I said no go currently and had to speak to my ex-. She put me on her calendar to call back in May. I said fine. 

While on the net, I got industrious and finally logged onto my Chase Amazon Visa credit card site and got dad's checking account configured for payment. First had to remember the login -- it was in my Delicious bookmarking web site (a great site, by the way, they even have an overview of every site that I bookmarked over 2013 ... have not checked it entirely yet but could be enlightening and refreshing, memory wise) -- and then paid my bill, which included the aforementioned maintenance fees and the Nintendo Wii, for a total of over $1,100. Well, in the words of dad, it's paid for and I didn't delay any further. Good habits to remember from my dear father.

7 October 2013: Monday, Randy, my neighbor; Jessie, Lab Tech veteran; Lynn, Mary's KK server ... slight rain, overcast, chance of tornado

Photo take by Goose on Sunday, 6 October 2013, prior to our departure for lunch at Crossroads
and Steamin' Days at the Marshall Museum and Stanley Steamer mecca in Yorklyn, Delaware, just outside of Hockessin.

Nick and I had breakfast at Mary's Kountry Kitchen. He had the mushroom and I had the veggie omelette. I ordered, later, a Western for mom, which we brought back to her. We had a good talk about his interest in moving to Philly and wanting to check out the digs with a friend, who is from there and moved back from Augusta to her hometown. He also wants to get up with John, who is working in Hatboro, outside Philly. He borrowed my car to meet Granny at her old home, now the home of John & Diane, at 704 N. Country Club Drive, and then caravan to Oxford to see his Aunt Jan, who he confided in me, always made him uncomfortable (still does), and Uncle Bob. He was honest and said he didn't think he'd be long and might make it back to the grands on Pickwick this afternoon when Goose might be by. (I would like him to meet my college frat brother and rooming buddy before he has to head back to Marshfield, MA ... he's planning to head up and stay with Jack Croft outside Philly tonight and then head back home the next day, early). Our waitress was an amiable Lynn with the sinewy arms of a man, muscled and ripped, and had the opportunity to let Shelly know of dad's current state and why he had not be in. She empathized and commiserated with her expression.

At home, dad said, vigorously, that he needed a ride to the hospital to get some lab work done. It had been close to 3 years but the path was familiar and I parked, a long way from the entrance as there is always a pack of people getting tests and seeing doctors at this facility adjoining the Christiana Hospital.Inside, a familiar face from 2010 -- Jessie, which she prefers, who my dad patiently waited to take his information. She is attractive, dark haired and young (late 20s maybe?) in her scrubs and looked pregnant (I was too chicken to ask), but she knew dad as "Dr. Nyhoff" and worked skillfully and focusingly on getting his chart in order. She did it quickly. She has worked there since 2001.

I see Randy in his yard, diagonal across the intersection of Nicholby and Pickwick, he's smoking a cigarette, outside, and he's off work due to the rain and possible stormy conditions predicted (there is a tornado forecast). We talk and he tells me of his sister, 10 years his senior, 53, who called and said she had troubling news. "No", her brother said. She lives in Seattle and she has lung cancer in the right lung and its serious. He would love to get out there but there's the house payment and he just doesn't know what to do. She raised him, literally, as their mother was not fit to handle the responsibility. His brother, who lives in Bear, had a falling out with his sister, so he's it to go out there and lend moral and perhaps physical support to her.

Nick spent the afternoon taking my car to Granny, who was at John and Diane's home at 704 N. Country Club Drive, and then caravaned to Oxford home of Jan and Bob. She did ask about me and thanked me through Nick for the card I'd sent. It was on display, he said. He got back in time to meet Goose, who arrived, unannounced (he said he might call) after his lunch with his sister as the winds whipped up and the rain swirled. His visit, again, was a true gift of the spirit to my parents, who adore him, think the world of him. He stayed to about 4 p.m. and then went off to sister's and then onto Philly where Jack Croft lives to see him and stay the night and be that much closer to home when he leaves, today, 10/8/13, early. 

Nick and I had dinner, too, together at McGlynn's Pub. He had the London Broil, I had the Mahi-Mahi, which he told me tends to shrink, a lot, when cooked. Good meal for about $50 and he supplied the $10 tip. We each had a Yuengling draft. The amazing thing we did afterward was, first, to transport the hamburger with raw onions to dad, who ate, I found out later, barely any of it (it's still in frig, covered), but then, onto Best Buy for a WIFI router, which, effortlessly, he set up when we got home. It is a Belkin N150 and it cost $30.00 and now under the name Dutchman with the novel password booboo186, we have wireless Internet on my iPhone, which won't use the data plan of Verizon and will give me much quicker speed. I also backed up my files that evening. It is FANTASTIC! Thank you Nick ... you're a genius, a millennial magician.


Even later, he got a call from Wayne and drove into Newark to see him and maybe Bob & Jan. I stayed home, went to bed and did not hear him return although he did, interestingly, lock the deadbolt and not the handle lock on the door. I had a heck of time turning it. That boy has some hand strength.