31 October 2013: Halloween ... Delaware Hospice comes to visit today and I look to decorate (marginally) and get goodies for trick-or-treaters ...

Might as well start today's post with my favorite poster on FB, Loyd Dillon, and his fascinating post on today's birthday girl, Ethel Waters. He is so amazing and so informative and enlightens so many with his knowledge.

Ethel Waters was an African-American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress.
She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts,
although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hZySbS2_Dw&feature=share 

Trick or treat. We humans deal with our life circumstances either positively or negatively. Today is the birthday of Ethel Waters (born on Halloween, Oct. 31, 1896) who definitely took the positive path. She came into the world as a result of the rape of her then-only-13-year-old-mother. She grew up in abject poverty. She married as a teenager but had to leave her abusive husband and work as a maid. She was still poor. Very poor. But she sang. And people heard her. And her career blossomed. Most people remember Ethel Waters (if they remember her at all) as the sweet, gentle, beatifically smiling middle-aged woman singing "His Eye Is On the Sparrow" -- perhaps at Billy Graham rallies. But Ms. Waters started as a hot young jazz/pop singer. Here she is with the original 1938 recording (yes, she was first) of "Jeepers Creepers." Enjoy it. And realize fully that the "seasoned citizens" you see out in public weren't ALWAYS that old. Be surprised by this record. And by her. On the birthday of Ethel Waters.

Nice to know that Jan Browning Parsons is thinking about me and send me regular FB messages to make me aware of her thought process:

Jan Browning Parsonsposted toRudy Nyhoff

32 minutes ago near Augusta, GA

Thinking of you this morning. What's Halloween like in your neighborhood?

Like · 

• 

  Rudy Nyhoff Thanks for thinking about me Jan. Always can count on your positive energy. Helps my day to know that you are there in the human ether of caring. Don't know about Halloween, yet. There are a lot of little ones in Limestone Gardens and there is a vibrant neighborhood civic association (they had a communal Halloween party last Saturday), but my parents have always been, to coin a phrase, "humbugs" when it comes to trick-or-treaters. The light is off at their home and no one visits. Hopefully, we'll get a few tonight as the light, perhaps orange, will be on. Dad is not enthusiastic, even though I suggested he dress up as a doctor.

  8 minutes ago · Edited · Like

  
  

  
  

  
  

  I posted my second Anu Garg word from wordsmith.org,with these words 
  For those of us who enjoy the good times, a proper and fitting descriptive term exists: fallstaffian.  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Just had the honor, the privilege of cutting dad's toenails, long and so thick, with my cuticle pincers/scissors this mid-morning. He said we needed more light ... we made do on the couch with window light and I collected the remnants in my hand and just had to take a pic, a bit strange, perhaps morbid to document the dead cells but meaningful, nonetheless. In the meantime, mom is in the bath doing well. She drew and entered the bath all by her lonesome. (I turned off the water, that's it.)

  
  
  
  

  
  

  
  

  Answered the door to John Thisell's doppelganger, general contractor Thomas Forrest who proceeded to give me a tutorial in house care in particular cleaning roof shingles, aluminum siding, gutters, and pointing up our chimney, which I have never paid any attention to. He is driving his new Chevy truck, 2500, 4 X 4, four-door which he bought for a cool $43K, I think, and which gets, no matter how you slice it, 10.5 mpg, currently. 
  
  Will have to look him up later when the house needs sprucing up. He will be the man to go to ... just liked him ... so talkative ... he is a liver transplant (2006) survivor and has other health issues. He is a big man and my age, too, 57. Some vitals on his biz: Thomas Forrest Contracting (office #: 302-983-8349 and 800-347-0587 and he has a cell, too 302-981-8266)). However, cannot find him listed on the Web. He does not have a web site and can't find a review of his work on Yelp or on Angie's List. 

  
  

  Have completed digesting and sweeping up the leaves in the drive and the walkway in anticipation of some, if any, trick-or-treaters tonight. The lights are on -- all three of them; front door, office screen door, and light out by the driveway (which I switched on for the first time in literally decades just a few days ago from the waiting room of dad's office -- had no idea what the switches did and found out soon enough).

  
  

  Did a little shopping and picked up some interesting items from Walmart that included a knee brace, that mom used and found moderately helpful walking down the hallway, affixed to her left knee; and some heating/cooling devices that can be microwaved, which I did for dad's shoulder and mom's knee, to heat up or placed in the freezer to make cold (DUH!!!).
  
  Also, dad actually asked about the pill dispenser and we went over it and I think he understands how much easier it is to put out her pills in advance. He is fixated on copying out on a piece of paper, the Warfarin amounts (provided by the Coumadin Center after her INR blood test results are reviewed) for the coming days. I showed him that each day had the proper amount of warfarin, alternating between 5.0 mg and 2.5 mg with 2 metoprolol each day in the mid to late afternoon.
  

  
  

  Dancer is a big hit. We had a decent turnout of trick-or-treaters. Started to run out of the fruit chews and mom offered her sugarless candy and then, I decided to close up shop around 7:30 as dad made ready for bed.