Pillville to Become Clothing Optional

"I've been cold all day," my mother said as she shuffled around the kitchen after dinner.
"Well, the air-conditioning was on when I came back home at noon."
"Well, I didn't touch it."

 I didn't belabor the point. Maybe the caregiver goofed, but since she's a regular, I doubt it. My mom studied the above note intently off and on all day. It's a new addition to the many notes around the house that help the caregivers. Notes on the coffee canister. Notes on the microwave on how long to nuke each of our five microwave hot packs. If I leave a grocery list on the counter, my mom can linger over it like it's a novel.

So I'm hoping it will be more temperate here in Pillville with the addition of my most recent note. But we are now clothing optional in case 74 or 75 is just too hot for you. Or you could remember to pack a thong if you visit. Or maybe I should stock thongs in the guest bath the way I have sunscreen and bathrobes and extra toothbrushes and toothpaste.

The other main topic of discussion today was the hummingbird feeder.

My brother and I hung it outside the dining room directly across from her chair. It's been getting an occasional visitor, but just a couple of sips and the bird is off. Tonight at my mom's urging I made some homemade nectar.

Is this a refrigerator that belongs to a couple of old ladies or what?

I will be sure to fill the feeder with the new stuff early tomorrow before she wakes up. Yesterday the recycling mysteriously made its way outside to the trash bin. I can never be sure what she's going to do to try to help out. 

So now that the relatives have gone back to Iowa, we'll be ready for more visitors soon. Wouldn't you like to be a regular (Ahem. See above photo.) visitor? 

Birds, Bullshit, Sunshine, and Santa

It's a beautiful day full of birds and sunshine here in Pillville. The buffleheads are buffle-ing. the hummingbirds are hummering. My mother's bruises are transforming from purple to green. She's busily pinning out her snowflakes and starching them.

Bufflehead ducks wintering here from the far north

Hummingbird at our kitchen window

The one-armed snowflake maker at work

I see the same look of concentration here in Vermeer's famous painting The Lacemaker

And me? In just a bit the nurse who does the intake for the caregiving agency will arrive. Better than Santa and his eight tiny reindeer, if you ask me. I spent all morning trying to log into my mom's credit union accounts--let's just shorten that story and let me say that experience made big banks look really, really good. It took weeks for one of credit unions to really fess up that the problem was on their end. They had to add my i.p. address so I could log on. Whaaaat? And the other lost the Power of Attorney paperwork and would not speak to me since my mom could not understand the person on the phone who was hell-bent on verifying her identity. Oops. I didn't make the story short, did I? But I feel better now. Thanks.

And I'd like to feel even better, so let me just remind the great Interwebs and everyone out there that here under the GREATEST HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD (cough, cough)  Medicare does not cover dental work, eye glasses, hearing aids, or custodial care. I feel fabulous now. Thanks.

My antidote to that bullshit is going to be Christmas lights. Everywhere.