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so, a weekend. drove home friday night (dear pennsylvania turnpike: DIE[1]), hung out for about half an hour with the 'rents and the brother and sister-in-law, went to sleep, got up early saturday and drove to the grandparents' place.
my grandmother is, actually, doing really well. for a start, she's not lying about how she's doing -- when i asked her how she was feeling, she said "oh, you know, i'm getting through the day" or something like that -- and she's also not trying to do more than she knows she can handle. actually using her walker, when she gets up. admitting that it won't be long before what she really needs is a wheelchair. i guess a scare involving weakness and loss of balance will do that do a person. and she looks good. i mean, relatively speaking.
my grandfather is not doing well at all. in fairness, as my brother and i were talking about on the way back home again, he's not doing as badly as i'd talked myself into being ready for -- so i came away feeling pretty okay about his condition, but let's be honest, it's not good. he recognized his own children in my brother's wedding pictures, and he may have recognized my father and one of my cousins, but not the rest of us. he looked at the whole album, bless him, but hardly seemed to get anything from it. but somehow he got talking for a couple of minutes about the county fairs he used to go to, and he lit right up. hasn't been to a fair in something like twenty years, of course, but to him it could have been yesterday. broke. my. heart.
it's got to be frightening, don't you think, to lose your mind? besides being frustrating. i mean, from where my grandfather was sitting, on saturday afternoon three people he didn't know knocked on the door and then came into the house. (out where they live, there's no need to lock the front door, which is good, because they're not in any shape to get up to answer it.) imagine -- who are these people?! but my grandmother knew us, so he probably figured he ought to know who we were. that would drive me bananas. and my parents showed up a few minutes later, and he still recognizes my mother.
[pause to pull self together]
so we drove home the same day, got home late, went to sleep. sunday morning, hung around a bit, then my brother and i went up to the computer place to get flash drives and laptop cases, and i dropped him off at his mother-in-law's before i (realized i only had $6.00 in my wallet, and therefore took $10 from my brother to cover the $11.50 in tolls i was about to have to pay, then) hit the road and came back here. (dear pennsylvania turnpike: DIE.[2])
that's right: i spent the whole weekend, pretty much, in the car.
back to work today, and i just spent $45 to get a bank check in pounds sterling with which to pay my first month's rent and security deposit, and i have to get plane tickets to detroit, and i have to pick up my right contact lens, and i have to take the car to the dealership about this recall notice (still haven't done that!), and notice to vacate at my current building is sixty days, not thirty, which means i'm going to owe rent for the entire month of october, which sucks. so, in the eleven days that remain at this job: more overtime.
[1] you may have blinding rain or aggressive truck drivers, but not both. and certainly not both after dark. and WTF with raising the toll from $5.50 to $8.00 all at once?
[2] there's no excuse for that kind of congestion at breezewood. none. and also, fuck you with the higher tolls. FUCK you.
my grandmother is, actually, doing really well. for a start, she's not lying about how she's doing -- when i asked her how she was feeling, she said "oh, you know, i'm getting through the day" or something like that -- and she's also not trying to do more than she knows she can handle. actually using her walker, when she gets up. admitting that it won't be long before what she really needs is a wheelchair. i guess a scare involving weakness and loss of balance will do that do a person. and she looks good. i mean, relatively speaking.
my grandfather is not doing well at all. in fairness, as my brother and i were talking about on the way back home again, he's not doing as badly as i'd talked myself into being ready for -- so i came away feeling pretty okay about his condition, but let's be honest, it's not good. he recognized his own children in my brother's wedding pictures, and he may have recognized my father and one of my cousins, but not the rest of us. he looked at the whole album, bless him, but hardly seemed to get anything from it. but somehow he got talking for a couple of minutes about the county fairs he used to go to, and he lit right up. hasn't been to a fair in something like twenty years, of course, but to him it could have been yesterday. broke. my. heart.
it's got to be frightening, don't you think, to lose your mind? besides being frustrating. i mean, from where my grandfather was sitting, on saturday afternoon three people he didn't know knocked on the door and then came into the house. (out where they live, there's no need to lock the front door, which is good, because they're not in any shape to get up to answer it.) imagine -- who are these people?! but my grandmother knew us, so he probably figured he ought to know who we were. that would drive me bananas. and my parents showed up a few minutes later, and he still recognizes my mother.
[pause to pull self together]
so we drove home the same day, got home late, went to sleep. sunday morning, hung around a bit, then my brother and i went up to the computer place to get flash drives and laptop cases, and i dropped him off at his mother-in-law's before i (realized i only had $6.00 in my wallet, and therefore took $10 from my brother to cover the $11.50 in tolls i was about to have to pay, then) hit the road and came back here. (dear pennsylvania turnpike: DIE.[2])
that's right: i spent the whole weekend, pretty much, in the car.
back to work today, and i just spent $45 to get a bank check in pounds sterling with which to pay my first month's rent and security deposit, and i have to get plane tickets to detroit, and i have to pick up my right contact lens, and i have to take the car to the dealership about this recall notice (still haven't done that!), and notice to vacate at my current building is sixty days, not thirty, which means i'm going to owe rent for the entire month of october, which sucks. so, in the eleven days that remain at this job: more overtime.
[1] you may have blinding rain or aggressive truck drivers, but not both. and certainly not both after dark. and WTF with raising the toll from $5.50 to $8.00 all at once?
[2] there's no excuse for that kind of congestion at breezewood. none. and also, fuck you with the higher tolls. FUCK you.