In reflecting on life at the moment for my weekly update, there does seem to be a sense of changing seasons, in more ways than one.
If ever there was a time for keeping an eye on those close to me, this is an important time. Rachel’s mother, a.k.a. Grandma is getting on a bit. She is 93, stubbornly independent and yet not able to take care of herself these days.
It is surprising how much energy it takes to get her a Doctor’s appointment and I’m learning how the system works at her village surgery. You can’t make an appointment for a few days ahead, well you can if you get the right receptionist, at the right time and in the right mood. Otherwise you have to phone at 8:45am and then explain why you want an appointment. Then there is the question of patient confidentiality and whether me making an appointment for her to see a Doctor is breaching some data security regulation.
To cut a long story short, Rachel and I have needed to visit her three times a day to administer some eye drops. Yesterday evening she was complaining of the drops making her eyes sting and she didn’t know what she wanted.
I went through various options with her and ended up with us staying the night there. The amusing, or perhaps slightly troubling time, was when Grandma got up in the night, made her way downstairs to phone Rachel and say she needn’t stay with her as her eyes were okay. The funny thing was we were already there, watching television!
“I’d like sausage and mash please Doug”
We provide Grandma with meals for her freezer and she cooks them in her talking microwave. I often check whether she is liking what we provide and sometimes she has some special requests.
“I’d really like some sausage and mash please Doug” she said “I have some Smash in the kitchen drawer so maybe you could cook some sausages to go with it?”
”Sure” I said “No problem”
I then looked at the quaint looking Smash and saw the Best Before Date was September 2009.
“How about I cook you some bangers and mash from fresh potatoes, would that be alright?”
Grandma nodded and gave a little smile. And so that’s just what I’ve done but only once I took the executive decision to throw the Smash away. I quite like being able to play my part in taking a little care of Grandma. We dread to think of all of the things in her house which are simply rubbish and gradually, very gradually, we are thinning it out. At least it’s one down, plus a few meals for Grandma.
And as for Rachel….
Rachel has had a cold this week. This inevitably brings on a sniffy nose, coughs and sneezes together with a “poor ol me” persona. To tell you the truth, I’m not really any different if I catch a cold.
Thing is, no matter what I say about taking things easy, I’m not sure I’m always being heard. We have a little saying in those circumstances of “no winning wars, writing books or painting Mona Lisa’s”. So what happens? Rachel starts work on decorating Hannah’s bedroom by painting the ceiling, humping all her gear around, shifting a wardrobe.
I could go on….. All very stoic but I haven’t mastered the art in getting Rachel to take things a little easier if she’s under the weather. One day I’ll get this cracked!
In the meantime Rachel does admit to using her strategy as a way of springing me into action.
Running
You might have spotted I have had a few runs this week, four in total. I am so chuffed to bits that I am feeling pretty good. I know the difference between my legs being a tad tired after a run and complete fatigue. Happily no fatigue at all, just tired legs which are raring to go.
Yesterday I did our local Parkrun once again. I didn’t get a PB but not far off. Quite a few of my friends do this Parkrun as well. I seem to be in the middle of us all with performance in mind. Jeremy, Joe, Matt and Phil all race ahead. Yesterday my friends Barry and Angela kindly allowed me to beat them. Of course they’ll deny they ever did that but that shows they’re good friends.