Mom Update

Today was Mom's last day in the hospital. As I speak, my brother should have settled her back into her long term care facility. My other brother is flying in to help out this coming week, which will probably mean a day off work so the three of us can be together to discuss how things will be going forward. I'm just amazed and delighted she's not only alive but cleared to be discharged! She's still sleeping a lot, which is both good in that she needs to heal more and bad in that she can't build up her strength if she's sleeping instead of eating. But I did help her get some lunch down, and although most of my visit consisted of just keeping vigil while she slept, there's enough of my mom still there to have made it well worthwhile. The coming week is going to exhaust me somewhat, as I have medical appointments on Tuesday and Thursdsay so the only day I can head back to Jersey is Wednesday; a NJ day sandwiched between two Manhattan-and-medical days! I'm tired just thinking about it; I think I'll go to bed now.

Closer to Home

Thank goodness our heat situation is presumably fixed, as it dipped below freezing last night and this morning brought a frost and ice warning. Adding to that, I was way too tired to drive to and from New Jersey with any sort of safety assured, so we opted to visit Mom in the hospital tomorrow and celebrate Robin's birthday with a sushi meal at our favorite conveyor belt place, which happened to be in the same strip mall as a Super ShopRite so that's where we wound up doing our grocery shopping. Glad I stuck close to home and Robin wasn't overly exhausted by a trip over the bridge! Besides, I got to keep him all to myself today, which made for a lovely day. Happy birthday again, my love!

Heat at Last

When I woke up it was 51 degrees F in the house, but my third call of the week to the landlord's office finally paid off. We saw his van around 10:30 this morning and he seems to have finally taken the boiler off its timer, leading to an actually pleasant temperature in the mid-60s, which is amazing considering how much we've been shivering and how cold it continues to be outdoors. It's so much easier to do things like job stuff when I don't have to worry about freezing! Unfortunately Mom isn't doing well and has taken another downturn, so tomorrow's trip will be to the hospital again, possibly to say goodbye for the last time. But I've thought that at least twice before, so it's in the hands of fate at this point. Both good and bad news to end the work week, as these things tend to be.

Number 27 and the Biggest Chill

Exactly 27 years ago Robin and I were married at City Hall on a lovely bright winter's day, bedazzled by the sun glinting off the World Trade Center twin towers when we emerged. Nowadays, a bit different. It's colder than the proverbial wiccan's breast, and I'm very glad I opted not to stick around for my firm's annual holiday bash after work, as that was at the Javits Center and the wind and cold are bad enough on 9th Avenue without a 7-block walk there and back to some sort of subway where we'd have to wait for the express bus anyway. Best to leave at 5, show my coworker my new shortcut (bypassing the worst of the Moynihan Hall and LIRR crowds by walking to the post office, then outside to cross the intersection to MSG and Penn, and walk through the much more pleasant NJ Transit area to finally end up at the tail end of the LIRR mess to catch our respective uptown trains. Robin and I had a pretty low-key anniversary, as we didn't want any delivery folks coming out in this weather, and I place another call tomorrow to the landlord's office to remind them they're not obeying NYC law with heat that keeps going off before it ever warms the place up. Wish me luck!

On Stepping Forward and Back

Mostly forward, I hope. Although we're still running space heaters more than we should, given our landlord's repeated stinginess with heat that we cannot control (trust me though, a lot of folks even in this semi-ritzy neighborhood have it far worse). But work-wise I'm experiencing a lot of forward momentum, now that I can more successfully ignore the constant worry about Mom in the back of my head. And there is a plan going forward for Mom's care once she's back at the LTC facility, so I'm feeling better about a lot of things than I was a few days ago. We decided to forgo our firm's holiday party as the temps are supposed to be brutal tomorrow and I'd just rather head for home after work. And besides, it's our anniverary so I'd rather it just be the two of us.

Best Birthday Ever

Today I turned 68 years old. Aside from the kick I always get to see around 200 Facebook friends from all my Venn diagrams (Firesign, comics, Rutgers frat, online gaming) wishing me a happy birthday, as well as my work colleagues who gave me two desserts I should definitely NOT eat as well as treating me to a group lunch order eaten in our fancy dining area, I got the best gift of all, a birthday call from Mom. My brother held the phone as she coherently spoke. For someone I'd been convinced was at death's door a few days ago, this was near miraculous. I'm now told she's due to be released back to her long-term care facility on Friday, the infection and sepsis are all gone, and the only stumbling block remains her food intake, which is difficult when you can no longer swallow properly and you don't care for food anyway. But she's not in pain and she's not suffering so, at 94+, she's totally beaten the odds again! Every reason to celebrate! Which we did with a delivered sushi dinner. I refrained from the third birthday dessert of the day included with our order, a bunch of cookie-like Japanese treats in a box which looks lovely on our holiday table. On to year #69!

No News Is

White Rabbits, and welcome to December! No word from my brother about Mom's condition, so I'm going to assume all is the same and carry on with my week as planned until I hear otherwise. My coworkers and the partners I support are aware of the situation, and a couple of them checked in on me via online calls, so that was sweet. Tomorrow is a Manhattan day as well as my birthday, so we'll see how everything goes. I'm assuming I'll get birthday calls from both my brothers so I'll certainly be more clued in then. In the meantime I'm keeping busy and hoping for an easy transition into whatever's next.

Of Steaming and Stir Frying

I ended this chilly day and month by steaming a whole bunch of winter tops and, while I was at it, I moved my summer tops to the closet in the library to make room for all the steamed ones. I can't seem to only do one thing, as every task seems to have mini-tasks associated with it. But I'm task-based, and doing this stuff helps keep my mind occupied as I cannot do anything about Mom's situation (still downhill I'm afraid). I also made the promised stir fry, which was delish except I forgot to add the tofu, which I'll air fry tomorrow to blend in with the leftovers. I feel like I'm making headway and, in case the inevitable happens sooner rather than later, I won't have as much catching up to do.

Productive Pre-Birthdays

As my 68th birthday is on Tuesday, and Robin's is next Saturday, we have already pre-ordered our gifts for each other. My new AirPods are waiting to be charged then paired with my phone and work computer (with any luck the noise cancellation feature will work well enough for me to leave the headphones at home), and his new Huion Kanvas art tablet arrived today, which he integrated pretty quickly into his home office setup in place of his old Wacom which doesn't play well with any of the newer software. We shopped at H Mart (the Asian grocery) and our regular supermarket, and I plan on making a stir fry tomorrow to take us through the worst of the cold weather to come. Meanwhile, Mom's situation has gotten worse, so I'm more grateful than ever that I visited her on Wednesday.

Bubbling and Squeaking

The holiday table is all set up; the bowl filled with copious amounts of sugar-free chocolate goodies we've been buying was the piece de resistance. No card wreath this year since we won't be sending out cards. t's all I can do to keep myself together, between Mom's situation (slowly improving again) and my impending birthday week. But having the fiber optic tree trimmed and festooned does provide some sort of comfort, and between that and Robin (who is always a comfort!) I'm okay at the moment. We got through about half of the Beatles Anthology remaster, and will probably finish it again by the end of the weekend. And the bubble and squeak today was delightful.