WesternYew of Trill

I squandered some time poking around in old entries to find out when Madame moved to her current residence. It was in November 2023. I didn't think it had been that long, either! How time does fly. We had a pretty good time. As Hugh Grant says in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Good form. Not too mad." She was finalizing getting dressed when I arrived. I knocked on the door and called "Hello," and poked my head into the room when I received no answer. I caught a glimpse of her moving around in her bedroom, and saw that her hearing aid was lying on the table, so I knew she couldn't hear me. I took the opportunity to check the battery in the hearing aid. It wasn't charged. The other two batteries were in the charger, so I swapped it out for a good one. Once Madame got the hearing aid situated, she was all ready to go. It's kind of pitiful how she now asks me what she needs to take with her. I try to maintain the fiction that she's making her own decisions. When ordering lunch, she told me to order for us and she would pay. It's getting too hard for her to remember what she wanted and to hear the clerks. But when all the arrangements were made, we had a successful lunch. I got her talking about the past, which is always more congenial that the fragmentary present. She told me about her relatives speaking Dutch in the old days, and it was very interesting.

Mademoiselle asked me to tell Madame about her torn ligament, and explain that she couldn't come to visit for awhile. I noticed Madame's phone was working perfectly, so perhaps Mademoiselle has already talked to her. Nevertheless, I imparted the news, and Madame seemed totally startled to hear it. So if she has been told once, she forgot it. And has probably forgotten it again.

My other achievement of any note today was finally using a gift certificate the Philosopher and Lovely Friend gave me, to a garden store. I succeeded in ordering a very stern-looking shovel that promises to deal with roots. I tried yesterday, and it wouldn't accept the gift certificate. I went away disconsolate. I tried again today, using a different payment method, and succeeded! Victory!