ismo

Dark gray day #5. Only today was different because it rained. Just before the rain started, I went out in the back yard to cut greens to make an Advent wreath for the table. This is something my father always used to do, and then my mother would arranged them artistically around the candles, and it would be on the table until Christmas. Trying to get a little happy feeling going here. However, I then had a long phone conversation with Queenie about what's going on with our mother, so the greens are still sitting on the table, waiting to be made into a wreath. Maybe tomorrow.

The Sparrowhawk urged me to go out for a walk just before sunset. (Not that you could actually see the sun at any time.) This sort of seemed like a good idea at the time, and it was only drizzling a little, so I was all like suck it up, I can walk in this tiny rain, no problem. Uh huh. Pretty soon it was really quite dark, and raining quite a lot, and my glasses were all dappled with raindrops so I could barely see, and I carefully picked my way around icy spots, thinking, how inconvenient would it be if I fell down at this time! It gave me too much time to think about my mother and sisters. I was disheartened. However, my legs hurt a lot less today than they have in the past week, so that's definitely a positive sign.

I hastily had something hot to eat, and then was on the phone for 45 minutes with my mother, who insisted on reading me every word of the informational leaflets the Duchess had given her about the TAVR procedure, and discussing them, if you can call it discussing when my side of the conversation is largely inaudible to her. The leaflets are just general information, not specific info from her own doctors, which I tried to explain to her, but oh well. I think my listening ear was a tiny bit reassuring to her. She said something disturbing about her medication changes, so I emailed the Duchess about it, and received a long email in return describing the clusterfork of miscommunication that has apparently been going on behind the scenes. All is well now--we think--thanks to the efforts of the Duchess and the nurse from cardiology, but holy moly. I don't know how old and sick people survive. This system is a mess.

Tomorrow at church, there will be a Board of Trustees report on our budget for next year, and another potluck. This time we're on the roster for main dish, so I don't really feel I can blow it off, because main dishes are where we tend, as a group, to fall down on the job. I tried to think of something I could make with materials available, and that would not be too much work, and that would not contain pork or shellfish. I made a cheese, onion, and mushroom quiche, which is in the oven now. Earlier today, the Sparrowhawk made his special spicy beans and rice, so it smells pretty good in here. And it's thundering outside!