Sunday's Cats and Dogs

I woke up at 7:45 AM. I need to get to my Mom's, but tackled the remaining kitchen mess first. While I was at it, I threw the bedding in with the many kitchen hand towels used in last night's production.

I jumped in the shower after shaving, got dressed and was ready to leave before 10:00 AM. I put the jar of chicken noodle soup and a bag of cookies (both kinds) in the car, along with this week's Blog, and headed out.

Mom wasn't in her room when I got there (weird flashback to the night my father died). So, I left the cookies and my coat (so she'd know I was around), went down and got the soup put in the fridge and hit the bathroom. I came back and found her and the therapist down the hall (yes, I finally met the famous Maria and got to see Mom's altered walker).

We got back in the room and we chatted I told her about the soup and cookies. She commented on my eye looking better and today it really does, just some slight discoloration still shows. I had sent her a picture of it taken that morning, way too gross to post here.

She corrected me about Dad eating tuna fish on New Years. She said it was pickled herring. She asked me to go and get the two pictures of Jesus and Mary that always hung over the fireplace in my ancestral home and now reside in her bedroom. Why give them to me? Well, first, I am sure she knows I will need all the help I can muster to get into Heaven at this point in time. Second, the pictures and I have a history, because as a small lad, I had used Jesus as a target for a ping pong ball-shooting gun I got for Christmas one year and cracked the canvas! (Hey, I was just a little kid, okay?)

Anyway, she asked me to remember the history of them, but I confessed I had no idea where they came from. So, she told me: When my grandmother's grandmother got married, they were not Catholics, but Lutherans (Oh, God, I forgot already! Was it Lutherans or Methodists??? Well, let's just use Protestants!) The minister who married them was a friend of the groom's father, and gave them the two oil paintings as a wedding gift. They passed them down to my great-grandmother, who converted to Catholicism, who in turn gave them to my grandmother (affectionately known as Mama Rene) who later gave them to my Mother, who gave them to the one kid she had who used them as a shooting gallery.

So, we visited until the aid came to take her to lunch. I made a quick trip to her house and got the two paintings, then headed home.

I got home just before 2:00 PM. I fixed a paper plate with cookies and the rest of the Christmas Hershey's candy kisses, covered it with Saran Wrap and took it down to Tanya and her family to thank them for shoveling my driveway. She thanked me and said it was really her boyfriend who did all the work. He was sitting in the front room and laughingly agreed. So, I told her that he gets all the cookies, then.

I got the sheets and pillow cases out of the dryer, put the bedspread in, started the last load of work clothes and made the bed (as far as I could). I filled in today's adventures so far, and then went off in search of others!

Well, adventures might be a bit of stretch. I cleaned the house. I finished up at 5:30 PM. Now I don't know what to do. I fell like I was left in the lurch! Is Luanne coming here for dinner? I give up and call Jeremy's house. No, she's eating there. And, if the promised snow comes and its bad, she'll just go back to her friend Sue's house. If not, she'll be here later. Which is still a little lurchy!!!

So, I hang up the last load of clothes and start thinking about dinner. I have some beautiful catfish filets, but that seems like a lot of work and I'm tired (no nap). So, I settle for the leftover shrimp scampi and linguine. I warmed it up in the microwave, topped it with cheese and take it and a drink into the bedroom.

I started watching a taped show, finished up my dinner and then dozed off. I woke up to the garage door being slammed. It was Luanne, bringing something in from her vehicle. She said she'd been there about 1/2 hour and didn't want to wake me.

So, I turned off the TV, cleaned up my dinner dishes and sat in the living room with her, catching up on her Mom, Lu's own activities and so on. About 10:00 PM I couldn't keep from yawning, so I excused myself and went to bed. As I turned off his light, I realized poor Newt got shafted again. Cleaning his tank was first on the list, but never got done!