'Nuffs 'Nuff

Okay folks, I hearby declare that the next person to go to the hospital is me, but not until September! All you Oregon kin are just going to have to stay healthy already, sheesh. In case you are one of the few non-family members reading, I will explain. Sunday before last, my grandma started feeling like she might have a grand cold coming on and by evening was to weak to stand. An ambulance ride to the ER later, she was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. Well, 92 years old and pneumonia are never a good combination, but grandma is a trouper and by mid-week had been released to a skilled care center for PT and OT and to decide where she would go from there. After not being able to summon help on Sunday, an apartment of her own just isn't an option anymore, so my parents have been looking into an assisted living placement if she meets her therapy goals. Anyway, since the Energizer Bunny has nothing on grandma, she was up and around taking short walks with her walker by last weekend. And, we are talking real, keep-the-walker moving walking, not slide (walker), shuffle (feet).

End of the story? Not a chance. Monday night, I got a call from my mom that it was dad's turn for an ambulance ride and an ER visit after feeling unwell and a couple of chats with phone-in triage nurses. He spent the night and just about the time mom was going to go get him and take him home, she got a message that Grandma was feeling weak and running a fever and would be heading back to the ER. They thought it was a relapse of the pneumonia, but turned out to be an icky intestinal bug that she caught from her roommate.

Enough already people! Although there really isn't anything I could do, even if I was closer, it is still a pretty helpless feeling being so far away and just waiting for updates! Just for the record, I am not being critical of number or timing of updates at all...I have been kept well in the loop...it's just the waiting and wondering that gets to a person, especially a couple of thousand of miles away! Things appear to be on a relative upswing again, but if anyone has a few good thoughts to spare, please send them our way!

On a less serious note, after two glorious, sunny spring days, we are having a cool, rainy, rather blustery spring day. The kids and I went to Keys Park anyway until we were chilled through. After that, we went to the 'Bou to get something warm to drink! Apparently, my skills as a freak magnet are alive and well. When we got there, it appeared that the weather gave everyone the same idea and it was fairly crowded. After ordering, the kids were situated at the kids' table playing with the toys and I was scoping out where to park my tush. There were a couple of big easy chairs next to the kids' table. One was empty and the other (right next to the kids' table was occupied by a woman working on a laptop. Except for the laptop, all of her things were on the little table between the two chairs. So I asked (very nicely) whether she might be able to switch to the other chair so I could be closer to the kids. I thought that the other chair might be better for her as she wouldn't have to worry about two little one bouncing around a few feet from her right elbow (and mentioned something to that effect when I was asking). Based on her response, you might have thought that I had gotten completely pissy and demanded that she get the he!! out of the chair and let me have it. Dude! I was asking! If it was really that big of an inconvenience, the answer could have been "no." I would have been perfectly fine in the other chair. It was weird and stupid, but I just about fell apart. Let's see...18 weeks pregnant...hormonal and moody much??? By the time the kids cocoa and my coffee were ready, I had pulled myself together and just turned the chair toward the kids' table. To be completely fair, this freak was far outbalanced by nicer people at the coffee shop. A lovely woman held the door so I could herd my crew in the door and after Bug waited very patiently for the mama bear foot rest to be available, the lady that had been using it complimented him on how politely he asked while she was packing up her bag.

Between the park and the coffee shop, I made some progress on my sock. Before today, I was only a couple of rows past the cuff and had made a couple of false starts on the brioche rib and was just not feeling the love. However, now that I have the pattern right and have made it through a few repeats, I am doing much better. My only remaining gripe is that my black yarn makes the pattern hard to see and would probably be best suited to plain ol' stockinette. We'll go a couple of inches and then decide whether the pattern is worth the extra work. I'll probably stick with it as the last several pairs of socks have been stockinette or simple rib and I just need the entertainment value of the design, even if it doesn't completely shine with the black yarn.