A football weekend and then some!

On this foggy, drizzly afternoon, Justin and I are sitting at Mom's watching the Florida State Seminoles play against the Wisconsin Badgers in Orlando. The fans in the stands are wearing tank tops or T-shirts instead of the layers like they would here, or rain gear, as the case might be. Neither of us are fans of these teams, ironically, but still, it's a FL team vs. a WI team, in our "home" state!!! I can't help but think about Gordy, lying in his hospital bed, recovering from the surgery needed to repair his fractured hip. He is a die-hard Seminole fan, and I hope he's alert enough to watch the game today. While I feel terrible that Gordy is in a bad way, I can't help but feel badly for his daughter as well, as she is always the go-to person concerning Gordy, and he's really been keeping her hopping in 2008!

*

Earlier I referenced the weather, and its nastiness thereof. It's been wet in the air all day long, starting already when we went for breakfast this morning. Lynn came down to Mom's to pick us up, meeting Jill and Danny at Toby's Diner for some down-home cooking. It was chilly in their dining room, though, and not conducive to sitting around chatting. The temperatures are hovering around 40 degrees above zero, but now it's raining lightly and the fog is so dense, you have to feel your way down the road! It makes the scenery downright eerie in appearance.

*

After I started a roast cooking in Mom's oven, Justin and I set off for the afternoon to visit some friends and family. We had to wait until the weather allowed, and when it did allow, we couldn't see where we were going. Last night I bought a huge bag of salt which Justin and Alayna spread around Mom's car, on the walkways, and in the parking lot. Of course, it wasn't necessary with the warming temps but at least the thickest of the snow and ice is gone for now. The two of us went to visit my sister-in-law's parents for a bit, and got to meet some of Barb's cousins who were also there visiting. We had a nice visit and as soon as I have access to a computer where I can download my photos, I will do so. They've been part of our lives for nearly 35 years, at least in my life. They are so darn cute, even though they are older, still spunky.

*

We took a couple cookies from Clara's to deliver to Arno, our next stop. He was in the dining room when we arrived and the CNA escorted him, making him use the walker, to the room for our visit. It is incredibly sad how much he's gone downhill since I spent time with him in September. His 'dreams' are so real to him that he thinks they are true, and I'm not 100% sure he even knew exactly who we were. Once he talked about Justin and me as though we weren't us. This was not the man from September, but is what he's become following his surgery and time spent in this care facility. At some point he must have fallen and hurt his back, causing a compression fracture, but the Home has no record of it occurring. Mona is quite upset with the staff about this, thinking they should have been more aware of what was going on with him. Anyway, it is just so sad to see him like this.

*

From Arno's Home we drove the rest of the way to his "old" home to drop off the presents for tomorrow's exchange. At first we couldn't tell if anyone was home because the garage door was closed, but JR answered the door, so we were in!!! Mona had plans this afternoon to do something with her brother and I knew this so had no intention of hanging around

Our original plan was to also visit my sister-in-law, Sharon, this afternoon but sort of changed our minds after seeing Arno. Justin will be spending tomorrow afternoon with her at his other family's CHRISTmas celebration so she won't be totally forgotten. I write to her every month and my cousin, who is Sharon's caregiver, reads the notes for her. Since I can't be around here to visit, except for today, ahem, ahem, I try to stay in contact that way. Sharon is blind which is why she lives in a group home facility.

*

Instead of going to see Sharon, we went to Kohl's to exchange a shirt Justin got for CHRISTmas and make some additional purchases. Mom's bathrug is shedding blue fuzzies something fierce and since her birthday comes up in January, we decided to replace her bathmat as a birthday present. It's hard enough for her to see to clean the way it is, and to have a bathmat adding to the mess just doesn't make good sense. Justin also got the rest of his exchange gifts for tomorrow's gathering. Upon leaving Kohl's, we drove to Copp's where he ran in, said 'hi' to my friend, Cindy, in the bakery and got us some more sugar cookies. We no longer needed to go to Walmart because of shopping at Kohl's so he asked if I'd take him to the bookstore downtown to get the new Harry Potter book. He'd not put it on his list for CHRISTmas so I drove him, peeling away the fog as we went. Now he's a happy boy with a new wallet to replace the shirt we took back, football, a Harry Potter book and sugar cookies!