Catching Up

If you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that the last few weeks' posts have not been up to even the usual low standards of this blog.

I blame my father.

He's 97 years old, and his health is getting worse. He's fallen five times in the last two weeks, resulting in four ER trips and two days in the hospital (one each ankle and elbow - no fractures, but pretty good bruising and swelling; and two head injuries - one requiring the hospital stay for a CAT scan and neurological observation, and one necessitating 4 staples). He's still pretty sharp, but physically he's getting more and more frail.

He was in an assisted living facility, where he had his own apartment, along with health aides and housekeeping services. However, he now needs a higher level of care, so we moved him to a skilled nursing facility. In non-PC terms, he went from an old folks home to a nursing home. He has taken one more step down that lonely road we all must eventually travel.

We also had to change doctors and insurance companies, which was a nightmare of paperwork and so-called customer service.

All in all, it was an eventful couple of weeks. But all of that is now behind us (knock on wood). He's in a place where he will get the care he needs. I'm just glad he's close enough that we can visit frequently, and get there quickly if needed.

Then this weekend we received the news that a friend of ours passed away. That entailed a round of phone calls and emails, along with making travel plans for the funeral. We'll be heading for Chicago early next week for several days. Oh yeah, I have to speak at the funeral, so I need to come up with a few choice remarks.

On top of everything else, there's been the usual spring chores - weeding, mulching, pruning ... all that good stuff. In addition, the kids were home from college last week for spring break.

Speaking of the kids, one of them is enrolling in a summer study abroad, while the other is going on a volunteer mission trip to Peru this summer. Last week was a flurry of vetting their destinations, researching travel options, working through the application process (more paperwork...) and other assorted time-consuming activities. It's a good thing I'm retired, because otherwise I have no idea how we would have gotten everything done.

Things will continue to limp along here for another week or so, after which we'll hopefully get back to what passes for normal around here.