September 27th - Handsome as Ever & A Walker Workout

I always wonder what I'm going to find about four steps before turning the corner to enter Dad's room.  Every day is different.  Today he was standing in front of his closet with the door open looking to pick out a clean shirt.  We found one with blue and white horizontal stripes that I commented would be "slimming".  "Oh, good.  I could really use that!"

We had the aid bring us a washcloth.  While we were waiting I dampened his hair and gave it a combing.  I stood back to admire my work and he asked, "How's it look?" 

"Pretty good", I replied.

"Handsome as ever?", he asked.

"Handsome as ever."

When she brought the washcloth  (I put an extra one in his hankerchief drawer) he went into the bathroom to wash his face.  He had been using the walker this whole time.  When he came out, he turned and headed for the door without slowing down.  "You ready?", he asked, but he wasn't waiting for an answer.

At breakfast he had a 3/4 of sweet roll, most of his cereal, part of his scrambled eggs, all of his apple juice and coffee.  This is the most I've seen him eat in a while.  At one point he had taken too big of a bite of the roll and said it was stuck.  I said, "Just take your time, we're not going anywhere." 

With a smile he replied, "Yeah, we're not getting out of here."  At which point Luther, our breakfast companion who leaves tomorrow, asked, "He's not getting out?" 

"Not for a couple more weeks, Luther"

"That's too bad."

The talk returned to the Dodgers and Angels and the return of the NFL officials.  When Mr. K, a big man who sits across the table and just eats, bark requests to the girls, and reads his paper, asked for more bacon, I ran across an article that said the price of bacon is going up because of the drought and lack of corn.  I announced this to Dad and, of course everyone in our corner of the dining room hears what I say, and Dad says we should stock up - "Bacon keeps".  I looked across the table to see if there was a reaction from Mr. K (is it mean to compare him to Jabba the Hut, okay, then nevermind).  There was none, but the cook, Maria had a big smile on her face.

Looking down at breakfast Dad said, "I did pretty good.  Let's go out to the patio."  We got his walker, said our "good days" and headed off.  The patio is a good distance from the dining room.  About a third of the way there he stopped for a breather.  At the sliding glass door he stopped for another.  "Sometimes I think I can go farther than I actually can!"

We made it out to the patio and talked about his phone call with Anut Margie yesterday.  They talked for 45 minutes.  She is having cataract surgery next week and will try to make it out after that.  We also wondered how Tom and Mary did with Grant & Kyle at the Fair.  We pictured Grant throwing the softball at the milk bottles to win a prize. 

Dad said his favorite memory was when Kevin got hypnotized and he related to me how Bill had been hypnotized once too.  How did that guy stand on your stomach, Bill?

He mentioned that he had a pain on his left side and had gotten two pain pills (Two?  I think that is what he said).  I think this is the same thing I wrote about on the 23rd of this month only I mentioned it was on the right side.  I think he was rubbing the same area as the last time he told me about it, so I may have been mistaken about it being on the right last time.  The last couple of weeks, right and left, morning and night, and days of the week all seem to blend together.

We had about 15-20 minutes before nature made an urgent call.  We hustled back to the room just in time.  The sprint back to the room wore him out and after the bathroom he laid down.  He said, "You go to work now, son.  Thanks for your help."

I said "okay" and bent over to kiss him good-bye.  He looked up and said, "I did good this morning, didn't I?"  I agreed, gave him a peck on the cheek and left knowing there is still a little fight left in him.