Sunday at RP (13 Mar, 2011)

This morning I heard the TV downstairs at 6:30AM, so I came down. Mom was sitting in her chair, not really watching the TV--it was an infomercial with the volume turned way down--and she said that she had been up since 4:30AM. She was sitting in her chair, covered up with her quilt, and she said that she had dozed off a bit. I commented that sleeping all day probably throws off her sleep cycle and makes it harder to sleep at night, and she semi-agreed, then said that she wants to "get back on a normal schedule of breakfast, lunch, and dinner." Somehow she thinks that her eating schedule is affecting her sleep. Who knows, maybe she is right.

I built her a fire and she watched her favorite Sunday Morning TV show, then went back into her bedroom to take a little nap. She was only in there for about an hour, and then she emerged, still sleepy, and said that she needed to "get some exercise" so she would be able to sleep tonight.

One of mom's wonderful quilter pals came by for a visit and brought us an entire dinner for tonight. Mom was happy to visit and hear the latest RP news. Yesterday evening another of her neighbors came over for a visit, which mom really enjoyed. She is such a social person that she loves visiting even though she gets fatigued.

After her neighbor left, mom ate a miniature lunch consisting of a microscopic slice of crustless quiche, plus about a teaspoonful of chopped tomato (and she gave the last couple bites of quiche to Jana). She rejected coffee and said that when she doesn't feel good, coffee is the first thing that tastes awful. Then she covered herself up with her quilt again and took another nap of about an hour. I went upstairs so I wouldn't bother her.

I came back downstairs because I heard the sqeak of the woodstove door opening. She was down on one knee in front of the stove and had just put a log on the fire! This log happened to be sitting right beside the stove, so all she had to do was lift it--I still suspect that she might not be capable of carrying a log from her woodbox over to the woodstove. Then I wondered how she would get up from her one-knee pose in front of the woodstove, and she informed me that she has a trick for that. The trick consisted of putting on her heavy leather glove, then using the handle on the outside of the woodstove door to leverage herself back onto her feet. Yikes. But anyone who knows her knows that there is no way you can convince her to stay away from the woodstove just because it's hot and dangerous and her balance is crummy.

This afternoon she was determined to organize her refrigerator. (I think this might be part of her plan to "exercise.") She proceeded to do it, even though she had to go sit down to get her strength back a couple times, but she finally finished her task, and then asked me to smash up some hard-boiled eggs so she could make egg salad. She has always been good about following doctors' orders, and she has been making an effort to eat protein six times a day as Dr. B ordered. She likes egg salad, so she thought she would make some up for a change of pace.

The Rocky Point Hurricane has just passed. The violent wind has died down, and we are now having a major downpour of rain. Fortunately I got the wood replenished both inside in her woodbox, and outside on the back porch. Time to go veg out in front of the fire.