Slow Fall
    I noticed, yesterday morning, while I was on a mad, prolonged errand dash, that the leaves, here, aren't turning as quickly as usual. Even in our yard some of our younger trees haven't yet turned. Throughout town a good half of the leaves on any particular tree have turned and are dropping while the other half is still stubbornly green and clinging to branches. The weather has finally turned cooler by about 15 degrees, give or take a degree. I'm curious about the leaf phenomenon, though, because my understanding, which may be incorrect and which I'm not going to check, is that leaf turning is triggered by sun angle, which, of course, hasn't changed because of global warming, even if average temperatures have. I notice that our temperatures are due to cool more over the next week, but the sun continues to illuminate every nook and cranny with its laser-sharp rays.
    Over the last two days Mom's continued in "low energy" mode. These days, as reported over at Life after Death Sentencing have been almost exclusively wheelchair days, although Mom felt better yesterday, overall, than she did Wednesday. If her body was attempting to fight an infection it seems to have been successful. I am assuming that the addition of garlic as a natural antibiotic may have helped.
    When I'm not on errands or tending to Mom I've been in a bit of a caregiver stupor. It's not that caring for Mom is becoming "harder" so much as that I'm finding myself distracted and apparently needing to be distracted. My interaction with Mom has been pretty business-like, despite the amount of time I spend involved with her, especially since we're using the wheelchair a lot and her breathing has become more labored. Keeping it "strictly business", frankly, keeps me from becoming agitated; it seems as though agitation is lurking just beneath my carefully distanced surface. Mom not only doesn't seem to mind, she seems to be caught up in a somewhat more intense reverie than usual. I'm spending a lot more time than previously reminding her to drink her fluids, continue eating the food I put in front of her, blow her nose, guessing when she needs to go to the bathroom...I'm sure this drill seems familiar to those of you who've done this.
    The Hospice MD is due for one of her regular monthly visits, today. I'll report back, but I expect that her observations will confirm that we're in a holding pattern, at the moment, echoing the title of this post. It seems appropriate, this year, that we're in a lingering of the season.
    I'm not sure what our direction will be, from here, and I'm not worried.
    I've got some calls to return.
    Later.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 10:36   email  this post