healthcare update

Craig is still over looking after his mom who went into the hospital so that she could have the 3 day hospital stay required by medicare to allow her to go to a skilled nursing facility. Which is where she went today. The idea is that they will physical therapy her to the point where she can get in and out of bed by herself and attend to other necessities, by herself. I think Craig will finally be coming home tomorrow. He will drive her car since she won't exactly be needing it. Can't wait to have that big old Crown Victoria taking up most of our driveway.

perfect timing

is when you finish a bike ride and just as you are loading your bike onto the car, an ice cream van comes past and you can buy a delicious, unplanned treat.
I am loving having a really good bike rack on my car. It makes it possible to take my bike to places where the terrain is relatively flat since I have no illusions or desires to be a "mountain biker".

another wholesome utah evening

To celebrate Catherine and Sam's last evening before flying off to Europe, we went up the canyon for another picnic dinner. Ellen, Jerry and Zack joined us.

study abroad newsflash

I hear about what is going on with the study abroad program in Siberia primarily via urgent text messages from Yulia, the woman on the ground. Today's announced that one of the students had been in a bus accident, but was ok, but with a sore back and asked me to call the insurance to confirm procedures. 

I called to follow up with her and it turns out the student was injured not so much by the car crashing into the bus he was on, but by the humungous Russian man who fell on him as a result of the car crashing into the bus. Hope we are covered for that...

Back from Colorado

Here are some pictures of our trip. Fortunately, Catherine grabbed the camera and took pictures of our fireworks on the driveway.

Craig playing guitar to his mom.

The new puppy.

expectations

today i bought my first selection of adult incontinence products. two trips so two cashier moments. i kept expecting that the cashier and i would have a kind of moment. you know, a sort of knowing commiseration. i don't know why i thought that would happen. but it didn't. i could have been buying hamburgers or toilet cleaner. i, however, now know that that product aisle is as replete with choices as feminine hygiene.

Let's just say

...aging is not for the faint of heart.
And while we're at it, let's just say that this part of Colorado isn't either. Wow. It's rural and conservative. Stopped at Murdochs (which looks like a sort of Home Depot) and does sell all that kind of stuff, but also has an impressive selection of gun safes, equine corraling, training and feed products, large compressors (i don't actually know what one is - but the pictures suggest that once you have one of these babies you can run your power tools in remote places for hours) and so on. I had to pick up some screws for the deck replacement project that Brent began and Craig is to finish. There is so much maintenance to do and no one up to doing it anymore. Sam may get to experience a ride on mower before the weekend is out.