Mom checked into the retirement ranch last Thursday. At first, she had a lot of confusion, but after a few days of becoming acquainted with staff and other residents, she thinks it might just be a pretty good deal for her. The staff are knowledgeable and friendly, and they attend to most of Mom’s needs.
I visited this morning and had the robot camera take this photo of us. Click on the image to enlarge.
We bought some daffodil stems at the supermarket this week. We put them in a little vase and took them to Mom over at her new apartment in the ranch.
Today, I took this photo of the daffodils opening up in the vase. Mom likes them. Click on the image to enlarge.
Over the last two days, I have made a marathon trip to California to fetch our Mom to her new accommodations here in beautiful Wickenburg, AZ. Overall, the traffic was not too terrible, but the usual watch your @$$ factor for the California Crazies on the road did apply. There were a couple of times where I got cut off by stupid lane changes where the other driver’s rear bumper was a mere four feet in front of my front bumper.
Image: Mom and me on the back patio – image courtesy Verna. Click to enlarge.
Luckily, the trip was without incident and Mom is safely spending the night here in beautiful Casa Casandro. As I write this, she is all settled in on the sofa in the great room with the TV and some of her favorite word puzzles. (Note to self – get more word puzzle books.)
Tomorrow, we will enroll her in the assisted living program at our local retirement ranch. She is sad about leaving her cats and daughter in California, but looks forward to meeting new friends and getting quality 24/7 care. She really likes our house, so we can look forward to having her over for visits and food from time to time.
I got a call from my sister in California yesterday morning. She called to advise me that it was just about time to place our nonagenarian Mom in an assisted living facility. Mom had an episode this morning where she fell out of her chair at home and was unable to get up. She called the Fire Department, who had to break into her house, for help.
Mom lives in her house about a block away from my sister’s house. My sister looks in on her once a day, but wasn’t present for the incident.
So, after much discussion between Mom, my sister and I, we decided that it would be best to have her in a place where she can be cared for 24/7. That’s the down side of it. The positive side is that I think we can move Mom to Wickenburg, close to us.
I visited an assisted care facility a mere 1/2 mile from here. We often pass by the retirement ranch going to town. I liked what I saw, what they told me and the people there.
Mom’s a bit bummed about the whole thing, but I’m confident that when she gets here she will love it as much as we do. I sent her a brochure from the ranch along with a letter that states what’s to like about being here:
The little town of Wickenburg is a very good environment. We have clean air, a very low crime rate, it is quiet, has a mild climate and plenty of Western character. The only thing it lacks is YOU!
We hope to have her here for her 93rd birthday, Mother’s Day and many other happy days.
I haven’t been active on amateur(ham) radio for several years. But when I found out I could buy this little VHF/UHF hand held transceiver for only about $40, I ordered it from Amazon. I futzed with it today and got it programmed for a few of the local repeater channels and actually got a couple of contacts on it.
The radio is smaller than a dollar bill (excluding the antenna) and seems to work very well. It fits in the cell phone pocket of my cargo shorts! Click on the image to enlarge.
Jägerschnitzel mit Kartoffelsalat, gedünstetes Kraut und Speck serviert mit Apfelmus (breaded pork cutlets with German potato salad, sauteed cabbage and bacon served with applesauce). My high school German is a bit rusty, so I used Microsoft Translator to help out.
Verna, being mostly of Irish extract, did an outstanding job of cranking out this traditional German meal. We have had a variant of this meal in recent months, but this is the first time she prepared hot German potato salad to go with it. Es schmeckte wunderbar!
