Sunrise Assisted Living SUCKS!!

The elevator here at Sunrise Assisted Living is broken again and, once again, they aren't going to bother to fix it for several days.
. They say they can't get the part. Bullshit. If this were a retail store, or an office building, or a school, or an apartment building, or, actually, just about anyplace other than a Sunrise Assisted Living, the elevator would be fixeed within hours. I can go out the back door and around the building, but I have to get them to open the door each time. Whoever HEARD of getting a building's only elevator fixed "in a few days"?? This is specially when a majority of the residents are in wheelchairs. AND I only get 2 showers a week here, and one of them is SUPPOSED TGO BE TONNIGHT!!! and the shower is on the second floor. THIS IS LIKE BEING IN JAIL!!

911

We had excitement last night! The fire alarm went off and didn't shut off. I turned off the TV and could hear people shouting in the hall. I just sat there (to be honest, just sitting there was the only action I was capable of taking!) and eventually the door flew open and firemen burst in... and there I sat in my little nightie... I'm probably preverted, but I sort of enjoyed it! My reaction was to look up and mildly say "hi", which cracked the firemen up big time... It turned out to be a false alarm which left us with a broken elevator. Wonder how long it will take this miserable place to fix it. I can get out the back door, but other people are held prisoner, and, if you remember, last time they took their time fixing it.

Dona

My cousin Dona called last night! That was a real freak-out! This is picture of a bunch of us grandkids on the steps of the home place in 1967. Dona is the third from the left in the plaid skirt. I haven't really spoken to Dona since we were teens. She says that they came and visited us back when we were in Harrisonburg and that we cousins drove away one night and partied in the car. I have no memory of this, which I guess means we had a good time! (Uncle Paul, if you reallY read this blog, please remember that was 35 years ago!)(Besides, Allen and Robbie weren't there!) (I guess... I don't really even remember being there myself!) Anyway, she's living in Kentucy about 30 minutes from her parents, and she's had 2 groups of kids. The older ones are all grown up and doing well, and the youngest is 12 and lives at home. She was involved in a construction accident and lost her leg and has had a hard life. But she sounds as happy and silly as ever!

Poem about marijuana

My youth was squandered in a cloud
Of happiness and peace,
I grew up, though, to join the world
Of heartbreak and disease.

Thank god I didn’t waste my life
In sweet euphoric bliss
When I was fully capable
Of feeling just like this,

For it was irresponsible
To be a wanton puffer
When I could just give all that up
To languish, mourn, and suffer.

Why should munchies be my fate?
When I could eat my fill
Of icky meats and yucky beets
And such assorted swill.

So I rely no longer on
A bong to make me happy,
And live through each day soberly
Despite the fact life’s crappy.

OMG

Odd situation has arisen... Absolutely no one has read or followed my blog since I began it (except maybe my psycho-therapist who wanted the address the instant she heard about it, but who probably read it once, figured out it was harmless, and quit).

Now, however, within the space of two days I've received requests for the blog address from a Lutheran pastor and from my uncle. Not that I've said anything incriminating or particularly controversial... (or even particularly interesting!) It just kind of puts a damper on my sense of freedom of expression. BUT, having always been fiercely non-conformist, I'm not goiong to let that happen. I think my next entry will be a poem extolling the virtues of marijuana. 'Cause I sure do wish I could get stoned right now!

Another volunteer day

I took Metro Access (the DC para transit system for people who have disabilities) to church this morning and folded bulletins. That was fine, because it needed to be done, and because it really got me thinking about David and belief and I knew that David would have wanted me to do it be cause he was so devoted to making sure that church succeeds (and Lord knows that what they need now is secretarial help!) (Actually, what they very much need is musical help. Let's just say that the music program ain't what it used to be! Which is really too bad, because the congregation really loved the stellar program!)

It was also fun because there were so many beautiful spring flowers and blooming trees on the way. For some reason, on the way back the driver took local Rt 7 rather than the highway, so I got to see lots of countryside. There was a very devout "church lady" there changing paraments, and there was a beautiful purple flowered tree right outside the window, and I was saying how sad it was that the flowers didn't last long, and she said she thought the fact that they died and came back the next year was God's way of reminding us of hope and Resurrection. I or couse, responded that I'd always thought that the fact that the flowers didn't last long was, instead, the reason God had invented cameras. She laughed, thank goodness!

Tumult

Everything here is sort of in a tumult tonight. There is a new resident in a wheelchair with some sort of complicated oxygen apparatus, and they’ve pushed her into the lobby and just left her alone there, and the receptionist isn’t staying with her or helping her, but is running around complaining to everyone she can find how that woman should not have been left alone. There are two medical professionals of some sort down on the Terrace level telling off some of the staff. They’ve rearranged the dining room tables so that they can shove more people in rather than provide another seating, which is what they desperately need to do. I saw one of the nice and sensible caretakers in the hall and said, “How are you?” and she said, “Horrible. “Everything is horrible.” Now I hear all the caretakers yelling at each other in the hall.