nurse

Moving day seemed to go well, I guess, although I wasn't there for a lot of it. The movers took FOREVER to get them packed, so they didn't even get to the new house until after 3:00. They've been there a couple nights, now, and all seems to be going along O.K.

Well... except for the nurse... She is a perfect example of a person who has let her tiny bit of power and influence go straight to her head. Sue fought with her on moving day. I fought with her yesterday, and then the dumb nurse callled up Sue to tell on Mom and Dad for doing what I said instead of what the nurse said. So Sue got furious and told the nurse that Mom and Dad had a doctor, so she (the nurse) wasn't actually in charge of their medical care, (which is basically what I had said), and that, from now on, whatever Mom says is what she should do, and not to ever call her up again expecting her to negate one of Mom's decisions.

Moving day

Moving day! Mom and Dad are making the big move from Idylwood Towers to the Hermitage. The weather is supposd to be beautiful today - a GREAT day for moving. Not cold and not hot and not raining!

Thank God for Sue! Mom has worked herself ragged packing, but Sue has been helping all along, and worked like a slave all day yesterday. I talked to her last night, and she said they are still far from through. The condo fee is paid through the month, though, so she's hiring a cleaning crew to come in next week and spruce the place up before Tina actually puts it on the market.

Thank God for Ron, too! He's also working hard to implement all this. Ron and Sue together have just sort of taken over responsibility and are making sure this happens!

As for me, I plan to go over to the Hermitage later today and try to stay out of the way and show my support. Maybe there will be something I can actually do...? At least least I'll be there in case there is. When I actually will be useful is later, when Sue and Ron will be at work and I can hang out with them as Mom unpacks.

Won't it be wonderful to actually be able to manuver my wheelchair into every room in their house! They have rooms I haven't seen in years!

I sure hope they are happy there! It kind of seems like a real nice place for them to live!

On the road again...

My endless search for meaning led me today down to the Mall, mainly because I was too lazy yesterday to arrange anything more clever. When I got there, I didn't even specifically know which museum I wanted. I wandered into American History, and some woman volunteer in a pink shirt came up and started telling me all about one of the scientists that the exhibit was about, including cute anecdotes about her. Maybe I'll find out more about how to volunteer for that. It might be fun.

I actually heard a tourist say today, "They should call them 'aren'tifacts', because they sure aren't 'art'."

Blahhhhhh...!

Old Town

I just read again my last few posts, and I've realized something you've probably known for a long while - i.e., I am seriously off kilter. It probably doesn't lend much validity to this blogs entry yesterday about human integrity and values to realize that the day before the I went on a tirade about having prevented a woman with a disability and using a walker (and wearing a hideous yellow pantsuit) from boarding the Metro Access bus.


Yeah, but that doesn't count though, right? That was different.... That was ME!

Excuse me...!

Yesterday I had a great day. I went down to Old Town real early because my theraspist movedd my appointment, so I had some time before the class, I went down to the waterfront and sat there and did my homework and watched families frolic (there were a few there, even on a Monday in October!), and tour boats drift past and ducks paddle about placidly and seagulls scream and scavenge. Occasionally wild new-age music drifted out of the Torpedo Factory. I didn't go to the Torpedo Factory, and haven't been in a while, but I believe I'll go next week.

Tea Party Rhetoric

Wow - just read a very well written and frightening editorial in the Post. Maybe you read it also? If not, I'd suggest it. Its a reminder to us, in this age of Tea Party virulence that words can, and do, kill ordinary Americans, as they did in Kent State. To continue the theme, we find it also in Birmingham Alabama in 1963, in the death of Matthew Shepherd, and in tons of other horrible events.

How does one join in the fight against such dangerous ignorance? All through my lifetime, I've believed that words and songs were one venue with which one might raise consciousness. I've heard Dad preach often unpopular social justice sermons every Sunday of my life. I've grown up inspired by the challenges of Peter, Paul, and Mary.

BECAUSE ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS
Bach/Glazer- Amrita Music Corp. ASCAP

Because all men are brothers wherever men may be
One Union shall unite us forever proud and free
No tyrant shall defeat us, no nation strike us down
All men who toil shall greet us the whole wide world around.

My brothers are all others forever hand in hand
Where chimes the bell of freedom there is my native land
My brother's fears are my fears yellow white or brown
My brother's tears are my tears the whole wide world around.

Let every voice be thunder, let every heart beat strong
Until all tyrants perish our work shall not be done
Let not our memories fail us the lost year shall be found
Let slavery's chains be broken the whole wide world around

metro access tale

I've had several "interesting" Metro Access situations lately...

For one, I was waiting for my ride at Ballston Mall the other day, and a Metro Access van pulls up. The driver asks if I am Debbie Taylor. I said, "yes", and he gets out of the drivers' seat to come over and pull down the ramp for me...

... AND this pushy bitch on a walker wearing a yellow jumpsuit barrels up and tries to shove her way in front of me. "Excuse me", I say. "This is my ride."

"I've been waiting for them all day," she insists.

The driver has reappeared by now. "She is my passenger." he says, indicating me. He lowers the ramp and motions that I should get on.

I do so.

"I've been here much longer than her," she continues.

"Did you call them to reserve a ride?" I ask, as I am elevated past her by the motorized ramp. (Isn't it always a good feeling to rise above one's enemies?) (Please keep reading this blog! I promise never to do that again!)

The driver calls the dispatcher on his radio, speaks for a moment, then tells the woman, "Sorry, but they've never heard of you."

I snicker softly to myself as I see her fold up her walker and place it in a cab. (Which, by the way, is something I'm not able to do.) I gloat silently as she and her ugly yellow jumpsuit drive away.

joke

All these entries about old folks' homes reminds me of a joke which my Pastor told me.

A guy had to put his dad in a "home", and he felt really guilty. So, when he leaves his dad there, he says, "Dad, I have a suprise that you'll be getting later tonight." The Old Man says, "OK", and forgets all about it.

Sure enough, at about 7PM there is a knock at the door. The old man answers, and finds a beautiful woman standing there in a bikini. She says, "Your son sent me to offer you super sex."

"OK," he says. "I'll have the soup."