Veteran's Day

Hi Folks,

Happy Veteran's Day! Dad found his photo in the special veteran's section in the paper, and attended the parade downtown. He refused to go to the luncheon though. Mallaneys can be stubborn.

Had a pleasant ride to John's Saturday with the family. John made a delicious brunch, biscuits and gravy (one of Mom's faves), and homemade coffee cake (wow, screw low carb, hand over the sweets!), to celebrate Mom's 76th birthday (November 7th). Poor Isis was so shy at John's she hid under the couch most of the time. Hera was quite the showboat though, she is no longer the shy kitty. I shut all the doors I could to encourage Isis to hang with the fam, but alas, I found her cowering in the guestroom bathtub with the litter box, the only door I deemed prudent to leave ajar! LOL

You have to be careful how you approach things with Dad, so Saturday a.m., telling him we were taking a ride to John's house, and then trying to get him to take a shower for the visit to John's and church Saturday night, well it was rough going.  Keep in mind Dad takes one shower a week and sometimes it is a real battle! Finally got him up and going and as he was on the way to the bathroom I heard him mutter, "Well, I haven't been to Coal City for a long time." So John is still his brother, Pat. I am still Aunt Noreen. He often asks me, "You still live in Mazon, don't you?" He tells a story about how he and his mother would be taking a ride into Morris to do the shopping from their farm on Waupecan Road and they'd would stop at Aunt Noreen and Uncle Bob's in Mazon and pick up my cousin, Bobby. His little sister, Cathy, would cry and want to go along, but she was too little, so Bobby would tell her, "Don't worry, we'll bring you a treat home." LOL  A nice memory for Dad, he tells that story a lot, laughing.

On the way to John's Dad mostly talked about how big the fields were, the usual. We saw lots of tractors and field work, he loves that. And about what a long ride it was. And how fast was I going? We drove by the old farm, which burned down years ago, and then came up to Aunt Mae's house. Dad said, "Aren't we going to stop at Aunt Mae's!?" and I said maybe we will on the way home, it is too early to take Aunt Mae a beer now! LOL At John's he kept asking John, "Did you paint all this!?" over and over. LOL  We told him Donna's hubby did the painting, but he still kept asking.  I think the whole day tired him out. He slept most of the day Sunday and seemed more confused than usual. He said he had weird dreams Saturday night. Sometimes I think the weird dreams are about living in Morris! LOL He's back to (the new) normal now.

The clouds have been pretty funky at night lately. Last night the clouds made it look like we were coming up on a mountain range. I know it sounds looney. But it gave me thoughts of being on a vacation, coming up to a hike. I told Bernie I thought it looked like we were coming up to some mountain range, and he said, "Well, I was going to say the same thing, but I didn't want you to think I was losing it!" LOL  What a hoot. It seems when we get back from a ride I am always his daughter, because he says the same thing . . . "I like the rides Kay. I like the rides." I like them too.

My knee is a little better I think. Knock on wood. I'm tired of being so sore and limping around. Hopefully the vitamin D is kicking in and helping things along. And the gait therapy helped too. Now I think I need some strengthening. Life has been a real blast since I turned 50! ARGHHHH

I got a problem with Finn and my Crazy 8's Lichen chair. He seems to have become mystified and beguiled by the Crazy 8 pattern. He sits in the chair, seemingly relaxed, having a bath, and and all of the sudden the pattern catches his eye. His head moves up and down and side to side as he tracks the Crazy 8 pattern up the back of the chair. His butt starts to shake as he gets ready to pounce. He looks very kitten-like when he does this. Though the thought of a 17 pound kitten is kind of scary. He then attacks, clawing the 8's and then he starts biting on one of the big buttons! Arghhh. My new chair! With teeth marks on the pretty buttons!!! It's so cute too. I have it all covered up now, and it brings back childhood thoughts of plastic covered furniture at a relative's house . . . am I OCD!? ARGHHHHH For now it is still covered, but que sera sera, whatever will be will be . . .

Hera approves of John's new sheers.

I scared Poor Finn when I yelled at him for attacking my chair, and he pouted under the bed. Yes! I use under the bed for storage. My feng shui is just fine thank you. I think . . .

I guess it is sort of mesmerizing . . . the button he is trying to kill is the one on the upper left.

That's all folks.  Winter is here. We are in for wintry mix today. Yuck!

Kay :)