My last post was right after a warm sunny day when I was able to work outside while Mom nested in the house. Warm, ahhhh.

Everyone has been asking about the blizzard and how my California self fared in the snow. Well, national news doesn't know everything. The day before the blizzard, there was a night of drizzle that resulted in icy roads. I got ready to go, drove over the dirt roads with no trouble, got to the highway and discovered sheet ice. I drove a mile west, up and down hills, turned south and went back home. Mom didn't seem to mind me missing that day too much according to the nurses.

But ... the next day, the day of the blizzard, I got up and looked out the window and there was about 2 inches of snow out there, with a 40 mile an hour wind. Two hours later, all the snow had blown to Texas, you couldn't tell that it had snowed except for the trapped snow. In the meantime, Oklahoma City (200 miles away) is under 14 inches of snow and at a stand still. So I loaded up around noon and headed to Meade. According the nurses, now Mom was pissed. She wouldn't eat lunch, and was snarly when I got there. But I got there. Since then it has gradually warmed until yesterday was warm! In the low 40s! Another storm moving into OKC tonight, but supposed to miss us again. I hear it is cold and raining in California. Gotta love weather.

Home!

Today I finally got Mom to agree to go into the house. She seemed quite worried about whether it would work (she has rejected me several times and chosen to sit in the car when we got here), and then when we got inside and I transferred her to her chair, she just smiled. Then she told me to open the door so it would be light (of course), and sort of settled.

After a short while, I was able to get her to agree to have something to eat and drink and recline the chair. Then she really settled. We were there for nearly 4 hours, Lonnie came over to visit for a couple and then we packed up and went back to the home.

One of the aides asked where we had been, she said "Oklahoma!" (Remember we are in Kansas and they don't seem to know that Oklahoma is 20 miles south) When asked if she had fun, she said yes! I think we might have to do it again soon. We will see if she is totally exhausted tomorrow.

Tuesday in the Arctic Zone

Since the whole country is talking about the weather, I will join in for a minute. It is cold! six degrees with wind chill of -4. The wheelchair ramp is glazed with ice, as are the steps (with no handrail!) ( I have spoken to the contractor about that) I didn't go to Meade today but it looks like it will be colder tomorrow plus. (through Friday at least)

I told Mom that I might not be back for a while, so I hope she remembers why I'm not there. This is the first time I haven't gone up during the day.

I was thinking about how we weren't making much progress these days and then I reminded my self "good days and bad days, and the bad days this month are better than the good days two months ago." I use that as a mantra.

It has been at least three weeks since I spent a day explaining where she is, and why she is there. She still has problems with dreaming that strange people are in her house, and wants to know if I got them out of there. But after our first chat of the day, she knows better. Some days are sleeping days, and she gets up for breakfast and lunch, but not dinner and sleeps in between. Most days she gets up, spends almost two hours in physical therapy, goes to lunch and then sleeps in the afternoon. And physical therapy when she isn't tired goes really well. She can travel about 10 feet on the walker, sometimes farther, but there are two people with her as a precaution. So ... good days and bad days, but the good days are good, the bad days better than two months ago.