Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2008. I will always remember this moment in time. It was a Friday afternoon, and a lovely weather day. We decided to take Mattie on a boat ride around the Potomac River. Since Mattie was into boats, we figured this would be a fun activity for him. I think what was so special and memorable about this activity for me was that it wasn't planned. It just was something we decided to do in that moment. The tour boat's name was the Matthew Hayes! After Mattie died, whenever I would see the Matthew Hayes on the River, I naturally am transported back to this exact moment in time.
Quote of the day: You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you. ~ Frederick Buechner
This morning, my dad's nurse came over to assess his multiple pressure sores. The nurse visits twice a week. She and I have been actively treating these sores for weeks now, but when my dad got home from the hospital, his situation seemed much worse.
The good news is the urology team got back to me today and they have agreed, my dad can stop taking Flomax and he doesn't need to start an alternative, since he had a bad reaction to Flomax. What I have learned about caring for older adults is.... less is more! Meaning, the more medications one takes, the more side effects a caregiver is going to be juggling.
I tend to go grocery shopping for the week on Fridays. I remember when I first started shopping at this particular store, I thought..... I am never going to figure this out. The store is enormous, the aisles are big, and I really did not think I could learn where items were in the store. However, now that I have been going to this store for two years now, I zoom around the store like it is the back of my hand. It is amazing what the brain can learn. One of the things I love about this store is that it has an overhead toy train that goes around on a track. Naturally kids in the store LOVE it, and whenever I see the train.... I think of Mattie. He would have absolutely loved watching this train go around.
Have you ever thought about the check out process of a grocery store? Some people will only go to the area where there is a live person to check them out and some people prefer the self check out option. Prior to getting divorced, I would always go to a live person. But since 2023, that all went out the window. I do not want to wait on line, I do not want to bag groceries in the order that the check out person places them on the conveyor belt, and the list goes on. So no matter how many items I have in my cart, and I mean it, I go to the self check out area. All the ladies monitoring the self check out area know me. They also know not to mess with me, as I can get through the process quite quickly with no help, even with a cart filled with much more than 20 items! One store employee is fascinated with how I get all my bags to fit into their smallest cart, and each time she sees me, she suggests I use a bigger cart. My response is always, NO.... Watch, I can get it to fit!
Today was a busy day in the grocery store and at self check out. While working on scanning my things, I shouted out.... Hi Shelly. Shelly is one of the store monitors! Shelly and I talk weekly about caregiving and other things! Any case, today she said to me.... before you check out, flag me over! So like she suggested, I scanned all my items and before I paid for the items, I waved her over. Out of her pocket she took a 10% discount coupon! She explained to me that a fellow customer gave it to her. Since he wasn't going to use it, he told Shelly to surprise a fellow customer with the gift! Shelly chose me! I told Shelly she made my day!
But Shelly's gift made me wonder..... why do I not received such coupons? After all, I am a loyal customer. I connected the dots and I realized that my bonus card is not connected to my phone number and email and therefore, I am not the one receiving the coupons! I rectified that immediately today and now I have my own bonus card. Rather funny that I never thought about this until today when presented with a fellow customer's coupon. I chalk it up to managing way too much and putting out constant figurative fires.
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