Snowmageddon Blues

My sister Shirley arrived from Jacksonville yesterday afternoon. I'd been eagerly awaiting her arrival as it was going to be the first true opportunity to get a bit of a breather. I would be staying with Kak and JB while Shirley would be in the house with the folks. After a month plus of the madness and sadness of eldercare, I was ready to at least get a bit of sleep and a change of environment if nothing else. Mother Nature just had to have her say, though.

We were hit with several inches of snow last Friday along with frigid temps and ice. The wintry pics are of my parent's home and the hills in the park behind the Community Center where we used to go sledding. I have been essentially snowbound with the folks since. Toss some acute cabin fever in with the already worsening mental illnesses and the atmosphere was frequently unbearable. I found myself looking for any project for escape from cleaning out the refrigerator to trying different photography experiments around the house. An example of that is the closeup look at a blue piece from the old marble factory. Yeah, I was getting desperate.

The second snowstorm arrived just in time to get my sister's flight canceled and rescheduled the next day. She finally made it to Columbus yesterday and had to drive through the remainder of the storm to get home. She was exhausted on arrival and I was a nervous wreck by that time as well. Our family is an absolute mess.

My father is getting worse every day. Yesterday, he spoke to me ABOUT me as if I had suddenly became Mom. As I was leaving, reassuring them I would return the next day, my Mom cried and fretted that she couldn't talk to anyone else due to her Alzheimer's. So the guilt clung to me right out the door. The home healthcare outlook is bleak and I don't think we'll get a miracle performed in seven days.

I continue to embrace those brief moments of happiness and they tend to involve food. Dave Hoyt's wife brought a nice casserole of chicken and zucchini and that was a warm gesture to my parents as well as a taste of the old church suppers. Carolyn Flanagan dropped off some potatoes. Kak and the Greenhouse Gang sent up some tulips and a nice foodie care package with pretzels, chips and salsa and that amazing horseradish sauce. Kristy and I chowed on some Conn's(made locally)potato chips while watching some Food Network.

There was precious little humor to be found in the past week with my parents but I have to say Dad did have a doozy the other day...

He and I were watching the Today Show and Barry Manilow was performing. After watching the entire performance, Dad said:

"I don't know who that woman is, but she can't sing worth a lick."

Classic.