My family

Family Stories Vlog

BONK

4 Oct 2016

I am so angry about this photo.  It took a lot of Photoshopping to get it this clear, but it's still blurry.  My cell phone camera is so crappy.  It was on a tripod and I have a shutter release that isn't even connected to the camera, so absolutely NOTHING moved.  This was the 4th and best of four photos, but as I said, it took a lot of fiddling to get it this good.  One of these days Walt will have time to go with me to get a new phone (since Verizon won't let me get it without him there, since he's the account holder) and then I can have one of those newer, better cell phone cameras too.

But anyway, the reason for this photo is to show my lethal cupboard door.  For about a year, I was having stabbing pains in my head.  It didn't seem bad enough to see a doctor about.  One reason I had my head shaved a couple of years ago was to see if there was some sort of abnormality on my scalp, but the scalp looked fine.  One day, I bonked my head on the door again and the thought passed through my mind that just maybe the pain had something to do with how often I bumped my head on the sharp corner of this cabinet.  Being an Aquarian, I rarely remembered to close it when working in the kitchen.

So I made a conscious effort to keep the cupboard door closed at all times.  And whaddya know?  In a couple of months, I wasn't having shooting pains any more.  I envisioned my scalp, under the skin, looking like a pond of ice just before break-up.  Lots of cracks going everywhere.

Since my new leaf, I have been pain free, and I have worked hard at remembering to always close the door. Until yesterday.  I banged it good and almost saw stars.  Since then I have been having shooting pains on the other side of my head from the side where I usually hit it, since this time I was facing the other way when I hit it.

This morning I was supposed to give blood, but I just didn't want to go driving around with sharp pains coming into my scalp so often.  I sat at home with a cold compress on it and by afternoon it wasn't quite so bad, so i was able to go to Atria. I had thought of going for lunch, but now that Atria staff take her to lunch and are working on getting her to accept a walker, I decided to visit her after lunch rather than for lunch.  I don't think she knows the difference.

I got there at 1:15 and she was still in bed, sound asleep.  Her breakfast was still on a tray in the kitchen and the curtains were still closed.  I checked to make sure she was breathing, and she was, so I left her clean laundry and came home.  I told Walt I have the feeling she is slowly fading away  I can't remember the last time I got to the apartment and she was NOT sleeping, either in her bed or on the couch.  But later someone from Atria called me to tell me about a problem in her apartment they are going to take care of tomorrow, and she says that actually now that she's on assisted living, she seems more lively, so what do I know??  It would be nice if she were right.  One can only hope.

I had a very fun experience this afternoon.  Jeri was giving her annual clarinet recital, and it was being streamed live by Berklee, so I got to not only listen, but watch the whole thing.

The concert started with a piece by Poulenc (1962).  The Allegro (3rd movement) was particularly fun.

Then there was a Suite for Clarinet and Piano, written by the pianist there, David McGrory.

And then Jeri gave an introduction to her own new piece, Haikus for Clarinet and Piano.  Jeri is a great one for writing haikus, and I'm not enough of a musician to understand how these three pieces were musical haikus, but they were fun to listen to

The livestream camera cut off before the very end, but I saw about 99% of it and loved it that you can watch your kid's concert, even though you are 3,000 miles away.