6!

Well what a set of mixed emotions I am having on this trip. It is great to see Greg, Andrea and Gavin. Their house is such an oasis of “real life”, and the setting is like being on a camping trip, but with beds & showers. Living on the pond keeps you in touch with the planet always. The sunsets are spectacular most days. And then there’s the mosquitoes that come out at dusk, possibly carrying West Nile virus; and the geese who live on the pond - and must be chased off the yard several times a day. What poop machines they are! Yuck!

On Saturday, we moved Mom to a new facility, a dementia care unit. She required help with everything now - eating, walking, bathroom - and Dad could not do it anymore. We decided to not tell her in advance, as she gets very anxious about things that are upcoming. For example, she was fretting for 3 days about what to wear when I visited. So, we had orchestrated for an aide to come take Mom & Dad to lunch, and we swooped in and moved out Mom’s bed, 3 dressers and a table. We had gotten clothes before, but got more and all her toiletries. Then Greg & Andrea drove that over to the new place, fortunately 15 minutes away, and set it up. I stayed with Mom & Dad until I got the call that the new room was set up. I loaded her up and took her over there, all was OK for a while. Then when we took her to her room, it got a bit tense. Andrea is amazing, kept telling Mom that this is her room, Dad has his room and they both need to have good rest. That Dad was getting too tired out to care for her, and he needed a break. She did remind Mom that she has a brain disease, that makes her need more care that she can do herself. So, it took a while to leave, and it was very difficult to not respond to Mom’s imperious commands when she sounded like her old self. But it was finally done. Exhausting and tense.

That evening we went across the street to a neighbor’s 40th birthday pig roast. What fun. The houses across the street border on Long Pond. There were fireworks, and a bonfire (Carole plays with fire!) and boat rides on the pond, and swimming on the pond. A great antidote to the earlier day.

I have gone once again to the folk’s old house, it’s really nearly almost empty now. Got the final bits of random china boxed up - none of us kids knows where it came from and Dad hasn’t a clue - and the old ping-pong table that had become a storage center broken down and out to the curb. 2nd floor completely empty; first floor has some stuff we’ll have to put in storage, basement has a small bit of minerals, Dad’s old teaching tools; a couple of skulls, also from Dad’s work, and some tools and Greg needs to look over & decide if he wants. Huge progress. And we’ve started showing the house to sell it. All good, an emotional upswing. Need to sell the house as the expenses for the folks have just doubled. Oooh, taking an emotional hit there.

I squeezed in some shopping. I have not been able to buy jeans lately. They are very expensive in Munich, as in all big cities, I guess. But what makes a pair of jeans worth 239 Euros? ( About 350 dollars.) Ye Gods. So I went to the local mall, into Old Navy and Wet Seal. Cheap, and inexpensive stuff. But the last pair I got at Old Navy was cut wrong for me, they didn’t stay up, I was always tugging at them, and I remembered that in time to not make that mistake again. I had given up and was on my way to get slippers for Dad when I happened upon the Express store. The clothes looked good so I went in. Grabbed a couple pairs of size 10 jeans to try, and a pair of ‘city shorts’. The 10s swam on me.

I know there has been size number deflation, but it still was an emotional high to go to smaller sizes. Plus, I have been working at my fitness, and have really toned places that needed toned. The very helpful sales clerk got me 8s, still too big. I left with 2 pairs of pants in size 6. 6! Woo hoo!