my son update

We talked to Stephen for a long time yesterday. I think he was making a deliberate attempt to be cheerful. His dad talked with him more about the future than I did. I tried to focus on just connecting with him emotionally, and we talked about getting together this Christmas.

So other than feeling as if he's recentered himself emotionally, to some degree, I can't say I have a clear indication of what the future will be. Maybe he'll soon be "swinging" into a new state of happiness. I'd love to see him as happy as he is in this photo.

I also talked with my mother-in-law yesterday morning. She's spunky and getting around as much as possible with her walker. She doesn't try to shower without having someone assist, but other than that, she's doing fine.

And I talked with my sister Sheila. She's still not being allowed back to work. One doctor is telling her that she has a leaking aortic valve that is probably the culprit for her stroke. I wonder if they are going to put her on blood thinners. She's back at home with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, amidst the stress and mess, but apparently, she prefers it that way.

I heard from one of my high school classmates that another of our 1969 grads is going to donate a kidney to her older sister. She also told me that the most popular girl our senior year is now at home under hospice care. I don't know what malady has befallen her, but it sounds like cancer. It's amazing how all the catty feelings I had about that girl (actually, both of them, the kidney-donator and the popular girl) have disappeared. Apparently life can hand us some pretty bad crap, no matter how popular or successful we were in high school. Too bad we can't know or believe that while we're in high school, but perspective is not a trait teenagers are allowed to have.

It's quite chilly this morning. We didn't run the attic fan last night because we were too cool. I'd gotten up the night before to turn off the attic fan because I was freezing, so my esteemed and beloved beat me to it last night and turned off the attic fan before we even went to bed. The day is going to be another spectacularly beautiful one. We haven't had rain in a while, and none is in the forecast. Leaves are popping out bright red everywhere one looks. We're still feeding squirrels and chipmunks on the back deck. Gotta get them fat enough to survive winter.

I'm thinking about doing some self-pampering this afternoon while spouse is off courting the candidate du jour. (I'll be SO glad when this hiring spurt is over!) I'm going to go to the arts and crafts stores just to piddle. I can spend hours there with just my own thoughts and dreams.