prairie point

goodbye 2004

For our household 2004 has definitely been the year of eldercare. It had been slipping up on us for awhile but the shoe finally fell in June with a call that my Mom had fallen while taking clothes out of the dryer. From there things just seemed to mushroom. We suddenly realized that Mom had full-blown Alzheimers and that none of us were equipped to take care of her. Dad decided there was nothing left for him. Self-sufficient to the end he paid his funeral expenses in advance and picked out his own coffin.

Then just before Christmas Tricia had to face some of the same situations with her own Poppa. Hopefully not as grave. Nevertheless he is going into a rehab facility while he builds up his strength enough to undergo chemo. We went to see the place earlier in the week and it looks disturbingly like a nursing home.

On the plus side Tricia left her day job to try to get her quilting business off the ground. At this point she still spends most of her time on personal projects but that will change. And we realized a long-time dream of buying a little piece of land where we can get away from the city and "do our own thing."

My own day job keeps getting busier and busier while I become more and more conflicted about whether that is a good thing or not.

The flower garden has just been coasting. I have tweaked things here and there, replacing a few items and filling in, especially in the flower bed we built last year on the far side of the driveway. Mostly though the garden has just taken care of itself. The plants keep getting bigger. It is a little wild perhaps at the very back, and sooner or later, I will have to replace that back fence before it falls down. The vegetables were a different matter altogether. For one thing, neither of us seemed to get real interested in them and for another, the weather did not treat us right. First it was too wet and then it was too hot.

I would try to tell you what I expect in 2005, but if this year is any indication, not much of it is in my hands.

Posted by Bill Hopkins on December 30, 2004 10:28 AM