A Sunny Day at Maryville

Checked in with the folks tonight after work, and both were enjoying a post-dinner, post-mocha cup of coffee. Last night's LOST extravaganza was a lot of fun and went off without a hitch (aside from some stragglers glued to the tube for American Idol just prior to LOST), and all in all it was a lovely evening. But as Dad suspected, he and Mom got quite sleepy at the midway point of the two-hour finale, so they flicked it in at a commercial break and we bid them good night.

So since we watched the rest of the finale when we got home, I taunted them a little with the fact that it's a real mindblower, and Dad was suitably (if playfully) miffed. Apparently one of the nurses also watched the finale and was taunting them just the same, so I'll definitely have to bring the tape of the show in this weekend so they can catch the rest of what happened.

Mom and Dad were remarking last night how interesting it was that everyone in the place knew they were going to be watching LOST with the family that evening, and they likened the environment to being in a small town. But in a similar way, Dad has made himself quite at home, and he apparently knows all the nursing and care staff (and several of the residents) by name. It's an amazing and unusual trait, and they're such outwardly friendly people that it must be really nice to have them around...even if they wish they weren't there.

Today was a lot of heavy physical therapy before the Wolfgang sisters arrived (with Garlic Jim's pizza, no less...NO FAIR!), and there was apparently also a "disaster drill" in conjunction with one going on at St. Mary's Academy, so there was a lot of fire preparedness and such going on which apparently made for some amusing chaos. Dad has noted some soreness in his right leg since the stroke, and he mentioned it to a nurse, who said it's a fairly common after-effect, and in some very very rare instances, can herald a full spontaneous recovery. Lets hope he qualifies for that.

I'm going to take Mom's hearing aid in for repair tomorrow since it apparently hasn't been working as well as it could, and I have a meeting with Stephen the social worker at 10:30 so I should know more tomorrow afternoon about how long they're going to be staying at Maryville.

Also have been talking with my friend Pat, whose parents use wheelchairs quite frequently. Pat gave me a good rule of thumb with respect to how large one should make a wheelchair ramp, so I'll be stopping at the homestead in the morning to pace off and mark some potential ramp renovations. I'm also going to try and move forward with some car removal, though I'm sure most of the people who would do it will be indisposed this weekend.

More news tomorrow!