Wesley Chapel, Florida ( high 75, low 70)
Catching up.
Our Thanksgiving holiday didn’t go quite as we planned. We planned on spending it at Mom’s house. I planned on using her oven to cook the meal at her house.
That was the plan.
Unfortunately, Mom had other plans. She was having trouble functioning and was extremely weak. Her memory was worse than usual. We suspected she had a urinary track infection, but started to wonder if she had small stroke.
We ended up taking her to the hospital on Tuesday morning. Fortunately this time, we went to the nearly new St. Josephs hospital which is close to her house. I had never been there and for the life of me, I don’t know why we ever took her anywhere else. It’s about 1000 times as nice as Florida Hospital where we usually take her. It’s in a better part of town, is much less crowded, and it’s closer to her home. The only drawback is that her doctors use Florida Hospital.
The ER doctor was concerned she was having small strokes and immediately started running tests. CT scan, MRI, x-rays and blood work. They decided to admit her, and before long she was in a nice large private room, with her own bathroom, refrigerator, big screen TV and comfy lounge area for family. :) There on demand movies with many good titles. That sure helped us while we were sitting there with her. We were comfortable and not bored out of our minds.
We watched the movies Blindside and Identity Theft. We had seen both movies but enjoyed watching them again, and it seemed to cheer up Mom.
She ended up spending Thanksgiving in the hospital, so that changed our plans. The hospital had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal for the patients as well as in the cafeteria. Al and I went down to the cafeteria and had the turkey dinner with all the trimmings for $8 a person. It was delicious. We decided we’re going back there for Christmas dinner, even if Mom’s not in the hospital. Where else can you get a meal like that for that price? No crowds, come as your are, and delicious food. What’s not to like?
She was discharged on day 4. The only thing they found was a urinary tract infection and high blood pressure. The doctor said the mental confusion was normal in an elderly patients She seems to be feeling better after a few days at home. I hope she can stay out of the hospital for awhile because Al has his surgery December 23rd.
We haven’t gotten a chance to do anything fun since we’ve been back, but that’s normal when we’re in Tampa.
I took my 14 month old camera into a repair shop. It needs a new lens assembly for around $200. It’s my Canon SX50 HS Powershot. My favorite camera.
We debated between repairing it or buying another camera, and getting an extended warranty. We’ve begun to buy warranties on small items like this because the quality is so poor nowadays. An inexpensive warranty often works out well. Walmart and Sam’s club offer cheap extended warranties on their electronics.
In the end, we found a good camera repair guy, so we are having it repaired. No more cameras without warranties though!
My other new project is a new smart phone. I found a way to keep my unlimited data plan and get a new phone. I’m hoping it arrives today. More on that later. Sometime soon, I need to learn how to back up everything on my old phone so that it can be transferred to the new one.
We bought a real Frasier Fir Christmas tree (not a holiday tree) It’s only about 2 feet tall and the fragrance was so nice and reminded me so much of the mountains, that I couldn’t resist.
It’s going to be natural, with no lights or ornaments. Baxter just can’t resist chewing on cords, so a lighted Christmas tree would have to be closely watched. Who says you need lights for the Christmas tree to be pretty?
When we bought it home, I put it on the floor for a few hours until Baxter fully checked it out. It has since been moved to the desk and has stayed there for the past few days! We’ll put some lights outside, but none where he can get to. It’s like having a 2 year old child. Everything has to be child/cat proofed.
We’ve had some wildlife in our back yard, but no otters or foxes like in the past.
This is a turkey family. The brown reeds you see are dying. They had gotten real thick and you couldn’t see the water, so the Rv park sprayed them. I hope it was something safe for the environment, but I sure don’t hear the frogs like I used to. Anyway, the reeds are dying. It will be nice to see water again.
We haven’t seen as many deer either.
Since we’re going to be here a few months, we prettied up the site a little bit.
I bought Mom and I both a pot of petunias. She managed to kill hers already. She would bring it in at night when it was going to be cold (50 degrees). It never got any sun and she watered it too much. Poor plant.
Fortunately, ours is still pretty.
We’re off to see the manatees today. We feel we need something fun.
