Columbus Day
Columbus Day was two weekends ago and the record should reflect that the weather was rather like yesterday, cool in the morning and gradually warming up by the afternoon. By then, it was warm enough to take Mom's barco lounger for a spin. We looked for the afghans she had on her birthday, but they seem to have disappeared. So, we made do with an extra cotton blanket.
It was more than enough as Mom very quickly relinquished our hands as we sat in the sun and slowly foocused on peeling the blankets away from her torso. We were far enough from the other guests that I lifted the blanket from her bare feet.
She began to shade her eyes with one hand, so Big Brother placed his baseball cap over her head. She looked very jaunty in it.
It was all very nice and relaxing until the mosquitos came out. One landed on Mom's cheek almost as soon as we arrived on the patio but I shooed it away before it could bite. I think it was the same mosquito that would cruise just above my nose for the next half hour, disappearing beneath the barco lounger before I could nail it.
I was wearing my Virginia sweatshirt, the one with the highway map etched in white on a dark, charcoal gray back ground. I finally trapped the offending mosquito within its folds, somewhere between Asheville and Maryville.
But, by then he'd been joined by others and I began to be afraid of them biting Mom and causing all sorts of complications (West Nile virus is present in that part of Long Island.)
We wheeled Mom back to her floor and parked the barco lounger in the t.v. room where she had been when we arrived. She had not spoken the entire hour we were there. Two hours after that, a massive hailstorm hit New York, one of the few in anyone's memory.
It was more than enough as Mom very quickly relinquished our hands as we sat in the sun and slowly foocused on peeling the blankets away from her torso. We were far enough from the other guests that I lifted the blanket from her bare feet.
She began to shade her eyes with one hand, so Big Brother placed his baseball cap over her head. She looked very jaunty in it.
It was all very nice and relaxing until the mosquitos came out. One landed on Mom's cheek almost as soon as we arrived on the patio but I shooed it away before it could bite. I think it was the same mosquito that would cruise just above my nose for the next half hour, disappearing beneath the barco lounger before I could nail it.
I was wearing my Virginia sweatshirt, the one with the highway map etched in white on a dark, charcoal gray back ground. I finally trapped the offending mosquito within its folds, somewhere between Asheville and Maryville.
But, by then he'd been joined by others and I began to be afraid of them biting Mom and causing all sorts of complications (West Nile virus is present in that part of Long Island.)
We wheeled Mom back to her floor and parked the barco lounger in the t.v. room where she had been when we arrived. She had not spoken the entire hour we were there. Two hours after that, a massive hailstorm hit New York, one of the few in anyone's memory.