The downside to Gary practicing only board transfers last week is he got out of practice at the depression transfers without the board, and it’s been showing this week – he hasn’t been getting the height and distance he had been; in fact, he tried one this afternoon with me just supervising, and he did one of those ones where he only got one butt cheek on the bed. I grabbed onto him and intentionally pulled him over sideways to make sure he didn’t slip off the bed. As he lay there, me trying to figure out the best way to haul his legs onto the narrow bed and straighten his upper body without him falling off the edge, he suggested we go back to the transfers where I give him more help (either with my hands under his sitting bones or at his hips) until he does those consistently well before trying the ones where I only supervise. I’ll bet you can guess I agreed to that!

When I left for the chiropractor in the morning, the garage people had already been hard at work for a couple hours. They were gone by the time I got back. I believe they have finished the breezeway except for painting it. They also cleaned off the red clay from the cement, and it looks really nice (now we and the kitties won’t be tracking that stuff in!). The owner had told me he was going to fill the drain partway up with cement, but I see they put pea gravel in there. I don’t know if they will cement it later or not – the owner had said cement would be better because it would give less chance for mosquitoes to breed in there, but maybe that decision didn’t get to his crew.

After seeing the chiropractor this morning, I took my car in. I got an oil change, new brake pads and rotors – whatever they are. At least there’s no squealing. They told me they had fixed the water problem by cleaning the AC system – evidently all the leaves and stuff that I hadn’t been cleaning off the front of the car around where the windshield wipers are had decayed and gotten into the system and clogged it. Oops. Well, I had other things on my mind.

Gary talked to someone in the engineering department of the city where Gary’s accident took place, a guy who is supposed to have something to do with traffic lights being put up. The guy said a study had been done a year ago of the intersection where Gary’s accident was, and it had been concluded that there wasn’t enough traffic there to warrant a light being put up. Gary told me that didn’t mean the quest is over, however, as he had heard that the mayor of the city wants a light there. Also, a developer of the property around the golf course out there is pushing for a light; Gary hasn’t talked to him yet.

I spent several hours today critiquing a story by one of the members of my writing group. It felt good to do that again. On my own story, I haven’t made it past the first ten pages in revising it. Something (or a certain someone ;-)) always seems to come up to distract me. Self-doubts creeping in don’t help, either.

On the kittie-front, Blackjack has decided it’s okay for Gary to wheel up to him to pet him when he is laying on the couch or futon. But he doesn’t actively seek Gary out. Tigger still regularly comes up on the hospital bed when Gary and I go through our routine in the morning or night. He isn’t pleased when I move him out of the way when Gary needs to turn over, however.

I had mentioned to Gary last night that I really didn’t see much improvement in his flap the last couple weeks and that maybe he should prone some during the day, at least on the days when he doesn’t have therapy, in order to take the pressure of that area and help it heal faster, because the goal is to have the flap doctor lift his restrictions when he sees him next November. Gary agreed to that. This evening he said, “The photos you took of my butt with your cell phone camera can be posted on the web, right?” “Yes,” I replied slowly, wondering if he was worried I had put them on the blog (I do have SOME limits as to what I put on there ;-)). “So you can take one each week and we can compare and see the changes (in the flap).” “Oh,” I teased, “I guess you mean you want me to email them to you. I was wondering if you wanted me to put them on the blog so everyone can keep track of the progress." “That might be interesting,” Gary said, “but let’s not do that.” So I guess it will have to be left to your imaginations ;-)

August 30, 2006

Whoo boy, did I get a dirty look this morning from someone in the waiting room at the rehab place when I let Gary struggle to get the door open. She didn’t seem at all mollified when I explained that Gary was practicing and that if he had wanted my help, he would have asked for it. Oh, well.

Gary did the same exercises as before plus a couple new ones, namely, reversing one of the cable exercises by pulling up and out, and walking his fingers up the side of a doorway to develop his range of motion. On one of the old exercises, rows, he was able to increase the weight by two plates! (Not because he is that much stronger, he says, but because his shoulders aren’t bothering him.) Plus, no one had to hang on to his shoulders as he did the rowing exercise, indicating that he had better stability.

He talked to the therapist about some information he is supposed to get from his doctor for the university, information about what his limitations are for his job and what accommodations need to be made. He has no limitations regarding his duties, as far as any of us see, but in talking about his office situation, the therapist recommended he move down to the second floor of the math building, if possible (that is the lowest floor on which there are offices, at least for math people, I believe; the second floor is accessible by a ramp). The concern is that if the elevator would go out – as it occasionally has – he would be unable to get to his third-floor office, or from it if already in it, without someone bumping him up or down the stairs (and I’m afraid that someone isn’t going to be me! It would have to be someone much stronger.). And in case of fire, he shouldn’t use the elevator, so again, this would not be a good situation to be in. Fortunately, later in the day, Phil Zenor, whose office is on the second floor, reiterated his offer to change offices with Gary, and Gary took him up on it.

The garage people, who'd come about 8am, were still hard at work on the breezeway when I returned home after dropping Gary off at the office. Minutes after I arrived, Janet Rogers came, and soon after that Donna Bennett also came, and these gracious people helped me start in on the project of sorting the clothes that had been put into plastic bags (the vast majority of these clothes came, I believe, from a portable wardrobe that had been in the study before the new floor was put in there). I managed to throw away a bunch of old shoes and a couple bags of old clothes, and to collect a smaller bag of clothes that hopefully are in good enough condition for Goodwill. There is probably some more of the clothes I could throw/give away, but I haven’t made myself do it yet; I’ll have Gary look at what’s left and see if he can persuade me to do so.

Janet figures the beastie has departed because none of the sunflower seeds outside the trap were disturbed. She got the window to the dining room closed (I was unable to do so!) so that the thing doesn’t invite itself back in.

I left for a massage, leaving Janet and Donna to tidy up (oh, the guilt ;-)). It was great to once again get my massage from my long-time massage therapist. Thanks, Connie, you are good for my body and my soul, though as you probably would guess, I am wiped from the massage! (I told Gary you said to tell him that I was the best wife in the world ;-). Actually, that brought tears to his eyes and he said I was, and thanked me. At bedtime, as I got his pants off him, he patted me and said, “You’re the best wife in the world, but you’re nobody’s missus.” (I hate being called “Mrs.” because it makes me feel like an appendage, so whenever anybody uses that title with me, I correct them and sometimes add, “I’m nobody’s missus.”) I asked him what had brought that to his mind, and he shrugged and said it was an interesting juxtaposition.)

After the massage I picked Gary up from a math meeting (since he was sitting right up front, I couldn’t be too surreptitious about this!). When we got home I found Janet and Donna had finished clearing off shelves in one of the closets in the small bedroom and had even put some stacking racks in there so as to make it more usable for clothes storage. Blackjack seems to have survived the sorting ordeal – earlier in the afternoon I had seen him run on his belly into that bedroom to hide under the bed (he didn’t go outside because the garage people were out there, and at the time he scrambled into the bedroom Janet and Donna were in the front part of the house so he probably thought he’d be “safe”).

Oh, and Janet, remember how you said the back on the ergonomic “Balance Ball Chair” didn’t look quite right? When I looked at the one owned by one of the massage therapists I realized I had put the back on backwards (hey, I was a set-theoretic topologist, not a geometric topologist ;-)).

After Norma told me in an email what yesterday’s gift was, I felt like smacking my head, having had a vague feeling as I was writing yesterday’s blog that I should know what the gift was. Norma explains: “The last gift that you opened is a scrimshaw (which is usually done on ivory or a whale's tooth) on a musk-ox horn. (A musk ox looks a little like a cross between a buffalo and a cow and apparently it is native to Alaska.)”

Tonight Gary viewed some of the Flightseeing images that Phyllis and Donne sent; he said it was quite impressive!

All for today.

August 29, 2006

This morning when we looked at the wheelchair, both Gary and I noticed the cushion looked low in air. I never had to fill the cushion we had at Shepherd, and I have filled this one at least once a week, so we think there is something wrong with it and will contact our supplier. After Gary got in the chair, it slipped sideways on him, and looking at it we were frightened to see that either the wheel was coming loose or the wheel lock (brake) had slipped. We got Gary transferred back to the bed as soon as we could and figured out it was the wheel lock. Gary took a hammer to it, and that fixed it, at least temporarily.

Mechanical things continued to be our bane today. Whenever I apply the brakes on the car or turned a corner in it, I hear a squealing sound. Plus, water is flooding the floor of the car on the passenger side, coming from in front of where Gary’s feet would be. It is cool water, so Gary thinks it has to do with the AC. So I will have to take the car in to get it checked out. At least this car stuff has happened after getting back from Atlanta.

I talked with both the foreman of the “garage people” and the owner today, the latter person coming to the house. They again both said that Joe was wonderful to work with, the owner adding that we were blessed to have such a generous relative who postponed his own work to come out and help us out – and that we were also blessed to have such generous friends in the math department who gave of their time to aid us as well. Don’t we know it. We are also blessed to have connected – or re-connected – with so many people who sent us their good wishes and shows of support through their emails, cards, letters, and visits. I know I’ve said this before, but you really can’t say thanks too many times, can you?

In terms of work on the garage, the final inspection by the city was made today, and work will begin on building the breeze way between the garage and the house tomorrow (so Gary won’t ever get rained on). That is expected to be finished by Thursday. The owner also said he plans to clean off the cement of all the red clay that accumulated on it during the construction, and he will partially fill the drains with cement so the water level is raised to the level of the pipe and water doesn’t stand (and thus provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes).

In the afternoon, Gary asked me to come into the shower and see what I thought about “the curtain problem,” that is, how he would keep his chair dry if he were taking a shower alone. He parked his chair next to the shower bench, and then wheeled it in a way that would imitate what he would be able to do from the bench. We decided it would work to put in a curtain perpendicular to the existing one, but then I suggested he go ahead and make the transfer to the bench and manipulate the chair from there to see what he would really be able to do. He said it was a good thing I had suggested that, because it turned out the problem wasn’t a problem. He was able to push the chair far enough out of the shower area that he could close the existing curtain on it, but the chair was close enough that he could reach it without any danger of overbalancing and bring it back to him.

Gary opened package number thirteen tonight, the last one except for a still-to-come video of the Flightseeing trip. I confess we’re not sure what the little gift is – a replica of a moose antler perhaps? It does have carved moose on it, but for all we know it could be a replica of a whale’s tooth.

The postcard included by Norma said she wanted Gary to know she thought of him the whole time during the trip, which made Gary cry. The thoughtful little packages you all put together for him touched him very much. Thank you.

August 28, 2006

Well, sister Janet and brother-in-law John, that has to be the most unusual flower arrangement I’ve ever seen, let alone gotten – a flower cake! Wow, that is really something, thank you so much! (Gary, however, was hoping there really was a cake under the flowers.) Everyone else, see the blog for a picture of it.


And mom, thank you for the stuffed animal (blue-footed booby bird) from the World Wildlife Association and for all the mementos and pictures of my childhood – it was fun looking at the snaps of me from babyhood through high school. And Laura, thank you for your postcard from Sweden.

This morning Gary had a therapy session. The therapist asked him what was new, and he told her that for the first time he’d made it through the rehab place’s door without my help :-), which was true – it’s probably the hardest door he’s ever encountered. (It was kind of funny in an ironic way last week when we told her about shopping for mattresses and going to drug stores and so forth, she had asked if he’d had any accessibility problems anywhere, and he’d said, “Yeah, getting into here.” The ramp that they have in front of the building doesn’t level off at the top, so Gary has to get up it and take an immediate left while it is still sloping, and then at the entrance to the rehab place they have this really heavy door that slams shut the moment you let go of it; plus the sidewalk slopes slightly backward in front of the door, so he can’t let go of his wheels to grab the door or otherwise he’d roll backwards.)

I told the therapist that it was also new that yesterday he’d done his first-ever transfer to the shower bench with me only supervising, but that we had a question about what he would do with his wheelchair when he gets to the point where he can take a shower alone. After talking about this for a while, and after he and I transferred him to the exercise mat not from our usual position but from the angle we would take if the mat were a shower bench and then he and the therapist maneuvering the chair about as if he were in the shower, we came up with a plan A and a plan B. Plan A is that if there is room for him to maneuver the chair just slightly to the side, we could hang another shower curtain perpendicular to the one that is in there and Gary would pull that between the shower bench and his wheelchair (the hope being that that would keep his chair dry). If that doesn’t work, plan B is to push the chair forward out of the shower area and to have some kind of rope on it so Gary can reel it back in after the shower. If it can be accomplished, Plan A would be easier (plan B would also involve having to maneuver the chair so he can unlock both brakes after his transfer to the bench in addition to pushing the chair forward and pulling it back). We will have to test that.

Gary’s shoulders were feeling good this morning, and he was again able to add weight to some of his cable exercises! He did great, and the therapist said he looked noticeably stronger. I hope his shoulders continue to improve (I’m speaking specifically with regard to the arthritis, tendinitis).

After therapy, we stopped at a place where I picked up a stability ball for my exercise routine (I started back on that last week and I intend to continue doing it three times per week). Then we stopped at the grocery store where I got sushi for Gary’s lunch, and then I dropped him off at the university, where he stayed until five, meeting with a student and going to the Continuum Theory seminar.

When I got home after dropping Gary off, I found the beastie trap had been tripped, but no beastie. Darn. I wasn’t absolutely sure if any sunflower seeds had been eaten, so I put cat food in there along with the sunflower seeds, to see if that would lure the thing. Hopefully I won’t find Blackjack’s head stuck in there tomorrow morning.

After I picked Gary up, we decided to ask one of yesterday’s interviewees if she’d like the housecleaning job. She had impressed us with her interview, acting very professional. She said she’d take the job, so we’re hoping this works out.

In the evening Gary opened package number twelve – a postcard of Alaska and a booklet, “Alaska, a Scenic Wonderland,” with nice pictures. On the postcard Norma noted that she and Phyllis agreed that they could deal with being on a cruise for a long time, that there was something about being waited on hand and foot that really appealed to them.

I think it runs in the family.

JUST kidding, and I assume that you know that I am. Not that this is related ;-), but after I helped Gary transfer into bed tonight and he said he was tired and was just going to lay down (rather than work at getting his own legs up on the bed), I asked him when he was going to practice doing for himself the part after the transfer, since he was always too tired to do it at bedtime. I said I knew he wasn’t being lazy but –

He broke in and finished the thought, saying, “but how will I ever learn if I don’t practice, right?” Then he said he knew he needed to practice, but at night when he was tired and because it was no simple matter to get his legs on the bed himself and when he had a nice wife who would do it for him the temptation was to just have me do it. I guess I could have displayed “tough love” right then, but I suggested we practice that part on non-therapy days early in the day when he was fresh, so that is what we’ll do for now until he is more proficient at it. Or until I get tougher ;-)

August 27, 2006

No beeping, so I think we’ve got that problem solved, thanks to the Rogers!

I haven’t had to help Gary with his bowel program for several weeks now, but I did this morning. Remember how I told you theoretically it takes about twenty minutes? Well, evidently that’s when you don’t have flap restrictions and can do it sitting up and use gravity to your advantage – Gary typically takes a half hour, though one time it took fifty minutes. It took an hour and a half this morning, though I only had to help the last twenty minutes or so (ready for some bathroom humor? How did the mathematician treat his constipation? He worked it out with a pencil.) “By the way, Happy Birthday,” Gary said during the procedure. “Gee, thanks, what a present,” I replied. We both started laughing. Then he asked me to bring him breakfast in bed because he wanted to do a wet run. I told him something was wrong with this picture ;-).

Breakfast finished, we did the wet run. For the first time, Gary transferred to and from the shower bench using the transfer board and me just supervising. That went fine, but we haven’t figured out what he would do with the wheelchair if he were to try to shower on his own (which won’t be for some time, though); he would need to push it out of the way so it wouldn’t get wet, but not so far that he couldn’t get it back to him; maybe the OT when she comes to our house, as she’s said she would, will have some suggestions.

It still takes a lot of effort for him to shower, so I helped him with it, doing a little bit more than usual, actually – we were expecting someone to come for a housekeeping interview at 11, and it looked like we were going to be cutting it close (that person never showed up).

Instead of him transferring back to the bed after the shower, he stayed in the chair and I dressed his flap and got his t.e.d. hose and pants on him that way, him helping. I don’t think it took any more time, and it saved us a couple transfers, so that was good to learn. After this, I half-joked I needed a nap now. He said, “Poor pookie – you can write on your blog how much fun you had on the morning of your birthday.” ;-)

I heard the answering machine go off, and I recognized my sister Janet’s and brother-in-law John’s voices singing Happy Birthday, so I picked up. We talked for a time, and I found out it was they who had sent the flowers I had missed delivery of yesterday – I’ll look forward to getting them tomorrow, and also to something from my mom, which Janet said was also coming.

Janet said she was amazed Gary was back at work already. She then pointed out that the fact that he was was due to me as well as him; I hadn’t thought about it quite that way, so that made me feel good. Janet and John then talked to Gary for a bit.

After the call, Gary handed me a letter he had written for me a couple weeks back and had saved until now, the gist of it being what it means to him how I have devoted myself to seeing that he gets back to as much of a normal life as possible, and that he knew before the accident that I loved him but he hadn’t realized how much and he hoped to repay me in some way (adding, without me having an accident or something too of course!). The letter made me cry.

(He also told me he bought me some pairs of drawstring cargo pants, which are what I wanted, and that he would buy me a new mattress when I decide what one I want.)

Janet Rogers came over with a Hav-A-Heart trap that John Hinrichsen had found in his attic (and may belong to Donna Bennett). She also brought some sunflower seeds and showed me how to set the trap -- let's hope the beastie goes for it.

Two people came for housekeeping interviews in the afternoon; they both seemed promising, but we’ve made no decision yet.

Later in the afternoon, Gary smiled prettily and asked me if I wanted to take him out for ice cream for my birthday. I gave him a look. “Remember, this is a day for you,” he said. “YOU got to help me with my bowel program, YOU got to help me take a shower, YOU got to bring me breakfast in bed, YOU get to take me out for ice cream, and YOU get to make me dinner.” Funny guy.

(He did note that he would have taken me out somewhere had that made sense, and he did choose something simple – pasta – for dinner, and made his own salad.)

Joe and Dolores called just at that time, so we talked for a while about mattresses and chipmunks and drains and this and that, and then I took Gary out for ice cream.

In the evening, my little sister Di called – so again I got Happy Birthday sung to me. After we talked for awhile and as we made to end the call, she told me to go do something I enjoyed. I told her it was time to go and help Gary stretch. “Do it joyfully,” she said. We laughed.

So, anyway, that’s what I now plan to do. And later, after I help Gary prone, because I get up later than he does, I will joyfully watch a little Remington Steele before going to bed.

Thanks to those of you who sent me birthday greetings!

August 26, 2006

Either it wasn’t the old smoke alarm, or at 5am I was dreaming I heard beeping. I tend to think it was the latter, and hope it was, as I haven’t heard the beeping throughout the rest of the day. (And if you don't know what I am talking about, read yesterday's entry.)

Displaying more energy than a person has a right to ;-), Janet Rogers came over this morning and helped me (or more accurately, I helped her), go through more boxes in the dining room. Progress is visible in the room. We filled up the large garbage can, plus Janet hauled at least a couple wagon-fulls of garbage down to the curb, plus she filled a recycling bin with glass jars. At one point as we worked in the room, the little beastie scurried by, so now I have an eyewitness that it still dwells among us. We didn’t see which way it went, but Janet opened the window in that room again (that task wasn’t easy!) and I opened the doors in the family room, in faint hope that the thing would take the hint. Our low expectations were met: late in the afternoon, Gary wheeled back to the bedroom, and moments later I saw the critter scamper in the other direction past the family room – I’m sure it went back to the dining room.

Janet pointed out a few possible water problems. Water is standing in the drain the garage people recently put in. I don’t think it has rained recently, so I don’t know what that would be from; I’m a little worried about mosquitoes finding it to their liking. Also, the threshold to the side entrance of our house seemed wet, and we can’t figure out why – the garage people put some kind of sealant there. Finally, there seemed to be water standing under the sink. I don’t know if these occurrences are related.

While Janet and I worked on sorting, there was a flower delivery: a vase of sunflowers from Gary for my birthday – unique and pretty (the flowers, I mean. Well, Gary too ;-)). Interestingly, the delivery man from the flower shop grew these sunflowers on his nearby farm! See the blog for a picture of them.


I got a message on the answering machine from another flower shop that they had a delivery for me, but I didn’t hear the message until too late, so I guess it will remain a mystery until Monday to find out what else I was sent and from whom.

After Janet left, I was ready for a nap ;-), but it was not to be. After lunch Gary and I needed to go to the grocery store and the health food store. I did take out time for relaxation after that (okay, I admit it – I watched part of a Remington Steele episode).

In checking my email, I found out the Prague postcards were instigated by Peter Nyikos. Thanks, Peter. Peter also left comments on the blog about travel to Prague and accessibility. You can see his comments by going to the August 7th or 9th entries.

Gary cut his hair this afternoon, and he asked me to finish up the back of it. I thought he surely was joking, but he wasn’t. He promised not to move ;-). I suppose it doesn’t look as bad as the last time I cut it ;-) but if this keeps up I’m going to have to find a book or something that tells how to shape the back of a man’s hair – or maybe I should just go around and stare at some napes.

Before starting our evening routine, Gary transferred to the bed using the board, me just supervising. He’s been doing this since last Monday, and it has gone well. He said he thought he was ready to do this without me being in the room, like if he wants to take a nap. I reminded him that he that isn’t all there is to it – he hasn’t been practicing what comes after the transfer. To begin with, lately he hasn’t been practicing getting his own legs up on the bed. And what about his shoes, I asked him. Is he going to take his own shoes off? If so, how (he hasn’t done that in bed before, and he’ll need to leave them on until after the transfer). If he thinks he wants to leave his shoes on during the nap, we need to test that it’s all right now for him to do so – at Shepherd they had him take his shoes off when he was lying on some surface because he was getting red spots (pressure sores) on his feet when he left them on.

He also would have to position and pad himself off properly once in the bed, and he hasn’t practiced that in this sort of situation; it would probably mean he’d need to keep the far bed rail on so he can use that to prop a pillow against his back to keep his hip up and the pressure off his sacrum.

He admitted he hadn’t thought about all the rest of this stuff, and that by the time he accomplished all of that, he might not be in the mood to take a nap!

So, anyway, tonight after he transferred and I mentioned all this, I put the leg bands on him (if alone, he’d have to do that himself in his chair) to see if they’d be of some help to him to get his legs up. They were – the goal is to get his legs up without their help, of course, but for now they make the job easier.

He was too tired to practice the rest of it tonight, though, so then we just went into our regular routine.

August 26, 2006

Either it wasn’t the old smoke alarm, or at 5am I was dreaming I heard beeping. I tend to think it was the latter, and hope it was, as I haven’t heard the beeping throughout the rest of the day. (And if you don't know what I am talking about, read yesterday's entry.)

Displaying more energy than a person has a right to ;-), Janet Rogers came over this morning and helped me (or more accurately, I helped her), go through more boxes in the dining room. Progress is visible in the room. We filled up the large garbage can, plus Janet hauled at least a couple wagon-fulls of garbage down to the curb, plus she filled a recycling bin with glass jars. At one point as we worked in the room, the little beastie scurried by, so now I have an eyewitness that it still dwells among us. We didn’t see which way it went, but Janet opened the window in that room again (that task wasn’t easy!) and I opened the doors in the family room, in faint hope that the thing would take the hint. Our low expectations were met: late in the afternoon, Gary wheeled back to the bedroom, and moments later I saw the critter scamper in the other direction past the family room – I’m sure it went back to the dining room.

Janet pointed out a few possible water problems. Water is standing in the drain the garage people recently put in. I don’t think it has rained recently, so I don’t know what that would be from; I’m a little worried about mosquitoes finding it to their liking. Also, the threshold to the side entrance of our house seemed wet, and we can’t figure out why – the garage people put some kind of sealant there. Finally, there seemed to be water standing under the sink. I don’t know if these occurrences are related.

While Janet and I worked on sorting, there was a flower delivery: a vase of sunflowers from Gary for my birthday – unique and pretty (the flowers, I mean. Well, Gary too ;-)). Interestingly, the delivery man from the flower shop grew these sunflowers on his nearby farm! See the blog for a picture of them. I got a message on the answering machine from another flower shop that they had a delivery for me, but I didn’t hear the message until too late, so I guess it will remain a mystery until Monday to find out what else I was sent and from whom.

After Janet left, I was ready for a nap ;-), but it was not to be. After lunch Gary and I needed to go to the grocery store and the health food store. I did take out time for relaxation after that (okay, I admit it – I watched part of a Remington Steele episode).

In checking my email, I found out the Prague postcards were instigated by Peter Nyikos. Thanks, Peter. Peter also left comments on the blog about travel to Prague and accessibility. You can see these by going to the August 7th or 9th entries.

Gary cut his hair this afternoon, and he asked me to finish up the back of it. I thought he surely was joking, but he wasn’t. He promised not to move ;-). I suppose it doesn’t look as bad as the last time I cut it ;-) but if this keeps up I’m going to have to find a book or something that tells how to shape the back of a man’s hair – or maybe I should just go around and stare at some napes.

Before starting our evening routine, Gary transferred to the bed using the board, me just supervising. He’s been doing this since last Monday, and it has gone well. He said he thought he was ready to do this without me being in the room, like if he wants to take a nap. I reminded him that he that isn’t all there is to it – he hasn’t been practicing what comes after the transfer. To begin with, lately he hasn’t been practicing getting his own legs up on the bed. And what about his shoes, I asked him. Is he going to take his own shoes off? If so, how (he hasn’t done that in bed before, and he’ll need to leave them on until after the transfer). If he thinks he wants to leave his shoes on during the nap, we need to test that it’s all right now for him to do so – at Shepherd they had him take his shoes off when he was lying on some surface because he was getting red spots (pressure sores) on his feet when he left them on.

He also would have to position and pad himself off properly once in the bed, and he hasn’t practiced that in this sort of situation; it would probably mean he’d need to keep the far bed rail on so he can use that to prop a pillow against his back to keep his hip up and the pressure off his sacrum.

He admitted he hadn’t thought about all the rest of this stuff, and that by the time he accomplished all of that, he might not be in the mood to take a nap!

So, anyway, tonight after he transferred and I mentioned all this, I put the leg bands on him (if alone, he’d have to do that himself in his chair) to see if they’d be of some help to him to get his legs up. They were – the goal is to get his legs up without their help, of course, but for now they make the job easier.

He was too tired to practice the rest of it tonight, though, so then we just went into our regular routine.

August 25, 2006

Last night Gary discovered a few of his pepper plants, which had been moved to behind the garage (we were probably told they were there, but it slipped our minds). They were rather parched, so I watered them – the tabasco plant now once again looks impressive, with its tiny red and green peppers. I also discovered three rosemary plants back there, so have put those on the patio – otherwise, out of my sight, out of my mind (no comments, please ;-)).

This morning I shot awake about five, dreaming that I’d heard our smoke alarm go off and our house was on fire. I got up to check, but everything was fine. At six-fifteen, I woke again, again thinking I heard the beeping. I got up. Nothing. A little after eight, I heard a beep again. But it wasn’t coming from the hallway where the smoke alarm is, so I was totally confused. Gary, with his hearing loss, heard none of these beeps. I checked the house again. Again nothing.

Just before we left to go to Gary’s therapy session this morning, the garage people pulled into the driveway, blocking my car. I told them I needed to leave, and a man said he’d move the car – then he introduced himself as the owner of the company putting up the garage. He told us they were putting in a drain on the opposite side of the garage from the one they’d already put in, and that after that they’d backfill and top with pea gravel all the ground that had gotten torn up (it turned out they ran out of gravel and will finish that next week).

The therapy session consisted of the same exercises as last time – Gary was able to add another plate to some of the cable exercises! The therapist also made some leg bands for Gary (circles of a cloth-covered foam, held together with velcro) to take home. These he can fasten around his lower thighs and grab onto them to help him maneuver his legs while he’s on his back – he wouldn’t need to use them in a double bed because he would have room to roll onto his side and then he can grab a leg and pull, but in the hospital bed there is no room for him to roll. (You remember I told you what he has to do to roll, right? Swing his arms from one side to the other, his head and trunk following the motion, until he gains enough momentum to roll? If he tried that in the hospital bed, he’d roll right off it.)

After therapy, we went to the university and got Gary’s keys to his office from the Access Control office. I tried to get the keys just by showing Gary’s ID, but of course that didn’t work. When I explained that Gary used a wheelchair and that I would have to put it together to get Gary into the building (not to mention that I’d have to help Gary transfer both ways and take the chair apart again, all for the few minutes required to get the key), the man immediately agreed to come out to the car to get Gary’s signature and hand him the key. After getting the key, we went to the math department, and I left Gary there for the day – and I didn’t even stick around to watch him go up the ramp ;-).

I went back to the house to discover the garage people still there, including the business owner. The shingles were being put on the garage, the cement around the garage was being hosed down (to get rid of all that southern red clay that had gotten smeared over it these past weeks from the ground being dug up), and dead branches from a tree in the driveway that someone had obviously parked too close to earlier in the summer were being trimmed away. The owner asked if I’d like the branches of trees lining the driveway and those overhanging the garage to be trimmed as well, and I said sure :-). A little later, my doorbell rang, and the owner presented me with a large basket of candy, saying he appreciated our business. He then said how much he thought of my brother, saying there weren’t enough people in the world like him, that he was a man of few words but had a big heart.

Indeed.

I went into the diningroom/storage room to get something, and “guess who” scooted past me. Damn, the thing is still in there. I suppose one of those “Hav-A-Heart” traps is next. Stupid cats aren’t interested in the critters once they’ve brought them into the house.

Before leaving for my writers group meeting, I noticed that the messages on our phone read “full.” I didn’t bother listening to any – finding a housekeeper is Gary’s job ;-). After my meeting I picked Gary up. He told me he’d had lunch about a block down the pedestrian walkway in front of the math building – at Einstein’s Bagels. He’s not sure how he’ll maneuver in there if it gets crowded – I can’t think of the name for it, but like there are at airports, they have a roped-off corridor that one has to follow to get to the counter, and it’s too narrow for his wheelchair; since the place wasn’t crowded at the time he went, though, he could go straight up to the counter.

He said he’d had a good day, but it was a little tiring. He showed me a couple of postcards he’d gotten from Toposym – the Topology conference in Prague – from people sending their good wishes for his continued recovery. I counted eighty-one signatures. :-)

When we got home, we discovered more cards to the two of us – from his mom, my mom, and Gary’s brother Bob. I got birthday checks from both my mom and his, so now I’m really raking it in ;-). Thanks for the very nice cards, moms, and no, Mom G, Gary will not be making me a spaghetti dinner for my birthday ;-).

Gary opened package number ten this evening: from the Flightseeing trip over Mt. McKinley. There were a couple postcards, a brochure of the flight, and a little pin commemorating it. Norma said she thought the flight was the most awesome thing she’d ever done, and thanked Gary for suggesting it be part of the trip.

About eight p.m., just as we were going to start our evening routine, I heard three beeps and told Gary about them. He wheeled out into the family room, and at about eight-fifteen, a single beep sounded again – this time he heard it. But he agreed it wasn’t coming from where the smoke alarm was. On the off-chance the Rogers might know something about it (I recalled that Jack had put in a new smoke alarm for us), I called them. They returned the call shortly, and Janet suggested it might be the old alarm beeping, indicating the battery was low. Fortunately she knew where the old alarm was (otherwise I would have gone nuts ;-)), and Gary was able to open the back of it and take out the old battery. Hopefully that solves the problem. (Gary said he was glad the Rogers thought of this and knew where the old smoke alarm was, as otherwise, he was sure, knowing me, I wouldn’t have slept at all but lay there listening for the next beep; he is undoubtedly right ;-).)

All for tonight.

August 24, 2006

This morning Janet Rogers came over to help sort through some boxes in the dining/storage room – the math volunteers had had to get everything out of the back rooms on short notice when the people came to lay the floors, and things had been put into boxes placed in the storage room and upstairs. No ground squirrel ran out of that room, so we’re hoping that means it found its way out the window.

After I paid another visit to the chiropractor, I stopped into the health food store – and ran into my long-time massage therapist! She has been traveling these past few weeks (I’m assuming that’s with the swim team) but will be back in town to give me a massage next Tuesday – I am so looking forward to that. I also talked for a short time with one of the workers in the store; both he and my massage therapist sent their best wishes to Gary and said we’ve been on their minds.

Our “big” news of the day is Blackjack didn’t shoot off the couch and out the cat door when Gary rolled up in the wheelchair to pet him. We’d been wondering just how long it was going take before this cat would allow Gary to get near him in the chair. Gary has hardly gotten to pet Blackjack at all, because the cat also won’t stay for long on the hospital bed when I bring him over to Gary for petting. Tigger usually doesn’t stick around when Gary wheels by in the chair, either, but he still likes to get up in the bed when Gary and I are going through the evening routine, though he’s not there as often as he was when we first got home – I guess we’re being taken for granted, again ;-).

Gary opened package number nine tonight: a postcard of Matanuska Glacier and a carved moose. Near the glacier, his family rafted through thirty-five degree water, which Norma said you could feel through your layers of clothes and wet suit when the spray hit you (Brrr!). She said that while rafting they saw a mother moose and its calf.

Tomorrow our ad appears in the paper for housecleaning. No doubt we’ll again get about a hundred calls. We’re not looking forward to the process of choosing someone to clean the house.

August 23, 2006

Oops, correction to yesterday: Hubbard Glacier was the topic of package number seven.

Today Gary had another therapy session, and again we all started off with the various kinds of wrist curls. For some reason Gary’s left wrist has started bothering him, so he had to skip the regular curls on that hand. Naturally nobody but me could keep track of the repetitions, and the therapist asked Gary if she could borrow me to count repetitions for all her clients. I think not!

After the curls, she had him do what she called wheelchair pushups and which the Shepherd person had called scapula extensions. She said she could tell he was stronger at them already! He did thirty of them, then held that position while doing a weight shift.

Next he went to the cable machine, and she had him do some cross-cable work: while sitting sideways to the machine, he pulled the cable down and across his body with the arm nearest the machine for thirty reps (targeting the shoulder flexors), then pulled the cable down and out with his far arm, twisting his neck and head with each rep (targeting shoulder extensors). Ten reps with the weaker, left shoulder; fifteen with the right.

Next came punches using the cable machine – he added another plate on that exercise to what he could do with his right arm on Monday, and in fact even a second plate, though he had to cut the reps from thirty down to twelve for that set.

Lastly came seated rows, thirty reps.

After the session, I stopped at Paneera’s to get Gary a sandwich, and then I took him to the university. After we did the transfer out of the car, he toodled off by himself. Yes, I really let him out of my sight unaccompanied (well, okay, I surreptitiously backed up the car in order to see that he made it safely inside the building). I was dismayed, however, to learn as he got out of the car that he’d forgotten to bring his cell phone (so I smacked him with the chicken fat ;-)). True, he didn’t plan to go anywhere but the math building, but still . . . .

We had a little discussion about the cell phone before bedtime, too, similar to one we had a previous night. Gary doesn’t see the need for him to have the phone by his bed at night since he has the walkie-talkie link to me, and tonight he pointed out that the reason he’d forgotten to bring the cell phone to the math dept. was because it was on the bedtable, not in his fanny pack. I, however, want him to have the phone at bedside in case there was an emergency and something happened to the walkie-talkie so he couldn't reach me, or in case something happened to me – then he’d be stuck in bed, unable to help. He said he could get out of the bed in an emergency by using the transfer board, and I said that he’d also have to take down the bed rails, which he’s never done, and by the time he did all this and made it to the phone it could be too late for me. He said what were the odds of that, and I replied with what had been the odds that he’d be in a bad car accident. He still wasn’t convinced, but he accepted my solution of keeping the cell phone in his fanny pack but putting the fanny pack on his wheelchair, which we keep next to the bed.

When I picked Gary up at the math dept., he told me that the day had gone well. He gave the seminar in Topology, and he’d really enjoyed it – said he hadn’t been nervous at all. He’d thought he was going to have to use transparencies on an overhead projector, but it turned out he could reach high enough to use the board. The only “mishap” occurred when he dropped the chalk. Someone got up to retrieve it for him, but Gary said that he could get it himself, that he’s had plenty of practice in picking up things he’s dropped ;-). Actually, at first picking up things from the floor wasn’t easy for him to do, but he says now it is – unless what he’s dropped is heavy, of course, or if he drops it on the footplate of the wheelchair; since he’s not allowed to bend forward, he can’t retrieve such an item. But anything of reasonable weight that he can wheel up to sideways, he can get off the floor.

Meanwhile, while he was at the office, I went home and held an intelligent conversation with the electrician who was working in the garage. “Are you having sheet rock put in the garage?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I replied. “Where is the electrical pipe buried?” he asked. “I don’t know,” I replied. I called Joe, twice, for the answers, finally turning the phone over to the electrician so the two of them could converse.

I also called the hotel in Birmingham where I’d stayed and asked them what kind of mattress they use. Turns out it is custom-made for them, and available to the public. I haven’t checked on the price yet, but that may be a possibility – I had thought the mattress very comfortable.

I also did things like my exercise program, and a little organizing, and a little revising of my mystery story. Very little. I may have to have my critique group kick me in the butt so I can quit procrastinating on that. Part of me feels I’ve earned a little goof-off time (“Things have been a little intense these past four months,” she understates), the other part thinks I’d do better to get back into it.

Gary opened Alaska package number eight tonight: Anchorage. There the family went on what nephew David called the easiest hike in Alaska – and which Norma said she thought was the toughest hike she’d ever been on. She said she wished she had eaten an energy bar beforehand. I guess that is why today’s package contained an Alaskan chocolate bar ;-). She also sent along a Alaska Bald Eagle bookmark, which Gary gave to me – hope you guys don’t mind ;-)

Well, that’s it for today, except to answer someone’s question as to what a ground squirrel is: a small striped semiterrestrial eastern American squirrel with cheek pouches, according to a dictionary. I haven’t heard the little critter today, so I’m hoping it went out the window.

August 22, 2006

Today I tried a chiropractor different from the one I had been seeing just before the accident. He was recommended to me by two massage therapists I’ve seen, though one of them commented that I could just ignore the spiel I would be given, that the results were good. The chiropractor did give me his spiel, and he asked me if I followed the theory. I smiled and told him “the proof is in the pudding.” (Bold of me, yes? :-) I’ve heard too many theories in my time.)

We’ll see how it goes. Despite the theorizing, the actual adjustment was the same as what the other chiropractors did.

When I got back to the house, the garage people were doing more painting. I had been thinking of asking one of them to open a window in the kitchennete to see if the ground squirrel could be persuaded to leave by it – when I had chased the thing out of the poinsettia, it had kept on trying to crash through that closed window instead of going through the open door; I had tried to open the window then, but it was painted shut. While I was at the chiropractor, Joe had called and left a message on my cell phone. He suggested opening a window in the storage room/dining room where the critter had taken up residence (there was a “duh” moment – I hadn’t thought of that). Anyway, I wasn’t actually sure the beastie was still in the house – I was hoping my poinsettia/cat food trick had lured it outdoors. I went into the storage room to see if I could open that window myself before asking the manly men to do it. As I went to the window, something shot past me, and I nearly shot through the roof – yes, it was still in there. So I got one of the garage guys to open the windows in both those rooms. I hope this works.

After lunch, Gary and I went to a couple furniture stores so I could test out some mattresses. I. am. so. confused :-(. I laid on some awhile, and though I could tell differences, I wasn’t sure what I would actually like to sleep on (and I didn’t think the salesman would let me sleep there overnight to test out the mattresses). The stores we went to had Serta mattresses, and when we got home Gary looked up reviews of these mattresses and found they said that after a few months Sertas form “troughs.” Sigh. So I’ve gotten nowhere on that.

After the furniture stores, (well, after the ice cream stop Gary insisted on after the furniture stores ;-)) we went to a pharmacy where Gary hoped to get his prescription supplies. The store’s handicapped parking spot was designed for the handicapped person to get out on the driver’s side – there was a ramp to the building on the left side of the spot, which forced me to park on the right side of the spot, which meant there was no room for me to put Gary’s wheelchair between our car and a neighboring car, should there be one there, which fortunately there wasn’t. I just thought that spot oddly designed. Later, on our way out of the store, I was letting Gary get the door himself when a woman came from behind us and, noting I had my hands full of packages, asked if she could help get the door. We told her, no, that Gary was practicing. She said I was lucky, that her husband was in a wheelchair and he wouldn’t do anything for himself. She sounded very beleaguered. Gary and I told her she should show her husband some tough love.

It turned out the pharmacy didn’t carry the prescription supplies Gary needed, and rather than order them for him (as Gary’s physician had thought they would), they sent us to a medical supply place (too bad we hadn’t known that beforehand, as the place was on the other side of town back where the furniture stores were). It took about an hour to set up an account and for them to find in the order book the supplies Gary needed, but now that that’s done his order will automatically be put through every month (though if he needs to make any changes, he can call in a week before the order is sent out).

We were both pooped after this. For me, it was both due to the actual shopping – I hate shopping, and most especially when it’s unproductive – and due to the fact that I had had to take Gary’s forty pound wheelchair apart and pick it up and put it in the car, and take it out of the car and put it together ten times in three hours on this very hot day (almost made me wish we had a van already). For Gary, it was the heat, the extended outing, and the ten transfers.

Not entirely unrelated, Gary decided to not get the power-assist wheels at this point in time. Transfers are non-trivial right now, and if he were to want the wheels on his chair, say to go to a graduate council meeting across campus, he’d have to get someone to help him transfer to an office chair or something, then change the wheels for him, most likely, because they are twenty-some pounds apiece, then help him transfer back into the wheelchair; then he’d toodle across campus. It’ll be less of a rigamarole when his transfers are better. He said for now he’d just get someone to drive him, but I told him I had seen a bus on campus with a handicapped symbol that seemed to indicate the bus had a lift, and I thought maybe he could use that to get to such meetings. He is going to look into that.

In the evening, Gary opened package number six from Norma. It contained a postcard of beautiful Hubbard Glacier and a little box containing a genuine Tip of the Iceberg (well, that’s what it says). And don’t worry, Norma, though Gary is sorry he couldn’t make the trip, he is enjoying getting these gifts – they don’t make him feel sad. He thinks you all did a wonderful job of putting together these little surprises for him, and he is very touched by it.

August 21, 2006

Today Gary had another rehab session. The therapist had him do the same exercises as before, with the addition of lat pulldowns. She also told him to start incorporating those scapula extensions that the PT at Shepherd had told him to do (and which he had been doing haphazardly), telling him to do at least ten repetitions every time he did a depression weight shift (she then had him do three sets of ten – that’s the exercise where after you lift your seated body up by your hands, you do the extra “push-down” of the shoulders). The therapist told him that it would be by developing the muscles used in this exercise that he would get the extra inch or so of lift he needs in order to do his transfers independently. She emphasized that that was what was going to make the difference between he himself doing the transfers without a board and me having to be there with him, so I think he’ll now be more diligent at that exercise.

Oh, and there was one more exercise. As we were driving away from the rehab place, I said to Gary that I didn’t know if he’d noticed, but I have been trying to drive less jerky, as he claims I do (and I reject that notion ;-)). He said it was all right, that my driving gave him balance practice. Hmm. Maybe they should incorporate that at Shepherd ;-).

We went to the courthouse and waited in line to get a handicapped placard; it looked like it was going to take forever, but the office had mercy on all of us waiting in the line and let the people simply renewing their tags go to a different line. So now we’ve got our placard, which will really help with the parking – up to now, at Kroger’s, for example, we’ve been parking rather far away from the entrance in order to get a space with an empty space next to it that we hope will remain empty until after our return to the car, so Gary has room for his transfers. The placard should also make parking at the university easy, because there are several handicap parking spots very near where Gary would enter the building to go to the math department. That was certainly the case today – we went to the math department from the courthouse, and found such a parking spot.

Like last Wednesday, Gary found his time in the math department today very energizing. He says he so appreciates just having the ability to go there, and to see the people in the department. Speaking of whom, Michel, Jack Brown, and Ed Slaminka dropped by. Gary’s computer monitor wasn’t working correctly, and Michel told him he was getting him a flat monitor, so as to make more room on his desk. Jack and Ed went off to find a replacement for now, and Ed carried it in. Ed then spent time encouraging Gary to go with him to the golf course soon. :-)

Michel asked Gary if he’d be interested in doing a directed reading in the history of math with a student, and after asking me whether I thought that would be okay (the concern being his level of energy), Gary said sure – he likes teaching history of math.

After a couple hours we headed back home. On our answering machine we got the message from our supplier that insurance won’t pay for the power-assist wheels. We will pay for them out-of-pocket.

In the mail we got another anniversary card from Mom G. This one with a check. Woo-hoo! My mom also sent us a check, so now we’re rolling in the dough ;-)

Gary opened package number six from Norma. This one pertained to Hoonah, Alaska. There was a pocket calender entitled “The animals of Alaska,” a postcard of Icy Strait Point, and a ceremonial cedar chip – the chips are evidently traditionally added to the fire at Campfire Point by all visitors to the Strait. Norma said the highlight of the day was seeing a pod of orca whales swimming through the strait.

In preparation for our evening routine, Gary did a transfer using the board while I just supervised. We had talked to the OT this morning about the fact that Gary wants to do this kind of transfer (with the board) unsupervised; he thought that if he practiced it a day or two with me watching, and he did the transfers well, that he could do that kind of transfer with me not around. I wasn’t comfortable with a day or two – I thought a week (at the minimum, but I didn’t say that, because I figured he’d never agree to more than that!). The OT said it was whatever we were comfortable with, but thought it should be more than a day or two. She thought he should try it often enough with me just supervising so that various situations arose and were handled. Like, what if the board slipped slightly (which it sometimes does, maybe because he doesn’t get enough height and sort of takes it with him), would he be able to handle that?

So, our plan is for him to use the board at least a couple times a day with me just supervising, until we’re both comfortable with him trying it unsupervised (or at least as comfortable as I’m going to get – anyone have a periscope I can borrow?). That way, if there’s some time like in the afternoon that he wants to take a nap and I’m off to writing group or something, he can just get himself in and out of the bed.

But the rest of the times he does the transfers, we’ll stick to the way we’ve been doing it, without the board, since he won’t learn to take those big hops without the board without lots of practice at them (not only do the therapists not want him becoming dependent on the extra piece of equipment of the board, but some transfers, like those between surfaces of different height, especially where the difference is great, are not possible to do independently with a board).

All for today.

August 20, 2006

Today’s exciting adventure was to try to get out of the house the damn little ground squirrel that one of the cats dragged in before or on the day of our arrival home. This morning I saw it run from the cat food bowls back into the storage room erstwhile dining room, but I have no hope in finding it there. This afternoon I saw it in the poinsettia plant on the stand in the kitchenette. I closed the doors to the dining room and to the family room, stuffed towels under those doors, and then wondered what the heck to do. I called to Gary, and he came out and suggested I put a big box in the kitchen doorway to hopefully block the critter from going in there (I thought surely it would just leap over the box, but Gary thought it would be dissuaded). The only exit now seemed to be the side entrance to the house. Gary stayed by the kitchen door, and told me to go get the little beastie. Ri-i-i-ght. I poked at the poinsettia with a broom handle, and the thing came flying. I just about went flying too. It ran back toward the family room and storage room, right past Gary, me batting at it with the broom while trying to stay as far away from it as possible, hoping to get it to take the clear exit out the side door. But it kept circling back to the closed doors. Stupid thing. It dove under the towel blocking the storage room, and Gary told me he could just pick it up in the towel. Ri-i-i-ght. Here is a man who can’t keep his balance, and he is going to lean over, pick up the animal, and, keeping it in the towel, wheel over to the door with it? Needless to say, the thing didn’t stay still enough for him to put his hands on it (thank God). He told me *I* could pick it up in the towel. Ri-i-i-ght. I did a lot of hesitating (and as you know, she who hesitates is lost), wondering why I was taking the trapping advice of a man who some years back saw something fly into the chimney, reached out and grabbed it, and got bit by a bat.

At one point I thought I had enough toweling between my precious flesh and the varmint, so on my hands and knees I shuffled the towel along the floor to the side exit then shoved the towel out the door. Nothing. I went outside and picked up the edge of the towel and threw it away from me while at the same time executing a graceful leap backwards. No wild thing put in an appearance (well, other than me). So I guess it had managed to crawl under the towel under the door to the storage room before I ever got a start on moving the towel.

Sigh.

I managed to move the stand with the poinsettia to just outside the side exit doorway. I can always hope the little monstrosity will decide it needs a poinsettia treat bad enough to go out there, and then discover the freedom of the outdoors. . . . With our luck, it’s probably decided it would prefer to be our pet. . . .

Yup. Hours later, I saw the thing back at the cat food bowls. So I put the bowls outside next to the poinsettia. Hopefully we won’t be feeding everything in the neighborhood!

On a different topic, Gary watched the first DVD sent by Donne and Phyllis of the Alaska trip. He says the pics are really nice! I looked through the CD that Janet Rogers brought over of all the photos taken of the house and the volunteers by her and Jo. Very interesting, seeing the house go through its various stages, but my favorite part was looking at all the “action shots” of the volunteers. :-)

This evening Gary opened package number five from Norma: mementos of Sitka, Alaska -- postcards and a package of Alaskan Smoked Salmon. Norma and Bob went on a Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest there, and saw sea otters, humpback whales, bald eagles, and a brown bear. The others of the family went kayaking (Gary saw Donne’s and Phyllis’s pictures of that on the DVD!).

August 19, 2006

Last night Gary proposed that we try out the roll-in shower this morning. All week he’s been saying we should try it out, to which I would reply a neutral “uh-huh” – after all, doing that takes a lot longer than doing the bed bath, at this point adding about an hour to our routine. Besides, I suspect he just wants to have the shower so he can get breakfast in bed first ;-) (he says he needs the energy for the extra effort). This morning as he rolled into the bathroom, he said he was excited to be trying out Joe’s beautifully designed shower (we think it deserves to be photographed for a magazine).

Since the set-up of the shower is different than Shepherd’s and Gary couldn’t get his chair angled quite the same way, we ended up using the transfer board to get him onto the shower bench, so as to make sure he didn’t land on the brake lock of the wheelchair. Everything went fine, though he passed on trying to wash his own lower legs and feet (because he would have to sit near the edge of the slippery shower bench, then grab a leg as he leaned backward on the bench; even with me right there he didn’t feel like trying it). Afterwards, he said the shower felt great.

After breakfast, he called our former housecleaner, who had said she would work for us when we got back. But it turned out that she just recently took on a different job. So now we have to hunt for another cleaning person, and we are not looking forward to that, given our past experiences at it.

Our outing for the day was to Kroger. When we got back, Gary found an email from his primary physician. She told him that after seeing him yesterday, she had been inspired to write a letter to our local state senator, whom she apparently knows, asking him to use his influence to get a stoplight put at the intersection where Gary’s injury took place. I hope the senator pursues it.

My leg has been acting up since coming home, so yesterday I decided I couldn’t wait any longer: I called one of the massage therapists I see, and he agreed to come out to the house today, so I indulged in a massage this afternoon. The drive back from Atlanta aggravated my leg, I know, and I think the fact that I have been doing more sitting since being home may have worsened it too – I barely sat at all while in Birmingham and at Shepherd. My brother previously mentioned to me that the mattress in the small bedroom where I’m sleeping is deteriorated, so I’ve put some memory foam on it to see if that makes a difference to my leg; if I don’t notice a difference in the next couple days, I’ll have to look into buying a new mattress.

Gary talked to Donne and Phyllis in the evening. Donne teased Gary about having it easy, what with his six hours of leisure per day. Gary remarked that he only had that if things like grocery shopping and paying bills counted as leisure (we still haven't turned on the TV yet!).

All for today.

***

“Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure.”

...Norman Vincent Peale

August 18, 2006

Gary received a big box from Norma and a package of DVDs from Donne and Phyllis, both pertaining to the Alaska cruise. Norma very cleverly divided the contents she sent into thirteen smaller numbered packages (she says number fourteen will be sent soon) – I’m assuming the numbers correspond to which day of the trip they were from. Gary has opened the first four packages so far, which contained postcards, a flashing magnetic pin depicting the flag of Canada (Donne’s idea for an item of memorabilia – I could have guessed that ;-)), a sampler of “Alaska wild teas,” a DVD “postcard” of Mendenhall glacier, and a T-shirt from Skagway, Alaska, where the family took a scenic train ride.

Mom G’s anniversary card also arrived – it had been forwarded from Shepherd. Thanks for the nice card, Mom G!

This morning the guy who put up our garage doors came back and added a glass sunburst design to the top row of the main door. Looks nice! He also showed us how the door could be electronically raised and lowered, except that for the moment we’d have to run an extension cord from the house because there is no power in the garage yet. Later in the day, when Gary and I returned from today’s outing, we found that the garage people had made a short ramp of concrete up to the side entrance of the garage. Entry that way will still be nontrivial, Gary says, but doable.

Our big adventure for the day was a visit to Gary’s primary physician. Or should I say, the big adventure was in doing a transfer from his wheelchair onto that oh-so-narrow examination table. The table was a couple inches higher than the chair, and of course Gary has practiced transfers onto higher surfaces, but they’ve always been onto things with back supports or onto wide exercise mats, and so this made me a bit nervous – though rare, he has fallen backwards after a transfer. There was also the possibility that he’d fall forward, although that too doesn’t happen all that often (but it would only take one miss at my catching him to make a, shall we say, unimpressive transfer). The doctor asked if we wanted her to help and took Gary’s arm, but Gary told her that holding his arm would impede him and that she could just stand in front of us, that we were trained to do such transfers. Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “Oh, God, don’t let him go splat on the floor.” Since it was an upward transfer, and most especially because it was onto an unfamiliar surface, he asked for and I gave him the maximum form of support, putting my hands under his sitting bones from a position behind him (with one knee on the exam table and the other leg on the floor). He did lose his balance, going too far forward during the transfer (or at landing – I didn’t stop to analyze it that closely ;-)), but I had already reacted by bringing an arm up to encircle his chest and hold him on the table. The doctor noted as she and I then helped Gary lie on his side on the table that he would have done better to marry a bigger and more muscular woman – I have a feeling that comment was related to the transfer. (“But then it wouldn’t have been me,” I protested.)

The doctor checked Gary’s flap. She thought it was looking great – I agree it is so much improved from a couple weeks ago. She also checked out the incision from his spine stabilization surgery, and then she and I turned him onto his back while keeping him on the table (obviously there wasn’t room for him to roll into the position) so she could do the usual poking and prodding of the abdomen.

Then it was time for the transfer back to the chair. She said something like, “Not that I don’t think you did great on your own, but I think I’ll call in a nurse to help.” Gary told her there was no need, that this was the easy direction, downhill. She looked at him then at the chair, which I had positioned, then said, “I don’t see how you’re going to do this.” I said, “Wait (and see).”

Gary scooted a bit on the table so he was positioned properly (sideways to the wheelchair), I put his foot on the footplate rather than him take the time to do it, then we did the transfer, this time me giving the next step down of support, just holding his hips from behind. The transfer went beautifully, and the doctor smiled and said, “Amazing. Shepherd really has something going, don’t they?” She noted that Gary was going to get even stronger and better at everything he did, and told us she had a patient who had been paraplegic for about fifty years and he could do “everything.” She finished the exam by saying she thought we were really on top of things, which was nice to hear. (Oh, and I forgot to mention she started off the appointment by talking about the intersection where Gary’s accident occurred, saying that she’d always thought it was so dangerous and just hated crossing there. She said there really ought to be a light there, and Gary said he hoped to work with others to get one there. She said she hated that he had to be the one to be “the poster boy” for it, but maybe this would be just the thing to finally get a light put in.)

After returning Gary home, I took off for something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time: writers group meeting! There was lots of banter and nonsense, and, oh, yes, a little talk of writing (depending on current output of the members, the meetings could be a *lot* of talk of the writing and a little of the – no, there is always lots of banter and nonsense ;-)). The biggest news was one of our members just sent off her fabulous fantasy novel to a big publisher; she is trying to “come down” from that and get back to work on the second book of her trilogy-to-be. (Come to think of it, I was always a bag of nerves after I sent off a paper to a journal; I wonder how common that is.) Over the summer, another member finished his final version of a novel he’s written, so I get to look at that starting next week. And our other member has several novels in various stages of completion.

As for me, they thought I shouldn’t think about turning the blog into a book for at least several months, that I should get some distance from it. Which means, of course, they think I should go back to working on the mystery novel I had been writing before the accident. So now I have some inertia to overcome – when I last left the story I had declared the first rough draft done and had been within a couple of weeks of letting Gary see it (this being just days before the accident), but I still considered it quite a mess; the worst problem being the characters not quite “jelled,” a relatively minor problem being scenes needing to be majorly filled in.

Now, if I could just find a pen in this house . . . ;-)



Here on the blog I inserted a picture of why I am having difficulty with this task.


(Okay, I cheated. This was the family room before the math volunteers made their best guess at where this stuff belonged and neatly arranged it in the various rooms. Doesn’t mean I know where they put the pens, though ;-)Maybe this would be a good time to start in on my newly arrived Remington Steele Season 4 and 5 DVDs. Just for the inspiration, of course.)

August 17, 2006

Today’s outing was first to Wal-Mart, where we ran into Janet Rogers (how’s that for a neat coincidence!), then to the rehab place, where we sat around waiting for the therapist for a half hour. We were worried this might be typical, since we’d waited a half hour last time too (certainly not the way Shepherd was run), but it turned out another therapist at the place hadn’t been able to make it that day, so Gary’s therapist was double-booked. I wish someone had explained that to us ahead of time, so we could either have come later or at least known what the delay was (I did ask at the front desk if Gary was down in the appointment book and if they were aware he was there) but I guess I should be complaining to them, not you. But then, I am a big talker unless it is to the person the complaint is aimed at ;-)

The therapist had Gary start out with grip and wrist strengthening exercises. For the first exercise, he squeezed a Digi-flex, which as you might guess, flexed each finger. This he did for two sets of thirty. Then he did a series of wrist curls, starting with reverse curls. These he did one hand at a time, in order to keep his balance. He noted that his right hand was stronger than his left. I asked him if that meant he’d “like” a heavier weight for it. He smiled and said he knew I was going to say that, but agreed to a heavier weight (three pounds instead of two). After he did one set of thirty, the therapist had him do the second set emphasizing the eccentric contraction – in other words, he lifted the weight to a count of two but lowered it to a count of four; if you’ve never tried that before, you will discover that definitely makes the exercise harder! He did a set of fifteen that way (neither he nor the therapist seemed capable of keeping track of the number of reps the entire session, so I did it for them – see, I knew I was good for something ;-)). The next type of curl imitated a hammering motion: keeping the forearm stationary, raise and lower the wrist with the palm facing in (officially, “ulnar and radial deviation”) – two sets of fifteen. The last type of wrist curls were what I think of as “regular” curls, palms facing up. Two sets of fifteen, emphasizing the negative.

Next she had him do some exercises for his upper arm and shoulder muscles. She reminded him that now that he was so dependent on his arms for his locomotion, he was at risk for repetitive motion injuries in his shoulders, so he needed to keep those muscles, as well as his chest and upper back muscles strong. On a cable machine, she had him do tricep extensions, where, facing the machine, he pulled down and back. She stabilized his shoulder for him by gripping it in the front and the back (she was being extra careful because of the shoulder problems he already has). He did thirty of those on each arm. He finished the strengthening part of the workout by turning his back to the machine, taking the handle on the cable, and punching forward – these she said would strengthen his pecs (and I think she said his anterior deltoid, too). He did two sets of twenty on those.

She mentioned that any bench press type of exercise would have a similar effect, saying he could do them while lying on his bed holding some weights. I asked how often she thought he should do these exercises (he’s only being doing the theraband and terrible three exercises since being home, and I want to make sure he doesn’t lose the strength he built at Shepherd, though on the other hand I know he doesn’t want to start back in with heavy exercises like pushups and dips until his shoulders feel better). She told him he could aim for two-to-three times a week, depending on how he was feeling.

She had him finish up by doing some isometric exercises which she said were for his stability. She had him hold a stick (like a shortened broom handle) out in front of him, then she gripped it too and told him not to let her move it (but telling him ahead of time what direction she was going to attempt to move it in). First she tried to pull it to his right for a few seconds, then his left, then up and down, then backward and forward, then she tried to twist it out of his grasp (so, like wrist curls), then she tried to move one-half of the stick upward and the other side downward. She then did the exercises with me (which pleased me and gave me more hope she won’t eventually throw me out of the rehab gym ;-)) in order for me to see what Gary was feeling during it, though I know it wasn’t entirely the same because I was recruiting ab muscles to stop her movements. She thought he might have some ab muscles helping him too, but he said he didn’t. She didn’t seem quite convinced and had him bend forward and then sit upright in his chair a couple of times. Gary did so and assured her those movements were governed by his head movements, not the use of his abdominal muscles; she felt his abdominal wall as he did them and then was convinced. She said he made it look easy, and I told her it certainly hadn’t looked that way at the beginning.

She said the two of us could do these stability exercises with Gary sitting on the edge of the bed and holding a broom handle, but she had immediate second thoughts and said we’d try it first in the gym (one of those “don’t try this at home” admonitions ;-)), just to make sure Gary would be stable enough (so that I’m not calling math volunteers to help me get Gary off the floor after I pull him onto it ;-)).

After the session, Gary remarked that so far he really likes this therapist, and it seems to me too she’s going to be a good one, which is so gratifying to us both – we weren’t sure what we’d find here after being with the therapists at Shepherd who work only with those with SCIs.

All for today.

August 16, 2006

This morning I suggested to Gary that he try out the tip of the OT here for getting his pants on up to his thighs by using the bed controls to raise the upper part of the bed and then getting his foot over the opposite leg to work the pants up. Her advice worked pretty good! And he was even doing it with the dockers, not the sleep pants (since he wanted to look “nice” for school).

Later in the morning, Gary noted we've definitely gotten better at our morning routine, having cut off a couple hours from it from that time we were in the TLA apartment. :-)

Shortly after noon, we headed for the university – Gary would keep his word that he'd be on campus for the first day of classes. We thought that it might be fairly simple to get around campus at that time (our theory being that people would be off-campus, out to lunch) – we were wrong. It didn't help that Gary wanted to stop at a fast-food place near campus first, and we ended up having to make nearly all left turns after that. I haven't driven through campus in years, and I have the following observtion: left-turn signals are needed!

We got lucky with the parking, though – at least, I thought so, having been afraid I'd have to help Gary out of the car and then park blocks away. We ended up in a spot not all that far from the ramp Gary needed to enter the math building by, and in fact the parking place was an end spot so there was extra room for Gary to transfer out of the car. Once we get that handicapped placard, we'll be able to park even closer, but for today I told Gary to think of it as "push practice." Since it was only about a block, through parking lots, it was an easier push than he'd had to do in the groups at Shepherd.

On the way into the building, we ran into Kevin Phelps, who greeted Gary. Chris Rodger was going up the stairs at the time, and he waved to me through the glass, then shortly after that, as we came off the elevator, we met him in the hall and exchanged a few words before he had to dash off to class. We also ran into Pete Johnson and spoke to him as we made our way to the math office, and Gary also spoke to Ming Liao.

Also on the way to the office, we had to pass through some glass doors that Michel had been worried might be too difficult for Gary to get through. Gary managed to do so, however, saying that though they weren't trivial, being a little heavy, it was nothing he hadn't encountered before.

Gary had lost his keys to his office in the accident, so he needed someone from the main office to let him in. He planned to ask one of the secretaries, but Michel Smith was there, and he accompanied us to Gary's office to open it up for Gary (on our way, Michel said to me, "So, what would you like to teach?" When I laughed he said he was only half-kidding, that if I wanted to teach, it could be arranged; I didn't take him up on it – I’ll spend my spare time writing :-)). When we got to the office, Gary noted with approval the straightening up that Brad Bailey had done for him. The next order of business was checking out the desk. It turned out Gary couldn't get his knees under it. Michel told him there was a wooden table on the second floor that might work, so we went to check it out. Gary also couldn't get under that, but Michel figured it could be modified. Upon returning to Gary's office, Michel had the thought that if the middle desk drawer were removed, Gary could fit under the desk. That turned out to be the case. But Gary said that he wasn’t sure the desk would be better, that he needed to think about how to best rearrange the office so he would have the most accessible space, and then he’ll decide whether he wants to keep the desk or use that table. As Michel left, Gary again thanked him for all he had done.

Gary's graduate student Asli Gulderdek dropped by, and she and he talked about her courses and schedule. Later, Gary's new student from Italy, Santino Spadaro, stopped in, and they talked about the courses and the mathematics Santino has been doing. While they were talking, Pat Goeters poked his head in and said Gary had just missed a Graduate Council meeting. Pat wasn’t seriously suggesting Gary should have been there, but Gary asked if the plan was for he himself to again be on the committee (Pat had taken Gary’s place after the accident). Pat said he thought it was, and Gary said he’d go to the next meeting, assuming it was in approximately a month.

Someone I’ve never met, Nedret Billor, also poked her head in during this time to welcome Gary back. (I hope I haven’t forgotten anyone by the time this entry is over.)

After Santino left, Gary decided to check out the accessibility of the second-floor bathroom. I automatically started to go with him to check it out too, and we laughed about that. At Shepherd, it is common to see women in the men’s bathroom, but we figured the students in the math building probably weren’t ready for that.

So off he went, and I got on his computer to start drafting this blog entry – and ended up telling a dozen students where the heck room 319 was (you’d think in a math department the numbering of the rooms would be a little more logical ;-)). A little while later, Phil Zenor popped in to say hi to me, saying Gary had told him I was up here (Gary was down in Phil’s office – I forgot to ask him who else was there with him). Phil commented that Gary looked great, that if he weren’t in the wheelchair one would never be able to tell he was in such a bad accident (Phil had seen Gary on May 2nd, back when Gary was in the Birmingham ICU). Phil said he was surprised that Gary had come back to school so soon after our return, and I said Gary had been eager to get back to the math department. Just then the man himself wheeled in, and after a bit more conversation, Phil took his leave. Gary then said he was ready to go home (it was about three-thirty). I asked him how he felt, if he was tired. He said no, he felt good, that he was excited to be back in the math department – but added he might feel tired by the time we got home (though he didn’t).

On our way out of the building we had to go through those glass doors again. I let Gary try this direction himself too; it took a little maneuvering, but he did it. After we got through, I realized we’d had an audience of students sitting along the wall behind us. I asked Gary if it was okay that I hadn’t helped him with the door. He said sure. I mentioned the students. He said they’d probably been thinking, “She’s right behind him and she’s not helping – what a bitch.” We laughed, and he added, “That’s okay – they don’t know the situation.”

On the way home we made a stop at the health food store, needing more laundry detergent and food – we’re not used to Gary having his lunches at home, which means we’re not used to planning on what he should eat at that time and what supplies to lay in. In the store, I talked to the manager while loading up my basket and discovered she had found out about the accident a few days after it’d happened. She told me that someone had come in (she didn’t remember who), talking about the accident and saying how I would fall apart. She had told the person, no, I wouldn’t. The person protested that I wasn’t well myself. But the manager insisted that I would get through it. Fortunately she was right. I haven’t thought about that in a while, how I was so worried that first month that I might crash. I believe it’s fair to say I’ve ended up stronger than I started, though I still don’t want to tempt fate (or CFS flare-ups) by taking on more than I am. Coincidentally, Gary said to me at bedtime, hours after I wrote the above, that I really had risen to the occasion, just as the store manager had said to him when I wasn’t there, explaining that he meant that at the time of the accident I could hardly do anything because of my back, but now I was tossing him around like a sack of potatoes (grin); I do wish, however, my back symptoms had cleared up – I still can’t sit for any length of time without tingling down my butt and leg).

I had suggested to the manager that she go out and talk to Gary while I checked out, which she did. When I came to the car they were talking about the intersection where the accident had happened – she knew a family that had been in a bad wreck there, everyone in the family hurt, the woman in a cast for months; she’d also heard of other accidents at the same place. Gary said he planned to do something about trying to get a light put in at that intersection.

The manager then looked over at me and said to Gary, “She’s a strong woman.” Gary said, “She is. She pushes me. Makes me do my exercises.” The manager said to him, “You need that. It really is tough love. Tough for the person giving it, and tough for the person receiving it.”

Well, I don’t know how tough it is to give it – I can be pretty bossy ;-). No, actually, the hard part is not wanting him to get mad at me when I suggest he do certain things. But he never has, probably because I do know he has limits – if he says he’s too tired to do something himself, I believe him and help him or do it myself.

Anyway, the manager’s words made me feel good, lifted my spirits. I like my strokes ;-). As you know, I am not strong enough to do this on my own without broadcasting what has been going on. This makes me worry a bit about ending the blog, since I imagine it won’t be all that long until I haven’t got all that much to say (at least, not until Day Program and driving school, etc.). I’m sure it won’t keep your interest if all I have to report is stuff like, “Tonight, Gary (and, unavoidably, Tigger) had chicken.” (Speaking of which, tonight we prepared Bombay curry with potatoes, carrots, and garbanzo beans ;-).)

The manager’s parting words to us were that if there was ever anything from the store we needed and we just couldn’t get out to get it, she would bring it to us! I then drove us home, where we discovered that our new garage doors were up – both the side and the front. They also painted the garage this morning, and it is looking really nice! When we entered the house, Blackjack ran off – he still is scared by the moving wheelchair. Gary voiced the thought that maybe he should take Norma’s suggestion and smear himself with tunafish – though I’m thinking that may attract every cat in the neighborhood EXCEPT Blackjack.

During dinner Gary brought up the day’s events again, saying it’d been fun going to the math department, that it was so nice to be there after four months of being away.

So, a satisfying day all around!

August 15, 2006

Still digging through the mail ;-). Thanks to the forty-two or so (depends on how well I counted the signatures ;-)) attendees of the Conference in Topology and Theoretical Computer Science in honor (or honour ;-)) of Peter Collins and Mike Reed, Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, England. Jack Brown tells us that many of the conference speakers expressed well-wishes to Gary and me during their talks :-)

While sorting through some mail and papers, I also came across an interesting read: a sheet of paper detailing all the job assignments the volunteers had taken on for the various parts of the house – bedrooms and study, the baths, hall, living room, kitchen (and of course the important tasks of keeping the cats in food was included). The paper served as a concrete reminder of the tremendous organizational effort that went into re-making our home, and we thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts.

This morning we talked to the garage people about water seeping into our house through the side entrance; they thought the drain they are putting in that area would solve the problem but said they would also caulk around the side door. We also mentioned to them that Gary wasn’t going to be able to easily get in the side door to the garage because there is a one-and-three-quarter inch gap between the sidewalk and the bottom of the threshhold. They had put a piece of wood there, but that would be of no help, we told them, so they said they’d make a ramp of concrete for that entrance. Joe happened to call shortly after that, saying he’d talked to the builder (who’d informed him that they put on the wrong color of roofing tiles so the tiles would have to be replaced), and I told Joe what we’d said to the workers. Joe said he’d tell the builder of the problems, just to make sure the “main guy” knew, and gently suggested that in the future, for the sake of accountability, we find out who it is we are talking to. Joe called back a little later, saying that the builder hadn’t been aware of these problems we’d brought up, but now he was and he would see they were taken care of.

Gary made several calls today. He tried to make an appointment with his physician here, but her computers were still down, like they were yesterday. He called the DMV about getting a handicap placard, and they said he couldn’t use the form he’d brought from Shepherd but had to fill out their own form, which they are mailing to him. Gary also called the local paratransit service to see if their fax had gone through to our case manager at Shepherd (the fax was a form which Gary’s doctor at Shepherd would fill out saying Gary needed the transit service), but they said the fax hadn’t gone through, that the number was always busy. So Gary called the case manager to tell her of this, but she wasn’t in her office and so he just left a message; he didn’t hear back from her today. He called a couple local pharmacies to see if they carried some of the supplies he needs by this weekend, and they don’t. He called the pharmacy at Shepherd to have them send them, but he couldn’t reach the person who sends out supplies. Luckily, the Bridge Coordinator called at about that time, and when she asked Gary how things were going, he mentioned not being able to get the supplies locally and that he needed them soon. She said she would contact the right person at Shepherd pharmacy for him and have them sent out immediately, which she did.

So we now know that Bridge Program can be useful!

In between all these calls Gary made, some calls came in, but the caller(s) hung up without leaving a message. Gary and I thought of a new greeting he could leave on the phone: “I’m sorry, but it takes me a hell of a long time to get to the phone. I may pick up before you hang up, or I may make you listen to this recording and then leave your message – whatever I’m in the mood for.”

After lunch we did our outing for the day: to get a university parking hang-tag for us and a cell phone for Gary. I couldn’t find the already-filled-out parking tag application that had been forwarded to Gary at Shepherd, so we just went to the university parking services building to get a blank one. Once there, we couldn’t figure out where to park (so much for their services ;-)). There was construction going on in the area where we would have parked, and behind the building itself were dire warnings not to park there, saying we would either get ticketed or towed. There was a handicapped parking space, but as I mentioned we don’t have the placard for that yet. I parked behind the building anyway rather than search for a place and chance having to leave Gary in the car some distance away (we weren’t going to bother with me putting his chair together and us doing the transfer out of the car and then reversing the process for what we hoped would be a quickly accomplished task; but I figured I’d probably need to ask him questions so I wanted him close). I got the form from inside the building and took it out to Gary to fill out, then I took the form back in. The woman wasn’t going to let me get the hang-tag for him, even though I had his ID and his driver’s license (the latter of course no longer valid), saying she would mail it to him; I explained that he was right outside in the car, and that in order for him to come in I would have to put together his wheelchair, but if she really really wanted me too . . . She asked me if he was in the handicapped space, and I said no, that we didn’t have the placard for that yet. She then chastised me for parking in the back, saying we would get ticketed, and I basically said that that would have to be the way it was then. As Gary had told me to, I then asked what the “D” zone hang-tag is, as apparently that is something new and before this Gary always got the “A” zone tag. Gary had thought that by her reply I would know which to get him, but I didn’t – the D zone was for the new parking garage, would work in C zones, but wouldn’t work in A or B zones or in the library parking deck. The A zone worked for B and C zones and the library deck but not the new deck (which I guess is close to the math building). So I ran back out to the car and asked Gary, he decided on “A,” then I ran back into the building – fortunately the woman had said I could come to the front of the line rather than wait in it again (there were about a dozen people in it all the while). She then asked me if he wanted to wait on the tag for a few days until we got the handicapped placard, at which time he’d only have to pay half the amount; she said his last year’s tag would do until the end of August. But I didn’t know where the old tag was – I had taken it out of his wrecked car when I came back home for that one day April 17th to take care of some business, but I figured I couldn’t put my finger on it by tomorrow (though that turned out to be wrong – it had somehow ended up on the kitchen table). Before we had gotten on campus, Gary had mentioned that if we couldn’t get the tag today, I could help him out of the car when he goes to school for a while tomorrow, then find someplace off campus to park before rejoining him (not that I have to accompany him tomorrow; I just thought I’d like to). So now I wasn’t sure if he’d rather I parked off-campus until he got the handicapped placard. I ran back to the car again to ask him. He said to go ahead and pay full price (the woman had warned he wouldn’t get a refund), so that’s what I told the woman, after cutting through the line again. That settled, I apologized to the line of people – though I don’t think I held them up all that much, because the woman wasn’t simply waiting for me to return but helping the next customer. Gary and I then left campus, fortunately without acquiring a ticket for parking where we shouldn’t.

We made a brief stop at the health food store for free-range eggs for Gary and nutritional yeast for the cats (or was it vice versa ;-)), then we headed to T-Mobile, which is where I had gotten my cell phone – or rather, Connie had basically gotten it for me on April 17th, she doing all the talking and me looking on in bewilderment. Gary decided to make things simple by saying he wanted the same model cell phone I had. Of course, they had been upgraded since then, which was all right because now his looks slightly different than mine and we can tell them apart.

It turned out not to be a simple matter of popping in the place for a phone, because we have a fraud alert on our credit cards (while we were at Shepherd, we got notices from Ohio University saying their data bases had been broken into and there was a chance our information was compromised; to protect from identity theft, they suggested we place the fraud alert). So instead of being able to set up an account by computer, the salesman had to talk to a live person, which slowed things up. In fact, it took about an hour to get the phone.

All this had taken us until about four o’clock, and that was enough for the day, so we returned home. I did a little organizing (actually, because there are now little piles lying around, the place looks worse), and Gary did his theraband exercises (I better get back to my own exercise routine soon). This morning I had reminded him that he hadn’t been doing his terrible threes, so he’d done them while I was dressing his flap and putting his t.e.d. hose on him (because of the way his legs have rotated outward since the accident, I find it easier to get the hose on him while he is on his stomach than on his back).

For dinner he decided on an omelet, so this was another thing we could share the preparation of. (He also had soup and bread and salad and an apple, if you really want to know – I’m reminded of how we used to tease my mom because in her letters she would always talk about what they’d had to eat recently.) After dinner he rinsed the dishes and I loaded the dishwasher (after unloading what was already in there.) So, we are feeling our way into developing a new domestic routine.

At bedtime, it could no longer be avoided: it was time to cut his toenails. I don’t know about you, but it makes me nervous to cut someone else’s nails. Fortunately, I didn’t hack off any little piggies.

To finish this entry, a news item from the other border, courtesy of my brother and sister-in-law:

The flood of American liberals sneaking across the border into Canada has intensified in the past week, sparking calls for increased patrols to stop the illegal immigration.

The unflinching arrogance of the Bush Administration is prompting the exodus among liberal citizens who fear they'll soon be required to hunt, pray, and agree with Bill O'Reilly.

Canadian border farmers say it's not uncommon to see dozens of sociology professors, animal-rights activists, and Unitarians crossing their fields at night. "I went out to milk the cows the other day, and there was a Hollywood producer huddled in the barn," said Manitoba farmer Red Greenfield, whose acreage borders North Dakota. The producer was cold,
exhausted and hungry. "He asked me if I could spare a latte and some free-range chicken. When I said I didn't have any, he left. Didn't even get a chance to show him my screenplay."

In an effort to stop the illegal aliens, Greenfield erected higher fences, but the liberals scaled them. So he tried installing speakers that blare Rush Limbaugh across the fields. "Not real effective," he said. "The liberals still got through, and Rush annoyed the cows so much
they wouldn't give milk"

Officials are particularly concerned about smugglers who meet liberals near the Canadian border, pack them into Volvo station wagons, drive them across the border and leave them to fend for themselves. "A lot of these people are not prepared for rugged conditions," an Ontario border patrolman said. "I found one carload without a drop of drinking water. They did have a pleasant little Napa Valley cabernet, though."

When liberals are caught, they're sent back across the border, often wailing loudly that they fear retribution from conservatives. Rumors have been circulating about the Bush administration establishing re-education camps in which liberals will be forced to drink domestic beer and watch NASCAR.

Liberals have turned to sometimes ingenious ways of crossing the border. Some have taken to posing as senior citizens on bus trips to buy cheap Canadian prescription drugs. After catching a half-dozen young vegans disguised in powdered wigs, Canadian immigration authorities began stopping buses and quizzing the supposed senior-citizen passengers. "If
they can't identify the accordion player on The Lawrence Welk Show, we get suspicious about their age," an official said.

Canadian citizens have complained that the illegal immigrants are creating an organic-broccoli shortage and renting all the good Susan Sarandon movies. "I feel sorry for American liberals, but the Canadian economy just can't support them," an Ottawa resident said. "How many art-history majors does one country need?"

In an effort to ease tensions between the United States and Canada, Vice President Dick Cheney met with the Canadian ambassador and pledged that the administration would take steps to reassure liberals, a source close to Cheney said. "We're going to have some Peter, Paul & Mary concerts. And we might put some endangered species on postage stamps. The
president is determined to reach out."