The last full day

[susandennis]

It was actually a nice day.  I find that the longer I am here, the easier it is to zip my lip.  If Mom is wrong, or if she just told me that an hour ago, or if she should be doing something she's not or she's doing something she shouldn't but none of it will hurt anybody, I can just shut the fuck up.  The first few days, it's impossible for me to do.  If I lived here or saw a lot of her, it would probably be as impossible.  But today I hit my stride.

This morning she wanted to take a drive.  There's a resort that has built a new 'town' about an hour out of town and she has read and heard about it and wanted to see it.  It was a nice day for a road trip so we did.  It was fun.  The town was fairly Stepfordish and if you aren't white with proven heritage and plenty of wealth that you never flaunt, you certainly not welcome there.  We did not stop... we just drove through and drove home.  A nice little trip.

Then we picked up Polly and went to Anson Restaurant in downtown Charleston for Thanksgiving dinner. It was wonderful.  And we had a really fun time.  Lots of good conversation and laughs.  Polly is 2 years older than I am and very comfortable to be around and she loves Mom to bits.

Then home - Mom napped and I futzed.  We watched the evening news and then I came back to hotel to get my shit together.

But first research.  We bought Mom a new torchiere lamp for by her chair.  It replaced one that she didn't like the looks of and could not easily reach the switch to turn it on and off.  The one we bought is a nice brushed metal and is a touch lamp.  Easy on and off.  But the 3way bulb it calls for only goes up to 150 watts and just isn't bright enough.  So I found a lovely florescent lamp bulb that has wonderful light.  Problem is, the touch function doesn't work very well with the florescent bulb.  Which sucks.

I found some interesting info about touch lamps via Google but not enough to know how to touch it to make it turn off the florescent bulb.  Sometimes it does but not every time.  It always turns it on but not off.  Tonight we put the incandescent bulb back in.  It's just not enough light.

So tomorrow, I'll rig up an extension cord so that the plug is reachable to her from her chair so if the fucker won't turn off when she touches, she can just unplug it.  Not elegant but it will work.

My flight tomorrow is at 1:15 and the Charleston airport is very easy.  Plus, I can't believe there are going to be hoards traveling tomorrow.  But the rental car place is not very close to the airport and I don't know how long to allow for turning in the car and getting to the airport.  So I guess I'll leave Mom's about 10:45 ish.  I have some stuff to mail to me - I just have no interest in futzing with checked luggage.  There's a very wonderful little packaging/shipping shop very near Mom's so my plan is to be there when they open in at 9 tomorrow and offload stuff to be shipped there. I'll let them pack and ship.  Whew.  That will give me more than an hour at Mom's which should be plenty.  I'm sure she's ready for some peace and quiet.  And I know I'm ready to be home.

Comments

[pinkrose70.livejournal.com]

Have a safe trip!

[pheon.livejournal.com]

Welcome back. We've started it raining for you.

[vasilatos]

Oh yes, that's the good news. The rain is aimed for the bay area tonight.
YAY!!! I'm sick and tired of perfect days. :-)

Yay for your trip going so great, Susan.

[roadskoller.livejournal.com]

You've worked you behind off and you probably are glad to get home, right? Have a safe trip.

[letmesaythis.livejournal.com]

I've been following right along for the whole trip and I'm glad that it went well. I loved the photos too. I hope that your trip home went well.

[katbyte.livejournal.com]

Sounds like one of your better trips. I am glad for you, and your mom.

I wonder if she knows how famous she is and how much we all like her?