Are We There Yet??

For some reason I feel that if we can make it through Christmas things will settle down a bit and get back to "normal".  Deep down inside, I know that isn't likely to be  the case.  Things kind of came to a head for me Saturday when I spent the entire afternoon in bed - not ill, just lying there resting.  That's something that I NEVER do, but I didn't even fight it....and the longer I lay there the better it felt.  Once up, I feared it would interfere with my night's sleep, but it didn't.  I slept like a log and Sunday morning I felt human again.  It never dawned on me that I might just be physically tired.

Things have not been uneventful.  My mother had what we later found out was an abscess.  After a week of home treatments, I put my foot down and made a doctor's appointment, totally under protest.  He sent her straight to a surgeon who opened and drained it.  She will see him again today Monday but there has been relief.  She has had to go on another round of antibiotics, which just totally wrecks her system.  I'm going to talk to the doctor about that to see if there is anything that will prevent the nausea, weakness, light-headedness, etc.

My car was well overdue for an oil change and tire rotation, balance and alignment.  So, Thursday afternoon was devoted to that, which should only have taken about 1 to 1-1/2 hours.  All was going well until the girl called me over to show me something about my car.  I knew it was bad news when I walked into the garage area and saw three men looking up at my car as the oil drained out.  The screw that is opened to allow the oil to drain had been over torqued and stripped.  It could not be repaired and would require a new oil pan.  The folks at Firestone were very nice and called Toyota, where it had last been serviced, and explained the situation.  They sent a tow truck and took my car to their place.  I was waiting for excuses as to why it would be at my expense, and there was a hint of that, but I wound up paying for the cost of an oil change and they covered the rest (including tow truck and loaner car).  Even so, I was gone from about 1:30 until 6PM, turning an otherwise good day into an ordeal........but I'm thankful that it wasn't worse!

After a shaky start, Sunday turned out to be a pretty good day (and seems to be carrying over into today!).  We had plans to go to a local Christmas musical review but Mama wasn't feeling well in the morning.  I told her we could do whatever she felt like doing but to take it easy and see how she felt by early afternoon  (program started at 3PM).  Finally she said she didn't want to totally miss Christmas and began to get dressed.   Once she got up and got going, things began to improve......which reinforces my feeling that her biggest problem is the mental strength to keep going.  We got dolled up in our Christmas colors and went to the show, which we both enjoyed.  She has been feeling better since.  My challenge is to get her out of that silent room where she liescontemplating all things negative, past, present and future.  That can't be good!

In the evening, my friend Elaine and I went into Savannah to see Vince Gill and Amy Grant.  When Elaine called, I accepted without knowing anything but who was performing.....I didn't know that it, too, was a Christmas program.  It was totally enjoyable from beginning to end.  It was also nice just to have a relaxing evening out.