Slow morning today. I let myself sleep in and just got back in from a nice walk with Martini.
I’m also multitasking while I write this entry by listening to a webinar on AI and sustainability. You know that AI is sucking up a lot of our energy resources, right? In the US, data centers already account for 4.4 of the country’s electricity consumption…expected to grow to 35% at the end of 2026!!! OMG. Get this: a request made through ChatGPT consumes 10X the electricity of a Google search??!! But it’s also helping us solve the climate crisis/global warming/pollution, etc. That’s what I’m listening to now.
Solving the world’s problems today…
More locally, though 3+ hours of a drive away, yesterday’s Crafternoon Delight with my mom was something of a HIT for a while.
What I mean by that is that I got there shortly after Mom and Dad had finished their breakfast, which meant that they were in pretty good spirits (though Dad said he really hadn’t slept much the night before), but Mom was already sitting at the table, and all I had to do with clear off the table and pull out allllll of the goodies I’d brought with me.
Thankfully, I’d started with a super-easy craft because I wasn’t sure how mom would be able to handle fairly complex crafting. It’s been a long time since I’ve even seen her do anything with her hands (and she used to be a master knitter and decorator).
We started with hot-gluing sparkly pom poms to headbands. This was a very last, last second simple craft I’d thrown into my bag simply because I had leftover materials from a couple of other projects. She did great, though she did end up getting a little hot glue on her fingers causing a little burn.
We switched to making framed pressed flower artwork - gluing tiny little pressed flowers onto a page and then framing them. They turned out really pretty, though the pressed flowers were very delicate and mom had some trouble and kept blowing the little flowers around the table with her heavy breathing (damn, she’s really struggling lately). I helped her finish, and we created three beautiful little pieces of art. We were both very pleased. I do hope she gives them as gifts.
Then I pulled out all of the bandana necklace materials and the little charms. I let her play around with the charms a bit, but I could tell she wasn’t going to be able to use her fingers to add charms to create a necklace, so I told her to pick out some charms that she liked, and I worked to put the charms onto jump rings and added them to the bandana piece. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t very good at this and I still need to work on my technique. It’s frustrating because these things look so easy - yet they are a bit of a challenge to make look good. Maybe I’m not using the right materials? Maybe my charms suck?
Anyway, that’s when Mom started struggling and needed to go to the bathroom, and then she said she was dizzy and needed to lie down. Oof. Okay. Fine. It was a good time to clean up and get ready to go anyway.
Their in-home helper was there, and she was cleaning up and making lunch for Mom and Dad (they eat a late lunch), and I needed to get ready to go anyway for the 3+ hour drive back home.
Dad had just ended a phone call with a guy he want to high school with, and I’m sure it just broke his heart a little. I think the old friend had read about Dad’s brother passing and just wanted to check in with Dad. As they talked, they realized that only 4 of the 18 people in his class (little country school) were still living. I know it has to break your heart in the strangest way when you realize that everyone you know is dying all around you…including your wife!
I don’t know. Mom looks like she could go any second, and yet…she keeps ticking. That pulmonary embolism two years ago should have taken her out, but she somehow keeps huffing and puffing and moving right along. Very. Slowly.
Amazingly, she still takes care of herself. She still picks out her outfits, showers and dresses herself daily (though I think dad puts her socks and shoes on). She’s doing surprisingly well.
And don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish death on her. I am blessed to be able to spend as much time as I have with her over the last few months. But to watch her struggle trying to figure things out while my dad supports her every move is so heartbreaking.
And my precious dad. Oof. It’s really hard.
I asked them about 30 minutes before I needed to leave if they needed me to do anything more before I left and they kept saying no…no, you are ok to go! And then right as I was saying goodbye, dad asked me if I’d trim some hair above and behind his ears that his trimmer kept missing.
So we did that. While I snipped, he was telling me about how Mom continuously thinks that my dad is her dad. She calls him “Dad” a lot of the time now (when she’d always referred to him as his first name), and recently she looked at him and asked, “I’d really like to know how you met my mom?” Oh boy. She has zero recollection of their own wedding.
And then!! After all that, he wanted me to put his tolltag on his windshield. But he couldn’t find the tag in his piles of paper! I helped him look for a while and then finally I asked him if he was going to be driving on the tollway before Christmas and he said no…so I said I’d put it on when I come back for Christmas.
He kept finding things for me to do, and I ended up leaving about 45 minutes later than I wanted to, causing me to be stuck in a lot of rush hour traffic as I was driving through a couple of different cities just at the worst time.
But all worth it to see them! I was lucky that the weather was so cooperative!
Anyway, OH! I forgot to tell you about the surprise interview I also had on Tuesday! It was a good one! I’ll have to come back and do that because I need to get going. I’m finished with the webinar and need to do my workout now…
xox,
GS
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