The Weekend So Far

Well, we are heading toward the end of the second day of the long weekend. It has been an interesting couple of days, some good, some challenging.

It started Friday night. My MIL got a call that her Dad (Grandad) has been in a car crash. Only a minor one thankfully, however at 92 years old a minor crash can jiggle things around. By the time she got up there the paramedics had been called. They got to the hospital and my MIL finds out this is the 2nd crash in the last couple of weeks and also that he has had 2 falls in his house in the last week that he has not told us about.

Grandad lives a good 45 minute drive away if there is no traffic. He lives alone and until recently has been doing fine. MIL saw him last Sunday and all was well. However when she got to his house to pick up a few things for him things were different. A week of Meals on Wheels dinners were lined up on the counter unopened. The cat had been locked inside with no kitty litter. The cat food was dried up and had been there for days. We don't think he had eaten for a week or had he fed Blondie (the cat). He was in the same clothes he had been in the previous week and no PJ's had been used. He had burned his pillow so he is smoking in bed again.

The hospital in their infinite wisdom wanted to send him home after 2 hours. MIL managed to talk them into keeping him overnight. However considering he can't get up or down on his own, can't shower, can't go to the toilet unassisted I am truly disappointed that he was sent home the next day. We explained that he lives alone. They pretty much said take him home. MIL said he would be sleeping on the couch as we have 3 adults living in a small house and they said that will be fine. Not happy.

So Grandad has been here since yesterday. Thankfully he is eating now but he still needs a great deal of assistance. He sleeps about 18 hours a day. I am not sure if he is going to be able to go home. We talked about me and Ross moving up there but the logistics are too hard. I would have to leave for work at about 5.30am and would not get home until after 7.30pm including a 30 minute walk at night through a very unsafe neighbourhood. Plus there is the fact that with both of us working and with the extended travelling time we would not be there enough to take care of him anyway.

I am not sure what is going to happen but for now he is here and a neighbour is taking care of Blondie. The poor old thing is so frail. None of us are sleeping as we are all listening out for if he gets up in the night as we are so afraid he will fall. Hopefully we can get him into care fairly quickly.

OK, so on to the good parts of the weekend so far, and there have been some.

Yesterday morning I decided to skip yoga and go for a run. I haven't been out for 3 or 4 weeks. I didn't realise it was that long, but geez the time goes by quickly. I decided no more shuffling, I am going to run! I lasted 3 minutes. My legs hurt, my lungs hurt. So I started walking, I did a few more spurts - running, not shuffling - and got home sore.

After some breakfast and a clean up I hopped on the tram, switched to a train, and took myself out to visit my Grandma, who has been in a Nursing Home for a while. We never really got along, so I have been a bad Granddaughter and not visited for a long time. But she was really friendly and we had a wonderful visit.

I came home and helped MIL with Grandad and helped with dinner. We had an early night.

This morning I got up early to help Grandad get up and get him some breaky so MIL could have a sleep in. I got all the animals fed and got cuppas ready for Ross & MIL. Then I got myself ready and headed in to the city to go to the Botanic Gardens to meet my Mum for a walk and to take photos. We spent a few hours and had a really good time. She also bought me this wonderful book from the Botanic Shop.

Ross and I have had several attempts at starting veggie gardens, that have had varying degrees of success. This book was written by a South Aussie, so all the planting times and everything are very specific to where we live. I am going to start getting a garden bed ready tomorrow so we can put some spinach in, which is one of the only things we can plant at this time of year. Hopefully this one is successful.

Tonight I am going to make some parsnip soup for us all for dinner. Ross is working early tomorrow on the other side of town so he will have an early night. I will be here all day so I am going to try and get MIL to go out for a while, at least for a walk with the dog or something, just to get out for a while. Ross is staying at Mums tomorrow night as he is working just a few kms from her place tomorrow and Tuesday.

That's it from me. I'll leave you all with a few pics from this mornings wander....

xox