"If They Want Me To Get Well, Why Do They Want to Make Me Mad?"

That was Mom's question Sunday evening when reminded of her appointments for Monday and Tuesday this week.

My answer: "That's how they tell you're still alive."

Her response: "They should leave me alone and just guess."

Mom actually had a pretty good weekend. A fair amount of energy and the ability and desire to get up and around the house a bit. She's been going to bed an hour earlier which may be helping. A friend of hers form her old ceramics classes stopped by on Sunday. The woman, Ruthie, had called earlier but neither of them could hear the other on the phone so she just showed up on our front step. They had a nice visit for about twenty minutes or so and Mom was really animated.

Mom's second grandson, Dan, called from Iraq Monday afternoon. He'd called Sunday night but Mom had gone to bed early so he and I talked for awhile and he tried again Monday. He's part of the 50,000 "non-combat" troops still there. He's up in Kurdistan, going on patrol "arresting" bad guys. Technically the Army does the "arresting and he's Navy, but he speaks Arabic ("What's your name?", "What are you doing?", "Lie face down.", "Eat gravel.", the sorts of things that will be totally useless if he ever goes touristing in Egypt or Morocco) so he's the official translator. When he hung up I said, "Wow. A phone call all the way from Iraq! How about that?" Mom said, "Considering what's going on over there, I really don't want phone calls from Iraq." She wants Dan back here in the States.

When the home health nurse asked her questions, she got the date and year wrong, although she knew Obama is president. She also knows she wants her grandson back from Iraq. I'd say her mind is holding the important stuff just fine.