Love Is What You Want
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Watching the Grass Grow
Anne took me out for breakfast this morning to Jefferson Market, a restaurant that occupies the location of her childhood grocery store. A store located across the street from her elementary school. Back in the day, she could buy a candy bar for a dime, but if a friend wanted one too, then the two candy bars cost 21¢. The extra penny was for taxes. To elementary school students this taxation caused no end of consternation, but Anne was such a bright little girl that she came up with a workaround, buy the candies sequentially and avoid the taxes.
Back at the ranch, Harry had his last PT session with Prakesh, who was late once again. This appointment kind of blew the rest of the morning. Still muttering about this, at noon Harry fixed his own lunch and released us to go out and forage for food. We headed downtown, to campus town and Bivouac, where we bought Harry a new pair of Tevas, because his old ones were leaving black crumbs about. Afterwards, we headed next door to Ashley’s for a small repast. Then after lunch, we trundled back to All Seasons.
The going in plan for the afternoon was to take Harry for a car ride, but one thing led to another and we never went anywhere. Center stage the landscaping crew uprooted all of the Milkweed plants that had taken root where the pond used to be. They were careful when they did this as if they still have plans for these plants. What they maybe are still a mystery. Still, this process was of endless fascination to both Harry and Anne. I played a lot of solitaire. Soon, it was 5 o’clock, Harry went down to dinner and we left for the day.
Zing
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Not Dead Yet!
Our day began with Harry’s vitals, taken by Cassie. Results? He’s not dead yet. Good thing, because otherwise Jane would kill us. Actually, my day began earlier at Starbucks. I ordered their Iced Green Tea Lemonade. I won’t be getting that again. Anyway, he was alive when we left him and headed over to Nichols Arboretum. Once parked there, we headed downhill into the humid, overgrown, mosquito and tick infested labyrinth that greeted us. Halfway down we met members of the U of M women’s cross-country team, “Keep running ladies! Only five more miles of sweltering training left to go.” With that kind of exhortation going on from the team leader, we decided to turn tail, but instead of going back the way we had come, we took a side path that took us into Forest Hill Cemetery. Once in the cemetery, we struggled to get out again. “Bring out your dead! I’m not dead yet. Stop being such a malingerer and get on with it.” There were many interesting tombstones, one in particular that caught my attention was for the Shamma family—Daddy, Mommy and Zade:
يَا أَيْتُهَا النَّفْسْ الْمُطْمَئنَّةُ ارْجِعِي إِلَىٰ رَبِّكَ راضية مرضيّة
فاتخلي في عبادي وادْخُلي جنّتي
O tranquil soul, return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him], so enter among My [righteous] servants, and enter My Paradise.
We eventually busted out of the cemetery and made it back to the car and then drove to Zingerman’s Deli for lunch. Believed it or not this was my first trip to the original store. On Saturdays it is too crowded. Anne and I shared a Reuben. When ordering, I was asked if I wanted an old pickle or a new pickle. Not understanding, I asked what’s the difference? Apparently, garlic flavoring for the old and more salt for the new. While dining, I noticed a couple of testimonials on the wall: “the Reuben is killer”— President Barack Obama and “on a scale of 1 to 5, I give it an 11”—Oprah. After lunch, we walked across the street to Kerrytown and Spun, “Young girls they do get woolly cause of all the stress.” Whatever. Anne bought more yarn to make me a new cap. 😉
Our next stop was the AT&T store, where we got some of Anne’s iPhone’s many problems fixed. Long story short. she will be getting a new phone next month. Then back to Harry’s. Nothing to report, except that he was still alive. We sat around with him for a while until he went to dinner, still breathing. We landed upon Cafe Dominick’s, across from the law library. Rich our classmate hosted us. More importantly, I got his older brother David’s number. I spent many a summer night hunched over a card table playing wargames with him, along with Armin, Ned and Cooper.
Bösendorter Piano
All Seasons Assisted Living Tour
We showed up with plenty of time for Harry’s PT with Prakesh, which was scheduled for between nine and ten. Prakesh didn’t arrive until 10:10 which left Harry in a bit of a snit. Not to worry though, because there will only be one more PT this Wednesday, which is now scheduled from ten to eleven. Harry did pretty good, although he was flagging near the end of the standup and sit-down exercises. After PT Anne and I had lunch at the Brown Jug on East U. It was a construction disaster area as I knew it would be, but I wanted to take her where we had gone on our very first date. Next up was the dinosaur museum, which is all new and quite impressive. Returning to Harry’s, I could not find a parking place and had to go cross-country hunting for one. First, I dropped Anne at the door. Walking back a spot had opened and I almost turned around to fetch the car, but that way lies madness. On my way in I stopped at the office and asked about the previously announced Friday tour of the new assisted living center. As it turned out that tour was more aspirational and because of permitting problems were not going to happen. But later today at five they were going to have a special “hardhat” tour. I told the sales ladies that we would be attending. Then I had to explain who the hell I was. No, I was not Jane nor Jane’s husband. They then asked Harry’s room number and looked at their map and exclaimed what a nice view he must have. Then they launched into sales mode detailing how much better the views will be in the new wing. Better act fast and get your application in, now!
Returning to the apartment, I told Anne about the tour, but she seemed unsure about attending. Not five minutes later, Harry, who cannot hear a thing, asked her about the Friday tour. She came clean and he was visibly excited about it. The tour was at five, but Harry was out the door by four, but not before finding a facemask. I guess he expected massive amounts of dust. When we arrived, there was a crowd in the firepit room milling about. Promptly at five we were all asked to move to the private dining room, where we were all issued helmets and orange dayglow vests, costumes. There were too many for one group, so we were subdivided into three smaller ones. Fortunately, we were in the first group. Access to the new wing was through the dining rooms, bonded in the middle by the kitchen. The new wing looks like a mini-me version of the existing facility, with similar decor and paint schemes. It is too early to talk about the furniture though, because all the tables and chairs in the dining rooms are rented placeholders for inspection purposes only until the factory can fill the real order. All Seasons currently hosts 160 residents. 80 more spots are available in the new wing. Where most of the apartments are two bedrooms. I am uncertain if the second bedroom is for another resident or a personnel caregiver. After ten minutes the tour was over. I gathered the safety gear and Harry headed to dinner. I took lots of pictures and look forward to going over them with Harry tomorrow. Plus, there’ll be more tours.