Story 18July2022: Monday

Monday started with a cold (65F 18.3C), an overcast morning in the greater Portland area. I was not rushed as this was a work-from-home day (Monday and Friday). I had yogurt and a banana for breakfast, which went well with the French press liberal coffee. Next, I read the emails, text, and Slack messages to prepare for the first meeting at 8:05.

I received a request to help with a crisis of the moment and was busy with the extended crises all day. Nevertheless, I managed, once briefed and after attending a few meetings, to head to Susie’s place at 11ish in Air Volvo, the hummingbird house.

Susie resides at:

Allegiance Senior Care
Adult Foster Care Home
9925 SW 82nd. Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97223

The house phone number: 503 246-4116

The auto-braking system of Air Volvo triggered twice today, once there and once on the way back, with my fellow drivers suddenly slowing. I do not know if the sudden change to cold or the depression that having Summer ended after three sunny days (it is coming back on Tuesday) caused all the slow driving. The traffic was heavy and slow, with me taking three times to get through some traffic lights!

Without scratching the paint on Air Volvo, I finally reached Allegiance Senior Care’s home in Tigard (a Portland address). It is one of two homes run by Allegiance, and the one on 82nd is called the hummingbird house, with its feeder well stocked for the local birds.

Aside: Here in Oregon, there is a healthy population of hummingbirds, with at least two regularly in my backyard.

When I entered, Susie was in her recliner and looked quite tired. Her eyes were red from pollen that was slowly poisoning everyone in Oregon today. We did call her mother on the iPhone using FaceTime. They chatted for a while.

Sorry, I forgot again to take pics!

I stayed for a while holding her hand; it was too cool to head to the park on Monday. I left with a kiss, and Susie was sad to see me go so soon. I spend an hour on travel and visiting Susie on work days. I visit every day.

Back at the Volvo Cave, I had leftover Jambalaya for lunch, reheating it in the microwave. The crises of the moment went on until about 7ish. I attended more working meetings and status meetings during the afternoon.

I microwaved two moderate-sized potatoes for dinner while listening to a status meeting. I added two slices of bacon, cheese, butter, sour cream, and some olives (remembering the potato bars in Instanbul). I read The Club Dumas on my Kindle for a bit and fell asleep and was awoken suddenly with the Kindle falling out of my hand and hitting me. I got going again at 8PM.

I paid some bills using physical checks but entered the checks into Quicken. I am still updating Quicken with all the transactions. I am tracking every dollar. Another $170 to yet another pharmacy for Susie and $90 for her life insurance policy’s annual cost. Her monthly expenses run about $8,000 (including room and board).

The Home Health people finally called and will start working with Susie on Friday. I had asked Susie’s doc in our last video conference to get Susie some therapy to help with transfers. I would love to get her strong enough to transfer to Air Volvo. I could then take her to church and maybe some short drives. Let’s hope for a positive result.

I wrote the blog this afternoon a bit early.

Thank you for reading.