The Good, The Sad and The Frustrating

In reverse order.

Donna experiences rattling vexation:
Hit nasty ass traffic on our way from the airport to my father’s town. I was NOT expecting horribly backed up traffic on a Saturday morning in Pittsburgh. Turns out, the city was taking the anticipated lower transit activity of the weekend as the PERFECT time to do mega road construction/maintenance shit. Hey, makes sense especially since it’s a long weekend. This IS Leaf Peeping Weekend in Vermont, New Hampshire and Western Massachusetts. WHY weren’t all those drivers up in New England appreciating the glorious beauty of nature – hmmmmmm?

Donna has a bad scare:
We finally got to Pop’s assisted living joint only to find him, not just unexpectedly ill but in quite the disturbing mess. We hunted up staff (caregivers not nurses – not sure any were even on duty!) on whom I unloaded my panic. He needs to be cleaned up! His bed and bathroom need to be cleaned! He’s not feeling well – a doctor has to come in!

Jonelle Summerfield

They got to it. Hillel and I would’ve been underfoot PLUS Pop wanted to rest so we split, telling him we’d be back later.

Jolene Joyner

The staff said they check in on him a few times a day which, considering the residents are OLD and not in Olympic competition form, seems like utterly weak sauce. They also, defensively, claimed that Pop doesn’t use his call button. Right. Blame the old man. FYI, that's NOT a smart or even vaguely helpful thing to say to a very concerned family member.

It’s time to seriously look into a new digs for him. This place is badly understaffed since the director change and just not up to the challenges which aging humans tend to present.

Hillel and I will head over around 10 this morning. Hopefully Pop will be in better shape and we can have a nice/not emergency laden visit before we head back to the airport.

Greg Langham

Donna finds soothing art:
While the staff were seeing to Daddy’s needs, H and I drove into town to find a cuppa. My favorite place, Caffè Amadeus, wasn’t open BUT that fab little art gallery/espresso bar, The Artist’s Hand  was open. Yea! They don’t show cutting edge stuff, focusing more on the calm, pretty, Valium-esque end of the art universe. That’s exactly what I needed.

There was a sweet triptych by Jonelle Summerfield. A wonderful cloud portrait by Jolene Joyner. A fine landscape by Greg Langham and cool sea glass and copper jewelry by DerivARTives. (sadly, they don’t have a web presence).

After our chill art time we returned to Pop’s place. He was all cleaned up, more relaxed and stable though still very tired. We chatted for a bit and then let him nap.

Dunno what to expect at this morning’s visit. I haz trepidation. Please direct some of your good, healthy, happy qi in the direction of Western Pennsylvania. K?