(Above, winterberry)

I've been extremely busy as of late, one big reason being escorting dad to all of his doc and dentist appointments. It's like a little mini job on the side. This week I'll be with him 3 days as he has started physical therapy, plus he has a dentist appointment for another cracked tooth. He has a lot of muscle atrophy as all he does is watch TV. He's become very frail, and the goal of PT is to help him gain more balance (to ward off falls), strength and flexibility, and even ease back pain. I'm not sure how much to expect from 15 sessions for a 90-year-old, but we shall see.

This has been made possible by the VA, which dad could have enrolled in decades ago, but only recently decided he wanted to. I was dreading all the paperwork, but it wasn't that big a deal. 

I must say we are both very impressed with the VA. They are very prompt in calling us/me for appointments and followup and it's all entirely free for dad as he is legally blind. We spent over 3 hours at their low vision clinic abuot an hour away from here and he's going to get new closeup glasses, new sunglasses and new distance glasses as well as a rechargeable LED table lamp that he can move around to different locations as needed and then just return to its charging base. There's someone coming this week to do an in-home assessment. Dad served in the navy as a diver doing rescue/recovery operations. I also have had several conversations with my VA liaison there whose job it is to facilitate delivery of services and just generally smooth the way should I encounter any hiccups. It's just, overall, a great service, far more than he has gotten from Medicare.

In the meantime, I made sure we both got our covid shots and flu shots, and he had a root canal done. (I was a little nervous about the vaccines as dad is not crazy about them and I was afraid he would give me a hard time, but he didn't say a peep....I think becus he knows I might hesitate to take him out to lunch and other outings this winter if he wasn't vaccinated.)

Went to a flea market this morning with my neighbor and though I wanted to spend $20 on a cute set of 6 vintage juice glasses from I guess the 40s, in a carton-type container with a pretty matching dish towel, I resisted. The price was right but I have plenty of dishware/glassware and have very limited room. My neighbor, on the other hand, sprung for $85 for an old round window he wanted to put in his bathroom.

(Above is a sweet birch on my property.)

This Friday I'm meeting up with Dido at a midway meeting point, about 1.50 hr drive for both of us, in a cutesy little town where I'm sure we'll do lunch, the museum if it's open and just have fun catching up. On Saturday I'll be spending the night with Archie, my other neighbor's dog, while she travels to Vermont to see family. Should be interesting. She was desperate to go, so I agreed.

Everything else is on autopilot. I continue my very p/t writing job for the university. I dropped a single large weaving made by my mother for an upcoming art show at local gallery. I priced it to sell, but who knows....

It's going to be a great weather week, so in between driving my father all around, I hope to squeeze in some time yard work time as I have a chore list.

I've been getting hooked on gree chai tea. I've long been on a quest to switch from drinking both black and green tea to green tea exclusively. I can do this in summer when I drink ice tea, but the green tea is too bland for me to drink hot; the green chai is great, though, so maybe once I drink down my current inventory of Harney & Sons, I can drink only green (for the health benefits, plus the much lower caffeine levels mean I can drink late in the day, which I can't do with the black or it will keep me up at night).

Mums below....the petals are pinkish when still closed up, but look just like daisies once opened.