Scattered Thoughts

     Cold, blustery air blew in today and we saw snow flurries! I ran outside with the camera, but it was too dark to capture the flurries on film. Or is it on digital? What do we say now? I thought the house looked peaceful, though, so I took its picture.
     It seems like there's so much going on in general yet, at the same time, things are pretty mundane. Tess completed all her finals and can enjoy a little break from classes, Christmas is wrapped in pretty paper and placed under the tree, Mom fell again and knocked out a tooth, Steve is changing jobs within the company and may travel less, but work more, if that's possible, and I decided that I'm saving up bubble wrap and I'm going to wrap my mom in it for protection. Oh, and Steve started building a very long handicap ramp from the back door to my car. It's not very pretty, but as my mom slowly shifts from walker to wheelchair, this will be an absolute necessity in order to get her out of the house. I think the grandchildren are going to love playing on it as well. I overheard Steve tell someone that it's sixty-four feet long! He's building it out of his head with no drawn plans. He designed it in sections using complete 4x8 sheets of pressure treated plywood (not shown) on frames (shown), bolted together. The ramp can later be disassembled and reused as sides to build a shed. Genius!

   
     It was so warm last week that we were all outside in T-shirts. In contrast, this weekend got cold enough for a nice fire in the wood stove thanks to the enormous load of hickory that Steve, Simon, and John cut over Thanksgiving. Hickory has a strong, distinctive odor and I was a little worried about how it would smell when it burned. But it smells much, much nicer burning than it does 'raw'. Steve found two boxes of marshmallow Peeps in the freezer and we roasted a few tonight : )
     My thoughts feel pretty scattered, which is simply a result of how my brain has been functioning lately. It's hard to stay on topic these days. My guess is that it's because I am standing guard, ready to race into action when something bad happens (mainly with my mom). It's hard to focus on any one thing for very long or to allow myself to completely relax. I'm aware of the long term implications  on my own health and I'm working on that as well. I can't help anyone if I start to fall apart. I have many, many thoughts on how our society approaches elder care and how little support there is for home care of the elderly. But that's a whole other topic for another day.