Ever since Monday afternoon (3 days ago), Kate has felt fine, and she has been in an especially good mood. Yesterday she received the sitter as though they were old friends. She was outside working when the sitter arrived. I was already dressed for the Y. Even though Kate has accepted the sitter each time, I still like to make a formal handoff; so I walked the sitter to the front yard where Kate was sitting down on the edge of the flower bed. I said, “Anita is here. I think I will leave it in your hands.” Kate responded, “I think we can handle it.” I left, once again feeling good that she continues to be so accepting.
One of the things I am learning is that four hours doesn’t allow as much time as I could sometimes use. To go from our house to the Y, exercise, shower and dress takes a full two hours. If I have a meeting, that will take at least an hour. That leaves only an hour to run other errands without counting the drive time home.
This is causing me to consider what kind of schedule I want to work out. There may be times when an extra hour would do the job. Because Kate doesn’t like to stay in one place for 4-5 hours, I might encourage the sitter to take her to a Panera or similar place where they could get something to drink. Kate could work on her iPad. On the other hand, at some point I know that I will want to add an additional day. I don’t feel I am quite ready to leave her four days a week even if it is only for four hours each time.
We are going to get our hair cut in another hour. That is an event that we have worked out well. We go to the same person. We go together. I always let her go first. While she is getting her hair done, I often run short errands. When she has her hair colored, that gives me a little more time.
Tonight we will go to Casa Bella for something new. We have been attending Opera Night the first Thursday of every month for several years. When they added Broadway Night on the third and fourth Thursdays, we started going to one of those. They are introducing Jazz Night on the second Thursday. I think tonight is the first night. Kate is not a jazz enthusiast, but the person for whom the trio is named is a retired professor of music at the university and someone we have known for about 40 years. As always, we will sit with a couple who are in their 90s. The wife is the daughter of the woman who opened the restaurant many years ago. We enjoy their company as well as the music. It should be another great evening.
