During the past few years, the evening has been our most consistently good time of the day. I say that in spite of the two recent anxiety attacks Kate has experienced. Mornings are a little different. Kate normally needs some time to fully wake up. I think that is one reason going to Panera has worked out well for her. She is able to eat her muffin leisurely while working on her iPad. She doesn’t have to enter into conversation except for the greeting of people we see there. Those are short-term encounters that give her a lift. That gives her a good hour or two to wake up Then she is ready for lunch. When she gets up unusually early, she sometimes wants to come back to the house to nap a little more. That used to happen frequently, not so often now.
I don’t know exactly why the time after dinner goes so well. I do know that I am more relaxed. I believe that is because I don’t feel as strong a need to entertain her. I think of this as a cooling down time. I’ve wondered if Kate doesn’t feel the same way. My recent purchase of DVDs of musicals and operas has certainly given us a regular activity for that time. When we don’t watch one of those, we spend an hour or so in the family room. I always put on some relaxing music that Kate and I both like.
Last night, I had something new for her. When we visited Kate’s brother and his wife in May, they gave us three VHS cassettes with home movies and videos for me to have converted to DVDs. They arrived yesterday. We watched one of them after coming home from our Monday night Mexican dinner.
This particular one consisted of highlights of a Franklin family reunion in 1982. I didn’t recall having seen this video before. I know that Kate didn’t remember. We both enjoyed seeing her parents as well as her aunts and cousins. As you would expect after 36 years, many of them have passed on. The children are grown up with families. It was a special treat for Kate and for me. When we finished, I noticed that she was still moved by what she had seen. I walked over to her chair, and we reminisced about her family and the good times we had with them. It was a beautiful way to spend the evening. What is best is that we have two others, each of which is a good bit longer. That should take care of us for several nights.
