– Guess What Came To Dinner –

The Wife-Unit is not a happy camper!

One day in mid May the Wife-Unit returns home from shopping and I’m helping bringing in the groceries and what-not. I haul this plastic pot made to look like a cast iron kettle from the car to the back porch.

The pot is filled with dirt and some reddish, semi translucent stems, stalks, branches or whatever. Looked to me like limp pasta coated with a very weak tomato sauce! Not one single leaf.

I ask: “Did you get a good deal on the pot?”

She tells me that it is an “Impatiens” plant and she got it for less than half price.

“It just needs a little work, she says.”

I’m looking at it and thinking that what it needs is “Last Rites.”

Well she putters around with it and within a week or so leaves are sprouting.

By mid June it is beginning to look good.

I get back from Montana and the silly plant is now at least three times the diameter of the pot. There are a few gaps where there are no blooms but there are quite a few buds.

Last Friday I look at the plant and all the buds are starting to open. “Damn, I say to myself; I’m going to have to take a couple of photos of that tomorrow.”

The MIL had fallen last Monday and after about five hours in the ER we get her home. Nothing broken but left shoulder extremely painful.

Arthritis in both shoulders and the fall aggravated the situation. She comes home from the ER with the arm in a sling.

Per the Doc in the ER: she is not to even try to use the walker since she can not use both arms. WHEELCHAIR.

OK!

We’ve used a wheeled chair for at least a year if we take her anywhere. She couldn’t have operated a normal wheelchair any way. She couldn’t have turned the wheels anyway.

But she needs help getting in and out of bed, in and out of any chair, getting on and off the pot in the bathroom, help getting dressed.

None of the above are easy to accomplish.

Our sons and their wives have volunteered to help as much as possible. So have some ofther other grandchildren. However that isn’t always possible to schedule. Between the Wife-Unit and myself and the two BILs living down the road I think we have about one able bodied person. I don’t think it will be very long and the MIL will have to be in a nursing home.

We ended up taking her to two different doctors last week, her regular doctor and an orthopedist. Youngest Son assists us in getting MIL/Grandma to regular doctor. Oldest Son assists is get MIL/Grandma to orthopedist.

Saturday A.M. the Wife-Unit had a meeting to attend. OK! Normally we don’t wake the MIL. We let her wake up by herself.
OK!

But Middle BIL is flying in from Texas and I am supposed to pick him up at Midway Airport about 10:30 A.M..

So Oldest BIL and his daughter are going to Ma & Grandma sit.

Fortunately Middle BILs plane arrives on time and I only have to circle through the arrivals area four times.

I won’t tell you about the “Pre Columbus Day Parade I got trapped by and the typical Illinois Summertime Road Reconstruction/Traffic Delay Project I got stuck in.

Ooooops!, I just did!

Middle BIL and I arrive at the ranch just as MIL is waking up.

Oldest BIL’s daughter, our Youngest Niece and I get MIL out of bed, into wheeled chair, into bathroom and onto “The Pot.” I vacate the bathroom and leave MIL in the clutches of Youngest Niece.

I grab a cup of coffee and light up a cigarette and join Oldest BIL in living room.

I no sooner plant butt in chair when Youngest Son and his Wife-Unit walk in door.

Youngest Son asks “What’s happening?”

I explain that Youngest Niece is helping MIL/Grandma in bathroom.

Youngest Sons Wife-Unit, says I’ll go help.

Youngest Sons Wife-Unit is an RN.

Wife-Unit arrives home just as I am feeding MIL breakfast/lunch. It is already after noon.

Wife-Unit makes certain MIL gets the rest of her medications.

I remember that I was going to take photos of resurrected Impatiens Plant.

I grab camera and head out into yard.

Ooooops!

Certain four legged creatures related to Bambi have converted flower pot into salad bowl.

As Wife-Unit is contemplating very slow, very painful demise of Bambi’s relatives Oldest Son arrives.

Next thing we know Oldest Son and Middle BIL are heading out to pick up fried chicken for nine people.

Fried chicken turned into dinner for twelve. We had enough for all with a few leftovers.

Anyway, here are a couple of “Tea Roses” that the deer haven’t bothered, YET!

So Sunday morning Oldest Son gets Wife-Unit, Grandma/MIL and Middle BIL/Uncle into car and heads for church.

Lehper sighs in relief, grabs cup of coffee, sits down in chair on back porch/deck, lights up cigarette sucks up coffee. Lehper still sucking up coffee and polluting atmosphere and lungs with cigarettes when Middle Son and family pull into driveway. Middle Son announces as he removes propane bottle, burner unit and five gallon stock pot from rear of his vehicle. “We’re going to have a shrimp boil.”

My comment: “It’s news to me!”l

About this time, Wife-Unit and others return from church.

Wife-Unit and Son # 2 head for Jewel/Albertson.

Son #1 gets on phone and contacts or leaves message for other family members.

Twenty five people ended up in yard chowing down on boiled potatoes from garden, sweet corn from Farmers Market, Polish Sausage and Shrimp from Jewel/Alberson’s.

Contents of stock pot/boiler dumped on picnic table covered with aluminum foil.

Guess who camped at picnic table scarfing down the boiled shrimp?

We finished the leftovers today