By Loretta Humble/Around the Town
I don’t feel so hot. The nursing home lunch today was great: tender pork roast with gravy, broccoli and some really well seasoned corn, but all I could eat was the fruit cup that came with it.
Supper was a big hamburger with all trimmings and chicken tortilla soup. I ate the soup. And a nice cookie that seemed like it might be home made.
I mention that I don’t feel good as an excuse for what I imagine is going to be a very dull column. I am telling you what I did and didn’t eat because some of you seem to be kind of interested in what we have to eat out here at the nursing home. I’m looking for any little interesting thing I can find to tell you.
Yesterday was kind of interesting. The residents had a big Cinco de Mayo party, complete with mariachi music blaring, Mexican-type dips and chips, and frozen margaritas and strawberry daiquiris. They were non-alcoholic as far as I could tell, but they sure did taste good. It was great fun and pepped me up for a while.
Despite the fact that I’m dragging, my knee is doing remarkably well. It is still somewhat stiff, but they tell me my recovery rate is way above average. I can walk around the whole nursing home without a walker, and without pain. They like to keep an eye on me when I do that, but I think therapy will discharge me Thursday or Friday. Since I’m not feeling well I may stay over the weekend. Of course, I’ve been talking big about just staying. After all, I own half of this place. They can’t kick me out. But there is a little hitch. I need a little more therapy, and this is the kind you don’t get in the nursing home. This will be the kind of thing Cedar Lake Home Health and Hospice physical therapy can do for me, where they come to me and help me get set up to live in the world. But I have an idea about that. Remember when I lived in an apartment next door? Well, there are still living quarters there, and I’m thinking I may just relocate to the old nursing home building, way down the hall from our Rehab Department. That way I can learn independence and also get to hang out with these Cedar Lake people I love so much and keep getting served all this good food that I don’t have to lift a hand to provide myself.
You may have heard about Juanita Rocha’s wonderful project, which is to crochet—and teach others to crochet — soft colorful “chemo caps” for all cancer survivors in our area. Several people have joined her effort. Donna Rinn was her first student, and now is churning out chemo caps like a professional. I’m trying, but so far the best I can do is a respectable chain stitch. I did an inch or so of a double something-or-other, but it was very disreputable. Today we met here in the nursing home library. Jill Davis joined Juanita, Donna, Betty Pogue, Annie Ellsworth, and me. This was Betty’s first time, and she has already caught up with me in making respectable chains. I found a really good how-to crochet video on Youtube. As soon as I feel a little better I’m going sit in front of it and practice till I can make at least one more stitch. My plan is learn to make a simple flower, and get so good at it I can make dozens, in all kinds of colors, to dress up all the caps.
Seems like that would be easier to learn than how to make a whole cap.
We are going to be meeting here every Tuesday afternoon to work on caps. I expect Betty and I will be meeting several times before then, to see if we can catch up a little more before then. We’d love it if you’d join us. It’s fun to try even if you’re not very good.
Another project I’ve had a chance to work on while I’m here is restocking the library. We have a very nice library, with a whole lot of good books, and quite a few boring ones. I have store rooms full of good books, left over from when I sold books on the Internet. So I’ve been bringing in a few boxes at a time and replacing some of the older, duller ones. Know anybody who needs or wants some good books? I’ve got lots to share. There is one type of book, however, that we never have enough of. It is LARGE PRINT BOOKS. If you have some extra ones, we’d love to have them. I could trade you a bunch of regular print ones for them.