Parental update and visions of Vesta
Things seem to be going pretty well at the ancestral home-front. My mom is rehabilitating herself as swiftly as could possibly be expected. She looks wonderful and animated. My dad is doing OK, considering the circumstances.
He exists solely "in the middle of now" with the immediate past and future pretty much totally obscured. Since the "now" doesn't include my mom (except for his daily visit to the place she's staying) he is pretty despondent. We have people from the "Home Instead" home care folks looking after him during the day to make sure he eats & gets his meds and has company who are competent to deal, but he needs my mom home ASAP.
I spent the night and day with him last night which helped. Brought him Wisconsin Chili for dinner and tales of the train trip to PantheaCon. He's happier just listening to the home care person and me gabbing to one another. (She's had an interesting life and we trade sea-stories) I'm hoping we aren't losing too much of him during this stressful period.
In other news, while I was in Sequim I took advantage of the wonderful astronomical conditions and did some observing with my binoculars. I managed to catch the asteroid 4 Vesta as it moves through Leo. It was quite visible at 6.5 mag. in my 8x24 binoculars. That was too cool. more info here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/asteroids/80433142.html
He exists solely "in the middle of now" with the immediate past and future pretty much totally obscured. Since the "now" doesn't include my mom (except for his daily visit to the place she's staying) he is pretty despondent. We have people from the "Home Instead" home care folks looking after him during the day to make sure he eats & gets his meds and has company who are competent to deal, but he needs my mom home ASAP.
I spent the night and day with him last night which helped. Brought him Wisconsin Chili for dinner and tales of the train trip to PantheaCon. He's happier just listening to the home care person and me gabbing to one another. (She's had an interesting life and we trade sea-stories) I'm hoping we aren't losing too much of him during this stressful period.
In other news, while I was in Sequim I took advantage of the wonderful astronomical conditions and did some observing with my binoculars. I managed to catch the asteroid 4 Vesta as it moves through Leo. It was quite visible at 6.5 mag. in my 8x24 binoculars. That was too cool. more info here: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/asteroids/80433142.html