Blogged at the Stake!

Tomorrow morning Jill and I head to Boston - the Massachusetts one. I have been to many,many states in the union but I have never been to Massachusetts as of yet. We are renting a car and driving so we can see the nation and not put the miles on any of our vehicles. Happily, we have a staff of people staying at our home and we have neighbors who will respond to any wrong-doings. Of course, we have Jeff who would just as soon rip-out you jugular as look at you if you are a wrong-doer. We are open to ideas of things to see in Boston and Salem. We may also stop in New York but I have been there though Cha Cha has not. I wonder if I will get burned at the stake?

Today I went to see my mom in the home she has been residing in for a little over a month. I was delighted to find that she is doing pretty well (comparatively). She is in a different wing of the home (the area for people who have more challenging mental issues). The reason that she was moved to this wing is because she was refusing to participate in the therapy that she is supposed to be doing. The home cannot risk losing their accreditation or certification or whatever they could lose is people are not doing the therapy. As you know, if you are a regular blog reader, Jill was in the hospital for several days so I could not get to go to see my mom (that's what husbands/wives are for - dealing with their mates' and childrens' problems so my dad was with his wife and I was with my wife).  Anyway, since we will be gone on Mother's Day I took her the gift that we got her. We ordered her a robotic therapy cat and I took it to her when I visited today. I was unsure exactly how she would respond to it but she LOVED it. It purrs and moves it's ears and meows and lifts it's paws and lies back once in awhile. She knew it was not real (one of my concerns before I got there) and she showed it off to everyone. On the way there I stopped and bought it a collar so I could write her name on it in case someone tried to take it of she left it lying around. I also put her name and my parents' home phone number on a piece of paper and put it in the compartment in the cat where the on-off switch resides. One of the many nursing homes that we visited, before my dad decided on this place, had one of these cats and, obviously, that stick with me. This is the only cat that she has ever had that I am not allergic to and she has had A LOT of cats in my life. I was saddened to see that she still has that terrible bruise on her face (eye/forehead). It is not as dark purple as it was but she has never been a very quick healer due, I believe, to her anemia.

While we were sitting in one of the lounges at the home a woman came in and began speaking to us. She, apparently, is a friend of my mom's there (another resident though she seems pretty well). She was very nice and my dad mentioned to her how I was there to visit my mom one week early for Mother's Day because I was going to Boston. She said that I am going to Boston tomorrow and her eyes lit-up. She said that her daughter lives a few hours from Boston and she asked if I would call her daughter when I got there to tell her that she was very excited to receive the flowers that they sent her for Mother's Day. I said, "why don;t you just use my cell phone and call her right now?" She said something about not having the phone number because back in her room. I told her that I was not going to leave for awhile and if she wanted to go get the number she was more than welcome to use my phone. So, she left and, after awhile, she came back with the number. I dialed the number for her and she spoke with her daughter and some of her grandchildren... I heard her crying happy tears as different people traded the phone somewhere in Massachusetts. I really do like making people happy. Shiny happy people make the world a better place for all of us. I, of course, had teary eyes as I am a big-hearted puss unless there is wrong doing. Then, I am a raging lunatic

I forgot an ambush of tigers and a tower of giraffes

On the way home from the home I passed a HUGE line of motorcycles going the other way. There were at least 200 motorcycles motoring the opposite direction of me. Why do motorcyclists feel like the have to travel in bunches like that? Maybe they were raising money for some cause or maybe it was just a nice day and they all just happened to run into one another and just start a gang or a gaggle or a flock or a group or business or an army... I added "business" because a business of ferrets is my favorite group of animals that there is. I also do like: a barrel of monkeys, a flamboyance of flamingos, a crash of rhinoceroses, a mob of kangaroos, an unkindness of ravens, a prickle of porcupines, a coalition of cheetahs. a smack of jellyfish, an obstinacy of buffaloes. a prickle of porcupines, a wisdom of wombats, a conspiracy of lemurs... Yes, I was bored many times as a newspaper writer and an editor and spent a lot of time trying find information to spice stories-up. I wish we had the internet back when I was in the news game.

I am pretty tired right now because I got out of bed at 03:00 and it is 16:00 now. I still need to pack and whatnot. Thanks for stopping by. I am not sure if I will blog while on our trip but, since I usually sleep rather poorly on vacations, I may find myself with the computer on my lap. Oh, that laptop word makes sense all of a sudden. Thanks for stopping by and I will blog ya when I blog ya! TTT?...MITM (out) BYE!