Grocery shopping

I had just gotten up for breakfast when Dad asked for help. Mom had made quite a mess and it took both of us to clean it up. We gave her a bath, too. Then I dressed her and put hydrogen peroxide in her ears. It seemed to help her cold. Then I was able to have my breakfast. I was hoping we would get to the grocery store before lunch, but Dad wasn't ready. I can't really say what he was doing. Checking inventory, I guess, but other things distracted him along the way. Regular TV programming was interrupted to show Air Force One landing at RIC. And coverage continued as the reporters waited for Obama to get off the plane, and greet the people, and get into his limosene, and drive to Petersburg. He gave a speech at the airplane engine plant. Ok, so one might want to hear the speech, but the rest was not worth interrupting programming. Oh, and we had to watch him get back on Air Force One and take off before getting back to what we wanted to watch (which by then was over).
Dad cut up apples for lunch. I juiced half a pepper and some celery. It took him even longer to eat lunch today because he was falling asleep between bites. Even with his head down and eyes closed I knew he was still awake as long as he was chewing, but when the chewing stopped... Speaking of chewing, Mom now chews all her pills and capsules. I tell her not to, but she just has to bite them in half before she will accept a spoonful of liquid to swallow them. Is this indicative of Parkinsons disease? Finally at 3:30 he put Mom in the car to go to the grocery store. He had me sit in the middle of the front seats. Then he went back in the house to get her purse and his clipboard. That only took twice as long as it should have. I was suprised how soon he got back. Then he had to move the Oldsmobile. That took about 5 times as long as it should have, but I could not tell why. We stopped along the way for gas. He only drives that car to the store once a week, so he hadn't put gas in it since August. He exclaimed over the price of gas, and I told him that he won't have to fill up again until next August and the new prices will make today's price look cheap:) :( Anyway, he said shopping would take 2.5 hours. And it did. Even with me there and wheeling Mom around to find things on the list. They did not have her regular bread so Dad bought Spelt bread. All the ingredients seemed to be healthy ones. When we checked out, Dad carefully arranged the items on the counter so that the cold and frozen stuff would be in one bag. When we got home, he carried that bag in first. I wheeled Mom in. Dad continued to bring groceries in. It might have gone faster if Mom had done it. He wanted me to fry the fish he took out to thaw last night. They were still a little icy, but I did it. He was not ready to eat when they were cooked. So they sat on the stove while he assembled a plate for him and one for Mom. I took the time to juice carrots and spinach for all of us. Then we ate. Mom eats as fast as she can, as if to get it over with and go on to something better. Dad seems to eat as slowly as he can, as if putting off whatever might need to be done next. So when Mom and I were finished, I picked up my needle and worked on the blue lonestar quilt. Those political shows Dad likes so much came on. They were interesting, but did not say enough about any one topic for me to get a good understanding of it. Mom asked me to find a particular book, but the lightning was dim, so I tried to put a new bulb in. Dad insisted on doing it himself even though I was already standing on a chair with the new bulb in my hand. He had a little trouble with the fixture because it is so old. One socket doesn't work and two of them have stripped threads. He says he has no time to install a new one. I could and would do it, but every aspect of a new fixture and every step of the installation process would be subject to the Earl test, and that would take more time than if he did it himself. On the other hand, if someone got him out of the house and I just did it, then he wouldn't find time to worry about it or uninstall it later. At 10 Mom wanted to go to bed, so I took her through the bedtime routine and put her to bed. Remarkably, he went to bed soon after. Here I sit, in a quiet house, the last one to go to bed.