Dad took a long time to make and eat his breakfast and then he fell asleep. So while he was occupied, I ran hot soapy water into a bucket and used it to wash out the recycling container that Dad uses to hold cans. It had spiders and a roach in it. But it came clean. I used the remaining hot water to clean the washer and dryer. I put in another load of laundry.
By then Dad was awake and he told me in no uncertain terms that he could have taken 5 walks in the time he spent waiting for me to take him to the shoe store. Chris carried the old printer to his car while I suggested Dad get his coat and cane. He was a little worried that we were going to take his scanner and old computer. We got in the car and Chris drove to Best Buy where he dropped off the printer for recycling. Then we went to Redwing Shoes. Dad's heels were worn out in the two years he'd had them. He wanted better shoes. Several people waited on him and the last guy fitted him with shoes that would only last one year. He used a bunion stretcher to make them more comfortable. I guess the bunion stretcher doesn't work on the kind of shoes Dad really wanted. Dad had said he wanted more socks, but they did not have the same kind he had gotten before. Chris followed the salesman and paid for the shoes. Dad did not like that and was worried that he couldn't use the receipt.
On the way home, Chris stopped for gas. When we arrived, Dad stayed outside while I went in for my scarf. Then we went for a walk. It wasn't as far as yesterday, but it took us 40 minutes. When we got back, I checked the mailbox to find one piece of mail – from a charity looking for money. Chris said the recycle truck had gone early this morning, so I brought the filled bin back to the front porch.
I sliced up some ginger root and turmeric root and made tea. I ate some radishes and gave some slices to Dad, who was making his salad. I listened to more of a video series. Kevin came by freshly cooked chicken. I could not resist eating a piece. I read e-mail. I heard Dad call the choir director and say he wasn't going to choir practice. He said he might not be able to sing the anthem. I looked it up on Youtube and played the choir version. Dad sat down to write a check. I scrubbed doors and jams.
When Dad finally finished writing the check (must have taken half an hour), he presented it to Chris. I wondered if it were for the shoes. Then he wanted to practice using his laptop.
I spent hours showing Dad how to open a file, scroll up and down, and minimize it. I tried to pretend I was giving each direction for the first time because he acted like it was always the first time he'd heard me say it. Finally I drew pictures of the icons on a piece of paper and wrote the name of the minimized file on it. Thankfully each of the three files he uses most often are in three different programs, hence the three different icons.
I showed him how to put the laptop to sleep. Then he talked about practicing printing files. So I had him wake it up and I guided him through printing his grocery list. But we had to print the pages separately and pick the printer from a list – not something he could do on his own.
I took my evening supplements while he took his and had a snack. Chris made the wireless printer the default option. I looked up how to make the cursor bigger and applied it to his computer. He liked it a lot. I liked it too, so much that I changed the cursor on my laptop.
Then I sat down to write my blog post for the day, hoping to get to bed soon.
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