My return to civilization draws nigh. In the meantime, the rest of the trip has gone reasonably well. Especially when you consider I've spent the last six days (about ten hours a day) with people I don't particularly like and who don't particularly like me (my mother excepted, of course).

I wouldn't say we've all been on our "good behavior" since these aren't people who think "good behavior" should be wasted on family, but we've all remained reasonably civil.

I've dodged a few bullets and let pass, with an absent smile, several remarks that, in other times, could have been the foundation for a major family feud. I've accepted being characterized as a superficial, shallow, homeless ("an apartment is not a home") old maid with no feeling for the importance of history and heritage but living large on the abundance of my ridiculously large salary. Among, you know, other remarks that I didn't bother to remember.

Anyhow. Everyone seems to be settling into a routine with Mom still getting just a bit better every day. There are some things to work out around finances and getting occasional "relief" help for Billy Jo and Billy Bob, but that will come with time. Right now, I'm planning to make another (shorter) trip back out here in six weeks or so to see how it's all shaking down and to make sure this arrangement is still working for Mom for the foreseeable future.

She's still having visits from physical therapists and occupational therapists and a "bath lady), each twice a week, but those services are due to run out in another week or so. (It's something the hospital here provides as part of the service for four weeks after release for seriously ill patients.) If she continues to need such assistance (especially for personal care), we can arrange to hire someone to come out two or three times a week.

I looked into changing the date of my return flight, so I could be here for the Big Appointment next Wednesday, when she's supposed to get a lot of information about what to expect, disease progression, services available, etc., but the tab was $670 , which felt a bit steep for an unemployed person whose credit card is already starting to smoke a bit. I'm going to call them next Wednesday evening and find out what the specialists had to say.

Today went quietly. No "company" but me (and the occupational therapy lady and the bath lady), and everyone seemed relaxed and ready for a quiet period of adjustment. We ate lunch (Campbell's beef & vegetable soup and spam sandwiches on white bread and would it be rude to say that I dream about decent, reasonably healthy food?) ("Trapped in Missouri--send sushi!") and then picked up the mail.

The bulk of the afternoon was spent reading sale flyers and catalogs. (For anyone feeling a need, Goat Ration is on sale at $9.95 for a 40 lb bag. Bull gates, squeeze chutes, and assorted straight ducks are also available at bargain prices.)

For one reason and another, the afternoon's conversation touched upon such rarified topics as the VietNam War, foot fetishes, the school system twenty years ago, neocon scariness*,and furries.

Eventually the excitement of this palled on me and I returned to Mom's trailer to work on tidying up. I'm stripping all the beds and washing all of the towels and sheets and whatnot, cleaning the perishable foods out of the cupboards and refrigerator, and doing some of the other things that have to be done to prepare a house to be largely uninhabited for the foreseeable future. Cleaning and stuff. Also. Packing. (I'm going home!)

I may go back there for another short visit this evening. Depends on how the cleaning and tidying go.

Mostly? I want to sleep in my own bed, wash in my own shower, ready my own books, sit in my own chair, and be able to reach more than one store (grocery or otherwise) without an hour-long drive.

___________

* This bunch, as dirt-poor borderline southerners, were rabidly Republican thirty or so years ago. They ranted about "government handouts" for old people who hadn't had the sense to save for their retirement, wanted more money spent in schools where their kids were being educated, and yet were mostly in favor of small government with everyone fending for themselves because they had a rooted hatred of the "welfare state", a thing they complained about a lot without actually having any understanding of what a "welfare state" really looked like.

Now that they're old and getting infirm, they're incensed about the lack of social and government programs to help the elderly, the ill, and the poor. They're furious about the amount of money spent on schools, considering that schools and kids have too many programs devoted to them.

And they're still for "small government" and still harbor a lot of anger about the "welfare state" although they have family members who are certifiable (and a few certified) who wouldn't be able to feed and clothe themselves without their social security mental disability payments.

Things I wouldn't have expected to hear 30 years ago?

They loath Bush Junior and all of his cronies and colleagues (although they're so poorly educated that they refuse to believe that the "West" has now or ever has had anything to do with the development of the current situation in the Middle East) and are adamant in their hatred for "Republicans" (by which they mean the current crop of neo-cons).

Things I heard 30 years ago and heard again today? They're all for "state's rights" and they have no more idea what that means now than they had three decades ago.

A meeting of the minds was achieved with the agreement that the money being sent over to use for killing people in Iraq could have been spent here in the USofA to 5000% greater advantage. (They refused to accept that the USofA has now or has ever had any responsibility for the situation in the Middle East.) And they bitched about the high price of gasoline.