Oops -- My Bad

Rob called me about ten minutes after I had woken up this morning. Pretty good timing, considering he could have called when he wakes up (5:30 a.m. or so). Fifteen minutes before 7:00 didn’t seem too bad even though it was the weekend. I was still a little groggy and in the middle of the morning routine of feeding dogs, cats and the turtle but cleared my head when I saw it was Robert calling.

I try to guess why Robert is calling before actually answering to get a head start on preparing myself for whatever it might be. It’s a habit a control freak like me can’t seem to break. What in the world did we (“we” as in me and the other control freaks) do before caller id?

My mind runs through a few scenarios but the first is always: “This is the nurse. We heard a crash and came in. Robert needs to go the hospital.” Then I stop being such a drama queen and move on to more mundane reasons for the call such as “Do you want to come over to play cards?” or “I’m out of toothpaste” or “My remote doesn’t work.”

Just answer the phone already!

Can I Interest You in a Subscription?

If you looked at Robert’s magazine subscriptions before moving into the Care Facility you would think he was an athletic Mr. Fix-It who gardens after a long day of hunting and, in his spare time, collects guns and rare coins while harboring a soft spot for celebrity gossip and an interest in architecture.

The truth is Robert is a developmentally disabled, physically challenged, devout Christian epileptic who enjoys playing cards and bingo, going to church, watching game shows and spending hours on end working on word search puzzles.

He collects magazines; he doesn’t read them.