Dad's Busy Day

Dad was in bed when I arrived this morning, but CNA Jessa got him in to the wheelchair so he could eat breakfast in the dining room. He only had 3 or 4 pieces of papaya and about 1/2 a Breeze.


It was about half an hour before Lynn, Dad's friend Walter's daughter, would be there to play ukulele with Gloria, so I took him upstairs to wait. Sakura was leading the residents in stretching exercises. Dad was having none of that. When Lynn arrived she came up to say "Hello" and Dad recognized her! She and Gloria played for an hour, many of the songs included hand gestures to give the residents more exercise. They also tried to get the residents to sing along to the songs as part of speech therapy. Towards the end of the hour Gloria actually got Dad to sing a little!

Lynn greets Dad before the ukulele session begins.

Dad listens to Gloria & Lynn.

Dad sings God Bless America with Gloria.

After the ukulele session, was a short Japanese song session before lunch. Dad did not sing any of those songs. I took him to the 2nd floor dining room but there were no seats available so we sat him at the counter at the nurses station, where he could also see the TV. His lunch arrived, but shortly after he needed to urinate, so I took him back to his room where one of the CNAs helped him. Then he was back in the wheelchair and back out at the counter, but he only ate about 1/4 of the peanut butter & jelly sandwich, though he had about 3/4 of the Breeze.

Lunch at the nurses station, Wonder Woman in the background.

It was quite confusing to come in to a movie in the middle, this one especially. I could figure out it was taking place during World War I because it was in the middle of a battle when we showed up. But there was a woman in a long coat running around but she didn't seem to be a nurse. About 10 minutes later she started taking off her clothes and it became apparent we were watching Wonder Woman. Basically we got to watch the last 30 minutes or so. I'm still trying to figure out why no one could see the large sword she was carrying between her shoulder blades as she tries to assassinate the German general at some sort of celebration where the women are wearing backless evening gowns.

This is after Wonder Woman got rid of her normal people clothes.

All total, Dad spent about 3&1/2 hours in the wheelchair; he never complained about his okole being sore; the Royal Purple pillow is working! At the end he said he could get out of the wheelchair by himself to get back in to bed. CNA Jessa allowed him to help as much as possible and he did quite well. I made Dad wheel himself about 10 feet when I got him to the doorway of his room, he did very well.

Dad did most of the work standing himself up from the wheelchair.

Dad wheeled himself in from the doorway to the bedside.

Both Brent & Ron showed up at the house to catch a ride up to Maunalani this evening to see the fireworks with Dad. When we got there we saw a light fog roll in to the Waikiki area, a short while later it got clearer. It kept going back & forth. At 7:45 we saw one red starburst and heard the explosion a few seconds later. Then we saw nothing but heard pops for another few minutes. We ended up being able to see about the last half of the show. Dad didn't want to get out of bed, so he didn't miss much.

There's one tiny burst barely visible I think it needs to be clearer for a good photo.

We spent a little time talking with Dad, then went to Zippy's because Curtis had not had dinner yet. He had a Zip Dog with Pastrami & Chili, Brent had a Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Ron had a Mushroom Burger, & I had a slice of Lemon Meringue Pie. 

Zip Dog. (Photo by Curtis)

Grilled Cheese Sandwich. (Photo by Brent)

Mushroom Burger.

Lemon Meringue Pie.

I brought my Keens with me today so that when I walked on the wet grass my feet (& socks) wouldn't get wet. It worked! Plus they are very comfortable to walk in and brought back great memories of the many years of field work & my field partners. At the park I ran in to Kelly and his dog Abby; but forgot to get a photo of them. Abby is a great frisbee dog!

By the way, even though the walk to and from Maunalani Park is only 2/3 of a mile and 15 minutes long, it has helped me lose 1.8 pounds this past week. I think it is the incline on the way back up the hill to Maunalani, I know I can feel the extra exertion when I am on my way back. At this rate, I will be at my target weight in about 10 weeks. However, I think a 1.5 pound per week loss is a more reasonable rate, which will take me about 13 weeks. So if I keep this up, by the end of July I should reach my target weight, which is still 5 pounds heavier than the previous weight where I felt the best when I was training. Lower than that and I felt weak, higher than that and I felt sluggish. I'll see how I feel when I reach the target weight and proceed accordingly. (The WiiFit also shows BMI, but I haven't paid much attention to that; I can do that when I get closer to my target weight.)

Happy Birthday to Evelyn & Donna!