I’ve always wanted to start a letter that way.
Just three full days left before we start 24 hour journey on our trip. David was on his feet a LOT today, and (with the exception of dinner tonight) the wheelchair was in the truck all day. I felt a little guilty having him use the chair when he offered to walk, but we were late getting to the restaurant and had to park far away and I knew our friends would be hungry. As it was they were almost done with their soup when we got in (you thought I was kidding!).
Yesterday we stopped at Safeway on the way home and, for the first time, he walked in and walked up and down several aisles. He has been walking in our store and at home a lot but at Safeway and Costco we use the chair since the distances are long. We were practicing for Paris a bit, with me brining the chair up along the rear. I have sort of figured out how to have it follow me as I walk behind him. It made a great basket to carry stuff at Safeway until he got tired and the HE was in the chair and I had to CARRY the basket of stuff that was previously in the seat of the chair. We made it work though.
Nick is back this week from school and helping out with the Christmas rush. It was sort of an unexpected Christmas present for us since otherwise we would have been STRESSED out to the max, and having him there in the store to lend a hand is a tremendous relief for David (and me too).
My goal was to be packed by tonight, but I knew that was not going to happen. At least I am mostly done with the laundry and all the collecting of gifts and last minute stuff to take along. Every few minutes David reminds me of something to grab to take along with us. Hopefully that list gets shorter by Thursday!
The good news is that I finally DID find the keys to the apartment (as the organized one of us it bothered me a lot, even though I have a spare set). I knew they had to be here in the house somewhere, and Carol today at the store mentioned leaving her keys in the oranges at Star Market (a longer story), so for some reason that led me to think ‘outside the box’ and there the keys were in David’s jacket pocket (the jacket he last wore on our trip to Paris more than a year ago). Go figure! Now if I can just find where the battery charger is for the camera….
I do want to say a big thank you to all of you visiting in the store and wishing David well on his recovery in person. There are a lot of you reading the blog for the first time on learning of David’s stroke after seeing him while you are doing your holiday shopping. We are blessed to have so many friends and acquaintances and I know it helps David in his recovery to have all of your support.
Not sure if I will update before our trip on Christmas Day, so be well and have a great Christmas celebration.
Drew