I’ve had a very hectic morning of meetings at work so far but I did manage to squeeze in a call to the hospice. They said that Dad had a good night – still with oxygen last night and this morning but he is doing better now. Mom is there with him so he asked for the tube to be removed so he can go for a walk with her. That’s the beauty of the space – he is not confined to 20 steps from the living room to the bedroom like he was at home.

I spoke to Mom last night when I got home from work (brutal 13 hour day of mostly brain work) so I am not really sure how most of the conversation went. But she did say that the hospital bed and wheelchair were picked up and Karran and Kelsey moved around some furniture to her liking.

Karran is going over to visit Dad today since he and Kelsey are leaving for an overdue honeymoon in New Orleans for 10 whole days! I am already salivating thinking about those pralines. I love when I go there and run around to all the praline shops to “taste” the pralines. After about half an hour, you just get this sugar high which you then need to deal with by going to the Cafe Du Monde (YuuuMMMM) for a few beignets and a hot cup of cafe au lait.

I am going over to some friends for dinner and tomorrow we are taking mom to the theatre and then out to dinner. She sounds excited. She hasn’t had a real good outing for several months so this will be a nice treat.

Now, of course, I am worrying about her. She’s been used to having home care workers in the house almost 24 hours each day for the last 3 months so this period by herself will be a major adjustment. Sophie invited her to sleep over last weekend and will do the same this weekend. We are planning to take dinner on Sunday at the hospice, assuming that everyone is available. Dad already requested fish curry so I have to hunt in my freezer to see if I have what he likes.

I told him that he has get out of his pyjamas and stop acting like a sick man and dress up in his athletic pants I bought him for his birthday. For those of you who know him from a long time ago, that was his usual style – to dress up for any occasion! I think his kids inherited that too. The way I rationalize it, none of us drink or smoke so if our vices are excesses of clothes and jewellery and travel, then it’s money well spent.

Some of you might remember that I did a cancer walk in June 2009. Postings from that blog are in the archives on this blog. I think I am going to sign up for this year’s walk but maybe set the fundraising goal closer to $1,000 rather than the $2,000 (or was it $2,500?) set last time. That means that I will only have to do 3 more ½ marathons for the rest of the year. My health goal this year is to walk 4 half marathons. Last year I did 3 including the Bermuda Triangle Challenge (1 mile on Friday evening, 10k on Saturday and a half marathon on Sunday). It sure was a challenge but I did it. This year so far, I have tried to maintain my 10,000 steps per day but fell short of my 310,000 steps for January. I hope to do better this month. When dad was diagnosed with cancer in Feb 2006, I committed to walking, as if I thought the more I walked, the better he would feel. Alas, it didn’t happen that way, but what I did get out of it is really excellent HDL (good cholesterol) and a decent check-up from my doctor for the past few years.

Mom still does her yoga and for 81, I think that’s great. If I am still standing at 81, I hope to be flexible enough to do yoga! Dad is doing laps around the hospice so that should give all of you some motivation to add a few extra steps in your day. Get up and get moving!

Just a note to say that I may not be posting a blog entry every day unless I have something interesting to say or an update on Dad. I will, however, title the posts so that you can only read what interests you.  Some of you have been sending emails to my Hotmail account.  I will post your comments on the blog so that when I print them (including my entries) to read to my parents, they’ll have a context for your comments.