Red Nose

Church Street: Emmanuel-Brinklow Seventh-Day Adventist

The tag line for Emmanuel-Brinklow Seventh-Day Adventist Church is We Are Family, which seems fitting for what I've been dealing with over the last week. (More on that some other time. Suffice to say that I am doing fine, more or less.)

Into God's Caring Hands

And you get through almost anything, and you live to be 96. And sometimes you wonder why. But when you look up into that blue sky, you think, "it's gonna be all right."

Anna S. Wise

June 9, 1911 - January 24, 2010

Church Street: Immanuel's Church

Here is a huge, evangelical Christian house of worship, Immanuel's Church.

This picture shows just a small piece of the building. There is an inlaid cross in that brownish section to the right; the main entrance seems to be those doors to the left. There is always something happening at Immanuel's Church; I've never seen an empty parking lot here.

I like the tagline of this church: You will be loved here. That's comforting, at least.

Holding Her Hand

More than once today I asked Mom what was going on.

She didn't respond. She hasn't been awake for days; hasn't eaten any food or drunk any appreciable amounts of liquid. She doesn't swallow anymore; the nurses give her meds as liquids slipped under her tongue. She breathes in great gulps, the oxygen tank by the bed gurgling as she drinks in the air.

And yet, she holds my hand. Her thumbs quiver as they press on mine; her eyelids crack open, then close again. She moves her arms, pushing at the covers; she wrinkles her brow, looking troubled.

What's going on in there?

She coughs sometimes, then moans a little, a high-pitched ethereal keening that only lasts a moment. She moves a little, just a little, as if she were trying to change her position or roll on her side, but she can't; she's too weak. Then she relaxes and goes deeper into sleep; she snores softly.

Yes, I took the day off to stay with her today for several hours. I just needed to spend some time by her side, regardless of whether she stays in that body on this earth within this plane of existence for hours, or days, or maybe a couple weeks, although I don't see how she can go on for that long.

(And I know I've said that many times, many times even here on this blog, and you have all been so lovely to me and kept us in your thoughts and prayers, and sometimes I feel like I'm crying "Wolf" and you will get tired of all of it. If that's so, I don't blame you. But still, I have to write about this time in our lives, the middle of mine and the end of hers, so please bear with me, please bear with me.)

I spooned a little thickened water into her mouth today. Did you know that there was such a thing? There is -- lemon-flavored water that's the consistency of molasses. I tasted it. That taste will now forever conjure "nursing home" in my mind. And there's orange juice that's the consistency of honey; I spooned a bit of that in her mouth and she made such a face! So no more of that.

Instead, I held her hand and smoothed her brow, and told her it was okay, and wondered what was going on in there.

Fifty-Eight

I've whirled around the sun 58 times now, spun around the earth's axis far more than that. No wonder I get dizzy!

Thanks to everyone who sent cards (e and otherwise), wrote on my Facebook wall, and tweeted with birthday greetings. I love you all!

It's been a really nice, laid back kind of day -- of course it helps having my birthday fall on a holiday! I have to say that this horoscope, which I grabbed from an astrology site that I neglected to write down, is scarily accurate about the past weekend.

Capricorn December 22 - January 19

For Monday, January 18 -Sure has been a hectic weekend, hasn't it? Lots of work, lots of emotional matters coming up -- you name it, you've done it over the past few days. So aren't you due for some serious recreation time? You bet you are. It's time to forget you're a Capricorn, put all those household projects on the back burner and go all out to indulge yourself. Start work on this project tonight. With the stars feeling emotional and sensitive, a bubble bath, hot tub or massage is definitely in order. Don't forget the scented candles.

Yep, the weekend was hectic, but hectic in a good way. Lots to do, lots done; got together with my family and visited Mom (that was certainly the "emotional matter"), went to two Caps games (both big wins, woo!), and finished up some STC work.

So today I indulged myself a little. It was a beautiful, beautiful day, so we drove to Frederick to take advantage of a Caps promotion at Glory Days Grill. Because my boys scored five goals, we got 10 free wings with an entree. Rock! So wings it was, along with a nice steak salad.

Then, because I registered my Starbucks card online, I got a free beverage for my birthday. Hello, tall skim latte! Of course, I added a cupcake, so it wasn't exactly completely free, but one needs cake on one's birthday.

I will be availing myself of my free CalTort birthday burrito later this week, but now I think it might be time to run that bubble bath.

Church Street: St. Luke's Episcopal

Set back from New Hampshire Avenue is St. Luke's Episcopal Church, a simple but lovely chapel built in 1870. Strictly speaking, this church fronts on Brighton Dam Road, but it's so pretty and so close to New Hampshire Avenue that I had to include it. So here it is.

This building is the second chapel built on the site; the original was built in 1761. It's a Chapel of Ease, which means that this church was built within an existing parish for those parishioners unable to attend the main church conveniently.

But maybe a Chapel of Ease also eased your spiritual burdens. This sweet church certainly could, I think.

I Got Nothin'; Go Read Joe

Some of you may remember Joe's rather short-lived blog from a couple of years ago. Well, he's at it again, only now he's contributing to a really great site devoted to stories from those valiant folks who work retail.

The site's called Retail Hell Underground. It's run by a gent named Freeman Hall, who has also written a pretty hilarious book of his adventures as a purse handbag sales associate at "The Big Fancy."

The various entries are pretty eye-opening. I can't believe how rude people can be! Now, I know that there are bad clueless clerks as well, but good grief! Not only are people rude, they're stupid. You'll see what I mean when you read a few of the uniformly well-written posts.

Anyhow, Joe contributes as "Joe the Cigar Store Guy". Go on, scoot over and have a laugh!

Joe as his alter ego, The Cigar Store Guy

Church Street: Cambodian Buddhist Temple

Welcome to the Cambodian Buddhist Temple.

 Here, excerpted from their site, is the Fourth Noble Truth:

The way to end suffering is to follow the Middle Path or the Noble Eightfold Path (Magga Sacca), namely, Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right mindfulness, and Right Concentration.

There Must Be A Dirty Word In There Somewhere

There was a Three Stooges marathon on AMC on New Year's Eve.

I know, I know; the Stooges are crass and violent and stupid and they teach bad things to children and...

I love 'em. Sorry. There it is.

But I digress. 

One of the episodes was called "Violent is the Word for Curly". You might think that's just an extraordinary example of truth in advertising, but it's actually a spoof on a movie called "Valiant is the Word for Carrie".

In one scene, the boys are masquerading as college professors. They proceed to teach the class an alphabet song called Swinging the Alphabet, a catchy little tune that caught my subconscious and held on tight.

So tight that I had one of those middle-of-the-night dream things where all I had to remember that damn song. Once again it stuck with me until I finally had to give in and look it up.

And here it is, for your listening pleasure.

B A Bay, B E Bee, B I bickie bye, bee oh boh...

Wake Up And Go To Sleep

Joe just woke me up and told me to go to bed. It's only eight o'clock, but he's right. I've been snoozing for about an hour, the result of some Coricidin night time cold remedy.

"Oh!" I hear you cry. "Have you forsaken your beloved NyQuil?"

Actually, yes. The good doctor at the Doc In A Box told me that Coricidin was better for folks with high blood pressure. I hear and obey.

Yes, I saw a doc today. I stayed home from work today and thought it would be a good use of my time. My throat is so sore that I feared I might have strep, which is no fun at all, so off to the doc I went.

It's not strep; it's a cold.

Of course that's good news, and of course I'm really glad' but it seems unfair somehow that my throat should hurt this much over a damn cold. If it isn't strep, it should be something like Razor Throat or Boogie Fever at least.

Alas, a cold it is.

I mean, Hurrah! A cold it is!

And so winds up my latest effort at Holidailies! I believe that this may well be the first year that I have actually written an entry for all 31 days -- wow! My thanks to Chip and Jette for once again running the show; it was great fun, great reading, and great writing.