Wednesday

Last night, Linda made cookies. Her sister Mary helped some, but mostly socialized. Linda's jobs were stirring, which was very hard, and putting the cookies on the sheets. Cookie batter is quite stiff. They made two kinds of cookies. Linda was in the chocolate chunk pecan group. The other group made oatmeal raisin. Both turned out really good.

Today I was in Kirksville finishing my last grades before noon. I also had to do mundane things, like get my oil changed. In my seclusion at Rusk, I don't keep up with the news much, so you'll imagine how surprised I was when gasoline was $1.98⁹/gallon. One more penny would have made it double what I remember in graduate school. That's what you get I guess when you elect an oilman president (although Linda always reminds me that he wasn't elected, he was appointed by the Supreme Court). I wonder what different things in the world would have been mucked up by Al Gore. Personally, I think I would probably wreck the software industry.

When I got back, Linda told me she had a "very good" day. That's better than she usually reports, so I believe her. She did dowel work in OT, and standing and sitting in both PT and OT. She told me that it went better with Fred than Lyndsay, although she didn't say why. I suspect it's because Fred was working on it from a strength and balance perspective and arranged the exercise that way. Lyndsay would be looking for independence. Living skills are always way harder than regular exercises.

One practical skill that Linda did have today was "scooting." She scooted from the wheelchair to the mat. She also laid down and sat up on the mat without assistance.

Ellie came today, and Linda tells me that she was very good. They played catch with a balloon and with a beach ball. The beach ball was harder because it was slippery. Linda tells me she was not as good at it as Ellie. Oh well.

Today, Linda started pushing herself to therapies. Lyndsay suggested it yesterday to build strength because we have carpet at home and it is way hard to push the wheelchair on carpet. Linda says, "Fred made sure I did it." He told people they couldn't give her a ride, although he did relent twice and help her out himself.

Tonight, we did some working on transferring to and from an armchair. We got the idea in the apartment, and there are two perfect chairs at the end of the hall in "Ellie's office." Ellie's office is just two arm chairs down by the smoking deck in north hall where she would be delighted to show you her imaginary puppy. We go there almost every visit at least once.