Blogs » My Turn » Snap!

Subscribe


 
Snap!
By juliezavala in My Turn
November 18, 2010

This was a good day. And that's saying a lot after having only slept three hours or less the night before. It wasn't my Dad's fault - he slept the whole night through. It was my own starstruck self (correction: meteorite-struck self) to blame.

See, last night was the peak of the Leonid meteor shower. To be exact, 3am was said to be the start of prime-time meteorite viewing. My internal alarm woke me at 2:43 am after a particularly disturbing nightmare. At 2:45 my co-worker called to say she was "in" and she wanted to go with me to watch it. Poor girl. I didn't mention to her that I have a touch of night blindness (or as my optometrist put it, "Mrs. Zavala, don't drive at night") We ended up driving to Telferner and parking in someone's long driveway to view the meteor shower. I'm also directionally challenged and as a result my co-worker/intern/stargazer/photographer friend from Michigan had to give me directions back to a town I've lived in now for over three years. (Sorry Angie).

Anyway, this morning I was so tired but I was supposed to get video of an old house that was going to be moved from Navarro to South street at 6:30 am. I ended up going back to the Advocate when the movers still weren't there after 7 am.

After I finished a graphic, I went home. My husband left to go to work and I was just about to go to bed when someone knocked on the door; it was the hospice nurse. She was there to take Dad's vital signs and check to see how he was feeling. I let her in and started a fresh pot of coffee as she woke Dad up. Dad would be wide awake after visit. I went ahead and started his breakfast, too.

Dad and I spent most of the rest of the day watching movies and listening to music. At 4:30 pm we went out to Saxet Lakes to look at the water and watch the sunset turn the park golden. It was so pretty.

We talked about what we wanted for supper and decided that chicken sounded good. A little later, with a bucket of chicken sitting on Dad's lap, we headed back home. Dad was very alert and funny for the rest of the evening - he totally had his snap. When he was getting ready to shower he asked, "Julie, do you think you might have time to give me a quick shave after I'm cleaned up?" He's never asked me to shave him before. I usually just do it.

The funniest moment came when he said, "We need to figure out a time when we can cut my fingernails. "We." I told him he was totally spoiled now. He laughed and told me it was all my fault. He gave me a big hug.

It was good to see Dad acting more like his old self. 'Hope springs eternal'; I want him to get better. I want the Alzheimer's disease to go away.

I should probably get some sleep now. Tomorrow I have to work from home. If I'm lucky, the Dad with the snap that showed up today will be here tomorrow. morning.

Image