The most “up” time recently that Spouse and I had was our wonderful, fun, and deliriously happy Thanksgiving Feastival last Thursday. Seems like an eon ago.

Then on Friday, I took Spouse to get not one, not two, but three MRIs where his ongoing medical issues continue to be probed.

We thought after that fun, we would return home, kick back, and rest. But…

…when we arrived home, there was a message from one of his mother’s caregivers that caused us such extreme concern, that we packed an overnight bag and took off for Pittsburgh.

By the time we got there, whatever problem MIL was having had self-resolved. We tried to bring some cheer, but MIL has such bad dementia that she was not responding well. She sometimes confused her son with someone else and told him to “call her son” (on the phone).

She thought I was her doctor because I evaluated her vital signs several times. Unexpectedly, her blood pressure, pulse, and oxygen saturation levels were good, even though she continues to lose weight. She’s down to less than 80 pounds.

She slept on-and-off. We made the best of the situation we had.

Afraid of really bad traffic, and also knowing that caregivers were still scheduled, and also that we couldn’t sleep, we left extremely early on Sunday morning and were home by 7am.

We both “crashed” for several hours. But we were up again by noon.

Man, it really was a pleasant day — warm (60F / 15.5C). I donned my new Schott Perfecto 118 “naked leather” traditional biker jacket, leather jeans, favorite Chippewa Firefighters, and took a ride on my Harley to clear my head and have a little fun. I enjoyed it. (Story about the jacket for another blog post.)

And now we are on the downward side of the holidays. If MIL lives as long as the end of December, we will be back there again. Not really for Christmas, but when I have some time off.

No Christmas, really, at our house. We put up our little tree and some decorations, but not much. We do not entertain or have visitors at Christmastime.

Life is short: do what you have to do to show those you love how you love them.