so visiting grandma elsie today went better than expected; my aunt donna had told me that grandma was a little depressed and not recognizing people very well but when we got there grandma was happy to be awake and to "see" us all (she's legally blind and getting more so, so we are shadows to her at this point). I can't be certain that she was completely clear on who all was there (her son, daughter, and two grandkids--karl and me) but she was cognizant that we were family, which makes her very happy. and the envy of other residents of the nursing home, apparently, which, well, you never know someone's family history but it is too bad that some folks have no one to come to see them. quite possibly some of them are awful people but it's also quite possible that some of them have awful families or busy ones or.. sometimes though I think that we could do much better at keeping extended family together but on the other hand that's a knife that cuts both ways: my mom's extended family is abusive and sometimes cruel while my dad's is accepting and easygoing if somewhat repressed. I like to hear grandma tell stories about her childhood as it seems she was a bit of a rebel and was always causing her mother grief. :) so I come by it honestly, as they say.

I've about blown my social fuse for the trip and am hoping to have a mostly quiet day tomorrow before coming back to SF tuesday morning, where I will need a few days' vacation to recover from my vacation. I suppose if I lived here I wouldn't be this busy seeing people all the time but I can't take this sort of pace for very long. and I miss jackson and santiago and the fog.

it's been very warm here but today the heat broke and it is down in the 60Fs. tomorrow there is a chance of thunderstorms which would be somewhat unusual and interesting. I don't really know whether I'm still scared of thunder and ligthtning but the occasional storm doesn't bother me particularly.

I have to remind myself to write about wearing the red beard in the christmas nativity scene. I was a shepherd. I looked good in the beard and was even told that by other kids at church. I really hated giving up that beard at the end of my "shift."

so. write about that, you.