The senior meals are going to do her in

Mother hasn't liked the senior meals for quite a while. I have complained to Rod (editor of newspaper) about them. One time (Uncle) Jim came in to the editor's office & asked how Mother was doing. I said ok, as I usually did. Rod spoke up & said, "Those senior meals are going to do her in."

Today was probably the worst one I've seen. This is what I posted on Facebook:

It's pretty sad when your mother has to pay for a home-delivered meal that ends up in the garbage, uneaten, & when you walk in 30-45 minutes later with food from a fast food restaurant, the garbage has to go out because it's stinking up the house.

I went over to Mother's about noon & Luana was standing by Mother at the table. Mother was trying to eat her home-delivered meal. She asked me what the main dish. I poked around at it & said it looked like stroganoff. Luana said that is what she thought it was too. Mother asked me to taste it & tell her what it needed. It was so pasty. It had been overcooked, I tried to swallow it without gagging. I told her it needed salt. I got in the fridge & grabbed ranch dressing. Luana laughed & said ranch dressing will help it. Luana told me to try the scone. She said when you took a bite of it & oil just oozed out of it. It smelled stale. I took one bite of it & spit it out.

Mother said the veggie was as old as she was. I told her it was pretty old (she's 84). I told her to put the honey butter on it, but it was cold & the butter wouldn't melt. The salad was good. It looked like it was dry jello salad. Luana had brought some apple crisp over yesterday or Monday & she took some of that & poured milk from the dinner over it. Mother said the milk was gross too. The milk comes in a cardboard carton & is warm. I remember how gross those cardboard cartons of milk were when I was in grade school. I took the chocolate cake, put the lid on it & set it in the fridge. But I threw everything else away. Luana chided me for throwing it away. She said Mother hadn't eaten anything. What was she going to eat? Then Luana decided to go home & make some soup.

I said I'd go buy some chicken. Mother said she didn't want chicken.

I came home because Nick was hurting. He thought Chesterfried Chicken sounded good. Why didn't we get some & go over to Nana's. I bought a chicken bowl. I LOVE chicken bowls, but they are so darned big!! A chicken bowl has mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cut up pieces of chicken tenders with grated cheese sprinkled over the top. Mother & I can share a chicken bowl & still have some left over.

I offered Nick the cake from Mother's lunch. Mother wouldn't eat it because it was dry & she doesn't like chocolate. It was crumbly & he had to eat it over the garbage. I told him to eat it over the sink. He said it was good, but not to tell him what I thought (zucchini) was in it, LOL.

In telling Don-Mike about Mother's dinner he said Shannon (Montandon) came through the drive up window today at Big J's because her home-delivered meal was not good.

Home-delivered meals are yuck

My mother reminds me of school-aged kids. I guess all institutional food is not very appetizing. Which brings to mind a quote from M*A*S*H:

Well, what's the slop du jour? ~ Hawkeye

I may have to explain this quote to Mother, so I can ask her what the "slop du jour" is on Monday, Wednesday & Friday.

Yesterday I left work to go check on Mother at lunch. I try to check on her 2-3 times a day now. For about 6 weeks I went over every day to give her a Spiriva treatment - a daily maintenance Rx for COPD.

A couple of weeks ago, I came back to work & told Rod about a dinner that Mother thought was terrible. I had to look in the paper to see what the menu said it was. Then I poked around in it & decided that was probably what it was supposed to be. Yesterday's meal was probably the worst I have seen. Again, I had to check the menu in the paper. I think I'll just cut the menu out & post it on the bulletin board so we know what she is supposed to have.

When I went back to work yesterday, the first thing Rod asked me was if I had seen Jim. I asked if he meant my uncle Jim. He said yes. I said no, the truck wasn't out in the alley. I sat down at my work station & about half an hour later Jim came back. He asked how Odetta was. I said she had survived Saturday, the siblings party, but she didn't seem to be doing very good when I had just visited her. I didn't tell him, but she looked sick, her eyes were pain-filled.

Rod quipped, "The Senior Center meals are going to do her in." We talked a while longer & Jim left.

Yesterday's meal was supposed to be a chicken enchilada. Mother had eaten about half of it. But she said she didn't like it & I could have it. I ate a couple of bites & wondered if they had served up barf. Mother told me later she had put vinegar on it trying to make it taste better.

I said Nick would probably eat it. He likes chicken enchiladas. Nick wouldn't eat it either. He said he threw it away.

I like the fact that she gets meals, especially where she can't see to prepare her own meals, but it is institutional food.

Lent, Day 19

Can you believe it? It's 8:50 p.m. Facebook & Shockwave both have new layouts. Two favorite sites on one day changed drastically. I don't know if I can handle it.

Only one doctor's visit today too, guess I'll have to go update Mother's Caring Bridge site. Nick went over to Mother's this morning & Don-Mike was still asleep. Nick didn't stay long, but he came home & after I was awake awhile, he came & sat on the bed & visited with me for quite a while. I shared several funny stories about Mother & Daddy & we laughed. I told him about Don-Mike coming in & waking me up this morning.

Me, sound asleep, & Don-Mike, don't know what he did to wake me up, kneeling on the bed looking down at me. I said, "Oh, Eddie, what are you doing?" Don-Mike: "Eddie?" Me: "Oh, Nick? What've you got in your eye?" Don-Mike: "My eye?" Me: "Oh, Don-Mike, umm, never mind." By then I was coherent enough to realize it was Don-Mike & he just had his glasses on. What I had seen was the white nose piece on his glasses & I couldn't figure out what that white thing was on his face. I had been completely & soundly asleep.

I had taken some Western Family cold & flu daytime formula lemon "stuff," that you mix in hot water. It is supposed to compare with TheraFlu. I went to bed, like 11:30 or just a few minutes past. I didn't fall immediately into a sound, dreamless sleep, but once I could breathe through my nose, I did fall asleep. It wasn't dreamless either, when I woke up, staring into Don-Mike's face, my butt was cold & I was all tangled up in my covers with my butt hanging out in the cold. I had Prissy right next to me, practically breathing in my face, & Marsha on my feet. I think it was about 9:30 this morning.

The lemon stuff said not to take it if you have 1) high blood pressure, 2) diabetes, 3) thyroid disease, 4) heart disease, 5) low sodium diet & umm, one more that applies to men only, trouble peeing because of prostate. Well, I only had 2 of the 5 things, high blood pressure & diabetes, so I decided to take it. I remember thinking that Mother couldn't take it because she has 4 of the 5 things, she doesn't have diabetes.

I'm going to take it again tonight, unless Don takes it. There is only one packet left. I didn't use any more Zicam because it said you could only take it 3 days in a row. The lemon stuff worked better anyway. It helped with the fever.

Today when I went over to pick up Mother to take her to Logan, I asked her what she had for lunch today in her home-delivered meal. She said, "Salty soup." I said you're not supposed to have salt. She said she didn't eat it. I asked what it had in it besides salt. She said she thought it was supposed to be chicken noodle soup. When I got home, I looked at it & I think it was supposed to be chicken chow mein. The noodles were soggy chow mein noodles. There was some dry ones in a plastic baggie.

She said she was going to mix in the soup that Don had taken over to her last night. I was looking at the soup & started laughing. I said that you're supposed to put a potato in your soup if you've made it too salty. That's what she had last night was potato soup.