March 2024

Fun stuff first
The month got off to a cold and rainy start, which we actually enjoyed — we see enough of the sun around here, most of the year.
—Badminton season started — Annika was partnered with Kayla, aka LAUDERBAUGH, and they worked well together.
—Two dudes: Lukas and R. went to SF for the Warriors game Lukas got tickets to for his birthday; the two stars they wanted to see (Steph Curry of the Warriors, and Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs) were both out due to injuries, but they had a great time nonetheless.
—Learning to Drive: Annika had her first BTW driving lesson; the instructor said she did great and told us to practice with her as much as possible. It was really weird seeing her drive — but also really cool. :-)
—Thomas Twins’ 16th: Annika spent an evening at her friends Anna and Skyler’s joint 16th birthday party, playing Cards Against Humanity and whatever else kids today do.
—Easter: Gotta keep up traditions, even when things are kind of a mess (see below); the four of us dyed a couple dozen hard-boiled eggs, and the Easter Bunny hid many many dozens of filled plastic eggs around the house for a good long hunt Easter morning. Later we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa, but not at their house … 

The much less fun stuff
We were having a low-key St. Patrick’s Day Sunday when we got a call in the early afternoon from Grandpa, saying Grandma had fallen and he could not get her up into a chair. R. went over there right away, and came back nine hours later. She didn’t have any head trauma or bleeding or anything, but she was in pain and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. She had broken her sacrum, and furthermore was pretty out of it mentally — we thought it was from whatever painkiller they had given her, but came to find out later that it was a UTI, which in older people can present as something like sudden-onset dementia. At any rate, she was in the hospital for three days, then moved to a skilled nursing facility, and taking care of her became pretty much R.’s whole life from then on, for months; he would go over there after work every day to relieve Grandpa, who’d arrived midmorning (spelled briefly, some days, by Amy in mid afternoon), and stay with her through dinner and lights-out. Amy took an evening here and there (R. got to go to two of Annika’s badminton matches), but it was 95% him, seven days a week.  But she was getting better, slowly, and he was a major part of that; as the immediate crisis passed and the log slog began, we all realized we needed to figure out next steps once she was able to get back home.