Message 771

Yesterday I had a nice lunch in Los Gatos with all the girls as I described in yesterday's message. This morning Mimi and I met Helen and Jim at Starbucks. Jason and Ellie were with us there too. After coffee Mimi went to San Jose to stay with her mom at the hospital. The IV antibiotic is working and has caused the feeding tube to come unblocked, so she will not need surgery to put in a new one. Tomorrow she should be able to move back to the nursing home. Jason and I and Ellie went to Costco and bought me a new computer when we left Starbucks. Jason is hooking it up now while I am writing this. Julian and Beech are coming over in a little while so we can all go out to lunch.

Message 770

I am just about to leave to pick Evelyn up at Stanford. I will then drive San Jose to pick Mimi up at the hospital where she is with her mom while she waits for the IV antibiotic to bring down her fever enough so the can operate to put in a new feeding tube for her. I will then drive Mimi and Evelyn to Los Gatos where I can then take all the girls to Live Oak Kitchen for lunch. I am glad I will thus have Mimi get to know more of the family, and they to know her.

Message 769

I just got back from having breakfast at Heidi's Pies with Vanessa, Reggie, and Henry. Mimi was not able to join us this morning because her mother was taken to the hospital last night, and Mimi wanted to be there this morning for the emergency surgery required to replace the feeding tube, which is now blocked and infected.

Message 768

Vanessa brought Annie down yesterday around noon so I could watch her while Vanessa went to an appointment with Beech's shrink. I took Annie to the Redwood City McDonalds with a playground. I got myself a Number 13, a one-third pounder Angus beef bacon cheeseburger meal. I shared my French fries and ketchup with Annie. She also drank two chocolate milks. I was lucky to get her to eat that much. She is so busy playing with the other kids there that she generally just runs back to grab another French Fry and then rejoins the kid pack

I was sorry to hear form Julie that her dad is now in a nursing home with Parkinson's disease. It is a sad and tough situation for all involved.

Message 767

Yesterday I finished reading The Economist and did two loads of wash. It seemed like Sunday, so it is strange for me to realize that today is Tuesday, not Monday. Mimi and I are still seeing a lot of each other. She has to spend every afternoon helping take care of her mother in a nursing home in San Jose. She has Parkinson's disease and can not eat or walk, so she has to be fed through a tube through her abdomen into her stomach. One of Mimi's brothers is a doctor who lives in Florida. He insists on keeping their mother alive, so he and her other two brothers who are engineers in Silicon Valley pay to keep her in the nursing home and pay Mimi to help take care of her seven days a week. It is a hard job because her mother is pretty much a vegetable.

Message 766

Yesterday I read some more of The Economist. I should finish it today. Last night Mimi and I ate dinner at a Chinese Restaurant on Santana Row. Afterward we watched fireworks all around us as we drove back to pick up her car.

Message 765

Yesterday I read some more of The Economist. In the evening Mimi and I watched a DVD of the Japanese movie Departures. She lived in Japan for a while so it was especially interesting to her. It was the second time watching it for me, and I still think it is a wonderful and beautiful movie. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it.