(no subject)

My uncle and aunt, mom's older bro and sis, gave us a driveby visit this afternoon.  My mom, who has been the torture of my life ever since she started drinking (yes I know that's not all her fault, but anyway...) is now able to take care of herself , dress and cook for herself, but her official diagnosis is "dementia". She isn't allowed to drive, so there is no way she can get wine. She never, ever mentions it. She does occasionally ask to borrow the car keys from my <s>bother</s> brother, but of course she doesn't get them. 

I felt embarrassed that we had nothing but coffee to offer them, though mom got out the good cups and saucers when she found out they were coming. She couldn't remember why she had been in the hospital and went in to a nursin home for a month (cirrhosis and dementia from continued drinking after a similar incident where she drank herself into the hosp. a year before). Aunt Pat kept asking her about it, and I opened my blunt face and said 'drinking way too much after having been warned', or something like that, quick but true. And really Pat must have known, because Uncle Jim came to the hospital to see her then. 

But it was a good visit, just good to see them, which we don't too often. They mentioned her visiting them in Michigan this summer, and that might be a good idea, the two of them not getting younger, and mom not drinking, she sure is much more pleasant. You haven't heard me complaining about her for a while, that's the reason. 

The only thing she does is write annoying notes from time to time, ridiculously petty, but that I can get through easier, than constantly wondering what she'll come up with next or any of the other things she used to do. I feel sorry for her now.

Pat said the beach where they live all year round on Lake Michigan is way receded, covered with green slime. "The environmentalists," she rolled her eyes, "will fine you $5,000 if you rake it off the beach and pull the weeds" which didn't use to grow there, before the slime came. The slime is probably a result of people putting in ornamental lawn property, along with fertilizer, and maybe there is another factor like global warming coming into play. Sad. She and Uncle J. are kind of well off, and sometimes I think they get the money in their eyes a bit. She just likes to get out on the beach with the grandkids, and read or paint or whatever, and with the beach the way it is, that's not possible any longer. So I kind of sympathize, but I def. see the environmentalist point of view. Don't put grass in, leave it natural. In the sixties, people didn't know what the changes would do, but now we've see what it does to just think of profit and pleasure, and ignore the planet. Er, enough Ps for you?

*pees on earth*

Now I regret it, so peace, all.