Whew! That little marathon of rehearsals, performances and rushing my Mom to the ER and then the psych ward is over. Church music went pretty well yesterday. I managed to use different instruments for each hymn intro (flute, guitar, marimba, organ, piano and combinations thereof). I got the men to blend acceptably on the Richard Farrant anthem, even though the rest of the choir had trouble adapting to my conducting tempo. It was not a bad performance, really. 

After church I made spaghetti for Eileen and me.

Then we hopped in the car to go see Dad at the Nursing Home. As we were getting ready to punch in the security code we looked in through the glass and noticed someone was conducting a prayer service. Ay yi yi! Back in the car and up to the bookstore to buy “Brain Rules: 12 principles for Survicing and Thriving at Work, Home, and School” by John Medina. 

I’m pretty impressed with this book so far. The author is “a developmental molecular biologist focused on the genes involved in human brain devlopment and the genetics of psychiatric disorders,” who can also write clear entertaining prose. I’m seriously considering going looking for a used treadmill today. He points out that the brain evolved in our species when we were walking 12 or more miles a day. So that the brain thrives on an active body. Who knew?

 My Dad threw his hands up in the air and began expostulating about seeing “my Son!” when I bent over to kiss him after the coast had cleared from the religious nuts.

Eileen couldn’t tell if he was laughing or crying. I thought he was doing buy veterinary valium both at once. Dementia is fun. He has fallen three times in the last four or five days. I am going to be signing a release to put him in a wheel chair with possible restraints today. He continues to  deterioate and lose mental faculties but his spirits were pretty high yesterday. He kept trying to slide out of his comfy chair and saying things like “well, let’s get going!”

Eileen and I chatted with daughter Sarah in England daughter Elizabeth in NY/DC via our cool little Acer net books yesterday.

I think all of us were impressed with being alive in the future when you can look at a little screen and chat with people you love miles away. Wow. 

We ended the day laying on the futon watching the first episode of the NBC series, “Kings,” on Hulu.

On a netbook, of course. 

I saw Ian McShane interviewed on Stewart’s Daily Show. I do like the biblical story of David and Solomon quite a bit. This series is based on it. But it sets it in an alternate reality. The capital of the fictional tv country, Gilboa, is a morphed NY called Shiloh. McShane’s character (Solomon in the biblical story) is called Silas. David is David Shepherd and takes out a “Goliath” tank in the first episode. Also instead of a harp he plays piano. Heh. Goofy but fun for me. 

Today I am going to try to relax even as I run a few errands including some leg work for my parents’ application we are re-submitting to medicaid.