Rails Around the USA:
Summer, 2005

Sarasota, Florida

June 9 - June 21, 2005

Laurence Krieg

There is a rhythm to life in Sarasota that makes it easy to loose track of time. Laura and Dad met me on Monday afternoon after I flew :-( over from San Antonio, Texas, where the Sunset Limited ended its run.

The rhythm of the day includes both weather and activities here. Weather-wise, every day starts out sunny, humid, and calm, with the porch thermometers all saying 82 degrees. As the day progresses, the temperature climbs to 90 or 92 degrees, while clouds build up inland, to the east. By 2 pm, the clouds are tall, dark and...well, handsome in their own way, but also threatening.

Afternoon deluge

Dawn Email Patrol

Personally, the days start for me at 7. I check email and work on the computer most of the morning and through 1:30. About 9, Dad is ready for breakfast, and we sit in the breakfast nook reading and commenting to each other on the follies of human nature, as recounted in the newspapers. At 11:30, Dad goes over to the nursing home to help Mamma with lunch. When he returns at 1:30, we go to lunch at one of his three favorite restaurants: Steak and Ale, Madfish, or Patrick's. This is a relaxing time; we sometimes bring things to read there, too. BTW Sarasota fans: the Flying Bridge Restaurant - at Blackburn Point just south of Osprey, overlooking the yacht basin - has just recently closed. Apparently the land has been sold for development of condos. The Sandpiper Gift Shop, also in the building, is gone too.

My "Programmer's Paradise"

After lunch (3:30ish) is Siesta Time (even on the mainland), and Dad is now sleeping nearly 2 hours most afternoons. I use this time to check email, then walk about 5 minutes to the pool. There, I swim laps for a while, then work on my laptop. Three of the five days, it has thunderstormed while I'm there, but that's not a problem because there's a good shelter in which I can take refuge.

Reading of an evening

I walk home from the pool about 6:30, and find my father working at his desk. By 7, it's time to go over to see Mamma. Dad packs a refreshment bag with scotch, bourbon, and soda; once we get Mamma set, up Dad reads the daily devotions from the Bible and Forward Day by Day. Our fun-reading this time has been Beat to Quarters, the first Hornblower book written by C. S. Forester. This happens to be one of my least favorite, but Laura likes it best of all. She was especially gleeful last night, when Lady Barbara Wellesley met Hornblower and made him feel totally foolish. Oh well, no accounting for tastes.

About 8:30, we begin working with the staff to get Mamma in bed. We're usually home by 9, and one of us gets supper by microwaving frozen dinners. Again, a relaxed meal which we finish by about 10 or 10:15 with vanilla ice cream and toppings. Dad then gets into his pajamas while I check email one last time. If it's not too late, we spend half an hour or so looking at my pictures; then I go to bed shortly after 11, while Dad reads the newspaper until about midnight.

Well, that's the rhythm - what about the people?

Dad is doing fine. Memory only a little worse than mine (if I recall correctly ;-) His knees and back about the same as last year, so he can walk without cane or walker if necessary, but a bit awkwardly. He's still very independent-spirited, likes to hold doors open for others, and resents having Laura or me doing things for him.

Mamma is slowing down; she has great difficulty holding herself up long enough to get from the chair to her wheelchair. Her communication is less and less understandable, and she seems unable to hear anything, even with the hearing aid in place. She is often very sleepy and hard to wake up, but other times she's chipper and happy, chattering away at a great rate without making any sense. The blessing is that when she's awake, she's always loving, nearly always contented, and often happy. Our biggest concern is for her lungs, which have been pretty full for several months. She doesn't make an effort to cough, though occasionally she gives a little reflexive cough. She's getting breathing treatments, and Laura says they really can't do anything more for her.

The loving couple

We're taking Mamma to Ana Molinari's hair salon only once weekly, on Friday, followed by lunch at Patrick's. Daddy has decided not to take her to church during the summer, when the late service is a 10 AM, because it's too difficult to get her there on time. He hopes to start bringing her again in September, when the 11 AM service resumes.

Laura is moving into her "new" house and spending a lot of time with her friend Gary Peyson and his family, so she's not spending the night at Dad's now. Gary's Uncle Victor and Aunt Mary live in Sarasota, and have just moved out of their house into assisted living. Both have been through some nasty health problems recently, and Laura has been helping out in a big way. In fact, Aunt Mary sold the house to Laura at a very reasonable price. Uncle Vic has been in the hospital for quite some time; Thursday, Laura helped Gary move him to a nursing home, and she's been taking Aunt Mary to see him every morning while Gary is at work. Neither Vic nor Mary can drive now, so Laura and Gary have the use of their Lincoln, when not driving them around. Unfortunately, Victor has been in considerable pain, and rather shabbily treated by the doctors. Laura and Gary are visiting Victor in the nursing home as I write this, and Laura hopes to get his doctor to prescribe adequate pain medication for him.

Gary is an interesting person. He writes science fiction - Laura is helping him edit ("translate", they joke) a novel. He's from a non-practicing Jewish family, grew up in New Brunswick, New Jersey ("home of Rutgers University") and speaks with a New Jersey accent "so thick you need an axe to cut it". Despite that, he's quick-witted, humorous, and intelligent. He's been married twice, and has a grown son. I don't (yet) have a picture of him; the picture Laura sent a few months back really doesn't do him justice, as he's quite good-looking. He's been coming to church regularly with Dad and Laura for several months now, takes communion, and has his own embossed Faith Lutheran Church nametag.

Gary and Laura invited me out for dinner on Thursday evening, breaking my normal rhythm. We went to an Italian restaurant in downtown Sarasota, right across from Ana Molinari's salon. The food was good, but most remarkable was being seated at a table next to Tim Morris and family, Laura's ex-brother-in-law. Tim does real estate (very successfully) both in Sarasota and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. They have a house in both places. Our meeting was cordial, but of course a little strained. After dinner, we went to Gary's house, met their three kittens :-) and watched a science fiction movie (Solaris, 2002, directed by Steven Soderbergh, staring George Clooney and Natascha McElhone, based on a book by Polish author Stanislaw Lev). It's a rather somber movie, but the kittens livened it up by chasing each other around and around the house most of the time.