2012 — 14 April: Saturday
My regular reader may recall dear Mama's oft-expressed wish "to take a pill and go to sleep," or simply "to go to sleep and not wake up". Indeed, it's all part of what makes my weekly visits such a life-affirming and totally pleasurable experience, trust me. Being a dutiful son, I'd like to help her fulfil her wish.
But, as I remarked ten months ago,1 all I can legally do in this benighted kingdom is to establish with her GP and the care-home staff our family's wish for a "do not resuscitate" policy. So I did exactly that, learning in the process that all it takes is for the GP to fill in a purple form. In essence, this specifies no heroic medical intervention, no life-saving surgery, no antibiotics, just plenty of "palliative care" (aka painkillers) if needed.
This morning's phone call (more or less waking me at 06:30) from a nurse at the care-home informs me that dear Mama is now in hospital "after a fall" for them to investigate her hip pain. The nurse added that she's also on antibiotics for a (possible) chest infection, so that part of the "policy" has apparently been ditched.2 Since:
- the care-home remains closed to visitors (rampant gastro-intestinal infection, remember)
- the weekend staff are — how should I put this? — generally less well-informed than the weekday staff
- the weekend GP is unlikely to be her normal one
it occurs to me that we may well be heading for a "perfect storm". Still, I learned during Christa's last days that worrying and second-guessing in what you might call the "end game" neither solves nor changes anything. "What will be will be", as Dad used to say.3
Time for a cuppa, obviously. And Brian Matthew's soothing "Sounds of the 60s".
Well, I never... dept.
I never would have guessed that Nick Hornby credits Anne Tyler's "The accidental tourist" as his inspiration for writing. Fascinating interview...
Being married to a psychiatrist might seem an asset to a novelist, especially one as character-driven as Tyler. But she says he never discussed his work. "I think novelists ideally do the opposite of what psychotherapists do. They are saying there are all these mingled colours and shades. I'm not just going to give a name to your neurosis." One thing he did bring home was a copy of a book called The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, by Erving Goffman, which she found to be "the most valuable book a novelist could read. We are always trying to decipher gestures, or as writing teachers say, how to show rather than tell."
Only two of my six Goffman titles remain on my shelves, but that's one of them. I bought it in 1971.
In between being obscurely gratified by Big Bro's email response (I didn't relish spoiling the no-doubt lingering after-glow of yesterday's wedding) and the preparation of my next culinary crockpot masterpiece, and before noting the latest goodie4 from Mr Postie, there's time to note that this looks like fun. Morgan Spurlock's stuff is generally interesting.
Now back to my slicing and dicing. It's 11:28 and I aim to start the thermal agitation by noon.
Becoming a skunk?
Behind this neat graphic lurks a nice little essay:
Where did I put my pipe?
I've mostly been...
... listening to music — and thinking — this afternoon, as it's slowly been brightening up out there. My current choice is "Des Königs Henker" (The King's Hangman) by Saltatio Mortis (a German medieval metal group); an album given to me by Friederika (the daughter of the sister of one of my sisters-in-law) when she stayed with us for a couple of weeks in 2005. This is actually only the second time I've played it. I still haven't got the faintest clue about the lyrics, of course! But having browsed my collection, she assured me I would like it and, blow me, she was right. Before that, I was enjoying "16 Horsepower", which is a vastly different kettle of fish. I discovered their music one time (26th March 2001, to be exact) in Calais in a record and bookshop.
Now it's time to switch off the crockpot and, as it were, dive in. It's already 18:07 and I'm predicting a smidgen of video-based relaxation later this evening.