Missed

Somehow I had it in my head that today was my blogiversary, but it was actually back on Sunday. This little blog is now two years old, and I'm hoping there won't be any terrible twos. It continues to be a fun little pursuit, and I sure have met some very fun and decent folks, even if not all of you can appreciate the special thrill that is a fox poo photo (a photo which, I might add, still gets me an awful lot of Google hits.)

Anyway, I promised an accounting of my trip south, so I suppose I should get on with that. As I mentioned before, it was a good visit. My grandparents really aren't in the best shape these days. My grandmother (88) needs a fair amount of assistance, and since a mild heart attack two years ago, my grandfather (93) has been fairly limited in what he can do. Still, my uncle and his family live directly behind them and my aunt lives less than a half mile down the road, so they've got someone nearby to look out for them, and mentally they're both still fairly sharp. My other aunt, my mother's older sister, is mentally retarded and lives at home. At 69, she has health issues of her own, and with a mental/emotional age that's permanently at around 6 or so years, she's never really gotten out of the "Look at me! Look at me!" stage, which is its own challenge. Still, she's relatively functional and is able to help my grandparents out some with household chores.

My job while there was just to visit, and that's what I did. I also did some of the cooking - especially breakfast, though that was somewhat selfish on my part to ensure I got plenty of cheese grits. Mostly, though, it was pure down time. I made progress on the wedding vest and spent a fair bit of time studying Hindi grammar and just generally made myself at home, just as I've done since I first spent two weeks with them at the age of two. I only wish I'd been able to stay longer.