Althouse: "Comments are incredibly slow this morning," I say out loud before suddenly realizing...

May 8, 2011

"Comments are incredibly slow this morning," I say out loud before suddenly realizing...

"I know why!"

Good for all of you who are celebrating Mother's Day!

35 comments:

Shouting Thomas said...: No, Sunday mornings are usually given over to yoga and a bicycle ride.

Today, I finished prepping the garden for planting before I sat down to the computer.

And, I'm going to ride my Harley to 11 a.m. mass.

Commenting is last on the list.

But, I still love you, Ann. I've just got to take things in their proper order.; 5/8/11, 8:49 AM
rhhardin said...: Can grandparents' day be far behind.

Supermarket flower shop signs are the traditional announcers of upcoming flower occasions, where women will see them.

Unfortunately for Hallmark and grandparents, parents don't have to live with them so there's no reason to get them anything.; 5/8/11, 8:51 AM
traditionalguy said...: How very traditional of us. Mothers live on as long as our memories of childhood lives on in us. At our church there are many elderly widows, and they usually out class us all in style and manors.; 5/8/11, 8:53 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Meade is talking to his mother right now. My mother is gone, and I can only wish that I'd talked to her more, on special occasions and other times. Too late!; 5/8/11, 9:02 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Talked to my mother for an hour several days ago.

She's an incredibly tough old bird. 85 years old! Worked until she was 60 at a tough labor job in a factory. Earned her LPN and passed her boards at the age of 63. Retired from her LPN job at the age of 83.

She nursed my dad through a 10 year bout of Alzheimer's and kept him at home. God bless her.; 5/8/11, 9:05 AM
Ron said...: My mom is gone too...so maybe that's why I'm here!; 5/8/11, 9:09 AM
pm317 said...: Maybe the spousal unit convinced the other not to read your blog anymore..; 5/8/11, 9:13 AM
AllenS said...: God help me. The Althouse Woman has become my Blog Mother.

WV: shesse

No kidding!; 5/8/11, 9:14 AM
Palladian said...: My mother's in the hospital, for the 5th time this year.

People say art is born of suffering, but I never understood that. The senselessness and randomness of illness and suffering resists transformation into the aesthetic or the sublime, at least for me, at least while I'm immersed in it.

We inspire air into our lungs in order to live and we inspire each other with the works of our hands and with our love for each other. We expire the spent breath and, eventually, we expire.

Best not to worry about what anything means and live for the moment with those we love, while they're here and while we're here.; 5/8/11, 9:22 AM
Wince said...: I thought it might be the recent spate of "Service Unavailable" messages from Blogger comments that have dumped several of my comments irretrievably (the "back" then "refresh" maneuver doesn't even work).; 5/8/11, 9:22 AM
caplight said...: First Mother's Day after my mom had died I was in the card store getting an MD card for my wife and
it hit me that I would only be getting one card now not two. Kind of cold cocked me. Started to lose it actually. So I bought a card and wrote long note to my mom in it. And read it every couple of years. Still miss her eighteen years later. A good mother and a great "Nana".; 5/8/11, 9:27 AM
Sprezzatura said...: I just got an email from my sister, who is w/ my mom. They've been way off the grid for two weeks. They just finished one leg of a trek, where they covered a lot of ground, and they got up to 14,500 feet.

Details in the email were short because my sister said that the power kept going out. The important thing is that they're enjoying the trip, even though it's leaving them sore and exhausted.; 5/8/11, 9:30 AM
madAsHell said...: ride my Harley to 11 a.m. mass

It's good to be an American!!; 5/8/11, 9:32 AM
Jose_K said...: Bing is celebrating Sarah Palin; 5/8/11, 9:45 AM
Jose_K said...: More confused than Adam on the mother´s day; 5/8/11, 9:47 AM
The Crack Emcee said...: If by "celebrating" you mean "sleeping" then, yeah, good for me!; 5/8/11, 9:50 AM
Tank said...: My mom's gone. Not forgotten. As my Dad said, "She was superb."

At work now.

Later, I'll think about my mom at the party my kids are having for my wife.; 5/8/11, 9:59 AM
edutcher said...: My Mom has been gone 20 years this year.

As for The Blonde, she's got the pups, so they go out and buy a card and I hold the paws while they write the message.

She's always touched by it.

AllenS said...

God help me. The Althouse Woman has become my Blog Mother.

Me, too.

Happy Mother's Day, Ann, from all the Althousians.

(somebody had to say it)

Jose_K said...

Bing is celebrating Sarah Palin

With 5 kids, one handicapped and one in the Army. somebody should.

Good for her.; 5/8/11, 10:09 AM
Titus said...: Happy Mother's Day everyone and a special Happy Mother's Day to the Divine Miss A.; 5/8/11, 10:31 AM
Big Mike said...: Every Sunday except Father's Day I make the breakfast for the mother of my sons, so that's where I was this morning. (Yes, DBQ, lyssa, Irene, Beth, and vbspurs, I also do clean up the cook top and do the dishes.)

Yesterday wife and son and I drove up to see my mother-in-law. It's always a bit of a chore, and not only because of the length of the drive. She's old, seems confused, doesn't take care of herself, but is suspicious of everyone and everything, but most of all, she's suspicious of her daughter. Since the wife is an only child, it's going to be up to us to get her into some place where she can get better care than she's taking of herself. But how to make that happen when there's so much suspicion on her part is a good question.

Any ideas out there?; 5/8/11, 11:31 AM
ErnieG said...: As Lewis Grizzard said, "Don't Forget to Call Your Mama. I Wish I Could Call Mine"; 5/8/11, 11:36 AM
sunsong said...: Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

- Julia Ward Howe; 5/8/11, 12:05 PM
kjbe said...: We're heading to see my mom, in a few, with a surprise visit from her grand-daughter. My brother's cooking, yay!

BTW, there was no one at the Y! this morning eithrer...; 5/8/11, 12:32 PM
Humperdink said...: A mother's love:

Solomon Rosenberg, his wife and their 2 sons were arrested, together with Rosenburg's mother and father for the crime of being Jews. They were placed in a Nazi concentration camp.

It was a labor camp, and the rules were simple. "As long as you can do your work, you are permitted to live. When you become too weak to do your work, then you will be exterminated."

Rosenberg watched as his mother and father were marched off to their deaths. He knew that the next would be his youngest son, David - because David had always been a frail child.

Every evening, Rosenberg came back into the barracks after each day of hard labor and searched for the faces of his family. When he found them they would huddle together, embrace one another and thank God for another day of life.

One day Rosenberg came back and didn’t see those familiar faces.

He finally discovered his oldest son, Joshua, in a corner, huddled, weeping and praying. He said, "Josh, tell me it’s not true."

Joshua turned and said, "It is true, Dad. Today David was not strong enough to do his work. So they came for him." "

But where is your mother?" asked Mr. Rosenberg.

"Oh Dad," he said, "When they came for David, he was afraid and he cried. So Mum said, 'There is nothing to be afraid of, David,' and she took his hand and went with him."; 5/8/11, 1:02 PM
Trooper York said...: Happy Mother's Day to all you Mothers out there!; 5/8/11, 1:03 PM
edutcher said...: We all know Troop meant that in the nicest way.

Just sayin'.; 5/8/11, 1:16 PM
Pastafarian said...: Palladian and Rick, those were very moving comments.

Althouse -- Happy Mother's Day.

I haven't been around much since that "Good thing I voted for Obama" post, the one Palladian brilliantly labeled "How Althouse lost me."

I've actually been frequenting the remarkably vile Lawyers Guns & Money comments for a while, until they banned me. I just couldn't stay away from the vortex.; 5/8/11, 1:23 PM
Irene said...: Big Mike said, "Any ideas out there?"

She may find your wife's intervention less suspicious if you all set up a family meeting with her physician. I've seen this approach work because the prompt arises from an outside party.; 5/8/11, 1:28 PM
edutcher said...: Mike, she sounds like she might have stage 3 or 4 Alzheimer's.

Take Irene's advice.

That lady is going to need a lot of help soon. If she has a friend or other confidante, that may help, too.; 5/8/11, 2:28 PM
Big Mike said...: @Irene and edutcher, thanks. Unfortunately all her friends are deceased -- or so she told us in the car yesterday on the way to the restaurant. At her age it's pretty plausible.

Wife and I wanted her to move down close to us after her husband died a bunch of years ago, but she refused to leave her friends. Now they've left her. She's reduced to a daughter she doesn't trust for no reason that I can see, a son-in-law she doesn't much care for, and two adult grandsons she dotes on. And her paranoia, of course.; 5/8/11, 3:56 PM
Irene said...: I am so sorry to hear that, Big Mike. Both Mr. Irene and I have been lucky with our parents/Moms.

Paws crossed here for you.; 5/8/11, 4:36 PM
Synova said...: For mother's day we went to the movie Thor with *everyone*. Six "adult" tickets. Ugh! This is why we don't go to movies with all of us any more. I realize it might be one of the last times we do something "out" with the whole family. The kids will fly soon, and who's to say they'll all be back at the same time again?

We didn't pay for 3D because no one wanted to see it in 3D but the 10:40 2D showing was sold out so we went to McDonald's instead of having movie popcorn for breakfast.

Thor was great, and I didn't even hate Natalie Portman in it.; 5/8/11, 5:08 PM
edutcher said...: Big Mike said...

@Irene and edutcher, thanks. Unfortunately all her friends are deceased -- or so she told us in the car yesterday on the way to the restaurant. At her age it's pretty plausible.

Wife and I wanted her to move down close to us after her husband died a bunch of years ago, but she refused to leave her friends. Now they've left her. She's reduced to a daughter she doesn't trust for no reason that I can see, a son-in-law she doesn't much care for, and two adult grandsons she dotes on. And her paranoia, of course.

Double check about her friends.

You'll need to get her trust somehow. Having gone through this, first with my mom and then The Blonde's mother, I know how tough it is. The problem with Alzheimer's and related illnesses is that the person can't be left alone.

We had someone a room or two away with my mother-in-law (or she had little outings with my brothers-in-law) all the time (The Blonde worked night weekends and I did the usual 9 to 5).

Where you say, "seems confused, doesn't take care of herself", is classic Alzheimer's; the "doesn't take care of herself" is known as Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). See if she had a clergyman or someone else she trusted. You may have to get a lawyer involved if her affairs aren't in order.

Good luck. Like Mr & Mrs Irene, our paws are crossed, too.

PS The Blonde says it sounds more like stage 2 or 3 Alzheimer's, so you will have some time.; 5/8/11, 5:25 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: See if she had a clergyman or someone else she trusted. You may have to get a lawyer involved if her affairs aren't in order.

Good advice. We are going through this same thing with a dear close friend who is sort of an "adopted" mother to us.

Because we are NOT the family, related or have any financial interests we are getting a clearer picture of what is going on with her and more honest revelations and acceptance of her situation.

Bring in a third party. Someone who commands authority and respect. Doctor. Lawyer. Clergy. Let them be the fall guy.

Fortunately my parental unit, still remaining, is playing with all of his marbles. Thank God.; 5/8/11, 7:18 PM
Big Mike said...: @Irene, edutcher & DBQ, thanks for your concern.

When I say she doesn't take care of herself, I mean that she refuses to let us set up meals on wheels for her, her teeth are in bad shape (though apparently she can and does -- now and again -- get to a dentist), and she's lost a lot of weight lately.

Wife knows of no surviving friends.; 5/8/11, 9:36 PM