After work last night I went to see Supertramp in concert down at the arena.  They were just as good as I remember when I first saw them in 1977.  Unfortunately it wasn’t the original lineup as Roger Hodgson was missing but you couldn’t really tell the difference in the music. 

It was funny walking into the arena though.  I would guess that the average age of the people attending the concert was somewhere between 45 and 50.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.  And once inside they were every bit as loud as teenage girls at a Justin Bieber concert.  I really wanted to record some of it on my phone but it had run out of juice at work.  ugh.  Still all in all I was quite happy that I went. 

So anyway… today I helped save someone’s life.. and they’re probably going to hate me for it.

Anne, one of our neighbors, is an elderly woman. I’m not sure how old she is, but with near-crippling arthritis and osteoperosis, she shuffles about like she’s a hundred and fifty. Her health has been slowly failing her, and ever since the whole debacle with the train fence, she’s had a very hard time getting to the co-op to do her shopping (she refuses to shop at the mini-market just down the street, due to ‘brown people’ running it). She’s fallen a couple times, and generally is no longer able to take care of herself.

Thing is, she has that stubborn old-person pride, not wanting to ‘be a bother’, and generally giving up and waiting to die. She has resisted tooth and nail any sort of social workers, Meals on Wheels, and even friendly attempts at helping her out. Suicide by self-neglect, if you will.

Some time Friday, she fell and could not get up again.

Michelle, one of my housemates, is one of the few people she’ll tolerate having over for a visit, found her and was in a bit of a panic. Michelle isn’t very socially-adjusted herself, and was worried sick, but knew that Anne didn’t want help. I told her that there are times when the right thing to do isn’t necessarily what someone wants.

911 was called, and an anbulance whisked her away to the hospital, where presumably she is receiving the kind of care she hates. I’m hoping she makes it out of the hospital, perhaps with a few more years left, and is more willing to accept help in the future.

Gray; So Jealous!!  Supertramp is one of my all time favorite bands!

Robin, it sounds like you did the proper thing. Sometimes people get SO stubborn, that help must almost be forced upon them. (Esp. older folks, who may fear that getting Social Services involved will mean that they may end up in a nursing home.)  

I’m not feeling well. I’ve been headachey, dizzy and queasy since yesterday. 

I’m glad the Mousling had a nice long nap today, because I napped with him!

Been out playing beside the nuclear reactor outflow pipe?

There’s a tornado warning for my area again.  Yeesh.  They just recently finished fixing the arena that got torn up by last year’s tornado—it would not be good if it got hit again, especially since this time, there’s a concert going on.   BUT—there is a really neat lightning show going on right now!   No thunder, at least none that I’m hearing, but almost constant lightning.

*I*N*S*O*M*N*I*A* again

No word on how Anne is doing.. I asked the manager at the apartments if she’d heard anything, but apparently it’s not something the hospital’s easy about giving out.

Ugh…where did this cold weather come from?  Can I send it back?

No, Smerk, you can’t.  I don’t want it any more!

And I just had the funniest conversation with Isabel (my 4 year old granddaughter)...

Isabel: What are you doing, Grandma?
Me: Cleaning my room.
Isabel: How come?
Me: Because it needs to be cleaned.
Isabel: And if you don’t clean your room, you don’t get any Christmas presents.
Me: That wouldn’t be any fun. :(
Isabel: Yeah, it would be no fun to be on the naughty list!

You mean that you aren’t already on the naughty list, Crafty?  Perhaps you can avoid the naughtier list!