another whirlwind tour

We returned home yesterday around 6:30 pm from a weekend trip to the old neighborhood, with very little notice ahead of time for planning any schedule of visits and activites. We spent the weekend staying in the old neighborhood with John & Cindi again, who are excellent hosts every time we are able to come for a visit. I had two very good dinners with them that included things I can not get at home - good Vietnamese food and Indian food. I had been craving curry this week so I was happy to go to one of our favorite Indian restaurants on Saturday night.  Sunday, we were able to have an impromptu lunch meetup with Chaz and Sandra & her mother at So Ba in EAV. I would really love to be there on a late night some time when it metamorphs into the Octopus Bar, an after-hours hangout for bar & restaurant industry employees. Kinda reminds me of how everyone would meetup at Back Street on late nights after the clubs and restaurants closed years ago.

We needed to accomplish two things on the trip: 

1. Deliver a very large piece of hard-to-ship furniture to the Atlanta showroom from his company facility in North Carolina (the main reason for the trip).

2. Visit my mother, who is in declining health.

The only thing we accomplished was the delivery. I kept the rest of our time in the city on hold, trying to schedule a visit with my mother, but she would not see me. She has no energy to do anything for herself because of a combination of kidney disease, diabetes, and anemia. She refuses to let anyone visit her at home because it is a wreck, including anyone in the family (again) who might want to help clean and maintain her home because she is so ashamed of it. The anemia leaves her so weak she doesn't want to get out of bed. So she refused to let me come to see her. After waiting all weekend to visit her and being otherwise without a car of my own (I drove MonsterMustDie's car down to meet him at  the U-Haul lot), I spent most of the weekend just hanging out and waiting on everyone else to do something.

MonsterMustDie was too exhausted to do anything after loading, driving and unloading the truck. There was one birthday party involving a group of friends I have not seen in a very long time that I wanted to join in but I could not make that happen. Everything else would have needed more long-range planning with people who have active lives in circles I am no longer a part of. And then, I have no real budget for entertainment, anyway.

I never felt so much like a ghost.