Heading south

Today is November 15, 2014. To my astonishment, we find ourselves on the road in a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I suppose that that fact alone would not be particularly astonishing, but what is in my mind astonishing is that we are on route to Hilton Head Island for four months. At last I can delight  in the exclamation I am wintering in some southern clime.

Bleak Winter Day

Even unpremeditated consideration of life in mid-January in Canada must inevitably include an allusion to the misery of the weather, the sodden grey clouds, dirty yellow light and blackened urban snow.  I supplemented the trial by visiting my aging father at his “retirement” institution on Sunday morning.  It is of course ridiculous to label the singular feature of his residence as one of retirement.  He is almost 96 years of age and has been retired for over 30 years.  His room (hardly up to the elevated nomination of a “residence”) is in the Alzheimer wing of the hospital.  It is impossible to escape the babbling and occasional wails of the surrounding “residents” (another nicety).  The drably clad nurses and service staff perform their duties with practiced distance from the disheartening surroundings.  It is useless to glamourize the scene.  It’s not a home or a residence; it’s an asylum, a last stop, a safe haven for the frail and failing from the methods of the outside world.

New Year’s Day (2014)

I can’t imagine having spent a more lethargic day, the celebratory first day of the New Year. Compared to many mornings we slept late until something approaching six o’clock.  After our typical matutinal ceremony on the computers and a healthful breakfast of black coffee, fresh fruit, eggs, bacon, English muffin and granola we succumbed to our indolence and smothered ourselves once again under mountains of blankets, sheets and pillows for a most gratifying mid-morning snooze.  When we revived before noon we were freed the nagging obligation to venture out-of-doors by the uninterrupted drizzle. Cheerfully we capitulated to watching New Year’s Day movie specials on the television.  Of course we broke up the proceedings long enough for another round of sustaining nourishment.