Yesterday went to visit my mother, Lura Jean, in Indiana Hospital. She is 86 and a little run down. We think she is largely affected by being  surrounded by people  in her personal care home  who are  fairly well out of it, more or less passively waiting for their final moment  on earth. That would depress me and I think it wears on her, whether she is aware of it or not. We see a difference in her since she has left her apartment,  although she says she’s glad not to be  cooking and cleaning  and likes to, in her words, be taken care of.  I understand that,  but I worry about the psychological effect of being surrounded by  people who are  more  worn down by life than she. She is in the behavioral unit which is restrictive but comfortable, and they appear to take good care of her. It is quiet and clean. The nurses seem so so in terms of their alertness and willingness to respond. We had a four -hour visit. And a total of 6 hours travel going down and back in one day. It looked like a ton of traffic heading to Presque Isle on Lake Erie while we were going the other way.

Today is 4th of July and I’m doing my patriotic duty of mowing the lawn. Thank goodness finally some people have moved into the next door house and are taking care of the property. It had been largely left abandoned for some time or occupied by people that you did not feel comfortable having as next-door neighbors, if you know what I mean. Wink, wink. The whole country is waiting nervously, despite the cause for celebration, because there are threats from the terrorist group Isis to do something horrific and memorably symbolic  on American soil, even if it is by homegrown nut cases wanting to spill blood and gain some attention to their cause.