The Worldwide Meteor Map shows a humonguous meteor went over the Eastern Seaboard, right about the time I felt the shaking. Curious.

Dealing with aging and ill parents is not easy, and I know that I feel like I've not done the best job of it.

I can only imagine how it's easy to beat oneself up over this.

My truth seems to be that no one imagines themselves as a caretaker for others in this intense and intimate way. Sure, when I had kids I assumed I'd be doing that sort of stuff for little people for a bit. But now I have a daughter for whom I may need to do this sort of stuff for the rest of my life. It's daunting.

Random: has anyone seen the play Good People ?

I read it today and it was fantastic. I'd love to teach it and see it performed. Alas, it was performed at the Geffen last year so I missed my chance.

I was shocked in college when I met a guy who didn't use a top sheet. It seemed like such a lazy boy thing to not want to launder that extra piece of cloth but then of course he NEVER washed his blanket so I was grossed out by the idea of having unlaundered blankets pressed up against one's flesh all night. *shudder* Now if instead of blankets the bed was topped with a duvet whose covered could be easily laundered, i'd be ok with that. But I like nice sheets and my duvet covers are rarely more than 200 thread count so I'll stick with top sheets, TYVM.

As soon as I get home I usually take off my bra and change to indoor pants. Then I go to bed in that (whatever shirt i was wearing all day plus comfy pants.) Not really a fan of clothing specifically for sleeping. Except for socks in hot weather, because I can't fall asleep without socks on my feet and sometimes it's just too hot to sleep in socks...so then I have pairs of really old stretched out socks that slide off super easy, so I fall asleep with them on then fish them out of the sheets in the morning for the next night.

before bed there is the taking of the pills (including melatonin), the brushing of the teeth, the flossing of the teeth while watching TV, then the full evening ablutions. Few months ago I got one of those super fancy Therapeutica pillows in an attempt to improve my chronic neck pain, so far it's just making me toss and turn even more than usual (which is usually enough to make sleeping alone something of a necessity.) Before that I had two of the super dense contoured neck pillows of different make/model which made the pillow dance (I require a fresh pillowcase after every hair washing, so with 2 pillows I had a system, now I have to switch out pillowcases more often) less irritating but also took up more space. Then I have two body pillows for btwn knees and snuggling surrogacy. Two so that every time i roll over there's a pillow waiting for me. I'm super high-maintenence when it comes to bed setup.

the flossing of the teeth while watching TV

I can't floss without looking in the mirror. I hear about people who floss while they're showering, or watching TV, or whatever, and it blows my mind, like they're performing open-heart surgery or something.

IME, no matter what we do for aging parents, no matter how much, we'll still feel guilty for not doing more/better/something else. Because we can't fix them, I guess, and that's what we really feel like we should be doing. My poor sister tried so hard to stop/slow the course of our mom's disease, reading to her, trying to get her to do puzzles, trying to get her to remember things, and it was almost as painful watching her deal with failing to stop the inevitable as watching my mom slip away.

And, for a sudden switch of topic, The 22 March 2013 Fireball Meteor Map.

This is the closest thing I have to an explanation for the vibration.

And I totally missed it.

Today was ish. Was achey all day, swim was slow, meh.

Just starting to have to really deal with my parents' aging. Not for the faint of heart. But we're really clear on the solutions we will not explore ( ie- them moving in with one of us, though PJ would totally be game for that. I just don't think either parent would be comfortable doing so. We all know that would be a complete fail with me+them.)

A bank of monitors fell off the wall at Birmingham airport and killed a kid. Going to give them a wide berth from here on out. It's not a big airport, I know exactly which one it was.

Could those meteor sightings be centered in Grover's Mill, N.J.?

The line of sightings went from Central Virginia to New Hampshire, Ginger, as far as I can see from the map. So it definitely went over NJ.

Just starting to have to really deal with my parents' aging.

Tim's dad is developing some dementia (early signs like some short-term memory loss, not paying bills, etc.), and he insists he isn't going to move out of the large home in a remote area in which he lives alone. Yeah, no. The thing is, he's also very lonely, and a retirement community would probably do him a world of good in terms of mental stimulation and interaction. That's going to be a big issue in the next year or so, I'm afraid.

*My* dad is a hot mess of too many medications that mess with his brain (painkillers, sleeping meds [and YES, I know that it's not a good idea to combine them, but he acts like goddamn Elvis when it comes to pills]), which in and of itself is worrisome, but then he DRIVES when he's full of meds. He needs to not drive anymore, but then he would never leave his apartment, or it would be up to me to take him everywhere, and I live 25 minutes away from him. But seriously, I used to be sure that a heart attack would kill him. (Or, when he was drinking like it was an Olympic sport, that he'd be in a bar and make some asinine insulting comment about some woman's breasts [yes, I am SO PROUD of my family], and the woman's husband would beat him to death. For real, that was a HUGE worry of mine for YEARS. Because he was a JACKASS when he drank.) But now my biggest worry is that he's going to take his percocet and get behind the wheel and flip his truck and kill himself. And other people.

So the loopy-making drugs mess with his brain, and then he's also suffering some memory loss, although I strongly suspect it's a side effect from the comically high dose of Lipitor he's been taking for 10-15 years.

If we could stick my dad and Tim's dad in a retirement home together, it might make for great reality TV.