It's not even 10 pm yet.  Dad is watching a documentary about comedians and the history of comedy in America on PBS. I've been watching it with him, but now I'm not.  

Last night was a storm of all storms in the middle of the night thunderclaps after thunderclaps flashes of lightning and pouring rain.  Murray slept in my bathroom blocking the toilet.  Buddy doesn't seem to mind the storms so much.  It was a storm that people were talking about all day - all starting with that crazy windstorm from the north that blew over Chris's trampoline.  I keep thinking about how bummed out Mike is going to be when he finds out we took his trampoline apart, he worked so hard to get it put together.  

This morning I got out of bed around 7 to a changing sky that turned into a 5 minute hailstorm.  After the hail the sun came out and I walked the dogs, got back before it started raining again.  Then it was off to Bozeman for my knee appointment with my orthopedic surgeon.  He told me I was at 70%, showed me the difference between my quads and told me he wouldn't let me ski until they were both the same strength, but that I was right on schedule, the graft felt good, and I should add lunges to my workout schedule.  The appointment went well, wasn't really that necessary, but it was good for me just the same.  Murray's eye appears to be clearing up.  This morning it did not look that red at all.  She came with me to Bozeman, but I decided not to bother taking her to the vet.  When I cleaned out the corner of her eye this morning it felt like a small piece of gravel came out.  And it looked a lot less red.  So after the doctor's appointment I called the store to check in - Lauren was feeling good, sounded good, and had already done payroll for me just had a couple of questions.  The I called Miles at the Toyota Shop to see if he could take a quick look at my Landcruiser.  I dropped off my broken sandal - it broke when I took it off last night - at the Cobbler and then drove over to Miles who took a look at my car and told me to not worry about it.  

I thought I had a back up pair of sandals at home, but I can't find them and the broken one I won't get back for at least a week so I might have to buy a new pair if I want to go fishing. Maybe the extra pair is in the garage, or maybe Andrew took them to Kenya.

Howie just called from basketball camp using Dakota's phone.  All is good, he just wanted to call home.  He was so sweet, he even asked how grandpa was doing so I gave grandpa the phone who he told how many games he won today. He told me he had to make this girl laugh so he acted like a dog panting with his giant tongue and that worked.  I'm happy he called, it's so quiet in the house without them and now I feel reassured that he is all good and having fun, he even has had enough to eat - he's allowed to bring his uneaten dinner back to the room!  I asked him if he's seen Micah at all and he said he did. I told him to tell Micah that Bailey called.  Grandpa got a kick out of that call. She called during dinner and I told her Micah was at basketball camp till Thursday night.  When I got off the phone Dad asked, "Who was that for, Jackie?"  "No," I replied, "it was a girl calling for Micah."  The proud grandpa smiled.

(So, I took a break from writing and sat with Dad and watched BBC news as I ate my nightly ice cream dessert.  Now he is watching Charlie Rose - he likes PBS.  Now he is going to bed.  So I escort him downstairs, I forgot I was in the middle of laundry washing the kids sheets, so I make their beds, fold the rest of the laundry which is mostly Dad's and hand it to him.  "Thanks, Mawk."  Then back to the computer.)

So I drove home from Bozeman, called my brother Harold and wished him a Happy Birthday.  We talked about Dad.  I told Harold I thought Dad was doing good.  (cat wants in, eating a moth?) He is living the simple life, needs to know how to work a couple of buttons on the t.v. controls.  I keep forgetting to show him how to turn on the stereo.  I told Harold that Dad does seem to have benign Parkinsons, he seems to shake sometimes.  He's definitely getting old - he really should live with one of us.  I would love to have him live here. Unfortunately he doesn't think he does well in Montana and he is definitely always cold.  The other day as he was telling me he doesn't do well in Montana, I didn't freak out on him, but I did tell him I think that's psychological.  He didn't get mad at me, he just said, "you think so?" And then the next day I showed him that walk which is what he was doing when I called him just before I called Harold.  He was at the bottom of the driveway, looking for the dogs.  I told him I had Murray and then I told him that if Buddy was outside he would probably appear.  So he said, "I should go get the leash."  "Yes," and then sure enough Buddy showed up while we were still talking. And somehow Dad got the leash on him and Buddy went on a walk with him.  It was beautiful out at that time this morning, the storm gone for now and the sun shining warmly and brightly.

So I wished Harold a Happy Birthday, we talked about Dad a little bit and I promised Harold I would talk to him about not living alone anymore.  I asked for all in his family.  He sounded good.  The kids are good. Cyndy is good.  And then I lost him in the canyon.  Drove to Big Sky, got lucky with the flag people, not having to wait at all, stopped at the Post Office then the bakery. Drove to the store where I was bombarded with this and that.  Brought the bread in, the ice man was waiting for me, the deli drink cooler died, but Lauren was feeling well and doing her job well.  I had her watch me make decisions so she can make them next time.  I said hello to the crew one by one.  I tried to clean up my desk.   Dick Laws was in the deli seating area asking for me.  I sat down with him,  he was on the phone with his daughter Karen and Dick gave me the phone.  She was near Old Lyme Connecticut and I put her on the alert for Emily.  "How will I know it's her?" Karen asked.  "She has a great smile and she's jubilant and her name is Emily."

So I tried to get my work done, but Dick was very distracting, I needed to do the River Road Produce order which finally happened after I got a message that Vince had called.  (now Ziggy wants out)   Dick was going to be hanging around until 2 pm.  I called Dad, he told me he would be ready to be picked up around 1pm so I went and got Dad and they hung out together for about 3o minutes before Richard came and picked Dick up.  I probably should try to pick up Dick and bring him to the Baked Moose game tomorrow night.

Is there anyway I could convince my Dad I could somehow keep him warm for at least 9 months a year?  This is Montana and he would feel like a prisoner once the roads were covered with ice...

Somehow I got my deposits done and Dad and I walked to the bank with the dogs.  Buzzy was at the bank with her dog who was not interested in playing with Buddy, the Alpha Bitch, that's what Buzzy called her. 

It was already after 3 pm by the time Dad and I sat down for lunch. I had massage at 4:30 so I wasn't going to get that much more work done, but I got done as much as I could and I noticed the clock said 4:24 as we drove away from the store.  I dropped Dad off at the house did a couple of little things, looked quickly for this missing pair of sandals (Andrew must have them).  Then off to my massage with Sarah.  I didn't get there until 4:45, but she was all good, straightening up and smiling, happy that I didn't forget about it - too wrapped in work.  That was the old me.  The massage was great, went off into space and Sarah worked a lot of tension out of my body.  She physically squeezes out of me while I somehow mentally squeeze it out of me with a lot of deep breaths.  When I got out of the massage the sky was storming again, thunder, lightning, rain.  I wasn't going to go fishing anyway, yesterdays storm blew out the river and even the streams.  So home to hang out with Dad, do laundry, straighten up, Mary is coming tomorrow, take a shower and then make us a nice dinner.  Steaks, fries, salad and corn.  Waited for the rain to subside so I could grill and no reason to eat early as we had such a late lunch.  Luckily for the dog the rain did stop, the sun did come out and after a very nice dinner I took them for their evening walk.  Dad wouldn't come because the outside temp was under 50 and if you looked up at Ramshorn Peak there was fresh snow.  (a buzzing fly on the floor near Buddy, I get up and smash it waking Buddy up)

So a day of sunshine bookended with a morning hail storm and an evening thunderstorm and then sunshine again shining on the snowy peak of Ramshorn.