Wandering

    We are closer to what could be called wandering.

    Mom is happy as long as she has work to do.  Much of that work now involves taking things to other locations:  the dirty laundry to the shop office, the vegetable leavings to the compost bin, the trash to the trash can.  She is happiest when she can do those deliveries with her golf cart.

    I have become so accustomed to seeing Mom toodle around on our property that golf carts on golf courses look out of place to me.  Golf carts are for hauling laundry and brush, right?

    But back to wandering.  Mom’s deliveries are rather convoluted these days.  Sometimes it bothers her that she can’t remember what she is doing.  Other times she doesn’t notice.  This morning, for instance.

    She had dirty laundry, clean cougar towels, and trash placed by the front door while she walked over to the shop to get her golf cart.  Happily practicing my flutes, I gradually realized that she had been gone for at least 45 minutes.  I found her in the shop office and the golf cart halfway backed out of the shop.  She happily exclaimed that she was getting so much done, though I have no idea what it was.  When she asked if there was anything else she could do, I redirected her to the house to pick up those original items for delivery.

    She came back to the house and loaded up her golf cart to make her rounds.  Later I will walk her course to check for misplaced items and open doors.  Sometimes the dirty laundry ends up on top of John’s car or the clean laundry back in the shop office to be washed again.  I’ve found glasses in the garden, a sock posing as a stick in Gunner’s mouth, and compost leavings in the refrigerator, to name a few.  Yesterday it was unknown seed pods in a pan.

    Often in the mornings I hear her rattling around in the kitchen.  She reorganizes the silverware drawer, puts dishes away in unique places, and saves empty Kleenex boxes because they are so pretty.  She is busy, she is happy, and she is safe wandering from one mission to the next in our houses and on our property.