Roof work

$8,000 plus.

I hope they're well paid

The hope here is that repairing the roof will allow us to repair cracks and flaking paint in the interior without them immediately reappearing. The larger view is that making this house more habitable will make it more pleasant to live here and we will want to stay (me), or make it marketable so we can move (Julie). How will this work out? You have one guess.

I saw Mom Wednesday and had coffee with her while she ate dinner. I didn't want to eat until later, when Julie and I were to meet our friends J and B for dinner at Bavaria -- but to Mom this seemed an affront and threw her into a funk. She is a food pusher in any case -- a "plate sharer," as my lovely daughter puts it -- and offering her food to others has become a kind of aggressive charity that is just plain bad manners. Wednesday, I hoped taking a bite of her veggie burger would suffice, but it did not, we went back and forth until she finally pushed the whole plate across the table at me, and pointed and wagged her finger over it, and then right at my mouth. I told her firmly I didn't want it and pushed the plate back toward her, and she said she didn't want it and pushed it halfway back. Finally, at a stalemate, we left the table and the nearly full plate of food behind us.

We spent a little time in her room, but the food incident had left a -- OK, I'll say it -- bad taste in our mouths. I didn't linger.

I went back this morning hoping for a better outcome. I got there before 8 -- before her breakfast -- and we went to Simple and had identical omelets -- cheese, onion and bacon -- and lots of coffee. She was great. Forgetful, as always, but actually could process conversation. She pointed delightedly at a furious little red-headed boy, maybe 3, who was just not going to be happy, and later we noted that he had crayons and was coloring intensely. We talked about our names -- JNO, how I'd changed the middle name from Steven -- and hers, MH_ _, the H after her aunt.

When we got back, we perused Facebook for family pictures, got an email from Sister S laying out Mom's summer schedule, and ceremoniously plotted the dates on Mom's calendar. I showed her pictures of the roof project, and of the fire department showing up at work the other day, after we complained of a burning smell (a heating unit that malfunctioned).

We wrote a couple checks.

And then she just froze.

I said, "Are you tired?"

She said she was.

"You know, I'm failing," she said.

I said she was doing OK, she'd had a great morning.

I said I'd be back tomorrow for church. Every day is mother's day, but tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I suppose I should get some flowers.

Fire scare