Daily Update, February 9, 2024

    On Friday after lunch, I finally got a different message for their answering machine. So, I left a somewhat garbled message - being flustered by finally getting something - and they called me back. I explained wanting to open a new account that PayPal's automated system can work with. She suggested making an appointment to open one at Mom's bank. I'll try it Monday; by the time we were over, I felt like things would go better if I was fresher. {smile}

   Oh! We had a little earthquake after lunch. it toppled some books by Mom, but luckily, she and her bed were a little further away than usual, so nothing fell on her. I spent a while after that moving books around so there shouldn't be another incident like that. I did a little by my computer, but most of the space I could move books into was used for Mom. {smile}

   I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner with Mom and read to her before dinner. She was awake when I came in, but sleepy, and got sleepier over time. She did look at the pictures I showed her, at least a little. First, I started with scripture and thoughts about it. After that, I read a few cards, from the church, a friend, and each of her sisters. Then I continued _Visions of Scotland_ I think she does like the pictures of Scotland. Next, I tried continuing reading _Richard Scarry's 5-minute Stories_ with "A Day at the Fire Station." However, that turned out to be a longer than usual story for that book, and Mom was getting sleepier and sleepier. {Smile}

  So, I stopped and finished with the 9th of February's story from _366 Stories for Bedtime_, "The Snow Fairy." Paul was sitting by the fire, looking at his picture book. then he looked at the window, where it was snowing outside. the snow was drifting onto the windowpane, getting bigger, until one turned into a snowman. Paul was curious, so he put on his warmest clothes and went outside. He was surrounded by dancing, smiling, little snowmen who pushed him along the path. Then they were all flying until they landed on a pond in front of an icy palace. Out stepped a beautiful lady in a glittering dress, silver wings, and a shining crown. She told him she was the snow fairy and offered to grant him a wish. He asked her to give the birds food and drink, since the ground is hard, and puddles frozen. She smiled and told him to close his eyes and count to three. He did, then opened his eyes to find himself by the fire. He thought he must have been dreaming. {Smile}

   I did my head exercises, arm resistance exercises, arm swinging exercises, sitting arm weight training exercises, and my standing arm weight training exercises during lulls in role-playing in the evening. I did my salsa dancing warm up set, too. It got too late for a second set before I got to it, but I was happy with how much I did with the arm weight training. besides, there was all that book rearranging around Mom. That should cover what I didn't do. {Smile}

   I read articles and comics and played Cross-Stitch World in the morning. Then I played more Cross-Stitch World after lunch. After that, I cleaned myself up. Next, I hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming. There, I found Pierogies, and we teamed up. We did an individual mission, then Michiel said hi. We talked a bit, then I invited him to join us. He did and we ran four more individual missions: one for all of us (there are two particularly good rewards a day), one because Michiel missed the first one, and two because we trusted them not to run too long, like some missions can, especially in story arcs. Then, I read to Mom. {Smile}

   After dinner, I hopped back into City of Heroes: Homecoming. It was too late for the late-night short, large-group event, so I started by checking my friends. I saw Pierogies on, but he didn't respond. I saw Darkthough1 on, too, and he did respond. We got together and ended up roleplaying all evening. I did talk to Nox on the chat server too, and to Kitten a bit as well, though they were busy with work a lot of the time. Darkthough1 and I even kept roleplaying past my salsa dancing warm-up, which helped me not get to the rest of my salsa dancing, but I had done all that book rearranging to make Mom safer during earthquakes. {Smile}