Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Mother Perhaps Worse Off than I Thought
I got a call from Morris last evening, saying that Mom was in bad way mentally-speaking. She desperately wanted out of the hospital, and was crying when he left her. Most worryingly, she was talking about everyone plotting against her. He also said that perhaps Mom was in there for more than just her pulmonary fibrosis.

So I called through to my Mother and had what had to be one of the worst phone calls in my life. Mom was practically raving, talking paranoid, almost delusional.

I did manage to get ahold of her nurse later, who told me that while she did seem a bit “off”, she knew who she was and where she was. The nurse also told me that she was there purely for her pulmonary fibrosis, and not for anything else. They just want her dissolved oxygen blood levels to be high enough to safely release her. Unfortunately the strain of being in the hospital for over a week now seems to be having a bad effect. I remember when Dad was in the same situation, the doctors prescribed Prozac to deal with his depression about his failing health.

So I now have to think seriously about the possibility that she may no longer be able to care for herself adequately – especially if she is in need of oxygen all the time, which may be the case. And all that that would entail...

So it was thinking about all of this stuff that I went off to see Erika’s Xmas concert with her brass band...

The Big Concert
This was Erika’s big concert, so despite things I really didn’t think I could disappoint her by not coming. Was also hoping it would briefly take my mind off of things. Martine had expressed an interest in coming to see the show, so Erika, myself, Martine, Vanessa and Annie all headed off to The Blue Danube to see the show.

I am so glad that Martine came – it would have been very hard to cope with a tired Vanessa and a 4-month old baby by myself at this sort of thing. In the end, Martine ended up taking little Annie to the back of the theatre, as the music was simply too loud for her. Not that I’m likely to do this again, but I now know not to take a 4-month-old to a brass band concert. Vanessa was tired – I woke her from a deep sleep immediately prior to heading off to the concert, and was consequently a bit weepy about things. She did enjoy watching her mother play trumpet, and she contented herself by creating a number of drawings on her notepad over the course of the show. In an effort to try to lull Annie to sleep – and to keep her from fussing during the show, I took her out of the hall and sat down with her and kept her amused and gave her as much of her milk bottle as she would take. Unfortunately she never did completely settle down, always stirring whenever people applauded or when the music started up. Also, pretty much everybody who made their way out to the hallway I was in had to have a look at the pretty little baby girl, who promptly smiled and cooed in response.

The music? Well, it’s pretty much as I remember it from last year. Imagine a rusty squeezebox – the music is there, and often the right note emerges from the throng, amidst the occasional squawks, blarps and blats. Let’s just say their performances always give me a greater appreciation for the quality of professional orchestras. ;-) Erika is a relatively junior member of the band, with the majority of the players seemingly past their 50s. The troupe managed to wheeze through about a dozen or so tunes over the course of the night.

But the band is more about having fun that anything else, and Erika has a blast doing what she does with them, so more power to ‘em. There is a genuine exuberance in their playing, which makes up for a lot of their musical faults.