"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." - Theodore Hesburgh

I'm wasted. I woke up at 3 a.m. (stupid) and couldn't get back to sleep. I was at Ida Culver House a little before 7 to have b'fast with mom, went back to her unit after that to help her with some tasks, and was on the road a little before 9:00.

Traffic getting through Seattle was easy, but south of Portland it got terrible. I think it was because people got out early for Good Friday and too many of them hit the road right after lunch.
"Slower traffic keep right" said no Oregon driver ever.

I was fighting sleepiness before I was at the south side of Seattle so I spent the entire drive munching on chips & cookies and drinking Diet Coke.

Yep, I'm a mess.

After three days in the hospital getting IV antibiotics for cellulitis dad is settled into the rehab unit at Crista where he gets PT and OT every day in an attempt to increase strength and balance. He's fallen too many times in the last couple of months and one of those falls led to an injury that resulted in the cellulitis. We don't know how long he'll be there but suspect it will be close to 30 days.

That leaves mom on her own in their unit at Ida Culver. Tough.

Yesterday (Friday) was their wedding anniversary...72 years. It's hard for them to be apart, and dad does some things for mom that are pretty critical to her own health issues. When I left her this morning I got the sense that she's scared to be on her own. That made me feel bad about leaving.
And when mom and I left dad after our visit to see him last night he didn't want her to leave.

I'd love to be married to Pam for 72 years, but watching mom & dad struggle sure makes me NOT want to live to be 94! I feel bad for them and their struggles.
Role reversal.

On a lighter note, thoughts on having driven a 2016 Ford Focus about 650 miles:

• The arm rest is fine if your elbow is at the level of your hips.
• If it's due for an oil change the dash and "ding-done" will nag the bejeebers out of you. 
• When the dash suddenly features the "i" icon that typically stand for information it would be nice if it also indicated how to get that information. Important? 
• The steering wheel has six buttons on the left side to control the cruise control that are each labeled with the standard abbreviations indicating their function. That's good because you're going to have to read them. They are all the same size and flat. If it were my call I'd have made the "accel" button convex and the "coast" button concave, for example. Or put different numbers of raised dots on them. 
• The readout that tells you your current MPG is addictive. Coasting downhill gets it to 99.9 mpg. I averaged 35.7 mpg for the trip, which I thought was pretty impressive. I didn't stomp on it, but I didn't baby it either. 
• The seat may be the most comfortable I've ever had in a car. 
• When you do hit the gas pedal to accelerate the transmission seems to have trouble deciding which gear it wants to be in. 

I'm way past having the mental wherewithal to add anything else to this post. Wasted.