The Sea is a Salty One

  Nope, I'm not at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, but I might as well be.   Shit and Roaches, Excuse Me Palmetto Bugs Tuesday Oct 14 th Well, I am here in South Louisiana now and I think my experience so far can be succinctly summed up by an episode last night. I had purchased a bundle of flowers in lovely fall colors to brighten up the nearly empty home. Looking through my mother’s collection of high end vases I decided to go for broke and use the huge cut glass lavaliere that’s big enough to bathe in. I pulled it down from a high shelf and an enormous roach fell on my head. Yep. I screamed and ran before I realized the palmetto bug variety of roach was long dead. I flew in on Sunday. It was a shitshow. My plane in Liberia had gate changes three times before they changed planes and we left very late after having to scrabble up an outside set of metal steps instead of a jet bridge. Flew into Dallas and my next flight was changed planes and gates after an hour’s...

  The Chesapeake Bay Bridge last weekend. So where have I been? Back to Louisiana and then up to Maryland. I wanted to check on my mother in her assisted living. It didn't go well at all, even if I stayed ten days. One of my aunts in the Aunt Heap nicknamed my mother 'Bottomless Betty' after she suddenly developed the inability to wear bottoms at all, no pants, no panties, no skirts. It was most bizarre and had a sudden onset. Her dementia has gone haywire in the few months she's been in assisted living. I'm not entirely sure she knew who I was either. This was a shock, her mental status slid so fast it was scary. Did what I could, talked to the folks in the admin office seeking a way to help her. My mother's doctor had tried a drug to slow the dementia but all it did was cause my mother to hallucinate.   Got home on Tuesday night, taking that long airplane ride from Washington, DC to my home near Tamarindo, Costa Rica. Human Greek chorus and alarmist member of...