Guernsey County Fair, Another Job Offer, and News of Mom

Yesterday, Chris and I met Dad and Charlie at Autumn to take Mom to the Fair for Seniors day.  Autumn was also taking a lot of residents there on their bus. 

When we arrived at 10 AM we found her more "lit up" than I have seen her in a few weeks.  She looked more lively, with her head up and eyes sparkling, all ready to go.

We rented a wheel chair for her and parked right on the grounds near the quilt barn.  We went all through that building's exhibits, slowly.

And their local spinners guild (think spinning wheel, not spinning bikes) had an exhibit set up showing how they use a drum carder to card the sheep's wool (get the knots out and all of the fibers going in the same direction), and spin it into yarn or thread.  Several people had their wheels going, and they had one set up for non-members to try spinning for themselves.  Well, this is always something I wanted to learn, and I plan to get into this someday when life is more sane and my other hobbies are more under control.  So I sat down to try it out.  I had my troubles, but in general they said I was very good at it!  I now have my own ball of spun yarn to use for mittens or to laugh at later when I learn how to really spin.  The others went on to look at the fair while I stayed spinning.

After that I had to get lunch and wait on an interview call with Akron Children's.  They called as we were leaving, so I had the interview in the car with the others being quiet for me.  Within the hour, Symphony called and said that Akron loved me and want me to work with them. 

Then, the haggling began.  The Akron project sounds really great, interesting, well-staffed, and likely to succeed under my leadership.  The Cedars project is also good and has the advantages I already mentioned.  We talked about whether I could do both, possibly split my time between them, with Symphony providing other resources if needed.  That thinking and wondering went on all afternoon and through many iterations to get what would work for both clients and me with my health limitations and disinclination to be in snow and ice storms in downtown Akron scraping my car windows and hoping not to get mugged!  I hated that at Children's in Columbus.  The pain and fear that caused me seems nightmarish, now.

What Symphony finally called me about this morning was working for Akron through October 21st, maybe, then working with Cedars and Akron, with Akron getting 10-20 hours a month of my time remotely after I leave there.  The ball is in their court to decide if that can work for them.

Mom's news yesterday was that she is coming home Friday.  She and Dad decided that's what they want and they talked to Autumn about getting home care set up several times a week.  Dad will drive her to Cambridge for radiation therapy, and they can administer the chemo at home.  They're very excited, and Charlie had already started packing up her room.  Later, I checked with the Autumn staff about whether she could come back if needed and she can.  They often have a short wait list, but it's usually not very many days before they could bring her back.

Drew's sweet Jessica had offered to help take care of Mom, but they're not ready to have her do that yet.  Dad thinks he can manage himself now that she is so much better.