Friday, February 26, 2016

No news from the hospital, or from social services. An American friend, an Oberlin friend, indeed, wrote to ask what a “care package” is. I’m not sure I entirely know myself, but essentially, the City of Edinburgh is meant to provide my husband with the care which makes it possible for him to live at home. Rachel doesn’t think anything on that scale is provided in England.

We waited for a long time last year before it started. When it did, it was wonderful. A carer arrived in the morning to get my husband up and dressed and delivered to the kitchen to wait for the District Nurse who would help with the insulin injection. She came back in the late afternoon, and again later to help him to bed. My husband's sister had a similar "package" five years ago when she was dying. The one thing she complained about was having to go to bed so early.

We have private care as well, for three hours in the middle of the day, so that I can get out, at least to the supermarket. And we could re-jig the private care to cover what Social Services had been doing. But that would mean that I could never get out, and Social Services would re-assign us to the bottom of the list.

So that’s what we’re waiting for. When you go into hospital for more than 72 hours, you get struck off the list and have to start again.

It’s time to begin thinking about the Edinburgh Yarn Fest, too. If my husband is at home and we are jogging along as before, I can arrange to have a bit more private care on the days when it’s needed. As things stand at present, who knows? I must at least dredge my bookings out of the pile of old emails and print them off (and remind myself what, exactly, I have signed up for). And I must get to the market, even if three classes prove to be too ambitious a target.

As for actual knitting, I am nearly halfway down the foot of the 2nd Arne & Carlos sock. And I have finished Band 27 (a little one) on the Tokyo shawl. Two (big ones) to go.     

    Nbolllllllllllllllllllllllllllekiiiiiicdf478 (comment from Perdita)

Karen, I am very grateful for your blocking tip. And, Carol, to you, for the Ravelry picture of the one you blocked.

Politics

What a long time it’s been since 2008 when I was raising money for Obama here on the blog! It’s hard even to imagine such enthusiasm.

My husband is valiantly catching up on New-Yorker-reading there in Ward 15. He polished off the double issue of August 10 & 17 yesterday and sent it home with me. It contains the sentence: “Trump’s lack of interest in policy and his inflammatory rhetoric make it easy to dismiss him as a serious candidate, and it’s highly improbable that he could ultimately win the nomination.”


If only.

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:08 PM

    Very interesting blog entry today, Jean, regarding Scottish social services. I do hope you get your care package very soon. And three cheers for progress on the Tokyo shawl. Chloe

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  2. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments on Trump. Picturing him in a room with other world leaders... just leaves me speechless.

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  3. Jean, I finally read that same NYer issue just last week -- and felt as if I were reading dispatches from another planet, given the certainty with which Trump was dismissed as a joke. He has alienated even my most conservative relatives, yet his momentum increases. At the gym last week -- where the televisions are tuned, invariably, to Fox -- I looked up long enough to see that one presenter was calling Trump "a patriot." I am not sure when bigotry and xenophobia came to be called "patriotism," but Trump clearly strikes a chord with an increasingly alienated segment of our society. Alas.

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  4. I just shudder and hang my head in shame that people in this country are so afraid and so ignorant. I do hope you'll get to the yarn fest. I have half seriously set it as a goal for next year.

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  5. Argh! Trump. I just don't get it. I hope everything shakes out with the care situation and that you can thoroughly enjoy the yarn fest, Jean.

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  6. We have similar care packages (and a similar 72hr issue) here Downunder. Here they are designed to keep people at home because it is seen as the cheaper option - nursing homes being very expensive and with excessively long waiting lists. We had one for my father's brother and I organised another one for a friend. There are issues with them - e.g. the carers don't always turn up on time - but they are very good when they work.
    Ah yes, Mr Trump...I am following his "progress" with interest and not a little alarm given our close relationship with the US

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