Friday, I got to work a little earlier than I had been all week and began studying the volunteer manual and working on an application, while doing a little mailing list work and still sending some thank yous for the bike ride. I don't actually have addresses for the volunteers--an email for one, and just a phone number for another. Ray gave platelets and came to pick me up for lunch at 1 o'clock. We went to a new French restaurant called Etienne. It was good, crowded and noisy, and hot in the window where we were sitting. They have 3 hamburgers on the lunch menu--not what I would call typical French fare. Now I have to write the review. Afterwards, we didn't feel much like working. It was almost 2:30 and abominably hot. We came home and cranked up the air and did not much of anything. I was reading the Share the Care book, working on my photo software problems, and getting a headache. We didn't need much supper, though. Watched a little TV and went to bed. Hard to sleep.

In the morning, my back was bothering me and I couldn't wait to go to pilates. Ray didn't feel good, though, so I went alone. It really helped. I stopped by the Farmers Market and got bread for myself and my parents. We have all the same veggies in our garden that they have at the market! My parents went home to their apartment, Ray was asleep. I took a quick shower, got dressed, grabbed the leftover bean snap and a cookie, and headed to UUFA. I was a little late, but hadn't missed anything. Got to walk in with Pat James, a Mom I haven't seen much since the girls graduated  high school. She has 3 daughters and they went to the same elementary school, middle school, and high school as mine.

The meeting was to form a Share the Care group for Jean Bryan, who has stage IV cancer. There is a book and a website about this model for caring for someone without making it too much of a burden on any one person. We shared our feelings and history, about 30 of us, and filled out forms. I determined to have a minor role, trying to learn to set limits. However, when they asked for volunteers to visit Jean in the hospital that night, I volunteered.

We had a lovely dinner at Last Resort with Deb and John (and Sloane) and I hurried over there about 7:30. Jean's good friend Sherry was with her, but she had to drive back to Atlanta. There was a lot of nurse activity going on, checking on meds, etc. Jean was a little confused, but seemed glad to have company after she settled down. Deb and John and Sloane arrived and Sherry left. By 8:30, she was dozing and we went home. The hospital is so confusing and unfriendly, once you leave the room you are visiting.

At home, I finished up the tabouli I had been working on intermittently for a couple days and stuck it in the fridge for today. Ray realized the upstairs AC was no longer working. We both studied it, turned it off and back on, pushed the reset button, changed the filter. Nothing. Fortunately, we could open the windows and cool it off some overnight--it being below 78 outside. Tomorrow we will call someone to fix it, but in the meantime it will be pretty hot upstairs. It took us a long time to get comfortable and fall asleep, but I finally manged to sleep until 7 this morning--and Ray is still asleep. It is quite pleasant and I want to rush around and do things before it gets hot. My photo software is giving me an error message and that is really not what I want to deal with right now!