Well. busy day. Ray had to be at UGA at 9 to leave on his field trip. Naturally, he had a few things to do before then, but he headed off about 10 of. I probably had things to do, too, but I didn't do most of them. Maybe I deleted a few emails. Sometime after 10, my friend Janna called to say her mother had died at 3 in the morning quietly, in the hospital, after kidney failure following a stroke some months ago. She asked me to call a couple more friends and share the news with them. I waited most of the day to see if I could help, not that it didn't stop me from doing other things.

At 11:15, I was heading to lunch with the ALT staff and my Dad called. "You have to help me," he said. My phone doesn't ring for very long, I can't answer it in time." "I'll stop by after lunch," I said. Then I had to feed the chickens and lock them in their coop. The traffic was bad and I had to park a ways from the restaurant. We had a very pleasant lunch, although it felt a bit anti-climactic. What was I doing with these people?

I tried Janna again after lunch, but no answer at home or on the cell. That's okay, she would know I had called and would let me know if I needed anything. Ray called to check in. I went to my Dad's and couldn't fix his phone, but he managed to. I was getting up to leave and he said, "let's talk about what we're going to do." I told him about the reception I was going to later and suggested I take him back to the house with me and bring him back a few hours later. He wanted to take his own car, but I talked him out of it and then he told me how to drive and complained he would have to leave when I needed to.

He watched TV for a while and then worked outside. It was a beautiful day, a little warm in the sun, but the clouds came and went. He set out some cabbages I had bought. We got dressed and I brought him back to his house. The traffic was even worse than earlier in the day. There is a home football game today and the crazies were arriving from out of town and the students were buying beer...

It was 5:45 before I arrived at the School of Social Work reception at the Taylor-Grady house. Had to walk a ways again. Speeches were going on. There was lots of food...and free wine! Then they passed out champagne. They were celebrating the re-accreditation process. I chatted with some folks, including my Mom's friend from exercise class, Dr. John. He says he misses her a lot.

Then, I called Janna and went over to her house. She was pretty exhausted after doing everything that needed doing. We chatted a bit and then came up with a plan. She and Ron went to find a place to eat, while Dani and I picked up Mark and Francesca in my car. I debated if I should leave the family alone, but Janna insisted I was family. The shuttle was later than usual, but they arrived. Mark was pretty exhausted too. His organization was running a conference for three days this week. It was good to see them.

There is a new restaurant downtown, Ted's Most Best, opened by people from the Grit. It is pizza and salads and they had some delicious cheesecakes! The way I got a parking spot was to pay $5 to park behind the Chamber of Commerce. That was easy. The food was great; Janna had ordered 3 pizzas for us to share.

I took  them home and took myself home and read for awhile and went to sleep. No word from Ray; they may not have cell phone service.