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I will pick Mom up at the airport next Wednesday at 6:09. She will be flying alone, at her own insistence. Carrie arranged for wheelchair/cart assistance at each gate, but I don't know if Mom will use them. When I have flown with her in the past year, she has waved off assistance. Maybe it will be different when traveling alone? We'll see.

And now I see that it is my turn to struggle with delighting in Mom's presence. I feel so jerked around by her plans and expectations that yesterday when she called, it was hard to be happy to talk with her. She wanted to know if it was still hot and dry here. (Yes.) She wanted to know if Nate was watering as she had instructed or if I was doing it. (I am. I don't know what she thought he would do for hours at her house while watering her grass, trees, and plants. I don't know how she thought a 14yo boy would get to her house.) She wants Perry to work faster so her kitchen and fence will be finished for her return. (Perry is a one-man-show. He is good, not fast. Mom knows this. And my kids are building the fence, learning as they go.)

It is even hard to be happy about seeing her again. I will need a big attitude adjustment by next Wednesday night. Good thing God specializes in those.

Here's a Mom funny. Dave is out of town, working on his doctorate at Talbot. I was trying to work out with the kids how I would handle taking the Camry in to get the wheels aligned. At one point I suggested I could walk over to Mom's house from the car shop and work over there while waiting for the car. Meg looked at me and said in a reproachful tone, "Mom, you are acting like Grandma." I laughed, came up with a more sane plan, and told my kids that would be a good catch phrase for when I am being unreasonable!