Emergency Rooms (Ode to Martha)

My wife Martha is way more compassionate than I am.  She will make a complete dinner and take it to a family when they could use a break.  She volunteered at Beaverton school's support for teen Moms, taking care of babies so the Moms could go to school.  I figure that as a family, because of Martha, we are in the upper 25% of compassionate families.  So I get "compassionate credit" for marrying Martha.

Martha and Sam, November 2014

Yesterday was Saturday, 1/31/2015, forecast to be the last nice day before at least ten days of drizzle and rain - ten days is the max the forecasters look forward.  We planned on going to The Land and spending an afternoon outdoors in the quiet around a fire looking at Mt. St. Helens and Swift Reservoir.  I was really looking forward to it.  The Land is a pretty piece of property we own east of Cougar, Washington.  It has a picnic table.  I'll blog way too much about it in the future.

Jeffrey (left) relaxing under the Christmas tree, 2014

About an hour before we were ready to shove off, Jeffrey our cat came up lame.  He was limping and occasionally walking on just three legs, holding his forth in the air.  Obviously in pain.  Our vet closes early on Saturday so Martha took Jeffrey a few miles away to an animal emergency room in Tannesbourne.  When she got home it was dark, so no trip to the land.  Jeffrey's diagnosis: not sure what's wrong, give him pain killers on his gum line twice a day.

We went out to dinner with Caroline, our daughter, to the Blue Goose on the east side.  It was a tasty meal and good company.  We tried to go to Salt and Straw on NW 23rd for ice cream desert, but the line was way too long so we settled on Ben and Jerry's.  We dropped Caroline off and got home around 9:45 pm.

There was a message on the recorder that Martha's Dad (Jim) had slipped and fell coming out of church and was in the emergency room at St. Vincent's.  Martha didn't hesitate, she drove to the hospital to be with her Dad.  I offered to go with her, but she would have none of it.  They waited for X-rays and diagnosis, got some explanations (although no one could explain how to put on his sling), and were sent home at 2:00 am.  She got him settled in his place then drove around to get his prescriptions filled and to get some food for him to eat.  She finally got home at 3:30 am and was so wired she didn't fall asleep until 5:00 or 5:30.

l-r: Kristen, Solomon (K's son), Jim, and Caroline, October 2014.
Solomon is Kristen's son, Jim's great-grandson,  Caroline and Kristen are Cousins

Martha spent hours in emergency rooms yesterday, animal and human.  Originally Jim was coming to our house to watch the Super Bowl today, but instead we're going to his place with the meal.  It's ok, he has a bigger TV than we do.