Saturday, August 05, 2006

The Shopping Nightmare

Over the last 4 years, shopping has become a drama. Kath's mobility problems prevent her from going with me into shops, obviously. And the last time I took her into the supermarket about six years ago the place overwhelmed her to tears, so I am not even tempted to grab a wheelchair and try and manage both her and the trolley at once. On the other hand, it's nice to take her out for the drive - but again, it's not altogether as pleasurable for either of us as I would like.

I read an article somewhere that elderly dogs lose the ability to balance their body temperatures and I think the same must be true of humans. My mother is now always "hot" or "cold" - rarely if ever "comfortable". This has been the case for at least 5 years I guess. Whereas you or I might enjoy the warmth of the sun on us in the car, as soon as she feels it, she is "too hot", and she creates a fuss accordingly.

Of course I wouldn't leave her sitting in the car in the full sun anyway, but this sensitivity means I really have to be picky about where I park, wherever I go - depending on whether the sun is shining and what direction it's shining from. I do have choices in our village, but in town, there are few enough parking spaces available anyway. On top of that, my window of opportunity for being away from the car has decreased dramatically and I have to park as close as possible to wherever I am going. So getting parked is a stress from more than one point of view.
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