Shopping with Mom

Good news. Little black kitten was back this morning.

Today was a shopping day for a few hours with Mom. We ended up doing a lot of walking, so she was tired by the time we got out of Holiday Village--and we only hit two stores.

To get from one level to the other, we had the option to go up the escalator. Mom, now 88 yrs old, had said she wasn't going to walk up the stairs. Wonderful! This means she WILL go up the escalator. I tied her shoe lace up, so it wouldn't drag and get caught. She didn't think I needed to bother with that, so I explained to her how dangerous it could be. Then she stepped on the escalator, and, of course, stepped half-way on two steps, so she kinda got bumped to only one step. At least she hung on, and she did try to climb a few steps by herself.

When we went to leave Penney's she wanted me to take her to the front on the top level, and then for me to go to the lower level and get the pickup and go all the way around the stores to the front and pick her up. This is twice the distance for me to walk, and my knee is already giving me difficulties, and, in addition, I am packing her heavy bag. She just didn't want to go DOWN the escalator. I told her she was going to have to live a little dangerously and go down the escalator. (She commented that she does live dangerously to go with me.) I just chuckled at her and cautioned her to hang on and not try to walk it. Luckily we were pretty close to it and she didn't have much time to think about it. So down the escalator we went. She hung on and just stood there. It was a complete success.

Now we just had to walk down the hallway and out the store. She was really going slow, so I told her I was going to pick up the speed and leave her and go get the pickup and meet her at the door. We were over half way down the hallway, so she wasn't by herself for long. I went out and climbed the hillside to get to the pickup, got in it and drove to the doors. NO MOM! It is totally glass all the way across and I can't see her at all. I don't move that fast, so I know she had plenty of time to get to the door. So I park the pickup right there and locked it up. (No parking area!) She can't be too far away. As I was heading in, a young lady suddenly opened the inside door and out came Mom. What a relief. Now, one more stop...the grocery store for two items. I got delegated to do the running, so I left her in the pickup and locked the door. I cautioned her against trying to open the door, as it would set off the alarm. I came back out and she hadn't set it off. So, good!!

After I took her home and then got myself home, she called. She has to go back to the store to straighten something out. So...another adventure tomorrow morning!