Boot Camp; Thanksgiving Mystery Meat

Manor Care is sort of like boot camp for the both of us. We wake up at the crack of dawn and do a lot of physical work throughout the day. We go to bed early, totally exhausted.

Graham is doing upper body exercises to strengthen his arm power and to train new trunk muscles to help him keep his balance. Just sitting in a chair is exhausting for him because it's using different muscles. Right now he's up to 90 minutes at a time before his back muscles start to completely rebel. He also does leg exercises with whatever muscles will still obey.

I'm being trained to take his legs through their whole range of motion to keep his muscles from tightening. This involves a lot of leg lifting and rotating. It's enjoyable for me to have an excuse to grab and fondle Graham's gorgeous legs, but it is a workout, because legs are pretty darn heavy. It's probably the most painful exercise for Graham unfortunately, because his muscles just love to be tight.

Thanksgiving...
We enjoyed a visit from John, Erika and their dog Shiloh. We took our first walk around the neighborhood and learned how to navigate sidewalks with the wheelchair.

After they left, I went to bring our dog Micki for a visit. She was so happy to see Graham! But he at first didn't want to let her up on the bed, so she just kept pacing and exploring the room, not settling down. Finally Graham let her join him in bed and she sighed with contentment and went to sleep snuggling in between his ankles, with her head on his leg.

Graham was given a very nice turkey lunch, which I thought was turkey overkill, since turkey dinner awaited us.

Graham's brother Gary joined us in the afternoon, and we eagerly awaited our Thanksgiving feast. Gary and I had ordered a guest meal, which they had labeled "Chef's choice." We took it for granted that it would be some kind of lavish turkey meal, so imagine our surprise when we found on our plate something that looked suspiciously like meatloaf. But no, it wasn't exactly ground beef, it was sort of in pieces. We still haven't determined what it was, but we knew for certain that it wasn't turkey. Turns out that the lunch was the turkey feast, and dinner was, well, a mystery. I did some pitiful pleading, though, and the kitchen kindly sent us some stellar turkey sandwiches. Gary had brought some cranberry relish and other goodies from his friend Jan, so in the end, we had our traditional meal. (Thanks, Jan!)

Hard to be fully joyful though on a day full of such terrible news about the terrorist attack in India. But we can be thankful that we live in a culture that cherishes freedom, life and intellectual curiosity, in contrast to the brutish culture of the totalitarian militant Islamist supremacists.

While we're sad for all the victims and their families, the attack against the Chabad house (the "Jewish Center") hit us more viscerally. Graham has relatives, Goldie and David, who are Chabad Lubavichers, and we remember the wonderful Sabbath dinners they would invite us (and dozens of others) to share at their home.

What the news reports haven't really explained is that Chabad doesn't seek to convert non-Jews; their goal is to bring Jews closer to Judaism. So they set up these small "centers" which are really nothing more than a home with a big dining room table, where Jews know they can go to find warm hospitality, services, interesting pressure-free discussions on topics such as kindness or how to live a meaningful life, and a fantastic Sabbath dinner with lots of singing.

Gavi and Rivka, the young rabbi and his wife who were slaughtered, left their family and friends in the United States to provide hospitality and synagogue services to Jewish backpackers and business people traveling in Mambai. It's totally pathetic that the Islamists would specifically target them. "That rabbi's wife cooks a tasty chicken. She's gotta go." But I guess killing Jews will ensure that the attack will be celebrated by many in the Muslim world who have been brainwashed to think of all Jews as evil. Sad, sad, sad that basically good people can be "educated" to believe such nonsense.

In memory of Gavi and Rivka and the many other victims, let's do an extra act of hospitality this week. Invite a new neighbor to dinner...go chat with an old neighbor you haven't seen in a while...send a Christmas or Hanukkah card to a soldier...roll your neighbor's garbage can back to his garage after garbage pickup...I'm gonna go chat with more of our "neighbors" down the hall.