Monday, March 30, 2009

Those Parental Units

So I forced my parents to leave town during the flood, and now I'm stranded with them with a blizzard on the way. So far, the dike that's pretty much pressed against their building is holding, and has been reinforced. (Although I didn't like the news report that said the Army Corps of Engineers wanted it shored up "as soon as possible.") The water is going down. If they'd stayed, they'd have undoubtedly been fine.

I was feeling pretty stupid about all this, but then I realized, the city evacuated all the residents of the building next door to theirs, in exactly as much risk, because so many of the people who lived there were "vulnerable adults," with disabilities and other issues. So that's hundreds of people the city moved for the exact same reason as I wanted my folks to get away from there. They're in their seventies; they have medication issues; neither of them can walk or move very fast; my mom suffers from anxiety under optimum circumstances. Evacuating them in an emergency wouldn't be a good scene.

They're still independent and basically mobile, though, so they're not people any agency is keeping track of. I'm keeping track of them, the old-fashioned way. Of course, they're not getting any younger, and their stubbornness about taking care of themselves isn't going to make the next decade or so any easier.

With that in mind, I should probably learn to meditate. On the other hand, my quote for the day: "The day she learned to be detached & indifferent & tranquil she would cease to be herself." - from A Suitable Boy

2 comments:

Dan said...

Good to hear that the makeshift dike is holding. And better safe than sorry as far as evacuation is concerned.

"Parental units"? I thought I was the only one left using that term.

Anarchivist said...

Oh, you can take the girl out of the 80s...