Friday, August 1

Here's the dilemma. What do you do if you're going to spend weeks at a nursing facility, and one of you is in a wheelchair, and you're not allowed to go outside? This is the case with Tommy and me. The views out the windows are of two enclosed cobblestoned-and-flowered courtyards, but they're off limits to all but the patients who are taking part in therapy sessions; and, through the outside-facing windows, we can see busy Rt. 24--a beach road--along the front side, and trees and fields elsewhere. In other words, the views beckon...but no banana. What to do for our sanity?
Answer: you do what Tommy and I did yesterday in the hour before dinner at 5, when that hemmed-in feeling overcame us. Although Tommy had had therapy sessions during both the morning and afternoon (a very good thing), he hadn't been taken outside. So, we set off to explore every last wheelable inch of the place.
The rehab nurse told us that, in addition to the rehab wing where Tommy's room is located, there are two other wings--the long-term nursing wing and the Alzheimer's/dementia wing (which is locked--you need to be buzzed in). Yes, she assured us before we set out, you can go into the other wings; and, by the way, she added, the A/d wing has a lovely sitting porch with wicker furniture on its far side that nobody ever uses. Off we went, and by the end of the hour we had what will be our daily "route", which includes even the mildly jarring trip down the length of the A/d residence hallway to the lovely porch. Our route will definitely include ten or fifteen minutes on the underutilized porch, with its row of forest-framing windows--and, in the upper corner, its two surveillance cameras. I told Tommy that the camera cops would probably come to check us out if we necked, but Tommy--who kept looking up at the cameras--refused to test my theory. Our other favorite stop on our new route is the big dining room off the facility's main hallway, abandoned between meals, with its courtyard view, shiny white linoleum-tile floor, and dozen round tables. There, we did figure 8's among the tables, the first fun we've had since Tommy arrived here. "Hey, I've gotta learn how to maneuver this thing, ya know," I said to Tommy as I carefully (honest) rounded the tables while making screeching sounds. "That's for sure," he said. Although one of the kitchen workers, spotting us through the windowed door, came out to see what was flashing past every few seconds, she just smiled and left us alone. Ahhh.