If I'm not in chat at the right time this week blame the powers that be here in Australia for deciding we'd change to Daylight saving the first weekend instead of the last weekend in October. Don't ask me why. It seems we have too many changes on a whim and without a good reason these days. I didn't even realise we were changing the clocks until I was watching the late news last night. As that finished at 11.30pm it meant it was already after mid-night when I changed the time on the clocks etc. I know exactly where I lost that hour. Grrr!

Of course if I have an "extra" hour in the day I should be able to catch up with some of those fiddly jobs I have been putting on hold for a while. You know that endless list of mine which contains items like "put up three pairs of summer trousers for Ray by three inches." Ray is shorter than he used to be and trouser sizes haven't changed so now I have to put them up. It is not one of my preferred jobs. One pair is from last Christmas, two from his birthday so I better fix them now so he looks smart for our summer outings.

Another change happens this week. After eight years of going to Daycare on Mondays Ray is now to go on Tuesdays. It is to do with transport as on Mondays now they use a 25 seater bus instead of the old 14 seater and due to the extra length it won't come up our driveway. So if he goes on Tuesdays instead he can be picked up as he was before. It is a nuisance but I think it is too dangerous for him to sit kerbside and wait for the bus so it is better if I can just escort him down from the verandah when the bus comes. I can see this as a distinct advantage, particularly if we have a rainy summer.

The disadvantage is that he loses the friendly faces from the Monday group including one of the men from our church who is a Monday volunteer. And then he joins up with another group of strangers. I am not sure he is going to be able to intergrate given his dementia and all so have asked the supervisor to keep an eye on him for the first few weeks so if he gets agitated etc she notices and lets me know. Of course he might settle in without a murmur. I sure hope so.

The change also affects me as Tuesday is craft group and I pick up two ladies at 1pm so instead of visiting Mum, doing some shopping etc and getting home at 2pm I will have to be back by 1pm. The Daycare supervisor has agreed for the bus driver to drop Ray at the church ( only a short distance from where their hall is) and he will still have afternoon tea with the craft ladies and come back home with me. And we will need to wait and see what we will do with our "spare" Monday now. For this week it is Labor Day so we wouldn't do anything anyway.

We had some rain overnight so I have been happily puddling in my pot plants, pulling out weeds etc. I love gardening, it gets me out in the open air, gives me exercise and in some cases gives me flowers to give away or put in a vase and herbs to go into my cooking. I would love to have a big vegetable garden but know I just don't have enough time or energy for that. I love going to look at other people's gardens too, the beauty and the variety of plants always makes me want to change a few things in my own garden. But without the use of water for the garden ( we are still on restrictions here) there is not much point in putting in more than I can hand-water.

The Friday minder this week looked after Ray for five hours. This is because Scallywags has changed to fortnightly instead of weekly. I did my usual Friday stuff and squeaked home with four minutes to spare. Mum was still in bed while I arrived at her hostel, I waited twenty minutes before she appeared dressed and showered so most of the visit consisted of me watching her eat breakfast. The nurse told me that Mum's eyesight problems are due to cataracts not macular degeneration as they had thought. But she doubted that Mum with all her problems is a candidate for an operation. She went into a lot of detail for me and I see her point; aged 90, severe dementia, other problems associated with anesthetics etc. I would like Mum to have the operation, to see clearly again, but can see the downside of added confusion etc for her.

I also disussed it with the mentor of the dementia support group. He pointed out to me that Mum might get "frightened" by all the strange people at her Lodge if she could suddenly see them. It would be like seeing them for the first time as her eyesight has been deteriorating for some time now. I hadn't thought of that, just the pain she would have to go through, not the consequences of the operation itself. I'll go on thinking about it and get a few more opinons. I would love her to see clearly again, sight is such a gift.

And so we go on, coping with changes to the best of our ability as they come along. But sometimes I just long for peace and quiet and a world in which nothing much changes. I guess in a way that is another form of denial eh?