I spent most of this week in West Palm Beach with Mom. We took her car to a shop to get a leak fixed, we went to the lawyer and reviewed her documents, and we did a few things around the house.

Mom wanted a new ceiling light fixture for the hallway. We went to Lowe’s and picked out one she liked. It said “LED” which I figured was marketing. I installed the base unit and realized the parts needed to screw in the light bulbs were missing. Then I realized there was no provision for running wire through those parts, even if I had them. Before taking everything back to Lowe’s, I tried turning the lights on. Low and behold, a dozen very small white LEDs illuminated. When I installed the globe, it looked like a regular light fixture. Now I understand why Lowe’s gave a five year warranty. I showed Mom there were no lightbulbs and explained why she should hold onto the receipt for 5 years. It’s a neat concept, but I think it’s a lot easier to replace a burned out bulb than it is to replace a defective ceiling fixture. We’ll see how it goes.

While I was at Mom’s, Danita took her dad to the doctor. Bud pulled the emergency cord one evening while we were visiting Ryn. Bud spent a day in the hospital. He couldn’t remember anything, nobody could find anything wrong with him, so they sent him home. The working theory is that Bud accidentally took too many Ambien. The doctor switched him to melatonin, which is probably an most excellent idea.

I got back Thursday evening. Mike Bertch’s funeral was Friday. It was a nice ceremony followed by a wonderful reception. Mike was cremated, so there was no graveyard ceremony. They had an hour of gathering time, then the funeral mass, then a reception in the church hall downstairs. The funeral was at St. Johns, the church we used to attend when we lived in Kingsville.

The weather folks said there was a good chance of rain mid-afternoon today. I decided that gave me a perfect window for a nice bike ride. It started spritzing, so I cut the ride short. After I got home, the weather improved. As of 2:45, it still hasn’t started raining. I’m not impressed with the forecasters.

That’s all the news this week. I hope this finds everybody doing well.