October 1--Official Start of Our Volunteer Month

Today didn't start too auspiciously: Ken was up in the middle of the night with severe abdominal pain, and we almost decided to go to the emergency room. Fortunately a pain pill eased the pain while his body recovered a bit. Though he remained under the weather all day, he decided he was going to live.

I managed to get a bit of rest before heading over to the CARE Center at 6:30 a.m. to help with "the Big Breakfast." Every Friday Bobbie fixes eggs to order, bacon, sausage, grits, biscuits, gravy, and hashbrowns. My job was mainly to help serve, and a steady stream of people showed up.

When things had died down around 8:20, I left to see how Ken was doing. He was actually up and getting dressed, so we ate a quick breakfast and went over to our 9:00 a.m. volunteer orientation session, which was a run-through of the "On Call" job and emergency response. After the two hour session, we took a brief stroll, since Ken wasn't up to our regular walk. Then he was ready for a nap before lunch.

The noon menu included some yummy looking bread pudding (one of my favorites) with lemon sauce. I got a to-go box with a large salad and two pieces of the bread pudding for us to have after lunch. Ken was ready for another nap, and I decided to lie down too and try to catch up on my lost sleep.

Tomorrow it all starts over again with an 8:30 kitchen assignment. They promise us it does get better!

I fixed some stuffed cabbage for dinner tonight, but something was lost in translation. It's been a long time since I last made it, and the result was pretty bland and took forever to finish cooking.

I closed the Bank of America checking account today. After three years, they suddenly decided to start charging $8.95 a month fees--outrageous, since they pay no interest on the balance, and the account hasn't been as helpful as we had hoped, since B of A is not as widespread as we had thought it would be.