Another Four Days in September

Our Odenwald break was over, and we said our good-byes at the hotel on Thursday, Sept. 22, after breakfast.

Driving back to Ludwigsburg took a bit over an hour, with a stop at the Duke of Wuerttemberg's winery on the way (we needed presents for a wedding and a birthday). We arrived at my place around lunch time, had a quick snack and unpacked before I went to the Covid test station and then on to hospital to see my Dad and a friend who happened to be in hospital at the same time.

When I left my Dad, I met up with O.K. in the palace grounds for a little stroll there in the beautiful late afternoon sun.

On Friday, Sept. 23, O.K. and I helped my Mum with some more rearranging and sorting out of things in relation with her and my Dad's room swap. Afterwards, just like the day before I went to the test station and then to hospital. Again, O.K. went to the palace grounds to meet up with me afterwards. This time, my sister joined us, and we spent the rest of the evening together at my place, ordering pizza and enjoying a bottle of red.

I stocked up on groceries on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 24, and then had a leisurely and luxurious breakfast with O.K. The day was rainy, and we had originally planned to go on an all-day canoe trip, but decided against it. Instead, we spent the afternoon in town, browsing the shops and ending up with two pairs of shoes for O.K. and one for me, in view of the coming colder season.

For our evening meal, we had fish & chips at "my" Irish pub.

O.K. had to leave on Sunday, Sept. 25 - our holiday was now over. He left around lunch time, and I started on a little odysee for testing: my usual test station was closed (although they were supposed to be open), the next one only took you on appointment, but the third one finally accepted me so that I could have my (negative) test result in order to be allowed into hospital to see my Dad.

I went home with my Mum for a while afterwards and then spent a quiet evening on my own, watching TV, reading and of course talking to O.K. on the phone. 

In the course of these four days, my Dad had good and not so good times. His condition is still rather unstable and we never really know how we'll find him each day. He knows us and talks to us (most of the time), even joking sometimes, but tires quickly and sometimes drifts in and out of sleep while we are there. The nurses are great; they really look after him very well and do more than their duty, so we know he is in good hands during the many hours we can not be there.