Seeing Billy Joe Shaver on Imus this morning was a rude reminder of how much time has passed since I first became aware of him. He hit Nashville in the late 60's before I moved back to Mississippi. Why I remember him from that time, I'm not sure, because he didn't become famous until the 70's. Maybe he was on the local tv shows, Johnny Cash had one, seems Kris Kristofferson did, too, or maybe he was featured in the news. All I remember is that I liked him, I thought he was cute. Now he is a very crusty, very salty old dog. Like Willie Nelson, his songwriting talent is far greater than his performing talent, but he's fun to watch, and the older he gets, the better he sounds to me. As he says in one of his most famous songs, "I'm just an old chunk of coal, but I'm gonna be a diamond someday."

The salty dog I live with pitched an ugly hissy fit last night because I forgot to remind him to buy aspirin. He even threatened to have another heart attack because he didn't have a tablet to take. I'm going to start recording some of his tantrums and make him listen to them the next day. There is a lot of anxiety at the root of these outbursts, which he really needs to deal with. They are less frequent than they used to be, but he can be so volatile, sometimes, I wonder if he's trying to make his heart stop with his explosive tirades. They hurt my heart, they're bound to be harmful to his, too.

My weight loss continues. On this first day of Month 3, I'm 7.6 lbs away from the 15 lbs in 6 mo. goal I was given by the doc. Having already reached and passed the 2nd month goal allowed me to eat more while family was here, and I did put back on a couple of lbs, but I also was not doing the 30 min morning walks. This month I'm making notations of walk/no walk days along with the weight record I'm keeping. It seems to be an essential element in the plan.

Betsy is back at school today, the kids don't start until Monday. Richard is at her house with no truck, no driver's license, no key, no glasses, and she said he's not too concerned about it. At least, he will be on foot if he decides to take off again, so he won't get far.

I wonder how he would do at the adult day care center on Old Canton Rd. I considered it for Mother when I was thinking about putting her in the condo where Betsy is now. I was impressed with the number and the caliber of workers at the center. They had about 35 - 50 adults to care for per day in 2003, several different groups and activities going on.

They went to see Mother on Sunday. She was much more attentive and responsive to Richard than Betsy, but she's always favored male attention over females'. When Betsy told Richard that it depressed her to see Mother in that state, he hugged her and said he knew it did. I didn't realize he was capable of being that sympathetic. That surprised me.

We got a shower yesterday afternoon and it's looking like we might get another one today. Dark clouds are moving in fast.