Rochester and Windsor

When I left the Ricky Tims show, I drove to the shopping district in Rochester, MI.

The sidewalk had many delightful decorative concrete inserts. These are two I found especially attractive.

Dad has made some pretty cool concrete items like an awesome mill stone set into the backyard. Perhaps he can create something like these, or even better, show me how.

From Michigan I drove to Windor, Ontario. I went through the Windsor Tunnel and showed my shiny new passport to the border officer. He asked a lot of questions and was NO NONSENSE. It was a bit scary.

That was not, however, the scariest moment. I discovered my GPS didn't know what Canada was. I figured I could make my  way to the Hilton, since on Mapquest I could clearly see the Caesar's hotel and casino would be on my left and the Hilton on the right. Not a problem, except I was ejected from the border area right into the city. I did not expect to be in the dark in a district of bars and hoochee-coochee dance establishments.

So I had to think and not panic. The hotel was on the river,  so how darn hard could  it be to find? Plus it is a fairly tall building. I found it right in front of the bus station. Woo-hoo! Once I found the parking garage, I had to walk in a very lonely, smelly tunnel to the hotel, but once in the room I was greeted by a fabulous 180 degree view of the Detroit skyline.

And the next morning I witnessed a fabulous sunrise. The three tall building (lit up above) are the GM buildings. 

I went for an early morning walk in the park along the river.

 Pink and red tulips.

 Pools of color were everywhere.

Orange tulips and sunny yellow daffodils (jonquils?).

 I tried to get a panoramic view of the river of red tulips.

The park was wonderfully laid out with all manner of evergreen shrubs and trees and artfully placed granite boulders. (exuse the coffee cup, I am too tired to edit)

After my walk I had to go back to my room to say good bye to the view. One of the GM towers is on the right.

I feel pretty guilty right now. I came home from the hospital around 3 yesterday to take care of my dogs. They had been locked up in the bathroom since 6 in the morning. The drive to hospital is about an hour, depending on traffic. Atlanta traffic can be brutal. I called the hospital to check on him before I went to bed (I tried to go to sleep at 6 p.m.), since they planned to move him to a regular room from the ICU, but they were having a shift change, so they asked me to call back. Later, when I got the nurse on the phone, she sounded like she'd been dealing with a challenge. They had indeed moved him into a regular room, and she said he was jumping out of bed, pulling out his lines, and kicking them, so they had to tie his legs to the bed too. She said he yelled for me over and over.

I felt like there was nothing I would be able to do to make it better if I drove all the way back. He was delerious and begging to go home all day yesterday while I was there. The nurses had pulled him up out of bed to demonstrate to him that he cannot stand up and walk yet.

The brain bleed is over, but the medicines they had to give him to get cooperation for the MRI  (it took three tries to get it) have really dealt him a set back. I don't know what I will deal with when I go down there today. I know I have to go back to the hospital. I have been reading about hospital psychosis on the internet. Having family around seems to help patients re-connect with reality.

He is at Emory University Hospital. Guess what? Today is graduation on the Emory campus and they already have a massive traffic jam in the area. I will wait a little longer to leave home. If the graduation attendees get situated, I can go to the valet parking and let them find my car a spot. Still, I am apprehensive about getting stuck in the mess (on top of everything else).