No news from the hospital, or from social services. An American friend, an Oberlin friend, indeed, wrote to ask what a “care package” is. I’m not sure I entirely know myself, but essentially, the City of Edinburgh is meant to provide my husband with the care which makes it possible for him to live at home. Rachel doesn’t think anything on that scale is provided in England.

We waited for a long time last year before it started. When it did, it was wonderful. A carer arrived in the morning to get my husband up and dressed and delivered to the kitchen to wait for the District Nurse who would help with the insulin injection. She came back in the late afternoon, and again later to help him to bed. My husband's sister had a similar "package" five years ago when she was dying. The one thing she complained about was having to go to bed so early.

We have private care as well, for three hours in the middle of the day, so that I can get out, at least to the supermarket. And we could re-jig the private care to cover what Social Services had been doing. But that would mean that I could never get out, and Social Services would re-assign us to the bottom of the list.

So that’s what we’re waiting for. When you go into hospital for more than 72 hours, you get struck off the list and have to start again.

It’s time to begin thinking about the Edinburgh Yarn Fest, too. If my husband is at home and we are jogging along as before, I can arrange to have a bit more private care on the days when it’s needed. As things stand at present, who knows? I must at least dredge my bookings out of the pile of old emails and print them off (and remind myself what, exactly, I have signed up for). And I must get to the market, even if three classes prove to be too ambitious a target.

As for actual knitting, I am nearly halfway down the foot of the 2^nd Arne & Carlos sock. And I have finished Band 27 (a little one) on the Tokyo shawl. Two (big ones) to go.     

    Nbolllllllllllllllllllllllllllekiiiiiicdf478 (comment from Perdita)

Karen, I am very grateful for your blocking tip. And, Carol, to you, for the Ravelry picture of the one you blocked.

Politics

What a long time it’s been since 2008 when I was raising money for Obama here on the blog! It’s hard even to imagine such enthusiasm.

My husband is valiantly catching up on New-Yorker-reading there in Ward 15. He polished off the double issue of August 10 & 17 yesterday and sent it home with me. It contains the sentence: “Trump’s lack of interest in policy and his inflammatory rhetoric make it easy to dismiss him as a serious candidate, and it’s highly improbable that he could ultimately win the nomination.”

If only.