My mother was here at the end of February, after visiting my brother and his partner in New Orleans, during Mardi Gras.
It was a good visit, but![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cattitude, adrian_turtle and I all found it mentally tiring, which is why it's taken me a few days to write about it here.
My mother got here Saturday evening, and Adrian met her at the airport, and they took a cab home. We had soup for dinner, made the day before so we could eat when my mother got here. After supper, my mother was doing a little unpacking, and realized she'd left a backpack in the taxi.
Adrian spent some time Sunday figuring out how to report a bag that had been left in a taxi. The next day, the Boston Police called and told us to pick up the bag at BPD headquarters, in Roxbury. (This was one of the rare situations when you want to hear from the police.) My mother and I went over there, by transit and then a bit of a walk, once we'd looked up directions, since it's in a neighborhood I hadn't been to before. The walk took us alongside Southwest Corridor Park, which I suspect is more appealing in spring and summer, but last week it looked like another long, skinny park that's more pathway than destination.
While my mother and I were doing that, Adrian and Cattitude were baking. My mother was surprised and delighted to walk in and see a linzer torte cooling on the counter, baked following her mother's recipe, which she hadn't had in a long time (it is more work than a lot of cakes). We now know that to get the proper texture I remember from my grandmother's baking requires waiting a day. We had some of the cake that day, and some the day after, and it was distinctly better the second day. Also, ground walnuts work much better than the almond flour we used last time, which is partly texture and partly that the slight bitterness of the walnuts contrasts well with the very sweet filling.
Other than that, there was lots of good conversation, in part because my mother likes Adrian and Cattitude, and they like her.
I'm very glad to have gotten my mother to wear an actually useful face mask. She's been using medical/surgical masks, which as she's been wearing them let air in and out on both sides, so are basically useless. When we went to a store on Sunday, I asked her to wear one of our KN95 masks. That mask fit her pretty well, and she said was also more comfortable than the medical masks. I sent her home with the one she'd been wearing, and three unused masks of the same style, which was the most she was willing to take, even though I told her that left us with almost a dozen in that style. The masks I gave her are Powecom KN95s with ear loops. The only thing I use them for is to get my hair cut; the rest of the time I use actual N95s.
It was a good visit, but
cattitude, adrian_turtle and I all found it mentally tiring, which is why it's taken me a few days to write about it here. My mother got here Saturday evening, and Adrian met her at the airport, and they took a cab home. We had soup for dinner, made the day before so we could eat when my mother got here. After supper, my mother was doing a little unpacking, and realized she'd left a backpack in the taxi.
Adrian spent some time Sunday figuring out how to report a bag that had been left in a taxi. The next day, the Boston Police called and told us to pick up the bag at BPD headquarters, in Roxbury. (This was one of the rare situations when you want to hear from the police.) My mother and I went over there, by transit and then a bit of a walk, once we'd looked up directions, since it's in a neighborhood I hadn't been to before. The walk took us alongside Southwest Corridor Park, which I suspect is more appealing in spring and summer, but last week it looked like another long, skinny park that's more pathway than destination.
While my mother and I were doing that, Adrian and Cattitude were baking. My mother was surprised and delighted to walk in and see a linzer torte cooling on the counter, baked following her mother's recipe, which she hadn't had in a long time (it is more work than a lot of cakes). We now know that to get the proper texture I remember from my grandmother's baking requires waiting a day. We had some of the cake that day, and some the day after, and it was distinctly better the second day. Also, ground walnuts work much better than the almond flour we used last time, which is partly texture and partly that the slight bitterness of the walnuts contrasts well with the very sweet filling.
Other than that, there was lots of good conversation, in part because my mother likes Adrian and Cattitude, and they like her.
I'm very glad to have gotten my mother to wear an actually useful face mask. She's been using medical/surgical masks, which as she's been wearing them let air in and out on both sides, so are basically useless. When we went to a store on Sunday, I asked her to wear one of our KN95 masks. That mask fit her pretty well, and she said was also more comfortable than the medical masks. I sent her home with the one she'd been wearing, and three unused masks of the same style, which was the most she was willing to take, even though I told her that left us with almost a dozen in that style. The masks I gave her are Powecom KN95s with ear loops. The only thing I use them for is to get my hair cut; the rest of the time I use actual N95s.
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She also said that this is a relatively easy sort of traveling alone: she was alone in the airports, and in the taxi from her house to the airport and back, but she was staying with her children, not in a hotel. If she needs help with anything at the airport, she asks someone, if they don't offer first. Mom uses awalking stick for things like airports, and she's clearly not young.
Also, she made this trip alone, but she has a travel companion for all of her Holocaust education trips, whether that's going to Dubai or a day trip to give a talk in England.
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