It's Mother's Day 2010. Sister Monette and niece Lisa, hardy Minnesotans, are visiting. First order of business: have dinner (at noon)with mother/grandmother LaVone, 93, at her abode, the
Rogue Valley Independent Retirement Living. Whoever thinks that their parent(s)will end up in a retirement community? I didn't, but then I was in la la land about aging. I still am, at least about my own progression toward the grave, but I have a better grasp of what's going on with my mom. That woman is getting old!
But for her age, she's doing famously. She takes one medication, probably superfluous, and has no complaints other than deafness and muscle atrophy, the later of which we are combating with exercise. By "we" I mean that she does the exercises and I nag. I believe she'll live to be 100. I don't mean to gloss over her hearing loss. Being left out of conversations is a terrible curse for somebody who hates to miss
anything.
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| LaVone, Monette & Lisa |
The place she lives is good. Really good. It is for independent seniors, that is people who don't require assisted living or "memory care." Most important: rent includes three chef-prepared meals a day, all of them good to better than good, and numerous daily activities. Score for Mother's Day dinner on a scale of scale of 1-10: 8. And it cost just $7 per guest. Then we headed out on the
Applegate Valley Wine Trail.
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| (Click photo for larger view.) Late in the day May 9, 2010, along Kubli Road, the Applegate Valley, Oregon. |
It was a blustery day, and time was short, but my guests loved the pastoral scenery so much that we were compelled to stop numerous times for my sister to snap photos. There are close to 20 wineries along the Applegate Wine Trail, but due to time, my reluctance to drink and drive, and my mother's frailties, we stopped at only two: Fiasco Winery & Artisan Faire and Schmidt Family Vineyards.
Wines at both were good—
southern Oregon wines are emerging as world-class, after all—but Fiasco's warm attention to guests, including an impromptu primer on wine tasting, far exceeded the (in) attention we got at Schmidt's. We bought wine at both places, however. I'm sorry we missed the other wineries, and I hope that local friends will get together, as we've discussed, and hire a driver for a day of wine touring. Actually, it would take three days to visit all the wineries in our local Rogue, Illinois, and Applegate valleys. If you have the time, they have the wine.
