Gray day

 This afternoon they will cement 4 "levels" in Grandma's spine. The consult yesterday with the specialist was (approximately) 30% filling in forms in the waiting room -or would have been except they are trying out a new electronic system. Still, "tapping out" forms sounds silly.
 Then 50% with the PA who told me 1) I couldn't have given my mom naproxen with out a prescription, 2) perhaps I meant "napersin" and 3) Aleve is "certainly" not naproxen - or "napersin" - 4) it is ibuprofen. She absolutely insisted on this last point even when I insisted on questioning it. So I caved and realized how silly of me it was to pretend to any medical knowledge and I should probably never give an aspirin to my family without supervision -if indeed they are aspirins. It took me the ride home to realize I wasn't the one who should have been embarrassed.
 This leaves 5% of the visit seeing the consultant. (I can do the math, but I feel this answer is a more realistic reflection of my feelings at the time and therefore a better representation of the truth -as I see it).
 Last night I tried to talk to my mom about when WWII started. Where was she? How did it feel? She told me about the friends they were visiting when Pearl Harbor was attacked. I extracted a little more -what about her own feelings? Well she tried to join up -yes, I knew that and all the services rejected her because she has 2 joints too few (be careful cutting wood). But what next? I think, but this part was tricky to sort out, "times were bad" and she couldn't go home. Ah, history. I probed more -was it the rationing? the fears? what? It was her father. Her father who we only hear stories about his brilliance. That father... and her "times" with him. It was growing up and moving out and all of that. It's not just for me that these things drown out the news. They did in history too.
  Maybe with T-10, L-1, L-2 and the vertebrae whose name I keep forgetting are fused this afternoon even WWII will look better.