Talked to a friend on the staff at Hyder House. Amedisys, the parent company, is not who to contact -- besides, they have no contact info on their website.

Strafford County owns the building and property. So the contact person to convince of Hyder House's importance to the community is the County Administrator, who is also in charge of the nursing home across the road.

Hyder House is the only free-standing hospice with 24 hour care in the area. The only options left after Hyder House closes are home hospice (with visiting RNs) or the hospital. No matter how good the hospital, that's NOT the atmosphere one would want for a dying loved one. Hyder House closing would really would be a huge loss to our area.

I didn't get the email to the county administrator written today, but will certainly tomorrow. And I've posted the information on Facebook and alerted a number of my friends who are nurses or working in the medical field. AND, of course, the friends and musicians who helped see Tom out of this life.

Yesterday was a pretty full day, so I've mostly been reading today, though I just put together a few more bankers boxes and sorted more stuff out of the jumble just outside the door of this room. And I also mixed up a batch of ant bait and put it out. (I consulted with my fiddle-playing, singing entomologist last night at the session.)

The car went into the shop yesterday morning to check out whether there was something else causing the misfires and hiccups other than having let the gas level get VERY low. (Crud from bottom of tank or moisture.) It was -- ignition coil, so that got replaced. And when I got in the car, I found my magnetic key holder in the front seat instead of in the hidden spot on the car's exterior. I got that after locking both my keys (car and house) AND my purse containing a spare set in the car a couple years ago. Matt said it had been falling off, so he put it inside the car. So I was a good kid and replaced the magnetic box on the way home and replaced it properly outside the car. Good thing. Later in the afternoon on my way to The Press Room, I stopped at the head of the driveway to get the mail. I had electronically opened ALL the doors while still sitting next to the house as I needed to put something in the back seat. When I went to the mailbox, I left the driver's door open...but it swung shut...AND locked all the doors! (As I've had happen at least once before.) This time, though, the keys were in the ignition, the car was running, and my purse was on the front seat. So...I retrieved the key from its hiding place and the day continued without crisis.

Had another good session...and then on my way home, just up around the corner (about a mile and a half up the road), I got pulled over by a Nottingham cop for what he said was a rolling stop at a 4-way stop at the Liberty Baptist Church intersection. I may very well have slowly rolled through...you have to go a bit forward of the invisible stop line in order to see if anyone is coming from the right...but it was late at night and there were no headlights coming in any direction. I should have been more careful -- I'd seen him lurking there in the shadow of the church another time within the past few weeks when I was coming home from the Press Room. He gave me a warning, and cautioned me against drunk drivers with their headlights off. I thanked him. I'll make sure from now on I come to a full stop.

Linn



Linn