Putting aside this evening, which was a total loss, today was a pretty good day. The latest round of steroids and antibiotics gave me a bit of a reprieve from sinus pain. Dad came over for a nice dinner. Afterwards we sat around the table sipping a dessert wine, just hanging out and enjoying each other’s company.

The evening was even better, considering the set back we had on Thursday. My mother was sent off to the state mental hospital in north Florida. Some of you may not realize how big Florida is. Despite living almost right smack in the center of the Florida peninsula (on the west coast), the hospital is still over 300 miles away, between six to eight hours by car.

I don’t see how this is a good thing for my mother. She’s never been much for traveling, she’s terrified to be away from my father, and now she’s essentially in Alabama… which might as well be on the moon, as far as my mother is concerned. My dad’s been visiting her every day, and twice a day on the weekends; and now he won’t get a chance to see her for another two weeks.

There used to be a state hospital just on the other side of Tampa Bay, but it fell victim to neglect due to budget cuts… and further cuts closed it. Now there are a few hospitals left, but nothing that serves densely populated “I-4 corridor,” which includes Tampa, Orlando, and Pinellas County (the most densely populated county in Florida).

Yesterday someone was telling me how they hated big government, and it’s propensity to “throw around money.” I thought about my mother being shipped off across the state due to budget cuts, and I just about had a meltdown.

You know, I started writing up this entry thinking it was going to be a positive, cheery kind of entry. Boy did I make a wrong turn.