To eat or not...

 Okaasan's eating ranges  from 20-80%, apparently.

Some days pretty ok, and other times not at all. She's lost 7 kg in weight since last year.

The doctor, the nurse and the care worker have telephoned for discussions with Dear Son, and it seems that while they are worried - it isn't a crises level worry. Okaasan had put on weight in the past few years, because she sits around too much and now EATS BREAKFAST!

So 7 kg isn't a big loss, but of course any more would be bad. And they worry that she loses the automatic swallowing skill little by little.

WE suggested the Aloe yogurts that she loves, and we hope that helps. But really, as we can't be there in the care home - we don't know.

We also don't know how the Covid-19 situation is in the care home and its connected hospital. If it was Cluster No. 61 in our region a few weeks ago - and that is only my guessing - then that cluster is now buried way down in the nightly news information, overtaken by newer clusters. OMG - one hospital in Asahikawa, a big city 2 hours north of here, has over 100 cases now...

So. Maybe our home/hospital contained the virus? Maybe. No news is maybe good news.

In OUR lives, we had a stressy week with a sick cat who vomited endlessly and then stopped eating. And work stuff, I am doing product description text for an online shop and struggling to write about make up and health products - NOT my kind of writing, at all.

I am a writer, and adapting to a situation or requirement eachtime is hard. First I was in newspapers, at first news and later features. Then I did academic writing - again a big struggle to write long, involved sentences. Later I did tourism blurbs, and English-teaching texts. More recently, writing for Instagram and Facebook about travel.

And all thru I was doing more personal writing - like THIS! - at first long letters to my mother, then diaries, then short stories...and the world of blogging.

This recent job is writing text for selling face cream and wonder tea, made of seaweed....and  text about all the little taste and quality differences between rice brands. I am learning a whole lot about these products, while I write.

But it's a job. Gotta do it. Thankful, really, to have the chance to do it and earn money in this strange year.

Already December. Settling in for a quiet, stay  close to home winter.

Dear Son's digestion problems are improved, but still not good enough for a full schedule of ski teaching work. He is kind of semi-retired now, checking his stocks and shares and making money that way, mainly. My work is half what it was...although I picked up some extra teaching for a downtown company recently, that should help this winter.

We had booked a very discounted holiday in Okinawa for January, and we have until Christmas to cancel it for full refund. The Japanese government is forging ahead with this Go To Travel campaign, trying to boost domestic travel - while COVID-19 new case numbers surge in Tokyo, Osaka...and right here in Sapporo.

Of course, we will only go to Okinawa if we feel it won't cause more problems for hospitals on the islands, and that seems more and more likely. So we'll cancel. I've heard of people taking secret domestic trips - but that isn't me....

Onwards...