Maekawa Okasan`s Birthday

getting older is a part of life . . . getting older with someone who suffer`s from the loss of memory and with that the ability to reason should not be. today started out with "happy birthday" wishes for Noriko`s Mother. i watched a the Cubs beat the Padres on tv while checking on flights to get me back to Tokyo and then home to LA. tuesday looks the best. and then it was a little walk to the 100 yen store above the Coop grocery store. i took some photos of this funderful store and before i knew i had bought about 1900 yen worth of "stuff". i walked back to the Sakura Tunnel street which is now a tunnel of beautifully green-leafed trees. what a difference a few weeks does make. i remembered a house that i like photographing and then another. the second house i went to photograph has an incredible gardener living in it. Noriko`s Mother was waiting for me to return and then prepared lunch for me and Otosan. Noriko returned from work soon after and we all took a little nap. Noriko`s Father`s "care manager" was coming for a short visit...perhaps to talk about her Father`s recent "short stay" experiment. after a little snack, we drove to run a few errands at K`s Denki (electronics store) and then to Senri-chuo where Noriko was going to buy dinner for us so her Mother would not have to cook on her Birthday. i headed to LABI to see if Yamada Denki had a new battery for my digital camera. i was hoping for the nice and informative Casio camera representative that i met back in April as my camera is having a few "difficulties" or perhaps but probably not "operator error." i bought the new battery but the only help i received about my camera was to return it where i bought it or something like that. dinner was sushi obento from Kyoto. Noriko`s Mother opened the little presents i bought her and told me i always find nice interesting gifts. all was going well until ... Noriko`s Father kind of exploded about his having to stay at the "short stay" home. i had noticed his seemed different since returning yesterday afternoon but we just thought he was tired from his little adventure. that may be the case and we are hoping he will have forgotten about it tomorrow after a good night`s sleep. and speaking of sleep, it is time for me to say goodnite to friday. Happy Birthday, Uchi no Haha.