My best friend is leaving

[Tdarcos]

I have been informed that my best friend and roommate Leslie Rouse is leaving. Tomorrow will be his last day, as he is going home - from what I understand - Sunday morning. Or at least sometime on Sunday. I'm going back to when I posted my announcement he had arrived. From what I posted, it was approximately late April 2021. I will miss him, I enjoyed his company, he was a fun roommate, and I consider him my best friend. And now I have to try and break-in a new roommate. When I was separated in room 206 for the week, they moved me here to 326 B (a larger living space for me) but left him back in 330 A, splitting us up. Les, me, some of the staff, and even his wife complained about, in effect, separating a cohesive team. We know each other, have similar tastes in music, have similar backgrounds, and have compatible personalities.

I'm not sure why he would be going home; I don't think he's able to take care of himself, but maybe he is ready or able to do so, my opinion ) (which was never solicited) to the contrary notwithstanding. He says he'll keep in touch.

I will tell you about the only time i ever got mad at him. At breakfast every day I have a standing order for the same thing: scrambled eggs, apple juice, hot chocolate, milk, cereal, toast, margarine, and jelly. The issue involved the last three things. Maybe the last four. Well, one day I had a real craving for toast, the way I like it, jelly over margarine. At this time, Les was helping me open some things (I have no pinch strength in either hand, opening a margarine packet or jelly serving means pulling the cover of the package (paper on the margarine, foil on the jelly), and opening the milk. I had milk in the cereal, and Les opens the jelly, I presumed to set it down or drop it on my toast. No, that's not what happened, instead he dumped the jelly into my cold cereal with milk. I was unhappy about this, because I just wanted that, and he destroyed it.

I blew up at him, first asking why he did that. What I think irritated me the most was his response, like an 8-year-old, unable to explain why he was putting graffiti on a building, "I don't know." I know part pf it was that I wanted it so bad, and the jelly was sitting there partially sticking out of the milk. Well, one of the aides heard the commotion, and came in. She didn't criticize me for being petty; she probably understands that when you end up in a place like this, meals are often the high point of the day. (The low point often comes when they discover what they got.) Anyway, she told me she'd get me another packet. IO would have gotten over my mad once I calmed down, but this, this little kindness, it removed the reason for being mad, once she brought it.

I look back at that and wonder where all that anger came from. I can't remember the last time I got mad enough to "carve someone a new asshole," but it had to have been at least 15 years. The incident at the Bengies Drive In Theater in Essex, Maryland, near Baltimore, is probably the most recent one, and beyond that I can't think of any. That would be over 20 years ago, as I could walk at the time. If anyone wants to hear the story, I'll post a thread.

We're both able to laugh when I say, "At least you learned not to touch my jelly."

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

At breakfast every day I have a standing order for the same thing:

[AArdvark]

D'oh!

And I would like to hear the story at the Essex drive-in. I think we all would like to hear it!

[Tdarcos]

And we got it wrong. People read he was being discharged and thought it meant he was being discharged from the facility. That's not what it said. What I found out from a clerk who came to visit and explain about his discharge from the program, is that because Medicare won't pay for more than 90 days of therapy he is being discharged from the physical therapy/occupational therapy program. He is not being discharged from the facility.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

How are you doing since he left?

[Tdarcos]

And we got it wrong...because Medicare won't pay for more than 90 days of therapy he is being discharged from the physical therapy/occupational therapy program. He is not being discharged from the facility.

How are you doing since he left?

And this, no ladies and (probably no) gentlemen, is called "failure to read."

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

What is the hold up on him packing his stuff?

[Jizaboz]

What is the hold up on him packing his stuff?

< insert a bad joke on why poor Leslie can’t verbally express where he wants his stuff moved >

[Casual Observer]

What is the hold up on him packing his stuff?