Palm Springs

My mother appears to have had a kidney stone Sunday. Off to the ER again in an ambulance. Her doctor seems little concerned about how her dementia is making her medical issues worse; it looks like she isn't drinking enough water, since a few weeks ago she complained of dry mouth. The doctor does not return my brother's phone calls or do anything pro-active; the nurse who had been coming twice weekly was pulled off when her wrist cast was removed, so even though she is not capable of following medication instructions, she's getting no help now, and it's getting worse.

So I think she needs a visit to help her find assisted living, and definitely a new doctor. I'm awaiting a callback from a private home healthcare franchise with an office nearby -- just someone to look in once a week and help her organize her medication should hold her for a few weeks until I can get there.

I've been in Palm Springs since Saturday night looking at houses.Thousands of second homes and vanity mansions sit empty, foreclosures conitnue at a fast clip, and while I think we might see another downward slide in prices for higher-end homes, things are pretty cheap now -- much is available at below cost of construction. We're supposed to see rootbeer1 and qbear this weekend; they have been looking similarly though at a lower price range. Paul's thought is to buy a place we'd be happy retiring in (we're tired of moving!), so we've been scoping out larger houses than we'd need as a vacation home -- 4 beds or more. I've toured more than ten houses, and we have two we're going to consider when Paul gets here -- one far south, one in Old Las Palmas. Values are better in Rancho Mirage and points east, but I want to go to the World Gym, since that's where "everybody" goes now, so don't want to be more than 15 minutes away from it.

I haven't had time for much socializing; had dinner at Wangs in the Desert with Eric Jannke, who used to live at Douglass and 20th but ran into a series of reverses that led him to PS to conserve his money (a very common story here.) Had a nice massage yesterday after visiting a high-end architect's house which left me cold -- claimed to have spent $3 million constructing it, but the investor friend of our agent who was along commented he wondered where $1 million of it went. It's all so very Southern Califronia-ish. I keep running into people who say I have great "energy" and I want to check my battery compartment.

Then there's the ipad story; Made a special trip to the Apple store in SF, waited in line, was told I'd get an email telling me to come pick iy up in 2-3 days, which would have been Thursday-Friday before I left. Nothing by Tuesday, so I found the last remaining iPad in the Caochella Valley at Best Buy in Palm Desert and bought it. That evening I got an email from Apple telling me to come pick up my 3G iPad. I don't think not having 3G will be a big issue since I have the iPhone for that, and unless on the road I'll use this iPad mostly to read at home.