A Saturday Outing with Used to be Mom

Used to Be Mom has walked here three times this week. What used to take her thirty minutes, now takes her an hour. She loves the walk and feels a sense of accomplishment. She arrived yesterday around 10:30 a.m. announcing that she had cancelled her lunch and dinner and would spend the day with me. As I looked at her shaggy hairdo and remembering that I had not washed my hair for over a week, I made appointments for us to go to the hairdressers. No super cuts for us, Bob took us to the salon. 

This is the actual conversation he had with her:

UTBM: Oh my is there ever  a lot of traffic. 

Bob: Yes. 

UTBM: There's a lot of traffic on my street too. I count the cars. 

Bob: Oh.

UTBM: Sometimes before I go down to supper while I am waiting, I count up to 300 cars. 

Bob: Is that how long it takes you to count to 300 or it the number what you are trying to reach before you go?

UTBM: That's how long it takes me to count to 300 cars.

Bob: Do you count just cars or do you include trucks? 

UTBM: Oh I count trucks too. 

When we arrived at the mall to go into the salon, we looked like a parade. Me on my crutches, Mom following behind with my purse and Bob pulling up the rear to make sure she doesn't get lost. 

At the salon a diminutive Japanese girl comes to get mom to wash her hair. 

UTBM: I already washed me hair today. 

She explains it will be easier for her to cut if it is wet. 

I am enjoying my shampoo and the soothing effect it has when she orders me to watch her wallet. 

She comes after her haircut and sits in the vacant chair beside me. She wonders why I just don't go to Super Cuts. 

I have the hairdresser take her picture. UTBM s self conscious and a little vain at the same time. We leave the salon just as a huge thunderstorm descends on the city. The wind and cold toss our new hairdos every which way. 

We take her home. She can't walk home in the storm. 

UTBM: You paid a lot of money for me to have my hair cut. 

Me: Just a little treat Mom. We both needed our hair done. 

UTBM: I sure miss you. Good bye. 

She can hardly wait to go inside her complex and begin working on the new jigsaw puzzle.