Mummies invented wrap music

My mother moved into the senior high rise in Towson on the day Tim Russert died, June 13, 2008, and spent three years in the Independent Living section.  That's a tower full of nice apartments; people are free to come and go as they please.  All they have to do is check out if they leave to go shopping or to hang with the family or something. And there are little niceties about that place, such as, if you don't do something by 10 AM to show the motion detectors in your apt. that you're up and about, security will call to make sure you're ok.  

She had three pretty good years there until her health declined to a point where it was necessary to move to the Assisted Living section, which took place on the day of the East Coast earthquake, August 23, 2011.  I was there, helping to move her furniture, clothing and I don't know what-all else when the earthquake made the building as shaky as John Boehner's grasp of history at 1:51 PM that day.  (Interesting: the staff and visitors were all like, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaa?" and the residents were all like "When's dinner?" while terra firma got less firm for that minute.  And the people who work in the office building across the street filed out like kids in a fire drill, lest the building collapse on them...and then stood there at arms' length from the building, lest the sun get on them.)

Of late, Mom's dementia has gotten to where she becomes agitated and goes rolling off in her wheelchair, and several times she was found at places in the giant building other than her own area, so it became necessary for her to move again, this time to a section where one needs to enter a code and push open a heavy door to exit.  All day Monday, as Peggy and my sister and I relocated her belongings, I waited for something major to happen.  Nothing earth-shaking this time, but there is an activity at 10 AM and 2 PM every day for the residents, and not just Parcheesi or a blurry movie on a VCR.  They have musicians and other entertainers, speakers, and lessons in history.  And Mom is fairly happy and totally safe, which is the best we could hope for.

Walking by the activity room, I overheard a woman telling the assemblage that the Nile River froze in 829 AD and 1010 AD. I mean, the Nile, in Egypt, Africa, is not in an area where parkas are generally required.  But this all took place before things warmed up. I looked this up.  A cooling period began at about the same time as the Roman Empire formed, and it lasted until about 900 AD.   We can only suppose that the 1010 Freeze came about as the result of a very chilly day.

I'm picturing two Egyptians carrying Starbucks cups with hieroglyphics on them, on their way to work building pyramids, and complaining about how cold it was the night before.  I will visit Egypt the next time the Nile freezes over, as I wish to ice skate while wrapped up as a mummy.