Hey, R2?

This must be a bad period for mothers; mine's in the hospital with atrial fibrillation (mostly treated, though she still gets irregular heartbeats); our neighbor's mother just had a stroke, and is in a rehabilitation hospital; and tomorrow afternoon I'm picking up the daughter of a friend so that her mother can go down to Virginia to visit with her mother, who's in a hospital down there.

On the way to the hospital tonight to visit my mother, we listened to an episode of WNYC's Radiolab series, this one on how society is handling -- or not -- the aging population in various countries. Some of it, I know, such as the use of robotics in Japan to assist in the heavy labor of taking care of the elderly, and some of the emotional labor, as well -- they spoke of one place that has what is, essentially, a robotic seal that's warm, reacts to touch, and makes noises; elderly people who spend the day lost in their thoughts will awaken from their daydreams and smile at it, treating it as we would the arrival of a friendly Labrador. Some, I didn't know. But overall, the idea of using technology to supplement the decreasing proportion of people who are willing and able to take care of the elderly was pretty interesting. I liked that our daughter was in the car, so that we could talk about it a little, too. It was fun.