my god save us from any blessings we can count, as the old yiddish adage says

Went to Vienna on Saturday at noon, came back on Sunday around midnight.
Even though -- or maybe because? -- this kind of short trip causes me something like topographic dizziness, I found it quite enjoyable. On longer sojourns, the overabundance of communication combined with not being at home tends to make me grumpy and tired, whereas the condensed version is over before I can start getting grumpy. Definitely an advantage.

Probably the nicest thing was meeting my mother.
As some of you may remember, my father had an accident -- falling down the stairs, complicated fracture of the right upper arm -- at the beginning of October and refused to go to hospital, even though it would've been the much better solution. He had to be taken to hospital anyway, about two weeks ago, due to high fever and his rejection of any kind of food or drink. Turned out there was a problem with his intestine. He's still in hospital, and so I was able to visit my mother at home, which was nice, since 1) she didn't have to go to the trouble of going out, and 2) it was a lot more comfy that way.
I'd already noticed it when we talked on the phone after my father's hospitalization: it's as if a demon had been exorcised. She's the mother I know and love once again, and that was, I think, one of the best things that could happen. I'd been sad to lose our close connection, but aware that there really wasn't anything I could do about it. So we spent a wonderful four hours together, talking, eating and drinking wine. My brother confirmed, my impression re. her being "our mum" again, BTW.

Yesterday -- and now we're coming to the blessings part -- I was pretty tired, having slept only a little over five hours. Went to play tennis at 1 p.m. and, after a bit more than an hour of playing, got a volley with the frame of the racket, from where it bounced directly into my eye. I was wearing glasses, thankfully synthetic ones, so that the left lens just broke in half without any shards. Still, it did hurt quite a lot. Elena went to fetch ice, which probably helped a lot with reducing the swelling. Fortunately I haven't got a black eye today, and the eyeball as such wasn't hurt, just a bit concussed. So today almost no trace remains -- both upper and lower lid are a little swollen, and the area between eye and brow is a bit tender.
I'd intended to go to the ophtalmologist anyway, because I think I need slightly stronger lenses, so I'll do that tomorrow, and then I'll get the lenses on all three pairs of glasses changed.