Mix and hopefully match

I guess I should respond to Sherm's questions and comments, and I'll do it all here in this entry, I think. Thus the title.
Of course I'll give Dad a hug for you. As for chemistry, wasn't it George Clare who said to Carol "it's all just chemistry"? On some level, I know that's true.
Nevertheless, I am thrilled to see improvement, but it doesn't happen every day. He still has blips like he did this morning: when I went to lay out Dad's prescriptions, I discovered that he had gotten it into his head that I had suggested he take the key out of the front door after locking it. I know I did no such thing, because I'm concerned about him being able to open the door should there ever (God forbid it) be a fire in the house, and having to look for a key in the drawer of the table by the door could be deadly. I do remember that he had asked me yesterday if there was a second key for that door and I had told him there is not. Somehow that question morphed in his mind into thinking I told him to take the key out of the door. Weird.
Sure, I've been sullen, quiet, enraged, even not a talker at times (believe it or not). I am concerned for you Sherman, because your descriptions of Sonny have told me that he has violent capacity that could be unleashed upon you unexpectedly. He may be no Cho, but as you said, there is a matter of balance, and he's more on that side than I would like for you to have to deal with. I hope you can find a way to place more distance between you and him, safely. If I can help, I will.
Yes, there are smoke detectors on both floors of the house.
Since comments are not so obvious and require an extra step to access, perhaps it is better to post larger items or ones that are new subjects in blog entries rather than comments. Did that make sense?
I'm not familiar with LibraryThing. I'll have to check it out. I do not know of other similar software. Actually, I'd like to find a journaling software and be able to search my own entries by date or keyword or whatever. I checked NotateIt and one or two others briefly but haven't pursued it further for a long time. I may just do well to use my Palm Desktop since it ties into daily events, tasks and memos, and I can work on it from my PDA and then synchronize to the laptop and access e-mail that way.
There evidently were crossed signals in both directions between Dad and Pat. She has a hard time just understanding what Dad means and felt that her skills were not a good match for his difficulties. He thought he had made several overtures requesting time for counseling and she hadn't understood. He felt like she was avoiding him. I don't know how Pat views Dad, except that she knows of his sacrificial service to people.
The psychiatrist is actually what Dad has asked for, more than once, and counseling is something that seemed to help Mom. I told Sue Bostwick that Dad would have a hard time speaking directly about his inner state, and tried to give some other helpful information.
Have a good Sunday! I'm off to take Ian and his best friend can and bottle hunting, in the wake of Hot Dog Day. I won't get started about how I feel about that . . .