well, it is time for CAROL to add her two cents worth... i just got off the phone with doug, so this may bore him. oh, well! we had recently gotten home from a relaxing weekend socializing with nudist friends that we had not seen in months. one of our "witchlets" (young person interested in wiccan religion) came along with us and got me to feeling like a mom. we stayed at the schloss estate on vassar street in an wonderful older neighborhood. we all went to the swim at the athletic club on saturday night with hot tubbing, swimming, sauna and refreshments at a nice club in downtown rochchacha. the schloss estate is run by two single males who maintain the pools, sauna and residence while morley and ann winter in their club in florida. after a night's rest there we were greeted with hot coffee and our individual orders for omelets taken. as we socialized in the congenial common area, more friends showed up. in all there were about 10 of us ranging in age from 12ish to 63. the conversations were spirited and the interchanges warm. it was like i imagine an intentional community would be like. we were served our omelets to order as interchanges ensued and children played with "buddy" which was fun to watch. after breakfast settled, someone announced that the pool was open, so the socializing moved to the pools. more hot tubbing and conversation and it was time to head home. with lotsa hugs goodbye we left recharged and me very contented.
huge thanks to douglas for taking dad to the doctors and helping as a "go between/interpreter" with communicating to the doctor and helping to get medications correctly administered. i appreciate all doug does to care for our pop! atta boy, doug. and thank you, thank you, thank you ad infinitum.
barb and i will be heading south in a couple weeks to see extended family (darrell and nancy casey especially), attend the naturist festival we love at morley shloss' club "sunsport" and maybe do some touristee things like going to see the manatees again, but mostly soaking up the warm, swimming and lazing at the pool. we don't deem to get through ny winters without a break anymore, even with the mild winter weather.
that is all i have to say for now, 'cept i love ya'all!!
so now i have blogged? gee, i do not feel any different, shouldn't i feel/be different?
Sunday, January 7, 2007
Saturday, January 6, 2007
bert and cathy?
Doug,
Have you been able to convince Bert and Cathy to join into the maelstrom? Maybe they are reading it without submitting or commenting. Or maybe they can't see it until they add it to their active slate, whatever that means. As I said early on, the thing I like about blogs over email is that you usually get to it when you're ready for it, it doesn't get lost in stacks of unrelated messages (threads is good).
After the lovely day of galleryhopping -- http://shermaniablog.blogspot.com/2007/01/words-numbers-cities.html, I got home to messages from Sonny. He's been around again lately and, well, I really don't want to talk about it very much (maybe it would help but ...) ... he had lost his job again (lying on his resume about having graduated from high school) and needed me to buy a Christmas present for his son. Well, since everything has to be a production, of course it didn't have some part so we've been back to KMart a couple times about that. Now, it's not a part that's missing, it's the little programs for the easel. The Fisher Price Spark Easel is one of those overengineered and cutesy things that make me realize the value of Kim's educational principles. I'd not be as strict (I wouldn't be as strict about anything!!) but kids are indeed better off with boxes.
Well, here it is late again and I'm sitting in the office typing. If I had a computer and fast connection at home, I'd probably be on it all of the time ... well, no, I wouldn't but I bet I'd get more blogging done as well as probably cruising down the 'net more.
Tomorrow should be interesting. I'm meeting an artist/librarian at Proteus Gowanus to talk about the cataloging he does for his art project entitled the Reanimation Library. He collects books for the illustrative content rather than the topical content. He has bunches of older manuals and whatnot, the sort that have quirky diagrams. If you want to see more: http://www.reanimationlibrary.org/
Love to you and Dad and Jeanette and Ian --
Sherman
Have you been able to convince Bert and Cathy to join into the maelstrom? Maybe they are reading it without submitting or commenting. Or maybe they can't see it until they add it to their active slate, whatever that means. As I said early on, the thing I like about blogs over email is that you usually get to it when you're ready for it, it doesn't get lost in stacks of unrelated messages (threads is good).
After the lovely day of galleryhopping -- http://shermaniablog.blogspot.com/2007/01/words-numbers-cities.html, I got home to messages from Sonny. He's been around again lately and, well, I really don't want to talk about it very much (maybe it would help but ...) ... he had lost his job again (lying on his resume about having graduated from high school) and needed me to buy a Christmas present for his son. Well, since everything has to be a production, of course it didn't have some part so we've been back to KMart a couple times about that. Now, it's not a part that's missing, it's the little programs for the easel. The Fisher Price Spark Easel is one of those overengineered and cutesy things that make me realize the value of Kim's educational principles. I'd not be as strict (I wouldn't be as strict about anything!!) but kids are indeed better off with boxes.
Well, here it is late again and I'm sitting in the office typing. If I had a computer and fast connection at home, I'd probably be on it all of the time ... well, no, I wouldn't but I bet I'd get more blogging done as well as probably cruising down the 'net more.
Tomorrow should be interesting. I'm meeting an artist/librarian at Proteus Gowanus to talk about the cataloging he does for his art project entitled the Reanimation Library. He collects books for the illustrative content rather than the topical content. He has bunches of older manuals and whatnot, the sort that have quirky diagrams. If you want to see more: http://www.reanimationlibrary.org/
Love to you and Dad and Jeanette and Ian --
Sherman
Friday, January 5, 2007
medical update on Dad (and other stuff)
We talked with Dad (and among ourselves) at Thanksgiving about the fact that Dad has what is called Congestive Heart Failure and therefore is at risk for stroke (cardiovascular accident) and heart attack (myocardial infarction). I tried to scare him a bit with the idea that his having a stroke would be debilitating and make him quite dependent (a state I'm sure he abhors), hoping to get him to take an interest in more aggressive treatment of the condition, which he had rejected a couple years ago after starting on Coumadin treatment down in SC. I have tried several times to convince him that he should re-consider.
We had missed connections with Doctor Coch this autumn, but I set up an appointment with him for earlier today, so now I have much to report:
I have gone into the interview with Dad for his last several visits, and did again today. Dad told Dr. (Bill) Coch he was having problems with orientation and when Bill asked more about it, Dad said something about not knowing how he fits into the community, rather than "I start downtown and can't figure if I'm on North Main or South Main" or something like that. Then he said he was having trouble remembering things, but it wasn't until later that we clarified that, when I gave a couple examples (like not remembering how to turn off just the TV (he keeps turning off the cable tuner, which makes the TV screen dark but the TV is still very much ON) or run the computer. I didn't get around to mentioning that he has mixed up when Jill's wedding was to be, when a dish-to-pass was happening, and so on.
Bill asked him a number of questions about himself but Dad's answers were more about the lack of "moral energy" in the world than about how he felt and how he was doing. Bill inquired about what else was bothering him and then had to go work with other patients and come back to us, during which time I tried to coax out some more personal, specific answers from Dad. As Jeanette said, later today, Dad just doesn't know how to talk about how he feels, much.
When Bill came back, I was able to help Dad convey that he sometimes feels like he should be in a time or place that he's not, or that he starts to do something but forgets what it was, and that sort of thing.
Bill asked him to remember three items and then did some other stuff, like cleaning out his ears, which were both jammed with wax. He said that was not the cause of the ringing in his ears, but that it was just tinitis, and not unusual for his age.
I entered into the conversation more by this time, and Bill asked Dad if it was ok for him to talk with me about Dad, with Dad right there; Dad said that was fine, so I told Bill I felt Dad's mental keenness has gradually declined over the last 6 years or so, among other things. Then Dad answered most of Bill's memory questions pretty well (and Bill said he had done better than he thought he might), but could only remember one of the three things Bill had asked him to.
After we had talked a bit more, Bill reported his findings: Dad's CHF is worse; specifically, he is fibrillating (muscular twitching involving individual muscle fibers acting without coordination OR very rapid irregular contractions of the muscle fibers of the heart resulting in a lack of synchronism between heartbeat and pulse) and his valve leakage is worse than the last time Coch saw him. Bill thinks Dad is depressed, and noted edema (fluid retention, swelling), especially in his right leg. He used a scalpel to remove a callous from the right side of Dad's right foot, and didn't find any moles or other dermal conditions worthy of concern, and expressed pleasure that Dad hadn't had any more cancer since his surgery. He thinks Dad should go back to Dr. Greenberg about his eyes (Dad says the eye he thinks has early cataract formation is "seeing" better than the other eye) and should call Bill if he notices shortness of breath and swelling together, especially if it's when he's lying down.
We talked more about medications and treatment and such, and Bill said he didn't think Coumadin (blood thinnner) would be very beneficial at this point, whereas he had thought so the last time we met with him. Part of this is because Dad is living alone and any accidental injury would tend to bleed uncontrollably. Speaking of such things, did anyone know Dad fell in the tub this fall? When he mentioned it at the Doctor's office today, he said it was three weeks ago, but when I asked him more about it over lunch, he said it was probably September, and that he had not told me because he didn't want to worry me (us). Yeah, right.....and I told him (again!!!) that I HATE it when he "protects" me by not telling me something (which means by the time I learn about it, it's too late to help), and that I would forgive him this time but to please NEVER do that again.
At this point, Dr. Coch recommends an ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) Inhibitor (Lisinop -- see http://www.medications4dumbbells.com/ and look for Lisinopril) and an antidepressant (Fluoxetine, otherwise known as Prozac). He also recommended reducing sodium intake and said he might prescribe a diuretic later. We set up a follow-up visit for February 19th.
After some lunch, we filled his prescriptions for the ACE Inhibitor and Prozac, and Tony is enrolling Dad in a program that reduces what he pays SIGNIFICANTLY.
Dad was already on a daily aspirin regimen, but Bill said he should be taking coated baby aspirin. When I got to the drug store, I found that baby aspirin is only 80mg, but he'd been taking 325mg aspirin. Anyway, I got him the right stuff and he set up a daily pill-taking container for himself.
Jeanette is concerned that he is falling asleep an awful lot -- sitting up, mid-conversation, etc. -- and that he might actually fall out of his chair sometime. And I am even more concerned, after he dozed off right in the middle of a sentence I was speaking to him, and then 4 or 5 more times within a half-hour, today, even though he was trying to accomplish something. I had stopped over at his house sometime a week or two ago, and he was sound asleep at 8:30pm. Not like the man I remember who was up late, writing in his diary but still up well before me in the morning.
Anyway, I wanted to let you all know about this stuff.
We had missed connections with Doctor Coch this autumn, but I set up an appointment with him for earlier today, so now I have much to report:
I have gone into the interview with Dad for his last several visits, and did again today. Dad told Dr. (Bill) Coch he was having problems with orientation and when Bill asked more about it, Dad said something about not knowing how he fits into the community, rather than "I start downtown and can't figure if I'm on North Main or South Main" or something like that. Then he said he was having trouble remembering things, but it wasn't until later that we clarified that, when I gave a couple examples (like not remembering how to turn off just the TV (he keeps turning off the cable tuner, which makes the TV screen dark but the TV is still very much ON) or run the computer. I didn't get around to mentioning that he has mixed up when Jill's wedding was to be, when a dish-to-pass was happening, and so on.
Bill asked him a number of questions about himself but Dad's answers were more about the lack of "moral energy" in the world than about how he felt and how he was doing. Bill inquired about what else was bothering him and then had to go work with other patients and come back to us, during which time I tried to coax out some more personal, specific answers from Dad. As Jeanette said, later today, Dad just doesn't know how to talk about how he feels, much.
When Bill came back, I was able to help Dad convey that he sometimes feels like he should be in a time or place that he's not, or that he starts to do something but forgets what it was, and that sort of thing.
Bill asked him to remember three items and then did some other stuff, like cleaning out his ears, which were both jammed with wax. He said that was not the cause of the ringing in his ears, but that it was just tinitis, and not unusual for his age.
I entered into the conversation more by this time, and Bill asked Dad if it was ok for him to talk with me about Dad, with Dad right there; Dad said that was fine, so I told Bill I felt Dad's mental keenness has gradually declined over the last 6 years or so, among other things. Then Dad answered most of Bill's memory questions pretty well (and Bill said he had done better than he thought he might), but could only remember one of the three things Bill had asked him to.
After we had talked a bit more, Bill reported his findings: Dad's CHF is worse; specifically, he is fibrillating (muscular twitching involving individual muscle fibers acting without coordination OR very rapid irregular contractions of the muscle fibers of the heart resulting in a lack of synchronism between heartbeat and pulse) and his valve leakage is worse than the last time Coch saw him. Bill thinks Dad is depressed, and noted edema (fluid retention, swelling), especially in his right leg. He used a scalpel to remove a callous from the right side of Dad's right foot, and didn't find any moles or other dermal conditions worthy of concern, and expressed pleasure that Dad hadn't had any more cancer since his surgery. He thinks Dad should go back to Dr. Greenberg about his eyes (Dad says the eye he thinks has early cataract formation is "seeing" better than the other eye) and should call Bill if he notices shortness of breath and swelling together, especially if it's when he's lying down.
We talked more about medications and treatment and such, and Bill said he didn't think Coumadin (blood thinnner) would be very beneficial at this point, whereas he had thought so the last time we met with him. Part of this is because Dad is living alone and any accidental injury would tend to bleed uncontrollably. Speaking of such things, did anyone know Dad fell in the tub this fall? When he mentioned it at the Doctor's office today, he said it was three weeks ago, but when I asked him more about it over lunch, he said it was probably September, and that he had not told me because he didn't want to worry me (us). Yeah, right.....and I told him (again!!!) that I HATE it when he "protects" me by not telling me something (which means by the time I learn about it, it's too late to help), and that I would forgive him this time but to please NEVER do that again.
At this point, Dr. Coch recommends an ACE (angiotensin converting enzyme) Inhibitor (Lisinop -- see http://www.medications4dumbbells.com/ and look for Lisinopril) and an antidepressant (Fluoxetine, otherwise known as Prozac). He also recommended reducing sodium intake and said he might prescribe a diuretic later. We set up a follow-up visit for February 19th.
After some lunch, we filled his prescriptions for the ACE Inhibitor and Prozac, and Tony is enrolling Dad in a program that reduces what he pays SIGNIFICANTLY.
Dad was already on a daily aspirin regimen, but Bill said he should be taking coated baby aspirin. When I got to the drug store, I found that baby aspirin is only 80mg, but he'd been taking 325mg aspirin. Anyway, I got him the right stuff and he set up a daily pill-taking container for himself.
Jeanette is concerned that he is falling asleep an awful lot -- sitting up, mid-conversation, etc. -- and that he might actually fall out of his chair sometime. And I am even more concerned, after he dozed off right in the middle of a sentence I was speaking to him, and then 4 or 5 more times within a half-hour, today, even though he was trying to accomplish something. I had stopped over at his house sometime a week or two ago, and he was sound asleep at 8:30pm. Not like the man I remember who was up late, writing in his diary but still up well before me in the morning.
Anyway, I wanted to let you all know about this stuff.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
torment? foment?
I didn't sleep too well last night and, one of the times I woke up, Mom was in the dream (not tormented or tormenting). She was in a red coat and coming into a stream of traffic where I caught up to her and joined her. As I tossed, I was thinking about Doug's comments about feeling inadequate. I guess that's something we've all felt, that is, all 7 of us in the Dave Clarke Seven. We know how much better we could be, we know how much more we could do. At the same time, we have all accomplished something in life, and are all-around rather good people. But we still feel inadequate somehow. It's that confidence walking into a room that, I think, affected how Mom felt about herself and how she dealt with some others. And, here, it's particular relationships I'm thinking of. I've been in the office too long already and must leave before the whatevers come to take me away, ha ha.
Saturday, December 30, 2006
bunches of stuff and reactions
Boy, lots of letters in the maelstrom, and a bunch of reactions. I enjoyed reading your letter, Doug. I have finally posted my annual letter (by the circuitous route from my old Mac using Claris Works at home to the web via the magic of a special request for a zip drive from the guy in Client Services to TextEdit on the fancy iMacs in the lab to Word for Mac to Geocities to the ... ta da ... net) at http://artcataloging.net/miscellany/2006ltr.html -- I have gotten some of the copies mailed but it wasn't on da web until a couple hours ago.
My short trip to Boston earlier this week was very nice. Bill and I share each other's space enough that we're beyond pretense or tense. The new building of the ICA is splendid: much smaller than it looks in the pictures and the art installation was very nice. Steve and Barbara and Tom joined us for that part of the weekend, and then Bill's sister Martha joined us at supper. And we got to go out to our favorite bar -- Paradise. With a name like that, how could it be anything but?
Christmas itself was pretty quiet and nice. Christie had me and Janet and Virginia over for supper. She had to work on Tuesday so we weren't there too late. Janet regifted me with a wonderful desk toy -- a lump of coal (styrofoam, squishy, very black and shiny, she works as an archivist at the NY Stock Exchange and the lump says Consol Energy on the bottom, I hope they're not too horrible environmentally and I know I could google them and find out).
I didn't know that Bert had declared one day TV-less. I guess I don't expect it, nor desire it. And not having watched much, even the ads aren't especially amusing even as a diversion. That is not to say that I can't sit and stare at solitaire on the computer for way tooooo long.
Barb, I don't remember any whispering. Thanksgiving seemed to be nicely free of that, or maybe I don't notice anymore?!?!?
I can't remember what else I was going to react to. Sigh. This is not a senior moment!
Love,
Sherman
My short trip to Boston earlier this week was very nice. Bill and I share each other's space enough that we're beyond pretense or tense. The new building of the ICA is splendid: much smaller than it looks in the pictures and the art installation was very nice. Steve and Barbara and Tom joined us for that part of the weekend, and then Bill's sister Martha joined us at supper. And we got to go out to our favorite bar -- Paradise. With a name like that, how could it be anything but?
Christmas itself was pretty quiet and nice. Christie had me and Janet and Virginia over for supper. She had to work on Tuesday so we weren't there too late. Janet regifted me with a wonderful desk toy -- a lump of coal (styrofoam, squishy, very black and shiny, she works as an archivist at the NY Stock Exchange and the lump says Consol Energy on the bottom, I hope they're not too horrible environmentally and I know I could google them and find out).
I didn't know that Bert had declared one day TV-less. I guess I don't expect it, nor desire it. And not having watched much, even the ads aren't especially amusing even as a diversion. That is not to say that I can't sit and stare at solitaire on the computer for way tooooo long.
Barb, I don't remember any whispering. Thanksgiving seemed to be nicely free of that, or maybe I don't notice anymore?!?!?
I can't remember what else I was going to react to. Sigh. This is not a senior moment!
Love,
Sherman
Saturday, December 23, 2006
An almost annual letter from Doug, Jeanette and Ian
What can I say about 2006? Hmmmmmm, I guess I feel a bit like how the pResident (of the White House) responded to the Iraq Study Group report, which is to say that 2006 was “interesting”.
In 2005 I had been hired full-time in the Information Technology Services department at Alfred University after a few years as part-time Technical Specialist for Environmental Studies, AND I taught Alfred State College’s only Environmental Science class (over my lunch hour, three days a week) during the 2005 fall semester. Near the end of the semester, I was told that someone with seniority wanted to teach the class, so I would only be working full-time on one side of the valley as 2006 began. Three weeks after 2006 began, I had no job at all. The new head of ITS had decided to change things. A lot.
So I spent the first half of 2006 looking very diligently for another job (as far away as Elmira and Salamanca), and although I was told I interviewed well on several occasions, by June I was still unemployed. In retrospect I think I should have just resigned myself to unemployment (pun intended) and done more work on our house, sooner. Ah, if only we had “do-overs” in adult life!
Anyway, over the summer we did get two bedrooms (after dividing our “master bedroom” in half) finished so that Ian has his own finished space, and we are staying in what will be the “spare” bedroom until we convert two unfinished rooms downstairs, into our “new master suite”. Since I stopped trying so hard to find employment and started spending my time more like a house-husband, things are going better and I think we’re all happier. I’m exploring other prospects, including a home-based business, a used book store in “beautiful downtown Alfred”, and another part-time position at Alfred University. But I’m making bread and cooking meals, sorting and disposing of things, working on our house, and spending time with Jeanette and Ian that two jobs and too many volunteer activities used to keep me from spending. Good things come in surprise packages.
Toward the end of the summer, Jeanette was called in to a special meeting at her school. She and a couple other teachers were told that enrollments had changed so much that they were moving to new positions. Jeanette went from teaching 5th grade Special Ed. to 10th grade Resource Room, so she’s been re-learning algebra and other subjects, and has moved to the high school building of the newly-merged Canisteo-Greenwood Central School. Change seems to be the theme of our year by this point.
Ian, meanwhile, finished third grade in great shape, played soccer, went to Camp Gorton and advanced to Webelos I, and did some camping with his parents. We spent most of a week in our RV at a conference where Doug gave two workshops (one on biodiversity and another on environmental history), we celebrated Jeanette’s birthday, and Ian got to play laser tag and go on a water slide (his Dad went, too).
Having been “camped out” at Dad’s place in the village of Alfred since Dad’s cancer surgery and following Jeanette’s hip replacement, we finally moved back into our house after the school year ended. In August, Doug’s Dad’s second wife, Ethel moved into assisted living so I went to South Carolina and moved Dad back into his house in Alfred. Then Dad spent over a month with big sister Roberta and we went to get him when Doug’s brother and sisters gathered at Bert’s for Thanksgiving.
Ian has told us he loves being back at our house where he can run around outside all day long, and seems to think it’s ok to only get a few channels with the TV antenna. He does use his PlayStation and GameBoy for entertainment when other amusements are unavailable due to weather or the like. Both parents enjoy reading such things as Tom Sawyer and Sherlock Holmes to him at bedtime, and his Mom is diligent in working with him on his studies, evident at report card time. He has a pet crayfish named Bowser, thanks to a science project, and is looking forward to taking in Aunt Carol’s cat, Midnight, after the holidays. I think he’s a natural drummer but so far he is only singing in chorus. He also plays soccer and wrestles, having played tee-ball for a couple years.
All three of us continue to make new friends, whether in the fire/ambulance company, church, school or community, and we always enjoy renewing old friendships. We’re glad to have Dad back in our midst and, aside from helping him with practical things, we’re just trying to spend as much time with him as we can. We’re off to Oklahoma to see Jeanette’s family at Christmas-time.
We hope your 2006 has been a bit less “interesting” than ours has, and that next year will be even better. We hope that a more progressive approach in our government will lead to a better future, and we will continue to try to make a difference in all the things we do. We hope you have an awesome 2007!
Doug, Jeanette and Ian
In 2005 I had been hired full-time in the Information Technology Services department at Alfred University after a few years as part-time Technical Specialist for Environmental Studies, AND I taught Alfred State College’s only Environmental Science class (over my lunch hour, three days a week) during the 2005 fall semester. Near the end of the semester, I was told that someone with seniority wanted to teach the class, so I would only be working full-time on one side of the valley as 2006 began. Three weeks after 2006 began, I had no job at all. The new head of ITS had decided to change things. A lot.
So I spent the first half of 2006 looking very diligently for another job (as far away as Elmira and Salamanca), and although I was told I interviewed well on several occasions, by June I was still unemployed. In retrospect I think I should have just resigned myself to unemployment (pun intended) and done more work on our house, sooner. Ah, if only we had “do-overs” in adult life!
Anyway, over the summer we did get two bedrooms (after dividing our “master bedroom” in half) finished so that Ian has his own finished space, and we are staying in what will be the “spare” bedroom until we convert two unfinished rooms downstairs, into our “new master suite”. Since I stopped trying so hard to find employment and started spending my time more like a house-husband, things are going better and I think we’re all happier. I’m exploring other prospects, including a home-based business, a used book store in “beautiful downtown Alfred”, and another part-time position at Alfred University. But I’m making bread and cooking meals, sorting and disposing of things, working on our house, and spending time with Jeanette and Ian that two jobs and too many volunteer activities used to keep me from spending. Good things come in surprise packages.
Toward the end of the summer, Jeanette was called in to a special meeting at her school. She and a couple other teachers were told that enrollments had changed so much that they were moving to new positions. Jeanette went from teaching 5th grade Special Ed. to 10th grade Resource Room, so she’s been re-learning algebra and other subjects, and has moved to the high school building of the newly-merged Canisteo-Greenwood Central School. Change seems to be the theme of our year by this point.
Ian, meanwhile, finished third grade in great shape, played soccer, went to Camp Gorton and advanced to Webelos I, and did some camping with his parents. We spent most of a week in our RV at a conference where Doug gave two workshops (one on biodiversity and another on environmental history), we celebrated Jeanette’s birthday, and Ian got to play laser tag and go on a water slide (his Dad went, too).
Having been “camped out” at Dad’s place in the village of Alfred since Dad’s cancer surgery and following Jeanette’s hip replacement, we finally moved back into our house after the school year ended. In August, Doug’s Dad’s second wife, Ethel moved into assisted living so I went to South Carolina and moved Dad back into his house in Alfred. Then Dad spent over a month with big sister Roberta and we went to get him when Doug’s brother and sisters gathered at Bert’s for Thanksgiving.
Ian has told us he loves being back at our house where he can run around outside all day long, and seems to think it’s ok to only get a few channels with the TV antenna. He does use his PlayStation and GameBoy for entertainment when other amusements are unavailable due to weather or the like. Both parents enjoy reading such things as Tom Sawyer and Sherlock Holmes to him at bedtime, and his Mom is diligent in working with him on his studies, evident at report card time. He has a pet crayfish named Bowser, thanks to a science project, and is looking forward to taking in Aunt Carol’s cat, Midnight, after the holidays. I think he’s a natural drummer but so far he is only singing in chorus. He also plays soccer and wrestles, having played tee-ball for a couple years.
All three of us continue to make new friends, whether in the fire/ambulance company, church, school or community, and we always enjoy renewing old friendships. We’re glad to have Dad back in our midst and, aside from helping him with practical things, we’re just trying to spend as much time with him as we can. We’re off to Oklahoma to see Jeanette’s family at Christmas-time.
We hope your 2006 has been a bit less “interesting” than ours has, and that next year will be even better. We hope that a more progressive approach in our government will lead to a better future, and we will continue to try to make a difference in all the things we do. We hope you have an awesome 2007!
Doug, Jeanette and Ian
Thursday, December 21, 2006
update on Dad
I was thinking I had kind of a breakthrough with Dad a few days ago, when I asked if he knew how much he started sentences and left out significant elements and left them unfinished, then started other sentences and left them incomplete. He seemed to get it (although I've tried to explain this many times before) and said that he often pauses to choose the best word to fill the next blank, but I pointed out that he often doesn't get around to choosing before he starts another sentence, or at least doesn't say it out loud.
He has done things like pick up our mail, several months old, read it, and then ask us if we've seen it. He mixed up the weeks a while back and ordered pizzas for an event at the Parish House that wasn't happening until the next weekend. He keeps doing things so he can't use the TV the next time he comes to it, even though I wrote out very specific instructions. When I checked the situation I found he had -- again -- turned off the cable channel box, leaving the TV screen blank but the set very much ON. So I reiterated to him to just turn the TV off and on, and use the remote to change channels. We'll see if the idea sticks this time.
I told him I thought some of the difficulty is that he has few landmarks in his vista: if we don't come around, almost no-one comes to see him; he isn't driving, and had said he didn't want a car but is reconsidering the idea that he'd like to be able to get to Hornell or Dollar General now and then, and is worried about imposing on us, and so on. I guess the days must look pretty much the same to him, so I'm trying to check on him more often, and Jeanette is thinking about getting him a calendar and suggesting he put an x on each day as it passes.....
What I think is really happening is that he's moving so quickly from one matter to the next, in his mind, that he doesn't pay attention to what's right in front of him. I know I suffer from this tendency at times. I tire of him going on and on, speculating about something (like last night when we were in the car and couldn't check the reality of what he was talking about, but he kept going on and on with different possible scenarios) that can't be checked at the moment. Sometimes he'll talk at length about something which is of little or no importance to anyone (but he's curious anyway), when I'm trying to bring up something of import.
Sometimes he'll go on and on after I've asked him to be quiet because something came to my mind and I need to retrieve it and write it down, but he'll keep on talking and there goes my thought out the window. I tried again to explain how troublesome and aggravating that is, again yesterday and maybe he got it this time.
I had made a draft of this post a while back, but this week (Jan. 1, 2007) he thought his doctor's appointment was on Thursday instead of Friday. When I asked him if he hadn't put that on his calendar, he said he had changed calendars and not gotten it transferred to the new one.
Anyway, we will try to help him keep things straight, and I will try to keep myself straight, too.
He has done things like pick up our mail, several months old, read it, and then ask us if we've seen it. He mixed up the weeks a while back and ordered pizzas for an event at the Parish House that wasn't happening until the next weekend. He keeps doing things so he can't use the TV the next time he comes to it, even though I wrote out very specific instructions. When I checked the situation I found he had -- again -- turned off the cable channel box, leaving the TV screen blank but the set very much ON. So I reiterated to him to just turn the TV off and on, and use the remote to change channels. We'll see if the idea sticks this time.
I told him I thought some of the difficulty is that he has few landmarks in his vista: if we don't come around, almost no-one comes to see him; he isn't driving, and had said he didn't want a car but is reconsidering the idea that he'd like to be able to get to Hornell or Dollar General now and then, and is worried about imposing on us, and so on. I guess the days must look pretty much the same to him, so I'm trying to check on him more often, and Jeanette is thinking about getting him a calendar and suggesting he put an x on each day as it passes.....
What I think is really happening is that he's moving so quickly from one matter to the next, in his mind, that he doesn't pay attention to what's right in front of him. I know I suffer from this tendency at times. I tire of him going on and on, speculating about something (like last night when we were in the car and couldn't check the reality of what he was talking about, but he kept going on and on with different possible scenarios) that can't be checked at the moment. Sometimes he'll talk at length about something which is of little or no importance to anyone (but he's curious anyway), when I'm trying to bring up something of import.
Sometimes he'll go on and on after I've asked him to be quiet because something came to my mind and I need to retrieve it and write it down, but he'll keep on talking and there goes my thought out the window. I tried again to explain how troublesome and aggravating that is, again yesterday and maybe he got it this time.
I had made a draft of this post a while back, but this week (Jan. 1, 2007) he thought his doctor's appointment was on Thursday instead of Friday. When I asked him if he hadn't put that on his calendar, he said he had changed calendars and not gotten it transferred to the new one.
Anyway, we will try to help him keep things straight, and I will try to keep myself straight, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)