Island Electrical

The Island electrician just called to ask some questions, and tell me a few things, such as: There were live hot wires under the house, just laying on the ground. The same ground that is covered in water every winter. There were also dangling wires under the house, that once properly hooked up caused long […]

Let’s all declutter now!

While the title of this article may be off-putting, I totally get it: Swedish Death Cleaning. Being the recipient of items from multiple estates, as well as juggling the contents of my mother’s two homes (now that she’s in assisted living), in the last 6 years, I can relate to this article’s message. My husband […]

Chicken Kissing

Mom’s AL community held a breast cancer fundraiser this morning. While the event was in planning mode, the general manager (GM) told his staff that should they collectively raise $1000, he’d kiss a chicken. My daughter called me immediately to ask if I would provide the bird. I said I’d provide two. Chickens are very […]

Visiting my Former MIL, Day 2 (edited)

From getting up until I left, Jane was in the same ‘frame of mind’ she’d exhibited last night. She asked me what I wanted for breakfast, literally, three time in 30 seconds, and then took 7 minutes to get a piece of toast underway for her own breakfast as she continually self-distracted herself. After breakfast […]

Evening with my Former MIL

I arrived at my former mother-in-law’s, Jane’s, late this afternoon, after meandering here via a complete and relaxed stroll through the same garden I took my NY family to in June, a stop for lunch in a tiny historic town, complete with a quilt shop and some early Christmas shopping, and another quilt shop stop […]

Roomba 3 (Sewing Machine 2)

After running through many a diagnostic with a tech last week, it was determined that both Roombas were dead, for different reasons. One went down to actual robotics, and the other to battery corrosion, which cleaning to the best of my pretty darn good ability, didn’t fix. We even swapped the robot’s batteries (Dr. Frankenstein […]

Where are we on the path?

Last week I learned more about why a dementia patient confabulates, and how confabulation usually developes, and then fades. As I’ve shared before, confabulation takes place when the patient remembers only pieces of an event, and then fills in the gaps they don’t recall in order to share a complete story. This is why mom’s […]

Mom’s latest version of her medical persecution complex…

I returned two phone messages that mom left this afternoon. She wanted her brother’s contact information as his birthday is approaching. When she answered the phone, I greeted her with “Hi Mom, I’m returning your call!” She asked the expected, “Oh! What did I want?!” We discussed her brother’s birthday, and then wandered down a […]

10,000

Today’s milestone is regarding the readership of this blog. There have been 10,000 page views as of this morning! As I’ve mentioned before, this blog is about chronicling my mother’s path, and providing some serious therapy for me. I’m humbled to see readership more than double since the beginning of the year. No, we care […]

TV Guide

My daughter asked me to find out if the TV Guide of old was still available. Mom has been unable to find such a publication on outings to the grocery or drug store, and she is unable to learn how to navigate the television’s on board veiwing guide, despite several attempts at showing her how […]