Our Family Geneology according to Bob

My second oldest sister "K" married her brother "C".
The third older sister "B" is married and lives in Georgia, she has twin boys (born several years apart).
My brother "C" that he thinks married the second oldest sister "K" he also married his twin brother "M's" wife "J". The 2 twin brothers are not twins.
My brother "C's" wife "A" is responsible for all the things he ever lost or cannot find.
He also has an oldest daughter (that he raised to the age of 8) that he has never met.

No thanksgiving this Sunday

I took a break from Bob this week, since we went to my sisters house for Christmas, of course Bob was disappointed he did not have any extra food to not eat. Our plan is to stop the Sunday thanksgiving meals since it takes up half my day.

We did attach a piece of plexiglass to his bathtub with special caulking (that can be easily removed) so he can take a bath after 2 months. ಠ_ಠ

Bob the Buffoon

Bob would be mortified if he knew how he is now.

and Bob said "Let there be light!"

And there was light, but the light was just a bit dimmer than the last time there was light, and Bob said "that it was good.... enough".

Bob has awakened from his latest episode with vascular dementia. He was way more lucid than he has been for the last several weeks. I could almost have a normal conversation with him... but not quite. He now understands things he did not just a few days ago and even remembers a few things but the elevator can't get up to the penthouse.

He was telling me that I need to respect him, and by respect he means I should just agree with anything he wants and do what he wants no matter how illogical it is. I told him I would respect him if he would cooperate with us. he said "you treat me like a 3 year old" I told him "you act like a 3 year old". he did not like that.

We went to the Alzheimers doctor today and he was in quite a good mood. While we were there he saw the records the doctor had and wanted to see them. While he pretended he knew what he was looking at, and went through them the doctor and I talked about him, he was oblivious to all of it.

He thinks that I am paying for his lunch program and I told him several times that he is, his response is that I am going to "run him out of money." When I mentioned this to the doctor she said with a wink "it's amazing what his insurance will pay for now a days." Which means I should lie to him. So that is what I will tell him the next time he asks.

The Doctor reaffirmed what I already knew, that besides Alzheimers, he also has vascular dementia, and these episodes will continue until he dies.

The doctor wrote a prescription saying that he needs to be in assisted living, and she will also draw up the paper work stating that he is not capable of making informed decisions. This will activate my powers of attorney for him permanently.

When he has to go in to memory care or assisted living and they take all his money he will have a fit, the doctor said that if we tell her in advance then she can prescribe meds to make this less of a problem.

Can't sleep clown will eat me

It's getting harder and harder to deal with Bob.

My wife picked him up today, after taking him to the cafeteria at his apartment complex. He got French toast, scrambled eggs and hash browns. He wolfed it all down, then a couple of hours later had 2 hamburgers from Jack in the box. She took him to her mother's house. he was there for about 1.5 hours before he became bored.

We refilled his pill dispenser and after thanksgiving dinner took him home, we forgot his "extra" food, he made a point to tell us about it.

During dinner he told me he never sleeps. I said of course you do, there followed a slew of no I don't, yes you do's. I told him if he did not sleep for longer than 36 hours he would hallucinate and sleep no matter what. I ended up just saying ok a lot.

I am really tired of this BS.

Boner Pills

Took Bob to a Doctors appointment, when we sat down in the waiting room he wanted to know what I knew about viagra. JEBUS H CHRIST! WHY?

When he was in the exam room, I asked the doctor if he had ever told Bob to eat lots of Bananas (he had not). I also asked if he had ever told Bob that Chocolate Milk is good for him (he had not).

Then Bob asked the doctor if he could get viagra. The doctor asked if it was for him to be intimate with someone, or just for himself. Bob could not answer.

The doctor told him that if he took viagra in his condition with his medication it would probably kill him.

Later when I dropped him off at his apartment, Bob said in a very dejected tone "well I guess I will just have a limp penis forever...."

Rescue Mission

Visited Bob and under the pretext of "borrowing" his camera and volt meter we are preventing him from throwing these things away when he tries to use them and they "don't work".

It's all about Bob!

The only thing that exist in the universe of Bob... is Bob!

The rest of us are just puppets or figments of his demented imagination. Nothing matters to Bob but Bob and what Bob is interested in. All roads lead to Bob. Bob is all knowing and all seeing (except when he isn't). If Bob does not understand it, then it does not exist. If Bob thinks it is broken nothing can fix it. If Bob upsets someone Bob ignores their emotions since they do not make any sense to Bob. The universe exists only in so far as what Bob sees, (like a 3d video game running on an old PC) the universe is only displaying what Bob is looking at. Bob is an android who's internal storage is becoming corrupt. Bob's programming does not allow for the admission of error. The Bob unit does not have any error checking protocols. The Bob unit is infallible, even when the Bob unit admits error the Bob unit intended to err. When the Bob unit has been wronged it is ok for the Bob unit to wish a painful punishment and even death upon those that transgressed the Bob unit. What the Bob unit forgets disappears from the universe. When the Bob unit loses something in its apartment then that thing was stolen/misplaced/lost by an entity other than the Bob unit. If you show the Bob unit that the item is in the Bob unit's apartment the Bob units "brain" will short circuit and the Bob unit will act as if the item was there all along and the Bob unit knew it.

When the Bob unit came over to this puppets house for the food that is the right of the Bob unit to consume, the Bob unit brought a large pile of books and stuff that the Bob unit wanted to show to this puppet. the Bob unit was upset that this puppet had seen the stuff before, the Bob unit cannot accept this since the Bob unit wants to talk about the Bob units obsessions and this puppet must be in error so the Bob unit continued to try and show this puppet the obsessions.

The Bob unit made his thoughts known about the puppet that gave the Bob unit the driving test and the Bob unit wants the driving test puppet to be tortured and killed. The driving test puppet made a mistake in taking the Bob units license away as the Bob unit is an infallible driver.

When we took the Bob unit home this puppet showed the Bob unit how to prepare the meals that the Bob unit got because  the Bob unit stayed in the hospital. This puppet does not think that the Bob unit will eat the meals as the Bob unit will probably not be able to follow the inferior programming of the microwave.

The Bob unit did not eat lunch at the cafeteria because the Bob unit thinks that the lunches are not substantial enough, even though this puppet explained again to the Bob unit the they are.

This puppet has started buying the items used to nourish the Bob unit from the Bob units bank account since the Bob unit has been throwing the inferior food away.

This Puppets wife asked for the movie back that she loaned the Bob unit, the Bob unit notified her that the Bob unit threw the movie away because it did not work in the Bob units computer, even though this puppet showed the Bob unit that it worked last week. The Bob units decision on this is final as the Bob unit knows what works and what doesn't. I am sure that the Bob unit will throw many of its dvd's away as well since they will also "not work".

This puppet is tired of the Bob units shit and cannot wait till the Bob unit is in memory care and the Bob unit can be someone else's problem.

The birds and the bees

Yesterday Bob called me and said he needed chocolate milk... "Ok I will get it for you tomorrow".

Today around 1pm he called me and was upset that I had not brought him the chocolate milk ಠ_ಠ

I told him I would get it but not till after work, he said he went down stairs because he thought my wife had bought some and left it down there... somewhere ಠ_ಠ

I asked him how much milk he had, and he said "a gallon" ಠ_ಠ I said a gallon would last him several days. he said "this isn't going to work!" ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ಠ_ಠ ANYWAYS!

So after work I went to the grocery store and bought him 2 10 packs of hamburger patties, 1 loaf of bread, a package of thinly sliced ham, 2 bunches of bananas, 8 puddings, 2 gallons of chocolate milk, 1 package of soft cookies, and 1 1/2 "gallon" of "death by chocolate" ice cream.

I had finished checking his bandage and made sure he did not have an infection on his arm.

He looked at me and said "I need to ask you a question"...

"OK" I said... "It's a very personal question" he said...

Yes.....

"It's a very, VERY personal question" he said again.

"Get to the point Bob" I said.

"Ok" he said... Girls have a vagina right?

"Uhm... Yes" I said.

"and Boys have a penis right" he said

"That is correct" I said

The next thing he said just blew my mind...

"well then were does it go when you put it in her?"

"Bob........" I said.

"I can't explain that, you had several kids and were married once, and had a couple of girlfriend."

"If you don't remember then I can't help you"

"That doesn't make any sense..." he said

I tried to change the subject by testing his pupil response because he doesn't like bright lights, his pupils don't change size. I talked about the meal program at his complex and explained it to him, he still wanted to know. 

I tried to leave but he pulled out a stack of papers about 3/4 of an inch thick and began to tell me all about the stuff that was in it. I let him get about half way through it before doing the best I could to leave. He just kept telling me about the stuff. I finally had to be slightly rude to leave.

Something is very wrong with Bob

He called me today and told me that he was almost out of food. I really get tired of writing about this so we'll just skip to: he is not out of food. He just cannot plan or understand that the food he has is enough to last him over a week.

He told me that the extra beef that I have been sending home with him he has been throwing away. I do not know for how long. He won't eat it because it is not cooked all the way and does not understand that reheated meat that is pink will cook to brown.

He has forgotten how to cook almost everything he used to eat. His diet consists of hamburger patties with gravy on them, boiled frozen vegetables, the occasional pork chop, microwaved potatoes, bananas and chocolate milk.

He wanted me to tell him how to make mashed potatoes and gravy (something he used to know how to make).

We went there to change his bandage, and see how much food he has. he is very confused and nothing makes sense to him. If he does not remember it then it did not happen and you cannot convince him otherwise. He repeats stories and goes off on tangents and cannot focus on anything. I could not completely remove the bandage because the scab had soaked in to it and hardened. So I removed part of the gauze and soaked the scabby bandage with alcohol and covered that with a new piece of gauze and a new wrap.

After we left he called me later and wanted me to tell him how to access his bank account. It is pointless for me to explain it over the phone to him in his present state as the process is too complicated for him. Not 10 minutes later he called and said that I had not told him how to access his account. I had to tell him all over that I cannot tell him over the phone.

Tomorrow we are going to see about signing him up for some kind of meal programs, either at the apartment or through meals on wheels.

Bob is a vampire!

I'm convinced of this because he constantly complains that he is super sensitive to light. Everywhere we go if the sun or any bright light hits him in the face he reacts like he's going to melt. Similar to this:


Today we went over to check on his arm where the cancer was and it was bleeding all over the place, so I cleaned it with alcohol and put a new bandage on it.

Skin cancer has Bob removed

I called Bob today at 2:00pm to remind him I was picking him up for his appointment. He of course did not remember. When I picked him up at 2:20pm he was still wearing the clothes from almost 2 weeks ago.

While I was driving to the Doctor he asked me about 3 times where we were going and why. He also told me how The lunches at his complex are not substantial. so now he's not happy about that.

At the doctors they numbed the growth on his arm and the doctor scraped it off, and cauterized it. he did this 3 times and it took about 20 minutes.

Earlier he had told me that when he was in St. Lukes that they had him shave with a norelco shaver and he thought it was the greatest thing, so we went to walgreens to get him a shaver and some other stuff.

Then we went to the grocery store again because he thought that he did not have enough food to make it through the week. I tried to interest him in other stuff than he normally buys but he either was not interested or the instructions to fix it were too complicated. By complicated I mean that they involved more than 2 steps.

I took him home and helped put away his groceries and plugged in the shaver he probably won't be able to figure out how to use.

Shocked and Disgusted

Bob came over for thanksgiving again, he told the stories about me crawling on all fours and how the doctor said I was too pretty to be a boy (when I was a baby) about 4 times. He said that he went to the cafeteria and had a light lunch of fruit. Someone gave him 2 train magazines. I almost passed out from shock!

After dinner we retired to the living room for a rollicking fun time of "trim the old mans toe nails!" I tried using a pair of wire cutters that can handle a 16 penny nail and I could not cut them because I could not get a hold of the toenails and because it hurt him too much. We trimmed what we could and my wife got a toenail in the face.

The stench of his ancient mummy feet was horrific!

Running errands

Picked Bob up today, he was dressed and his shirt was buttoned and tucked in for the first time in almost a month.

We went to the bank and he cashed a bunch of checks.

Then to a third party DMV to transfer the title of his truck to me.

Then to the grocery store, where he went shopping at HYPOspeed, well he did, I went and did my thing at NORMAL speed and then found him.

As usual he could not find his precious chocolate milk. I asked a worker there and they went back to look and thankfully they had some in the back. All is right with the world!

I took him back to his apartment.

Several times (while we were out) he asked me if he would ever be able to drive again. I told him I did not know. He also brought up getting his license from Glendale, I told him that Glendale does not issue licenses the State of Arizona does that.

I told him to go downstairs and ask the other people who live there how they get around without a car.

A new lease on life...(for now)

Yesterday when I was talking to Bob I told him several times to get up, get dressed, and get his butt down to the lobby. I told him to talk to people and find out what there is to do and whatever else he could.

Well it appears that he did, he told my wife that because of that he has a "new lease on life"... except the people he talked to told him he was given a raw deal and that he should go to the city of glendale and get his drivers license there.

sigh™

So at some point I will have to burst his bubble. The only way he could get his license back (since it was taken away for medical reasons) is to have a doctor sign off on him being safe to drive, THEN he would still have to take another test which would cost another $425.

He also seems to be smitten with my wife lately. ಠ_ಠ

I got his pill dispenser last night, programmed it and loaded it with pills. I will be taking it to him probably tonight.

Not even 1 day later

I called him this morning to make sure he had eaten dinner, and was going to have breakfast and take his pills.

He wasn't even back at his apartment 1 day and he was complaining that he was trapped and being held prisoner because he could not drive.

I spent about 30 minutes on the phone with him and told him repeatedly to get dressed, go down to the lobby and talk to people, ask them what there is to do and so on.

He made every excuse he could, but it appears he actually went down there. Whether he did anything else besides imitate Eeyore I do not know.

My wife is taking him to dinner tonight, I am not going as I cannot take anymore of illogical, forgetful old people today.

I spoke with the social worker at his apartment complex and she suggested that other than going in to memory care, that he would be better off in a group home. I did not tell her that, that was not something he would go along with.

Release date

Bob will be discharged on 12-1-2015 at about 5pm. I had a very disjointed conversation with the psychiatrist at the facility, it was like I was bothering or confusing her, or who knows what.

We did not have any discussion with the doctor there and so I have no idea what the point of this was or what they recommend or anything.

The excuse was that the doctors wife had a baby and it was hectic or some junk.

In to storage (for now)

Today I went to his apartment and picked up his truck, added some stabil to the gas tank (the tank was almost full). Drove it to get it warmed up and verify that the temperature gauge was not showing anything. I noted that when the truck starts the gauge runs through a test and works, so it appears the sensor is bad.

I took it to my brothers house and checked the sensor and I noted that there was water that appeared to be leaking from the outlet to the radiator from the engine (not a big leak) so I will have to get a new sensor and gasket for the thermostat.



The truck just fit on the side yard, and I put aluminum foil in the drivers side window to keep the sun from destroying the interior, we will be covering the south tires, and I will need to pick up a battery maintainer.

Then I need to see what kind of a deal I can get on insurance after I transfer the title. In the meantime it will be serving as a cat highway to access the roof. Toothless barely waited 10 minutes to get up on top of it.

No Thanksgiving for Bob this year

The Doctor recommended he stay a couple more days.

It's official

He got his letters from the DMV stating his license has been revoked, he signed them and we will send them in.

We encouraged him to get a shower and a shave.

Of course today he was in a relatively good mood.

Tomorrow we will call and see if he can be released for thanksgiving.

and again!

He called me again, demanding to be brought home, I told him he couldn't until I spoke with a doctor.

He was not happy, he said "this was the worst predicament he has ever been in", I told him "he brought it on himself", he said "How" I said by trying to kill yourself. his reponse "oh for godsakes!" and hung up.

I called st. lukes and talked to a nurse who was a little on the condescending side. She said he will be seeing his primary doctor tomorrow and then there will be a meeting with family to discuss what will be done.

Damn it!

He called me a little bit ago and demanded to be taken home because the food stinks and he can take care of himself.

I told him I cannot get him now as I am at work. I called the nurses station and asked to speak to his doctor. They will have his doctor call me.

Intervention

Saturday we went over to move the stuff under the train layout, My brother and I showed up, knocked on the door, and Bob answered bright red faced, hair disheveled, and furious. He just yells "WE CAN'T DO IT TODAY!". "why?" said I. "BECAUSE IT'S SUNDAY!" he said, (the storage place is closed on Sundays).

I said "today is Saturday". "WHAT!" he said. "Today is Saturday" I said. "NO IT'S NOT, IT'S SUNDAY", blah blah blah. anyways.

So we packed up the stuff under his train layout, it was mostly boxes of trains, and misc stuff.

All through the time we were packing the stuff up he would get mad and grab his hair and get very mad. My brother would laugh. I did not know why till later when he said it reminded him of our mom as she did the same things in the last couple of years she was alive. He said "he just wanted to hug Bob".

We took the stuff down to storage and went to my house.

When my wife came home she said she was worried about him because Bob said that sometime in the last couple of days he had tried to stab himself in the stomach with a large butcher knife but that the knife just felt like it was pushing against rubber and he gave up.

The problems with this is that if he had done that it should have hurt and cut him, so I do not know if he just dreamed it or really tried to do it.

He had also taken all his meds but he may have taken them all on one day (we are not sure). If he had taken way to much of his meds he might have been hallucinating.

My wife called the suicide prevention hot line and some people came out to talk to him. After about 30 or so minutes they called a local hospital and we took him to St. Lukes generation. I will not go in to details but we were there for 6 hours and did not get out till about 11:00pm.

Today we took him some clothes. He may be there for a week or more.

Skin Cancer?

Took Bob to a dermatologist today. He has some weird patches on his arms and a lump on his wrist. The Doctor burned the weird patches with Liquid Nitrogen, and took a biopsy of the lump, although he believes it is skin cancer. The Biopsy is just to confirm. He also recommend a cream for Bob's scaly skin on his calves.

Is he better?

Called Bob to remind him that he had a Dr. appointment tomorrow and that I would call him at 6am to wake him up. He wasn't too happy about it but he didn't get as upset as he usually does.

Of course since he had me on the phone he needed groceries, so I ended up going to the grocery store for some frozen carrots, frozen green beans, canned peaches, and 2 bunches of bananas. I asked him why so many bananas? and he said "someone said they were good for him"... ok whatever.

He had to tell me which Fry's to go to even though I was going to go to whichever one I wanted. Then he repeated himself.

I got the stuff and took it to him, I grabbed his prilosec and left him with enough for the weakend.

He seemed in a better mood and I am wondering if the happy pills they prescribed are kicking in.

He told me that the apartment management told him that he had to take all the stuff under the train layout to storage and he did so without getting mad.... so we have that going for us.... which is nice.

Oh boy!

I got a call from the social worker for his apartment complex. She was concerned about him as he expressed suicidal thoughts to her, and other things.

I now have to move the stuff out of his apartment that is under his train layout.

I will need to ramp up my efforts to speak with Adult protective services.

Debbie Downer

I tried calling Bob this morning starting about 10:30. I called him about 5 times and he never answered. My wife and I had to take one of our cats to the vet and afterwards we drove through his apartment complex. He had driven his car (which he is not supposed to). It was in a different spot than when I was last there.

I finally got a hold of him and had a disjointed conversation on the phone with him. He read me a note that he had written about how the lady at the driving place had destroyed his life and he had no reason to live. I tried talking to him but he could barely hear me. He was complaining about the cold and I told him to turn on the heat. He argued with me but turned it on anyways. When he came back to the phone he said hello and before I could answer him he hung up. I called him back and asked him why he hung up and he said that "there was no one there" I told him I was there and before I could say so he hung up.

I went to see him and when I knocked on the door he was in his boxers and a t-shirt. His hair was a mess. I sat down on the bed with him and had a long talk (about 40 minutes) I recorded the whole thing but will probably never play it for anyone.

I doubt it will have any effect on him, I told him I was going to the store and that I would get him a hairbrush with soft bristles. He told me "they don't have them" I said they do and he said "wanna bet" I said yes $5, he said "no how about $100" I said "fine, but remember this I only bet when I know I will win".

I also told him to take a shower (he hadn't in about a week) and put on some clean clothes, he hadn't changed his clothes in at least week.

When I came back from the store (after unloading the groceries at my house) He answered the door like I was the 20th person to knock on it that day. He said "I'm still here". I handed him the brush, he felt it and said "you actually found one!". He said "Where did you find it", "Fry's" I said. he said "I could never find one". He never looked and would never ask anyone.

He had not showered, or dressed or done anything, just laid there in the dark. The only thing missing that would have made it more depressing was a group of monks singing dirges. ಠ_ಠ

Taking things better than expected (so far)

I had the day off so I went to Bob's apartment and knocked on the door about 9:40am. No answer. I called his phone, heard it ring, heard him get up, pick up the phone and then hang up again.... nice.

I knock again and he answers looking like he just woke up, and still wearing the clothes he had on Monday.... also nice.

I told him I was here to take him to storage and to the store if needed. He took a bit to get dressed and I had to remind him 4 times to put in his hearing aid. I also made sure he took his meds. I added the new happy pills to his pill box.

He suggested we take his truck, but I declined.

I took him to Jack in the box to get him a couple hamburgers for breakfast. Next was the hearing aid store for batteries, and then storage. He got a little upset that we did not go to the grocery store first because he wanted the 10 for a $10 hamburger patties they sell. He doesn't like to chew.

At storage we tried finding his DVD's but they were buried and I did not have time (or want to) move everything outside at this time.

We went to the grocery store and that only thing he wanted were the hamburgers.

Then I took him home. He complained about not being able to drive, and he felt like his mother (she never drove).

So let it be written... So let it be done!

Bob had his driving evaluation today and while his technical abilities to drive are excellent, his mental ability is not.

The state will be notified and he will have his license revoked.

He did not take it well. We took away his freedom and his only reason for living. Forget about family and anything like that. Nope a blue Chevy truck is more important. He told the lady that they might as well just put him down.

I'll just leave it at that.

An hour with a crazy person

I just got back from Bob's apartment. I went there to connect his new phone for people who are hard of hearing. Of course I can't just do that.

He started in on not being able to find his cell phone charger that I know we setup for him when he moved in to the apartment.

He insisted that it was never in the apartment and he KNOWS that it is in storage (everything he can't find must be in storage). This involved a shouting match of "the charger is in his apartment" followed by "no it's not" and repeat.

I got so pissed off I told him I was leaving and he could just stay home and eat.

I ended up staying for reasons I can't fathom.

He was complaining that he had no heat, I looked at his thermostat and it was set to 62° well no wonder. I bumped it up as high as it will go which is 75°. I could not test it because the temperature in his apartment is 77°.

Then I noticed that he had not opened the hairbrush I got him about 3 weeks ago. I asked him about it and he said it was because it was plastic. I said "they're all plastic". he said that the bristles were too hard. ಠ_ಠ

He told me that stores don't carry soft ones (which is bullshit). I told him I would get him one.

I hate buying things for him because if he doesn't like it, it's not because of him, it's because I did not buy the right thing or whatever.

I asked him at one point if he had a bad memory and he said "no". I told him that he did but he kept insisting that he did not. I finally showed him the wikipedia entry for alzheimers and read it to him.

A few minutes later I asked if he had a bad memory and he said "of course he does".....

It is near impossible to have a conversation with him as he goes off on tangents at any instant and you can never complete a train of thought.

Wrong day

Around 4pm today Bob showed up thinking it was Sunday. I told him it was Saturday and of course he got upset.

I had to prove it was Saturday by showing him my phone and the calendar.

Then he got all pissy about having to take the drivers test on Monday.

He also took his meds twice on one day this week but could not figure out how that could happen. He can't seem to believe that anytime he messes up it is his fault. He wanted me to come up with some better way to take meds than a pill box. I said how about a nursing home and he said "Fuck you"... ok then.

We had another talk about that. When he was leaving he was complaining that they had not turned on the heat in his apartment and he was freezing, I told him to turn off the AC and we had an argument about how he said that could not be done, I told him it could and all he had to do is turn the switch to off, he said that he new that. ಠ_ಠ

He's not happy

Today at thanksgiving I had to tell Bob the reasons why he needed the driving test, he did not like it and I think it bothered him a lot because he did not eat with his usual gusto.

We asked how his stomach was and if it still bothered him and he said "not really". He still wants to go through with the Endoscopy on Tuesday.

He made another statement that I had never heard before, he said that "Buddy" was in the military at Pearl Harbor. That's the first I heard of anyone in his side of the family serving in the military. I have no way to confirm it.

A trip to the Alzheimer's Doctor

I took Bob to his Alzheimer's doctor today. They did a memory test on him and he scored several points worse than the last one they did over a year ago. While I was explaining to the doctor all the things that were wrong with him, she sent him off with another doctor that was there, probably to allow me and her to talk without Bob present.

The jist of it is that Bob should not be driving, and I will be scheduling a driving evaluation of him. This way if he cannot drive it is not me that will be taking his license away or the doctor.

He won't like it if he loses his license.

I will have a follow up appointment with the doctor in 6 months and an appointment with a case worker to see about getting him signed up for ALTCS.

Slight Bombshell

Today after thanksgiving, Bob was talking to my wife and told her something I had never heard before, it seems that the reason Bob had to leave Boeing back in the eighties was not a layoff (as he had told me) but that he was accused of "sexual harassment".

I did not hear the story but Bob made some comment to a woman about her overly tight dress and she filed a complaint against him.

Issues

I have made an appointment with his Alzheimers Doctor. I need to get him signed up for ALTCS as he will need it someday.

His apartment complex initially told me that he was written up for the boxes under his layout but they did not, however I will be using that as an excuse to get some of the junk out of his apartment.

Last night at about 6pm. he called me because he was hungry (or at least he felt hungry). I asked him when he last ate and he said 5pm. He said he had a baked potato, a hamburger patty and some vegetables. He was a bit upset because he keeps feeling hungry.

The problem is that he may be having stomach pain, but confusing it with hunger.

Dr. appointment with Eeyore.

Went to Bob's Dr. appointment with him. He's doing a lot of moping and sighing lately. When the doctor heard that he eats jack in the box hamburgers for breakfast almost every day he said that was not good for him and suggest breakfast cereals. Bob has not had a breakfast cereal in probably 40 or 50 years.

He got a flu shot, the first one I think he has ever had, he does not seem to get the flu so I don't know how much that will help him.

He complained about his stomach and the lump on his wrist, which needs to be removed since it can become cancerous.

He constantly complains that he is tired of all this bullshit.

The tables are turned

Today at thanksgiving Bob requested no more asparagus. I jokingly told him he couldn't leave the table till he finished all his vegetables, just like we had to when we were kids.

I only buy asparagus to break up the monotony of vegetables since I don't like most vegetables except asparagus and canned spinach.

Cleaning for inspection

Bob's apartment complex is having an inspection this week and his apartment is... dirty.

We showed up about 9:45am and I vacuumed the floor while my wife cleaned the kitchen and bathroom.

Bob was just making breakfast which consisted of a ham and thousand island dressing sandwich with the crusts cut off (using scissors), 2 hamburger patties (no bread) smothered in 1000 island dressing, and a glass of chocolate milk (that he never drank while we were there). He ate the sandwich and 1 patty and put the other one back in the fridge.

I talked to Bob about if the apartment complex did not like all the stuff in his apartment they could make him put it back in storage. He claims that they have inspected before and were fine with the apartment (I have no proof of this).

The rest of the visit I recorded with my phone until I accidentally stopped filming.

After we left we spoke with a maintenance man about my dads bath tub being fixed and the cutout being blocked because Bob keeps flooding the bathroom. The maintenance man seemed to be German and was very hard to understand.

Assteroids, Supermemory, and misspronouncements

So Bob has Hemorrhoids nuff said.

Yesterday he calls me and as usual he can't just say something he has to make a real long elaborate story about it.

Seems he could not find some staples and as usual when he can't find something he is NEVER the cause, it is always someone else.  He is always astounded when he can't find something. Like with the staples he said that it was "not possible" that he was out of staples.

Of course it is possible and very likely that he threw them out along with a whole bunch of stuff from his desk when he was moving.

When he can't find a book it's not because he is forgetful and misplaces things or whatever, it's because I or my nephew lost it/gave it away, or Dave in Seattle stole it or (as in one episode) ghosts hid it.

Several years ago he had been working on a train and a part that he needed was missing. He claimed he looked EVERYWHERE for it. So I decided I would find it. I moved everything and searched his desk and all the drawers. Checked the floor, and the whole time he was saying that I was wasting my time. I finally found it in his laptop case in a plastic bag in one of the pockets. He absolutely refused to admit that he put it there.

In the episode of September 2013 he was on a tare because he could not find his precious "Bryer Garret" book. I tried to look for it in his apartment (where I was almost certain it was). He would not let me. He wouldn't stop talking about it and obsessed over it for 2 months. Every time he told me about it I told him he would find it in his apartment and every time he would get mad and say it was not in there. When he finally found it IN HIS APARTMENT he ignored me when I told him, "I figured that was where he would find it". He totally dismisses anytime you point out that he might be at fault.

When he was looking for the book I decided to see if I could find him another one, but was having trouble locating it because HE WAS NOT PRONOUNCING THE NAME RIGHT, it's Beyer-Garratt not Bryer Garret. I still cannot get him to say it correctly.

Which brings up another thing he always miss-pronounces "Close" he says "close't" not closet (where you keep your clothes), close followed but a "t" sound like in "top". He does this with any word that ends in "ose" except for "hose" he always pronounces that right.

Spoke too soon

Bob is back in the hospital for blood in his stool. We spent 4 hours at urgent care and the emergency room. They checked him in last night and he will be having a colonoscopy tomorrow.

He bled on my car seat, so I have that going for me... which is nice.

We may have dodged a bullet

Since my last post Bob has been in the hospital twice for Atrial Fibrillation and other issues. Basically he nearly had a stroke.

While in the hospital he was not getting all his meds and after he was released he seemed more out of it than normal.

Several days ago we decided to take Bob's pills from him and take control of them, it seems he may not have been taking his pills properly for at least a week and maybe more.

We picked up 2 pill containers that hold pills for 7 days and 4 times per day. He only needs 3 - Morning, evening, and bed time.

We had to label them Monday through Sunday since the way they were labeled Sunday through Saturday confused him.

He put up a HUGE fight when we told him and at the time he could not understand how any systems besides his convoluted system of numbered bottles and a list would work.

There was a lot of yelling, wailing and gnashing of teeth but we prevailed.

Today he showed up at thanksgiving and he was in much better spirits than he was over the last 2 weeks. He didn't ramble, or repeat stories and he wasn't in a pissy depressed mood.

He was quite open to the new system and was very contrite and amiable.

IT WAS REALLY WEIRD!

We will see what happens.

We are at a crossroads

Several days ago Bob was reporting stomach problems. It seems he has been having the problems for almost a month. This culminated in him going to the hospital because of atrial fibrillation. Basically this means that he could have had a heart attack, or a stroke and it can increase his dementia.

I am not sure what to do about this as he has become more depressed and has begun blaming me for all his unhappiness from moving here.

This weekend I plan on having a talk with him which I expect to go badly since he does not remember certain things that have happened to him in the last 3 years.

I made a list of all the things I and other people have done for him and it is currently 1.5 pages long, I expect it to be at least 2 pages when done.

Writing down all the things I (and others) have done for him brings a lot in to perspective, for instance I have saved him more than $30,000 dollars because of money the IRS wanted, his old hospital bills, and back child support.

I have to constantly remind him of what I have done and I am getting tired of  being blamed for all his unhappiness.

He has had multiple chances to meet people and make new friends and in every case he doesn't do it.

I don't know how much of all this is Alzheimer's or Dementia and how much is just and old man being pissy.

No Good Deed goes unpunished

Today at thanksgiving Bob was complaining that he doesn't like it here because he can't stand the heat. He made a snarky remark about how I made him move down here. I did not, but he does not remember that.

After dinner I retired to my computer room while my wife explained to him why he had to move and how bad off he was (as he had forgotten).

All he knows is that he had lots of friends in Seattle and none here, of course he doesn't try to get any friends. I had him join an o-gauge train club and he did not last a year before he got tired of it. He did not like the train layout they had (with all its problems) and he never tried to make friends or see other people collections.

He lamented that he could not get a hold of Bob (another Bob) who owned a dry cleaners in Seattle. He complained that whenever he called the number he had, no one answered.

Seems he was calling the dry cleaners number which other Bob had closed up and retired from a couple years ago.

My wife had a number and called it and he got to talk to other Bob for a few minutes.

Wait What!?

I am trying to get an amplified phone for Bob. I filled out a form to get one from a government agency and gave one page to Bob to take to his doctor. The doctor was supposed to fill it out and give it back to him, instead they took it.

I called them and asked them not to send it in, but they did anyways. So last week I get a call from the agency saying that they only got the one page. I told them what happened and I would get the rest of the packet to them.

I emailed Bob and asked him to bring me his license so I could copy it as they needed that and a copy of his birth certificate. Bob called and asked if I could come over and make the copy there since his hip was hurting him. I said that he could just drive over the next day and wait in the car. Later I emailed him and told him to come over on Sunday with the card.

On Sunday while he was having thanksgiving with us, he was talking about the patch they put in his heart, and made the statement that most babies born during world war II had this problem... wait what!? I have no idea where he got that idea from.

The Funniest Movie EVAR!

So Bob came over for thanksgiving and he was complaining that his tub overflows. There is a cutout in his tub to make it easier for old people to get in. The problem is that the tub does not drain fast enough and it overflows the small lip. He claims the maintenance guy snaked the drain but that the drain is too small. I don't know if that is really the case and will have to look in to it.

He began telling us about this great movie with John Travolta and Kristie Ally about a Fireman who gets stuck in a burning building and dies, and how there is this scene where they are rushing Kristie ally to the hospital to have a baby and also trying to marry them before the baby is born, and how funny this was!

The problem is that Kristie Ally is not in the movie, Jacinda Barrett is.

 Kristie Ally

Jacinda Barrett

But I can see where the confusion would come in, both are Female, There is a 23 year difference in age, both women have vowels and consonants in their names, and it would make perfect sense that Joaquin's Character would marry a Cougar.

I distracted him with a question and he lost track of what he was saying, but a few minutes later he began telling us about this great movie with John Travolta and Kristie Ally about a Fireman who gets stuck in a burning building and dies, and how there is this scene where they are rushing Kristie ally to the hospital to have a baby and also trying to marry them before the baby is born, and how funny this was!

 

After dinner I retired to my room, and he continued talking to my wife, where he told her about this great movie with John Travolta and Kristie Ally about a Fireman who gets stuck in a burning building and dies, and how there is this scene where they are rushing Kristie ally to the hospital to have a baby and also trying to marry them before the baby is born, and how funny this was!

Each time he did his Bob laugh Just as loud, as if he had never told the story before.

Hip Problems

Bob is reporting hip problems, and went to a chiropractor today. He claims they did a 4 hour evaluation and they are sending him to a closer chiropractor, since 10th st and Camelback is such a long way away.

More lucid than Normal

Another thanksgiving come and gone. Nothing too exciting today. I told Bob that I am looking in to getting him a better home phone so he can hear me.

He told all the same stories again.

He asked me how I make my gravy, because he has not made gravy in years and forgot how.

He's put on weight we told him he weighed more than 190 lbs and he did not believe it, we weighed him and he weighs 210. He eats too many pies.

He

Another thanksgiving, and afterwards I was sitting watching Okeanos explorer and EV Nautilus. I remembered that I had recently taken an old super 8 movie and converted it to video since I had never seen what was on it.

I was showing him the movies and he kept referring to me in the movies as "he", as if I was someone who was not related to him and he was telling me about me... ಠ_ಠ

He was also laughing a lot at everything. Then of course there was the real interesting parts with the fire trucks and trains. That made it all worth watching!

Stupid MTH

Yesterday Bob's package arrived, a caboose from MTH. He was only here long enough to open it, and then he went home.

Today when he came over for thanksgiving, he was complaining that the marker lights on the caboose were only on one end and not on the other, so when he ran it, it was all wrong!

I KNOW RIGHT!

Also the plastic mat we bought him to keep his chair from destroying the carpet supposedly does not work. ಠ_ಠ

After Dinner I went to my room and he started talking about that damn book about some iron works in East St. Louis.

I was telling him about some stuff I got from an Estate sale and he was doing his best not to appear bored. After that he was like "Well I guess I will take off", this was followed by him repeating the story about his new caboose again before leaving.

Gross

Bob has been in his apartment for about 3 months now, and we went over to deliver some shirts and a package he got. We also went over to clean his apartment.

About a month or 3 ago I asked Bob if he had vacuumed his apartment and he said that he did, but it did not look like it. When we got there the carpet was still not vacuumed and covered in large flakes of skin from his legs. He has a skin condition on his legs and he scratches them wherever he is  leaving nasty gross flakes everywhere.

I vacuumed the floor while my wife cleaned the kitchen. Neither of us wanted to do this. My dad never cleans. In his old apartment in Seattle he had not cleaned it in about 7 or more years.

I mopped the bathroom floor and cleaned the sink, then my wife cleaned them all over again because I did not use the swiffer thingies with the magic smelly juice.

When I had finished vacuuming I emptied the canister and Bob decided to clean the filter ON HIS TRAIN LAYOUT. He was telling me that you can't get the filters anymore and they don't make them. His information source was some stooge at target. I told him you CAN get them and they ARE still made. There followed a few seconds of "yes they do" "no they don't".

I had to reign my wife in as once she gets started cleaning she is compelled to clean everything. Then we escaped somehow.

Earlier and Earlier

Originally thanksgiving started at about 5pm, but over time Bob has been arriving earlier, first it was about 4:45pm, then 4:30, then 4:15, today it was 3:49. I had not even started cooking.

We got to hear the story about "buddy" again yay, and all the same stuff all over.

While cooking dinner I was watching Mythbusters, and when it was over Bob said "If one of you wants to grab my junk, I'll be leaving".

I looked at my wife and she at me...

We both started laughing, and Bob's was like "what?".

I should have known

I got a call yesterday to go down and sign paper work saying that I live at my house for this job that pays me to do nothing. While there I asked about my dad coming in to sign paper work because he was eligible again. The lady said she never said that. She just needed bob to sign the same paper work for an audit.

I called and told Bob this and he went down and signed the paperwork. He still thought it was to sign up for the money, even after I told him it was not.

He showed up this morning and said he signed it, and I had to explain again what it was about. As he was leaving he complained about how he doesn't like that his legs feel like rubber. I reminded him that his legs used to hurt him all the time and this was better than constant pain. He doesn't remember the pain.

Who needs extra income?

Bob called me to tell me that a company that paid him to do nothing, had called him and told him he was eligible to get the money again. He did not think he wanted to do it because it would raise his rent at the HUD place he is living. I attempted to tell him that for an additional $322 per month his rent would go up about $100, leaving him with $222 more than he has now per month. He did not know if he wanted to do it. I will talk him in to it.

He then started on the story of "buddy" again.

He also decided (for now) that he wants to sell about 80% of the stuff he has in storage, of course that's his math, I told him we would rent 3 tables at a train show this winter and sell whatever he wants to sell.

He continued to talk about this and that while I ate my dinner at a restaurant. He never once said "Happy Birthday".

I'm Sorry I wasn't listening

Another Sunday, another Thanksgiving.

Bob regaled us with a story about an uncle "Buddy" who worked for some company back in Illinois. He said that they never knew what he did where he worked, then he told us "Buddy" was an electrician there...

Exactly!

After Dinner, I showed Bob a project I had been working on, Initially he was like "Oh Wow", I was explaining it to him I turned around and he was looking off in to space somewhere. ಠ_ಠ

...And he gets irritated at me if I don't show incredible interest at whatever he wants to show me.

He told the story of "Buddy" all over again, then it was time to go.

What is the most important thing in the world?

Bob has been chomping at the bit for a train he ordered. It finally came today.

He came over and he had to open it and show me the beautiful maryland something something locomotive. He was disappointed in MTH because the train came with 2 box cars instead of the proper hopper cars

I KNOW RIGHT! 

I loaded them up in to his truck and he toddled off to go play choo choo.

That was close

Today at Thanksgiving Bob asked if he had ever told me about how is mom never took a bath, but would take a sponge bath. I said yes he had told me, so.... he told me again. He was saying that he knew this because one day he walked by the bathroom and saw his mother cleaning herself with a wet wash cloth but mostly clothed, he then said "I'd really wish I had a picture" and paused I looked at my wife Like:

To which my wife nearly blew her drink out her nose.

He continued with "of the inside of the house I lived in, in East St. Louis".
Whew!

I don't believe she never took a bath, but she probably did so when he was not around.

He then went on to confuse my wide with a story about his Sister Helen, how she would smack him (when he was a kid) for no reason. That Helen married some guy who had been married before, so my wife said "so Helen was his second wife?". to which Bob said "No they got married", and then when Helen died he married another woman. My wife asked again "so Helen was his second wife?" which prompted him telling the whole story again.ಠ_ಠ

Then he came in to my room and started telling me about how he has been going down to storage every day. You may remember from previous posts that he said he was not going down there anymore because it was too hot. I reminded him of this and he did not remember saying it.

He also needs some shirts that are all cotton because in the summer it's too hot to wear the polyester ones and he refuses to wear t-shirts. My wife asked him in a convoluted way what is the most he wants to pay for shirts, and he talked about how expensive shirts were at target. I said "what is the most that you want to pay for shirts?" and he reiterated that the shirts at target are expensive.

Eventually he said "well I better get going".

He then repeated all of his stories all over again.

This happened another 2 times. ಠ_ಠ

Books and repeated stories

Bob came by today since some books he ordered arrived. He repeated how he has been going down to storage to find some trains and DVD's he has not been able to find.

Then he told me about the books, then he told me about the house he lived in, in East St. Louis, then he told me about some other stuff that I don't remember, then he repeated every thing.

I told him about my desk lamp needing repairs and the little adjustable power supply I built. He repeated most of his stories again and then went off to ruin his books by stamping his name in them.

Everything went pretty good until....

Thanksgiving dinner again, my wife was not in attendance as she was in servitude to her mother.

Bob brought with him a book and 2 magazines, never a good sign.

There was the article in the book about the royal gorge that we visited when I was kid. He brought up how my mom was scared to cross the bridge as she was convinced it was going to collapse when they crossed because it has wooden beams for the roadway, it did not of course collapse.

He wanted to show me the peabody railroad that he has been infatuated ever since he was a kid. I have to pretend to be interested as he gets a little upset if I am not giving him 100% attention when he tells me all about it. What ever it was I don't remember.

He also wanted to show me an article about a Lionel OO gauge railroad set that he had 2 of up until 2001 when he sold them for his fire truck he bought. He sold them for $1600.

He then repeated the story about the royal gorge and went through the other 2 articles again.

We had dinner, and then retired to my computer room when he brought up the GOD DAMN freecell game. ಠ_ಠ

He insist that the game is not winnable and he can never win it, even though it is the easiest version of solitaire around. I got quite irritated with him and finally changed the subject and decided to bore him with talk about the last radio I restored. We watched the EV nautilus for a while and then he went home.

Defenestration prevented

Went to Bob's today. I fixed the issue with his monitor. I just had to press the auto config button and it centered the screen.

His computer was sitting there and the CPU fan was just howling away. Every time I go over there Juno is maxing out the CPU. I found that when he goes to the web using juno, the juno start page loads ads and who know what other crap and never shuts down when he goes back to email. Eventually causing the computer to become unusable.I had to redirect my.juno.com to 127.0.0.1 so that it cannot be accidentally accessed.

I placed a reminder note on his monitor to tell him that he should not use Juno WEB and to use firefox.

His printer was out of paper and he did not know how to add paper to it, so he did not try. I added paper and put a note on the printer showing where the paper tray is.

His TV had lost channel 7.2 metv I had to rescan and read everything and then go back and remove all the channels he would never watch.

Last thing was that he had a DVD that would not play at a certain point. I noted scratches on the DVD, he stated that it always had scratches, but I cannot confirm it. I took the DVD home and polished it, it gets further but still hangs up, I also found out that it is a bootleg copy.

When I had fixed all the computer problems Bob stated "you see that windows over there", "I can open that window and there is just a screen", "because of the computer problems I though about throwing myself out that window". ಠ_ಠ

I said "that seems like a permanent solution to a temporary problem". Really? first world problems? His computer doesn't work right so he thought about killing himself? ಠ_ಠ

Even More Computer issues, only they're not

Bob came over for thanksgiving dinner today. He parked all the way on the next street over just so his truck would be in the shade I will repeat that, HIS TRUCK COULD BE IN THE SHADE!, then walked to our house.  ಠ_ಠ

We tried to explain that he has to walk in the heat to get there and back, but he responded "it's not that bad". ಠ_ಠ He then complained several times at dinner about how hot it is. ಠ_ಠ

Bob was again complaining that he could not get to his bank website. He had ignored my instructions (or forgot), on how to do it using firefox. I asked him how he gets to his website and he told me to do it through juno (I paraphrased that, he took longer to explain it) This time I created desktop Icons to the websites he needs to get to. Since trying to get him to follow simple instructions is near impossible.

He repeated 3 times that he was having trouble getting to his bank website and each time tried to tell me to get to it through juno. Then he needed to see a check he wrote, I got in and showed him the check. Closed out and he said he needed to see the same check again. ಠ_ಠ

Finally I printed it, but he stated that the printer was off, it seems to be on as windows reported it printed. He adamantly stated that that was not possible as he turned the printer off, something I told him not to do. ಠ_ಠ

I told him to look on his printer when he gets home, and if the page did not print, to call me.

My Wife walked him to his car, and he stated that "he wished he had never come back to Phoenix." Completely forgetting that he almost died in the hospital and that the social workers almost did not let us take him back to Phoenix, and if they had seen his apartment they would not have let him go there either.

More computer issues

Bob stopped by today. He reported that he could not get to a website that he buys books from. After getting in to his computer remotely I noted that he had misspelled the website name. I then spelled it right and it worked. His response "I hope you're right, but will it work on my computer?", We are on your computer. "oh".

Bob then brought the subject of whether or not his mom saw the statue of liberty when she came to America. Who knows if she did, since I don't know for certain she came in through ellis island. I looked up when the statue of liberty was finished and it was way before his mom came over. To blow his mind, I pulled up the manifest from the ships that she had come over on. Once when she was 9 and again when she was 21. Then to totally make his head explode I pulled up the house she used to live in using google earth.

Theresa who?

Bob seems to like dropping weird bomb shells on me. He may not be doing it on purpose but he does it a lot. I don't know sometimes if his information is correct or not since there is often no way to prove otherwise.

Case in point:
This morning while on the way to Social Security to get some information on why they are still taking money out of his account for child support when the case is closed and he owes nothing. He asks me if I remember a 14 year old foster kid that he and mom had named Theresa.

I do not remember any foster kid we had that was 14 years old, and certainly not one named Theresa. He insists that there was one, but could not tell me when.

A couple years ago he stated that when he moved here from Illinois that his mother told him to go in her bedroom under the bed and get the Stradivarius violin they owned and destroy it. ಠ_ಠ

"A Stradivarius", I said "you had a Stradivarius?", "well yeah", he said "but the cat pee'd on it and it was ruined so mom had me destroy it."

Did his mom have a Stradivarius? Very likely not. We'll never know.

Indian Giver

Today Bob and I went to my nephews and his girlfriends new apartment. I brought with me a bag of t-shirts from a large collection that Bob had been carting around. Bob does not wear printed t-shirts, he only wears undershirts and dress shirts.

At one time he had about 20 or 30 printed t-shirts with fire trucks and trains on them. When we moved him, we went through them and threw away the ones that had been ruined, my nephew took some and the rest Bob continued to pack around with him (never wearing them of course). When he moved this last time, he handed me bags with piles of t-shirts in them and said he did not want them anymore.

When I handed the shirts to my nephew, Bob asked to see them...

He rifles through them and finds one he got from some Emergency Convention from years ago. He decides to take it. I tell him "You said you did not want them", Like a petulant child he responds "I would never get rid of this shirt". "are you going to wear it?" says I, "If I want to wear a t-shirt" says he, "So, no." says I, "Get off my back!" says he...

So back it goes to storage until he dies and then if it is not ruined maybe someone will actually wear it.

He does stuff like this all the time, gives me something says he does not want it, and if he sees it later he wants it back. He marks his name inside all of his books, not once, not twice, but thrice! I'm surprised he doesn't piss in the corners of his apartment to mark his territory. You would think that he grew up in a huge family where all his stuff was stolen by siblings or something... NOPE he was the youngest of 3 kids, his 2 sisters were several years older than him and did not care for stinky boys old trains and books.

The rest of the visit at my nephews house went fine, though I could tell Bob was bored because no one was talking about trains or firetrucks..

Now that's weird

"Now that's weird" is another bobism. It indicates when something happens that Bob find hard to believe.

I went over today, and brought an extra monitor, and a mother board because Bob's computer was "dead".

When I got there the computer was unplugged, I asked why, and he said "he was worried it might get worse". I told him that he should not unplug the computer unless it is on fire. I plugged it in, turned on the monitor, and turned on the computer. The computer came right up with no problem. I even tested the DVD he was using at the time.

Bob's Reaction "Now that's weird". He continued to insist that the computer was in really bad shape and working terribly yesterday.

I attempted to make good my escape, since I had spent 1.5 hours in Physical therapy and was tired. Before I could leave, he had to show me a book on some electric trains that ran near his house in East St. Louis when he was a kid. He was quite excited about it, and as usual he had written stuff all through the book, ruining it. I just can't get excited about some trains that I never saw, and that are long gone.

Whatever, another job well done *pats self on back*.

We've got a problem

"We've got a problem" one of the phrases I dread hearing. Today it is because his computer is "dead". I tried to get him to tell me that he had checked if the computers power cord was plugged in to the back of the computer, but he kept telling me that the power light on the monitor would turn green then amber.

He just kept repeating that, no matter what I asked, sigh™ so tomorrow I have to go over and see what the problem actually is.

uneventful

Bob came over for thanksgiving today, I messed with him by answering the door and saying "why are you here?" Dinner was Enchiladas, Mexican rice, and re-fried beans. There was minor complaining about the cave of wonders, but he is not going down there anymore until it cools off.

I did tell him that the child support case against him is now closed.

He also mentioned that his sound on his computer was not working. I told him to check the speakers were turned on, if they were and still no sound I would log in remotely and look at it.

He called later and said the speakers had been turned off.

Oops

My dad stopped by today for the normal Sunday "thanksgiving" dinner, too bad today is Saturday.

Stupid Freecell (shudder)

Another week goes by and it's "thanksgiving" again. Today I made meatloaf, Mashed potatoes, gravy, and broccoli (blech).

My back was killing me (again), and Bob showed up a little early. He starts off the conversation with "so what's new and exciting" (he always says this), There is never anything very exciting to talk about. While I was making the food, he asked me "Where did you get the freecell program?" ಠ_ಠ sigh™ not this again!

See Bob's computer was infected with the crytpowall virus and instead of wiping it and reinstalling windows xp, I installed windows 7. Bob complained that it was missing the games, including freecell (shudder). So I installed freecell (shudder) (it's part of windows).

"It's part of windows" says I. "Oh" says he, (we have had this discussion about 20 times), "well I was playing it the other day, and I played it for 2 hours straight, and only won once". ಠ_ಠ

freecell (shudder) is one of the easiest solitaire games to play, statistically you should be able to win 90% of the games dealt by the computer. I have played it and can win 70% of the time, not Bob though...

Bob thinks the game is different from the one on windows xp, because he claims he could win it almost all the time, and now he can't. Since I cannot fire up his old OS and see what the settings were in the game, I do not know why it was "easier". It may be that he was playing it, and getting the same hand dealt to him each time (who knows). I have looked at the settings in windows 7, and do not know what would make it super easy.

I have sat down with him and played the game (in front of him), and when the cards are dealt, if the aces are not all near the top of the piles he claims the game cannot be won. The problem is that I have played such games all the while he is telling me I am wasting my time, and then he is absolutely shocked when I win. He thinks the game is played with 4 decks of cards and I have never been able to convince him that it is played with 4 suites of cards but only one deck. Even when showing him an actual deck of cards he does not get it. This all happened over several "thanksgivings", and a few visits to his apartment.

So he started up with the same thing about it being different and all the same old stuff, and since my back was killing me, the kitchen was hot, I lost it, and told him to stop talking about it, I don't care, I can't make it work the way he thinks it will work and so on. So there was a 15+ minute awkward silence.

we ate dinner, minor family gossip was discussed, and then my wife made him some to go dinners. He talked (again) about when he was a little kid in East St. Louis and how and when and why he moved here, mentioned that he had a dog named snooksy and a cat named (I can't remember).

A few minutes after eating he said "well I guess I will get out of your hair" (he always says this). There followed more talk about things that he has talked about before. He spent 5 minutes trying to tell me about the way he gets to our house so that he does not get lost. Something about the Antennas to the east and the buildings he can see to the west. Then he went home.

I guess you had to be there

Earlier today I stopped by Bob's apartment to drop off a check. I looked for the screw drivers he swore up and down was not in his apartment. Well he saw me looking through stuff and asked what I was doing, I told him and he said "Oh, those were right were you said they were in a desk drawer". ಠ_ಠ

I talked with him for a bit, the apartment was warm and his computer cooling fan was at full speed, he said he had turned off the AC because "he gets cold". 2 weeks ago he was complaining it was too warm in the apartment. ಠ_ಠ

There was more complaining that "they" had just piled stuff in the cave of wonders willy-nilly, and he's too weak to move things. I let him know I'm not throwing my back out again. After a while I tried to make good my escape, but just as I was leaving he had to show me something.

He had 2 covered hopper cars that said southern pacific (or something) on them in red, and he had to tell me that in real life all the printing on the cars was in red, but for some reason lionel had put these out with black lettering for everything but the road name.

Then he had to show me a pacific fruit express refrigerated box car that was silver. he proceeded to explain how an old timey refrigerated box car works because I already know; "These doors on the top open up and they dumped big blocks of ice inside", "see the real one was made of aluminum HA HA, and aluminum and water don't mix, AH AH AH HA!, and so the water would melt too fast HA HA AH AH HA! and the cars just corroded and fell apart! HA HA HA!" My dads laugh sounds similar to a crows call so... Then he had to tell me that they only made 3 of the aluminum cars in real life and they were sequentially numbered. ಠ_ಠ

Nose bleeds and Disneyland

Bob just called me, he told me that he had another bloody nose, he had gone down to the cave of wonders and brought back about 2 dozen books. He started the call as usual with "are you at home", segwayed in to his books, which led to him finding a book on disneyland, which led to him talking about going to disneyland with a former girlfriend and another trip with one of my sisters. He then went back to talking about his bloody nose, and a complaint about the doctor sending him an email that he needed to call them, but he can never get them on the phone. He does not know how to navigate the phone system.

While I was typing this he rambled on about how "they" had stacked the boxes and he can't find anything at the cave of wonders. I attempted to tell him to see the doctor about his bloody noses, but he got all irritated that he knows he should not be having them, there followed another retelling of how someone (he doesn't remember who) showed him how to stop nose bleeds.

I've got something to show you

"I've got something to show you" A phrase I hear a lot, often followed by irrefutable evidence of nothing to get worried about.

Today Bob showed up with some cream for the scaly skin on his leg (mmm boy!). He wanted to show me that the small tube that was prescribed to him was only good for 2 days and how this was ridiculous to him. I guess he was expecting a half gallon of the stuff.

I suggested that he just use it, get the prescription refilled and when it runs out see what happens. If the condition comes back he could just contact the doctor again. This engendered a sigh. He also complained that while the cream cost him $15 the real price was $50. Apparently in Bob's world medicine comes in costco sized tubs, cost nothing, and heals you in one treatment.

There was also talk of him going down to the cave of wonders and not being able to find both of his lionel operating magnetic cranes, how he bought one a long time ago and he got the other one from someone he knew just before he moved down here. The guy sent it to him to fix (or something) and died, so he got it for free.

Shower Chair

Bob had a shower chair at his old apartment, and it sat in his closet for 2 years without being used. We had a second one that I was using as something to sit on when I was painting my work room. The problem was that it was not meant for my weight, and the legs started bending.

When we moved Bob we donated both chairs. Not a week later he told me he needed it... sigh™. I suggested he check at walgreens, but they wanted $40 for one.

Today I found one at Goodwill for $6, it looks brand new. I was going to go over and deliver it to him later today, but while I was making my lunch the door bell rang twice, as it is want to do when Bob shows up.

He had just come back from a Doctors appointment, and stopped by on his way to pick up some prescriptions. 1 for his tummy aches, and one for the dry skin on his legs.

He did not stay long, he "drained his radiator", picked up his mail, and took the chair home with him.

Thanksgiving and Downsizing

Yesterday was the weekly dinner with my dad (we call it thanksgiving), where I evaluate his mental state, and also makes some food for him, since he has a very boring diet. Not much interesting happend except that he repeated several stories, repeatedly.

Today he called me and stated that "he was probably going to get rid of about 2/3 of his books". The next time there is a train meeting he wants to sell as many as he can. We'll see if he sticks to that.

Desktop Confusion

Bob called me today. As usual he asks if I am at home. Why this matters I am not sure. Then he forgot why he called. Then he remembered. He had given me a list of the trains he has so that I could scan them and convert them back to a word document after he got the crytpowall virus and the original was encrypted.

I told him it was on his desktop of his computer. I knew immediately that he was not understanding what I meant. I tried to access his computer but noted that it was not on. I asked him if his computer was on as he won't be able to open the document if it is not. It was then that he realized what I meant by "on his computers desktop". He turned on the computer and I got in, in view only mode. He did not know how to print. At first I thought this was because of his memory, but then realized his computer now has Office 2007 and that stupid ribbon. I explained to him how to print and warned him that his new printer will print very quickly. There was the usual number of "hold ons" while he came up to speed as to whether the printer was on or not.

He was highly amused at how fast it printed, all his past printers were old HP deskjets, the new one is a laser printer. He then told me that the trains he was looking for were right were I said they would be down at the cave of wonders. He reported that he had a heck of a time carrying the box up to his apartment as it weighed a ton (maybe 30 pounds).

I did not bring up the screw driver set since I did not want to be on the phone for an hour.

Losing things that are not lost

I didn't hear from Bob all day yesterday. It was like a vacation, or would have been had I not had to go to urgent care for my back pains.

Today Bob stopped by and brought with him his MTH TIU. He said that it did not work and may have a blown fuse. When I pulled it out of the bag he had it in, it smelled like something might have burned up. I opened it up and checked all the fuses. All fuses were ok. I looked it over under a magnifying glass and did not find a problem.

While I was looking at it, Bob asked if I liked the screw driver that was in the bag. I did not care one way or the other. Seems he went out and bought a new set of screw drivers because he could not find the set that he had from before.

I know what set he was talking about. I used it several times since he moved in to the new apartment. I suggested he look on top of his bookcase as that was one of the places I saw it last. He looked confused about this. He said that he did not think that the screw drivers had made it out of his old apartment. This time he did not accuse "they" of losing or tossing it.

I then told him that not only was it at his new apartment, but that he had personally handed it to me the day he moved in. I then told him all the places I had seen it. He still looked confused and did not believe me. He kept saying "you mean at the old apartment?", NO this apartment. I reiterated that it is probably on top of his bookcase. He said "I hope your right". sigh™. What I think happens is that he looks for something, then half way through forgets where he has looked or thinks that he has looked some place when he has not.

He also told me he was having stomach problems and diarrhea for the last day or 2. He may have caught what James passed on to several people in my family.

I recommended that he double check the wiring of his layout, and of course he said that he had done that (which means he probably did not).

He also told me he had gone down to The Cave of Wonders (my new name for his storage unit), and that some trains he saw the day I hurt my back were "nowhere to be found" I suggested a possible location to look, and changed the subject.

Thankfully my Physical Therapist and Doctor don't want me hauling stuff around so I have a  great excuse not to go on another expedition to the cave of wonders.

EDIT:A few minutes after I posted this, he called and said that the layout is working, but the screw drivers are not where I said they might be. I reiterated that they are there somewhere and the next time I go there I will find them. He said he "can't believe they are there", because "he looked everywhere". Which of course he hasn't because if he had, he would have found them.

OW! my back!

Today Bob went down to storage to begin moving books back in to his new apartment. He was supposed to call me and let me know when he was going there so I could meet him. He did not. Around 9:00am I went there and he was rooting through everything pissing and moaning that nothing was where it should be and "they" had put things where they don't belong, "They" would be me and my brother, and we put things where he told us to, and later on he and I moved them while looking for something he was obsessing over several months ago.

He was getting irritated that the boxes (while numbered) were not in order. He forgets that we had to move them to storage in a hurry because he was being forced to move out of his old apartment. He's lucky they were numbered and in any kind of order.

He also forgets that he personally told us where to put the boxes at the time.

He has this strange dichotomy of "I have Alzheimer's and can't remember shit", and "I know what I know!".

He also gets distracted because he is constantly finding things he "forgets about", and wants to show me all about it, even though he has done this many times before and I have seen the items dozens of times. He gets irritated when I tell him he has already show it to me many times.

The big "problem" today was that his drafting table was in the way. The drafting table had been taken apart and turned upside down and placed on the books (by him) several months ago. He no longer wanted it and so I suggested that we move some boxes, slide it out and put it in his truck to be taken to Goodwill.

In the process of moving it I tweaked my back!

We loaded it up and then he was done for the day because the long sleeve shirts he insists on wearing made him hot and sweaty. No books were loaded at this time.

While writing this he showed up at my home asking for a couple of pens because he could not find any at Fry's. Which means he did not look very hard, and did not ask anyone.