A fun weekend

A family friend and until recently unknown as a distant cousin came over to spend yesterday afternoon. I interviewed her for my genealogy book. It was a lot of fun to hear her tell stories from her early years (she's 84 now) and her ability to remember dates was astounding. She rattled of her children and grandchildren's birthdates with ease. I wish I had such a memory!

The big story here now is the weather. To date we have been spared some of the big snowfall totals that have hit much of the northeast. We are just in the right place that the snow has gone around us. They usually have over 40 inches of snow here in the winter - to date they've had about 15. That is all set to change the rest of the week. Two different storms are set to hit - and they are going to be whoppers. The first is supposed to drop about 6 inches. And the first storm is supposed to be the smaller of the two. So I guess I will be housebound for a while. I do not like driving in the snow at all.

Dad had a pretty good weekend. Each day he has a period of about an hour where he wants to roam and tries to get out of the house - but he is easily led back to safety. It is a far cry from when I first got here. The medication he's taken has mellowed him out considerably. We are no longer covered with bruises from his hitting. He still needs to be supervised 24/7 but I'm able to get a lot of work done on my laptop now. Let's hope that it continues for my last month here.

An Even Keel

I guess when dealing with someone with Alzheimer's, that's all you can ask for - an even keel. A day like today when he slept most of the day and only had a couple minor bouts of "run for the door" that could be easily thwarted. Yesterday was a bad day. He spent all day trying to get out of the house - and thus the majority of the day restrained. Dad will go outside in his stocking feet and trudge through the snowbanks. And when the exits are all covered, he'll kick at the windows trying to break them out to crawl out. I don't understand the incessant need to wander. We have set up a pretty efficient restraint in a favorite chair. His own safety demands it. Though it breaks your heart to see this once vibrant and productive man reduced to this. He was a paramedic who devoted his time freely to the local ambulance and scuba rescue squad for fifty years!

With his medication finally calming him down for days on end, I am finding time to wander off by myself for a bit. Tuesday I'll be spending all day at the library - I can hardly wait! In the meantime, I'm hoping to run out and get some Chinese food this weekend. I haven't had any in almost 6 years and I can hardly wait. Things are pretty good when dad's on an even keel....

18 Below

That was the temperature when we woke up the other morning - 18 below zero! My parents live in an old drafty house, so the temperature inside never made it above 60 degrees. We spent 2 days wrapped up in layers of clothing and blankets. Even Gertie crawled under my covers to sleep. Thankfully, my bed sits right next to a radiator, so sleeping was a bit warmer. Things have started to warm up a bit today - we're supposed to hit 20 degrees - a heat wave! lol


Dad is no better, but we didn't really expect him to be. Alzheimer's is a disease that only gets worse. Our management of him has gotten better. We can tell when he's starting to get out of control and get him restrained before an all out and out fight ensues. Unfortunately, with the cost of nursing homes, the decision is made that, for at least the moment, he will be kept home. We are instead looking for a nurse to work the evening shift, when he's the worst.

I've had a bit of time to work on my genealogy project. I've been doing interviews with relatives that are close by and well known. They have been a wealth of information on filling in some of the gaps. Here's hoping that things will continue over the last month that I'm here.

My car had been stuck in the backyard where I parked it to put it out of the way. Snow and ice hit and I couldn't move it, let alone get to it. This morning we finally got unstuck - with a tow - and now I'm able to drive around again without borrowing a car. Thank goodness! Not that I have lots of places to go, but I like knowing that if I need to I can hop in my car and go.

It's been a long week since I last posted. I'll try to be a little more diligent but with my dad you never know what's going to happen from day to day. We'll definitely be back on track when we reach Frog Central.

Ice, Ice, Baby

Last night it started to rain and continued into this morning. Which would not be bad if it wasn't freezing as soon as it hit the ground. Needless to say, everything here has come to an immediate halt. No one braves the ice. Even Gertie was none to pleased with it this morning when she had to go out. I've been getting my local Frog Central newspaper here at Frog East and I guess they aren't faring much better out there - they've had 6 inches of snow there - and that's lot for them. Here they would call that a dusting! LOL

Today I found some information on my great grandparents on my dad's side. I won't be able to go much further back than that. Their parents came from Germany and the town they lived in was bombed out of existence during WWII. I guess we can only go so far back in any part of the tree anyway. Two other branches can be traced back to the Mayflower, which is amazing to think about. Mostly these days I've been finding living cousins moving forward with one line of the family tree. I find that so amazing. People from Alaska to Maine to Florida to California and everywhere inbetween. It's been great introduing myself to cousins and getting to know distant cousins.

After 3 days of being awake, dad is finally asleep. This particular episode seems to have come to an end. Hopefully we can get his medications altered before the next one. In the meantime we continue to search for a nursing home that is both close and affordable - not an easy task by any means. I urge everyone who is in good health and in their 50's to consider long term care insurance. It certainly would have saved us quite a hassle if he had thought to buy such a policy. For the moment we've been able to control the hitting and fighting that was going on with medication, but if it starts up again I'm afraid we'll have to take the first nuring home that has an opening.

Time to get this day started....

A very busy time here at Frog East

The last 3 days has been a whirlwind of taking care of dad through the day and him not sleeping at night - keeping us all up around the clock. His new medication does not seem to be working as well as we hoped - I guess they'll be uping the dose again.

While watching him I've had some time to work on my genealogy project. Dad seems to be intereted in me working on the laptop computer - so he watches while I search.

It will soon be time to start packing for the trip home. It hardly seems possible. So much yet to do and so little time. In the meantime, I've having a lot of fun with one of my Christmas presents - Wii. I've been playing the Sports Resort that came with the game. A lot of fun!

A Much Calmer Week - with SNOW

This last week has been a whirlwind - but in a good way. I've been working on my genealogy project pretty steadily and making some headway. Unfortunately, as I planned this week to head out to the libraries to do some additional research - the snow started falling. And it is still falling. I'm not sure how much we have out there at the moment - but I'm afraid there's no end in sight for the time being. So instead, I continue working with what I can on-line.

Dad has had a good week, relatively speaking. The new medication that he has been put on seems to have calmed him down considerably. It takes two weeks for the medication to be fully into his system - so here's keeping the fingers crossed that things will continue to get better.

Hope you are enjoying the new year and that everything is going well. Believe it or not, I'm starting to rush a bit here because I'm starting to look forward to the time I'll finally be heading home. I know it's going to be around March 1st, but that will come all too soon - and I know I'll leave here with lots of things I will have wished I could have gotten done. They'll just have to wait until the next trip - but let's not think about that right now!

The Mind

It's been a rough week here at Frog East. Dad has been keeping us running non-stop, literally. He was awake and extremely incoherent for more than 50 hours straight. Exhaustion finally took over and we all got about 8 hours of rest before he started in again. It makes it hard to get anything accomplished. But we are trying. I've been working on my genealogy project here and there. I'm hoping to meet with some people this next week. Or at least talk to them on the phone. First I want a couple days to just rest, relax, and catch up on some much needed rest.