Been really busy lately.Mom has been in and out of the hospital with a broken hip and a broken knee. I've also been involved in several projects at work that require 13 hour days. The fun never stops.

Long time, no sea

We recently vacationed in Charleston, SC. We took our grandson along just to keep us from getting bored(and to make sure we wouldn't bring any money home). Here he is holding the Ravenel bridge up. thanks for reading.

Stone Mountain

The wife and I went to Stone Mountain in Ga. for the fourth. There were about 30 gazilion people there. We were with her brother and his significant other. Wall to wall people for about 9 hrs. What a day. I think the place would be a lot of fun on any day but the fourth.

Just coming off of a ten day vacation. Really dreading going back to work. Oh well, life goes on.

New Tattoo Parlor

My oldest opened his second shop last nite. I am very proud of him and wish him the very best.

I've really had a stressful couple of weeks lately and am looking forward to my vacation next week. I've got 10 days coming and might actually rest a little.

Mom is about the same and is going to be in the same place for the remainder of her days. She is on Medicaid now and we are relieved. I just wish I could afford to keep her at home but it's just not possible. She has to have 24 hr care and we can' t do that and work also. Alzheimers, the damnable desease.

Vista Sucks

Wise advice, indeed. I finally got all my drivers loaded and working on my laptop. Driveragent.com was a big help and well worth the 30 bucks. Microsoft really bit a big one with Vista, it's slow, cumbersome and uses up way too much hard drive and ram. I'll stick with the XP Pro and Firefox. My Hard drive now uses about 25% less storage for basic functions and works at least 70% faster. Cool! thanks for reading.

Vacation

Well, I've been enjoying a few days of R&R. Actually I worked on things around the house most of te time. I painted two doors today so I could hang them tonite. Inside white and the outside black and, you guessed it, One of them was painted backwards. I'll finish it tomorrow.
I got a new laptop several weeks ago loaded with Vista. After putting up with slow speed, interrupted internet and Vista using up hard drive I finally formatted it and loaded my old, reliable XP. Used a lot less hard drive and stays online even with sketchy signal.
Deb and I are still working on repairing our mariage. She usually eats dinner with me, visits a while and then I walk her home.
Mom is finally in a designated Medicaid bed now and will end her days there. I plan to see her in the morning. I'll write about that later. thanks for reading. Sorry, no pictures on this new computer.

More Stress

The nursing home where mom is staying is giving us a fit. Medicare has quit paying because Mom is not getting any better. The nursing home wants her out of there and there is nowhere to put her. We all work and our homes are not adequate for an invalid. We cant find a nursing home anywhere in our area that will take her except for private pay at 100 to 150 a day and we simply dont have the money to do that. The Medicaid case worker is being a bitch and has turned down her claim repeatedly. When we try to talk to her she rudely cuts us off and is not helpful at all. I talked to my state senator several times this week and he is trying to help but it takes time and there is no time. I'm only getting 4 or 5 hours sleep each night. When I get exhausted enough or have a few drinks I fall asleep only to wake up and start going over it all in my head. If we could sell moms' property we could afford private pay for a while but she is not able to make those decisions and it takes a great deal of time to go through the process of a competency hearing and selling a home. I tried for years to get mom to prepare for this type of thing but her desease made her paranoid and uncooperative. I get stacks of bills in the mail every day in her name and now many of them are trying to pressure me into taking responsibility for her debts. Mom is alert mst days and usually figures out who I am after I'm with her for a while but remains confused about where she is or why she is there. She gets very confused about the family and cannot remember who is alive and who is dead. I don't try to correct her about dead family because there is no need to make her relive the grief over and over again. The Medicaid case worker told us to cash in all of moms life insurance and spend all the money on her to qualify for assistance at the assisted living facility. Now that she is back in a nursing home environment the money we had in her account for a short while makes her ineligible for assistance even though we were doing what we were instructed to do. It is so frustrating, I wish Mom would just go ahead and join Dad. She is already gone to us in her mind. her personality and her flavor as a person is gone because of this damnable desease and now her body just keeps going for no reason. I feel so guilty for thinking like this but I can't help it. I took a day off without pay this week and still turned in 62 hours at work. I was drowning my problems but working like this I don't even have time to drink. My phone rings constantly and I feel sometimes like I'm being pulled apart. My grandson cried the other night because he hadn't seen his Gramps in so long. It is now 5 am and I managed to sleep 4 hours. I look forward to going to work each day because while I'm working I'm not thing about all this other. The nursing home people have started using cell phones to call me because I knew the company numbers and wouldn't answer. I've had to start sending all unknown numbers to voicemail. Life is too short for this. The last ten years have had way too much stress in them. I'm about ready for a change. Some days I feel like putting my phone in the trash, packing a bag and hitting the road. My biggest problem is that I have always been the responsible, practical one in the family. I have never turned my back on anyone and I have seldom let anybody down. Those habits are hard to break. The seven years I worked in the nursing home I met every need of every resident and now I can't meet the needs of one person who is so dear to me. My hands are tied and I am so frustrated I feel like exploding. I am an action person and this is not an action situation. Many have told me to get a lawyer but that takes money and I don't really know who hold responsible for the situation. Ultimately Moms' illness is to blame but you can't sue God. I'll try to post more when things develop just in case there someone out there actually reading this.

STRESS

I think I stayed here one night.

Well, Mom is a little better but still very frail. I think she's gonna stay in a nursing home environment for the remainder of her life. My sister is dealing with Medicaid and is in the middle of the paper work circus.

I've been working a lot of hours lately, 55 to 70 per week and haven't really had time to write anything. The spouse and I are going to the beach this wknd to try to get over some of the stress. I may drink too much. I've been remodeling moms' house in order to rent it out and discovered that the copper pipes have pinholes in them. Fortunately the house is small with minimal plumbing. I'll just have to deal with it. thanks for reading.

Working my butt off.

Hey, if you got an itch you gotta scratch it! Well, here we are int the last part of January and I finally get a chance to update.

Mom had a real downturn back at the first of the year and ended up back in the hospital and back to a nursing home. I don't really think she's going back to the assisted living this time. I'm going for a visit in a little while. Each time I see her I expect it to be the last. People in her condition tend to surprize you with their staying power though. She could live for years.

I've been doing at least 60- hrs a week lately with several projects going on. This should slack off in late feb. I get really tired but enjoy the income.

I loved this when I found it. Rellay explains a lot about what is going in in the "City by the Bay".

Well, the election year is in full swing now and I couldn't be less interested. ALL the politicos are liars and government for and by the people is a myth. I think we are in the beginning of the end of the American Empire. Sound gloomy?, I still feel like we have the best thing going. I also think that there has never been anything better. History will tell if I'm right. thanks for reading.

Happy New Year!

Here it is, the story of the coming year. I predict that by the end of the year 2008 we will be all heatily sick of politics.

I started my new years' eve out right with several shots of Sailor Jerrys', I hav no idea how this entry will look when I finish since the Sailor has an attitude.

Mom has been eloping lately. That is the term the institutions use to describe someone who is trying to escape. I don't know why this sudden change of heart. We had her meds changed and she has quited down somewhat. I can only hope that she decides to stay put. I hope you all have a happy and prosperous new yeer. thamks for reeding.

Let's hear them sleighbells jingaling........

Xmas* is upon us once again. The only thing positive about it is that I'm stil on the top side of the sod. The installation thing at work was halted until the programmer people could solve their problems and make the system work as promised.
Yesterday was one of those days when I felt like I was chasing my butt all day. I couldn't seem to get anything to work right and spent a lot of time driving. really frustrating.
Mom told me a couple of days ago that she was happy where she was and that I had done the right thing when I had her taken from her home several months ago. She said that she was confused and frightened back then and that she understood now that I was acting in her best interest. I knew that but it felt really good to hear her say it. thanks for reading.

*trademarked by the secular progressive movement USA

Dohh!

I saw the most inane thing last night. I was in one of our stores and noticed a baseball hat for sale. This hat had a pirate logo on it and emblazoned across the brim was this legend "Beatings will continue until moral improves." Note that it does not say morale but rather moral. Imagine, thousands of these hats are out there and are being worn with a typo on them. This shows just how our society has dumbed down. This hat got all the way through the process of design, screen printing and marketing without ever being noticed. To make it worse, thousands of people have bought them and are proudly wearing them, not realizing that thinking people evrywhere are saying to themselves "What a Maroon!". thanks for reading.

Even More Mom

Well, mom seems to be adjusting well to her new home. Sis took her to her house last night to eat dinner with her family. We ordered a new bed and a new lift chair for her to be delivered monday. She will be excited about this and these things will make her feel more at home there. We have had a real difficult time with Medicaid. Mom had three life insurance policies with total face value of 20,000. We were required to cash these in and spend the money on mom before she could qualify for assistance. We have to show proof of this, receipts and cancelled checks.
She is only allowed 1500 in life insurance, not even enough to bury her. Fortunately she has already paid all her burial expenses. Basically you have to be a pauper to qualify even though she has paid taxes and voted her entire life. They also told me that upon her death they would seek reimbursement from her estate, if any is available. I'm just happy she is in a nice place and is cared for. The stress from this has been almost more than I could take. The state and the medical establishments have required mounds of paperwork and working 55-60 hour weeks at the same time has been real stressful. The whole thing was worth it, though, to see mom acting halfway sane again. I know there will be more hard times ahead but I think I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel on this one.
We have been installing a new POS system at work in about 35-38 stores. I don't really know how many there are. I'm just a tech, I'm not in marketing. We do all the wiring and install the software and then the IT guys do the programming. We do this at night to avoid affecting sales as much as possible. Things usually go well the first few hours, we get our stuff in and then the IT guys start thier part. This is when it slows to a crawl. At first they are talkative and freindly, then they begin to huddle and talk really low. We ask "how's it going?" and they just glance at you and won't meet your eyes. Then after several hours of this suddenly everything starts to work. We show up at around 8pm and finish our part about 1am. They finish thier part about 5am. We can't leave because if something goes wrong we have to be there to correct it or to CYA. There's a lot of office politics going on and we just want this project to be finished. We're working really long hours and still handling service calls at the same time. I love it, the challenge is something I enjoy. Unlike moms' situation I can get a real handle on this and see real results. thanks for reading.

STRESS

I guess everyone is ready for thanksgiving. We've bought our turkey and prepared for the big meal. We probably would go out but our children insisted that it wouldn't be the same if we didn't do the big family meal thing. I think my sister is going to have mom at her house this year. thanks for reading.

Mom again

Well, we finally got a permanent home for mom. She has improved to the point that she is going into an assisted living right here in our town. She will still have her meds supervised and get her meals prepared but otherwise she is on her own. The picture shows just one of the common rooms in the place. there is also a really posh dining room and several activity areas. The residents also are taken out shopping and to other activities. Kinda like living on a cruise ship. She seems excited and is looking forward to the move. The down side is that to qualify for this we have to cash in her three small life insurance policies and spend the money on her or on her house by dec. 1 and show proof to the medicaid people. The paperwork I have gone through in the last three months is unbelievable. The picture above made it look kind of empty, actually the place is full of people. I wasn't allowed to take any pictures with the residents in them.

Christmas is just around the corner and I thought this photo would help get everyone in the right mood. With everything else to deal with I'm sure all the Santas out there are gonna be stressed to the max. thanks for reading.

Sugar High

Well, Halloween is over except for the sugar rushes the kids will be getting for the next few days till the candy runs out. I'm glad mine are grown. You can always send the grandkids home when they get to be too much.

I applied for some insurance the other day and my driver record came back showing a speeding conviction I wasn't aware of. Turns out this guy in California is using my number to drive on. I ran into this person 30 years ago when I first got a Commercial license. He has the same name and birthdate as I do and that's all the CDL people used to look at. Nowadays they also use the SS number. This is a bad guy with an arrest record small children could sit on to reach the dinner table. I called the CDL help line and they said I also had a record in Oregon, pretty strange considering that I've never been further west than Arkansas. This rules out that west coast vacation I was thinking about. If I got stopped for speeding in Ca I could wind up as someones sweetheart in a California penitentiary. thanks for reading.

Cool Weather

Here's a sample of an old comic I used to enjoy back in the day. The writer has had her website "under construction" forever. If she ever gets it up and running I'll buy her products.

We had a meeting this weekend and decided that mom should stay in the nursing home. She is too easily upset for us to try to care for her. Late meds or upset routine throw her into a bad mood and make her very hard to handle.

The medicaid people said that we could rent her home but they would get the money. Riiigghhht, I'm gonna put up with all the crap of being a landlord and the state gets the money. I don't think so. We'll just close the house, turn off the power and gas and let it rot. The state is gonna end up getting it anyways so why should I take care of it?

We're getting some cool weather now and I had to turn on my heat. I just installed this gaspack last summer and didn't realize the gas valve had an off and on positional switch. The spouse asked me turn the heat on. I didn't let on that I thought it was already on. I turned the switch on and sat back, nothing...then I noticed the blinking green light. I thought "green, that's good, better than a red blinking light." I noticed then that the light was blinking in a pattern. I looked on the back of the access door and found the chart. 6 blinks and then 1 blink. Timed out because of failed ignition. Then at the bottom, Reset by cycling power. I tripped the breaker and lo and behold, Heat! Troubleshooting is 90% observation and 10% perspiration.

Thought I'd include this pic for all of you who are gonna be traveling in the coming holidays. The Japanese have a way with English. They just don't get the subtleties. This poster indicates that the airline doesn't have lot of confidence. Why else would they wish you good luck? thanks for reading.

More Stuff

I think Cliff is on to something. Buffalo theory would explain a lot of things. Now if you could tie in the liver is evil, it must be punished with the Buffalo Theory you would cover all arguments for a snootfull.
Well, more in the continuing saga of Mom. She still packs her things every day in the expectation of going home. The stuff she packs seem to be multiplying. Lately they have included some of the Halloween decorations from around the nursing home and perhaps some of her room mates things. She told me recently that the water pitcher in her bag was a "Steal". She claims that it keeps ice all day! She needed a Kleenex the other night and said that they wouldn't give her any. I found the Kleenex in her bags, packed up and ready to go. I'm meeting with the sibs this morning to discuss options on her future. A touchy and emotional issue. The stress level is at 9.5. Another good excuse for a snootfull. thanks for reading.

More Mom

This is the feeling I get sometimes. No matter what I come up with someone else beats me to the punch.
I took my grandson to visit mom yesterday and she was thrilled. She gets everyone else mixed up but she knew who he was. She started crying when she saw him and was afraid it would upset him. I explained to him that it was tears of happiness and he was fine with it. they talked and had a good visit. He really acted mature for a 6 year old.
We have until the end of the month to get a room ready for her at my brothers' house. She is real excited to be going there. She will eat good there, my brother likes to cook and enjoys preparing meals for other people. This is so strange, Mom has been hostile to his family for 6 years and now she is going there. Mom has an entire new attitude while on the proper medicine. The trick to making this work will be getting her to take her medicine.
We helped my wifes' mother move yesterday and Friday and got really stressed. I always dread moving someone else's belongings. Something always gets broken or scratched and then the qeustion, do I offer to pay for it?.
I mean, you volunteer to help and if something goes wrong you get a guilt trip free of charge.
Oh well, we gotter done and My part of it is over. Just seeing all her crap made me want to come home and throw away some stuff. I will keep sentimental items but not to the extent that my home is cluttered. Except for furniture I like to keep personal items down to what will fit in a suitcase. I like to spend my spare time roaming the house looking for things to discard. Those pictures of traditional Japanese homes where everything is so Spartan make me envious. The Spouse mentioned decorating the house the other day and I was confused. I mean, there's paint on all the walls, what more is needed? Beige paint. I'll probably spend some time today getting rid of some clothes too. All my clothes should fit in no more than two washing machines. I've accumulated some extra clothes this summer and it's time to thin 'em out. If the men in the black Chevy Suburbans ever come for me I can pack and go out the window faster than they can sneak in the back door. thanks for reading.

Events

Here it is 4 am and I'm wide awake. Mom is doing ok, by that I mean she is in good physical health but her mind is still gone. She is no longer so beligerant and is a lot easier to get along with. My brother and his wife are going to take her home in a couple of weeks and try caring for her at thier house. I wish them the best. I know it's gonna be hard.

Today I'm gonna be the only tech in the area and I've already got several calls to start the day. We got a little rain last night, I woke and heard it and thought "what is that noise?". We've so little rain recently that it sounded strange. thanks for reading.