Good-Bye To January

January was a mixture of warm, cold, snow and ice, sunny days, cloudy days, windy days  and just plain gloomy days.   BUT in all it was a good month. 

The weather is like Alzheimer's.  But you make the best of each day in-spite of the mood or weather.   I have to tell you what has kept us afloat when the weather was not accommodating outside activity.

A Trapping Forum on the computer.  Tom will spend hours reading on there.  It is a very active forum so there is always something new.  Tom has even joined in and has made a few friends.  He gets so excited when he sees the flashing envelope.  "MOM, I've got mail!  Somebody wrote to me!"  Sometimes he says, guess nobody likes me when he hasn't had any mail for awhile.  I'll tell him it helps if he writes to them.  They always answer.
 

 The funny part is Tom just starts clicking on this and that and makes a big mess on the computer screen and than hollers.....

 

"MOM!  Look what I did......... !  "You didn't order anything did you?"  I ask laughing to myself.... "I don't know"  he says..... That's pay pal Tom!....What did you do...?  I ask teasingly.  " Gosh I don't know...."  Are you trying to buy stuff?  "No... " he says, "I don't know how I got there....Get me out of here."  We laugh together as I clean up the screen.

I get him back to his forum and a way he goes again.  I have to tease him as he thinks it's funny.  "Mom...I get into all kinds of trouble hah?"  "You sure do",  I reply.  That's why I have to keep an eye on you.

The Bunk- Bed

  I've been discussing with Sanj about making my bunk this week end....figured we could use the boys in the project.  Tom heard me mention that I was going to go get the lumber.......

Actually the project went well.  : 0    but I had to let him do it his way....I only asked he explain what he was thinking out loud so I could be of some assistance.  Clever hah!  : )

So I was able to redirect when he was going to build the bed "TO THE WALL"   As in nail the boards to the wall.     " I've lived in shacks all his life and one thing he knows is how to build a bunk.  It don't take a whole lot of brains and it isn't a big deal like you make it out to be........."

Remember Green Acres and the flute music.........?    "I hear that when he goes on one of those...    "I've lived in the woods all my life and.........."

We had to measure, cut and focus on one board at a time.....It worked better when we got to two boards because that's when the assemble began......... In the end it looked like a bunk, it was not attached to the wall and he was proud of his accomplishment.......... me too! Even if it wasn't any big deal!  Geeze!!!!

 A Little Story........ When Tom and I were in the beginning of our relationship we cleaned out a shed behind the house to make it into a little shack.  When we needed to make a bed he was on it...... I watched in "shock" as he nailed the boards to the wall ...............

Spaghetti Anyone?

Tom has been having trouble getting through the days..... he checks on the loggers and take Lilly and Emily for a run......... then he doesn't know what to do with himself.
 
ALL he wants to do is T R A P.  So he spends most of the day reading on this forum I found for him on the internet ......people talking trapping.  He loves it and I think it takes him to a different place in his mind.  But back to reality when he walks away.


This is when the reality of this disease sets in.  He "thinks" he can't go out and trap because.....he needs all this stuff and we don't have the money for it.

I wish it were so simple and I wish his interest was something more do-able.  It breaks my heart.  I wish there was a trapper around here that would take Tom now and than.....He gets cold easy and doesn't like to be gone away from me for very long or to far.  So a few trips would probably satisfy this deep desire in him.

I say that because this is what happened toward the end of his passion for fishing and deer hunting........A whole season if only I had......Someone took him a few times and that was it.  Than when the next season came he just didn't want to.

SO that leaves me trying to find ways to SNAP Tom out of his "MOODS?"  I got an idea from a movie he had watched just the other night.  I caught most of it.  And just to tell you...he didn't make the connection and I did it all right under his nose. 

FOOD/ AROMA seems to talk to him.....I think it makes the house smell like "Mama is cooking"  It's a warm fuzzy, loving and secure feeling.  I'm guessing at that but it works for depressed moods.  Also the sound and sight of me in the kitchen.  A "June Clever" kind of thing.

He loves my home made spaghetti sauce.  Well I didn't have everything I needed but I'm good at punting.  So for visual I let my sauce splatter out of the pot all over the stove and anything else that was in the vicinity.  Not much kitchen action going on watching spaghetti sauce spatter out of the pot so I come up with the idea of making home made spaghetti noodles.

Now Tom is at the computer in "Trapping Word" the whole time which is pretty much in my kitchen.  I threw flour on the flour, on myself, and on Emily .......WHAT A MESS!!!!!!!!

The whole time I'm thinking it's going to take HOURS to clean this up.  If this doesn't snap him out of his mood I'm going to be royally pissed.........I mean unhappy :)

I cooked up enough noodles for him and made him a plate.  "Sweetheart, why don't you have something to eat.  I made you a plate."  He got up from the computer and went to the table to eat, sat down and said "Mmmmm this looks good"...........
Than he looked up at me, my kitchen, and burst out laughing.... "MoM!! your a mess, so is the kitchen....Emily, what happened to you?"

End of ? mood and a happy person took his place.  He was in such a good mood he asked Harry (brother-in-law) over for a bite......

OH WHAT I DON"T DO TO GET THROUGH THE DAY WITH HIM............

I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

Logging

The loggers are down here now....Tom checks on them everyday hoping for a chance to run a few skids of wood.  Technology has changed things so much from Tom's days in the woods, I think he just wants to see if he can do it.  (Run the new and bigger equipment)

He is always challenging his brain...in some instances he has learned to do things different.  Like slow down and do things in steps.  Therefore only having to remember on thing at at a time. ( He can only do this with things he already knew how to do before Alz.)

 Anyone knowing Tom before must be chuckling here.  You would never use Tom and patience (slow down) in the same sentence.  He even laughs about it.

Tom often talks about when he was just a small fry, logging with his Dad.....They used horses then.......  "Gosh I was just little then.  Their names were Greta and Bell...... Dads' horses.......He use to put me on their backs and let me ride with them dragging in a skid of wood." 

You could see in his eyes that the image in his mind was crystal clear....... and he chuckles....... "One time after feeding and grooming the horses I took Bell, the black one, for a ride down the rode and back.  On the way back she took off running and wouldn't stop.  Dad stood in the middle of the road waving his arms trying to stop her and was yelling jump, jump ..... " What did you do?" I asked.  "I jumped........Gosh I was just little then.........."

"Now look how they move wood like it's nothing.............."  What they can move in one day today would have taken half a winter to do back then................

Project: Bunk-Bed : )

Okay... about this bunk bed thing....... My Mother gave me a really nice, mattress for my soon to be bunk bed........I mean it is nice....

Now anyone following my blog knows that there isn't a lot of comfortable room in our wall to wall bed, with all the girls sprawled out.  I end up in the crack between two beds and if they lay on my blanket I'm shit out of luck.  They won't move...... That leaves me in the crack and no covers and if someone decides to sleep below me my legs are up around my neck and can't stretch out, in the crack with no covers....AND for some reason they all like to snuggle by "me"???????

My solution is a bunk over one end of the wall to wall bed.  Now I can hear some chuckling going on about this but this is no laughing matter...... I need some sleep even if it is interrupted by letting the gang out to go potty in the middle of the night.

Now I figure falling out of bed is only hazardous to who ever is stupid enough to sleep directly under the edge of the bunk.  I see soft landing for me.... : )

Other than that the only other potential mishap I foresee (key word....foresee) is the ceiling fan which is on high speed 24 - 7  : (

My  brother -in -law Harry gave me the lumber to build my bed so now I have only to "hood wink" someone into helping me build this thing.....It will have to be built in the room or you won't get it in but the bedroom is wall to wall bed so that leaves this project a challenge with the odds not in favor of???????

I only know one person who likes a challenge with the odds running against. That's my daughter Sandy.......Up for the challenge my "little nut"?

"4" ?????? Dogs????

My Mom and Brother stopped by the other day.  They were bringing me Mom's mattress as she bought a new one.  It's for my bunk I've been threatening to make.....

They live in a different town so I don't get to see them much... Before Tom's Alz. advanced we'd spend weeks with Mom.  We would have so much fun!  We only had Maggie and Lilly than.  Mom loved the girls and spoiled them.

Anyway.....Mom was a little surprised to see our little one standing in the door to greet her.  She wasn't aware our family had grown.  Which brings me to my story today..............

I can imagine the vision one would have of four dogs running around.  I guess I never thought about it.  But Mom made a comment before she left that made me aware that others might question this too.

She was impressed and surprised over how quiet and calm they all were...of coarse that was after the initial  "warm greetings" from the over excited girls who love company and thinks everyone comes with treats JUST FOR THEM..........

I respect them as dogs first, than spoil them rotten.... Tom does not see them as dogs but as kids and family. They are like service dogs...... Tom's condition isn't specific when it comes to his needs. Each one with a different personality responds to Tom according to what they sense is going on at the moment.  That's the best I can explain it.

These four dogs live in complete harmony.  There is no competing or jealousy among them.  They have learned to read Tom and his moods and know he is unreliable but I am consistent and look to me for leadership.

I can not see my life without any one of them......They help me with Tom and they give me companionship and protection and love.   It's all self explanatory to anyone who has been out and have seen first hand.......