Story of the Week

I picked up Dad and first thing he grins and says,
"I've got a bummer for you today."
I pack up the walker and get into the car and he continues...
"Lola came up to me today and announces "You need me, Odie. I can take care of you."
Now Lola is another senior who is there during the day. She flirts with Dad if you will recall some previous stories.
"She had plans for us to get together and move in."
"I told her that I have everything taken care of and that my daughter takes care of me and she does a fine job." "I don't drive anymore."
With that being said, Dad gets up and makes the excuse that he has to use the restroom. When he came out she had moved on to the other side of the room.
Dad then says to me, "She is {still trying to remember the word he used...will get back to this later. LOL}

Dad just couldn't wait....

Dad fell, but he is okay. Healing up now with tape sutures to pull the skin together at the eyebrow. It all could have been prevented....but it was one of those days that I thought he was doing well enough to walk alone. MISTAKE! He gives me a false sense of security when he wants to do something alone. Most of the time I watch or am nearby to get to him in time but not this time.
I had cut my foot outside in the front and it was bleeding...at the same time, Dad opens the front door and I asked him where he was going and he said to the back yard to see the progress on the shed. It's really hard to tell him no when I don't want to take away his total independence BUT I should have turned him around. I asked him why he was going out the front door to the back when he could go across the living room...he didn't want to put on his shoes at the back door. haha Okay well my foot was bleeding which Dad didn't know and I had to go inside and get it stopped. I wasn't thinking at all that Dad would fall. I watched him walk slowly around the corner in the front...I hurried inside to get a paper towel to stop the blood while holding my foot in the air....yeah, it was a sight. So I get to the laundry room for some slippers and there is Dad coming around the corner to the back yard...okay, so far so good. I get the wet towel and look at the kitchen window and there he is walking slow...I look out again a few seconds later and no Dad....I went to the bay window and there he was on the cement sitting up. I ran out the door still no bandaid on my foot and I see he is bleeding at the head. I RUN back inside grab wet paper towels to compress to stop the bleeding. I check his arms, legs and ask him if he hurts anywhere....he says no. He bent up his glasses and it was the glasses that really caused the cut on his head and over his nose....however, had he not had them on, he might have broken his nose or worse. So I get him to his feet....and have him stand a moment...and he says he can walk. I get him in the house and on his bed. I get him cleaned up so I can see the cut. I decide it's a call for the emergency room. I have not used a ER here in so many years I can't remember. So it took me about an hour to actually get his treatment started. By that time Rod arrived at ER and they took a CT scan of Dad's head. No bleeding, no fractures, no concussion. That was the good news. The bad news was that he looked like he had been in a fight with Ali.
His eye was swollen shut.
Dad was joking with the nurses and I told Dad this was not the time to be funny and tell them I beat him up. haha He did that once before thinking it was funny and I told him in TODAY'S world, that ain't funny. He grinned that ornery grin.
They sent him home with an antibiotic script, a scar with tape sutures over it and a big patch to keep it clean.
He never once said it hurt....we went home and got a light supper and he was in bed by 9pm. I put his alarm pad on the bed because I didn't want him getting up by himself at night. This night, naturally, lol, he gets up every 2 hours. I asked him if this was pay back for letting him go out that front door. WHICH he can't do no more no matter how good he walks.
He actually would have made it fine had he not tripped over the edge of the cemement that sticks up on the corner.

That was last Monday....he is much better today with the healing well in progress. His eye has been open for several days. He told Chris today that it never really ached or hurt him. It was his arms that were sore. His bruises are green now...

Oh but he used the accident to get some laughs.
At the Senior Center...first thing when he was asked by the group of them that are at the door at 10am..Dad pipes up after asked what happened to him,
"I was in a fight....but you ought to see the other guy!"

They all laughed outloud....Dad's mission accomplished. Dad should have been on the stage.

Here is a photo of us yesterday at the Company Picnic at Incredible Pizza. We played games, ate, played games and watched Viva Las Vegas and ate again.

Dad was pooped when he got home and he slept for 4 hours.

The Male Mermaid...or MerMAN!

Not a day goes by that Dad doesn't come up with something to make us laugh. I am just sorry on this one I didn't take the photo. I thought about it....I almost went for the camera but Dad was in his underwear and even Dad has his limits of what I can take a picture of. I thought later I could have blocked the underwear out but it was too late then.
It began with Friday morning and Dad getting ready for breakfast and to go to the Senior Center. Dad was in the bedroom without the light on, as usual. For a man who leaves the lights on all over the house in his own home...he sure can't seem to turn a light on when he really needs it to see what the heck he is doing. haha
I was finished getting dressed myself and I walked down the hall and looked in on Dad. I just burst out laughing. There he was, sitting on the chair with both legs in the SAME pants leg.
Dad had that smirk/smile on his face that he knew I was going to laugh when I saw him. I don't even ask how he does that stuff anymore. The answer is always the same. "I do NOT know." So I sat on his bed, still laughing, and told him he looked like a Mermaid, or in his case, a MERMAN!
I told him to take one leg out and what does he say?
"WHICH ONE?" LMAO
The ONE that doesn't belong would be good. So he says,"If I KNEW which one didn't belong, I wouldn't have BOTH of them in the same leg.

And so it began the day....so much better than crying.

He is doing so very well. I have to say that even in the last couple weeks, he is better than he has been in a couple years. His mind is clear...well, as clear as it gets, haha Not counting the dressing incidents. He eats well. He remembers better about taking his meds and what day it is...and what he does on that day.
I suppose he has got into the routine here. We stay pretty close to the same routine throughout the week. I know older folks like to know what to expect on what day. However, I warned him a long time ago that there is no routine on the weekends. We might do just about anything that pops up.
In fact, today we are headed out later to try out a new restaurant. Maybe Dad will give me a new story later. LOL

Dad's New TV

Dad never had a TV in his bedroom all the years he and Mom were married. I don't think Rod and I were ever without one. I can't go to sleep until I see a little TV. Some people read books and some watch TV. Dad always said that when he goes to bed he goes there to sleep and not watch TV. LOL BUT things have changed. I had two TVs at one time in Dad's room because I would switch him in the bed because it was necessary when he first came to live with us for preventing pressure marks on his skin. Now that's not an issue so he only needs one TV. He would say to me that he can't see that little TV...but he never would come out and say, OKAY you are right, I like watching TV in bed and I want a bigger TV. hahaha You would have to know my Dad to get that one.
At night he hints that he might like the TV on....usually I ask him if he wants to watch something. Usually it's Animal Planet. Right before I go out the door, he asks if I set it to go off by itself....YEP, Pa.....in 30 minutes. That's about how long it takes him to get good and asleep. LOL

So we did look at sizes of TVs and which ones he thought would work. He ended up saying that IF he was to get one....although he would say while looking at them that they cost too much and he don't need it... {which is what he said about everything JUST before he bought it}, he would get a 32".
I have been looking and comparing prices for the last couple months. I didn't get one before we staying in Indiana for 3 months because I want to make sure I am here while we try it out in case I get a lemon...I have 30 days to complain. LOL
So yesterday I bought one while Dad was at the Senior Center. He doesn't know it yet. I will just let him find it on his own.
My sister and I discussed through an email just what he will complain about...cause he will....and it better not be the SIZE of it. LOL
Update later.

UPDATE to TV reaction...
Dad came home today @ 4pm and we ate dinner at 5:00. I mentioned that there was a surprise in his bedroom....he says, "Yes I know...you made the bed." I laughed and said, YEAH, I do that every day...that is not it. Then he says, "I didn't see anything." I told him when he got curious enough he will know then. Rod and I were putting away dishes and Dad disappeared. I turned around and he was gone and I didn't think much about it figuring he was in the bathroom, as usual.
Rod came up behind me to kiss me on the neck and Dad blurts out...."Now what do I want with that TV.{grinning.} He made Rod JUMP...and Rod pulled away from me like we were caught necking on the couch and I was 16. I laughed and laughed.....neither one of them had a clue why I was laughing.
Finally I stopped laughing and said to Dad...."Yep, Nola was right...you found fault with it already." Dad says, "No I didn't." LOL
I reminded him about how he complains that he can't see the little TV and now he has a big one and still finds a reason to complain.
However, he doesn't see it as complaining. He is JUST "making a comment." Oh brother!
I follow him back in his bedroom and lo and behold he sure figured out which remote it was and read POWER and pushed it. Now it takes a second for it to come on but Dad has no patience and says it doesn't work. LMAO.
Then it comes on and OMG, what a big grin on his face !! Then he wants to know how to change the channels and how to do this and that. hahaha Oh please, yeah, I shouldn't have bought it....uh huh.
Then comes," That screen is twice as big!" Next thing I know, he is laying on the bed. I leave and come back later....and please NOTE where the remote control is NOW.

More photos at the fair

Fun at the State Fair...October 3, 2010

We spent the early afternoon until 10:30pm at the State Fair. Dad was wide awake for the whole thing....he was eating all the stuff we were doing taste tests on....we got the Krispy Kreme Donut HAMBURGER everyone was talking about on TV.....it was so so....EIGHT BUCKS if you wanted bacon and cheese on it. We got corn dogs, chili fries and sweet potato fries which were really good....oh and we were sharing chocolate dipped frozen cheesecake and corn on the cob. I forgot to get my usual sno cone but there's always next year. Besides that, we were stuffed!!

We went all over the fairgrounds but missed the QT building where the decorated cakes were....I needed to stay with Dad so we could get a good seat for the Roy Clark Show. Rod did take photos of the cakes for me.

It was cold outside but DAD wanted to stay out there to see Roy and Leroy Van Dyke. He was cold but he said he was going to stay and see them. Leroy was first and the show was an hour....after 9pm I told Dad that when Roy came on and I got some photos and he got cold we could leave anytime he liked....Roy comes on and Dad is clearly enjoying it....at 9:30pm I asked him if he wanted to go and to my surprise he said no, since he had stayed out there this long...even though he was a frozen popsicle he said. LOL
Dad said he was going to tell his friends that he got to see Roy and show him the photo I print out.
He called his gal friend tonight, but she wasn't impressed. LOL WOMEN!