Shizzle Popped

[Slim Cognito]

[Shizzle Popped]

We're back home from my dad's for a few days. We actually got back late on the 3rd so we could celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary at home on the 4th. We normally do some small project together on our anniversary but the last month at my dad's has done a number on my back so we took the day off and watched movies. The house is now fully staged and listed as "coming soon" and will go live next weekend.

My brother flies in from NYC Monday morning and the two of us are going over to decide what to do with the boxes of photos and other personal items we found while we were clearing the house out. We also have a couple of appointments to cover with my dad. The most important is the insurance assessment for his long term-care coverage. It won't be a ton of money but it'll probably cover a third of his monthly costs. Assisted living has taken over his medications, he has a fall history and, somewhat surprisingly, he's agreed to stop driving. Getting approval shouldn't be an issue and TransAmerica was pretty good with my mom's nursing home stays.

My dad seems to have settled in pretty well. He says the food is pretty good though it's a bit "institutional". I suspect with the wide ranging dietary issues the population has that there's not a lot they can do about that. He likes the people who work there and says they've all been extremely helpful. We had dinner in his apartment a few times while we were there and somebody stopped by to check on him around 7:00 each night. It's a small place with 30-some apartments and he says nobody bothers to lock their doors during the day. One issue he was having was with knowing what day and time it was. His watch was a very old auto-winding thing that with his reduced activity hasn't been keeping time. On top of that we didn't think to put a clock or calendar in the place. So, we got him a new battery operated watch that's easier to read and a LaCrosse clock that displays the day of week, month and date in addition to the time. It was such a little thing and two items only cost about $80 but he was tickled pink about them.

Over the last week or two I've started to experience some discomfort in the thumb on my right hand. At first I thought I hurt it doing some work at my dad's house but it's kind of settled into an odd discomfort that feels an awful lot like the arthritis in the large toe of my left foot. Crap.

Next Saturday we spend the day in downtown Indy as delegates to the Indiana State Democratic Convention. I'm looking forward to spending the day with a couple of thousand people that don't think white, straight Christians are the only people that matter.

[AndyinPA]

It's nice to hear things are going so well with your dad!

[Shizzle Popped]

I'm back at my dad's tonight, along with my brother this time. My brother and I both feel my dad is stronger than he was before. We think it's partly that he's actually eating regular meals and has gained a bit of weight and partly that he's out walking the fairly long halls a couple of times a day. He was walking around the apartment at dinner without the aid of his walker or cane and was standing pretty close to upright. This is good news. The only thing that worries us is that he was complaining about the food. His propensity to skip a LOT of meals is one reason he got weaker and ended up in assisted living to begin with. So, we'll see. If he starts skipping meals then he'll start to decline again and he'll end up in a nursing home. He won't come live with us...we've offered. This is a discussion all of us have had with him so I hope it's sinking in.

Tomorrow is the medical assessment for his long-term care insurance. I'm not expecting any issues but you never know. Otherwise, this trip is about going through all the personal items and photos. My brother seems a bit overwhelmed. He should have been here a few weeks ago. No, better that he wasn't.

[bill_g]

I went through that with Barbara. She slowly starved herself. But for that brief period when she was feeling good, she ate and felt even better. She could walk down to the mailbox and drive herself to her appointments.

[pipistrelle]

Older Clients and Eating Disorders

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

[bill_g]

Older Clients and Eating Disorders

Good article. Thank you.

[Shizzle Popped]

Older Clients and Eating Disorders

Sorry for the delay in responding...it's been a very long week. Thanks for the article. It presents some very real possibilities. My brother and I are thinking it might be related to medication. We went out to a local Mexican restaurant the other night and my dad was complaining about the taste of the food there too. My brother, wife and I all think this restaurant is in the top 5 best Mexican restaurants we've eaten at and my dad has complained about the food twice when we've been there.

[Shizzle Popped]

My brother and I have spent the week sorting through box after box of stuff buried in closets for the last 36 years. Most of it is useless and a little odd but some is incredibly interesting. I have a banker's box full of family history and genealogy that was scattered over the contents of at least a half dozen boxes in three closets. I have a half box of old photos from the 1860s through the 1940s. There's a solid silver compact that was my grandmother's on my mother's side and my dad's service records from the Korean war.

There's an equal amount of really odd stuff that makes me ask why anybody kept it. We've come across a couple of dozen little bags of spare Christmas tree bulbs and fifteen high school and college yearbooks, some of which I can't figure out who they belonged to. Then there's what I'm calling the "death box". I have an entire bankers box of memorabilia from the funerals of just about every close relative in the family, including a large portfolio of items from my mom's half brother who was killed in WWII. There's a W-2 (or whatever the equivalent was) from 1964, receipts for inconsequential items dating back to the 1950s and many, many more. Then there was this:

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My grandparents on my father's side had a reasonably large number of chickens and sold eggs. But a ledger of egg sales from 1947? What would possess someone to keep that particular thing?

It's been an interesting few days. The photographer is coming tomorrow afternoon to take listing pictures of the interior so we have to get all this cleared out and the house re-staged before she gets here.

[sugar magnolia]

In 1947 that was probably the only money she could call her "own" so she was diligent about keeping up with it. It's where the term egg money came from.

https://lovethosehandsathome.wordpress. ... egg-money/

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Hubby’s grandfather kept a journal of every expenditure. He was a Methodist preacher beginning in the 1920’s. He was paid in eggs, firewood, sweet potatoes, chickens, and whatever his United Methodist congregants could do.

[Foggy]

Well sure. I'm an ordained minister myself, and I'll give you a much better sermon if'n you give me a chicken or a goat beforehand.

[Frater I*I]

Well sure. I'm an ordained minister myself, and I'll give you a much better sermon if'n you give me a chicken or a goat beforehand.

Will we sacrifice the goat?

[Sam the Centipede]

Well sure. I'm an ordained minister myself, and I'll give you a much better sermon if'n you give me a chicken or a goat beforehand.

Will we sacrifice the goat?

and then barbecue it?

[sugar magnolia]

Well sure. I'm an ordained minister myself, and I'll give you a much better sermon if'n you give me a chicken or a goat beforehand.

Will we sacrifice the goat?

and then barbecue it?

You roast goats. You barbecue chickens.

[Shizzle Popped]

We leave to go back home tomorrow morning. The house looks great and the realtor is thrilled. We have 5 boxes of my mother's china (all double boxed) that we need to ship on our way out. The first showing is at 10 am tomorrow morning and the realtor says there are several showings already scheduled for the weekend. This from a "coming soon" listing with only a shot of the front of the house. The photographer came by to take the listing photos this afternoon so the whole thing should go live sometime tomorrow.

I've been home roughly two of the last six weeks so I'd really like to stay there for a while but I'm betting I'll be back before the end of the month. My back has gone from a state of constant lower level pain to constant mid level pain with frequent severe spikes. Saturday, I spend the day at the state Democratic convention in what I'm sure will be chairs designed as torture devices so that may be a lot of fun. Still, I'm looking forward to it.

[AndyinPA]

[keith]

Will we sacrifice the goat?

and then barbecue it?

You roast goats. You barbecue chickens.

I had a Goat Masala for dinner last night. Why do goat curries always come with the bones and so little meat?

[Foggy]

Wow, you did it with style, Shizzle. I can but gape in admiration.

[Shizzle Popped]

Home. It was a long, stressful drive. Lots of trucks and the left lane was all over from 50 to 80 mph most of the trip. But, the listing has gone live and the photos look great. This house always looked cramped and cluttered almost from the day my parents moved in. We stripped it down and tried to pull it at least partway out of the 1980s. I think it looks pretty good.

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[pipistrelle]

I've never lived in a house so looks great to me. (Plus I'm a packrat. In a small space.)

[Maybenaut]

Looks great! Here’s hoping for a quick sale!

[sugar magnolia]

I love a kitchen that faces the front of the house, but why 2 dining rooms? It looks like a very comfortable house.

[Shizzle Popped]

I love a kitchen that faces the front of the house, but why 2 dining rooms? It looks like a very comfortable house.

Breakfast nook and formal dining room. In a house that size I would have used the space differently but my mom insisted on a formal dining room. It got used at thanksgiving and Christmas, if they were home and had company. The formal living room rarely got used. Personally, I've never really liked the house but it's what they wanted. I did like the breakfast nook and would sit at the table with my laptop so I could look out the bay window.