Difficult Times...

The air conditioning has been fixed, my phone has been replaced, and I have my van back...however all this has paled into utter insignificance by an abrupt decline in my father's health. He is 87 years old, and while he has been showing his age more and more the past few years, he has always been very healthy and able.

In the past few weeks he has lost interest in food, become weak and infirm, and fallen once. He was not injured, thankfully, and he has been intelligent and sensible enough to immediately put down his car keys and grab a walker and be consistent about using it. He is showing also cognitive lapses in memory here and there, though he remains over all lucid and intelligent. He has been seen by his Dr whom we all feel is being a bit cavalier about the whole thing, and a second visit and more blood work has been scheduled, with Dad more inclined towards being a bit more aggressive about finding out what could be wrong. The fall was a bit of a wake up call, he's not so much in denial anymore.

We have been going over to see them and visit and impart company and cheer as we can, and I spent today running Mom and him around for errands. This had its challenges, as Mom has severe untreatable back issues and is herself on a walker or in a wheel chair. She is actually managing to care for him and his basic needs, as she is now abruptly the more able of the two of them, but its difficult for her. Of course, if he falls or something goes very wrong, she cannot manage that. So I was playing musical walkers and wheel chairs all afternoon, helping them get things done - fortunately we all have good senses of humor and even had fun.

Mom did express privately to me that she is frightened that this is a decline that he may not be able to recover from, and I have to agree with her. That is my own fear. However, it may also turn out to be treatable. We don't know what's really going on yet.

Looking back, I realize now that at the Greek Festival we attended in town three months ago, he didn't eat all day - and that is shocking, because my Dad loves food in general and would never have passed up good Greek food. He's not been eating much if at all for months, we have just realized. A few weeks of not eating enough will not totally enfeeble you like this and there is more going on than just loss of appetite or lack of food.  It goes back that far, and I should have seen that, but hindsight has much better focus. This is something that has crept up gradually, this situation did not just pop out of the woodwork over night. Even though it feels like it did.

So, my blogging has been yanked sideways the past few weeks, with all this. And truthfully, this is a short post, as I am very tired myself from today. And I get to go do it all over again tomorrow. Which is a privilege all the same. When I was a child, for 5 long years I was in a wheel chair, a leg brace, spent time in a body cast, hospital stays...and through it all, Dad wrestled and wrangled wheel chairs and crutches and medical situations with unfailing good cheer, patience and love.

Its my turn, Dad. 

I love you! 

Mom and Dad at the Greek Festival in 2014 - the picture below them in
the picture is of them on Dad's high school graduation day in 1944,
which was also their first date. 

There's News and Then There's News....

OK...good news and bad news. Lets start with the bad news...All happy and excited over the AC repair guy coming this afternoon to get the air conditioner back on. Around noon got word that he would not make it until tomorrow, probably afternoon. I swear I nearly lost it. Saturday will be day 6 without air conditioning, in 90+ degrees, humidity "Feels like" 99.
I managed to rein in my homicidal moment, did a bunch of grounding, centering, and breathing, and readjusted my expectations. He did message us and apologize, the usual each thing on his schedule kept taking longer and longer as repairs are wont to do - you think you've got a hour and a half job all figured out and when you get into the repair, it suddenly take 3 1/2 hours plus time spent going and getting the widgets and gizmos that you suddenly don't have. And one will be out of stock. So the jobs get pushed further and further out through the day, and some people fall off the end and have to be scheduled tomorrow. I really do get it. I know he's doing his best.
So...tomorrow. We can do this. The cats and the dog are OK, making sure they have plenty of water, but the cats particularly are doing Salvador Dali melting imitations all over the place, draped over the furniture.

The good news is that I went ahead and got my phone replaced, and am very pleased with it. It has good resolution on the camera, good connectivity, and it cost less that my old phone which the only way to describe it was "piece of crap." The new one is great. On the other hand, I lost phone numbers, so am working on building them back up.  The lake pictures are officially back, and not only was tonight's sunset beautiful, it gave me a chance to really see how the resolution on the camera phone did. And it is excellent.
So...I will leave you with my view of the lake tonight, and look forward to tomorrow and a much cooler house. Good night and blessings to all....

We're getting there....

Day four of the air conditioner being broken down. Still not promising coherent thoughts in blog posts til this is over. The cats are beginning to resemble Salvador Dali paintings, draped all over the house in melting poses. We did get some relief today when a major storm with hail blasted its way through the neighborhood - it probably dropped the temperature 15 degrees out there, the house became substantially cooler and even comfortable for a few hours!
Tomorrow the AC repair person is coming to fix the motor. Less than 24 hours to go, this is going to be such a relief! Bonus moment, if possible, will probably pick up new phone tomorrow evening too. AC comes first!
Also, it is now July 11...and fireworks are still being shot off in our neighborhood.

This whole situation has been a bit nuts, my van, my phone and the air conditioning all died and broke down within a week of each other. We managed to put together part of the funds needed to dig our way out, some very dear friends have jumped in to help us make it the rest of the way.
Somewhere in the foggy zone of coping with heat prostration I wrote a Filk* song about this.
I wrote the lyrics, the music is by Leslie Fish.

These Things Come in Threes, Y'know..."

"Helping out a friend that day and miles away from home
The van locks up, now broken down, no further here to roam
Fortune comes in tow truck dude
who gets it turned back on
Just get it to the shop he said,
And then you journey on.

These things come in threes you know,
So wonder what is next
I've reached the shop, come pick me up
I'm sending out in text.

Next day I call the shop to find
It closed for holiday
I leave a message to be found
A week from now today
And hanging up the phone I find
Disaster number two...
The phone gives up the ghost and dies
Just as I'm calling you...

These things come in three's you know
And that was number two
The van is dead, the phone won't charge,
You'd think I'd get clue...

So working out the budget now to
Pay for phone and van
I noticed that the house is hot
And to the window ran
The air conditioning froze up;
the cats began to melt
I really can't repeat the words
Describing how I felt. (Spoken: I really can't...there might be kids present...)

These things come in threes you know,
And oh boy was that one three
Forget the van, forget the phone
The heat is killing me

So step by step we'll figure out
A way to pay these bills
And wonder just what deity
We angered for these ills
We're trying hard to focus on
The good things we still have
Shared joys will double if we try
And misery it halves..

Those things come in threes you know
How precious they can be
My friends who hug, my pets who purr
And my wife, who so loves me!

(Lyrics by Cameron
Music by Leslie Fish)

*For non-Filking friends, Filk is the art of writing songs, often in a SciFi Fantasy milieu, though subject may be about anything, and often to a tune that someone else has written as a deliberate parody. So I have committed Filk here, but I promise, I washed my hands afterwards...

A Kinda Sorta Update Post...

A lot has been going on...some of it includes arguing with Blogspot 

over whether or not I even have a blog, while trying to log in here, with it telling me

 "You currently do not have a blog. Do you wish to start one?" Argh. 
At any rate, finally won that argument. So, I'm coming back...however, our air conditioning here at home has broken down, too many brown outs, surges and close lightening strikes on the lake. The motor has to be replaced. Which as its been in the mid to high 90's here, with intense humidity, I don't think I have any brain cells to concoct a coherent post. 
The air conditioning is scheduled to be repaired on Friday. 
I will be posting here tomorrow, but seriously, I don't really expect anything that makes sense out of heat prostration before Friday night. I will do my best...I promise you, oh blog. And anybody who might be reading. It will get better. 
I just think I'm going to melt before then! LOL! 

And here's a cute picture of a cat...

Yes, its Thor...