I'm still lurking;  I don't have much new to say since
my wife died 18 months ago.

As you know, traffic ebbs and flows - this is one of the ebbs...

out in the boat fishing! Caught a reasonable sized bass today .... first one
this season - unfortunately, my kid also almost caught one, and I was too
disorganized to get the net for her and it got away; I'm NEVER going to hear
the end of that one LOL  Have to take her out again later - in the meantime
I'm headed to work for a couple of hours.

things are pretty much the same here - although life is SO much easier now
that the (20 yr old) kid is here to stay with ma ...she should be going home
soon ... but it's working so well that my partner and I haven't made any
decisions about that...we just keep avoiding it ...   she really is very
good with ma - even though she drives ME up a wall sometimes.

I COULD be here more, I guess... but even though I'm not ~working~ at my
real job right now (classes start again in Sept), it's hard to build the
computer part of our store's business without being there when people come
in with questions etc....

saw the doc again last week - doubled her diuretics, which is making her
FEEL better .... taking some of the pressure off her heart - won't give her
much more in the way of time, but it helps to keep her more comfortable
....which is really all that we can do.

No real indication of how much time she has .... and we are REALLY going to
have to come up with a plan for when I go back to work and the kid goes home
(she's going to college in the fall again, so we will have to send her home
at some point)

I will write more soon about my Mom. I've been visiting her at her nursing
home almost every day, and she seems to be lucid most of the time. Her health
has been good as well.

I bought her a CD player for her room, and she fell in love with George
Michael's new album 'Patience'. She listens to this one CD all day long on
repeat. I guess music can be a good healer.

Talk more soon.

- Wes

I was just getting ready to post the same thing!

Actually I have been diverted by my dad's health concerns, which have me
freaking out worse than my mom's right now, but have nothing to do with
alzheimers. Shame there is no place to vent about those -- I could use one.
It just reinforces what a special place this is!

Mom had her MMSE Thursday and thought it very simple. She was very proud of
herself for knowing what County she lived in when she had only been here
three weeks. I told her I thought we'd have "given" her that one, but I was
proud of her for knowing it too.

We'll know more about her on 30th, but right now I'm focused on the mass in
my dad's abdomen. (I guess it is Alz-related because he is primary caregiver
and if something happens to him ...)

Songbird

Working on a family reunion, coming up for two weeks from now! I can't
recall if I told the story here or not, but in the course of noodling
around with family genealogy as a hobby, I discovered my great
grandmother, the family matriarch lived to a venerable age, had a
child in 1904 before she was married, and left her behind in Scotland
when she emigrated to Canada. She went on to have 9 other children
between 1906 and 1924, so you can imagine how many living descendents
she has now in Canada.

In 2000, I located the descendents of the child who was left behind,
and went to visit them in Scotland - just wonderful people, who were
thrilled to have the circle closed at last - and finally hear the rest
of the story of what our Lizzie Brymner did next, after she left
Scotland almost a century ago. One of them (a second cousin of mine)
is coming to visit, so its a great excuse for a family get together -
shindig time!

Mary G.

I am reading this group regularly and posting occasionally.
Since Dad's passing, I have been doing the executor thing and getting some
work related things done.

Next week we are renting a cabin in the Texas hill country.  I can hardly
wait.

Mike, Friendswood, Texas

No news is good news Evelyn.  I hope your having a good summer.

Bye for now,
Dianne