Random Thoughts On A Rainy Monday Morning

 Last night as I slipped into my flannel sheets on my memory foam mattress, I was comforted by the howling winds outside my bedroom windows. 

A little "Ron Prose" this rainy Monday morning folks!

I've settled back into my stay at home caretaker routine after that brief, welcome interlude from my Canadian friend Pat of Hamilton, Ontario. His visit refreshed my mind that there is life outside of caregiving, after caregiving should I ever get there.

I have to admit I was a bit down after he left but now I'm back on track. 

Last night I finally found a good movie, "A Man Called Otto", the Tom Hanks movie. Sure, it was schmaltzy but that's what I needed at this time of my life. Coincidentally I just finished watching the Netflix series "After Life" with the British comedian Ricky Gervais. Both dealt with widowers coping with life after the death of their wives. The Ricky Gervais series prominently featured his brand of humor which I like. Sure, his "humor" was a little over the top at times but I didn't mind. That's British humor, not necessarily constrained by political correctness as our American humor which goes to great pains not to offend anybody. Both of these movie character considered suicide as a solution to end their pain of their loss. Something we have all considered at one time or another, haven't we? I know I have. But then I remind myself that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. 

Speaking of movies, do you know how hard it is to find an American movie that doesn't include over the top sex scenes? I'm talking about the ones that has the couple, as soon as they get inside the house they start ripping their clothes off and the half naked woman gets hoisted up on the kitchen counter to be penetrated by the male actor? God, I am SO TIRED of those scenes. I'm not a prude, but man oh man. Stop with those scenes already. They are SO BORING. I don't find them sexy at all. Do you? Does anybody? Oh sure, maybe thirteen year old boys. Also, I don't need to see any more scenes of these actors sitting on toilets taking a dump while they're acting. 

Bill just came in to interrupt me from my "blog flow." He had to tell me he's cleaning out our stairwell to our cellar. God, how often does he tell me this? Over and over. And over.  We have a drainage in the stairwell. It takes care of all the excess water. But he still feels the need to tell me. Of course he goes out there in his house clogs. I clean his clogs off ever morning but he still dirties them up by going out in our cellar stairwell to clean out imaginary leaves.  

How's Bill doing? Health wise he's stabilized. But his mental capacity continues to slip. He has dreams and hallucinations at night. The next morning he forgets them. I check in on him several times during the night and he almost always is stressed out from some dream or a hallucination. Last night he said he had a dream so bad he couldn't even tell me about it. 

While Pat was here Bill had almost convinced himself that I was going to "run away with Pat." It took quite a bit of effort on my part to bring him back to earth and reality. 

One of Bill's big problems is that he's always been busy and now that his physical capacity is limited and he can't see (macular degeneration), he's lost. He doesn't know what to do with himself. Usually I'm successful (lately anyway) in convincing him to listen to me so he doesn't make my life harder taking care of him. This morning he wanted tacks. Yes, tacks. Oh sure, I'm going to give him tacks so he can drop them on the floor. He wanted the tacks to take on the wall every time he completed a loop in the basement during his morning walks. I thought I had him convinced to count his walks by giving him fifteen quarters to put in his hand. Every time he completed a loop around our basement room he would drop one fo the quarters in a bowl. When he was out of quarters his morning "walk" was completed. The walk is good for him because the walking keeps the circulation going in his legs and lessens his edema in his lower legs and the water skin boils that often accompany the edema. 

I think it's time for out daily ride now folks. We haven't been out in the past two days. I wasn't going to go out today because this major east coast rain storm isn't quite finished yet but I have to get Bill out of the house before he comes up with any more crazy ideas like the tacks.