upside?

There are some upsides to this AD thing -- maybe.

For some time I have been planning on changing the door and window trim in our living/dining/kitchen area, and then repainting the walls and ceiling. This fall seems to be the perfect time.

Originally our strange little hobbit house had narrow mahogany trim on the doors and windows that was stained dark -- that was the look of the 70’s. Some time ago I decided that to strengthen the “craftsman” style of the house, I would go to wide painted trim, but keep the hand made dark mahogany doors. Our daughter Linda helped us on the color scheme. I designed and did the mill work in my shop, and all of the house is done except for the great room.

So last night I mentioned that I was going to do some tile repair next week in the kitchen, followed by trim and paint in the weeks to come. The idea of the trim color has a sticking point for some time. Some days she thinks it is a brilliant idea, other times she thinks it is the worst idea ever.

In the rest of the house it is painted “reliable white” and on the days she thinks it is the worst idea ever she is sure it will not go well with our white leather furniture.

It is the swiftness of her changes and the lack of memory of what we decided earlier that makes the whole thing tricky.

I will go ahead with my plans, but have her help pick a color that she can like all the time. I would prefer a consistent color through the house, but it is not worth a fight for sure.

(And wasn’t it our esteemed former vice president and philosopher Spiro Agnew who said that “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” -- hmm).

As the disease goes on I am learning how to cope. I think I am getting wiser -- most of the time. This loss of consistency, based on memory of yesterday’s decisions, is a major problem, if there are any proposed changes in the routine of life.

Each day is a new day. What we decided or talked about yesterday is gone and we start over.

And that is the hidden upside to this disease, if there is one. Yesterday she was very angry with me, but with breath taking speed, her mood changes and her viewpoints along with it.

So, I will work on being a bit wiser, or I could just forget the whole project.

fall bounty

This was a good year for our kind of grapes.

I hear that the mild summer was not so good to the wine grapes, but mine were good.

It was the biggest crop we have had. Right now there are 80 quarts of new juice on the shelves. When I realize that is 20 gallons, it seems more! Add that to last years juice which we haven’t started to drink yet! We are still drinking 2006 juice.
Whatever we do this winter we will drink grape juice.

Maybe I will make some grape jelly. I have done jam, but not jelly.

While I was juicing the grapes, Miriam was shelling corn. I bought seed that was sold as an old indian variety of corn for flour. The stalks were 9 feet high, the ears were long, the colors are many: red, yellow, white, black, blue and shades every way.

Neighbor Terry took it to his place of work (he works at a large corn seed producing company) and got them properly dried, which is important if you are going to keep them in storage.

It was not easy shelling the corn, so as I have come to do I looked on line for a “corn sheller”. There was an old article from Mother Earth News about a guy who made his own corn sheller.

He used a hunk of 2 by 6, made holes with a chisel and put nails in to the center to shuck the kernels when the cob was twisted.

It seemed to me that a hunk of ABS pipe would work just as well. The ears were quite uniform in size, so I found a hunk of 2” pipe, drilled 4 holes and put in screws.

Wow what a difference, and the kernels, for the most part, slid down the pipe into the bucket.

We ended up with about 5 gallons of corn kernels. But since it is multi colored, I am wondering what color the flour will be! Next week I will find out.

I like corn bread and corn dodgers and I put a good bit of corn flour in our pancakes and waffles. Now I can have corn flour from my own place, to go with my grape juice!

My tiny farm amazed me this year.

I talked to the Doctor’s nurse. Who consulted with doctor and who ordered 2 150 mg pills a day. So, she will have a bit more powerful medication. Today was a bit testy, we will hope the added dosage helps.

pills

It is always amazing what a little pill can do (or can’t do!)

I asked the doctor, about a year ago, if we could put miriam on an anti depressant to control her anger a bit.

Miriam has always been the most easy going woman imaginable, but with AD, that sometimes changes.

So Doc gave us a prescription.

It was “dad’s blood pressure medicine, that mom takes,” as my daughters said.

Miriam took them for about a year and it made her a lot easier to live with. But there were some wild side affects.

So when I saw the Doc a month ago I asked about changing her to the same version of anti depressant that I take. I said that since I take one pill twice a day, I sometimes forgot the 2nd pill, so I had some extras.

That was fine, so we did just that. The side affect that bothered me went away away and we were doing pretty well.
So last week I called to get her a new prescription.

I asked the nurse to raise the dosage from 100 to 150 whatever. The nurse was really skeptical that I would dare make such a request, but I assured her that I had talked about it with the doc and we were on the same page.

So, I went to get the new pills. But there was a difference. I take 100 twice a day, and they gave her 150 to take once.

Miriam does not know what she is taking. I tell her it is a blood pressure medicine, but it is like the one I take, and she knows I take an anti depressant.

But right away I noticed a lot more anger. I would say something and very uncharacteristic she would shout back.

Then I decided to give her another 100 at night, making her osage 250 for the day. I called the Doc again and talked to her skeptical nurse, who had to ask the doc of 200 a day was ok. I told her we had miriam on 200 for the last month and it worked fine, and that a change upwards in dosage was from my conversation with the doctor.

It will be straightened out, but I am still in awe of how little it takes to change our attitudes. I was feeling really down and blue a while back, so I checked and I had missed several times of taking my pill. So I took it and feel good again.

Miriam does not know what she is taking, I tell her it is part of her blood pressure medicine.

Still the whole thing of a tiny pill changing us so much amazes and frightens me a bit.

I am so thankful for a good doctor and some pills that do what needs to be does.

sleep

Sleep is an interesting thing.

I read that as you age you need less sleep.

I have also read that as you get older you should get more sleep. Hmm.

My sleep patterns are enough to irritate my bed mate, but that is how it is.

I sleep about 5 or 6 hours at a stretch. It has been that way for a long time. If I go to bed early, I just wake up early. If I go to bed late I wake up at the same time.

What irritates my mate is that I sometimes wake up at 3 or 3:30 and get up for a hour or two and then go back to bed. When I do that, I do sleep later.

Miriam is a good sleeper. She can go to sleep early and sleep late. If the dog gets uncovered (he is virtually hairless and sleeps under a blanket), it is Miriam who goes and covers the dog.

If I go, I will be awake by the time I get back and will stay up.

At this stage when I sleep is not a huge issue for me. I take a nap or two during the day if I am short on sleep. Miriam occasionally does.

So, for all of you out there who sleep soundly and sleep hours and hours at a time, I envy you, sorta.

To those of us who have weird sleep patterns, we are part of a hidden community, I guess.

As for me, I am going to take a nap later today!