To the Honorable Walt Minnick, US Congressman.

My wife has Alzheimer's.

I have guardianship of her, you know the stand before the judge, trade a pile of cash for a paper with his signature and a stamp or two, that kind. I naively thought that would cover all contingencies.

Our health care clinic says that the Social Security has the wrong date of birth for her and that I should check with the local SS office and straighten it out.

I entered a whole new world. I am not remotely anti government, but wow.

They don't recognize my guardianship. They don't recognize a POA. All they recognize is her signature. Right now she could sign her name, but that is a short term deal. The lady said I could take a paper home and have her sign it, even with an X, and bring it back in. I said I could do that right there.

She hesitated and said that would not work.

They gave me a form for getting a new SS number. That is the last thing I want or need. And, interestingly on that form there is no place for her to sign. I as her guardian was asked to sign.

Now my question. What am I to do long term. When she is really totally incapacitated, am I shut out of her records for the rest of her life? Do I forge her signature?


Her name is Miriam Bertha Spears Griffith
Birthday January 18, 1937

Dave Griffith guardian

These three portraits are of Josh my 4th grandson by birth, but at 6 foot 2 or more he is the tallest of the lot.
Griffy his little brother is the only grandkid who has chance of catching up with Josh. TIme will tell if he succeeds.
This is Josh's portrait (by his talented mother) before the Senior Prom at his high school.

I can't find Fergie

I can't find Fergie the Frog.

Illogically I asked Miriam about it. She obsessed, but has no idea, of course.

She kept telling me that Fergie was in the garden, but he is a stuffed toy that vaguely looks like a humanoid frog and gardens are not part of his plan.

He was a gift from daughter number one for the teardrop trailer and he sits up in the corner of the galley carefully watching all that I do.

Still, he is gone. Not stolen. He was not taken in by the Animal Control person. He is right where I put him, but I am not able to find him. I will, but not today.

I found a picture of him, but he is slouched over in a very undignified manner.

One of the towns we drive through used to be two towns about a mile apart. There was Milton and there was Free Water. Along the way they joined into the long name of Milton-Freewater. During their festival days each year the name morphs into Milton Frogwater and Fergie the frog is the mascot.

So if you find a green frog with a very small back pack, who looks like he does not know where home is, let me know. In the meantime I'll look again in one of my studios.

I'll bet he is hiding in plain sight – right where I put him!

Here we are with Lora and Amy.
In the background, at the bottom of the canyon is the mighty Snake River.
The day was as blustery as the clouds suggest, but it was wonderful to be with family.

burial

Aunt Barbara died in January.

She was with her family in southern California when she passed. They had a service for her then, but she wanted to be buried with her husband, my uncle Wayne.

Wayne was killed in a car accident a bit before he was going to retire to live his retirement here in Idaho.

Today their 4 children came up for the burial of her ashes with her beloved husband.

Uncle was 12 years younger than my father and he did not have children until his late 20's, so his children and mine are precious close to the same age. Uncle was a pastor and health educator.

Aunt Barbara once calculated that they had moved over 40 times! She lived in our town for 14 years I believe, and that was the longest she ever lived in one place in her life. Her father was a pastor also.

So today I got to see cousins I don't see often. Though they were sure they would come back here for a visit some time, there really is no one here but cousins, and they don't know us too well.

I had the distinct impression that I would likely never see them again. They are good people, I am honored to be related.

We will keep in tough by email.

It was a beautiful spring day, a good day to honor Aunt Barbara's memory and to reconnect with cousins.

You design and you build and when it is all done you look.
I looked and I am not sure I like.
But inertia being what it is, this is probably what it is going to look like for a while!

how many?

Tolstoy asked: How much land does a man need?

His answer was that we need less than we might think.

How much lumber does a retired guy need? Or paint? Or . . You get the idea.

I have been thinking, and acting, on that question lately. The question I keep asking myself: At this age how many big projects am I going to take on?

At one point after Miriam was dignosed we considered relocating (that is daughters and dad considered, Miriam would only shout: NO). You can move and take everything with you. I think we moved the garbage with us once!

I did not find a job teaching after I finished college, so I went back to working at what I knew: construction. But now in my last years, I would like to seriously produce art work. I don't want to sell it, I don't want to make art to impress judges or even my peers. I want to do art for fun, to visually explore my world.

Where will it go? I have no idea, but I can pretty accurately predict I will not be a “Grandma Moses!”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandma_Moses

Today is my mother's birthday. She would have been 94.
This picture was taken a few years after my father died, but before she remarried.
Mom was not a tall woman, but she was a giant in character and spirit.
She has been gone a long time and I miss her every day.

the deputy

We visited a different church this weekend.

This church was about 20 miles away, and maybe 75 people in attendance this week. I have known a good number of the people in the church a good while.

The speaker was a kid (OK he is retired now) I have known always. He was not a close friend, he was younger than I, (hence the kid label!) but I knew his grandfather and both of his parents.

Any way, Bobby was speaking. He spent is life in law enforcement, mostly as a deputy sheriff. He retired with the rank of Lieutenant I believe. He confessed to not being educated, only finished high school (the same one I did), and just being an “old cop.”

Bobby had invited several other law enforcement people, as well as the current sheriff. There were 4 law enforcement people there altogether, I believe.

The sermon was good. He made good points about how our life does reflect who we are.

I had never met the current sheriff, but he was a pleasant man.

And I have never felt so protected! There wasn't the least threat to my health or safety, but we sure were protected.

These are fenders, believe it or not.
Teardrop trailer fenders!

Canyon County Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

Miriam had a tooth pulled this week.

The specialist dentist (all he does is remove teeth) was good and competent. He pulled two of mine in the last couple of years!

All went well, mostly.

When they take out a big tooth they sew up the skin so there it works better, I guess.

The stitches are rather irritating and keeping your tongue out of that space is a real trip.

WIth AD it gets more complex. Yesterday she kept asking me about those wires in her mouth. She even looked in the mirror and tugged on one. She could not remember what they were for or from.

I kept telling her that those stitches are there to hold the gum together, until it healed, then the stitches would disolve and go away.

Today she kept picking and asking and i kept telling her to not irritate the tooth. Then she screamed at me. It was the most frustrated scream I have ever heard her make.

It was directed at me, but not really, and I did not take it personally.

Dental work on AD people is more complex than it seemed going in.

Oh well.

It is easy to take great bird pictures when they are motionless!
I am surrounded by bird people, but in my narrow little life, there are big birds and little ones. One friend refers to birds he cannot identify (and there are not too many in that category) as LBJs --(little brown jobs).
This little guy was in a display of a nesting house.
More information: http://www.peregrinefund.org/default.asp

Lora and Amy

Lora and Amy came to visit this week.

Lora is daughter 2, and Amy is her younger daughter. Amy is also our youngest grandchild. She will be 13 in a couple of months.

It was a mother daughter trip to visit the grandparents. We had parts of three days together. One day we went to where they breed endangered birds. There is a fine visitor center, with volunteers to answer questions.

Then we drove out to where we could look over the Snake River canyon, where many of the raptor birds can be found.

The original emphasis was on the Peregrine Falcon, which was on the endangered list. But their success with that bird (it no longer is considered endangered) allowed them to work with other species.

So we had a good day together, finishing at an “all you can eat” buffet restaurant where we did. I fixed breakfast a couple of times, and since my sister lives down the street a couple blocks, she came over and we all ate together around our round table.

It was good. Lora is totally aware of how fast kids grow up and how fragile life is (she is a nurse). Kids grow up and grandparents get old. None of us have a guarantee.

We are lucky. Even though our grand kids live away, we see them quite often.

A friend once told me she was going to visit grandchildren, and when I asked where they lived and she said Australia, I decided that I would never complain about distance again!

Thanks for coming to visit the old folks Amy and Lora!

This eagle head was carved out of wood. Pretty impressive.
More on birds next time.

Wednesday already

Today is dentist day.

Miriam broke a tooth last week, we called our family dentist (also a very good friend) and he had a look.

Tooth must come out said Doctor Gary and he does not do complex extractions, so we go to the big clinic where all they do is remove teeth.

As a two time customer, I know they are very proficient and skilled.

But there goes some of our travel budget!

Oh well.


BTW, today is daughter three and son-in-law's anniversary. About a hundred years I think it has been. OK it has been 20, which is close.

Love you both and I am very proud of you and yours!