new room

This is the corner of Miriam's room. The staff said we could do anything we wanted, and short of paint we are going to do that.
These photographs are for reference. I can promise it will look different in a very short time. A few pictures can make a lot of difference.

The other side is a bit worse, but again it will all get changed.

Miriam's roommate is Clara who is 97. She also has AD, but is very mobile and cute my daughter tells me. 

Day one and my tiny house

We built this tiny house a year ago.

Since then I have rarely really lived in it. At first I would bring Miriam out, but she had trouble walking back to the house in the dark. Even the she spent most of her time in the big house.

A couple times I let her stay all night, but the bed was to narrow and uncomfortable for the two of us at this age. Then a few months ago I started sleeping in the house with her. At first we would sleep quite well. I needed to be there in case she woke up and walked around, just to make sure she didn't hurt herself.

In the last month or two she would wake up every hour and a half and good sleep was impossible. Lat night was fairly typical. Last night we were up three times, at 10:30 at 2:30 and at 4:30. These are not quick breaks where you can go back to sleep easily, but talk sessions that might go on for an hour.

Her talk does not make sense. It is called word salad and that pretty describes what happened.

Today we took her to her new residence. I felt like I was deserting her.

I  am not an authority on rest homes, but the ones I have been in have a distance rather foul odor. It is not pleasant and seems to be the same in all of them. This home does not have any of that. The nurses are professional and skilled. The whole place is very pleasant.

Daughter finished the paper work this afternoon (I was there when we took her in), and got everything lined out. I stayed in my house (it was very hot today) and took lots of naps.

So tonight, I will actually sleep in my tiny house. I'll go to bed when I want (which won't be too long and I can sleep as long as I wish. I like that. I may not be able to adjust easily.

last meal

Tonight I feel like the chef at the penitentary who prepares and fixes the prisoner's last meal.

She did not get a menu choice. Soup and toasted cheese sandwich.

I hugged her a lot of times and I just stare into space.

placement

Monday Miriam is scheduled to go into a nursing home here in Walla Walla. They have a room next to the nurses station, and it has a window on her side.

No one said this would be easy and it isn't.

placement

Today we made the first steps to placing Miriam in a care facility.

We toured the establishment, looked in the nooks and crannies. We were told that the cook is a vegetarian and that there is always vegetarian alternatives to what shows on the menu. We saw the rooms where they do bingo and where they eat and where they party. We went up elevators and into the wing where the place began a hundred and seventeen years ago.

The place is a non-profit, which pleases this old liberal. I asked if it looks like we could make a deal. The admissions officer said that there were two openings right now and she would talk with the social worker in the morning. The paper work is being done, though most of it is already done. 

I have no idea of how long these things take. It could go fast and it could go not quite so fast, but it looks like we will have a bed fairly soon.

In a big way, that is the easy part of it all. 

In spite of my knowing this would happen and my spoken readiness for it to happen, when it happens it is going to hurt, even as it provides Arline and I both with better sleep.

I know all of this, but that does not make it a whole lot easier. 

This is Brianna the graduate. She is now enrolled in one of the best Chef's schools in Portland.
The picture of several years old, but I am very fond of this picture.

graduation

After the camping trip, I had to make a run to Idaho to take back a refrigerator I did not like (it was sent by the insurance company). Stayed a few days and got quite a lot of work done.

Last evening we went to granddaughter 3's high school graduation. It was a group of home schoolers and their families who put on the event. Each parent got a chance to talk about their child, and each child got to talk about something or other and do some music (some better than others). Then there was a slide show of each of the graduates.

That means that even with just 5 graduating, the whole thing took a while. There was a dinner for the families a couple of hours before the event. There was time for each family to pose for the official photographer, and there was cookies and punch after the event.

It was a long afternoon.

The dinner consisted of Vegan Lasagna with Vegan Cheesecake for desert. Seems to me that the terms are sort of an oxymoron, but who is counting.

Most of the cookies were vegan too, but granddaughter brought some that were not. She saved my day.

Granddaughter was beautiful, her mother speech was funny and heartfelt. It was long but it was good.

Top picture is Grandson David heading deeper into the mountains. He hiked over 10 miles that day. I got in about 2!

The bottom is a picture of our camp nestled in among the aspen. Not a place to camp in dead of summer!

camping in Nevada

The trip with grandson 1 was good. We had a good time.

The Ruby Mountains run roughly north to south in the NE corner of Nevada. High elevation, desert mountain range. Snow, rock and a few trees.

Did I mention the brush? Try taking off on your own and you are going to be in for a slow go. At night it was cold, near freezing the first night, but warmer each day and night afterward. The day we left the temps were headed to the 90's.

It was a LONG drive for a long weekend and not one I'd do every day, but for a grandson, any time!

Grandson is young and strong and is  used to long hikes. I would go with him, but head back when I thought I was getting close to my half way point. I had bannock bread and soup ready for him when he came back from the longer of the hikes.

It was good.

There was a little vintage clothing store in one of the older parts of town. They had wonderful mannequins. Old Mannequins are not unheard of in displays, but most are beat up and are missing body parts, but not these.

Daughter had a photo shoot for a client of some of the houses in Portland, I went along. We had never worked together on that kind of thing and it was a blast. 

These three are of the same little house and garage. 

itinerate grandpa

For the last week I have been gone.

Grandpa duty taking a granddaughter back to school in Portland, taking a bed for her that I bought here. Then there is the dining room set that is too nice for my funny little house back in Idaho. I took it to daughter 4's elegant house. It looks right at home there.

After that I tiled a bathroom floor for a friend and spent my birthday (friday) with him and his wife. Their place is not too far from a Vancouver Washington, but it is nestled in the hills in such a way so there is no phone service at all.

So, for my birthday no one could phone me. Daughter sent this scolding sounding email (which came via internet that I could hook into at friend's house): "How dare you be out of phone range on your birthday!"

Don't do that very often, but it can happen.

Friend and wife sang "Happy Birthday" to me at lunch at noon. (Friend's birthday was exactly a week before). I am now 76, which sounded pretty old 15 or 25 years ago. Not sure what it means now. In all it was a quiet day.

Saturday morning I went back to daughters house in Portland, got some brownies and cookies from granddaughter 3 and came on back to our Washington home.

I leave again on Wednesday for a long weekend with my oldest grandson. We are going camping down in the Ruby mountains out of Elko Nevada. Haven't done that before. It was scheduled a couple months ago and will happen.

I'd like to make an annual grandpa and grandsons camp trip, maybe.

Meanwhile, I am a pretty constant care giver for Miriam. I will be with her most of the time, so daughter can get what rest she can before I leave again.

In June I had better stay home!