NOTHING IN GENERAL

 MADISON ALABAMA

Well here it is Sunday morning and the OFM has had a nice breakfast of two strips of extra crisp bacon and a double bowl of Cheerios. A clear pretty morning outside and nowhere to go. But the body is alive and ready for some mischief if possible. The old Dementia is progressing slowly right on schedule but the OFM is kicking it in the teeth to let it know the fight is not over yet. Not much action around here but for using up colored pencils on coloring book pages and taking nice walks around the block. So folks get out and have some great fun for me.  OFM.

Delays

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Good evening. Today has brought us to some delay for unknown reasons.  The flooring project has shown no sign of activity at all. The foundation repair had absolutely no activity inside or outside today.  But our meals were good and the failed AC trouble has been fixed so that is some good news. Nothing else happened worth mentioning. This is definitely not a dynamic lifestyle.  Have fun. OFM.

PACKING UP

 MADISON, ALABAMA

HOWDY FOLKS.  We are now in the completion of details phase of the building foundation effort.  Most of the equipment is now gone but the large holes in the inside floor still have to be filled and sealed. The outside area that was dug up is about half filled and should take less than a day to finish up rebuilding the "yard work" along that side of the building.  A few shrubs need to be replanted and a bit of leveling done.  I was unable to tell what is left to do inside but the clean up will take a good while.

And to add to the fun the new flooring project is supposed to kick off tomorrow with new flooring in the dining area and then over in the large recreation is due to get new flooring. So we have a few days more of disrupted living to handle but so far it has been very minimal troubles.

That is all of the excitement from here for now. Have a great week. OFM

SOME SUCESS

 MADISON ALA.

To my surprise the AC company folks got most of the AC in the affected part of the building working today. They were definitely very busy beavers for most of the day.  That section of the building was running most of the AC units by about 2 pm. They were having a little trouble  with a unit in a hallway and another in another location I did not hear about until late tonight. But everyone should be reasonably cool for the night.

The OFM just mostly stayed out of the way and reported on time for meals. He is not too good at missing a meal.

That is all there is to tell about today.  OFM.

EXCITEMENT TODAY

 MADISON ALABAMA

It was a nice calm hot morning when I went for my 30 minute walk after breakfast.  The birds were chirping and a nice gentle breeze cooled me gently. However the facility was all excited. The foundation repair folks have the other wing of this facility closed of from the rest of the building.  They are drilling 8 inch diameter holes in the concrete floor through to the supporting dirt area.  Some how (and I have no idea how) they drilled into the cable giving that wing of the building electricity for that side of the building AC. So my wing is still staying cooled but the dining room and gatherings room is not getting cooled. We have not been told any status of when that error will be repaired.

If we are lucky this will be the only real mess during this repair of the building, but I doubt we will be that lucky. Have fun folks, I am. THE OFM

NOTHING MUCH again

 Madison Alabama

HOWDY FOLKS

Nothing much to report. The days have peaceful and mild. The meals have been decent but not special. The building modifications are moving along as promised.  The OFM is getting better at being lazy.

About the most exciting thing of the last two days was spending an hour and a half helping a new to coloring fellow get oriented with his options as the man with his hand on the colored pencil making the choices. Art is his name and he seems to have a right attitude to enjoy this style of artistic effort.

That is about all that has happened worth mentioning for now.  Go have fun in the sun. OFM

GOOD NEWS

MADISON, ALABAMA

 The big move of residents was today and a serious mob of folks showed up to get everyone moved into their new apartments. Very little trouble happened but a couple of the very old folks still could not understand why they had to be bothered since the construction is outside not in the room. The construction is actually under their floor but that was not comprehendible to a couple of them.  Anyway it all went well and by night  everyone was in their new location in the building.

All of the rest of the facility is still operating as normally and things are going well.  Tomorrow might be a peaceful day. Have fun. OFM.

CONSTRUCTION PREPS

 MADISON ALABAMA

Well  construction gets started full strength tomorrow. Most of the moving folks from rooms affected by the new work has been finished.  A couple of folks plan to stay in their new location and not have to move all their stuff again in a few weeks. The OFM is not affected by  any of the new work so he gets to be his usual lazy bum fool. Other than that not a single thing interesting has happened. But maybe that is a good thing. Sleep tight folks. OFM.

NEW FLOORING

 MADISON, ALABAMA

We got a nice letter from the head office with info on some upcoming repairs/updates.  One wing of the building is settling and shows cracks  on the walls.  A foundation repair has started today with a planned completion date of end o the month. The digging started yesterday evening.  It is a definitely needed repair. Several folks in that stretch have had to temporarily move to different apartments in the building to be safe during the construction.  But they will get back to the original apartment when the repairs are completed in a couple of weeks.

Then right after the foundation repair project finishes new flooring will be installed in the dining room and other common areas. These chores will be installed in the evenings so our normal routines will have less interruptions. It sounds good on paper at least.  Basically for the next month  we will be dodging indoor construction and repairs. It might get to be fun. 

That brings tonight's news to an end. So everyone work hard on having a great day tomorrow.

NOT MUCH

 MADISON, ALABAMA

It was too hot to walk after breakfast on my usual route. So I went back and forth on the sidewalk out the back door of the building. I got my thirty minutes of brisk walking in by doing  3 million laps on the long sidewalk in the shade from the building. It was a bit boring but my heart and body appreciated the good exercise with out the sun burn heat.   And that was the major highlight of the day.  good night.

 

Things Just Happen

 Madison Alabama

Here we are on a new week and nothing planned for the near future. The weather is a lot too hot for much outdoors until about 10 in the evening. Then it is time for bed for this old fat man.  My very early morning walk went well but I really do not want to exercise walk before breakfast again. So it looks like our schedule has nothing on it for awhile but coloring with colored pencils in AIR CONDITIONED BUILDINGS. If something special happens I will update the blog.

OOOOPPS

MADISON ALABAMA

The OFM started the day well and went out for his normal half hour fast walk in the nice sunshine. When he finished he felt a bit odd even for him.  Back in his room with a bit of resting he still did not feel just right. So over to the caregivers station and did a blood pressure check and it came in right on perfect.  So I sat in the social area a few minutes to think carefully. Then I went back to my room and checked the heat index and it was 98 degrees. Ok I found the culprit. Now I know that for the near future I will not be doing my 30minute aerobic walk outside. The OFM is not able to handle  that much heat anymore. So it will be speed walking the air conditioned halls inside for a few weeks until the hot weather goes away.  So folks be careful.  I thought I was being very careful but it turns out it was not enough at my now advanced age of 80. Have fun safely please.

OLD MAN NOW

MADISON, ALABAMA

 WELL HERE IT IS MY 80TH BIRTHDAY AND I  AM STILL ALIVE AND FUNCTIONING. It was a nice day with a few HAPPY BIRTHDAYS called out here and there during the day and a short visit with my son on his way home from work. Nothing much special happened around here but the usual piddling around by everyone trying to find some way to pass the day. I hope all my readers are having fun these hot days of summer.  Be safe and keep cool. OFM

HOW MUCH LONGER?

 MADISON ALABAMA

8/11/26

The question came up today about how much longer will the OFM be able to produce this blog. So I got out my information on expected time periods certain phases of this disease.

This disease has been very variable on folks for a long time but certain patterns do repeat in most cases but not all cases. So I put my calculator to work and came up with an average life expectancy from where I seem to be in the progress of the dementia. Averaging this and that and wild guessing on my part brought me to this answer.

I can expect to be coherent enough to post for another six years. However the longest possibly seems to be about ten years.  The next phase will not likely be functionable for writing coherent literature.

So that all translates to another 6-10 years of my stories in this blog being available to be ridiculed. Now it looks like time to figure out how to have more good adventures to report. Every one have fun while we still can.  Good Night.

STILL ALIVE

 MADISON, ALABAMA

It has been a calm day today with little going on around here. The OFM spent most of the last two days just piddling around in hos room/apartment.  The apt is 3 times the size of his last trailer but I only really use less than half of the room. My lifestyle is very simple to say it mildly. I look into most of the apartments here and see more stuff in them than I can imagine toting around or getting in my way during a normal day.  The Castle was only 140 square feet of space and worked well for 20 years. Most of the place is just open flooring to me and I do not use it. I think this place is about355 square feet. But I do not want a lot of stuff to just sit around and be a not used possession. 

Nothing special is happening but in the next couple of weeks I will be visiting the head doctor, the dentist and the optometrist for check ups. Likely I need need new glasses but who knows what else.

My morning 30 minute aerobic walking effort seems to be paying off with good body health and especially in the body bone joints. That is a real feel good happening. I plan to keep it up until I just cannot do it any more. It has been a great exercise that does not seem to have any bad side effects.

That is about it for tonight.   Have fun, The OFM. 

PLAIN DAY

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Not a big day at all. Mostly just trying to figure out what to do for myself the next 8 years or so without driving anything. I have always been a moving around fool even when I had no particular place to go.

The day went nicely with a few delightful conversations here and there during the day.  Nobody doing anything exciting right now since school is starting again already.

A small amount of coloring was done but a major effort was made to rid myself of any coloring pages I most likely would not do. So those went to an new to coloring person who thought they would love to tangle with the pages of fun. I certainly hope she has lots of fun with them.

That is about the whole day there, so you can see I did not get overwhelmed with excitement with it. But is was pleasant all day with an after lunch two hour nap that was great. Have fun folks.OFM

ROUGH DAY

MADISON, ALA.

The day got going fairly well. Then right after breakfast a migraine headache struck with a vengeance.  The rest of the day until supper time was recovery time. These migraines seem to be much worse in my later years. So anyway not much happened productive or not productive. Mostly just laying around feeling  rough and stomped into the ground. Tomorrow will be better I bet. Good night. OFM

GOOD MORNING

MADISON, AL.

 I awoke ready to get things done but it turned out that there was little to nothing to get done. So after a little piddling I got real happy just piddling around. I am getting to be really good at piddling since I cannot go very far on foot from the Assisted Living building. After a bit I just did my 30 minute aerobic walk around the area and then just messed around coloring in my room. The coloring was nice but not as entertaining as jumping into a vehicle and running around a little bit. Have fun folks. OFM.

MORNING WALK

Madison, Ala.

Morning came in with a calm attitude and right after breakfast I took my usual 30 minute aerobic walk in cool clear air and nice temperature.  By noon it was hot and drizzle and kept on being that way all day.  So I stayed moderately busy coloring and finished two pictures that had been partially drawn for a few days.  They both turned out fairly nice it seemed to me. 

The rest of the day has been drizzles and piddling. I hope every one also had a nice day.OFM

A COUPLE OF WEEKS

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Well another day has passed and the OFM is still breathing and getting close to being 80 years of ancient. The memory ability is going bad fairly  steadily but that includes bad memories disappearing also, I think. Today was a reasonably nice day over all. A couple of light showers happened but mostly it was slightly sunny and nice weather. Yep got in some serious back patio time visiting with other occupants of this assisted living facility. 

My fingers did a good bit of Amazon shopping today but it was little stuff like a spool of strong twine to replace the one I just used the last of yesterday. It lasted about 6 years I think.  Just for the heck of it I counted the coloring book pages I have left at this time and the total was about 145 pages left to mess with. That should last me a few days don't you think.

Walking this morning was very nice before the rains started to fall but I finished the outside walk about 0900. But it was a nice day all around.

And that is another day gone getting me closer to 80. 

YA'LL have fun out there in blog world.

INTERNET ORDERS GOT HERE

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Well something went right for a change and my multiple orders through Amazon came in during the last three days ON TIME for a change.  This no driving life I lead now means I depend on computer shopping heavily for items for daily life. It has taken a while for me to get used to how to make life flow a little better. But I seem to finally be getting the hang of doing it in a timely fashion. There are no stores within comfortable walking distance of this facility. But it is home now so I have to figure out a few more things in the future. It is pleasant over all though.   Everyone have some good fun please.OFM

COLORING LESSONS

MADISON, ALABAMA

Today was a nice day of visiting with folks in the assisted living and helping a friend with his art efforts. He is trying to learn the tricks of coloring in coloring books for adults. His attitude is excellent and his abilities just need a bit of practice to move him into some good work. We probably spent over five hours discussing techniques, color theory and lots of opinions. He is a student that will not need long to flash on past my abilities to help him. I wish him luck.

That was just about the sum total of all of the excitement in this place today. So it was a pleasant day and relaxing for a change.  Good night all. OFM

SNAKE

 MADISON, ALABAMA

As I walked into the main room of this facility this afternoon there was lots of excitement at the back door and loud talk about a snake being inside. Pretty quick I found out it was a small rat snake baby of about 8 inches of length and thinner than a normal pencil. Sure was a lot of excitement for such a small critter.  The cook from the kitchen reached down  and picked it up. Then the took out to the back of the back yard near a ditch and dropped it in the grass and came back inside.  That was all of the excitement except for some knuckleheads that wanted it killed cause all snakes are bad.  I was happy to stay out of the discussion at this point.

The facility here is under going several changes in operation soon and in about two weeks we are supposed to have a gathering to be told all the new changes about to be enacted.  One of the changes we already had was the owner quit supplying toilet paper that the contract says will be supplied. The latest rumor is they will start charging a laundry soap fee to do the laundry we are promised in the contract. It will be interesting to see what other improvements the new system will bring.

Meanwhile the OFM is looking around to see if he has any options for where and how he lives.

Have fun folks. OFM

CLEANING OUT AGAIN

 Madison, Alabama

Yesterday I got into another spell of cleaning out. Now and then I realize I have not used something for over a year or so and spend a few minutes wondering why I still have it. Then I notice another thing etc. Well yesterday afternoon it happened again.  My art/computer desk was getting crowded and seemed to need to get another table here. As I looked at possible solutions to my lack of space I noticed several things that had no business taking up space in my world any more. Thus the clean out got going.  Now the dumpster is filled again and I have plenty of space for my play things and exercise needs..  

Once again I have proved to myself that simple living is MY best way of life.  Maybe even a truck mounted camper would be plenty these days. Hmmmmm.

GOOD NEWS FINALLY.

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Finally some decent news. The computer system guru caught me finally and we had a great productive happening.  The system had some trouble and my ancient over 30 years old computer had some trouble also.  He reset this and that. I had been wise to keep my fingers out of most of what he tweaked.  The main trouble was my internal antenna was only working at 10% now. The new antenna from a couple of weeks ago was working but I had not installed it correctly since I misunderstood the instructions. He did an look around in the computer and changed a few "automatic" upgrades or ????? that needed tweaking. etc. The end result was a screaming fast solid performing computer  BUT his diagnostics program found a few components in my machine that need a big updating but this old machine does not have the parts available any more on the market. His recommendation is when things evolve enough to cause trouble again that I update to a current computer. But for now it is screaming faster than ever before and I am a happy little fool. 

I just finished my daily torture walk as some folks here call it and now I have a little catching up on my computer based messing around. See ya`ll later,

STILL BAD INTERNET

 Just an update. Still no functional internet. I am at a half hour of effort for even this message. Thank  you for your patience.

INTERNET MESS

 Madison, Alabama

Just to let folks know my internet is not performing very well at best. The repairman is due to get to it today.  I will return when it works properly again.

INTERNET REPAIR REPORT

MADISON ALABAMA

 The internet still did not work this morning but the fixit fellow was due in today from Denver Colorado to see about repairing it. I had a stage show involving my grand kids to go see so I went on to the very nice show they preformed in and really enjoyed it. Then we stopped for a late lunch or early supper that was really excellent also. So it was already a very good day  when I got back to my home.

WOW the internet was running decently to my surprise. When I reset some of the parameters to my preference it was great again. Tomorrow I should be able to get more details on what caused the trouble. So it has turned out to be a wonderful day over all. We will see if it all is still doing well in the morning,  Good night. OFM

SPEED BUMPS REPORT

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Today we had good busy day of vehicles going through the parking lot with the new speed bumps in it. The results were fantastic. Vehicles would turn into the lot like before and then hit the first bump and continue their way at a nice reasonable speed. OR They were a frequent cut-through vehicle and their speed was good from the minute they entered. I would call it a great success.

Have fun every one. OFM.

DESK REARRANGING

Madison, Ala.

Tonight started the reorganization my desk top of the last few years.  With my art efforts using the desk top now along with my usual other daily chores like paying bills I have been fighting with a very  cramped desk top. So tonight started the latest effort and it has been productive.  By no means are the quirks all worked out but progress is being made to handle all the different types of efforts the desk is used for. 

In the mean time the OFM has been putting effort into losing weight. As of a couple of days ago I broke below 200 pounds for the first time in about five years and it feels really good. We will not discuss how much I got up to.  And that is it for the latest in my plain, dull  life . OFM

 

SPEED BUMPS

 Madison, Alabama

We had a new addition to our parking lot today. The parking lot  for our facility is reached by a driveway that makes a 90 degree turn near the front door and exits to a side street.  This leads to folks short cutting through the parking lot to miss a traffic control light they would otherwise have to obey.  The traffic coming through is at times fast and furious.  The speeder I saw quickly shut the speed down after she got the vehicle back down on the pavement after the first bump.

She took the slow style for the rest of her trip through the parking lot.

From my window I got to see some pretty good bounces a few times today.  It kept it from being a boring day for sure. HE  HE HE

Have fun, OFM.

Just Getting Along

 Madison, Alabama

Not a lot going on as usual but nothing planned either. The weather has warmed up to hot in the last couple of days so summer must be here. My son and his family stopped by for a nice long visit yesterday with big news. Both his kids have been approved for home schooling so they can  move faster on learning than the school schedule allows. That is a good move since they are extremely sharp kids.

In my world a desk drawer seam on a drawer broke and I have added splints glued to the drawer. When the glue cures we will see if I was successful with the repair or not.  Doing repairs without my home shop I had for years is a lot more difficult now. That was the big excitement for the last few months. Tomorrow is testing day and we shall see what is next. And that is all for now. Good Night OFM.

FINALLY

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Hello folks.  We now have internet again after a lightening event blew out several components of the Assisted Living facility internet system a couple of days ago. It took the repair fellows a couple of days to get all the parts delivered and installed. Maybe the OFM will have something to say but mostly nothing happens around here. Hopefully I will find something to write about in the near future. OFM. 

MOTHER NATURE WAS MAD

Madison, Al.

Mother Nature had a temper tantrum right over our building this  to afternoon.  The OFM was at his computer doing high level personal work when it sounded like lightening struck the shrub just outside his apartment window.  Then the clouds above got into a lightening fight that lasted a long time 3  minutes.  At least the strikes were cloud to cloud instead of hitting the ground or building. But the OFM got real interested since it was just outside his window. Then Severe rain with huge raindrops slammed us for about ten minutes and poof it was over. The light flooding slide out of sight in about another ten minutes.  Then it was nice and calm.  It was not much but it was the most exciting thing that happened around here in many days.

I hope everyone has a lot of fun. Good night.

HUMAN POWER SHORTAGE

 Madison, Alabama

Caretakers are in extremely short supply in this area. Tonight we are down to one on duty when three are the design number to be here. This shortage has been going on for a few months. They had a job fair Friday and only five folks stopped in to check out going to work. Every now and then they hire a person but they usually do not make a month before they disappear.   The care takers that have been here for the year I have been here say the new folks just do not seem to want to have to do anything for their money.  If they last two weeks it is a miracle. Anyway things are decent even with the shortage of workers to take care of things. This is certainly a lot different than what I had hoped what retirement would be like.  Have fun. OFM

SAME OLD SAME OLD

MADISON, ALABAMA.

YEP it is Thursday evening and not a critter is stirring.  But the OFM is still looking for something to put into the blog that is not so boring as lately.  It has been calm around here and nearly boring. But at least everyone seems to be healthy and doing well.  

We have a new coloring fellow in the building.  His grand kid gave him some colors and a book while he was on vacation recently. He is finding out how much fun it can be. We had a nice show and talk after supper tonight. He might get the itch to do more.

Other than that things are just going boringly smooth.  Have fun. The OFM.

NOTHING MUCH

 MADISON, AL.

Really close to nuttin going on around here dees days.

Sitting on the back patio after meals seems to be the exciting portion of the day. Maybe that means I need to stir up some trouble eh. 

Any way have fun and smile as the sun keeps on shining. OFM

SURPRISE SHIPMENT

 MADISON, ALABAMA

SURPRISE MAIL

Yesterday I got a big surprise when two coloring books I did not recall ordering came in. Upon checking more carefully it showed that yep the OFM forgot what he had done. So now I have 110 new flower pictures to color and/or mess up.  Of course I had to piddle with one of them and sure enough it was fun as usual. Part of the fun is that the OFM does not bother with what are the normal and proper colors to use. What does he want them to look like is much more fun. 

Have fun. You can guess what I will be doing. OFM

COLOR PENCIL TEST

 MADISON AL.

How about a colored pencil comparison test. Since OFM does a lot of color pencil coloring for the fun of it, how about a test of good stuff vs cheap stuff. The OFM has been playing with colored pencils for a couple of decades now and is still not an artist but he does do a lot of coloring book coloring for several years now.

In the past I had made a choice to use Prismacolor coloring pencils for my coloring book fun. They are a professional grade and very first cla$$. I have had wonderful times with them and had no performance complaints at all. Keep in mind I am a mildly accomplished knuckle head coloring nut. Prismacolor is definitely an excellent performer for coloring but expensive.

A couple of years ago cheap coloring pencils of decent quality come onto the market from overseas manufacturing facilities.  Several brands are on the market.  I piddled around for about four years with several of them and at first they were kid level junk art wise. But about a year ago some major improvements came onto the market by those folks. So today I ran some testing efforts of my Prismacolor pencils against the Kalour brand of cheap pencils.

Prices are a lot different between the two brands. Prismacolor I normally buy and use is about $38  for a 36 pencil pack.  The cheaper Kalour brand is about $12  for a 72 pencil pack. That is a bunch in my wallet.

Quality of Prismacolor is extremely high in every respect.  Kalour is too new for me to find out a lot of things about them to report like how long they do not fade and things like that.

What I do know is the color of either is very good but how long til Kalour fades is not known.  The lay down of both is very good.  The burnishing of both is really good. The color trueness from one box to the next is very good.  The laydown of color and lead strength of both is very good.

Since all of my coloring is just for fun and gets thrown away a couple of months after completion, the time before fading and things like that are not known. I have thrown away over 200 colorings this year alone so I do not know about color fading time at all. But for my style the cheaper Kalour brand is making a serious drop on cost happen in my hobby with no drop in color quality or workability.  I hope this info is helpful.

GETTING OLD

 MADISON, AL.

Today several small seeming items showed me that I am no longer getting old. I am full force there. In two more months I will be 80 years old and today my body was making certain I knew it. But on the other hand the weather was nice and I did my normal fast walking once a day walk three times.  It amazed me I did it three times in spite of being a little wobbly for a bit. Those three times were spaced out over the day but still they got done in good form. The walk is thirty minutes of aerobic walking speed around our neighborhood.

Later in the day I did my usual stretch band work outs as long as my joints could stand it. About 20 minutes I think. So that worked out pretty well. 

Now if I can keep up this exercise pace .might get some competition (yeh right) ability. 

Things are going pretty well in the AS building. We had a great catfish, hush puppies, cole slaw, baked potato with iced tea lunch today. Boy I don't want to eat that heavy too often but is was sure good this time.

Well that is about it for tonight, Get out and have some fun, I plan too. OFM.

NEW POST ATTEMPT

 MADISON. AL.

A  lot of computer  network trouble tonight is happening. We did get a  head person appointed to run things here.  The best news is that she is the former head of nursing and always seems to have her head working very well when she made decisions in the past since I have been here.  I hope the computer systems start to function better soon. Good night.

CHANGES COMING

 MADISON, AL.

late nite report.

We got notice late today that the new management company has taken over and several things will be changing.  It is been coming for a long while it seems to the OFM team.  There are several changes announced already that will be good to have happen.  The head lady is being replaced as well as the maintenance fellow. Some other things are in the gossip pipe but I have not verified them yet. This has been a long time coming and is really needed. I hope this new company gets it right for all our folks needs.

NEW FOLKS ARRIVING

 MADISON AL.

Today  and the last two days have been big moving days for folks leaving this facility and new folks moving into the empty rooms. Three new folks have moved it in the last week and one is moving to a facility for folks that need extra care that that place can provide. A couple of the rooms here have been being renovated with new flooring and a few other needed repairs from hanging pictures and general living. So things are happening all around me these days, but the nights are always quiet.  With summer being here and kids out of school more grand kids are showing up to visit the old folks around here also. Even though not any thing especially exciting is happening it is a bit of activity happening fairly frequently which is nice. So everyone sits back and lets the world flow on past. Have fun readers, we sure are trying to. 

NASTY STORM HITS

 Madison, Al.

The news spread like wildfire through the facility.   A big storm was headed our way and we better batten the hatches down. So the OFM went to his room to check the weather. Sure enough in about 30 minutes we were supposed to get hit with an ugly front of high winds, excessive rain etc.  So the OFM and a few folks made sure everything in our treasure chest was properly secured. Then the OFM checked the weather himself and all that showed up was the nastiest  weather front I have seen in years. We had about ten minutes I figured and got busy getting my stuff away from the windows of my room and preparing for a leak to happen and need handling. It was looking real bad and my room windows faced directly into it.

Sure enough in a few more minutes a rain squall to challenge the worst rain storms I can recall started .  Lo and behold it did rain and blow like a mean hurricane event but it lasted about ten minutes is all.  Then it cleared out well and was history. I was very happy about that.

So there you have all the big excitement for the last few days came and went in about fifteen minutes. Since then it has been nice but cloudy.   Yep a nice ordinary day except for the little short storm.

Have fun and sweet dreams. 

PLAIN LIVING

 MADISON, ALABAMA

GOOD MORNING.   It has been a few days since the last posting so here goes a post about nothing again. Everything is going fine. By the same token nothing is happening but regular sleeping and decent meals. The biggest thing I can think of  is that switching to synthetic sweeteners from regular sugar in my excessively sweet tea has let me sleep all night without waking every hour or so all night long.  Since the day after the switch I have slept the whole night all but one time and that one was a bathroom trip necessity from too much water sipping as I piddled around in my room that evening.  So we might say I have made progress. Anyway I hope everyone is safe and well while trying to have toooooooooooooooo much fun.

DOCTOR REPORT

 MADISON ALA.

We got to the doctor today right on time and only had about four minutes to wait before we were called in. The doctor was interested in several things he asked about and then we had some serious discussion. The OFM is doing very well and the dementia is progressing right on schedule.  The trip in the ambulance a few weeks ago was to be expected now and then with this mess. It is something that happens with this disease and went very well. The tests that the hospital did were viewed and showed that things were normal for this stage of my disease. So it means that yep I got that junk dementia and it is doing well. Dementia cannot be stopped but it can be slowed down with some treatments in the future.  So that is the whole story for this visit. Several details were discussed in more detail but the final analysis is I am doing well with this disease and the deterioration is right on schedule so relax and enjoy the ride.

That is 

LOTS OF RAIN

Madison, Al.

Here I am with very little to say again so here we go. We have been getting lots of daily rain for a couple of weeks now and it is supposed to continue for several more days.  At least we are not  showing any signs of flooding around here.  But it is still a mess when you go outside to the dumpster or things like that. Keep dry folks. The next big excitement is tomorrow is when I get to see the brain doctor again after the set of tests he wanted done to help him decide what we need to do.

TORNADO??????

 MADISON, ALA.

So the OFM was easing along coloring at his desk in his room and decided to take a break. I eased over to my door and stepped into the hall just as a caretaker was approaching it to alert me.  It seems I was the first person she got to tell me to stay in the hallway alcove where my doorway was located. There is a tornado alert and they were rounding up everyone to come to the small alcove where my door opened. Soon  there was a gathering of folks numbering about thirty sitting and standing around trying to figure out  what was really going on. As usual everyone had a different idea of what should be done.  In the meantime I considered the weather I had just seen outside and relaxed. The conversations were very varied during the half hour we piddled at my doorway.  

As soon as they released up to return to our normal activities I got to get my phone and see what t the alert really said. As usual it did not say a tornado was anywhere around  The alert said there was a large thunderstorm many miles south of us that had the potential to produce a tornado and to be careful to monitor it so if it did you could go to safety.  So what we had was a nice 45 minute gossip session at my door.  I do have to remind myself that the caretakers have several folks here that have to have a LOT of help if a real emergency came along. So they did what they thought was the safest thing to do with what they had for info at that moment. I Must compliment them on doing a first class reaction to the information considering their duties for those less able to get around than the OFM can.  

The rest of the went back to gossip and piddle around for most of them. For the OFM he just went back to coloring another fantastic picture for the garbage can to enjoy. I hope everyone has a great night and better tomorrow.

COUPLE OF ANSWERS

Madison,  Ala.

How about a couple of answers to questions not put into the blog before?

Am I using a wheel chair yet at age 79.6.  Nope not even close. I do not run anymore but every day I put in 30 minutes of aerobic walking inside and / or outside or both. That gets me the 30 minutes of needed heart exercise needed daily. It also lets me keep the joints flexible so I have only small pain in all the joints mistreated while participating in jungle warfare for 16 months in a far away country in 69 / 70.

I do get twice a day a handful of preventive pills  like  vitamins and a couple other pills  to assist in preventing old man troubles.  So except for the Dementia I am in fair shape physically. However my speed of reflexes keeps me from driving for nearly a year now. That is my worst negative problem.  I still think well when a dementia episode is not in progress but the rest of the time I function pretty well except for lots of memory loss of my earlier years. 

The assisted living includes house cleaning, laundry and meals so that leaves me lots of free time to piddle around.  If you have other relevant questions I would be happy to give my input on questions about this lifestyle. In the meantime get busy trying to have too much fun. OFM

THIS LIFESTYLE

 MADISON, AL.

This assisted living life style is pretty boring in general. The OFM is the youngest resident at 79.6 years old.  The oldest is 99 years old with most in their 80s.  They are the most sedentary bunch of folks I know of.  The operators of the place try like crazy to get them to move their bodies but only the OFM bothers to try to keep his body functional. The rest of the folks seem to specialize in griping about every thing. So the frequent classes for painting or coloring or anything else are not normally attended or participated in.

Anyway the health care is decent and the food acceptable 98% of the time. So this seems to be a rather decent place for a Dementia patient person to enjoy his last years. But it is a far cry from hiking kayaking and roaming the country in my RV.

OFM

Very Little Done

Madison, Ala.

Most of the day was spent coloring on two different pictures. Both of them turned out well. The first one took three days to color and the second one only took about 6 hours to complete. It also came out well.

The rest of the day was used up by eating meals that ran 20 minutes late getting to the table.  The cooks here were not having a great day but we did get fed.  And that is about all of the excitement for our building.  Have fun, OFM,

NICE DAY

 MADISON AL.

 Nice weather made the day great for outside sitting and visiting.  So naturally a lot of us assisted living types got outside and did some serious sitting and flapping our jaws. Mostly it was a nice time.  the one thing the OFM did was test a new set of colored pencils to compare to my Prismacolor Premier colored pencils that have held the number one spot in my coloring for years. The Arteza pencils were very nice and performed well.  However they did not really have the smooth feel of my old time favorites. So at least the OFM knows he still is using the best for his efforts.

Other than that nothing special happened except I did keep on breathing and pumping blood. Everyone have some fun. Goodnight,

WHOLE LOT OF NOTHING

 Madison, Al.

The day went along slowly. The warm temp outside was interrupted frequently by a random cold stiff breeze. That was not a nice combination. Most of the day was spent just coloring scenes in coloring books. Practice sure helps the pictures turn out a lot nicer. Sorry nothing special at all today on even on the horizon.  Have a great day. OFM. 

CAFFINE ADICTION

Madison, Al.

This morning already I have had a life changing event and it is not even 0830 yet.  As we were eating breakfast the server mentioned something about my sweet tea consumption.  She and the OFM had had several conversations on diet changes as we age. As a result of the conversation I went back to my room to see what internet sources said about my diet choice on a few things.  As usual the info was not cut and dried but more of a cut back a bit or not style.  BUT what did get me slapped in the face was my caffeine addiction. I had not realized how much I had let caffeine take control of my life AGAIN. But now it will be carefully controlled  AGAIN. This getting old stuff is something else isn't it.  See you later. OFM.

BACK ONLINE AGAIN I HOPE

 MADISON, ALABAMA

After a mess of computer trouble the OFM is back online thanks to KIDDO the OFM's son.    Hopefully the blog can soon have something worthwhile to report. Please be patient as I attempt to get back to spreading nonsense all over the world just for the fun of it. More later tonight.

NICE DAY

 It turned out to be a very nice day today. Cool outside but very nice inside.  We had good meals.  Nice visits with folks happened. Nothing really bad happened.  And the evening is rolling along nice and smoothly. So HAPPY THURSDAY TO EVERY ONE.

ofm.

UNEXPECTED SLEEP

 Madison, Al.

It was a surprise downer day. The OFM morning was feeling not first class but not bad either. So along mid morning he took to his bed to try to see if some horizontal time would help.  BAM it was three hours later in what seemed instantly. He was feeling better and got up to be human again .  A good lunch was served and things were going fine until about  an hour after lunch.  Bam I was passed out for another  2 hour sleep. But when I awoke the second time I have felt just fine the rest of the day. This getting old is rather interesting isn't it. Tonight things seem to be close to usual so maybe whatever it was is over and gone now. I hope you folks had a good day.

BETTER WEATHER FINALLY

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Hello folks. We have been having nice walking weather most of the time and the OFM has been using it wisely.  The roly-poly back yard here makes a great place to do slower paced walking up and down and all over walking that is just sloped enough to feel it. The slopes are just enough to help practice walking across them at angles that let me practice and hone my balance abilities.  Then I can hit a sidewalk or two to practice getting my heart beat up a bit by speedier walking. There is even a part of the sidewalk that heads up a nice slope to get me a bit more aerobic if I desire that.

I follow the 30 minutes of aerobic walking a day theory so I do not have to count distances.  This morning we are having nasty thunder storms with significant rain so I will be thirty minuting inside in the halls which works out well also. The OFM likes keeping his heart in reasonable shape for living.  Have fun every one.

BRAIN SCAN TODAY

  MADISON,ALABAMA

Kiddo {my son} came by today and took me to get a brain scan to verify I have a brain or something close to one .It was way on the other side of Huntsville.  we arrived in good time and got checked in a few minutes early. Then sat in the waiting room for a bit until I was called back for the procedure.  Then I got to lay on a moveable table that ran back and forth on runners while a big circle shaped metal device skewered me with electrical magic waves to get a picture of my brain for the doctor next month. Then I was up and leaving the place. Time of whole thing was about  20 minutes.  That was very quick to me. Then after arriving back home Kiddo and OFM sat around for a long while just chatting about things in general. It was a really excellent  time together by our selves for a change. Good night everyone.

LOTS OF TIME TO KILL

 MADISON, AL.

There is nothing special to report tonight. Health is doing fine. Food is doing fine. No serious troubles at all.  Just an old fat man waiting on the days to pass by. Folks where I am living are behaving well. So That is pretty good all around it seems to me.  Going to go get another head scan or something on Saturday. The the medical person that came to me when I had the really odd migraine attack a couple of weeks ago  has scheduled a new brain scan or what ever it is called so the neurologist will have a more recent scan to help him make decisions about my disease.  So it seems that is under as good control as is possible.  With the warmer weather I have been able to get outside for my aerobic walks most days and that is very nice. So everyone try to have fun and good luck to you.

Nothing much but wanted to post.

MADISON, AL.

It was a nice day over all. Yesterday was spent watching the grand kids perform in their stage plays. Piper was in the first one and Gavin in the second one. Both of those kids are doing incredible at acting in stage productions.  I have no idea where they got the stage acting ability but definitely not from me. WOW.

And today the USPS got my order for my new requirement for furnishing my own toilet paper all messed up delivery wise. Then later in the day it got delivered correctly and not causing trouble like their email was telling me? Who knows, but now I have a few weeks of toilet paper available. That is a wonderful feeling.

Want to know if you are old? It can easy to find out. Just be walking along a hallway minding your own business and let your bare arm brush a stippled regular sheetrock hall wall and a few seconds later you notice blood running down your arm as you walk along.  Not a wall corner just the flat wall section. I now have four "openings" in my arm skin with bandaids on them. Good Grief.

Thats all folks.  Go have some fun for me.  OFM

DEMENTIA BITES AGAIN

 Madison, Al.

Today was a big day medically. The OFM has been relieved of any more therapy sessions for 90 days.  The therapy group and the insurance folks feel the OFM needs to not do therapy for a while and let my body settle down then do a full  exam before choosing the next path of treatment. Neither group is suggesting quitting but just let things settle so they can better guess at the best path forward. I agreed with them.

So for the next few weeks I will be doing general activities of daily life. Then in three months a full evaluation will be done to help choose the best path forward.

OFM

DUMB JOKE

 MADISON, AL.

Yep a slow day.

"After years of wondering why he didn't look like his younger sister or brother, a young man finally got up the nerve to ask his mother if he was adopted. "Yes, you were son," his mother said as she started to cry softly. "But it didn't work out and they brought you back."

MAJOR CORRECTION TO BLOG ENTRY

 MADISON, ALABAMA

This mornings treatment session was very interesting. I totally mis-understood what was going on and reported incorrect information brought about by my disease DEMENTIA. The blog about the insurance stoppage is totally incorrect and here is the real story.

The stoppage of active treatment is part of the treatment process as they are going to let my head settle down to some sort of normal/average so they can see where my brain is without treatments. This will allow a chance to see where  I am  overall and make better choices in my treatment.  The good part is I am doing better than anyone expected and the treatment folks think they need to adjust my treatments to match the new me. I am the one who caused this misunderstanding by my illness interfering with my brain function

It is a new development that in the last three weeks I have been able to sense changes are happening  both good and bad but I am getting better at recognizing them to the treatment folks. Will this cure me? If it does it will be the first time in medical history.  But with the careful care we are buying me nice chunks of longer living and be still relatively function.  Living as a brain dead drooling zombie in a wheel chair is not LIVING in my book.  So folks please be patient with me, I am doing as good as I can figure out to do.

A COMPLIMENT

 MADISON, AL.

Today I got  a nice compliment.    The nice lady complimented me on how well I had adapted to assisted living as  as a lifestyle. I politely thanked her. Then I headed back to my room to figure out what I really thought about having to give up the full time freedom I had for 17 years as a full time rv boondocker. Yall have a nice day.

OLD FRIENDS VISIT

MADISON AL.

Today old friends Don, Patsy and Sandy the pup got here and visited with me and toured the facility. Then we spent a couple of hours talking about old and new times.  They are on their way to their warm weather home in Michigan from there winter weather home in Rockport Texas. It sure was nice to get to have a very nice visit with them. 

SURPRISE PACKAGE ARRIVED

 MADISON, AL.

Hello Barb and thank you for the surprise package that arrived today. As I left therapy today the nice lady from the front desk handed me the package from you along with  my mail  and what a surprise it was. Therapy is using Sudoku to help me keep my brain in shape to use to live now. The books will be very good for my progress in therapy. I am excessively incompetent at that game. Hopefully they will get me a chance to get better and maybe recover better.

The fan you sent Betty was really beautiful. She was really excited to get it. That was very nice of you. 

Now all I need to do is be careful about getting too hot as the weather warms up outside. This area has little to offer in outside excitement except walking the sidewalks in the area, so I do a lot of coloring book coloring.   I guess that is all for tonight. Get out and have fun tomorrow. The OFM.

OK FOLKS I WILL ATTEMPT A COME BACK

MADISON, AL. 

OK friends, I will write when I can but there is no way I can keep a blog flowing anymore.  I definitely will give it my best, which will be not much. Here are the statistics.  Dementia is a terminal disease that has been broken into seven stages.  I am entering stage 4 where it starts to become a controlling factor in everything of your life in bad ways.  So what can you expect?  Sometime I likely will not make much sense. But  then  a minute later I can be lucid and know what I am talking about. So far controlling what I say at any given moment is anybody's guess as to what I might say. Please be patient with this mess and try to learn about dementia from what happens in my next couple of years.  Check the internet for well explained information on what happens in the stages leading to death. If I recall correctly something around 40% of the world gets some form of dementia before they die.  Not if but when I fail to make sense please just leave a comment and I will attempt to get it right and published.

THE END

MADISON, AL.

Howdy folks. The OFM here.  In the last few days the dementia has taken over nearly completely and I do not feel able to carry on with this blog any more. Thank you for the years of fun but it is time to say good bye. Thank you for all the good times. Be safe and have fun.

OFM.

Busy but shopping coloring books

 MADISON, AL.

All my coloring books but one had all been colored totally. Then I sat down and went through the one left with uncolored pages and decided I did not want to color any of the 20 plus pages in it. So it went to my student/neighbor across the hall Betty R.  Now she has to get them all done whenever she wants to. he he he clever fool I am. Now I got to order more books from Amazon to have pages to color and have fun with. How's that for making a nuisance trouble go away.

Other than that little silliness not a dadgum thing has been making any good waves in the things around here for a couple of days.  So enjoy your fun out there friends, nothing much been happening here at the Old Folks Home.  Good night.

SUNDAY POSTING

 MADISON, ALABAMA    

Howdy folks. It is Sunday and time for the promised posting.  It has been an exceedingly calm last few days. Even conversations have been very calm and plain.  So I guess the good news is that there has not been any bad or especially exciting news lately. The OFM is just sliding along comfortably  and smiling. I guess that is about the best I have tonight and actually a lack of trouble seems like pretty good news to me. Good night folks.

SURPRISE MAIL

 MADISON, ALABAMA

The OFM got mail today and it was a bright yellow envelope from Secret Pal, Long time Follower.   I do not know who this is but THANK YOU for the wonderful boost during the very ordinary day. It was a wonderful surprise for me.

The morning was spent being in therapy during a good bit of the morning trying to help my brain damage repairs keep moving onward. We will see how it works out in a few months maybe.  That was about all the excitement I could drum up. Have fun please.

COMPUTER WOES

 MADISON, AL.

Well the internet service is behaving erratically and making things a bit less than wonderful. However we managed to get by for the second day of if and but and make it to bedtime.

Nothing much exciting happened except trying to get the computer to behave correctly again. Our maintenance guy has decided that I need a signal booster at my apartment. So we will see what happens.  And that was all the big excitement today. Have a nice evening folks. OFM 

AS PROMISED

 MADISON, AL.

As promised here is a blog entry on Sunday.  The day went well and the weather was absolutely beautiful. The OFM  got in a couple of just sit and visits with friends in the facility. So overall it was a very good day for nice visits with folks.  I cannot ask for more than that with my disease. 

For those that want to know, there is a scale us dementia folks are rated on to help us plan our future. It is a global deterioration scale .  (GDS) It is on the internet with commentary to explain things to some extent. I am a 3.8 rating for now. All the ratings are very subjective and are not guaranteed numbers. I have seen folks get whole point differences from different examiners in the same day. It is very subjective ratings but still helpful with proper professional guidance. 

Now all I need to do is figure out what to do next week. Have fun folks. OFM

GOOD EATS AT NOON

MADISON  AL.

My son Kiddo and I went to a Post office in Madison to have them tell somebody in the Federal taxing authority that we are still living and trying to pay our Federal taxes. The process took about five minutes each and went well.  By the time we ate lunch and got me back to my computer I received the email confirming I was legal again. No I do not know what this was all about.  My Dementia trouble prevents me from trying to handle federal tax filing on my own. So my son does it all for me.

But the great news is he took me to a new to me place for lunch that was really excellent.  I had a cooked chicken breast with crumbled roasted pecans on top with spiced peaches layer on top of the pecans, great green beans and well done mashed potatoes. The glass of sweet tee was ridiculously  great tasting.  My son had white fish in special cooking stuff with I forgot what for vegetables.  He eats there occasionally on work days.  His food looked and smelled even better than mine

The location of this great eating is  101 Main Street, Madison AL. Yep I will be going there again.

This was a nice way  to have a bit of fun today. Good night.

New Schedule For Blog

 MADISON, AL.

Hello folks.  My life is getting pretty simplified again and I am not finding enough to write about daily or even every other day.  So I am planning to just relax with what I have.  Trying to get in a report  twice a week seems to be about the limit. Since I have no transportation to run around the area or a legal drivers license to use it, I seldom have much happens in my life. It is a nice enough life but attempting to write a daily or frequent entry is beyond my activities.

For example the big excitement today was going to mind therapy and playing mental games for a half hour. Yes it makes a difference in my thinking ability but it does not make something interesting to write about.  So my new goal is a blog posting Wednesday and Sunday just in case something happens in my world again. See ya later. OFM

GAME DAY

COLD DAY 

It was a pretty ordinary day today. Get up at 0600 for breakfast at 0700 in the dining room. Piddle around coloring, reading and doing 30 minutes of brisk inside walking in the warm hallways of the facility. Then at noon it was lunch time so we went into the dining room to eat and that was about how the day went until it was torture room time.

Now the fun began and I mean FUN. My staff lady had found a new toy for us with  no brain to work right. AND THE FUN BEGAN.  The item is a game of sorts that you put colored pieces of all sorts of wood shapes into configurations shown on your "guide chart". into a wooden tray. Yep it definitely works the old brain into a good sweat of effort.  The game is PATTERN PLAY and marketed by Color By Design.

I played two cards of it and was worn out after an hour of fun messing with it. It was not hard to do but required VERY CAREFUL ATTENTION for things to work out right. Anyway I got in about 45 minutes of play during my session. I can vouch that it will tire your mind a bit it you work diligently at it. But I considered it great fun also.

Try it see how you feel about it. OFM.

MOUNTAINS

MADISON, AL.

Another lackluster day but more coloring was done and the day went along well. Things at the assisted living went smoothly today with a nice general cheerfulness all around us.  My son called and we have to go to the USPS nearby tomorrow to prove to them my son and I are who we say we are so he can get my Income taxes filed for me.  Then there is nothing special the OFM knows about after that.  

I am hoping to get some more cleaning out and getting rid of to happen this month.  There is not a lot to get rid of but I need to be careful and not chunk out something important if I can.

Things are getting slow in this this AL facility for the next few weeks so maybe some peace and quiet will prevail.  Have fun. OFM.

SNOW JOB

 MADISON, AL.

The inch of snow this morning was much more a nuisance than anything of value.  In fact the whole day was not much for the OFM Teams.  We did finish a decent coloring that took a while.

After supper the OFM visited with neighbor Tom and we discusses lots of things that come up in old men's lives and tried to make sense of some future plannings. I am not sure we made any good progress.  

In the meantime everything went well around the facility except for my ability to display  pictures in the blog text areas. Tomorrow should be a simple day of piddling around. Have fun.

CREATIVE BATTLE DAY

MADISON, AL.

I got my pills into me on time this morning and things went well from there. This morning I chose a new style of canyon coloring to attempt and it turned out to be a challenge and a half. But by late afternoon I finished it. It was a lot of new to me troubles to solve in doing it but the finished product is pretty good to my surprise.

My lung and bronchial tubes trouble is also healing a good bit so I should be in good shape when I run out of medicine on Thursday just as planned. So over all things are going very well. That is all there is on the news front. Tomorrow should be a nice comfortable day of easy going.  Every one have fun.

BIG BATTLE THIS MORNING

 MADISON, AL.

The morning went nicely this morning starting with my 7am pill. Then when that pill went to work it must have found the trouble in me because I had a horrible feeling for the next hour. WOW what a ride but in a little while my body started feeling a bit better but the war raged for about an hour more and things settled down to tolerable. A little after lunch the OFM was feeling decent again and the rest of the day has been an uphill but good feeling climb as if something is getting put back in shape.  Most of the day was a bit of a roller coaster ride but each feel better was noticeably better than the previous one.

I did a bit of sleeping between spells and a bit of groaning when not sleeping but the end result tonight is an OFM feeling pretty decent for the shape he is in right now. Four more days of pills.

The best news is I was able to color a new picture of a scene of a national park in Utah and it came out well on the first try. Maybe I am finally learning how to color decently.

The very bright sunshine was a joy today and several folks got out and played in the beautiful sunshine. Good night everyone.

SICK TIME updated

 Madison,  Al.

Sorry folks but it has been a couple of days of illness to handle some bronchial illness. It seems like every muscle in my upper torso has been violently over stretched .  The roving doctor in these parts has me on the mend now so I may be back to a real blog entry tomorrow. Take care, OFM. 

UPDATE:7:30 PM

The doc put me on some antibiotic medicine to last for a week. The first pill this morning made a nice improvement in my day for sure. It seems to have made a serious improvement at least I think it has.  Have fun folks. The OFM.

TOOLS ORDERED

 MADISON, AL.

Not a lot of excitement today but we do have a good rain this evening. It was not needed yet but it is a good slow soaker of a rain so I like it.

Additionally the maintenance man here  brought me a piece of heavy floor to wall trim to see if I could use it for the bed repair. Yep I sure can. So it was mine and now I have a wood chopping project in front of me with no chopper I realized. So now I have a small handsaw and an adjustable square and a couple of trinkets on order and supposed to be here by Friday of next week. So it looks like next week is repair weekend for my bed. It ought to be a nice small worthy project to enjoy. I am really glad no big hammers should be involved with the bracing repairs.

That is all for now but we all know that we never know when trouble will jump up and start a fight. Have fun. The OFM.

LONG VISIT

 MADISON, AL.

My son got here right on time to head out to the MEXICAN FOOD lunch we wanted. Phil Sandoval's old place was the destination for us to enjoy lunch. Two crispy chicken tacos with rice and beans was my order and they were very scrumptious. Yep a couple of well filled swelled bellys waddled out of there. Back home at my small apartment we got in a couple of hours of wonderful visiting before he had to leave to get his son from a friends house and head home. WOW that was a wonderful visit. We talked about all sorts of things we had not had the time to talk about in a few months. It was really wonderful.

The rest of the day was very gentle with the OFM piddling with one thing or another most of the rest of the day.  Thank you Arthur for a wonderful visit.

BLAND DAY OF NOTHING

 MADISON, AL.    

It was a mild day of not much happening today. My internet service has been flaky and intermittent all day. But that was ok since nothing happened to write about.  Tomorrow I get to have lunch with my son and that always makes for good times. But now I am out of things to write about, so everyone have fun tomorrow. OFM.

BROKEN BED

 MADISON AL.

First the exciting news for a brain dead old fool.  The torture chamber had me for over an hour today. That means I had over an hour working unsuccessfully on a "creative thinking logic puzzle". My great leader put me to work on it about2:15 pm and at 3:45 we shut it down with the puzzle not done. So I get to work on it over the weekend to help my head re-learn how to think logically.

Also some time was wasted trying to understand the Trump War but I never got close to understanding.    ...........................

Now on to the bed situation. My bed is one with a mattress and springs contained in a big cloth bag. The Serta mattress and springs bag sits on s latticework of 1x2 boards that have a little flex also. The first time I used it  something broke in the latticework support. So I have been dodging that area of the mattress for several months. Today I took it apart and examined the situation to see what to do to repair it.  A single 1x4 like a longer book case shelf screwed to the rest of the bed parts at the right spots would put my bed in great shape for sleeping.  So now I know what needs to be done but without being allowed to drive a vehicle I do not have, it is a bigger trouble than for most folks. The repair fellow for this facility says he will pick up what I need and get it to me soon. So for now the bed is put back together and I will be sleeping in comfort again tonight. When the parts get here I will have something worthwhile to do for a change. Assisted Living is an interesting style of living every day.

Good night everyone and have fun this weekend. I will be giving it my best.

ORIDINARY DAY AGAIN

 MADISON,  AL.

Just an ordinary day of breakfast, lunch and supper with little to less going on locally.  The middle east Trump war  is getting worrisome to me. But I had some nice coloring time learning more about water coloring. It is a lot more unforgiving than colored pencil art effort is in my opinion. 

Nice warm day with a bit of wind frequently but nothing destructive in it. It would have been a bit difficult for bike riding. That is about it for the excitement today so every one have some fun for me tomorrow. Good Night.

TORTURE CHAMBER FUN

 Madison, Al.

The torture chamber was the site of today's adventure.  It started with a page of SODUKO  squares to figure out. Sure enough the OFM worked hard at for hours and hours it seemed but finally turned it in to be graded. Double surprise, he got it all right!

Then we did more word puzzles and then another something where I made words from a group of letters and put them in a list provided. I made more words than the room allowed for. After about an hour she said I had done well this time.  So maybe the OFM has a few more days to work with now.

The day turned out very nice outside and I got in some outside walking in as well as my usual thirty minutes of aerobic walking inside. So over all it was a good day for being alive.

Some of the folks in this location are getting nervous since we are fairly close to a large military establishment dealing with rockets for one of their chores and the war is getting more serious. I personally have no idea if it makes any difference at all but I am definitely concerned that breakfast is on time in the morning or not.

In the meantime I hope everyone has a nice night and better tomorrrow.

Slow Day

 Madison, Al.

It has been a mild day all day. No comments on the blog to my surprise.  No therapy today so that did not generate any news. The whole facility here was pretty BLAH for most of the day. At least it was a sit back and relax day. Therapy tomorrow ought to be interesting with lots of the folks here expect us to be in a major nuclear war by tomorrow. Who knows but it is easy to see we are not living in a major target zone.  Oh well I will get up in the morning as usual and wander around wondering what is going to happen.  At least I have a bit of Amazon stuff due in to give me five minutes of entertainment. Have fun and good night. OFM

BRAIN GAME AGAIN

 MADISON, AL.

I got to the torture chamber a bit early today and visited folks for a bit. Then it was time to get to work on trying to train the OFM's brain with the MAGNETIC DOT ART system for my feeble brain.  It was a nice interlude and went very well. There are several versions available and they all work decently for brain repair.

Otherwise it was a nice day of piddling around with art efforts, visiting folks and generally just nice living. the usual thirty minutes of aerobic inside walking went well.  Also two sessions of wearing the patio furniture out from sitting and visiting with nice folks went rather nicely also.

I hope all my readers had a good or better day and are ready for warmer weather, I am.

ACTING

 

MADISON, AL.

I made it to the grand kids play tonight of Winnie the Pooh and it was really good. I enjoy those plays that they are part of very much and they really enjoy doing the work to put them on.

John Hedges. I thought about you today and there you were in comments when  I got home tonight. Glad to hear you are getting along and still kicking.  I sure miss the rving days we had before dementia kicked me off the road last year. Thanks for the contact. I am in assisted living in Madison, Alabama near my son. 

Now for the brain game of the night Lartoys Rope Untangle Puzzle is another fun one on occasion. It usually takes me 20-30 minutes to finish one of them. Have fun, the OFM

 

BRAIN GAMES

 MADISON, AL.

Thanks to a reader's request I went down to the torture chamber this morning and nobody was there. Good I thought I can get the names of the games I play to help my dementia get better. Well not quite. Lots of the storage cabinets were closed and locked. The ones open were accessed to get game names on a few games. Then it was back to my room to write about it all. Then the internet was used to check out for more good games and verify what I had brought from the torture chamber. So now the plan after tonight is to get the information on games used as I get to use them in the future. Then the info will be available to all my readers.

The old standby is SUDOKU and it seems to be a mainstay for brain help.  It is used fairly often at this facility.

The one that has been giving me trouble for a few months is ON THE DOT by Brainwright and is available at Amazon. 

On the internet sites I found Chess, checkers and jigsaw puzzles are all recommended.

On a different thought exercise was also highly recommended and my favorite was in the top group of recommended exercises.  Thirty minutes a day of aerobic walking at a speed  that is fast enough to get you into breathing deeply is recommended. I do it in the hallways in my assisted living facility every day. It is easy and I get to HOWDY lots of folks.

I get torture chamber time Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I plan to report on new games as they happen. I have a little bit of stuff happening but it needs to wait a little while before publishing about it all.

As far as today goes the lady across the hallway, BettyR and I got in two nice patio visits today. One after lunch and one after supper and it was nice to use the good weather like that .

That is it for tonight. Have some fun for the gang. Goodnight.

BRAIN THERAPHY

 Madison, Al.

It was a nice day and productive in a few ways today. I still cannot get pictures onto the blog. But the Brain Therapy session was productive in that the therapist and I  were able to get my brain to function a bit better than usual giving me hope for some recovery of my brain abilities.  I used three different games that each one helps work on a special section of the brain.  For some silly reason I really did well with two of them which gave hope to me. Then the third one was not nearly as good of an outcome.  I did slightly better than the last time a week or so ago. But it wore me out terribly.

The day was nice enough to get to spend over an hour sitting on the patio after lunch visiting with BettyR  just nice visiting in the wonderful sunshine.  Then two other times I was able to get out for some serious stepping out walking around the grounds here. Good grief that felt really good.

And for more fun I tangled with a coloring that is challenging me noticeably. It is just a waterfall scene but very busy and I need to be very careful with the pencil tip.  But it feels good to have the challenge ahead.

And one more weak moment caught me looking and drooling on the computer at some art supplies on the Amazon site. And suddenly ZOOM ZOOM a small order was placed for watercolor supplies to try that stuff out again.  So it looks like we spent a small bit of money for fun again.

Tomorrow looks like another busy day of fun and games here in Alabama. Good Night.

DON'T KNOW ANYTHING

MADISON, AL. 

 I have had a so what day all day. So I spent most of the day working on a new coloring and just cooling my heels.  Sorry folks that is my best for today. OFM

DEMENTIA REPORT

 MADISON, AL.

Today I was evaluated again after a few months of mental therapy. We went through the whole re evaluation process and came out with a 3.8 rating. Last rating was 3.6. What that means is my brain is failing more slowly than a few months ago. So I guess that qualifies as good news. Right?  

In the mean time it was a nice day and we had nice meals for all three meals today. The salmon tonight was very good. 

I got to work on more art efforts.  It is still a fun hobby.

Everyone have some fun please. OFM

VISION CHECKING

MADISON, AL.

 The only and therefore biggest event of the day was a trip to the optometrist  for some follow-up checking. The optometrist  is the one in the Madison Costco. The OFM feels he gets superior care from this man and recommends him after two visits. My situation is eyesight degradation from aging. He reverified all the the previous work in my eyes and we discussed a potential item on the cataract surgeries I had a few years ago but it only needs to be checked each visit. So the OFM got a passing grade on his optical checkup. YAHOOOOO.  The trip was the high spot of the day since nearly nothing is going on in my life.  A nice long nap after lunch got my eyes back into shape for reading and coloring again and the rest of the day has been gentle and pleasant.  So tomorrow I need to get busy and stir things up. Have a great day.  

GETTING READY

 MADISON, AL.

The OFM is getting ready for the big event this week. His next dementia evaluation is due to happen this coming week.  How ever the evaluation comes out good or bad at least I will finally get to know when the trouble ahead probably will happen so I can better prepare my weapons to fight it back. It will be a miserable battle the next few years so I really want to have plans for the coming situations I face.

On the temperature front, it was cold today and the sitting out in the pretty sun did not last long at all. The next three days are going to be the same then we warm up a bit.

Along the way today I worked new techniques for coloring and presentation that should be wonderful if I can ever figure it all out. It is fun learning new stuff and practicing using it all.

And finally, in about a week I will be going to see the grands perform in their latest live stage play. That will be some really exciting fun for this OFM. 

And there you have a great day in old man's life. Have fun everyone.

ANOTHER VERY NICE DAY

MADISON, AL.

Not much  happened today, The day was beautiful  all day and my talking buddy BettyR and I sat on the patio for a nice long visit loving the weather.  Subjects came and went easily and that is what makes visiting with her such a nice time. Then after supper when the drizzle had started we sat in the special seating area near our individual rooms and visited for a half hour again. It certainly made it a pleasant evening. Thanks BettyR.

The serious cold front is supposed to be flowing into the area soon for three days of miserably cold weather. The OFM is ready for it but wishes it would be a false alarm and nice weather instead. But the OFM will stay warm inside as required and color a bunch. That is about it for tonight, just living well and being happy.  OFM

BEAUTIFUL DAY

 MADISON, AL. 2-20-26

The weather was very conducive to nice sitting and walking almost all day today.  The patio out back got  a good bit of use by the OFM. A couple of times Betty R joined me for good friendly chatting about nice subjects.  It was a really pleasant time during those visits. The OFM got in some nice walking today also.

The mental went very well in some ways. The OFM had lots of trouble with the mental tasks for sure but it was surprising when at the end of the hour session, my leader said I did very well compared to the last session we had on that activity.  I know I worked myself into a frazzle trying to do the chores set before me. But she was happy with our results from this session.

I will be happy when we get to do the next evaluation on me in a week or so and can get some decently accurate information on my situation. I am well aware that there is no getting well, only slowing the loss of brain ability to do things. But I hope to get a reasonable guess on a time line so my family can be ready to help as I fall apart right before their eyes in the next couple of years.

That is all the news for today but we have a very cold four days the first of next week to enjoy. Have fun and good night.

COLD WEATHER AGAIN

2/19/26

 MADISON AL.

We are expecting some new cold weather during the weekend getting down into the 20's. for three days. We do not want that cold weather but here it comes. We have already been getting things ready for spring here in Madison.  Oh well we will survive most likely.

Not a lot happening around this area these days. The OFM has just been doing some coloring and piddling to pass the time. I hope all you nice folks are doing well. 

To the nice person with the return address  "Long time follower" who sent me the beautiful card please remember I have dementia and memory is my first thing going away these days. Yes it was a wonderful beautiful card and I appreciate in immensely. THANK YOU very much.

It has been a bit of cleaning out going on to get rid of things I likely will never be using again since RVing is out of the possibility now.  So my pile of stuff in the closet is getting a little smaller.  And I am lightening my load of RVing things and slowly changing over to Assisted Living style style of living. That ugly event last year that precipitated my moving in here has pretty well set me up as an AL person for the rest of my life. The good part is that my home now is a nice, fun, SAFE place to live with my troubles and have the type of help I might need close by. So I smile and enjoy it. I intend to continue the blog as long as I can handle it and still hope to get pictures back on the blog when I can understand how to do it. In the mean time everyone have some extra fun.

NOT MUCH

 MADISON, AL.

It was a not busy day for a change. The OFM had little to do and the  whole Assisted Living building was on slow motion. But the OFM outdid himself and got a Dementia event in his head  going to fill in the day.

As you can imagine we certainly did not do much productive the whole day except wait for Amazon packages that did not show up. 

Maybe tomorrow will be just as exciting and boring. Have fun somewhere folks.