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.