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. 

NICE DAY OF GENTLE JOYS

  MADISON, AL.

It was a generally nice day temperature and otherwise. The dining room  meals were good and we got fed  good tasting food all three meals.  Folks were in a decent mood all day and that was nice. Overall it was just a nice pleasant day of good feeling all around. The OFM got to sit outside in the sun for over an hour flapping his jaws with the lady from across the hall after lunch just enjoying being alive.

But tomorrow the torture chamber, as it is sometimes called, is open again and things may get a bit livelier. That is what some the folks call the therapy room where we get to do mental and physical exercises in our efforts to get well. We gave up on my body and now all the OFM does is brain exercises to fix his brain. And he is really good at flunking the efforts to help his brain fragment that is left.

But we do get a lot of laughter at the OFM answers to questions. Relax and have some fun tomorrow. Good night.

A FEW THINGS TODAY

 MADISON, AL.

It was a good day today and did not get a chance to be boring. The OFM started the day after breakfast  with some coloring and was making good progress when he suddenly began getting flashing lights and wild images in his vision field. OOOPS That means a migraine coming on. So we shut all efforts down and went too get some ibuprofen tablets. The drug wagon happened to be just down the hall from my room and quickly I had the two tablets I needed. Back to my room and laid down for about 45 minutes. Then I piddled a bit checking out my condition.  It was good so back to work I went.

I  stumbled across a web site I used to use a lot when I first got into coloring with pencils and it was very helpful. You might like it also.

It is ART IS FUN and the writer is an excellent artist that actually can talk about things way down there at my understanding level. I will be there again tomorrow trying to pound some smarts into me.

Then to top off the day I got a wonderful long walk outside in cool temperatures. Then a nice long chat with a lady friend about things from kayaking to tonight's supper at the facility we live in.

It was a good day overall.  Goodnight. OFM

JUST WALKING

 MADISON AL.

Howdy folks. Just decent food for all three meals today. I nearly missed supper because I slept through the alarm clock I set to wake me from a late afternoon nap for supper.  One of the caretakers (Star) noticed I was not at my usual spot at the table and came down the hall to check on me.  Yep I was still sleeping soundly and the alarm had sounded just two feet from my head but I still did not wake up. Thanks to  her paying attention I had a nice supper tonight. THANK YOU STAR. 

We lost another resident recently and I had not heard about it.  This facility puts a notice with a picture on the reception desk when we lose someone. I did not know she was doing badly but now I know. She was a nice lady and will be missed. I hope her husband handles it well. He is nice folk also.

This afternoon I got a new coloring book in. It was pretty worthless. The new style of adult coloring books drawings are so bad that I did not even see a page worth coloring.  The drawings are very crude and drawn in vey wide lines that the colored pencils cannot cover and conceal.  That causes the colorings to look more like wall graffiti than art. YUK. So I will need to be very careful in the future to make certain the books are quality drawings.

It was a cool but sunshine day and I did get in a twenty minute careful walk outside  in addition to my half hour of inside aerobic walking today.  Almost all the folks in here will not get off there backside and exercise on their own. But that also leaves me more space to do my exercising to keep my heart beating well.

I guess I have mouthed off enough so have a nice evening and be safe please. OFM

JUST GOT LUCKY

 MADISON, AL.

An exciting therapy session was had today. The OFM hit the therapy room a bit early this afternoon and had about a ten minute wait for the fellow ahead of me to finish his session. Then the teacher and I visited about some business items.  Then it was therapy time. She is excellent at picking my therapy activities.  So today I was not surprised when we returned to an activity that the OFM totally failed at a couple of months ago.  It was a fun item to try where you put specially shaped pieces of  thin wood on a grid to be certain shapes.  Two  months ago this exercise totally blew my abilities into the sewer. I achieved a score of total failure for the effort, but it was fun trying.

Today was a new day. We discussed how the dementia was treating me today. Badly I told her. We discussed it a few minutes so she could get a good read on my thinking ability and announced we would put me to work on this program just to find out how I tested today over (or under) the last time to attempt the task.

It involves fitting varied shaped flat pieces of wood onto a shape drawn on a piece of plastic to create a given design. There are six different designs to duplicate with each one harder than the previous one.  Last time I could not even get the easiest one figured out.

So today I went to work on the first task with little hope of doing good since my thinking ability seems to have slipped a bit since the last time I saw this challenge.

Surprise I got the first one done in about five minutes as I recalled tactics I had developed the last time I tried the exercise. She had barely settled in behind her desk when I yahooed I had it done. To her surprise it was correct and extremely quick.

Let shorten this story. Then we went to the next level and I was quick

and correct again.  WOW I thought.  Then the next three went together before she could get behind her desk to wait on me. It was an incredible performance difference since I tried it the first time long ago. So apparently this therapy stuff is actually doing some measurable good for me. Don't tell me I JUST GOT LUCKY.

How is that for some good news for a change? OFM

NICE DAY TODAY

 MADISON, AL

It was a nice day overall with nothing special happening but nice meals all three times.  A painting was finished and shown to a few folks who thought it was a nice one. So did I. 

It looks like winter is finished with us and gave us us a nice sunshine day with a high of 65f. Yep I went outside a bit to enjoy it. In my therapy session I achieved the lesson goal in decent time and got a passing grade.  The Dementia seems to have progressed a bit. It is a bit worse now but the therapy gets changed tomorrow to meet the new needs.  These folks are big on jumping on a new trouble  with kick ass boots on immediately and not piddling around. I am very fortunate in getting to be a patient of this treatment group. 

That is it for excitement around here today.

Time for a good nap. Have fun. OFM

UROLOGY DAY

MADISON, AL.

It was time for the follow up to an earlier test and exam.  The doc did a few things and then we discussed a few things. After that it was a prostate fingering and all was called acceptable at this time.  Another visit in three months was scheduled. And away we went to get me back home and my son back to work. The rest of the day was piddle around and wait for USPS to get a very late package to me but no luck on that as usual. That made for the big excitement of the day. Take it easy folks but have some fun. OFM  

DENTAL TODAY

 MADISON, AL.

Not a lot happened today except for my six month check up and cleaning of my chompers.  I got fresh clean toothies and a good job of maintenance compliment. Six months until the next cleaning and another trip to that office. But teeth in good shape makes my life a lot nicer.

I got a list of all the drugs being used on me today and tonight checked out what each and every one is supposed to be doing for me. The big surprise was that the seven prescriptions I am taking to get my health back in control each had clear purpose and within the correct range of dosage for my troubles. So the doctors seem to be paying attention more than I thought. That was wonderful to find out.

So it looks like I am getting the best treatment available for the Dementia in general. Supposedly in a year or so the sickness may be able to be more exactly defined for more exact treatment. It is so early in the treatment that the exact version of the five types of Dementia is not identifiable yet. And nope it is not curable yet but can be made more livable with exact treatments.

The weather has quit that freezing stuff for the foreseeable future and everyone is rejoicing. A couple of the new residents have found out the OFM is the walking for exercise person to visit to find out where the best paths are when starting at our home here. So maybe I will get a companion on my walks this year. That would be nice. In the meantime every one get out and have fun. OFM.

APPOINTMENTS

 MADISON, AL.    

Here I was getting ready for a calm week when the phone rings and it is my son reminding me  of a dentist appointment tomorrow and a neurologist appointment on the next day for a follow up on my dementia .  So now I get to go to appointments the next two days and find out what sort of news I will be hearing and more about my dim future. 

Other than that it was another ordinary day of USPS not delivering mail that they claim to have to me. They are definitely having a hard time providing service this last couple of weeks.

And that is the sum of the  events of this nice day here in Madison. Good night.

ORDINARY DAY TODAY

 MADISON  Al.

Today was nice sunshine most of the day and I spent most of the day inside doing coloring on a nice picture. I will still be working on it tomorrow.

Nothing much else of importance happened to the quiet to disturb it at all. However we did have three good meals today without any just OK parts of the meals.  So I guess it needs an A rating for today. That's it for today, talk to you tomorrow.

HEAD TREATMENT TODAY

 MADISON, Al.

Today was interesting in therapy. The OFM therapy is for helping his brain heal as much as it will from the HIGH blood pressure damage ignored for years by the doctors he used back then.   Today was a day we did some repeat stuff from several months ago when I first got  here. My therapist was surprised to find me scoring much better than when I got here. Apparently some stuff quit deteriorating and slightly healed since I got here and got proper treatment. Most of the damage will never heal but it is known that it frequently can be slowed significantly in the future. So that was a bit of good news for a change. Now all the OFM needs to do is follow the rules.

We are getting some upgrades to the facility interior that are needed. One of which is better internet for the residents.  My new internet seems to be a bit quicker than before but it mostly is less prone to getting clogged up and stopping.

And other good news is the weather is finally getting to warm up a bit in  a few days. We are tired of these hard freezes every night for the last couple of weeks. I want to do some outside walking instead of walking the hallway back and forth to get my 30 minute aerobic in.

That is it for news hear in this area. Have fun wherever you are.

NORMAN

 MADISON, AL.

The fellow that was moved from our facility a few days ago to a different facility to better handle his 24 hour a day needs, Norman, died a couple of days ago I found out this evening. I had hoped he might get a bit better with the more intensive help at the new place. At least I got to wave to him and tell him goodbye when he rolled out of this facility. He had been in assisted living for a long time I was told. 

Good bye Norman, see you in a few.

ROUGH DAY

 MADISON, AL.

Today was weird. It started out with an early morning attack of dementia symptoms  that lasted until well after lunch. Even though I finished the thirty minute walk in spite of the attack I was a wreck for accomplishing anything. When I went over to the therapy room, my therapy person, Allison, chose the right treatment for me and things got a lot better very quickly. So the rest of the day has been good recovery time for the old fat man. I did find out my new kitchen windup alarm timer works very well to wake me from naps to get on to what I needed to be doing. So it was a decent day in the end. Good night.

NOTHING

 MADISON, AL.

I did absolutely nothing today but tomorrow I plan to be less industrious.

RULES

 MADISON, AL.

It was interesting today that I was told that I could no longer push folks down the hallways in their walkers with a seat. It is too dangerous. But a walker owner can propel themselves on the same walker down the same hallways.  So now if someone asks to be pushed to the dining room I have to decline. But I am allowed to tell an attendant that the person is requesting help in navigating to the dining room ( or elsewhere) and they can push the person in that same walker.  You figure it out, I am not smart enough to make sense of it. But I will obey.

It was cold today but very clear and about 50f outside, so I signed out and took a walk in the neighborhood next to the facility. It was really nice to get outside in the sun for a change.

The lady who does the weekly cleaning of my room got busy this morning and cleaned it while I ate breakfast in the dining room. So when I got back every thing was fresh and clean.

And that is all the excitement we had today.  Good night.

COLD DAY

 Madison, Al.

Another no much day for us. Things went well in general. While doing my 30 minute walk in the hallways today it was lightly snowing outside to give me something to look at. Another coloring was finished and it turned out decent. Not much else going on so I just piddled around doing nothing but my exercises and aerobic walking to attempt to stay a bit healthy.  We are getting near to the end of this less than freezing weather in about 8 days I think. It will be nice to be well above freezing at noon again.  Everyone have fun where you can and enjoy living.  OFM.

GOOFY DAY

 Madison, Al.

We had decent weather today most of the time. However it stayed right below freezing all day so the OFM stayed inside as much as possible. During my hall walking half hour of aerobic exercise it went from cold and gloomy to bright sun nd then light snow falling for about an hour. The next thing I knew it was over cast with a cold breeze. Now it is hazy, cold, light breeze and not worth a flip to be outside.  The good news is that in about 12 days we should start to warm up slightly so we can get above freezing in the daytime for a change. This is the first time I have spent much winter here in my life so it is a new happening for me.

I got to finish a new coloring of some flowers that took forever it seemed to get the color details correct. But it was an excellent learning experience for me. 

And yesterday around noon we all got a letter from the owners, manager, and operators of this assisted living I am at.  The letter explained a big change coming.  The owners are changing the company that actually operates the business soon. The company that runs the actual doing of the business "hands on wise " is to continue. I do not know exactly know where each responsibility starts and stops but the day to day operations are not expected to change any significant amount.  Any way we are supposed to be unaffected in the day to day part of the business. The owners have been fairly straight forward in the past so the details should be ok for us patients involved here. My guess is somebody is retiring.

And that is all the excitement here for the day.

A LITTLE HECTIC TODAY

 MADISON, AL.

Things got a little hectic today as a new internet revision was completed for the building I live in.  Sure enough they did not get the new password to me so I was without internet until a little while ago. The installer was still here and gladly fixed me up with the new password for getting on the internet.  As you can see it worked well. Other than that it was just a plain day of living, visiting and eating. Nothing special went on and nothing special is happening until late next week. Looks like a good week for piddling around. Have fun folks.

INVENTORY OF CLOTHING

 MADISON AL.

Today was laundry day so early this morning I got my dirty clothing into the hamper and ready for pickup early.  By the time I finished breakfast the housekeeping lady had the laundry in their machines getting all wet. Laundry is included in our rent.  A couple of hours later she delivered the laundry to my door in the basket folded for storage. But today was the day I had chosen to inventory and logically consider my  clothing inventory.  ABOUT an hour later I had EVERYTHING accounted for and put away.  It was nice to know for sure I had enough clothing and different types to meet weather challenges ahead.  To my surprise I did not have any changes to make in the inventory now that I am not traveling any more. 

Another new to me event happened. A fellow who was very nice to the newbie Barney who had just moved into this facility eight months ago was moved to a new place for him. He is 97 and now needed 24/7 care and  attention and this place is not set up for that intensive amount of care.  I was at the door when he was wheeled out to wave goodbye and give him a thumbs up.  We sure hope it goes well for him. He is a nice fellow.

My mental therapy  consists of things to cause heavy mental thought in the form of games etc. to fight the Dementia.  Well today it was a session of building a dohicky with leggos.  I had never handled Leggos before so it was very interesting.  The worst part was the tiny little pieces in the set we used. Trifocal glasses are definitely a difficulty but stiff old fingers are as bad too.  Since I had never handled Leggos before it was an interesting 45 minutes of therapy with a lot of dropped pieces. Good grief they were small and light so sometimes I could not even feel the pieces in my hand even though I could see them there in my fingers. This will take some getting used to.  

Thanks for reading and good luck with everything.

JUST MORE COLD AND COLORING

 MADISON, AL.

Not much special today. I had a good nights sleep last night. It was definitely a cold temp this morning outside. So I stayed inside all day just keeping warm and doing coloring or studying how to do special types of coloring. The cooking staff here does a good job of keeping us well fed which is very nice. This excessively cold weather is due to stick around for another week at least so I should be pretty good at coloring by the time it warms up around here. Nothing else special so just keep warm and well fed. We are.  Good night.

MORE FREEZING WEATHER

 Madison, Ala.

It looks like more of the same cold weather for the next week at least with freezing every night and near freezing during the day. Not much to do outside today. We had small flake snow flurries for about two hours in the morning but when the clouds went away and the sun hit the snow it melted away in an hour or so.  So from lunch on it was a nice looking day but right above freezing. The whole next week is hard freeze each night with a bit of thawing during the day. Guess I got to sit back and enjoy staying inside and going to brain therapy. At least I am decently fed, warm and dry.  Have fun folks, OFM

LONG FREEZE

 MADISON, ALABAMA

The big event here is the temperature is supposed to be below freezing tonight and stay there for over 24 hours. Then it will get barely above freezing in the day time for several days. Gonna be cold here for a while. I sure hope the heating system holds out for the building.  We are dripping water from the faucets at night already to keep the pipes from freezing and breaking. That is about the closest thing we have to news today so sit back and relax. Have fun somewhere and good night.

ORGANIZING THE COMPUTER DESK

 Madison, Al.

It was a good day of reorganizing my desk of operations.  Several pages of loose paper floating around were put out in the trash since they were not needed anymore. Then we got busy seeing where we were in organizing things. While we were at it, it turned out to be time to rework my desk since I would not be in an RV again.  We reinstalled a shelf in a side storage bin and put some things that occasionally we   need into that space. then a general rearrangement to make things a little easier now. It was time well spent since we also got some no longer needed stuff out of the area into the trash bin outside.

Next big deal was a very good half hour of lightly aerobic inside walking in the halls. It was a little over thirty minutes of brisk walking that felt really good. That walk is a daily thing for me. On top of that I put the 7 pound hand weights in my hands and did a nice gentle workout from top to bottom with their help.

Then the rest of the day I culled coloring books I have accumulated in the last year. Each one was carefully gone through and each page was given a look and if I thought it was not likely to get used in any fashion , it was torn out and into the trash can.  That brought the stack down to about 125 possible art efforts in front of me. Now we will see what I can do with pile of work ahead.

On top of that I got out my four sets of colored pencils and  tried them all out in an effort to simplify my choices to make time I try to color. I chose to stick with wax based colored pencils and get rid of the oil based colored pencils.  Betty R from across the hall from me was glad to get them since she uses that exact brand of pencils.

Just in case that was not enough to do, I tackled a significant cold air leak in a window that was letting in too much cold weather in these days.  The trouble turned to be a round foam gasket that had failed and there was a reasonable piece of foam ready to be cut to fit properly and installed. So I did it and did not bother the maintenance man who is over loaded right now with the bad cold wet weather stuff .  So now I have a much easier room to heat in these below freezing temperatures out side.

All in all it was a nice day of just the right amount of stuff needing to be done to avoid boredom. And now it is blog time. Great day for the OFM.

THE Dummy Lives Here

 Madison, Al.

It does not take much to bamboozle the OFM.  I reached for my door keys on the way back from the dumpster trip and found an empty spot where I normally keep them on my belt.  OK in back to the nurses station to get one of them to open my room door so I can find out where I put them. Thirty minutes later of searching this 350 square foot apartment the key and wrist chain were found hanging on the doorknob of the bathroom room against the wall. OK so next was another walk to the nurses station to thank the nurse for opening the door earlier. She was nice and polite about my stupidity.

Other than that 30 minute search, the day was mostly a so what except for when I touched base with old friends back in Texas and had a nice phone visit. So folks take it easy and enjoy our cool weather while you can. Good night .    

HOW LONG

MADISON,  AL.

Well I got to messing with the SSA site and got busy seeing how long I should have to live as a minimum.  With the age now being 79  and the disease being Vascular Dementia it looks like I have a bit of a chance to live to 88.9 years old. That is not very long so I better get busy cause I have a lot of living to do yet. Keep in mind I was on the road as a full time RVer for seventeen years already. That translates into a huge pile of things I know about now that I still have to do.

Nothing else exciting went on today in this facility. The facility is actually well run most of the time. Cleanliness is a priority and I really appreciate that asset. The day went along easily in spite of nothing special was happening. It warmed up just barely warm enough that the OFM actually got to get outside to do his walking exercise today. I much prefer to walk out side than make loops of the hallways inside. But that was the limit of the excitement for today. Have fun.

GOOD THERAPY SESSION and COLORED PENCIL REVIEW

MADISON, AL. 

Today was a good mental therapy session. After a bit of help getting my understanding of the Sudoku rules straightened out I whipped right on through two sets of that game in decent time.  It was a lot less difficult when the real rules were known. So I labed it s good day because it is now a fun game to me.

I finished the valuation of the four colored pencil sets I have been messing with.  After careful analysis of the similar sets of colored pencils I came to the conclusion that any of the sets exceeded my abilities.  The sets had considerably different price tags.  My coloring with each of them over the course of several colorings led me to believe that any of the sets would be just fine for most non-professional art efforts. One of the sets was a watercolor pencil set that did very well as dry or wet coloring.  This does not mean they were identical in performance.  As usual each had a quirk or two to learn but they all did just fine for me. The water color pencils and one set of colored pencils were the Kalour brand. another set of colored pencils was Kird-Barken brand and the  last set and considerably more expensive brand was Prismacolor. I was unable to tell any of the coloring ability between them for an amateur like me.

I very much liked the way each brand handled even though each brand had style of use to be learned . Like proper pressure on the point of the lead etc.  Purchases were all made through Amazon.

I hope that helps some of you with any art efforts you may be doing.

We have a major freeze scheduled starting Friday and lasting a few days so I likely be staying inside until that weather event is over. 

Have fun indoors. 

EASY DAY OF ART EFFORT

MADISON, Al.

Almost the whole day was spent indoors working on art things of one sort or the other. The weather is looking like a week of bitter cold and wetness is in our immediate future. So I will be staying inside a lot for sure.  As I type this we have one day next week where we will not get up to above freezing for about two and a half days. I plan on staying out of that sort of weather. Every one be careful in this messy weather. OFM

EVEN LESS THAN YESTERDAY

 MADISON, AL.

Even less happened today than yesterday. I got a brain recovery session in at therapy that went very well for a change. This therapy just slows down my brain failure rate not cure anything. The best I can tell continuing the therapy often could add me another three or four years to live and still be able to function decently. It is worth the bother since it is usually just playing fun brain games anyway.  Chess. Sudoku or things like that. That is about all the excitement for the day. I hope you folks had some fun too.  Good Night.

NOT MUCH

Madison, Al.

Mostly a piddle around day.  Did my homework for the weekend for my brain repair class. Then it was piddle here and there all day  while waiting for an Amazon package that finally got here about 7pm. At least the whole order made it in decent shape.

I did manage to color a nice 5 x 7 size picture of a lady drawing while sitting on a log outside that came out nice. But this brings us to the end of a decent day and the start of a good nights sleep. So Good night Folks.

NEW ADULT COLORING BOOKS

 Today was the start of a four days of Amazon stuff arriving. For the next four days I have things arriving from Amazon that are little things that make life nicer. Not being able to drive safely makes getting a quick trip to Walmart or anywhere impossible. s Amazon takes the place of running to a local store for anything.  Today two new adult coloring books came in that are going to keep me busy for a few months. Both are full of landscapes of different sorts but are much more detailed than one for kids to color. I will have things to color for a couple of months now.

Today I have been doing my Dementia home work by trying to work out Sadako  puzzles. Yet I still have no idea how to manage them in any manner. But working on them is supposed to noticeably improve my brain. 

That is it for the big excitement of the day so get busy and have some fun for me. Goodnight.

GOOD PLAYING

Madison, Al.

Here it is 0857 Friday night and finally I have something good to write about. Tonight was my grandson's honor band performance.  He plays trombone in the band. They gave their final performance tonight to a large crowd and it was excellent music for all the total performance. I was excessively proud of their performance. That tops out the day very well. YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. 

EXAMPLES OF BRAIN REPAIR GAMES

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Ok folks, as requested, here is the  brain games I played in therapy today. The first one was an eight step word game where you started with one word and followed a clue about changing a letter in the word to form a new word. Then repeated that several times until you got to the end of the clues  with a final new word. It was easy for me to do but my medical lead says that many folks have trouble with it.

Onn to the second game for the day. It was a sudoku puzzle.  I have never enjoyed them and never really got one figured out in my life. Today was as usual 20 minutes of work with no success. And the session was over.  I got to take the sudoku puzzle back to my room to work on it this weekend. Little chance I will figure it out but I will give it a shot. It is the attempting to do it that causes someone to build brain abilities lost due to the dementia  disease whether they win or lose the game. So I will give it a good try this weekend. Another fun  game is s box of different colored thin wood shapes like circles, triangles and other weird shapes are put on a table in front of me.   Then a colored picture of the shapes making a scene like a house and garage is put on the table and I get to arrange the shapes to be just like the scene of the house and garage. Sometimes the pieces are all the same color or other times they are different colors. but you still match a scene  given to you.  There are several more "do it" types of stuff that challenge your ability to follow instructions carefully. 

I do have to say that the different games can be a real challenge on my rough days and some times on a good day it is fun and easy. Each session is supposed to be about 45 minutes of patient working time.

I hope that gives you an idea of the kind of games we play in the brain rebuilding part of the treatments.

Now it is time to get busy having fun. Thank you for reading my babbling.

WHAT NEXT.

 Madison, Alabama

Finished a bit of mental therapy this afternoon and learned what my level of mental ability is. I have recovered to the likely highest level of brain ability I will get and from here on will need to keep on with the brain exercises to minimize the brain deterioration for the rest of my life. Notice I said minimize brain decline.  The decline will continue but we can slow it down but not stop it much less get better. Well my reading about dementia had me prepared for this day as much as possible.  My brain function is definitely less than it was two years ago. So now all the brain work will only be for helping slow down the continuing deterioration. I knew this point was coming up soon and here it is.  So folks now I have a valid reason to sound like a real dummy now. So watch out this ride could get a lot wilder now. Go have fun, life is very short. OFM

QUESTIONS FINISHED

 MADISON ALABAMA

I looked up on the internet and got good news about the weather around here. The normal average date that the weather starts warming up in this area is February 1. I will be ready for it to get on moving upward myself. I used to like a hard freeze or two to knock down the mosquito population down on the Texas coast marshes. But WAY up north like Madison is, mosquitoes are not much of a trouble usually. So let us just get right on into warm weather again.

As far as I can recall I have answered all the questions on my living situation. If someone wants more information just drop the question on me in the blog and I will give you my best guess to the truth as I see it.

That is about all the excitement for today. The latest excitement is Amazon finally delivered the last dribble of stuff ordered before Christmas. It was just ordinary stuff for living and not time critical but I still like to be clear of waiting for stuff later than it was supposed to be here.   Have fun folks.

Cindy question answered

 Madison Alabama

Cindy you asked about activities  for inmates to participate in.  I do not know how many a month we average so I went to the Big Room as they call it where they post a huge monthly calendar of things to do if you want to participate.  For January there is only 80 events this month. Most months have a few more. Out of that 80 events 4 are former professional entertainers that are paid to preform here. They put on an hour show in the afternoon after lunch normally. Yes they are all very good and fun to attend, Three times a week there is a free bingo game hour with winners getting small packages of candy. Margaret sees to it the game is fun. The physical and mental therapy clinic puts on special free events about 3 -5 times a week that are well attended. In between that many church groups stop by to sing and make a pitch to come to their church.  Several other activity groups happen.  I attempted to start a group for learning simple art drawing and coloring. It failed  as the folks just wanted to do coloring as they visit with each other. Several other groups meet weekly or monthly as they choose .  Generally speaking , Anybody can get an approved event going if they want to. All of this is in addition to things like Christmas, Halloween etc parties. The business manager is frequently asking folks what they want to have happening. She helped me get the first coloring teaching class to happen.  On top of all this there is outdoor events when winter is not in charge of the weather. So yep a few things happen once in a while.

Barb in Florida Question

 Madison, Alabama

OK Barb here is my least stupid answer to the difference in how my type of migraine and a dementia start up behave.

The migraine, mine are known as classic migraine. I  start not feeling fine about a minute before I start going blind. Then one or both eyes are blind for a few minutes and then the screaming migraine head ache starts.

For the dementia I am feeling fine and suddenly my balance is bad, knowing where or what is gong on around me may cease to happen.  Then in a few minutes later I figure out I feel bad and feel very run down and and somewhat disoriented for 15  to thirty minutes. After that I can function at a low low level of ability for an hour or so. Then my ability to talk and make sense slowly comes back over the next half hour or so. Full recovery takes a few hours usually so far and then I am weak for a day or so. 

I will tell more about other parts of Dementia tomorrow.

Now for today. I was able to start and complete two new colorings today and they were fun. I am hoping my son can get over here to get me able to put pictures into the blog again pretty soon.

The colorings today came out pretty well and were lots of fun to work out and do. They took about four hours each. When I do new colorings, they get hung on the outside of my room door for a while to let folks that are interested to see them.

That is it for tonight. I will attempt to answer more questions tomorrow after I figure out the answers. Good night everyone,

A THOUGHT

 MADISON, ALA.

So far this sudden move from RV traveler to assisted living has been relatively easy. A big help was my reason for doing it was absolute. There is no way I could stay on the road safely with the Dementia actively destroying my brain. I was already coming back here to get off the road long enough to find out what was wrong and get it fixed. Well the finding out was the easy part. The MRI and EEG both conclusively showed the doctor that it was stage two Dementia. When I saw the " x-rays it was obvious that my brain was in trouble. The doctor carefully explained what it all meant.  For practical aspects it meant that I would not ever be safe to operate a vehicle on the road again. What I have noticed is my reaction times have slowed down tremendously. So even though I feel I could drive a vehicle safely on an empty street I do not figure out what is developing ahead of me until too late. The other part is memory would be getting very iffy and short lived. That IS happening.

The result is  I chose to not even try to drive before I hurt someone by being hard headed. Here we are six months later and it was the proper decision. Living here in the assisted living part of this facility is very safe and nice. When I do have a session of head not working right, I just go back to my room and color or something else and NOBODY gets hurt. Driving when an attack of dementia hits shuts me down mentally about 75% and I am not safe driving on the road.

So I am in a good facility where I get three decent meals a day and a nice snack spot is kept ready for me to grab a decadent snack day or night. There is competent medical help on call in the building 24/7 for when real trouble hits. I am free to come and go any time I choose. But I am learning to feel (fore see) trouble starting and when that immediate medical help is needed it will come running ready to take care of me. That is my current living status as best as I know. We will move to the next step of this lifestyle in the next report.  Have great day folks, I am.

FINALLY OVER

MADISON, AL.

Yahooooo the last Christmas Amazon shipping stuff is completed now. All purchases and packages have been received and marked off the worry list. Now I get to kick back a bit and relax. The OFM had several shipments "get lost" this year and cause some worry and bother. To my amazement EVERY ONE OF THEM eventually was delivered in good condition and no more than two days later than promised. So I call it a good delivery season.

I bought myself a CHEAP set of water color pencils to try out from Kalour on Amazon. I have been wanting to try a style of water color art again now that I have more education about the subject. We will see how that works out. Doing a bit of simple personal art is on the new year agenda since I can no longer safely drive. I think I may have some free time again for fun and games.  This assisted living is a far cry from good boondocking RV travels but I am making it a  fairly nice living style anyway. Is anybody interested in hearing my thoughts about this life style for decrepit old fat men?????? 

As far as my health is concerned the dementia I have is a definite trouble to handle but there is lots of good literature out there on how to make my efforts easier and decent most of the time.

In the meantime I hope everyone has a great NEW YEAR.

NOT MUCH HAPPENED

 MADISON, AL.

A nice quiet day all day with lots of coloring and studying and visiting with a friend here at the OFH (old folks home). Maybe tomorrow will be a rousing success. Have fun, Folks.

ONCE IN A WHILE

 MADISON, ALA.

Now and then things dot not go just right at this place I live. But the caretakers respond very quickly to handle the situation. One such event happened tonight. A resident has been having some difficulty with balance, He normally uses a motorized wheel chair to get around our facility pretty well. Tonight just before I got to the dining room he had a fall in his room and an ambulance was called to get him to an emergency room for checking  him out for injuries. In a very few minutes he was strapped into a wheeled device to safely get him on  to the ambulance. And away he went. We will likely get the story tomorrow during breakfast. I am very well pleased how very well these folks here get trouble handled.

Supper was good and the OFM is having trouble because his eyelids have gotten so fat on the food served here that they keep closing and it is not even 0800 yet. But the day was nice and the OFM managed to lightly injure his right Achilles tendon walking today.  Tomorrow he has to be careful and get that healed.

And that is it for today's exciting events. Good Night Everyone.

COLORING RESEARCH

 Madison, Al.

A coloring I am starting includes a large crack in the ground that happens in a few places on the earth. The OFM had no idea about how the cracks look, size of them and especially what colors are in them. It all led to a couple of hours of great education for the OFM. There are lots of places where all sizes of earth cracks can be visited and in many case folks can hike around down inside the crack. It was an extremely interesting couple of hours reading. Worst of all I have little chance of getting to go see and experience one. So folks take it from me it is great interesting reading to do a  internet search on "cracks in the earth" and read all about something that I should have done while on the road but never thought about it.  At least now I know what color to make the crack and have a little bit of an idea about what I will be coloring.

It was great learning about earth cracks.  Good night.

FOOT TROUBLE

Bunionette is its name and my right little toe is its game. The OFM finally found out what the trouble is and what to do about it.  The base of my right foot little toe is the location and it hurts frequently.  The internet says that they mostly respond well to bunion pads and spacers of sorts and I just live with the nuisance of it. Surgery is seldom needed but surgery frequently requires three months of recovery and still likely to need extra pads. Well now I know and pads will be ordered tonight most likely. 

The day was marred by some Dementia activity  making it necessary to be gentle and careful with my body all day. With that mental activity I have to be extra careful with balance and also tripping on minor items on the floor. So it has been a take it easy day on body moving around.  The therapy session had a complete failure by the OFM on the task given BUT the instructor said that her records showed I took the same logic test earlier in my stay and did much worse.  At least this time I was able to work within the rules and accomplish a good chunk of the task.  So that shows some significant improvement in my ability to do the task required. Maybe we can call it progress.

That is about all the excitement for today around here.

Just A Nice Day

 Madison, Al.

 It was another nice cool day here and a few of us got to sit out in the sunshine with our light jackets on telling tales of questionable truth. We never let facts get in the way of a great story.

We have a few days of decent but cold weather ahead and then another cold front moves through to scramble the weather up for a couple of days. But we are only a few weeks from spring starting to explode on us. Yep the OFM is ready already for spring.

It was a nice day of piddling around on things of mild interest to myself. But tomorrow I need to get more industrious.   Everyone get out and try to have tooooo much fun.  

VERIFIED MY MEDICINES

Madison, Alabama

This facility I am in controls my medicine I get daily. Today I verified that all the medicine I get, 7 tablets per day, were the correct medicines. I do not have info on the quantity of the medicines available to verify but at least the names of the 7 pills each day have been verified.  I get a warm fuzzy over it. 

A new coloring has been started and it may take a while to get done with all the little details in it that have to carefully be handled. I think I can make it a nice coloring but I will need to be very actively careful to get things right.

And the weather cleared up enough that blog reader Betty R and I got to sit out on the patio after lunch and tell all sorts of "interesting stories". We have a grand time visiting out there on occasion.

And that is all the excitement we had for the day. Get out and have fun folks.  GOODNIGHT.

NOT MUCH

 Madison, Ala.

Not much excitement here in the cold wet area. Low forties and drizzle for the weather report. OFM had a nice sit on the patio with my friend Betty and we told stories that might even be true. It was a nice time but a light drizzle sent us inside after a short while. 

During my Dementia treatments this afternoon, just a little ways down the hall was a nice fellow with his guitar playing and singing doing a nice job of entertaining the residents for about an hour. We could hear the show just fine from the therapy room ( torture chamber as we patients call it) . I told the entertainer we enjoyed his performance even though we could not attend in person. He thanked me for letting him know about us down there.

Nothing special happened except coloring some more on the latest effort.  And that  brings us to right now and wishing everyone a great day tomorrow.

GRAND KIDS

 MADISON, ALA.

A neighbor and I were talking tonight when the subject of the OFM's grand kids came up. She wanted to know how old they are. I did not really know so I looked it up. Granddaughter is 9 and grandson is 14. Wow they sure age fast it seems to me. But then again my son is in his mid forties! Wow I must be getting old finally.

Disease wise I had a good day with minor difficulties that are normal for a fellow right at eighty years old (good grief that sounds ancient).

But mostly it was a day of doing little chores here and there in the quarters I have here. I measured this place yesterday and it is slightly over 380 square feet total. That is huge to me since the Castle I lived in for the last 17 years was about 145 SF.  Yep the OFM can live very well in small  areas and love it

Tonight the supper meal was pretty good with BBQ pork ribs,  broccoli with a great white sauce and  black eyed beans . Dessert (which I declined) was a slice of pecan pie. Sweet tea with no ice was my drink. Yep sometimes we eat very well here.

I guess that is about all the excitement this OFM can handle so I will shut down for the night. See ya'll tomorrow.

That and This

 MADISON, AL.

Cold weather is still here and barely made it above freezing during the day. Tomorrow is supposed to be above freezing and that's the end of freezing weather for a few days. YAHOO.

Today the OFM got to tryout his new colored pencils. They are VERITHIN by prismacolor. I was very excited to try them since they are "hard lead" pencils instead of the Prismacolor normal colored pencils I now use.  The report is yuck. They were so badly made the pencil sharpeners I have used for years was unable to get decent points on them and the wood part of the pencils kept on splitting and breaking. Finally I gave up on them after ruining a couple of them. Nope not for me. Back to old reliable I went and finished the coloring tonight. It came out well in spite of me.

Saturday starts the delivery of SEVERAL  items I have been waiting for Christmas to get over with before ordering. They are due to start arriving Saturday and will be delivered over the next two weeks. It is a pain in the rump to not be able to drive to Walmart etc, and just run in to get little things.  But that is what I have lived long enough to be encountering.

We had an inmate of this facility take a ride in an ambulance right after lunch but no one knows why. It is not usually a good thing when that happens in this facility.  However I was over in the foyer area looting the free snacks counter  about 7 PM when up pulled an ambulance returning the inmate to his bedroom. He smiled at me as they rolled him past me.  So tomorrow at breakfast we might find out what happened.

That's it from this assisted living facility for today. Do not forget to say hi to the new year in the morning. Goodnight.

PILE OF COMMENTS

 Madison, Al.    

When I got the computer lined out again last night it took me to a place it had about thirty recent to not so recent comments awaiting approval.   I was unable to figure out where they went to when they got approved but they all disappeared and went somewhere. So if you sent a comment in the last few days it might have been in that mess that I have no idea what was going on.

Anyway today was a nice inside day due to the freezing temps outside. We had a couple of nice meals served to us. Friendly care givers made the day a bit nicer also. But the OFM seems to have been having a Dementia episode this afternoon so he is a bit off track on things tonight. We plan on putting him to bed early tonight to attempt to "sleep it off" so to speak.

So every one have some fun and be safe please.

FIRE ALARM

MADISON, AL.

We had a little excitement last evening late. I was sitting enjoying some nice coloring time when the fire alarms went off and scared me. But they kept on sounding off and folks started taking it seriously. Then the caretakers circulated among us and started getting folks toward the correct doors but soon the word was sent around it was a false alarm. Folks calmed down. Later in the evening we found out that someone in the MEMORY section of the building had put a slice of bread into a microwave to toast it and then left leaving the microwave going full blast. The microwave eventually put out enough smoke to set the system off. There was not much danger of a serious fire but at least I know for sure what I will do if the fire alarms go off again. Every thing got settled down soon and we had a good nights sleep.  

My therapy session today went very well.  It seems that my brain is holding things pretty well intact at its current ability. It is known that that is about the best we can expect from the Dementia I am afflicted with. Gaining anything back is highly unusual.

That's about it for tonight. Get busy and have too much fun for me.

NORMAL Day

MADISON, AL.

Got up at 6 am as usual. Went to breakfast at 7am as usual. However the outside was was nearly warm so I got in a LOT  of speed walking. The next three or four days are supposed to be well below freezing every morning so I will be piddling around inside during that nasty weather.  Another coloring was started and is going well. It is looking like it might be a nice one.   Nothing else special happening so I will be piddling tonight and trying to figure out what to do next week. Have fun folks.

SPECIAL POST

 Madison, Al.

A special post tonight to attempt to contact a blog reader who sent me a nice letter but the OFM cannot respond in her style.  SUSAN R. please send me your email address since I cannot respond by texting.

Onward to OFM stuff. We had a very nice Christmas here at the assisted living facility. The OFM did a personal assessment of if he really needs to be here or is he just being too careful. Well I hate to admit it, the OFM definitely is in the correct facility for his current abilities about 78% of the time. The rest of the time when this Dementia is kicking in he DEFINITELY needs to be here with the trained assistance surrounding him keeping him safe. So I , with great regret declare my traveling time over. HOWEVER folks I still suggest that if you are wanting to quit and follow your dream DO NOT WAIT A MINUTE LONGER THAN WHEN THE ABILITY TO GET DOING YOUR DREAM COMES ALONG. I waited four years longer than necessary and it is now considered an error on my part.

The good news is we had a nice Christmas time here with several local groups bring nice entertainment events to us to enjoy. THANK YOU for all of your efforts. We all appreciated your efforts.

In the meantime everyone please try to have too much fun.  Good night.

Christmas

 Madison, Ala.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and is ready for another wild ride this year.

CHRISTMAS EVE

 Madison, Ala.

Today was the first time in my life anyone wanted any of my paintings or colorings. So I handed her my ring binder of the completed colorings and she chose two colorings to take home and frame. My head is all swollen now. That is the first time anyone wanted any of my art work. 

Other than that it was a great day to get out and walk the grounds in the bright sunlight. And I did just that three times for about an hour and a half total time out side getting great OFM exercise. Other than that not much exciting happened. On the other hand I should be glad I am still alive for another Christmas with grand kids to hug.

That's about it folks. Good night and MERRY CHRISTMAS.

LENGTH OF LIFE DATA

 Madison, Alabama

Today  the OFM attended therapy today and got lots of information and had a great session of therapy. Here is the important part. Average Length of life left to live is with no disease according to the SSA is about 8.7 years.  But when you throw in the Dementia  and recalculate the number changes to 8 years of life left. Both estimates are supposedly plus or minus a year on the average. So that means no matter what happens with this Dementia or without it I will live a normal expected length of life. Just a bit differently though. So the OFM looks at that and sees that he needs to pick up the pace of living to get all he wants to do in his life before the Grim Reaper shows up to his worst fight ever. I must be very lucky to find out this and have the opportunity to do something with the information.

So folks Christmas is in the back yard coming fast so get busy trying to have way tooooooo much fun.  See you tomorrow.

TALKING TIME

 MADISON, ALABAMA

The day started with the dementia attack that started yesterday still giving me lots of trouble. I was hobbling along the halls next to the nice handrail in case my balance got too bad. It was not pretty but I did get some ambulating in.  My therapy time was spent,at my request,discussing my illness situation and my future. Allisson was very agreeable to us being sure we were on the same page as for as my treatments were going. The horrible fact is that the disease is a terminal disease  that cannot at this time be stopped but the time it takes to kill me can be lengthened by years by careful treatments. I am on the careful treatments list and responding well to them.

So I got the big picture painted so I now have some as clear as possible plans for my future. Some folks call me morbid but I like to know what is ahead and do what I can to accommodate the needed actions.  Now I know what and more or less when things will happen and that is very comforting.

Now back to todays events. After the therapy session I was still  in bad shape form the Dementia and having to have the hand rail very nearby. I kept on hobbling along the hall hand rails trying to get in some walking even though I could not get to aerobic speeds I needed to. Suddenly in the course of about a minute I went from hobbling to full brisk striding again an flew along the halls. Suddenly I was able to get into briskly striding without the handrail being needed and got in a full thirty minutes of aerobic and heart helping fast walking inside the building.  It is a bit too cold outside today for good walking out there. And I have been doing really well since then. So I plan to keep calling the episodes Dementia attacks. It is now 9.15 pm and I am still going strong. 

I do not know what the dickens is going on but you can be certain I will be pushing the envelope on fighting the unbeatable foe. OFM

DEMENTIA ATTACK

 Madison, Al.

I had a stage show to go to today that had my son running the sound/ lighting booth and his wife and two kids acting in the play. It turned out to be a marvelous two hours of fun, laughter and great singing. The down side was I started having a Dementia attack during the intermission.  It gave me some fits while watching the play but I hung out there to end up really enjoying the play very much. That was pretty much the whole days event.  I will definitely attend the next play.

After the play I was returned home just in good time for supper here at the assisted living place I live now (and probably will live until I drop dead). Here it is almost 8pm and now I am fairly recovered from the dementia attack. And there you have the story of my life for the day today. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Rough Morning

 Madison, Al.

This morning was rough with the Dementia kicking in for a few hours but by lunch I was back to decently normal.  I sure hope it stays gone tomorrow until after the play my friends Dan and Mary are taking me to see right after noon. My son, his wife and both grand kids are in on the production of this play. It should be a great event.

A little bit of art stuff was done and my lady friend across the hall showed me the very nice coloring she had just finished this afternoon. We talked about it and several other things for about an hour. She is coming along very well on her coloring.

On the exercise front, I got in two half hour walks today. one inside in the warm hallways and another one outside on the area side walks. It certainly felt very good to be outside for that walk for a change.

Meanwhile things are going decently in general and have not missed any meals.

I guess that is about all there is to talk about so have a MERRY CHRISTMAS.

WALKING DAY

 MADISON, ALA.

Today was a nice day with a good amount of computer time chasing things to learn so my future plans can be reasonable for my condition. It is normal for my brain functioning to get worse slowly for about five years. However it is known that proper medical care/treatment can stretch that out noticeably. How long is noticeably? Nobody knows. So we are not counting on much happening.

Today at therapy I did the "chores" in quicker time than before and asked the lady what she thought it meant. She basically said it means we are doing right to get whatever betterness I end up with but no number . Those are my interpretations of our discussion. A LOT OF WE DO NOT KNOW TERRITORY OUT HERE.

Meanwhile I am feeling well and getting around very well with just joint sluggishness in the mornings. 

Today was a somewhat cold day but good sunshine. In the late morning I got out for a thirty minute outside quick march of the sidewalks I usually got to walk and it was wonderful. That helped my mood for the rest of the day.

Not much else of significance happened so I will quit blabbering for now. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

NORMAL DAYS HAPPENINGS

 Madison, Ala.

How about  a dose of a usual day for the OFM.  

The alarm goes off at 0600 so I can be ready for breakfast served usually a few minutes after 0700. My breakfast is  Cheerios and milk, three strips of perfectly cooked bacon served with hot tea. Many other items are available but this is my choice especially since the cook, a  skinny delightful fellow called Jay, cooks the bacon perfectly every morning . It is a wonderful breakfast of my FVORITE BREAKFAST.  Thank you JAY.

Next on the morning list is 30 minutes of walking the halls or sidewalks outside (depending on the weather) at my brisk pace that gets me into slightly aerobic breathing and blood pumping. Then I get back to my room and straighten it up for the day.  Lunch is served at 12:15 and supper at 5 pm. Mornings are usually spent cleaning and straightening my quarters.  The rest of the morning is free until lunch at noon. Frequently I do  coloring of pages from adult coloring books for a nice easy getting going start of my day. Lunch is taken care of by 1245 normally.  Mon-Wed-Friday I have my brain treatments about 02:30 so the dementia is kept at bay as much a possible. This gives my a lot of free time to visit, argue, discuss, mess around with the other folks here. When the weather permits, Betty (BettyR in the comments), and I sit out on the patio and discuss what ever one of us thinks up for about thirty minutes then head inside for her treatments and my treatments. After treatments I tend to do more coloring or something at least that important until supper at 0500. After supper is more free time to do more treatment homework or coloring or visiting etc.  The OFM usually targets bed time at 1000 pm.  It is normally a busy but not rushed day. Most of the patients just sit in their rooms and watch TV instead of doing the "homework" THAT THEY GET ASSIGNED.  Usually the home work is a 20 minute session of some physical exercise that will help them get better but that seldom happens. The  OFM gets told often to take it easier on himself since I TAKE THIS PREVENTION AN RECOVERY SERIOUSLY.

Well there you have it, a normal weekday here in paradise. Weekends are usually treatment free but the OFM STILL DOES HIS WALKING AT LEAST ONCE A DAY.

There you have it a normal week in the assisted living  situation I in.   MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. 

MY COLORINGS

MADISON, ALABAMA

Today was fairly ordinary except for one little surprise. The assisted living place I live in head person, Betsy stopped me and asked to have a couple of my colorings to hang in the facility for folks to get to see them.  I said sure what type? We talked a minute and I told her I would bring my ring binder with all of them available to her and she could help herself to any she wanted.  She started looking and decided she needed more time to make her choice since there were so many good ones. 

Well I guess I should take that as a compliment. But who knows what will come of it all.  Other than that it was an ordinary day of nothing special.  So everyone have some fun wherever you can and I will catch you tomorrow. MERRY CHRISTMAS.

REALITY BITES TODAY

 Madison, Al.

Today the OFM got a dose of reality and a nice surprise. The surprise first.  A wonderful reader from Wisconsin sent me a nice Christmas card with a nice heart in it. It looks like it is a home made cloth heart. Thank you very much Cindy.

Today was reality day in therapy. My person helping me and I tested me to try to choose which new route to take for treatments. Please keep in mind there is no known cure for any of the Dementia diseases but death can be delayed a good bit in most cases.  As soon as we can identify the "breed" of the disease we will know more details about this exact model of the disease I have.  But for now we know I likely have five more years to live.

Now to put that info in perspective. I am 79.5 years old right now and and in five years I will very likely have outlived about 85% of the men born when I was.  So in reality I have a high  prospect of finishing out a full lifespan in spite of the dementia. That means I got in a full life time in spite of the Dementia. So I have decided I am a very lucky man especially since I got to fulfill my life long dream of roaming the country in my trailer for a full 17 years. Now that the news is out of the way, what is next. I do not know for sure but I know for sure Alisson is a fantastic caregiver and I have the best help available on the face of the earth. For sure the next five years will not be dull.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYBODY!!!!!!

 

JUST ANOTHER DAY

Madison, Alabama

 It was basically an easy day without any especially difficult events. The DEMENTIA hits pretty strong in the mornings lately but eases off in the afternoon and bed time. Make no mistake Dementia is a very formidable foe. But I do resist as much as I can.  Right now the big issue is nearly no shot term memory such as what I walked into a room for. Anyway I walk inside in the warm as much as I can at as brisk of a pace as I can get aerobic exercise. We have good halls to allow me to move on along well. So I get in a good solid 30 minute walk after breakfast. But the rest of the day if I have to go to another room like therapy it is about a five minute fast walk is all. But in a day I feel I get in about an hour of fast walking events

Today I finished a nice colored pencil coloring and was a bit proud of it, so I showed it off and it was well received. 

During the afternoon I went through a couple of stacks of  coloring book pages to sort out the pages I want to try out and the ones to give away. It seemed like more than fifty opportunities of pictures. But whoever ends up with them will have lots of fun. Some of them went into the therapy room so those patients could enjoy some coloring. That would be nice.

Meanwhile being not allowed to drive is a real pain but I feel they are correct about my inability to quickly figure out what other drivers are about to do is my weak point and that is serious. I feel I can operate the vehicle but I cannot tell what another driver seems to be about to do until it is pretty late in the adventure, so I still need to stay away from driving,

OK I have blabbered enough so I WISH YOU A SAFE AND MERRY  CHRISTMAS. Good Night.

LEARNING TO COLOR

 MADISON, ALABAMA

Been some calm days lately but a bit busy. A nice chunk of the busy was coloring book coloring of different scenes. Betty R (see comments to meet her and welcome her to the blog reader group) and I have been helping each other learn new techniques and styles. She is very quick to learn and quick with a colored pencil around paper.  We have been swapping ideas about things coloring wise and she is a sharp pencil pusher for sure. Definitely makes the assisted living  hall nicer to be in.

Tomorrow I start the therapy for my brain again to slow down the deterioration that cannot be cured only slowed down.  My memory ability has taken a real beating in the last couple of weeks but the down trend is right on schedule with the predictions given to me by the doctor who diagnosed me. Look out world the OFM is in for a big fight. Don't get any on you!

Have a Happy time folks, we are deserving it these days.   

JUST COLORING

MADISON, ALABAMA

Today was mostly coloring in my coloring books for relaxation. I went over yesterdays doctor's report on my condition a couple of times to try to understand what everything means. Basically it means no more solitary OFM camping trips.  To be safe I will need at least one fully capable adult with me on any trip I make. Oh well it is fun getting old. yeah right.

Other than that a lot of time was spent discussing with other residents in this assisted living facility on handling traveling with less than healthy adults  and troubles that crop up. I definitely have some new things to learn with this new to me limiting situation.  As I learn things I will report so all my readers can learn if they need or want to.

Meanwhile back to shipping from Amazon being kind of messed up now that Christmas is near, shopping for presents without being allowed to drive is a pain.  The internet (Amazon) does not quite equal to holding an item in your hands to examine it, but I guess I will have to learn.

In the mean time every one try to have too much fun this month of December.  MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU.

BROKEN BRAIN UPDATE

MADISON, ALABAMA

12/10/25

THIS IS WRITTEN IIN OFM LANGUAGE NOT THE PROFESSIONAL LANGUAGE OF THE DOCTOR.  Please remember the OFM is over 79 years old already and is older than the average white male in the country lives anyway. It seems that I have brain failure in progress. Dementia is a name given to several types of the brain troubles. Within that designation are several types of brain failure. Alzheimer's and vascular are the two biggest groups. The doctor could not yet tell us what exact{if it exists} condition I have.  But It is not curable. However certain treatments may delay the final stage called death by several years. Which ever variation I have, I am and will be doing any and all treatments available.  Right now I have a life  to live time guess of UP to 8 years.  That is the same time most "guess age of death programs" have me checking out anyway. So basically I am an old fart on borrowed time. But I knew that and that is why I traveled in the travel trailer for the last 17 years. BEEN THERE AND DONE IT FOR  OFM THINGS. As I have deteriorated in the last three months, there is no way I would want to be on the road in the physical shape I am now in. So If you have a dream, DO IT NOW.   

NOT EXPECTED

Madison, Alabama

12/9/25

    Well it was not expected. I was sitting at the normal table in the dining table with the usual companions just having a nice chat when suddenly I felt some water drip on my head.  As I reached to see what was going on a short stream of water hit on my bald head and ran off onto the table. Then another drop hit!

I jumped a bit and twisted back as I went to wipe my head with my napkin. And there Mary k holding her water glass and giggling. My reaction was not a friendly grin. She thought it was funny.

The other big deal was finally getting to see the doctor about the results of the testing  during the last few months. He was very polite and helpful.  The test results did not show Alzheimer's or vascular dementia but rather a different trouble at the back of my brain. I do not know what it is yet but it showed up well in the x-rays when he tried to explain it.  I do not recall the name of it but I hope to find out soon to research it so I can act at least a bit intelligent when fighting it. My son was with me and probably got the name of the trouble so I can research it on the internet. In the mean time it was just an ordinary day in the assisted living facility I call home these days.

Everyone get busy having tooooo much fun

ROUGH DAY

 It has been a rough dementia day today.  The dementia has been kicking me most of the day so there is not much to report.  A good nap this afternoon helped make the day better. Amazon shipping has about six of my orders floating around some where between Madison Alabama and Dallas Texas  for two days now instead of delivering them. 

Hopefully tomorrow the dementia doctor will shed some light from his testing reports on what I can expect in my future. It will be bad or worse as best as I can figure out ahead of time. But at least I am still alive and can hug the gran kids.

Everyone relax and have some fun of some sort, OK.

OUTSIDE WALKING

 MADISON ALA.

    Today was a cold and wet day for the most part but in the afternoon it was decent for a little while. Not real nice but the temp was high forties without any wet or wind and I happened to be dressed for the garbage run from my quarters.  After the dumpster had a nice meal, I looked around and decided to do some walking outside instead of loops inside in the hallways.  So off I went and it really turned out to be a nice full half hour brisk walk. Tonight it feels great to finally have gotten out for some decent exercise  It is supposed to be freezing every night for five nights starting Thursday.  

The facility is really putting up lots of Christmas decorations and having several drop by local entertainers  do music and sing alongs. Some of them are pretty darn good.

That is about all the excitement for today. Have fun everyone.

GETTING CLOSER

12/4/25

Nothing much happening around me.  Tuesday we finally after many months and some tests like MRI and EEG we get to see a doctor for the results of all the waiting and the testing.  One person in the therapy groups thinks it will come in as vascular dementia. I do not know any more than that at this time.

One thing I do know is the huge amount of food this assisted living place serves has me gained 20 pounds in the last few months. I have a plan in place and being executed to get that down to a reasonable amount of weight for me. Losing is not easy for the OFM. 

I also have noticed my memory is not near as good as it was a few months ago.  That is also inline with the Dementia guess. The assisted living place is decent for living at and things are going well here.  My son made a correct judgement when we talked about my mental situation several months ago. Sure is wonderful to have Kiddo as my caretaker.

I have had no luck in getting posting edited photos in a blog so I am looking into a simple way to do it.  My brain no longer can handle much complexity in thinking.  So I will have to chase simpler styles.  I have done over 50 colorings in the last few months and really want to get them into the blog for viewing.  So it may have to be with a bit less finesse that they get posted.

In the meantime I am eating well, walking a lot, sleeping well and having mostly pleasant days and nights here at the assisted living home.  Every one please use your days to live life to the fullest you can. Thank You.