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.