//----------------------------\\ Adventures With Grandpa (tm) \\----------------------------// Friday, February 4, 2005 Edition #001 ____________________________________________________________ C O N T E N T S 001.1: Background About this newsletter 001.2: Current Condition in Brief A quick summary of Grandpa's current condition 001.3: The Adventure of the Stolen Ice Cream Grandpa leaves clues behind 001.4: The Temper Tantrum Grandpa and Marc switch roles 001.5: Question of the Week "How is Grandpa getting along with Marc's cats? Or perhaps the question should be, how are Marc's cats getting along with Grandpa?" 001.6: Colophon ____________________________________________________________ 001.1: Background What Is This Thing? As most of you are aware, on January 20th, Grandpa moved in with me in my new house in Lafayette, Oregon. This was not exactly a planned event, though I had specifically wanted a house with a guest room and a flat floor plan just in case he, Keith, or my mom needed a temporary place to stay. The timing turned out to be ideal as Grandpa had to leave Camelot, the nursing facility where he was staying in Forest Grove. He cannot really walk. His right leg and hip bothers him greatly, and a wheelchair seems the ideal mode of transportation for him now (with a walker he must stop and rest frequently, and though his walker has a built-in seat, he cannot move it while seated). In his weakened physical condition I worried about my mother taking care of him. She cannot lift him if he falls or can't get up (this happened several times when I was visiting him in Oceanside at Christmas), and even assisting him in and out of a wheelchair could be difficult. Also, we have no idea if his present condition will improve or get worse, and we all think it's best to get him into a consistent, stable lifestyle instead of shuffling him from place to place depending on his condition. Grandpa did not want to go to a care facility. Though he preferred going to his own home, he seemed to like the idea of moving here, so I volunteered. I'm mostly worried about his mental health. With his lack of short-term memory he'd never remember our visits or phone calls to him in a care facility and he'd assume he'd been abandoned (he thinks no one visited or called him while at Camelot). Until he needs full-time professional care, this seems like the ideal solution. I work from home, I have a comfortable place for him to stay, we're less isolated than his home on the coast, and he and I get along well. Chatting with Phyllis the other day, she suggested a Grandpa Update newsletter, to let everyone know what's happening with him. This sounded like a great idea, so "Adventures With Grandpa" is born! (So please blame these extra bits in your inbox entirely on her.) I shall try to send out one of these every Friday, letting you know what exciting things have happened during the week. (And trust me: life with Grandpa is exciting. :-) While this email will primarily be about Grandpa, this is also an adventure for me, so in many ways it will be about me adapting to life as a caregiver as well. I don't know how long these will be. I'll try to keep them interesting and not too long, but who knows! I do like to write. I hope you enjoy this newsletter. If you want to change your subscription options (cancel or use a different email), if you know of someone else who should be receiving it, or if you have any other suggestions or comments, just let me know. Also, feel free to forward it on to whomever you'd like. Oh, finally, rather than include photographs with this newsletter and clog up your inbox, I've decided to post them on a website and I'll simply include a link to the photo so you can choose to view it or not, as you prefer. Photo: "Grandpa's early days" Photo: "Grandpa, Christmas 2004" ____________________________________________________________ 001.2: Current Condition in Brief A quick summary of Grandpa's current condition Basically, Grandpa's just slowed down. He's doing very well, physically and mentally, though I have noted some variation. He has better days. His short term memory is terrible, as usual, but he's a wonderful conversationalist. He doesn't walk much but gets around fine on his own in the wheelchair. He can get in and out of the wheelchair on his own, though it takes time and a tremendous amount of effort. (One day he was sitting at one end of the sofa and I suggested he stretch out. This involved getting up and moving two feet to the middle of the sofa so he'd have room for his legs. This took over five minutes of huffing and puffing and groaning, and I had to lift his legs into position. When he finally was stretched out he was comfortable, but exhausted.) Bottom Line: Grandpa sleeps a lot. ____________________________________________________________ 001.3: The Adventure of the Stolen Ice Cream Grandpa leaves clues behind On Wednesday I had to leave Grandpa at home for a bit while I ran a few errands. He seemed fine and didn't mind me leaving. I told him I'd bring back a Papa Murphy's pizza for lunch. My errands took longer than expected and I didn't get home with the pizza until one o'clock. Grandpa, I discovered, was not on the sofa where I'd left him. He was at the dining room table reading the latest issue of REALbasic Developer magazine! He'd eaten a few crackers and was starving. As I cooked the pizza, I became aware of something strange. There was a dirty tablespoon in the kitchen sink and I knew I'd put all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. The spoon had a suspicious brown substance on it. Turning to the refrigerator, usually as spotless as it was from the factory, I was horrified to find more brown stains along the door handles, and more inside the freezer. The droplet clues led me right to the container of Dryer's Chocolate Ice Cream on the freezer door. Grandpa's secret was out! Conclusion: Grandpa denies all knowledge of the alleged theft and claims one of the cats must have done it, because he never even went into the kitchen! ____________________________________________________________ 001.4: The Temper Tantrum Grandpa and Marc switch roles On Sunday I fixed taco salad. Grandpa loves tortilla chips. I figured it'd be a good way to combine that love with some healthy salad. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of leaving the bag of chips on the table, and he kept eating chips instead of his salad. "Grandpa, you must eat your salad," I told him. "You're eating chips and not your food. Besides, there are chips in the salad." But he insisted on fresh crunchy chips. When those were gone he demanded more. I decided to treat him the way I was treated as a child. "No more chips until you finish your salad," I said firmly, my mind whirling at the irony. Oh, he got upset! He lifted his plate and slammed it on the table, pushing it away and growling, "Than I won't eat any more!" Shocked, I reluctantly gave in, handing him more chips. I said, "Fine, but I just want you to be healthy. I worry you don't eat enough." To my surprise he ate the chips AND the rest of his salad, so it was okay after all. It's weird the way roles reverse. When I was a kid living with Grandpa and Grandma in Springfield I can remember many a night I stayed at the table until seven o'clock, not permitted to leave until I'd cleaned my plate. I don't think I'll try that with Grandpa! ____________________________________________________________ 001.5: Question of the Week "How is Grandpa getting along with Marc's cats? Or perhaps the question should be, how are Marc's cats getting along with Grandpa?" Mischief is rather nervous about that dangerous wheelchair thing that might roll over a stray tail. Grandpa's unpredictability and strange sounds (coughing and wheezing) makes him nervous as well. Mayhem loves the wheelchair: the moment Grandpa gets out of it, he hops in it and curls up for a nap! Photo: "Mayhem stealing wheelchair." Grandpa seems to enjoy the cats, commenting on them often, even playing with them if he's in a good mood. The other day I found him "mesmerizing" Mayhem. Grandpa was waving his hands like a magician readying a spell and Mayhem's excited eyes were following every movement of Grandpa's waving hands. Finally Grandpa threw his hands out at Mayhem with his fingers spread and shouted "Boo!" The startled cat tripped over his tail in his haste to escape. ____________________________________________________________ 001.6: Colophon Publication Title: Adventures With Grandpa (tm) Frequency: Weekly Price: $1,000,000 per issue Publisher: Marc Zeedar Author: Marc Zeedar Photographer: Marc Zeedar Copyright: Contents (photos and text) (C) 2005 by Marc Zeedar All Rights Reserved Telephone: 877-364-5922 Website: http://www.zeedar.com/grandpa/ To add, remove, or change your subscription details; make suggestions or complaints; report typos or errors; send millions of dollars; or send Grandpa or Marc a comment, send email to . If you'd like to telephone Grandpa (he loves to hear from people and he'll chat like the wind though he won't remember the call ten minutes later), you may call him toll-free at 877-364-5922. ###