There are periods in Dad's life when things go fairly uneventful for some time. This past week has been a busy one for him. First we went to our son's graduation from college in Minnesota. That is a long drive, but Dad was happy, except for not getting to drive. That leads to another activity of the week. We had our regular visit to the doctor. Insurance companies and drug companies must be in cahoots with the AMA. Though he has been on the same drugs for years they routinely tell us that if we don't see the doctor and get a new prescription that they will no longer fill the ones he has. So I took him to the doctor. He jumped on the scale and moved the weights before the nurse could do so. It wouldn't register his weight so he let her finish. He proudly proclaimed that he weighed 23 pounds and we went to the examination room. It is good that he is deaf so that the doctor and I could take care of his prescription problem. Dad had no clue why we were there, though he had been told. After everything was done he asked the doctor to answer one question. "Can I drive?" "No" "Why not" "Because you would get lost" "I disagree" "I'm the doctor and that is my professional opinion" Wonderfully that was the end of that discussion. No argument with either the doctor or me later. WOW!!
Also this week Dad became the organist at the senior day care center. Yes, they have an organ. No, he can't play the organ, but that is no impediment to doing so. It is in the lunch room and they let him play it while dinner is being served. He is content. When they bring the meal to his place then he stops and eats. Problem solved!!! Yea for creative workers at the center.
This week I was working in my workroom on fixing an old fan. I was making little progress when Dad came in. I cringed inwardly, but told him what I was doing. He said, "Why don't you put a couple of washers under the motor mounts to lower the depth of the blade." No, he didn't really say that. But, that is what he meant to say if he could. So, I did, and voila, it was fixed. I never would have thought of that myself. Of course, in the middle of doing it he got bored with the slowness of the project and wanted to get a knife to cut the blade up to make it work better, but he didn't. I told everyone who came to the house that day how he had helped with the fan. Well, he had forgotten that he had done so but seemed to appreciate everyone's smiles anyway. Yes he did actually help. He held the motor mount still while I put in the washers. Go Dad!
Dad also got into a gardening mood this week. Our youngest daughter, who will be graduating from high school in two weeks at the position of number one in her class of 425 students, was home for the evening so she said she would watch Dad while my bride and I took our new dog for a walk. He was quietly sitting on the sidewalk when we left pulling grass from between the cracks in the sidewalk. I thought he was going outside to pick up paper in the yard, one of his favorite activities, but he was pulling grass. When we came home he had done a thorough job. He had also gone into my work room and gotten a slip blade knife. He had cut the grass out. Our daughter is really good at looking after him but quite powerless to stop him from doing what he did. I was rather upset because he had never before gone into my work room without me there and never before taken a tool. I have to watch that now. There is no door on my workroom and no wall to put a door in. All the power tools have a triple safety mechanism that prevents him from using them, but there are the smaller tools that I would prefer he leave alone. He did come out of everything unscathed, though, and was quite satisfied with himself for a job well done.
A note about me and sunshine. I am a grandpa again - third time. This time it is a girl. Congrats to our daughter and son-in-law on a job well done. It is their second. As we daily watch Dad's decline and sunset, it is nice to have a new little sunrise in our life.
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