EEEEKK!!!!!

What an incredibly stressful day.

It started with Jim going over to Dad's to do his glucose test. Dad was searching the house for some insecticide for the Christmas trees. Bud Lyon's crew was here and they were almost out of spray. Dad started barking orders at Jim to help him move some furniture so he could look in a closet. Jim says Dad handed him some grungy bottles of some kind of questionable chemical. Jim ended up with something that was probably motor oil all over his hands. This is the kind of thing that gets Jim churning. They searched around and finally found what Dad was looking for downstairs.

Dad was being kind of hyper about everything and Jim was getting dragged along. I swear, sometimes Jim is way too nice to him. Anyway...

Jim came home and told me what had happened. He was pretty upset. He asked me if I wanted to go along with him and Dad to pick up his car and go to breakfast. I said of course.

Dad's car was stolen a couple nights ago. They found it yesterday. They called too late for him to be able to go to the tow yard and pick it up so we had to wait until this morning to go down there. When we talked to the guy at the tow yard he made it sound like we could just go down and pick it up. Total bill- $196. Dad counted out $200 and placed it on the counter. Tow yard guy was still messing around with the invoice so Dad picked up the money and put it in his pocket. Then tow yard guy asked for the money. Dad said, "I already gave it to you! I put it down and you took it!" Tow yard guy started to get pretty flustered. I said, "Dad, he doesn't have it. You picked up the money and put it back in your pocket." Dad pulled the money out and gave it to him like everything's normal. The guy was like, wtf??? AFTER Dad had paid the fee they told us that it was undrivable.

The battery was missing.

It had a flat.

The front wheel was busted off.

The radio was gone.

Do you see the beginnings of a list here?

Dad's head went kaboom. He started accusing the tow yard guys of wrecking his car and stealing his stuff. We went out to look at it. The front wheel was off and laying under the car. The guy told us that the driver had done it that way because the front lugs were broken and the back tire was flat. It protected bottom of the car. But man, it looked bad!

The owner of the towing company started getting pissed. Dad was flipping out. I jumped in there and started talking fast, trying to get Dad to shut up. I told him that we hadn't gotten a complete police report yet and we didn't really know what happened to the car. That it was all probably a miscommunication. They showed us the invoice that had a comment that (according to them) had been written by a police officer stating that the battery had been stolen. Dad calmed down a bit. The owner demanded an apology from Dad to his tow truck operator. Dad went into the office and apologized.

This whole exchange lasted maybe 15 minutes, maybe less. It was all weird, crazy Dad energy. The towing company guys were swarthy with thick accents so of course they had their own weird, crazy foreigner energy. A dangerous, yet entertaining combination. Jim stood amazed while I was the yammering voice of reason. We got the hell out of there, no car and down a hundred and ninety-six bucks.

Then we went to breakfast. Nothing too horrible there. Just more stomach-wrenching stuff like Dad being rude to the waitress and griping about not getting a booth so he could look out the window at the pretty bushes. Jim had to deal with that. I was outside talking to Drew on the phone.

After breakfast we went home. We had a break for about an hour. Then Dad came into the studio with his black book and some papers. He said, "I want you and Jim to hear this. I'm going to call the insurance people. Where's Jim? I want him to hear this." He's waving this damn book around and barking orders like we're supposed to just jump up and get right to it. He went into the house (!) to get Jim. I heard him in there ordering Jim to go out to the studio. I could feel my blood pressure rise.

Jim got on the computer so he could take notes during the phone call. He used the headset while Dad used one of the cordless phones. They both talked to the insurance woman. Jim would be supplying a piece of information and Dad would interrupt with some off-topic question and slow the whole process way down. I could see Jim getting more and more tense. At one point I heard Dad's phone beeping and then everything stopped. I couldn't figure out what he'd done. Just as I figured out that Dad had pushed the hold button, the phone rang. The insurance lady called us back. After that, I set the phone on the cradle with the speaker on.

This took about 2 hours. Afterward, I took Dad to Enterprise to get him a rental car. This went much more smoothly. He followed me home. I was watching him in the rearview mirror thinking oh my god, it's like being followed by Mr. Toad! He was clutching the steering wheel like he was holding on for dear life. He's used to his own car. It looked like it took all the concentration he could muster just to get home.

Jim wasn't here when I got home so I decided to go to the post office. While I was out I stopped by Savon and picked up an elbow brace for him. Then I went to Staples and got a gel-filled wrist pad. I figured I could rig up some kind of pad for Dad's problem elbow. I took the brace and the pad to his house and had him try them out. Then I took it all home so stitch it all together. Jim came home and then Dad came over and stayed for another hour or so. My siblings know what this is like. When Dad is in the room he's talking nonstop. We'd been going on like this all day. Lordy, we were fried.

It looks like my elbow pad invention will work. I just hope it's not too tight. He said his main problem is at night when he gets up and bangs it on the bathroom door. This should help. Also, it hurts him to lean on it. He said the brace and pad makes it feel much better.

After he left Jim and I ranted at each other for a while. It was good ranting. We both are astonished and amazed at the stuff Dad does sometimes. The foggy thinking is Alzheimer's but the bombastic behavior is all Dad. How on earth did he raise up five excruciatingly normal and reasonable adults? Yeah, I know. Mom.

Ach! I should have walked tonight. I'm all twitchy.

There's much more to come. On Monday we resume the phone calls. Then he's going to buy a car.