Dad's riled up this morning. I called him like I always do to see if he's up and ready for me to come over. He started going off about the dumpster. First he yelled, "When's that truck going to be out of here?" I told him it's a dumpster. He said, "Well, if YOU want to call it that you can if you're that stupid." I said, "Go out there and look at it and then come tell me if there's a truck attached to it." Jeez.
He was going off in all directions about it. I told him it's being picked up today. He said, "Well, make sure it is! It's been here for 2 weeks!" Dad has two ways of measuring time. It's always either two weeks or forty years.
I went over there to do meds. He pointed to the stacks of files that are on his dining room table and said, "That's more CRAP I have to deal with." As we walked to the bathroom he said, "Don't mess with that stuff downstairs, it belongs to someone else." I told him that we know about that. He said, "Hey, I KNOW you people get snoopy. That stuff isn't yours so just leave it alone!" I said, "We're just working on the barns. We're not touching anything in the house. But she needs to know that she can only store it here until January."
"What happens in January?!?!"
"That's when we leave."
"WELL, NOBODY TOLD MEEEEE!!!!!"
We told him, right? Then he really got mad. "They told me I could live here a long time! Where's the money?!? I haven't seen any MONEY!!!!" He went on and on.
I opened the slider to check on his dog. "She's fine! You don't have to check on her! I take good care of that dog!" I ignored him and acted like I just wanted to play with her. She came bounding up acting all cute and peppy. That seemed to calm him down. We sat outside for a while petting Lady and talking to her. When I left he seemed ok but still on the edge.
Jeez-o-friggin'-pete! What set him off this morning??? He missed his meds last night so he didn't get his chill pill. But he's missed them before and it wasn't a problem. His blood sugar was 167. A little high but not enough to make him this crazy. When we were cleaning last week he was horrible. I wonder if having those stacks of files on his table is a constant reminder of what we were doing?
Counting down the days.
5 comments:
I didn't know you're leaving in January. I thought it was some nebulous future date.
--dean
It was for a while. We might leave even sooner if it looks like Dad can't handle living on his own. The way things have been going with him that might actually happen.
The six months since Jim died have gone by pretty quick. I kind of expect the next 6 months will too. There's soooo much to be done. The summer is zipping by. Once everyone's kids are back in school things are going to get busy. I'm glad we got an early start on cleaning things up. Dealing with Dad's house is going to be a friggin' nightmare. If he was that crazed about the SHIT in his barns, how insane will he be dealing with the GOOD stuff in his house?
(sigh) The dumpster is gone. At least I won't have to deal with that tomorrow morning. We'll see how he is.
Watch out he might wonder who stole the "truck".
Heh! I've noticed that some things we set aside are now gone. I think he's taken them up to his house and hidden them. I wonder if he tried to pull anything out of the dumpster?
This morning he's cheery. I called him last night to tell him to take his pills. He didn't. I guess I'm going to have to tell him I'll wait on the phone while he goes to take them. I've done that before and usually he gets mad at me. This morning I told him that's what I'm going to do. I said, "Dad, when I call you in the evening to tell you to take your pills I'm going to wait on the phone while you do it. Sometimes you get mad at me when I tell you to do that but it's really important that you take your evening pills. He said, "I never get mad at you!" I told him I'm going to start carrying a video camera around with me. He said, "Well, don't get too tired carrying it around." I said, "Oh, I'll be tired. I'm going to get a big one because I'm going to do a lot of filming".
Ha, ha.
Later he called and told me all the trash cans are missing. He said they're not at the place where they get emptied. I'm thinking, oh crap, someone took our trash cans. I went down to the driveway and of course they were there. He meant they weren't right next to his house. I brought them all up and left his next to the driveway. Then I called him back and told them where they were. Sure, I could have taken them to his house but I had just dragged 5 trash cans up that steep driveway. Besides, it'll give him something to do. Anyway, I told him where they were and he couldn't understand what I was talking about. I said, "Dad, they were down the driveway on Central. That's where they get emptied." He said, "Central? Which one is that?"
I heard him just now dragging his trash cans home.
One of my sprinklers is busted. This morning I saw the remnants of a river that was running down my sidewalk last night. I turned off the controller. The sprinklers haven't been working properly for months. Jim knew how to finesse them. I'm going to just use a hose sprinkler from now on. The lawn only needs to be watered for another couple of months anyway. The grass in the back yard is already dead. I just don't care. Everything on this hill is going to be gone after we leave.
This farm is like a dying giant. When Mom was alive it was showplace. The fields were solid with trees. The barnyard was clean. We had parties and wedding receptions. The pool was clean and functioning. We did have some junk but nothing like the tons and tons of crap that showed up here after she died.
Now everything is falling apart. The fields are sparse (actually, that's a good thing now), plants are dying, decay is everywhere. The giant is fading and in January we're going to pull the plug. I'm sure the place will sit empty for a time. I'll bet the houses will be boarded up. Everything will be dead. And then the bulldozers will come and scrape the hill clean. End of an era.
Whew! This stuff messes with your head!
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