Wheelchair

Mike might be headed for the wheelchair again. In fact, we used it for shopping today. Tomorrow 8:00 am the orthopedic doc's phone is gonna be a'ringin'.

He's using the walker around the house. Taking oxycodone for the pain.

We just talked about whether we'll be able to go to the Civil War this weekend. Plan A, if he can't walk, might be to make it a day trip (camping in the trailer would be out of the question) and we would switch to wheelchair seating like we did last year. Plan B would be to get the tickets to Dianne/Joe.

More later, stay tuned. Oh, and think happy thoughts.

Post-election recap

Supposedly Clark County has a high percentage of educated citizens. My measure is a demographic that shows 22% with bachelor's degree or higher.

So WHY did the majority (barely) vote in a candidate for County Clerk (Clerk of the Courts) who has NO experience, training, or clue of what the position requires? And he will get paid over $90,000 a year. Of course he says he wants to eliminate the position to save money, but he doesn't have the authority to do that.

(Technical explanation: counties are required to elect a clerk of the courts, unless they have adopted a "home rule charter" which sets out different offices or appointments.)

The liquor store answer

Yes, Mom gets the prize (XOXOXO). Brooke and I were at the liquor store to buy

...drum roll...

Apple brandy for a recipe, not for general consumption. I've done a lot of different things with apples this fall, so the next natural step was apple butter. Yummy, although it does have a lot of natural sugars in it from the apples, apple brandy, apple cider, and apple juice concentrate. And then we add brown sugar! Although I only used half of what the recipe called for.

Fun "kid" stuff

Fun couple of days. Last night for Bill's birthday (early) at Tony Starlight's -- a Neil Diamond tribute. Bill, Ayn, me, Mom, Brooke, Nate, Dianne (and other friends of Bill's). He got geeky things for his birthday of course, including one of Leonard Nimoy's books of poetry from Brett aka Tony.

Glad I didn't drink. Had a headache most of today, possibly from MSG in the dinner and/or just plain old being up too late. Or maybe because Mike woke all of us up in the morning with a VERY loud fall in the utility room.

Breakfast was pancakes, fruit. We gave Nate part of his birthday present early, a certificate for tickets to a Ducks basketball game at the new Matt Knight Court. He had to get that one right away, because the arrangements have to be made in less than two weeks.

Dianne and I went to Freddie's in the morning, then later Brooke, Dianne, and I shopped: Target, Ikea, Columbia Sportswear. Oh, yes, then Brooke and I stopped in the liquor store real quick. Hmm, maybe I won't explain that one! Okay it's a deal: I will give my four readers a chance to comment/guess, then I will tell you later the real deal.

We came back and "the boys" were watching the Ducks game of course. The Salem group headed home. Mike and I watched a disappointing loss for the Beavers, literally lost in THE last second.

Okay, almost nine o'clock. It's time to catch up on some sleep. zzzzzzzz

Tooth, sleep, or not

Mike had a tooth extracted yesterday, 14 hours ago. The clot isn't forming, and of course we're not going to call the oral surgeon at 3:00 in the morning now. So he's sort of sleeping in his recliner, still trying to maintain gauze on the socket. And I've slept off and on in the other chair. I don't think there have been any REM cycles

The morning paper gets delivered in an hour +/-, so then I can do the crossword and sudoku if I'm awake.

Gonna try for some more sleep. We'll call the surgeon's office at 8:00 and see if I should take him back in.

C'est la vie. My translation: Life Happens.

Yes, still out here

Still here, but I don't have much of a life to blog about these days.

Sharing medical stuff just isn't appropriate (especially when it's about someone else's medical conditions). And I posted the E.R. visit two weeks ago on Facebook, so that's old news now.

Plus someone gets up and looks over my shoulder to see what I'm up to, so that's, um, awkward. Right on cue, he just walked in!

I thought I'd diverse into the weirdness of the brain. Weirdness = not the right word. Peculiarities perhaps. Anyway, I was doing some research on dementia and was reminded how hard the brain works, and how miraculous it is that we function at all. One article explained that the brain is very good at filling in the blanks, like we might do if we're working a crossword puzzle. If a dementia patient knows (or thinks they know) the front and back end of a story, the brain will fill in the rest of the blanks. So that is why the rest of the family members are bewildered when the loved one, very confidently, comes up with the most bizarre series of events in discussions. It can be frustrating to try to understand, "Why is my husband/father lying to us" when in fact they are just relating the story their brain is telling them.

The root words of dementia mean "without mind." De=without, ment=mind.

So ... if you use the above pieces of information to fill in the status of my life, have you come up with a truth? Or a possible truth that just happens to fit the blanks? Hmmm. Maybe I was making up the whole thing because I didn't blog at all in August, and this fills in a blank for September. Or maybe it's just late (for me, yes, 9:30 is late) and I need to shut down the whole brain thing for a while.

Washington Elections

For the amusement of friends and family in Oregon, here is some insight into Washington elections.

1. The primary is next month, contrasted with Oregon which was in May.
2. We are in the Portland TV/radio market, so we get the Oregon political ads. (Side note: does Chris Dudley really only have one ad? That is going to get really old with all of August, September, and October to go)
3. We didn't go to all vote-by-mail in Clark County until the last election two years ago. Crazy. Sure, we had the option to register permanent absentee, but gosh the expense of having polling places. And I believe some counties still have a mix of mail/polls.
4. There is a perpetual candidate named "Mike the Mover." That must be his legal name in order to file for office. He's running for senator. Sorry, no photo or statement submitted.
5. BUT there is another senatorial candidate named "Goodspaceguy." His picture looks like a high school physics teacher from the 60's or maybe the 50's. I haven't been brave enough to try his website (if you dare: colonizespace.blogspot.com) because it is probably similar to his voters pamphlet blurb:

"Dear fellow sheeple, I, Goodspaceguy, object to the billions of dollars of waste that I know about. We sheeple are regularly shorn, but we are the foundation of power. Let's unsabotage our economy. Vote for the small spenders. Big spenders, big government must shear you!
"In solving world problems and unsabotaging our economy, think of your Earth as Spaceship Earth. Think of yourselves as crew members, working to improve Spaceship Earth and building a job/wealth partnership. Abolish the evil minimum wage. The unemployment rate indicates how badly the current power-structure has decreased our jobs. Upward with Goodspaceguy. Study economics."

Luckily we have 13 other choices.