A Sad Call From Mom Has Me Thinking About Aunt Mike

On Thursday my cousin Kurt, aka Freddy, emailed me because he'd lost my mom and dad's phone number. Kurt told me his mom, my Aunt Mike, my mom's little sister, was in the final stages of Alzheimer's, systems failing.

I emailed Kurt back with mom and dad's phone numbers and called mom.

And now, only a few days later mom just called me to tell me that Kurt had called while they were out and left a voice mail with the news that Aunt Mike had died.

The last time I saw Aunt Mike was August 11, 2001, at my mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary party. No one but two of my nephews knew I was driving myself solo back to Washington for the party. This seems so recent, but it was over 13 years ago.

I knew I took pictures at the anniversary party. I did not remember if I took a picture of Aunt Mike. I also did not remember that I'd made a webpage of the pictures I took that day. There was only one picture in which Aunt Mike sort of showed up. Above, that is Aunt Mike sitting on the couch. As you can see Aunt Mike was a blonde.

I was sort of shocked a few years back when mom called to tell me they'd had a relative visit who had stopped to see Aunt Mike at her home location in Bend, Oregon, to be surprised to learn Aunt Mike was in an assisted care type place due to Alzheimer's.

Aunt Mike was always in good shape. She ran marathons. At mom and dad's 50th Aunt Mike was firing on all cylinders and was as amusing as she'd always been. I recollect Aunt Mike asking me about the move to Texas. I recollect saying the thing I found that I liked the best was the buffer from relatives. Aunt Mike laughed and said something like why do you think I lived all those years up in Alaska?

After learning Aunt Mike had Alzheimer's mom tasked me with getting in contact with cousin Kurt. On the way up to Washington the summer of 2013 mom and dad visited Aunt Mike in Bend. Aunt Mike did not recognize them.

It was just a couple months ago I got a text message from mom and dad telling me mom's oldest brother had died. A short while after that I called mom to ask if anyone had sent her Uncle Willard's obituary. No one had. I asked mom if she wanted me to read it to her. She did.

Reading Uncle Willard's obituary to my mom was one of those scenarios one could not have imagined 25 years ago. As in, 25 years ago the idea that 25 years hence I'd be living in Texas, walking distance from Lee Harvey Oswald's grave site, using this thing called the Internet to read Uncle Willard's obituary to my mom in Arizona, well, nothing about that scenario would have made any sense 25 years ago.

Looking at the pictures I took at mom and dad's 50th I was a bit surprised how many of those in the pictures are no longer with us. My mom's mom, Grandma Vera, my dad's brother, Uncle Mel, Aunt Mike, Glen & Katie. All gone.

Sad.......

The Shadow Of The Tandy Hills Thin Man Worrying About Losing His Memory

The Shadow of the Tandy Hills Thin Man did some pre-Thanksgiving hill hiking today.

I felt a dire need for some salubrious endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation and there is no better place to get such stimulation, within a 4 mile range of my abode, than the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

Last week on Top Chef Seattle when the Top Chefs got to the place they would be bunking and saw the view, one of them remarked something along the line of there are mountains every direction you look.

The mention of mountains on Top Chef had me trying to remember the last time I hiked on an actual mountain. I could not remember if such a thing has taken place in this century.

Not being able to remember the last time I had hiked on an actual mountain was sort of depressing.

Is this how Alzheimer's starts?

I did remember to go swimming this morning in the cool pool. The water had not warmed up as much as I'd hoped it would, but I managed to get in some swimming without shivering. The pool should be less cool tomorrow morning due to the fact that it is being warmer today, as in it is currently 79 degrees according to my computer based temperature monitoring device.

I heard on the radio we may get into the 80s today. In my younger, pre-Alzheimer's years, I would consider a day in the 80s to be a very HOT day.

Up Late Sunday Morning In Texas Worrying About Alzheimer's

It is Sunday morning. When I looked out my bedroom window I was appalled to see that the sun had gotten up way before me. I hate it when that happens.

I stayed up late watching the replay of the 9/11/01 events on one of the cable news stations. It was oddly mesmerizing.

While I was watching I had a very troubling moment that seemed like some sort of onslaught of Alzheimer's indicator.

I could not remember who was vice-president when George W. was president.

And then Dick Cheney was on the screen, telling his story of the evacuation of the White House.

How could I not remember that Dick Cheney was Bush's vice-president? Memory blocked due to being painful?

Yesterday when I crossed the Trinity on the Beach Street bridge, I saw the river had receded quite a bit. It is still running over the dam/bridge that makes Trinity Falls, but just barely, and the falls is back falling.

I think I may attempt a bike ride today, maybe on the Trinity Trails. But, before that happens, I am going swimming. As in, right now.

Wild Woman of Woolley Nightmares While Sleeping In Texas

I had a nightmare last night that had the Wild Woman of Woolley, Miss CVB, in it. (I had not noticed before, til just typing it, that CVB are in that exact order on the low row of the QWERTY keyboard)

A couple days ago Miss CVB sent me a picture of her daughter. That is her in pink. It seems recent in my memory, but it was long ago, that I saw Miss CVB's daughter, in person. She was just a baby.

I'll spare you the rest of my memory on this subject. Suffice to say that Miss CVB's daughter puts me in mind of Miss CVB all those years ago.

So, last night, I'm having a nightmare. I was back in the Skagit Valley. At the Mount Vernon Mall. It's dark. I run into Miss CVB, well, actually, at that point in time she was Miss CV. I asked if she wanted to go have pizza. Sure, she said.

So, we go in this dark pizza joint, sit at a table, I go order pizza, then go back to the table to find Miss CV missing. I figure she had to go do something but would be right back. So, I sit. I do not wait well, but I continued waiting. Eventually I realized Miss CV was not coming back. I then woke up.

After that I could not go back to sleep. I started obsessing over the Mount Vernon Mall. There were two malls in Mount Vernon, one on each side of College Way, on the east side of I-5. These malls were built in the 1970s. Then torn down in the 1990s and replaced with more modern strip malls. I think.

And that's what kept me awake. Trying to remember what replaced the 2 malls. I could remember Albertsons and Ernst on the south side and a huge Safeway on the north side. And, awhile after that, a Wal-Mart. But then I go blank.

I do recollect being back in Mount Vernon, after I moved to Texas, for a funeral, staying at the Day's Inn in Mount Vernon and roller blading from the Day's Inn all over the Wal-Mart and Safeway parking lots. But, I can't remember what was there besides those 2 stores and a Jamba Juice joint.

I wonder if I am exhibiting early Alzheimer's and what the Freudian implications are of last night's Miss CV nightmare? If any.

Am I at the Early Stages of Alzheimers?

Yesterday something very unsettling happened to me. It was so unsettling that yesterday I didn't feel like talking about it. Today I'm not quite so unsettled.

What happened was yesterday about 3 in the afternoon I went over to Miss Puerto Rico's. I wanted to check something on her computer to see if being at a different IP address changed what I was seeing on my screen.

Miss Puerto Rico always has her security system armed. I've disarmed it dozens upon dozens of times. It's a very easy to remember 4 digit code. The code is based on an easy to remember birthday.

I unlocked Miss Puerto Rico's door. The alarm started its usual warning beeps. I went to enter the code and my mind went blank. I entered 4 digits. They were wrong. I tried again. Wrong again. You have 30 seconds to enter the code correctly. I tried a 3rd time. A 4th time. A 5th.

And then the 30 seconds were up. The screaming alarm went off. I knew this summoned the police. I stepped outside where the screaming alarm was not quite so loud and called Miss Puerto Rico, told her my brain had gone dead and that I forgot the code.

She told it to me, I entered it, the alarm shut up. But continued blinking.

A couple minutes later I was out on the balcony and saw the police arrive. Miss Puerto was called. She told them there was no problem. I was not tasered or arrested.

The incident left me thoroughly discombobulated. I came back here and pondered what had gone wrong with my brain. Early onset of Alzheimers is the only thing I can figure.

I voted today and didn't have a brain malfunction, remembering without much effort who I wanted to vote for. I used my debit card today, nervously, fearing I'd forget its 4 digit PIN. But I didn't. I went over to Miss Puerto Rico's today, again, at 3, because after yesterday's trauma I didn't get around to doing what I wanted to do on her computer. Today I was able to get in without setting off the alarm.

But, I remain hyper-vigilant for signs that my memory is failing me. So far I've seen no further signs. Well, I did forget to call my mom after I got gas today, but that's was more by circumstance and choice than not remembering. $2.44, mom, if someone is reading this to you.

Alzheimers's Hits Home

I know Alzheimer's is a serious subject and nothing one should make light of. But how does one know if this is what one is dealing with?

I won't name names, but yesterday I agreed to drive someone up to this town called Flower Mound for an appointment. The first thing this person forgot was his wallet. So, I had to buy gas. After driving for a few miles this forgetful person decided to call to make sure the appointment was on track. No phone. Left it at home. Along with the wallet. So, I turned around to head back to the phone. Found the phone. With a message saying the appointment was cancelled.

Now, the above was not too bad. But then today I've had to work with this person on a project and it has been one confusing muddle after another. The confusions bordered on the bizarre. I won't detail them because to do so would not only be laborious, it would also cause me to re-live the pain.

Do Alzheimer's sufferers get a deer in the headlights lost look when they are caught up in a moment of confusion? Do they stammer and stutter a lot? Is there an Alzheimer's for Dummies book?

On a totally different, non-Alzheimer's note, have I mentioned Scarborough Faire and the brouhaha I accidentally caused myself when I webpaged my impressions of my visit to that event a few years back? Well, it's about to start up again, and so I am starting to get emails about it again. I hadn't added any of these to my website for awhile, but today I did, because today's email amused me, so I added it and one I got a couple weeks ago.

You can read those emails and see what awful thing I did that caused so many people to get so upset and others to find it all very funny by going here to read the Feedback from emails and newsgroup postings and here to go to the webpage that caused the death threats.