Traveling Man

(Originally posted in Facebook on May 6, 2019)

I am totally IN LOVE with ordering groceries online.

There. I said it, and I don’t care who knows.

It was the most wonderful system I’ve ever seen!! When it was time to pick the groceries up, I hit the “I’m on my way” button on my phone, pulled into a well-marked and designated spot when I got to the store, and the team had them loaded in my car and sent me on my way in just a few minutes. IT WAS GREAT!!

And after a weekend in the car, with my dad driving and pouring rain, it was needed!

No, the weekend wasn’t bad at all. Friday, before M left for work, he asked (again) about our departure time and I was so glad I could point to the calendar where I had used highlighters and pens to color-code the calendar and make it bright and easy to read. I showed him where I had marked that we were leaving at 1 pm, so he needed to leave work at noon and I would see him back at the house about 12:30 pm.

At 10:16 am I got a text from him, asking where I was. He had left work at 10, thinking we were leaving town at noon. The only problem with that is – he is paid by the hour, so that’s two additional hours of pay he WON’T be receiving for Friday.

I told him I would be home at 12:30, as planned, for him to finish packing, but NOT to use grocery bags to take his things for our trip. He has suitcases – please use them. I don’t know why he will pull out grocery bags from the pantry rather than going up to the attic for a suitcase, but if I don’t say “DON’T DO THAT” he’ll do it every time.

As we were at the hotel, getting ready to go to our niece’s graduation ceremony Saturday morning, he started packing up his things, getting ready to check out. We were staying until Sunday.

As we left the arena when the ceremony was over, M needed to stop at the rest room, but the rest of our group went on outside to find our niece. I went on outside with them, so I wouldn’t lose them and was going to call M once we got to a meeting spot. When I called him, he snapped and said “I know where you are, I’m on my way to the car right now.”

Well, we weren’t at the car. It was raining. He was walking in the rain and he was going to be standing in the rain at the car and no one was going to be there for a while. But if he wanted to be unpleasant and stand in the rain and not listen to what I was trying to tell him, I was going to let him.

After about five minutes. we got to the car and got on our way to the reception. I started to tell him what had been going on and what I had been trying to tell him . . . but I realized there was no point. I was only frustrating myself.

When we got home Sunday, he asked me if we left home for our trip on Saturday. I reminded him that we had left work early on Friday to start the trip.

The 60 Minutes piece on Frontotemporal Dementia was eye-opening . . . and sad. If you didn’t have an opportunity to see it, you can look at the entire piece on 60 Minutes Overtime or on this link: https://cbsn.ws/2JkeNUu

M saw a little bit of the piece and said “I feel fine.” I’m glad – I want him to feel fine. But I want him to BE fine, too.

Clean up on Aisle 5

(Originally posted in Facebook on May 3, 2019)

I left work yesterday, feeling so good and happy – it was GREAT! I took everyone’s advice (my brother, A, my co-workers and some of you here) and I went on Chewy.com and ordered supplies for my dogs. Boom! Free shipping and their supplements are on the way!

Then I went on Walmart.com and ordered groceries. We’re going out of town this afternoon for our niece’s graduation, so I scheduled the shopping to be ready when we get back Sunday afternoon. We’ll swing by, pick it up and it will all be done. Wow – it was so easy! The app even knew what we usually buy so it made suggestions and I just picked quantities. FABULOUS!! I’m going to schedule another one for the day we get back from Alaska, so we’ll have groceries bought that I didn’t have to schlep through the store to get. Boom, again!

And last night was better with M, believe it or not. When I got home from work, the laundry basket for our dirty clothes wasn’t in the bedroom, so I asked him to bring it up from the laundry room. He said it was full. I went downstairs and sorted the laundry into the baskets in the laundry room (whites, darks and mediums) and he said “I could have done that.”

Yep.

I just kissed him and took the basket upstairs and went on with whatever I was doing.

He started to drive me crazy with questions about our upcoming trips.

“When are we flying to Seattle?”
“What time are we leaving tomorrow?”
“What day are we going on the cruise?”

I can tell that getting out of his routine is starting to worry him. I also realized I’ve not done a good job of keeping our calendar up-to-date. So I got to work and updated the detailed calendar so he has all the info in front of him.

If you’re at home Sunday evening and looking for something to watch (and the Braves game is over!) take a look at CBS 60 Minutes. There’s going to be a story about Frontotemporal Dementia. I saw the preview and read a synopsis about the report . . . it’s as though the reporter had been in my house and was telling our story. Here’s a link to the preview: http://bit.ly/2GYlIRM