D.Q. and Quail Lake

Went and saw Mom and Pops yesterday and took them out on our ice cream date- as promised the day before. Pops had a tough day overall and was in and out of it for the most part. KA went earlier in the day and spent some time with them. Her yoga got cancelled so she went by and visited, and then ate lunch at the BeeHive home. She said he was fairly clear, and then about 12:30, got really confused. He hadn't had and medication since 6 AM so this was interesting.

We pushed the ice cream date to 3:30, from the scheduled 1:30. This worked out great because I got 5 hours of yard work in. Nothing like spring prepping your yard when it's over an acre large in the front. To quote John Lennon today: "I've got blisters on my fingers!". Anyway, went and woke him up at 3:30- which is a process. We finally got out to my car about 4:00 and it took all I had to get him in. He could not help at all. I have a 2006 Toyota Highlander and I thought we were not gonna make it for a minute- hard to move 230 pounds of dead weight. We did make it and drove into Hurricane and went through the drive thru at Dairy Queen. The whole time since getting Pops up he had been confused and speaking a rather unintelligible garb. He couldn't tell me what he wanted and once we ordered he couldn't hold it or feed himself. Funny deal: He had a vanilla shake the other night--- so at the drive thru I ordered Mom a small strawberry shake at her request, Pops a small vanilla shake , as the order from before, and me a small Snickers Blizzard. When he heard me order mine he said "oh yeah..." and turned towards me and grabbed my arm- so I changed his order to a small Snickers Blizzard as well. We went on a drive and were watching cyclists do a road race and tooling around. He didn't seem overly excited or bummed out by watching them. This was interesting to me because he was huge into road racing as a retirement hobby. I also was spoon feeding Pops when we were driving straight, or at a light- yet this wasn't really safe. We then went to Quail Lake and sat at the overlook. He did say that it was a beautiful spot. Mom said she thought it would be a good place for high schoolers to come and park.......EXCUSE ME??? Gross Mom!!!! Pops did not really want any ice cream at this time.

Pops was doing some interesting things as we drove. He kept reaching upward to things that were not there. He also tried reaching through the front of the windshield- as if up to the sun. Three times during our 2 hour "date" he asked if Millie was there. He always called his Mom "Millie", as her name is Mildred. I told him "she's in Boston, Pops"- as she is- still plugging along at 104 years of age. I've seen these behaviors in the past. I am not a prognosticator, but these are things that people do in preparation to dying. The way he has been the last few days makes me think that time spent with him now should be precious, for it is fleeting at best. I am going by there after I write this. It will be an everyday deal. I'm like a bad penny- I just keep showing up.

Another thing I like about going by is that he has been perseverating on people wanting to hurt him. He gets scared at times and says things like "they're gonna nail me to the cross" or "they're gonna come up through the floorboards and get me". My Mom and KA reassure him that he is in good, loving hands and that we would not let anyone hurt him. I say Mom and KA, because he doesn't say these things when I'm there. He told KA that he feels safe with me and he knows I would not let anyone hurt him. This is another reason I want to be around him as much as possible during his "awake" hours. I also like to catch and enjoy those glimmers of John Humphrey/ Lone Star JR/ Dad that make their way out of the shell of a man that is left.