Yikes!

How time flies, even when you're not having fun. I let this get away from me. It's been a busy, and sometimes stressful, summer, such as summer is/was.

The weather was lousy here until around the 5th of July. Too much rain, even in September, which is usually a warm and sunny month.

We've had the stress of dealing with my dad & step mom--dementia. We've known my step mom has been that way for the past 3 or 4 years, maybe more. But we've always relied on my dad to keep things flowing evenly in that household, even though he can't (or won't) cook, clean, etc. He could at least still drive, even though it was a little scary riding with him.

We visited earlier this year--in early June. Spent most of our time running them to doctor's appointments. Right after we came home, Alma's (step mom) daughter & her husband went to visit, and spent 3 weeks there researching out how to be of assistance from the distance we all live. They got a caregiver set up, and all was going well for a week or two until the neighbor mentioned to the caregiver that "there's guns in that house." That was the end of the caregivers, the agency would not send anyone in with guns in the house, and Dad has always had guns. We couldn't pry them away from him.

Things all broke loose a couple of weeks ago when Dad got a bee sting and decided he needed to go to the hospital. Really didn't need to, but it seems to be the Hand of God which sent him there. On the way home, he got lost. The police found him wandering/driving around, took him home, and when they realized that there were two old people suffering from dementia, they packed them up and took them back to the hospital for their safety. In order for them to be released, the social worker at the hospital had to know they would be safe. We've had an advocate working to get things going before, but when Dad heard it would cost him money, he shut that down quickly. To make a long story short--he had no choice now but to accept the help, and to pay for it. We haven't heard anything from them for more than a week, so we hope "no news is good news." We'll be calling this weekend.