October 9, 2010

I picked Dad up at Life Care yesterday afternoon. My friend, Pam, came over and we took Dad down to the pond. We drove in my car and when we got there, Dad didn't want to get out. Pam opened the door and said, "Let's get out!" and Dad said, "I'll just stay here." and he closed the door. I opened it again and said, "Let's sit out by the pond." Dad closed the door again. It wasn't until the third time and I had to almost insist he get out. I think he was glad he did. Sometimes I think he just doesn't want to go to the trouble of doing something extra. It was so pretty!! Pam and I sat on the benches on the dock and I put a chair at the end of the dock for Dad to sit in. Right in front of Dad was the caution that Van has "engraved" in the wood, "6 feet, No Diving." Dad read it over and over and over. Then he would say something like, "Susie, it's 6 feet in there - no diving!" and he would laugh. As the sun started going down, it got cooler so I covered Dad with a blanket. He enjoyed that. Simon and some of his friends came down and hung out with us for a while, before they headed off to the Cleveland County Fair. Dad enjoyed watching them and of course, kept counting everybody. He asked several times where we were. I noticed him moving his chin up and down again and I wonder how long he's been doing that. Maybe I just haven't noticed it! After we had been there for a while, Dad said, "Susie, I'm ready to go." We got our stuff and headed back up to the house. While I grilled burgers, Pam gave Dad a spelling and math test. He correctly spelled: Rutherfordton, orange, North Carolina, medicine, Tylenol, pneumonia, Earth, Raleigh, aspirin, scoliosis, stomach, education, international, and knee. He made the following mistakes: Missippi, equasion, Sacromenta, auwsome, badmitton, botalism, and socker. He added 199 + 25, 9 + 8, 6+5+3+1, 100-29, 9x8, and 25 divided by 5 correctly! We slept in this morning. When I went to get Dad up, I pulled back his covers and he had taken off his depend and the bed was wet. I've spent the day washing sheets and clothes, cleaning and cooking. Dad spent a long time outside in his swing, looking at the paper and just hanging out. We're about to eat supper....... Susie