02-22-10

Yes, it's still winter here.  I've adopted a silly falsetto voice (I sound like Mrs Doubtfire) when talking about the weather to cover distress. Actually, we are looking forward to some 30's here later in the week which will be only 15-20 degrees below normal instead of 20-30.  It looks like there's probably 30 inches of snow in most places, the drifts are very high.  I bought some Romano bean, radish and sugar pea seeds to cheer myself up.  The ground will probably be frozen for another 2  months and cold forever.  Another late garden I suspect.

Tim is on another medication for memory retention.  I think that for the most part, he is getting along fairly well.  He is still able to follow instructions and read; he's busy around the house while I'm at work and we both haven't had many colds this season.  Tim is able to maintain the wood stove.  This morning he put on a pair of yak-tracks over his boots and went up on the roof to clean the stove pipe.  It was becoming clogged with creosote making the stove smokey.  He did this safely and the stove works great once again.

One thing that has been very disturbing is how his friends have bailed on him.  Except for occasional calls from friends in California, no one ever calls anymore.  It's very disappointing.  It doesn't bother Tim, just me.  Perhaps the damage to his brain prevents him from feeling "bad" because he has mentioned it, but said it doesn't bother him.

Later:

Tim did get a phone call from a friend he knew long before we met.  His mother has Alzheimer Disease (though she is well into her 90s), Kistler knew how to talk with Tim and from our end it sounded like a very sweet and loving conversation.  Tim has lost all his driving privileges, just to be on the safe side.  He was only driving me to work and back, but his dr said no more.  He gave up without a whimper. I cried and Tim comforted me. What a guy.