Metaphor Country

All Unquiet on the Alzheimer's Front

Sorry -- still fully engaged on the Alzheimer's front.  The latest here.

No time or inclination to be clever or verbose or issues-oriented.

Am working up some photographs which I'll post shortly.  Photography is keeping me going.  Looking at things has an appeal at the moment that words, and opinions, and trying to impress you with my critical faculties can't quite match.

Back soon.

Is the Engine Supposed to Look Like That?

Have been continually busy in the Alzheimer's cockpit but I took a minute today to glance out the window and noticed that the presidential election is a year away and Pakistan is collapsing and outside my window it's November 5th and the leaves are still green.

Some of these things should not be.

I'd really better start paying attention -- before this turns into one of those "controlled flight into terrain" episodes that you sometimes hear about...

More Housekeeping

Now that the Alzheimer's blog is up and running (click on "Dementia Nights" at left if you're curious), time to get this one back to its original focus, which is (was/will be) issues in communications.

Some of the other specialized topics will move offshore soon. 

Meanwhile, back to our regular programming, already in progress.

Live From DC...

Yes, a change of venue.

Short version -- Mrs. Deconstruction (spouse) took a position with the SEC in DC.  So we've decamped.  Which explains the latest round of silence -- as pilots like to tell you over the PA in thunderstorms, it's been a little busy up here.

There's also the element of culture shock.  Details will almost certainly follow.

And because life still isn't rich enough or full of incident... the Alzheimer's blog will be up and running shortly.

Back later...

Suicide by Hypothetical Ancient Bolivian Reed Boat

I live in Jersey City at the moment, right on the Hudson.  Which means that yesterday -- I guess as a warmup for the Independence Day festivities -- this guy went sailing by.

Or more accurately, this guy went wallowing by.

For more detail -- if you're morbidly curious, or just morbid, or just curious -- here's a New York Times article (restricted to Times Select members).

Now, speaking as someone who's done a little sailing -- that boat was not a pretty sight.  As in, lumbering up the river, with the wind behind it, down at the bow and doing some nasty rolling...

Unfortunately the guy's got passengers -- who didn't look all that comfortable either.

And if that's the Hudson, imagine what the North Atlantic will be.

Best case outcome -- he gets the thing pointed out through the Narrows, it catches the first ocean swell... and falls apart.  Still in view of land, where the Coast Guard and the NYPD Harbor Unit can get at it.

Because if it holds together 'til it's halfway to the Canaries, we're talking Darwin Awards here.

So hope for visible ignominious failure -- which in this instance would be sort of a good thing.

More lessons in the interdependence of good and bad perhaps to follow.

Elderlaw

Complicated, this elderlaw business.  Am fresh (if that's the word... no, it probably isn't) from yesterday's consult.  Lots of new options to consider and a big new project to manage.  Which, of course, comes as no surprise.  Except that it does.  It's easy to anticipate abstractions ("things will be complex") and always stunning when reality shows up ("the complexities are here and there are dozens of them and every one of them has 15 documents attached...")  Ach.  But then, it's life.  So will manage it.

Details, some of them at least, to follow.

Meanwhile. a muscial note, here.

Futzing

Am reading the VNS write-up about my father (oriented as to person and place but not time, ah, check) -- seems well thought-out.  Off to the elderlawyers tomorrow.

Meanwhile, trying to come up to speed on the faith-off, and am coming to terms with my failure to come to terms with my photography.

Whatever we lack for, it isn't excitement.

Who Says You Can't Take 'Em With You?

This morning on the PATH platform they were making their usual round of Blade Runner-style PA announcements ("The PATH Police are working to keep you safe...  A new life can be yours, a chance to begin again in the off-world colonies...") 

I could have sworn I heard the announcer say, "...and please remember to take your personal tragedies with you when leaving the train."

Now, that's really wonderful advice.  I mean, don't leave them lying around where they'll only create suspicion and alarm, and have to be removed by robotic devices, and generally create delays.

On reflection, I'm forced to admit that the voice was probably talking about personal packages, not personal tragedies.

Nevertheless -- the alternate reading stays in my head, and leaves me somewhat hopeful.

I'll take my encouragement where I find it, thanks.

Help Is On the Way...

...or so it would seem.  Last Friday, had the Visiting Nurse Service/Partners in Care people in to see my father and start an assessment.  We're now waiting on the written response and the next meeting.  But the signals are good.  For at least two years now I've been screaming for case management -- maybe it was just my own incompetence that kept me from finding a case manager -- but it turns out that's part of the program, so it looks like I'm going to get my wish.  Beyond that, good rapport all around.  I'm continually struck by the quality of the VNS personnel.  More broadly, I'm struck by how much more human and well rounded are the people that I meet in the helping professions... as opposed to, say, my many corporate friends.  Yes, it's dangerous to speak in generalities, but at the same time I can't help thinking that there's something in the corporate environment that brings out weakness and selfishness and general unreliability -- and there's something in caregiving that does the opposite.  Or maybe I've just been lucky on the one hand and unlucky on the other -- thankfully haven't met too many nightmare caregivers yet.  So, best to avoid conclusions for now.  But will leave the question hanging -- is there something in the business environment that makes people less than their best?

To be continued... or dropped... as seems most appropriate...

Cognition Notes from a Saturday Afternoon

Visited my father as usual on Saturday afternoon and... not quite as usual... began a gentle (I hope) exploration of the possibility that we may need to get him more help, or different help, or change his living arrangements.  He was surprisingly open to it (surprising because he likes his independence and needs the sense that he's still fully functional).  And he was more lucid than he has been recently -- worth noting that while he has enormous difficulty synthesizing facts(it's dark out) into larger facts (it's night), he still has a strong sense of identity and reasonably full command of complex emotions.  And at some more basic level he knows what situation he's in, and understands that help is in order.  He likened himself to "a baseball player being told to hang it up" (I suggested that maybe he could move over to coaching) and also talked at length about what a good life he's had (which is impressive -- not everyone with his history would necessarily come to that conclusion).  He seems enthusiastic about Visiting Nurse Service as the care provider -- he has a good history with them.

So it seems we're stable, at least until we're not.

More work to do this week and in coming weeks.

But was able to take in a little music in a better frame of mind than I expected.