Dec 18 - 24

So today is the day my son had his annual blood test.

Most children or adults with special needs are on some medication. The medication is to help compensate for their damaged brains. That is why you see so many homeless people who appear delusional. Once they are homeless, they lose all access to their meds.

Anyway it is always fun to try to convince my son he has to give up some blood. We have closed the entire lab at Kaiser, where every employee there has come to assist or restrain him so we can get this done.

Well now, I don’t mess around. I just say, “You know those head phones you wanted. Well, you get in and out of this blood test as fast as you can, and you can order them on the way home.”

It worked.

I want to thank all of you for the email we sent out trying to find a missing friend. Hopefully, we will find her soon.

Dec 11 - 17

A few weeks ago I wrote about technology and what a curse it was, well now I believe motor memory is also a problem. Here is the definition.

Motor memory (MM) happens when a person repeats an action over and over until it becomes automatic, and you can do it without thinking. 

I take the garbage out now and have no recollection of doing it, so I have to look out at the street to see if my cans are there. I will be inputting a password when something stops me and then I can’t remember what the password actually is.

We all drive on motor memory, and we do so many basic tasks with it. People with dementia will keep their MM long after they have forgotten everything else. Glen Campbell was able to go on the road and perform after he got Alzheimer’s. So the other day I am pulling on to the freeway which I have done a thousand times, when I realize they are doing construction and they have dramatically changed the on ramp. I was terrorized. Why, because I had to think. I had to decide how I was going to get on the freeway. It has been several weeks and I still go another way so I don’t have to get on that on ramp. Anyway i guess I should try and use my brain more so I can get use to changes, but it would be wonderful if I never had to think again.

Oh, by the way, after my wife cleaned my son’s bedroom, she started cleaning his bathroom. She pulls out a drawer and finds 4 empty pineapple cans and 3 half eaten clam chowder cans. Do you know what clam chowder looks like after a long time? You really don’t want to know, but I will tell you this, it is no longer white.

Dec 4 - 10

Experiences of horror should be a thing of the past concerning my wife and I, however when cleaning our son’s bedroom, horror definitely exists in the present. 

You know there are things you must do in life but if you wait long enough, it will be left for a future generation, but my wife is better than me at this. 

First thing we found I think was the remnant of an old pet, well it was hard to tell. Next we tried to organize starting with 5 usable guitars and 5 broken ones. Guitar strings were everywhere along with 3 amps and a million cords and a banjo and a trumpet, a piccolo, a ukulele, and an accordion. Then there was the drum set complete with symbols and bass drum, and bongo drums. We found dirty clothes hidden behind furniture along with about 20 other pieces of clothing under the bed. I think it is safe to say when he said he did his laundry it is similar situation as to when the potato that accidentally fell off the shelf last week.

Nov 27 - Dec 3

Our house is not normal. It is not even close.

I walk into the pantry and I look on the floor and there is a large raw sweet potato laying there with a bite taken out of it. I look on the shelf and there is the bite just sitting there next to the crackers. Now judging by the teeth marks and there are some, I am sure it is not Cooper. So I ask my son about it.

“Funny thing you ask dad. I walked into the pantry minding my own business when suddenly the sweet potato falls off the shelf but on the way down it hits another shelf breaking off a piece.”

He then says “Isn’t it funny how the piece looks like a bite”.

Now I am beginning to wonder what is the truth. Has he, or hasn’t he, outsmarted me again?