why can't I use the microwave

"why can't I use the microwave?"  you ask me.

What you mean is that you can't seem to make it run.  You place your coffee cup inside, but when you go to press the buttons to run it, you can't make it run.

"You need to show me how to use the microwave".

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I give you a quick lesson on how to warm up a cup of coffee.  I place the cup in the microwave.

I set the time on 45 seconds.  I press start.  

This is all you need to do.

I actually don't believe you are able to choose the time anymore.  If we had a microwave that said "reheat coffee", and all you had to do was press that button , and start, it might work, but to have to enter a time, 45 seconds or even one minute, is probably beyond your current skill set.

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an interesting part of your dementia process has been the significant impact it has had on doing things mechanically with the hands or body.  This has resulted in significant problems in specific areas of daily living

- turning the TV on and off using a remote control clicker device

- changing the TV channel 

- using the telephone (especially if not the old fashioned rotary style)

- using alarm clocks

-using electric razor

Looking back, I remember how you used to get very angry with me when you were living alone on the prairie, and you had difficulties using your computer.  That was the beginning of the end.  You don't even try to use the computer now (which is a appropriate).

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I don't tell you that we had turned the electricity off to the microwave when we leave you alone.  

Its interesting how you never notice at all, as each time I come and go, I am flipping the switch for the microwave on the fuse box.  I am only 6 feet away from you doing this, every day, and you never notice.

We have done this since the fire.

http://seniorfraud.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-room-smells-like-smoke.html

THE ROOM SMELLS LIKE SMOKE!

I arrive to the strong smell of smoke - its an almost electrical kind of smoke smell.
Where is the smoking coming from? !!!!

You walk with me to the kitchen, near the stove and microwave.
You tell me that the "ring" in the microwave is broken.

The ring in the microwave is broken?  No - -- that is not what I see.
The plate in the microwave is missing.  Where is the plate and where is the smell of smoke coming from?

You look sheepish, unable to explain.
I say "What were you doing? "  "What were you doing"?

"I was heating up my cereal", you say.  (heating up coco puffs, I think??).  The cereal bowl nearby is empty.  It doesn't make sense.

"A man from the building came - he found out that the smoke detector isn't working", you say.

"What?  A man from the building?  Did the smoke detector go off? How smoky was it in here? What time did this happen?", I say.

"No.  the smoke detector did not go off. ", you say.
Still the cause of the smoke is not clear -- what is the source of that electrical burning smell?  Where is the plate for the microwave? Its not in the garbage.  Where is it??

Ahhh..... Here it is -- inside the old empty Coco Puffs bag in the sink.  The broken microwave plate -- and what is attached to it?

Oh yes  I recognize the donut -- it  had been delivered by Meals on Wheels a week ago, remaining in its saran wrap cover, growing harder by the day, in the refrigerator.

"I had to go to the bathroom", you say.

The microwave must have been set to minutes far longer than it would take to heat a donut.
Perhaps the saran wrap cover was never removed.  It got so hot it broke the plate.

It got so hot it turned the donut to nothing but a piece of char -- stuck to the broken THICK glass microwave base plate.

What time did this happen?
It happened this morning.  Yet the room still smells so strongly of that electrical kind of smoke smell at 7 PM.
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The room still smells like smoke almost 3 weeks later