Ring Ring Ring

The phone rings (It is me calling you).
I watch you walk slowly across the room, toward the phone.
You pick it up
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
I watch you turn on the light as though you can't quite see the receiver.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
You press the button to answer.
No Answer.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
You press the button to answer.
No answer.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
You press another button to answer.
No answer.
Eventually it rolls over to the answering machine.
Too late.


The phone rings 30 seconds later.
Once again, I watch you  pick up the phone.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
You press the button to answer.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
You press the button to answer.
No Answer.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
You press the button to answer.
No answer.
Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!
You press another button to answer.
No answer.
Eventually it rolls over to the answering machine again.
Too late.  Again.

On the 4th call, you get it right.  "Hello", you say.  "Did I wake you up?", I say.  "No".  (and we go on  as if the difficulties to answer the phone didn't happen)


********************************************

Now I know why sometimes you don't answer the phone?  You try to answer but you can't figure out which button to push?

(this is why we have the old fashioned phone in the bedroom, which doesn't require any button pushing, but in the living room the wireless phone allows it to be right next to your chair, which the old fashioned phone couldn't do)

what we find in the refrigerator

It be might a pamphlet that arrived with the meals on wheels

It might be the packages of animal crackers that I left out on the counter, to remind you that you had treats

The phone in the bathroom doesn't work

I call you on the phone.  "Hello!  How are you today?"

You hesitate.  And then you say, with obvious distress, "The phone in the bathroom doesn't work".

"The phone in the bathroom?", I say.  "There isn't a phone in the bathroom".

"Yes there is", you reply. "there are several"

"I don't think so", I say. "I am on my way to your place, I will be there in 10 minutes, and we can look at it then".

"Get Bruce to come." you say, "I need him to fix it.".

What could this be, I think to myself?  Do I dare go there alone, after the negative commentary about me following the donut event? He is obviously confused.  I call Bruce and ask him to meet me there.

We arrive, to the continued smell of burnt plastic in the air, now 3 days after the donut event.  The look in your eye scares me a little bit.
The bathroom sink cabinet door is open, with the contents of cleaning solution, removed, sitting on the bathroom floor.
Your rotary style electric razor sits on the countertop, disassembled.  The sink drain stopper, removed, sits adjacent to the razor head parts.  You continue to obsess about the razor parts on the countertop, and about the visible sink drain base (a normal part of the drain, but that you had  worried about and tried to remove from the kitchen sink last summer)

Now I think I understand?  The "phone" in the bathroom is actually your electric razor?

You then state "the phone numbers don't work.".  "None of the phone numbers work."  As you repeat similar statements I realize you are talking about the phone numbers that are written on the refrigerator, my phone number, my cell phone, my office phone, Bruce's phone number.  I also discover that the receiver for the phone in the dining room is missing. The receiver for the phone in the living room is off the hook.  I test them, everything works normally.
Bruce re-assembles the electric razor.

"Don't worry dad. Everything is going to be OK. There's nothing you need to worry about".

For the first time I see a slight smile of relief and comfort.

******************************************************

What you meant to say was you were unable to use the electric razor in the bathroom, and when you went to call me to complain about it, you were also unable to use the phone.

Happier Delusions last week

"you were with the girls last night, weren't you?", he asks me, with a smile of recognition.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" I think to myself.

"Girls were visiting last night?", I say.  "who were they, where were they from, were they too loud?"

"No, they weren't loud.  They went downstairs  to look at the room and they didn't come back", you say.

"The room for what"?

"Where they were going to play", you say.

"Play what? "
"Basketball", you say.

Ahhh.. Basketball -- Of course, a girls basketball team visited this man who never had any interest in sports.  Of course they would be coming to the senior condo to play basketball (there is not a basketball court in the building).

**************************************

"When I went to bed they were there", you tell me.
"all of them?", I ask.
"yes", you say.
"Oh really? Was there room for you in the bed? Did you sleep OK with them all there", I ask.
"Yes, I fit in my space", you say.

"They were gone this morning.  You can't even tell they were here.  They didn't even eat breakfast"

Pen in my pocket

What's that spot on your pants?

Its a 3 cm diameter spot of dried blood, dotted onto the surface of the right knee.

Where did it come from?

Oh NO!! What happened to your hand?

The hand is caked in dried and gelatinous blood -- a 1 cm superficial laceration continuing to ooze.

"I had a pen in my pocket", he said.

The parchment skin of the frail old man could't withstand the friction of the pants pocket, along with the unexpected sharp point of the pen, piercing the skin.

"it bled a lot", he said.

I am so sorry that happened

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

I am so sorry that happened .... because I know what it might mean for you and I know it is not what you want or even what would be best even now, at this point.
This is not what I want for you.

Why did you try to cook today when you haven't gone near the stove or microwave in at least a month?  (and why didn't I disable them before -- I know why -- because I didn't think it would come to this)

The implications are painfully clear to me instantly.

The stove and microwave need to be disabled today.  Its for your safety.  Its to try to help you stay here, because I know you don't want to move to a nursing home.


How am I going to deal with the Senior Building bylaws  requiring one to be oriented x 3, to be able to use the appliances, to be able to manage one's affairs.  Even living with you isn't enough if you burn donuts to char in the microwave when temporarily alone.

*********************************************************

"Nothing happened to that plate"

"Nothing happened to that donut", you say.

He says to the man --
"Tell HER  (meaning me) not to come back "  "SHE is crazy".

"I could have a truck here and move out of here by noon tomorrow" , he says.

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.
*********************************************

The room still smells like smoke almost 3 weeks later