Time to get in the holiday spirit

I am going to start decorating for Christmas today. This will be the earliest I have decorated for Christmas in years. So many years I can't really recall when I decorated this early before. I just want to make everything nice and festive looking for dad. Me and mom always decorated the house around December 20th, then left things up to the first week of January.

I've been trying to decide just where the tree should go this year. I'm thinking in front of the window across the room from the fireplace. That puts it a good distance from the fireplace, which is a must even if it is a fake tree.

Las Vegas Shows

Years ago me and my parents went on a road trip cruising around the Westernmost States of the lower 48 States. We drove through Las Vegas, but because we were in a motorhome we stayed on the highway and did not dare get down into the crazy traffic of the strip. We had driven down the strip years before in a Pinto hatchback. When I was there on a business trip in 2007 I got the chance to go see some of the kewlest things, but I also did not get to see quite a few things I want to get to see the next time I get the chance to got to Las Vegas.

Which is where a site such as ShowsLasVegas.com comes in. ShowsLasVegas.com has information, pictures and tickets to Las Vegas Shows. One mistake that so many vacationers make when visiting Las Vegas is to wait until they arrive to buy their show tickets. If you know you will be in Las Vegas, and you know you would like to see a particular show on a particular day, then don't wait - buy your show tickets in advance rather than risk finding the show you want to see has been sold out.

Physical therapy

My dad has got a referral from his doctor to take physical therapy once again. I have delegated taking him to those appointments to my older sister. My plan is to be able to spend that hour twice a week just relaxing and not worrying about what needs to be done. To get the chance to recharge my brain that I have not had since my mom passed away. If nothing else, maybe I will be able to catch up on work each week.

It won't be until the 4th of December before I will know anything about what the therapy people will be doing or anticipating with this round of physical therapy.

Sleep deprivation

I am so tired and overstressed right now I can barely even express it. I'm tired, but I can't keep the house warm for my dad and sleep at the same time because right now our primary heat source is a fireplace. I can't go to sleep and leave an open flame going in the fireplace, and if I let the fire burn out then the house will get down to near freezing levels by morning. This all causes a significant lack of sleep, and that lack of sleep is producing stress and disorientation like you would not believe.

Allegro Medical

Being a family caregiver, I know that it can sometimes be difficult to find what is needed in providing care. That is one of the reasons why I feel that sites such as Allegro Medical are sites that would be of interest to my fellow family caregivers.

Allegro Medical carries hundreds of products that can help caregivers in providing care to their loved ones. You can search through the products on the Allegro Medical website based on categories, specific conditions, brand names of products, even for products based on specific parts of the body.

Allegro Medical has been selling medical supplies and home health care products online since 1998 and their website, www.AllegroMedical.com offers over 50,000 products to choose from.

Want to get limited time specials and discounts? Sign up for the free Allegro eCatalog while you are at the website.

Long Cold Night

I'm sitting here at 4:30 in the morning keeping the house warm with the kitchen oven and one electric heater. The other electric heater died, something happened to the switch in it and it won't turn on anymore. Really pisses me off, since that is the one on the electric fireplace that I bought for my dad last year. I really really need to get the woodstove installed. I got a start on getting the foundation for it assembled, but I need to get the plywood cut before I can lay down the Dura-Rock and cinder block pavers. Until then, it is going to be a long cold night - possibly several.

Dad's Thumb Doing Better

Dad's thumb, which he jammed back on the 4th of the month, is doing much better. He is still complaining that it hurts at times, but I had a bone bruise a year or two ago that hurt for a couple of months, so I am not too worried about that. The guys didn't see any fractures on the x-ray, which with his osteoporosis was the worry spot for me. I can't understand how in the hell he managed not to break the thumb, but they said they did not see any fractures so... okay. I think I'll ask his doctor if she can get the x-rays and take a second look at them since she is familiar with his osteoporosis.

November is National Family Caregiver Month

I wanted to do something to help other family caregivers this month, so I have decided that creating a series of videos to raise awareness about the needs of family caregivers was a good place to start. My fist video is about the Social Security Caregiver Credit Act of 2007 (H.R. 1161) that is currently tied up in the Department of Ways and Means in the subcommittee on Social Security.

Here is the video I put together on that last night - let me know what you think about it.




Note: I'm a child of the 70's, therefore when I think of bills in congress, I think of the song that Schoolhouse Rock used to run on TV all the time. I mean no harm in using the song here, only utmost respect for the lessons that I learned from those cartoons and jingles and the ability they had to teach without seeming to be teaching.

Slippery ice and voting

As we were getting ready to go vote yesterday my dad and I slipped on the ice outside on the porch and went down. I thought that the ice had been cleared away with that ice melt stuff and sand, but it turns out that the stuff that was used on it had been that clumping kind of kitty litter. For those of you that don’t know, that is not a good thing.

Clumping kitty litter is made from clay, this makes it clump together when the stuff gets wet. When it gets wet enough it causes it to become a muddy clay. A very slippery muddy clay. That is not a good thing to have on top of slippery ice on a walkway. I stepped down off the porch, dad followed me down… I saw my dad's weaker foot start to slip and tried to get one of my feet over there to brace it - no good. The seemingly solid looking dirt was in fact very wet clumping kitty litter. My foot had no traction as his slid sideways into it and we both lost traction, then to make it worse both of those legs went right into my good leg. Me and dad went down - hard.

I tried to brace him as much as I could, but it was useless. He threw his good arm around, bracing from hitting his head on the planter beside the porch, but his hand caught on the planter. Me and the nephews got him up and sitting on the porch steps. Discussed injuries and how he was doing and he said he thought that he might have broke his thumb. I asked if he wanted to go to the ER, get it x-rayed and he said yes… but after we went and voted.

So, off we went to our local polling place, then went to get the thumb checked out. X-rays did not show any breaks, but the guy was concerned about torn ligaments, so referred us to a specialist and put the hand in a brace. I called the referred to doctor and his receptionist said he’s booked solid all week and they are not accepting new patients at this time, she’s getting dad’s stuff from ER anyway to take a look at it and will call me back tomorrow. I then called my dad’s regular doctor to let her know what’s up, her receptionist is going to let her know about this.

Fireplace

I'm trying to get a fireplace installed in the house, but it is not exactly going as smoothly as I had hoped it would be. I need to find someone that has a truck that can be used to help me haul the parts I need (two sheets of Dura-Rock) home from the home improvement store. Once I have that (and about $70 worth of red bricks and firebrick) I can install the fireplace.