my mom

[Drunk Monk]

Anybody giving any thought that all our moms are in the center of the outbreak zone and are in the perfect demographic to be hardest hit by this disease?

Actually our dads would be worse but most of our dads have passed.  But yeah, I've been thinking about this a lot.

The TVasaurus just needs to be moved to the garage for now, until the next tech pick-up.  Not really worth hiring anyone.  It's so damn big and unwieldy, but if I can get it up on a dolly, well, then I need to get past a few small steps, but I got a wheelchair ramp.  That's next week's problem.

[King Bob]

Have definitely thought about it. My mother has been hospitalized twice with pneumonia since the beginning of November. That last was February, and also involved fluid buildup from her congestive heart failure. She still has a bad cough. This could certainly take her out if it hits her facility.

[Drunk Monk]

I moved that TV. All by myself. It's in the garage, out of the way.  Borrowed the neighbor's dolly (which was perfect for the job) and manhandled it, also used my mom's wheelchair ramp.  

One of my mom's caregivers gave her a new TV.  She had an extra.  My mom tipped her $20.  That is her best caregiver - she's a gem - bends the rules a lot to accomodate her.   

We were planning to reduce her caretakers but given this situation, now is not the time.  

My mom kinda gets what's going on, as much as she can just watching it on TV.  Heck, I don't know what's going on.  Does anyone?

[Drunk Monk]

Got sucked into an episode of Emergency!  

The Convention was one of the movies, the final installment, telecast in 79.  It's set in SF.  ST: TNG Q is starring as a doctor.  It's cool to see vintage SF and all the flagrant HIPPA & protocol violations.

[Drunk Monk]

My mom is doing well and I felt extra grateful that she is after KB losing his mom.

My aunt and cousin called while I was there, so it was nice to catch up with them. It was my sweet aunt Mildred, a very Chinese Christian Hawaiian, and my SF cousin Leland, a former Chinatown gang member (he has this amazing photo of him in leathers and a pompadour with his gang on the cover of a newspaper focus piece). He went straight long ago, was a lineman for PG&E and retired several years ago - a tough blue collar union man.

[Drunk Monk]

When I got to my mom's, she was nowhere to be found. Turns out she was outside watering the garden. I keep telling her to bring her phone if she's going to do that, just in case she falls when alone. She is walking much better, but as I watched her, she stumbled a little which scares the fuck out of me. We got her one of those alarms at first but she kept setting it off by accident and then refused to wear it.

I gave my mom Mackenzie's chocolates and Companion baked goods for Mother's Day. She loved that. Then I told her the news and she just kept repeating "It's going to be hard to get another job now" which really didn't need repeating. But she locked on that until I started just avoiding talking to her because it was really irritating me. 

Later she asked if my birthmark was a pimple. I reminded her that I've had it all my life. She was like "I never noticed". 

I'm so grateful that she's doing okay and is safe and secure during these troubled times, but man, she drives me crazy sometimes.

[King Bob]

I remember reading an article about those alarms, and it turns out that most people won't use them because it's admitting that you're old. They had stats that even when people fall, the majority (I think it was something like 75%) won't hit the alarm.

[Drunk Monk]

Interesting. I don't think that's quite what's at play here because my mom admits she's old all the time. It's more a habit thing. She abhors change.

[thatguy]

The Apple Watch has a "I've Fallen" feature. I was considering getting one for my mom (who had a fall a few months back and didn't tell me until days later when we were checking into Kaiser because she was having telltale stroke symptoms). It can work with an iPhone, or if you get one with a SIM, it's a Dick Tracy 2-way wrist radio. It's cool/hip/young, without the stigma of the medical hardware, but comes with the promise of parental tech support which nobody needs. The other caveat (if I read the docs correctly) is:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208944
---
If your Apple Watch detects that you're moving, it waits for you to respond to the alert and won't automatically call emergency services. If your watch detects that you have been immobile for about a minute, it will make the call automatically.

After the call ends, your watch sends a message to your emergency contacts with your location letting them know that your watch detected a hard fall and dialed emergency services. Your watch gets your emergency contacts from your Medical ID.
---

My mom can't figure out how to answer her phone in under a minute.

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

My mom uses a burner phone. I try to get her to carry it around when she goes in the yard to pull weeds and water. She doesn't. When it comes to smart phones, she always asks me 'why do people always look at those?' often when I'm looking at my iphone. I can't imagine her donning an apple watch. I really wish she could. She has no concept of tech. I got her set up with Xfinity and she has yet to figure out the voice command function. I think my only hope is to get her a lanyard with for her burner and keep telling her to wear it. 

Thanks for the suggestion however. I do appreciate it and I hope things work out for your mom.

[Drunk Monk]

I can't really tell where my mom is at tonight. She seems generally unsympathetic of my situation, which irks me. She asked me if she could microwave her leftovers in a takeout aluminum tray. When I vehemently said 'no!' she said she couldn't remember. She also swore she saw a relative of ours, Akira, in an image that flashed across the screen during PBS's American Asian documentary. I don't know whether to believe her or not. A lot of random vintage photos are used in this doc but that seems so unlikely. We watched the first episode together. It was interesting, although nothing really that new to me. Randall Park discussing his reaction to Bruce Lee was amusing. It covered Hawaii's statehood, and I asked her what she remembered about that, but the TV volume was at max and she couldn't hear me, so I let it go. Her mental state is a constant worry - I fear for when she makes some mistake like putting an aluminum tray in the microwave. It's frustrating, and I'm quick to anger right now, so I apologized a lot tonight. She seemed unphased either way. I'm not in a proper state tonight to judge.

TC gave me the luxury of telecommuting, which has been critical with my mom's homecare. I hope my next job allows me leeway here too.

[Drunk Monk]

My mom's washing machine quit working. She said it worked a few days ago when her caretaker did her sheets. We'll look into a repairman tomorrow. Might have to buy a new one. 

She's been going out in the yard to weed and water on her own. She told me she fell the other day but got right up. So not what I wanted to hear but at least she got up...

And here I was looking forward to a mellow visit because I didn't have to do a grocery run this week...

[Drunk Monk]

My mom had a very broken conversation with me first thing this morning about how she had worked it all out but then was drawing a blank. It was worrisome because I'm in constant dread of her slipping mental state. But in the end, she said that she remembered that the caretaker had been having issues with the machine recently, and that her nextdoor neighbor kindly repaired the control panel when it went out a few years ago. So we will call him in a bit to see if he can help.

[Drunk Monk]

Turns out it was a fuse issue. Washing machine works now. I feel like an idiot for not checking that.

Thank goodness my mom has good neighbors.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Who knew they had fuses?