my mom

[thatguy]

How's your mom doing now?

well... last Friday she called me in the morning to say that she had been in a car accident the night before. Apparently, she decided in the evening that there was some item at a store somewhere in Sunnyvale that she required and decided to make a go at it. It was dark and rainy and she got lost. While trying to find a recognizable road home, she rear-ended someone. She said she's Ok as is the other driver. Their car wasn't damaged and they drove home. Her airbags didn't deploy, but the car want drivable and got towed away. The nice officers on the scene gave her a ride home, but she needed to get to her car in the wrecking yard before the weekend to get her belongings. 

I spent the morning trying to figure out how to get her from Cupertino to Sunnyvale and back. 

Now, I'm busy w/insurance and softly trying to suggest that she doesn't need a car (the struggles of getting her to the wrecking yard and back say otherwise). 

I guess we're muddling thru. 

--tg

fast forward - I was dealing with her insurance for almost a month. Having covid and sequestering didn't help. It's all done now and they're sending her a check, so she wants to go car shopping. 

I've been wanting to get her up to speed with Uber/Lyft and this Cupertino only service called Via. We finally tried it out this evening. Mixed results. They didn't come to the door even though she's registered with them as disabled and they are supposed to. We went to the Red Pepper on Foothill right next to 280. The driver took the long way around, down to stelling and then up homestead. He took long enough that we had no way to finish before their service stopped at 7pm. So we took out time, looked in a couple shops there and then I showed her how to use Lyft to get us back home. 
she's not "up to speed" by any means, but it was a good first try. 
cupertino is partnering with Santa Clara. They are changing the name of the service to Silicon Valley hopper on may 1 and scrapping the current app for a new one. 
oh joy. I get to start over

--tg
PS: I did take the cycle (ducati) to/from work today and it was great

---

PPS: now I'm starting her taxes

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

[Beautiful cycling weather]

[Drunk Monk]

Good luck with the car sitch, tg. That sounds challenging. My mom got in a few minor fender benders then shied away from driving. Then after her fall, she abandoned it all together and we gave her car away because paying insurance was a waste.

RE: phones. In another money saving move, we got rid of her landline and shifted her to a cell phone. She was confused about that but it reduced her bills from over $50 a month to less than $10. She rejects change so she denied the phone and insisted I take it so it sat on my desk for a few months. Recently she requested it to make a phone call to her sister in law who has kindly sent her cards regularly. I gave it to her this week - it’s a simple flip phone that you just dial and it works. I had her try to call me while I visited and it took her about a dozen tries before she succeeded (most errors were misdials). We’ll see how she does next week.

[King Bob]

There's that cell phone for old people that they used to advertise during the news. I think nowadays that ad space got taken up by ads for accident lawyers and drugs for AIDs, psoriasis, or diabetes.

[Greg]

the Jitterbug: phone for the olds.

[thatguy]

This morning I was watching her try to navigate the screens on the Mac laptop we setup for her using her finger on the screen. She just kept trying to scroll a window over and over and nothing was happening. She didn't get frustrated, but she kept trying. 

I've been thinking of getting her an iPad which would work in that situation, but I'm afraid of adding another new thing to the mix. 

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

It's a basic cell phone - as simple as they get. 

Unfortunately my mom's senses (vision and hearing) are rapidly declining, which is detracting from her mental state. Even though I told her my phone number slowly, she was missing numbers or transposing them. Hopefully she can manage called my aunt. She'll probably return the phone after that. 

On our last visit, she said she was ready to die and got all teary eyed saying what a good son I've been. Then she said she'll probably live to a hundred and we'll run out of money (my folks saved enough for a few more years of care and when that runs out, we'll sell her house, so we're okay even if she does live to a hundred).

[Drunk Monk]

So as you know, I've been recovering from TCEC. On Monday, the rep for Marko reached out and we made an appt for today. I'm still hustling to catch up for YMAA and get closure on stuff for TCEC, so adding Marko was a bit of a challenge but not unsurmountable. When it was over, I felt a brief moment of relief that work might now be tackled without further impediment. 

Then my mom's caretaker texts that she's concerned with my mom's high BP and pulse rate. She wants to take her to the ER. I can't get a read on it from here in Santa Cruz (Stacy & Tara are away so I didn't go over today like usual because I would have to take Yuki and that's a hassle at the care center). Moment of relief gone. 

My mom's BP has always run high. It settled down soon afterwards. Meanwhile a reporter contacted me about TCEC follow up and a documentary maker in NYC reached out about a new project. 

Today has been chaotic.

[thatguy]

Skipping over the last few months, you all are not up to date, but in today's installment, I call my mom on the way to work this morning. Everything is copacetic. She's still reading the paper. I tell her I have a lot to do at work and won't come over until the afternoon. She's bent on cooking projects for some reason and wants me to take her to the grocery store so she can get ingredients. 

I manage to leave early and get there ~4pm. She's in the driveway, building up the momentum she needs to get to the mailbox across the street. It's in the '80's outside...hotter while standing on the pavement. I start to unload, and she's still trying to charge that battery. I leave her to her devices. She manages to get the mail and come back inside. 

We chat for a bit, but she has absolutely no energy. Turns out she didn't take any of her meds this morning. Her blood pressure and blood sugar are probably out of whack and she's just dragging...
As she sits in her chair, with her sunglasses on, I am reminded on this poster:



She mentions that while she was resting in bed earlier in the day, the phone woke her up and she answered it. She wasn't sure who it was, but they offered to replace her roof and do landscaping and it's often covered up to 90%. They just need to come by and do an assessment which she scheduled for Thursday. She didn't get a company name, or a phone number...so now, instead of going to work, I have to camp out on Thursday and scare these folks away.

It's always something new...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Oh man. Sorry to hear. Might mention it to local PD just to make a record of it.

I was lucky that way. My mom liked to mess with anyone on a telephone she didn’t know. She’d make them hang up because she’d exhaust them with ‘what? What?’

[thatguy]

Oh man. Sorry to hear. Might mention it to local PD just to make a record of it.

I was lucky that way. My mom liked to mess with anyone on a telephone she didn’t know. She’d make them hang up because she’d exhaust them with ‘what? What?’

There's a lot of that...lost the hearing aids (that was always a struggle to get her to use) over July 4th weekend. Replacements were expensive. Finally got them and they sit in the charging case.

--tg

[Greg]

I got to find out what Thrush is today since my mother currently has it.

[Drunk Monk]

Oh harsh. Sorry to hear. 

I've never had it but I saw it once in a patient who came into Rock Med. Looks gross. White crap all over the tongue. ew.

[Greg]

It's especially bad for people with compromised immunity.

[Drunk Monk]

As is pretty much every malady. That’s how compromised immunity works.