Another Detour from Dayton

I am back. I am saving the best part of the Dayton story including the journey home for tomorrow (I hope). In fact, I am pre-empting the regularly scheduled posting for breaking news (though the news broke on Saturday). Actually, it is not news at all, just something I found funny (which could mean anything from somebody falling flat on their face to something really funny).

It is Saturday. The Wife is at the home visiting FIL and I am charged with picking the Lad up from his friend's house by 3. I am on time (will wonders never cease?) and he gets in the car. I figure that I have not visited FIL in about 2 weeks, I was due. I ask/tell the Lad that we are going to visit FIL. He is fine with that, figuring he will see his mother, the Wife.

We get there and they (FIL, Wife, caregiver and my brother in law) sitting in the common area for the singing. Every Saturday, they have somebody come in and lead a sing a long, singing old time standards. In fact, there is one woman there who has a singing voice like MIL had (it ain't good) but like MIL, she seems to enjoy singing (which does not help matters any). This woman sounds like a cat....a cat that has got its tail stuck underneath the rockers of a rocking chair. It is just bad, but very funny.

Anyway, that is not the funny part. Well, it is but not for the purposes of this story. I walk in and FIL recognizes me. That is one of the shocking things. Apparently, he can name me in pictures. He cannot name my brother in law (in Dayton) and he has trouble with my other brother in law (his own son). Anyway, he tells me that I am "looking good" (not in a Freddie Prinze way either---dig the 70s reference with that one).

I do not know how to take that. Given his demented state, I am not sure if he is shitting me or not. Remember, this is the dude that could not or would not listen to me to get him to buzz me up to the condo unit when I was in the lobby and he answered the phone. His senses are obviously impaired (as his sense of reasoning, but there is nothing new with either of those). It is like the Seinfeld episode where George fakes blindness to have a Risk Managment text book put on tape for him to listen to, rather than read the thing. George feels the plain looking eye doctor's face and says "you are very attractive".

Was FIL putting me on? If so, I may have to dump out of his wheel chair (he has not walked since December, after having the broken toes diagnosis and seems to like being wheeled around...how long before he sees somebody on a respirator and figures he has been a chump by breathing on his own all these years?). I cannot put up with an insult like that. Then again, he have been sincere.

If he was sincere, what do I make of the observations of a man, the Patriarch of a family, not known for being observant? He has sensory and cognitive impairments and he compliments me. Obviously, he does not know what he is talking about. Then again, I do look good, so maybe he was trying to hit on me.

That is a sick thought for another life. I mean that is a place that I just do not want to explore. I may have set up a nightmare for tonight, so I guess I am going to try to avoid sleep. Fuck Freddy Kruger, this shit is far worse and more disturbing.

Ciao!