The only thing . . .
2007-02-05, 1:56 p.m.

Day 897

The only thing that never changes is the fact that things always change.

Friday evening was different. Kids were at my brothers, doing boring resume work. Cindy & I took advantage and tried a restaurant we�d always meant to go to, but just never found the opportunity. Well, opportunity knocked. I chose to ignore the fact that she got a head start on her pre-dinner cocktails (well, ok � some things don�t change, yet), and it was off to Papa Joes Italian Eatery.

Every bit as small as it looks from the outside. Quaint. Not quite cozy. Great menu. All in all, we had a very nice meal. Even had a continuous, interesting conversation through out the meal. Very weird. Must have been Cindy�s degree of buzzness hadn�t shut down her higher level synapses and she could still motor along ok.

Saturday morning was the usual. Wake up, gym, spin, sweat, lift weights, shower, go home. Zach went with me this go round. He didn�t do the spinning, but he did get in some quality time on an elliptical machine and do some Nautilus work.

Saturday afternoon. Interesting, if not eventful. Took Bob out to get some freakin� functional furniture for his apartment. He settled on a computer hutch. Why, I have no clue. He has a laptop that he doesn�t really know how to use. He hardly needs an entire hutch to house it. But we got it anyways. From Sauder � so it needed assembly.

Got it put together, cleared out some old bamboo/rattan crap he was holding onto from Florida that just wasn�t working out for him. Before it was finished, we needed some longer cables, a power strip, a few other odds & ends. It was time for him to head down for dinner, so we agreed that we�d come back Sunday morning and wrap it up. Do things like put his TV on top, get his stereo put in & installed, load up the laptop, connect the printer, get his CD�s put away � all that crap.

Sunday morning we show up bright & early � and he has the hutch moved across the room, filled with empty 3 ring binders and 3 boxes of old photos. Stuff is strewn everywhere. Alzheimers is SO fun!! So, we asked Bob what was up? What tornado struck his apartment over night? (We were gone 15 hours. That includes 2 meals and about 8 hours of sleep)

His reasoning was he�d lost his keys and was moving everything around trying to find them. But he never actually looked in places where you would expect to find lost keys. Nope. He�d go digging into boxes buried in the back of a closet. Bottom of a file drawer, all his dresser drawers, but never looked in his coat pockets, didn�t check the pants he wore the previous day, never checked with the front desk to see of anyone turned them in. But he did check that crate of photo�s that hasn�t been opened in 5 years. Of course, he could have checked all the usual places, but forgotten. Yes, Alzheimers can provide endless hours of entertainment.

Never did find his keys, but I did find his camera and half his coin collection. Cindy found the cable that runs from his camera to his laptop. He lost that a month ago. It�s back now. Got a spare set from the front desk, trotted off to the hardware store to get copies cut. Bob�s now got a fresh set, (on a different colored coily thingy so we�ll know if the old ones ever turn up) I have a set, and the masters are safely back with the management.

Got that damn hutch moved back, stuffed it with all Bob�s electronic gear. Got everything plugged in, wired, tested out and put away. We�re starting a pool now. Everybody pitches in a buck. The bet? How long till Bob moves everything again? Who ever is closest takes all. I tried to gently point out to him that he calls me every time his stereo is �shot�. Why is it shot? No sound. Why? Wired wrong. Why? Because he moved it. Again.

Cindy is hoping that having someplace to put all this stuff will alleviate some of Bob�s urge to constantly move crap around. Eh. Maybe. I think he�s moving stuff around because of the disease. Even if he arranges things in a manner that pleases him, the next day he�s forgotten he was satisfied. Or he�s torn it all up looking for something he�s �lost�. He gets into these manic modes, and I�m afraid it�s all in his head. There is no perfect arrangement of furniture that will quell his urge to tinker.

Saturday evening, Zach & Jill wanted to head to Buffalo with some friends and go see some other friends band in action. After that, they planned to head to Fredonia to see Eric and visit with one of Jill�s high school buddies, who was also celebrating a birthday.

Well. I was doing something in the kitchen. Something to take my mind off of Cindy�s pre & post dinner drinks. Oh, wait, she didn�t eat dinner. Forget the pre & post dinner part. It was just all the drinking that was working my last nerve. I saw a series of flashes out behind the house (or so I thought). I checked for plow trucks, police, ambulance, but nothing was visible. Then the thunder started. Holy smokes, thunder in a February storm. That�s really rare up here. Normally it�s just too damn cold in the winter for a system to work up enough energy to start spitting lightning, so when it does, you know it�s a doozy.

A second, more careful look outside verified the doozy part. We had a horizontal blizzard going on. Checked the weather channel. Kids decided heading to Buffalo was a bad idea. They were expecting 5 � 8 inches of snow, more in the lake bands. Fredonia was even worse � 8 � 12 inches expected, with more in the lake bands. We were expected to get only 3 � 5 inches in the Rottenchester area.

Ended up running out to get a movie or two to watch. What a fun trip. 3 mile ride at 20mph. In the � hour we were gone, 2 inches of snow piled up in the driveway. We were very happy to hunker down at home. Genius, right? A wicked ass snow storm starts up, we go to Blockbuster.

We ended up getting about 5 inches. Went out Sunday morning to clear the driveway. It was all of 6 degrees. When we were headed back from Bob�s around noon? 9 degrees. Don�t know how Buffalo fared, but we know Fredonia got buried. Again. Cindy ended up passing out during the movie (The Illusionist. Very cool flick) and snored the entire time. We took turns nudging her and suggesting that going to bed was a great idea, all to no avail.

Zach had to work at the warehouse Sunday. Get all the stores re-stocked after their Superbowl frenzies. Z thought he had a chance of getting home in time for the game. Until he got to work to find that 50 people had called in sick. Poor kid never got home till 10pm � worked a 13 hour day. Only head the game on the ESPN we site. He runs some conveyor belt merge thing and has several computers to keep him company. Guess he could spare one for important things like Superbowl updates.

Barely made it to the gym this morning. So cold my van barely turned over. This shows how cold it was. 5:27am, one whole degree. That�s �17 for those keeping score in the metric system.

By the time I came out to head for work, it was all the way up to 5. Supposed to get up to 14 today. Woo hoo � double digits!! But nothing above freezing through Valentines day at least. Funny how that global warming works.

No spinning tomorrow morning. Just running & weights. Then Al Anon in the evening. I�m supposed to give someone an answer about my subbing for them at a regional meeting next week. Meeting is local, but on a Friday night. Not the best timing, but It would help boost my own participation in the group. Plus the person that can�t go is a sweet girl that just needs a hand that night. I will just have to bring up the subject tonight. Think I�ll do it out of earshot of the kids. We shall see.

Going to try a Smoked Turkey/Black bean soup tonight. Have had the turkey in the freezer since Christmas or so. Time to use it up. Plus, Cindy rarely complains when I offer to cook (frequently), so we may as well give it a whirl. I will have to report back on how the soup turns out. I�m excited to try it.

Little surprise is due today someplace down south. Something to help some political agendas. Ought to be fun. More on this later too. It�s still kinda seekrit.

Gotta run (finally!) Have my own agenda to attend to.

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