The Harf - Pt. 2

The harf! It lives! And just in time for Halloween too.

And Al loves it. In fact, it is currently his Facebook profile photo. (heh) I'm glad to see I did a reasonably good job estimating its length to his height (6'5" or 6'6").

Decorations in my engineer's neighborhood are taken seriously (although content is not -- hee!)

And some serious pumpkin-carving skills are in evidence around the 'hood as well.

This family did not stop at one jack o'lantern either.

Let's see...what else? I'm currently still employed (that is subject to change without notice, of course) although my motivation is somewhat in ebb these days -- what do you expect when you're waiting for a pink slip?

Oh yeah, my mom waited a whole month before asking if I was going to marry my engineer. A month. She's definitely mellowing with age.

And as much as she might drive me CRAZY, I am glad that she's still sharp as a tack, since my brother-in-law has just been diagnosed with moderate Alzheimer's Disease (he's well past mild, unfortunately) which mostly affect his language ability and his recent memory.

He occasionally doesn't recognize my sister (they've been married 34 years) or my older niece. As you can imagine, this is extremely upsetting for them, but he is just puzzled as to why these 2 women occasionally show up at his home. He does not seem to have a problem recognizing my nephew or younger niece however.

On good days, he's just the same as always. And sometimes his comprehension changes at different points of the day (e.g., he'll recognize my sister in the evening but not in the morning, or vice versa). The hard part for my family is never knowing which person they'll "meet".

At least his personality has not changed -- he is still generally a sweet and friendly person, just sometimes confused -- and the neurologist (?) has started him on a course of medication which at least is helping his ability to concentrate.

My nephew is taking him to see anopther specialist, however, so the second doctor is thinking of switching to a different med which specifically targets semantically-related AD.

And if anyone spams me with unsolicited advice about meds and treatments, I am going to freaking flame them (you would be surprised at who trolls random blogs) and then delete their posts

Okay, on to a more calming note to end this post: a pretty shot of the block my engineer lives on, taken during today's unseasonably warm afternoon.