Coffee Break

I've been feeling out of sorts lately. I know why but sometimes I'd rather be in the river in Egypt, denial... It all has to do with my sweet husband. I have to acknowledge that he has been slipping a bit. He is doing things that are a bit off. Forgetting to take out his contacts after saying he prefers not to have help remembering; putting the regular garbage in the recycle bins; getting angry about stuff because he is frustrated. (Me too by the way though I try not to show it.) Finally I realized that what I was missing was my partner who shared the work around here and was fully aware of what was going on and could help me make decisions and fix problems. That guy isn't here any more. But luckily the guy who is here is as sweet and loving as ever, cares deeply for me, really wants to do things to help, and doesn't get lost or wander or forget who I am or who anybody else close to him is. In other words he's moving slowly with the disease but he is moving. He's not stopped at his current state and I need to accept that. So I talked to my therapist about this and talked in the Alzheimer's support group about it too. Everybody was so loving and supportive. It makes a huge difference.

Our day today consisted of me going to therapy while Arvin waited, the two of us stopping for coffee and a smackeral, and then both of us going to the Alzheimer's Society of Washington support group, him with other folks with dementia, and me with other care givers. A good day for both of us actually.

Now brother Steve is here and I've got to go... time to play games and share dinner together.

Thanks for all the kind comments. I realize I should have mentioned that this is a photograph taken with my Sony RX100. I used the watercolor filter in the camera and then processed it with the detail extractor by Nik to bring out the details. Then I used the Topaz impressions filter to make it look like am Impressionist painting. I think this was based on an impasto filter.