My mom had an “encounter” with her ophthalmologist. At least that’s what the bills says.

 I’m assuming this medical practice bought some off-the-shelf software that didn’t allow for an office visit. Or is this a new medical term that meets the needs of the insurance company?

 Or maybe it really was an “encounter.” It just struck me as an odd way of stating things on the bill.

Today was the first day a home health aid has been hired to help my mom get dressed and moving in the morning. She has dementia and gets overwhelmed in the morning. We also want to make sure she’s taking her meds regularly. Sometimes we’re not sure if Mom’s perception of reality is a little off target.This morning there was some miss-communication and the aide came late.Then my sister called me…she was all concerned because Mom said the woman put make-up on her and was dressed like Peter Pan. Sandy though she was hallucinating. I said well maybe the lady put Oil of Olay on her face and Mom’s calling it makeup. What’s Peter Pan look like? I didn’t have a peanut butter jar handy to look at, but I didn’t think there was any cause for alarm.

“Well he dresses in a long blue top and wears tights!!”

Are Online Videos Overrated?Seriously folks, everywhere you look on the web…somebody wants you to watch a video. Local newspapers, radio stations, small businesses, everybody. It seems as if every organization with a website thinks they need a video. Some firms just want to introduce their company, concept, or products.

I’ve been home watching daytime TV lately. I’ve noticed that daytime television commercials are kind of depressing compared to those aired during the prime time evening hours.Marketers must think that everybody home during the day falls into one or more of these categories:

Ralph Nader is running for president….again. Please, give it up, Ralph.

I used to be a BIG Ralph Nader fan when he was just a consumer advocate. But here he is again, running for the President of the United States…and no, I don’t think the third time will be a charm. Are the Republicans behind this, trying to guarantee another loss for the Democrats?

Are we becoming a nation of Blogging Toms and Blogging Flashers? Is this a good thing?

Many people blog about very personal issues…baring their troubles to the world. On one hand, this is a good thing…we can all learn from each other and writing can be very therapeutic for the patient.

However, I do worry about people revealing too much when they blog about very personal aspects of their lives under their real names. It’s like you’re shouting to the world. And if you’re blogging about your children’s troubles, is that fair to them? Are you too quick to pigeon hole them in the eyes of society? Are you revealing just a little too much about them…stripping them of their anonyomity before they come of age? What repercussions could lie down the road?

I know more about Britney Spears than I do my own neighbors. And the reason is very simple. I’m a news junkie. The first thing I do when I wake up — before I even get out of bed — is reach for the remote and click on the Today Show.

I want to know if something blew up around the world… if some famous person died….do I need a coat? I have successfully managed to block out the Presidential race until last month….serve no news before its time….but I keep hearing things about Britney and her kids, drug problems, relationship with Dr. Phil. I really wasn’t paying much attention…blocking her info out… in fact I’m not even sure why she’s so famous. I had to look up the spelling of her name for this blog. But a friend dressed like her last Halloween. So I guess it’s all your fault, Rozie, that some of this stuff is starting to sink into my brain…and yes, repetition does work eventually. (Advertisers and marketers know this.)

What I do would like to know is as follows:

What’s in my neighbor’s garage? The old guy is about 80 (WWII vet license plate) and yet he and his similar aged wife are out every winter dealing with snow vs. their cars. Not only does he have to shovel the snow, but she’s scraping the car windows. (Teamwork.) Avoiding scraping the car is the one incentive that keeps my garage clear for vehicles. What’s in all those boxes? It looks like there’s just a path to walk through the garage into the house.And why do they park one car in the neighbor’s driveway when it snows? What good does that do? You still have to scrape all the windows. I guess maybe it gives your more room in the double driveway to maneuver the snow blower (when it works) or a shovel.

And why doesn’t that neighbor sell that house? The woman’s been dead over a year now. It looks meticulously maintained on the outside? Are the kids fighting over what to do with it? Waiting for the real estate market to recover?

Why is the kid across the street moving? He just moved in not even a year ago. Did he marry that girl in December? Does somebody have a new job or did somebody lose a job? Was she in the picture when he bought the house, or does she hate it? The last guy fixed it up and then was transferred…according to the old guy mentioned above.

Most important to my life…where did that tree limb come from in my yard? It wasn’t there two hours before it appeared. We didn’t have any wind. It was a nice, pretty day. It’s not even facing my tree like you would expect it to. Is there any correlation between the limb and the young men who were sitting outside last fall in the neighbor’s backyard when it suddenly appeared on my side of the fence? Are the neighbors getting tired of looking at it as it now sits between the two houses? I think of it as natural art. It’s too big for me to break up without a chain saw. I’ll get my brother over here one day. Somebody could steal it if it bothers them. I wouldn’t call the police.

Have you seen the Staples commercial where the wimpy little office nerd is panicking because the printer is out of ink? He’s have a tizzy-fit because it’s a Dell printer and you can only buy ink from Dell. His co-worker hits the Staples easy button to solve the problem.

You may think this commercial is over the top, but let me tell you — it’s not. It’s very much  reality-based.

I  worked in an office that had a Dell printer and I was in charge of keeping it in ink. Until recently, you could only buy Dell ink cartridges from Dell….from their warehouse “somewhere” by ordering online or on the phone. You could not pick one up. You would have to wait at least overnight.

Even though my co-workers were college educated, they couldn’t/ wouldn’t cope with the printer when it had trouble. For example, they’d just walk away if there was a miss-feed…wouldn’t even bring it someone’s attention. So much for teamwork.

One day I had a temporary IT worker screaming at me we needed to buy a new printer immediately as it wasn’t printing. He wouldn’t listen to anything I said about my past experience with the toners, etc. This guy is at Sam’s Club on his cell phone, he’s yelling at me that he needs to buy a new printer. He’s got one of the partner’s credit cards, and he’s telling me I need to “approve” the purchase…when I had no authority to do so. Bottom line…on that occasion, and one other….. even though the printer was indicating there was a problem with the toner….the paper drawer was empty and that is why nothing was printing. The “low toner” message apparently outweighs the “out of paper” message…which promptly appeared when I switched to a new toner. After shaking the old toner and putting it back in the machine (these toners are about 90 bucks each)….and adding paper…out popped perfectly fine copies.Even Dell will tell you the toner warning is only a guideline…the machine counts copies, it doesn’t know how much actually ink you used. (You may have printed pages with only a few lines, which use very little ink.)

The staff at Mom’s retirement community told us a local hospital has a program where they spend a couple of hours evaluating seniors’ mental and physical status.

Mom’s been taking an anti-depressant, but doesn’t seem to be feeling any better. On Saturday she tearfully told me she wanted to jump out the window. I told her not to as she was only on the third floor, and thankfully she said she is too much of a coward.

I called the hospital today to make the evaluation appointment. I took pot luck as far as which doctor to see…I just picked the best day and time for me. At the end of the conversation, I asked the appointment gal how many geriatric doctors were on staff. She starts reading down the list of names, “Morely, Thomas, Tran, Flaherty, KEVORKIAN”. I laughed, “Well Mom might want to see Dr. Kevorkian.” I guess she’s heard it all before as she had no response.

Paul Karason has been treating himself with a silver  for years. He first came up with the silver concoction in an effort to cure his dermatitis, but claims it cured some other health problems he had instead.

In the process, the silver has turned his skin blue.

As mentioned in a previous post, my mother is in the beginning stages of dementia, but she still has a great sense of humor. Today I asked her if she had seen the man who turned blue from the medicine he was taking…and her quick response was, “What was he taking, Viagra?”