I’m in Elgin. Without my kids or husband. I’m staying in my teenage bedroom where I’m trying to work while I care for my dad.
Mom hasn’t actually left yet — she leaves in the pre-dawn hours for a well-deserved trip to Alaska with some of her good friends– so I don’t really know how this is going to play out.
My father has a form of dementia. In some ways he is a child again. He steals things he covets, cigarettes and soda pop, from people he knows (and in some cases, doesn’t know) . He’s grown a mustache – totally white except for some brown in the middle – which could be leftover food or some brown hairs or a skin condition.
When my mother told me about this trip, one of my first thoughts was, “What about Dad?”. My husband suggested I offer to take care of him while she went to Alaska. Because I’d already thought of it, I agreed.
So here I am. Today I purchased the makings of several of his favorite meals and will cook them for him. He goes to bed early, so dinner for us will be around noon. Not a bad idea since the house is not air conditioned at the moment. Cooking a roast beef at 10 am might be better than heating up the house in the afternoon on hot days.
We will see how it goes.
Clutch Cargo Lips 
Wow, you’re in Elgin!
I am sooo happy when I find a moment to go through your blogs. A couple of weekends ago it saved me—calming effect.
AND I want you to know that Tim, Alison, and I finally watched Superstar, which was great fun. As you had said, the quality wasn’t great…it seemed that when the Carpenter songs proper came on, there was too much information for the DVD to understand, and things got choppy. But we really enjoyed watching it. Thanks so much.
Does Al’s Creamery still exist? I think it doesn’t. I used to drink a lot of oreo malts there.
LikeLike
Yep, I’m in Elgin and Al’s cremery does still exist. In fact it’s had a bit of a makeover – at least the menu did or so I read somewhere. I think it is called Al’s Cafe & Creamery now.
I went to a birthday party at Burns’ Pharmacy when I was very young and tasted a real Burns’ Malt (the famous recipe that Al’s Creamery uses).
You’re sweet saying my weblogs had a calming effect. I need to get back to the x365 ones.
LikeLike
Took me a long time to get back here (too.much.work), but thanks for the update on Al’s! I’ll check out the website. Hope things are going well with your dad.
LikeLike
Sometimes takes me a bit to check in too, but I like it here too! A welcome refreshment from being obsessed about the latest news in politics. Anyway, welcome back to Elgin! Would you believe I’ve never been to Al’s? Ok, fine, I admit it, I’ve been searching the memory banks to try to figure out if I’ve even ever heard of it. But then, I’ve only lived in these parts 5 years or so–but I believe I’m going to make a point of finding out about Al’s, seeing as how it apparently comes highly recommended.
LikeLike
When I was young the site Al’s Creamery now sits on was an athlete shoe store. I don’t recall what it was before that, but probably something interesting.
LikeLike