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Drive time
By juliezavala in My Turn
October 7, 2010

I'm seeing a pattern with my Dad. He's fairly content most of the day but around 6 p.m. he starts getting antsy about leaving. He wants to pack his things and get on the road. He even starts asking about where his car keys are (he has no car). Although, now that I think about it, he didn't get to chew his tobacco today like he usually does. It seems to have a calming affect on him. I've been trying to keep the tobacco use down to once a day to limit the spit cans floating around the house waiting to be spilled. But he had his chew stuff in his pocket today. I guess he forgot, too. Imagine that...

We drove to Hallettsville yesterday. I didn't mean to go that far but the signs kept luring me on. Hallettsville 30 miles...Hallettsville 18 miles... it just seemed like the thing to do. Although once we were there I kept thinking, what the heck am I doing in Hallettsville? We ate supper at a diner there (I can't remember the name) and the food, hamburger steak with onions and french fries, was floating in pools of grease. Daddy ate every bite. I kept thinking, where's he putting it all? My conscience would not let me eat the french fries or the hamburger steak, although I did eat a few bites. Why did I order it? I have no idea. Like I said, what the heck was I doing in Hallettsville? I'm starting to think that Alzheimer's is contagious.

Today I worked from home. I moved my computer into the kitchen and put it on my desk so that I could see the t.v. and watch my dad at the same time. I put 'Lonesome Dove' on the dvd player and Daddy watched almost all of it. But then 6 pm rolled around and he was roaming the halls, packing things in his room and chiding me for "playing" on the computer all day. I explained that I had to work...just give me thirty more minutes. He wasn't buying it. Somehow I managed to get him to calm down while I e-mailed my finished work. Then it was out the door for us. This time we only got as far as the outskirts of town and then I spotted a train. I might have mentioned before that my dad used to work for Southern Pacific. He loves trains and always makes comments when he sees them. I found a place to park near a convenience store and we waited for the train. When it finally went by Daddy noticed it had three engines. "Must be pulling a heavy load", he said. Sure enough, we watched car after car loaded with coal go by. He got tired of it after a while, though. So we left in search of something to eat for supper. I ended up stopping at Little Caesar's Pizza. I made sure he ate a good salad with it, though.

Now we've got the lights down low and we're playing some beautiful orchestral music. He's kicked back in my recliner soaking it up. This man loves his music. And thus another day ends peacefully. Maybe I'll see you on the road around 6 pm tomorrow?