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Pains, trains and automobiles
By juliezavala in My Turn
October 9, 2010

I took my dad to Sears today to get some new pants. His old pants were a 38" waist and without a belt to hold them up they would have dropped to the floor. He has a 34" waist these days. And he needed shoes. He's been wearing the same black shoes we bought him for my mom's funeral back in March. You know how dress shoes are - they can't be comfortable, right? I convinced him to try on some Reebock tennis shoes (jogging shoes?) and he was very impressed at how nicely they fit and how "cushiony" (is that a word?) they were. The fact that they have shiny silver details didn't hurt anything either. I brought some grey ones with red stripes for him to try on but he wasn't having anything to do with them. He told me right away, "NO!" So he still knows what he wants...or in this case, what he doesn't want.

For lunch we ate at the Olive Garden. I had a salad and soup and he had a salad and spaghetti and meatballs . The spaghetti was a challenge for him; it kept slipping off his fork. And he was full of salad and breadsticks by the time the spaghetti was served. We got a to-go box.

As I pulled in the driveway at home he asked, "Who lives here?" I told him, we do Daddy. He's very confused about that. But I'm hoping he feels very welcomed here. I tell him that this is his home and that I love him very much. I hope some of this sinks in. Every day is a new day.

We watched train videos on Youtube and he liked that a lot. Next we watched videos of cute kids and babies and then we watched kittens trying to climb up slides. After a while he got restless and decided it was time for him to leave. I had to convince him that he didn't have a car here. I distracted him a little longer with more cute kid videos. Finally, Robert came home and he talked to my dad while I took a quick shower.

Something else I've figured out about this "new" old Dad of mine; he likes to be tucked into bed. Somehow our roles have been reversed and I am now the parent tucking my 85 year old child into bed. He likes the ritual. It makes him relax and sleep better. I told him that he should get plenty of rest because tomorrow we are going to eat breakfast out and go for a drive. I just hope he doesn't think he's driving.