Saga Twelve

“An unhurried sense of time is in itself a form of wealth.” ~~ Bonnie Friedman

Our second camping trip with Sally and Jake. DH is obsessing all week about what is bothering him. So is Jake. When we get to Lake Manatee State Park, however, all obsession seems to be forgotten. We have been invited to a group of campers that Sally and Jake have been camping with for years and if we camp two times with this group, they will either vote us in or not. I wonder if they want another Alzheimer's husband in the group.

Other things besides the husband's obsessions are forgotten also. We are at our campsite and Sally and I disperse our husbands to go and get Jake and Sally's chairs. Guess what! Neither of them remember and they take a walk around the circle until we see them. No camp chairs! How many other wives whose husbands do not have dementia disperse their husbands to get something and they do not come home with the item?!

The group has

been together

camping once a month

for years

except during Florida's

hot summer months. Fine folk from several different churches in the Tampa area. Next month they will vote on our membership when we also join them. I think Sally and I have a great time camping with our husbands and we might as well do it while we can.

Friday night includes eating at a restaurant. I drive the four of us so Jake doesn't feel bad about his not driving now. At Cracker Barrel DH and I buy each other anniversary gifts that we each select for ourselves. I get some costume jewelry--necklace and earrings. DH buys a cap because he forgot his at home. (He also forgot his cell phone or else lost it again.) He thinks his cap is funny--it says "My IQ Test Came Back Negative". Now if he were seriously worried about his Alzheimer's, I don't think he would buy such a cap. But he isn't worried.  

Saturday includes a potluck lunch at noon. In the evening at 5:30 there is dessert and leftovers from noon. The group all sit around and chat after both meals and other times. Saturday morning Sally and several other ladies go to a neighborhood yard sale. DH and I are sitting at our site when Jake comes driving by on his bike. He doesn't know where his site is and where Lana is. I tell him all is well that Lana is with the ladies at a yard sale. Saturday afternoon the guys chat and Lana and I join a group for "Mexican Dominoes". My back can't take playing many games and so DH and I take off to get a smoothie at O'Brien's down the road from the park. Meanwhile the men return to their sites and Jake cannot find Sally again; he takes off on his bike to find her and people at the dock help him return to his site. Sally feels bad that she had her cell phone off when he was calling her. Sally came in second in the Mexican Dominoes game, however!

O'Brien Family Farms.  My husband, dog Ziggy and I enjoy this excursion. The farm lets you pick standing up and includes field trips from school age children. We take our pictures in the stand and enjoy our smoothies before returning to camp.

Since we hadn't gotten cards for our anniversary today, we wrote them. I wrote:

On this anniversary I want to say how much I do
love you. I cherish our camping this weekend
and appreciate the LORD's help in all the
adjustments we keep making in our senior years.
Thanks for letting me be me. I promise to be the
best wife I can be to you as we take care of each
other. Love praying with you each night also.

DH  wrote:

No other place I'd like to be than here.
No other person I'd rather be with than you.
Ziggy and I love you. You are in our dreams always.

I am enjoying my husband's love and hate the thought that one day he may not recognize me as other Alzheimer's spouses experience.

When you have a used popup (we bought it from Sally and Jake for $50), things may not go smoothly. It has been repaired in two shops. This morning I used the microwave for the first time to warm up coffee for DH. I blew a fuse! But when Jake and Sally came by later for fresh coffee we had then made outside the camper, Jake checked out our fuses and fixed it with our spare fuses and now I know how to do that. I thanked Jake profusely.

DH just does not do problem solving with fixing things anymore, and he has less energy. He even forgot that the electricity had gone out as we talked later. I just have to use that microwave outside with a separate extension chord in our gorgeous Florida weather, and I have to keep learning how to take care of things my hubby used to do. Sally is even learning to drive a bigger RV now and back it in. I am learning all I can about this popup camper.

Thank you, LORD, for our anniversary and for this weekend.