The Useful Duck!

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Saturday, April 7, 2012

Another day at the Retirement home that is our neighborhood

My brother is on a sort of vacation.
Dad takes advantage of these opportunities to mess with this stuff. Sometimes it is amusing but sometimes it gets a little annoying. The problem of course is what do you say to someone 93 years old?
If is kind of funny that he knows he should not be messing with this stuff and he expects me to be annoyed. Sort of like a little kid getting away with something.
It all started this morning with a box of file folders. My uncle asked me to take them upstairs above the shop. This is a death sentence for anything important as the roof leaks. However no one will repair the roof and instead they like to hang buckets to catch the drips. Repairing the roof would cost money and since dad and his brother kind of expect they will die tomorrow but yet are too stubborn to do so-things like roof repair have not been done for the past 30 years.
Anyway, I did think it was funny my uncle was asked to take the files but I didn't really think about it that closely.
I looked in dad's office. It was a wreck. He had moved his organizational focus from moisture testers to previously filed boxes which had been supervised by my brother. Boxes were strewn everywhere. Since dad can't lift the boxes his simply pulled them off the shelves and knocked the boxes over. Some files had been emptied and refiled and there were boxes of empty notebooks which of course needed to go back onto the shelf.
I caught him with several packages of old negatives which he admitted that he would file randomly and loose forever.
So, I picked up boxes for him and followed his instructions on just where the boxes needed to go. Then I picked up the box he wanted hauled upstairs.
It was all of my farm records from 2009-2010.
Now he is calling me for coffee time.
He knows good and well that he is doing things that he is not "supposed" to do. And now he is calling me as he has been caught getting rid of my farm records and old photos.  Or at least that is what I suspect after dealing with this behavior for a couple years now. I don't rant about it as I could very well be wrong but I suspect a pattern.
It is kind of funny....
Later, I returned-dun, dun, dunnnn! as my daughter says to emphasis important moments.
Dad had really gotten into my brother's organizational system. I pointed out to him that the Minneapolis-Moline manuals had in fact been organized and while it might be helpful (to his personal satisfaction) to have them listed in his cryptic database system, my brother might be offended should they be reorganized. He deferred to my suggestion.
I had to go to town for parts and so I left him alone. I have been kind of afraid to go back. He was really eying the brother's supply of spare Apple Pismo laptop parts. I suspect they have all been cataloged and dumped in random boxes but I don't really want to go look...

5 comments:

  1. I have been going next door to cook for my living ancestors since they have gradually regressed to sugar, starch and fat. A glass of red wine makes my duties easier and actually even though I am the one who has indulged seems to improve their attitude.

    Probably not a useful strategy if the Admiral has any tendency to infringe on your sense of humor and tolerance...

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  2. I had never heard of an Apple Pismo so I googled it. I see bringing them back to life is sort of an Apple version of cntrl, alt, delete.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_c85bNqAGw
    Is this an Italian design?
    Sounds like something they would name a car that leaks gas. :-)

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  3. I know it might cause hard feelings, but have you ever considered locking him out of the records?

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  4. Once again you guys remind me that I have not much to complain about. My back does not ache too much today,the sun will come out and the snow will melt (tomorrow?) and life will go on.

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  5. Old people only miss the times when they are still active. In your position, your father just wants to do something because he felt like he was useless. A good retirement house with recreational facilities can be a good help with elderly that want to be active.

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