Re: First Ride in 50+ years: Catching Up
Thanks so much you guys (and spouses).
It helped through some tough times
I'm sorry for your loss Garrysr, they live on in our memories
FIL is still trying to adapt to the new reality and needs lots of assurances
One of his new "standard lines" is now "My wife is in heaven now"
and that's okay because it helps him get confirmation in a kind way
I'll backtrack a few weeks ago before things changed
We went to DQ now that it's open and he was very happy to get a Medium cone
Then we took off to try and find the new Sunrise Cyclery location
Which I talked about a bit in my fresh find thread
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=70094
I wanted to start digging so I had him sit down but he looked a bit uncomfortable
It must of shown because the really nice mechanic asked if he wanted to sit on the couch
And that's when I saw the Shelby...
FIL sat here looking around so he must have been entertained enough
Then we packed up the new to me bike and headed home.
My Mother In Law passed away the next night so there was a lot of things going on that he didn't understand but he was sad because he knew his wife was not there any more
My wife had started taking him out with here because she was able to now
And she said he liked getting out of the house even if it was shopping
She also started taking him to DQ during the week after supper
So I took him the next Sunday for a drive and he seemed rather non-responsive
That's okay and I hope it wasn't making things worse
We took a drive along the river and ended up at Harriet Island in St. Paul
We went to Bridgeman's Ice Cream and had burgers and shake
Hear comes the waitress with FIL's big shake (which we split)
He has been doing better with being alone more and I think he likes having his house (with Poppy, his dog) without people always coming and going and him not sure why
He calls to check in and ask questions which helps everyone
My wife still feeds him dinner ad my step son still stops in during the day
He seems to be doing pretty good alone, in fact he kinda "escorted" us out last night LOL
Last week my wife had already fed FIL so we went to DQ directly
Too bad FIL doesn't like Blizzards because they were buy one, get 2nd for $.99
Anyway he got a strawberry Sundae and I got 2 mini blizzards (on for my wife, originally)
This time when we got done, he asked if we could take a drive downtown
I was pleasantly surprised and felt good that he wanted to hang out some more
He has been asking about bikes lately to my wife
so we are "just" waiting for the weather to get warmer and the snow to leave for good
Lots of sand on the roads so we'll have to do some test rides initially
So that catches us up, we celebrated Easter yesterday
so no DQ but home made cookies and treats
My wife is also getting used to the new reality and I can tell is more health and less sad to see her mother in that state. She accomplish the enormous task of caring for her mother for the last ~12 years with the last 3 with her bed ridden
I glad that that weight is now lifted off her shoulders
and she was able to keep her mother at home through the whole time
Thanks again for all the kind words, thoughts and prayers
I definitely kept riding (just took a posting break for a while)
And thanks for looking
Steve