As we take the Alzheimers journey with my Dad, I need to be there more often to take up some of the 24x7 care requirements that my Mom and Sister are shouldering now. So I've just applied for a 3-day workweek, with Tuesdays and Thursdays as my days to take care of Dad. I suspect this will go well.

Currently Dad is mostly just in the forgetful phase of dementia, with some difficulty finding the right words now and then, and just having his brain kinda fade in and out. (It "gets muddy" he says.) The full on hallucinations and seeing me as his old friend, were a one-off event. (This time.)

We are moving forward with establishing a relationship with a local senior memory-care facility, so when the time comes, he has a place to go and get the care he needs and deserves.

This is particularly hard for my sister, who is an expert and consultant on dementia in seniors.

She knows that everyone waits too long to put their loved one in a senior care center; people try to keep their loved ones at home for as long as possible, and to care for the person themselves for as long as possible, too.

But with dementia, there is a point where the brain cannot adapt to new circumstances and changes. So getting a patient into the facility early, while they still have some cognition and higher brain function to adapt to the new environment, is absolutely critical to the patient's long-term happiness and health. Wait too long for admission to the facility, and the person cannot physically adapt to the environment and will be constantly unhappy for the rest of their life. Get them in early, and they can adapt and enjoy the care they will receive.

My sister knows this. She consults with people on this every single day. But now, it is HER dad, and she doesn't want to do it. She's really torn between her professional knowledge and her personal experience.

My Mom has woken up next to my Dad for more than 55 years. She doesn't want him sleeping somewhere else, and waking up in an empty bed.

But, my Dad is an extrovert, a social butterfly, a story-teller. And nowadays he sits in his chair in the front room of the house, barely engaging with the newspaper or a book, and napping constantly. If we go out to a coffee shop or a Dr's appointment, as soon as there are people around, he lights up and engages with them, and becomes the Santa Claus everyone loves.

And he'd get that social interaction in a senior care facility. He'd have that every day. And people his age to talk to and connect with. And tell stories to! :-)

So I'm dropping down to a 3-day workweek so I can be with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays, go out to meetups and happy hours at various senior centers, and just generally keep him moving and engaging with the world outside the house.

... and while all of this is happening, I am thinking about being the last of my line. Neither my sister nor I had kids, and the family ends with me. I won't have kids to do this for me when I get old and experience my phase in that genetic lottery ...

I like to tinker with guitars, but I finally made an attempt at building one from scratch. The neck was purchased fully finished, but everything else is my handiwork. It's not good enough to sell, but it's better than I thought I would do for a first attempt. Overall pretty happy. Good excuse to buy some new tools, too, so that's always a plus.

Got Covid. After two years of careful tiptoeing we ended up getting it not because of going to large crowds, not from the thirty odd colleagues at work who just came back from carnival, but just from my dad who came to visit for a bit. It's now been eight days and I am finally feeling mostly normal again, although my throat is still a bit full. The SO had less of a fever but seems to have a longer tail, as she's still not able to get back to work properly. I envy those who have a runny nose and that's that. That's the covid lottery for ya I guess. What probably sucks the most is that we had a whole week of workcation planned in Antwerp which we had to cancel entirely. Would've been fantastic with how nice the weather's been this week, but alas!

I'm all kinds of turned around right now.

Need to find a summer internship and thesis. Have two leads, but I email them and wait two weeks for a reply and it's incredibly frustrating. Forgot to submit one homework for a class a week ago and emailed the professor and he said if that was what stood between me and a better grade I'd get the better grade and not to worry about it, then for the same class this week I uploaded the wrong week of homework. I've already emailed him the correct one but it's not a good impression. I also barely passed that midterm because it was 9 multiple choice questions and I got 2 wrong. I also totally forgot Monday was Monday and thought it was Tuesday and because of that missed my weekly Monday work meeting with the whole team. I've also had two plants become infected with bugs and knocked all my plants off my coffee table the other day which broke two pots and killed a plant as well as damaged a bunch of two other plants. I blame it on stress and the fact that March is always a shitty month for me. But I can't help but have a little worry in the back of my head something is legitimately wrong. I'm just going to keep riding it for now and see if it improves it's just been a shitty time lately.

A house popped up for sale that I kind of like. I asked a friend to recommend a realtor. He said he would but hasn't gotten back to me, and I don't feel like pestering him. The house will probably sell before I can get things in order to consider making an offer, but it be time to make that change from my condo.

Oscillating between feeling stressed, overwhelmed and not productive after coming back from vacation with all the accumulated work and big things starting to shape up for spring time and summer. But also sometime feeling recharged, happy social life is coming back. But then with the house sliding into a state of complete messiness. I think one thing to blame is my completely erratic schedule lately, where I've been finding it impossible to find a groove. Even my sleep cycle is fucked, which is usually a constant for me. It's like even the thought of starting a new project is stress inducing right now. I need a break, but I can't quite figure out from what because my off life work is just as project focussed, and I've already detached myself from a bunch of responsibilities I've had last year. How can I be so over my head, with only 30h on the clock per week? Something's not right... I feel better, but have been trying to motivate myself to get up, clean and take a shower for the past 24h. WTF. This is embarrassing and I should be better.

I've been on a downswing recently, and it's probably exacerbated by forced socialization and daily conferences for collabs. Had to tackle the matter directly, tell folks at home that I know they mean well, but the best they can do now is just let me fuck off for a week or two. So far, it works.

I just noticed the problem 2 in chess puzzles has an error, and it's only a checkmate in 2 if White blunders. My bad, but IMO this is a Bobrossian happy accident that evolves the situation from a standard one to a nice discussion on ending strategies (which I hope to write after this week's presentations).

Our guests decided they want to help, and now they take turns driving. Even though and actual mechanics looked over the car, I'm still scared shitless someone drives that thing. Must be how sane parents feel.