for once, a real entry, minus the poetry
i'm on a stupid slow pop-up filled cracked out computer. with super fast DSL. the old man is currently asleep in his bedroom. i am half insane and here's why:
yesterday i was late gettin up here. i took off from work at 5, supposed to come out to the old man's house at 5:30, but didn't make it til six cause i had to pack, get gas and i decided to get some fast food on the way cause he hadn't had dinner. the fuckin girl who takes care of him during the week (she's 18 and married and, needless to say, completely retarded) left him alone at 3:30. this is what time the folks (his daughter and her hilarious Virginny-born husband) wanted me to be out here. too bad, i got a real job, goddamn it. so i high-tail it out here (about a 15 minute drive from Pendleton, out the Helix hwy) and what do i find? what little wonder do i discover as i pull up the last turn of the mile-long drive??? wellll... here is a little old man who has fallen into a large juniper bush and can't seem to get out.
now,
this pisses me the fuck off. not because of the man. i know he falls and has issues and so forth. bein 88 years old will do that shit to ya. no, what irritates me is the fact that i'm late and he's helpless and may or may not have been here for a long goddamn time.
so i pull over and help him up. he doesn't remember my name, but he remembers my face this time (last weekend he asked me what right i had to come in his house and nearly attacked me for being an intruder. *sidenote: he also thought Natsumi was from "the reservation"). good, god, old man.
i calm him down and give him his fast food burger and fries. he's all agitated that he can't find his hat. so i look around, commanding the old bastard to eat his goddamn stuff and calm the hell down. (not only does he have Parkinsons and shakes like hell, but he is also pretty energetic and happens to get up too fast-- a lot! therefore, often falls, yet has never broken a single bone)
i go back to the bush where he fell and sure enough his goddamn cap is under there. all dirty and shit. i give it back to him. he almost cries, he's so overjoyed.
the rest of the night is fine. we watch Jeopardy. everyone on Jeopardy is from Pendleton, like always.
he only wakes me up 3 times that night because i took the little lady's advice and slept on the far side of the bed, away from the baby-- no, old-man-monitor. still, i feel like shit when i wake up because it's 6:30 and my belly is an aftermath of nuclear fast food holocaust. breakfast is frozen strudels with applesauce and "hot cereal". i've never made hot cereal before, but it turned out all wrong despite that all it contains is powder, hot water and salt. mine was all lumpy and shit. [i've got to quickly rant here about the fact that i've become a damn good cook. i am extremely proud of my culinary mastery and my ability to create a diverse and delicious array of ethnic and gourmet foods. and yet, EVERYTHING, i've ever made here, from instant rice to pancakes has had something wrong with it. i've truly been fortunate not having to get used to all of this pre-packaged chemicalized bullshit. until now!]
anyway, this morning i put the shit in front of him. he can't gnaw through the pastry because it's too tough (he has, i believe, 3 teeth total) and he just kind of looks at the "hot cereal" and then glares at me. "what's this? mush?" he asks incredulously. "ah, you don't hafta eat it." i say. "pardon?" he says. "it's hot cereal," i tell him. "what? cocktail?" he asks, poking a lump with his spoon. "HOT CEREAL" i yell. "oooh." he eats one spoonful and pushes it away. later he claimed it was cold. "cold?" i said, "it burned my mouth..." and then he struggled to explain that the spoon was too cold for him. i think.
fast forward to this afternoon. he's napping, i'm reading Kokoro by Natsume Soseki. i start to pass out around 2pm, not because the book is bad, it's amazing, but i never sleep well out here. so i decide to take a nap. normally i'm terrible with naps. i succeed in falling asleep after 45 minutes of trying and even then, i only actually sleep like one out of ten times i try. out here though, the silence, the old man, the night terrors, i'm always napping. that old fucker wears me the hell out. so i sleep. way. too. long. wake up about 3:45. wander about disoriented... no old man. there is no old man anywhere in the house. must've gone out for a walk. right?
yes.
and never came back.
i look out various windows, finally see a little grey hat bobbing up and down, just above the weeds on the gravel road. fuck! i scream and run out there. poor guy just fuckin fell on his ass right in the middle of the road. i told him many many times not to go on walks during the hottest part of the day, and certainly not without me. old man either doesn't remember (most likely) or doesn't care...
that was a struggle. he couldn't seem to get up at all. we were out there 15 minutes. everytime i'd get him up, his knees would knock and he'd sink back down. plus i got all bloody cause i had my arm around him and his back was bleedin really bad. snot ran down his face and he was murmuring "ouch" very quietly, over and over again. still hasn't broken a bone, though. afterwards i got him to the house by helping him walk which was not so bad except for the fact that he hates to bathe and only does so about once a month or less. that stink still hasn't left my clothes.... i just finished bandaging his back. he's got raised sores all over him and one of them cracked open. it is about the circumference of a soda can or so (shudder shudder).
so now i'm off to make old man dinner. wish me luck. or don't. i wouldn't. one more day and i'm out of here and then back to work bright and early monday morning. *corporate whore dance* i'll have to rant about my office job some other time. it is nearly as insane and ridiculous as old man sittin, just in a completely different way. ..this schedule i've built for myself is overwhelming. i have no days off, no real free time and, as a matter of fact, i'm extremely happy because my debts are being paid off already AND i'm saving money for movin faster than i imagined.