Askye, definitely look into the meds. We thought my g'ma was senile because she kept slurring her words and falling down (okay, at first we thought she was a secret drinker). We reviewed her meds and discovered that she was taking an extremely powerful painkiller (that she was supposed to take only when extreme pain) three times a day. Once we got her off of the cyclobenzaprene, she was okay.

saying the receptionist will be out from tomorrow morning for the rest of the week and could I sit at her desk and answer the phones?

tell her "I can't cover all week, I have stuff I need to do, but I could help out for one morning if no one else is available". Then, you look like you're being helpful. and you kind of are.

I'm quite overweight, but my doctor has three chins. He gets away with saying, "Some of these problems will go away if you lose weight," but anything tending towards sermonizing gets him a pointed look at his waistline. I think he's losing weight, though, darn the man.

Ok, that right there? Is insane.

No kidding. I mean, when I was 17, I probably could have managed it, since I was a little chubby around the middle at 190lbs. But now? Not a chance. Especially since I didn't have much in the way of muscle mass when I was 17, either. I had no upper body strength in comparison to now.

My parents had the same problem with my Grandmother. They talked to the Elder affairs folks in our state and those folks had a social worker walk them through what to do. My Grandmother ended up loving the new place, by the way.

So, any guesses about the Jackson verdict?

I'm guessing he'll get convicted on some of the lessor charges. I haven't been impressed with the accusing family's credibility....

Thinking all good thoughts for Matt and Gandalfe's families.

National news is all Jackson all the time, but the local channel showed the plane crash for a minute. The place is a broken up mess, but the pilot seems to have done a good job putting in down in the road in the midst of apartment buildings. The buildings look ok. Can't tell much from the coverage.

Now I am switching among stations all showing Jackson news and not local. Blah.

I haven't a good guess Tom. One thing I can be sure of is that the media will be talking about it in depth forever and ever, or until they get another story that they think I care about, and don't.

My weight has pretty much steadily increased throughout my life (with a nice little leap after the terror attacks). I just lost 40lbs and for the first time EVER the doctor said she wanted to keep an eye on my tryglicerides. Hee.

The big changes in my body, and they happened at about thirty, are that when I wake up in the morning I now have to pee IMMEDIATELY and I don't have the iron stomach (eat anything, at any time of day in any quantity without any ill effects) that I once had. Recently my hair has gotten thinner (its not the weightloss, its genetics). All in all I'm aging pretty well.

You really have to keep after some doctors to keep them from just writing off older people. My aunt, who's in her 80s, was mumbling and falling down all the time. Finally, when she broke her arm, an alert doctor ran some tests and discovered she had low tryroid. She's like a different person now.

I am 6'2". The chart in my doctor's office states that as a "large framed" person, I should weigh 185, which seems rather absurd.

Agreed. Although I have seen a guy who is 6'5" 190#, he also looks like one of those drawings of what happens to a person getting stretched out into a noodle as he approaches the event horizon of a black hole. (He is a pitcher, by the way.)

Askye, if your grandmother is as not-really-competent as it seems you are describing, it might be necessary to draw up some kind of legal/medical durable power-of-attorney papers for Aunt to be able to make decisions for Grandmother. Because, if Grandmother really isn't (or soon won't be) capable of making those decisions herself, somebody's got to make them, and paperwork now means less hassle later.