I think they needed more time for MJ to get to the courthouse. Seems like he just got there.

I'm watching a convoy of black SUVs. I'm guessing Michael is in one of them.

But I have no sound.

The guy with the long white hair is Jackson's attorney, right?

Ally of my knowledge about the trial was acquired from the entertainment headlines at pop3now. I think it was more fun that way.

I look at pictures of me in high school and I have a great body! (bad hair and questionable fashion choices). And I was so sure I was fat.

askye is me. I wasted all those thin years raging against my imaginary fatness (I was 135lbs).

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

This is how DH choses his doctors. He looks for an overweight GP so that they can't bitch about his weight.

health-ma to Matt's dad.

coping-ma for Gandalfe.

askye--it took four years for my FiL to get his mom to agree to go into an assisted living apartment. She'd agree at one point and then back out. Cindy's advice is VERY good. And, even if she continues the back-and-forth, it's best to just start the process, and get all the necessary paperwork and financial arrangements done, anyway. Then it's a matter of picking a day when she's amenable and moving her in. Good luck to your family. I know it's difficult--physically and emotionally draining on everyone.

Eh. Height/weight charts and the BMI are entirely too simplistic methods that allow doctors/scientists to quickly categorize people into only 2 groups: "healthy" or "unhealthy." And it's really not useful, as evidenced by the reports that Brad Pitt, Michael Jordan, etc., have BMIs that are "overweight" or even "obese." Muscle weighs more than fat, and so people with more muscle are going to weigh more than someone who doesn't have much muscle and measures the exact same in terms of inches. But the person with more muscle, by the standards of the BMI, is considered overweight.

Feh.

Quick thing about G'ma. She's taking only the meds she absolutely needs. This isn't a new issue for us, she's been steadily declining for several years.

The doctors, they haven't always been helpful. Her neurologist and GP refused to tell her she couldn't drive even though she has cataracts, at the time had severe dizzy spells, couldn't recall any of the incidents that damaged the fender and tires on a regular basis and drove through THREE school zones.

My Aunt (who has power of attorney) has cut back on her meds severely. There are other problems -- last winter G'ma couldn't be trusted to wear climate appropriate clothes and one day managed to go in the garage, turn on the breaker for the oven, and use that for heat rather than 1) checking the heater or 2) calling my aunt.

My aunt and mother have agonized over this, and they do not want to. But they are starting to worry about G'ma's ability to even stay by herself at this level.

On top of that despite the fact my uncle lives less than 2 hrs away he rarely helps my Aunt take care of G'ma. My other aunt (who lives here in Florida) refuses to see the situation for what it was and won't take time to go up and relieve my Aunt. Mom goes up every Spring break, 2 weeks in the summer, and was going Thanksgiving or Christmas until last year when my brother was here.

My Aunt was having problems with her blood pressure but with exercise that's down.

It's getting very close to the time where G'ma will have to have full time care, just because she can't remember basic things. She has an incontenince problem but won't wear Depends, refuses to acknowledge she has a problem, sometimes she'll promise to start wearing them, but forget and get indignant than her daughters would ask.

Frankly, I want her to be in some kind of assisted living because I'm worried about the health and well being of my Aunt and Mom.

askye, if your aunt has power of attorney, I'd just go ahead with all the planning. Grandma will eventually have to go along.

oh, askye, I feel for you. We were in the same position, except that it was exacerbated because all three sisters thought that they were right, so each refused to help the other, so one of them would do all the work for a while, then get fed up, and call up one of the others and yell. Plus, what my grandmother really wanted was to be the grandmother in Soul Food, with the big house that a couple of the kids/grandkids lived in, and everybody would come over for dinner on Sundays, etc. My mother was constantly stressed out and crying. And my grandmother wasn't helping.

I'm asking for advice and help because it's so stressful on Mom. Every time she thinks about the possiblity of having G'ma declared incompetent she starts crying. She feels so useless living so far away and she can't afford to retire for another 3 yrs so she can't go up there. Her house is two story and and with G'ma's memory so bad she doesn't think she can move G'ma here. (and with two deadbeat siblings).

I'd like to be able to get some information for her, so I can maybe take some of the burden off of her and my aunt.

You know the problem with breaking national (and yet not that important) news? It means it's the main story on all the local newspages, relegating to tiny sidebars the underground fire which has caused the traffic and power to be cut off in the four blocks surrounding my apartment.

askye, if you get a durable power of attorney, you don't have to have her declared incomptent, because it is specifically designed to be in effect if the principal (your gma) becomes incapacitated.