Ugh Steph. FWIW that sounds like dementia to me, but I think it's completely reasonable to not want to stick it out in the cold when you have a warm place of your own where you can eat dinner inside.

He's been stubborn in the past about wanting everyone to eat outside when parties are in the summer, and that's weird but fine, because the weather is fine. I wonder if he thinks that we'll make a mess and not clean up? Because that's demonstrably untrue -- we have Christmas at his house, and after dinner he kicks back in his easy chair while we all clean up. He knows we aren't jerks. But maybe his brain isn't letting him remember that.

Tim is taking his dad grocery shopping tonight, so I'll nudge Tim to ask why exactly we have to eat outside and to remind him it'll be in the 40s. (I think Tim and his brothers, who are wrangling this whole leaf party, haven't actually thought about the weather either, because they are singularly unable to plan long-term.)

I don't know why he doesn't want someone coming into the house unless his brain is sending him messages that it's hoarder level messy.

As for the weather thing - if he stays inside a lot he's probably ot aware of the weather (I know it's been unseasonably warm). With G'ma in the middle of winter, with snow on the ground, she wouldn't want to put on a coat to go outside because it was warm inside.

And now with Grandma E she was going outside and almost giving herself heatstroke because 1) it was cool inside the house and 2) she's very cold all the time and I don't think her brain was getting the message she was over heating.

He may not be able to tell you why he doesn't want anyone coming in his house. But I'm with you, it's unreasonable. I don't blame you for not wanting to eat outside in the cold.

One nice thing about my mom's terrible memory -- my sister and I send flowers for my parents' anniversary every year, and every year, my mom will call each of us to say thank you, and that she was so surprised, and that when she opened the door to see the flower delivery, she had no idea who they were from, and it was such a treat to open the card and see they were from us. I think it's about ten years that we've been doing this, and getting this same reaction.

That's both charming and worrisome.

I am always worried about my memory especially when words slip from mind because that was my mom's first symptom. (Today's word: sophisticated. But I found it eventually.)

One of the meds I'm on lists that specific memory lapse as a side effect. It's damn freaky, is what. You have the word in line to be said, and when the sentence gets to that word it just evaporates. I'm used to subbing a synonym (lifetime of masking language issues) quickly, but with this med, even the meaning of the word is gone. It usually comes back in a few minutes, but by then I'm dealing with the embarrassment of it all, and stupid frustration of fixing one symptom by aquiring another.

I'm also on Lisinopril and one of its listed side effects is "dry cough." Which is annoying. And I wish it would stop. Hack. Ahem.

I am always worried about my memory especially when words slip from mind

I share this and I lose words more often than I'd like to admit. Yesterday CJ asked how I lit a candle and I came up with "the flame thing" instead of lighter.

That's one of the reasons I went off of topomax, I realized how badly it was eating my words, and decided it was worth going off and seeing if my migraines came back...(they didn't, really)

Beverly, my husband had that same side effect, and there are alternatives to lisinopril. Maybe it doesn't bother you that much, but it drove him nuts.