Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
Glad you made it back VA.
I hear you on being without a computer. For me a smartphone and a tablet just don't cut it for me. I'm a typer because I'm on so many forums now and I like a fixed keyboard as when I type something, it's usually quite long and drawn out. :hilarious: I've tried a stylus and changing orientation of the device and it still doesn't cut it. And for me using a bluetooth keyboard with an iPad is awkward. I might as well be on a laptop. LOL! I've been typing on laptops in particular for years and years so that's just what I'm familiar with. I'm not much for desktop computers anymore. I don't like being tied to a desk every time I want to go online.
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
I took my phone and two tablets and my govt laptop. The laptop is extremely heavy, but the odd thing is that it's set up to tap the fingerpad to select and it's very sensitive. In fact, the entire front five inches of the laptop triggers a mouse click if you touch it, and the option to change how it works is missing from the Control Panel. So, I couldn't use it at all. I'm happy to be back to my own computer...
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
Hmm! That's interesting. I hate the tap function on trackpads. On a Windows laptop I always disable it.
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
I agree with you Austin about the desktops, they just don't cut it with the way we live now! However I must say I love my iPad. I've had it for over 3 years now and I think it's one of the best things I ever bought. It's great to be able to bring it away without taking up any room or contributing to the weight of my luggage too.
I've been away for much of the week. I took my parents down country for a few days to a hotel break, mainly to give my mother a break. Dad's Alzheimer's seems to be progressing a little more and he has lost all reality with the 'here and now'. So he has very little idea where he is/ was, why he was away, when he'd be home etc. He has also lost a lot of his ability to understand appropriate behaviour in certain situations. It's not that he does anything bad but like he would not understand that you can't just stop on a motorway for fresh air (if you come off the motorway he is dizzy due to the 'bumps' on the road!) and that you can't get up off your seat in a restaurant and start chatting to the other patrons. 'Normal' reactions have gone out the window! But also he seems totally dependant on my mother who is 80. If she is not in his line of sight he gets upset, agitated, wants to call her, keeps asking where she is and generally stops her from having any independence at all. This makes it very difficult for us to sit with him while she attends to her own things, much as we try to explain what the situation is. It's really like he has reverted to being a small child whose world revolves around himself and his needs which need to be fulfilled immediately. And the father that I grew up with was not like that at all, so I know it's just this illness is making him like this. We try to give my mother breaks, but she gets more worried about how he is coping when she is away from him. I have been suggesting over the last few days that they get some extra help in the house or at least initiate the process but she is very reluctant about the idea of 'a stranger in my home'. Both my parents have aged 10 years in I'd say the last 3 or 4 years and I'm now worrying about the long term implications of this.
Sorry to drag on so much!
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
WalshFan88
Glad you made it back VA.
I hear you on being without a computer. For me a smartphone and a tablet just don't cut it for me. I'm a typer because I'm on so many forums now and I like a fixed keyboard as when I type something, it's usually quite long and drawn out. :hilarious: I've tried a stylus and changing orientation of the device and it still doesn't cut it. And for me using a bluetooth keyboard with an iPad is awkward. I might as well be on a laptop. LOL! I've been typing on laptops in particular for years and years so that's just what I'm familiar with. I'm not much for desktop computers anymore. I don't like being tied to a desk every time I want to go online.
Austin, have you ever tried the speech function on your device's keyboard? I'm using it right now and as awkward as it is at first it does work nicely!
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
I don't have an actual mouse, so I use the trackpad all the time on laptops!
GA, I'm so sorry to hear about your parents. It's a worry I have as well, as my parents get older.
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
GA, so sorry to hear about the downward spiral you are seeing in your parents, especially your dad. VA is right; many of us on this board are at the point where we are worrying about our parents. So just know that you have our support here and you can "drag on" as much as you want!
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
Ga, yes, feel free to vent all you like. I'm sorry to hear your Dad is getting worse and for your Mom having to deal with it. I'm watching my own mother get more forgetful, it seems, every day. The dr. says she has the early symptoms of dementia. It's very frustrating when she says she will do something and then forgets.
Today is my aunt's (mom's sister) 90th birthday. She is far better physically and mentally than my mom who is 8 years younger. A very spunky lady, ready to do most anything!
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
Ga- sad and complicated situation I'm sorry you have to deal with it
Re: What's Happening In Your Life?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Brooke
Ga, yes, feel free to vent all you like. I'm sorry to hear your Dad is getting worse and for your Mom having to deal with it. I'm watching my own mother get more forgetful, it seems, every day. The dr. says she has the early symptoms of dementia. It's very frustrating when she says she will do something and then forgets.
Today is my aunt's (mom's sister) 90th birthday. She is far better physically and mentally than my mom who is 8 years younger. A very spunky lady, ready to do most anything!
Awww Happy Birthday to her. 90 is such a great age to reach. I've been in touch with my late godfathers daughters (he would also have been 90 this year on Christmas Day). Their mum (my aunt) is also poorly, but physically - she has had 3 falls since Easter one into a fireplace where her hair was burned, another a few nights ago. She'll be 90 just after Christmas but unlike Dad is completely compos mentis. She refuses to have any help or move into sheltered accomodation. So they are also doing what they can to support her.
I suppose as a few of us have mentioned at our ages, while it's great for those of us who do to still have our parents still living their health and abilities are becoming issues that we need to sort out for them to have the best quality of life possible.