Sunshine on my shoulder

I'm so happy to see the sun again.  It's been awhile since we had two consecutive days of sunshine.

Mike's world is getting back on its axis.  The road he has been so obsessed about has finally reopened.  He is seeing his psychiatrist today and he got a new pair of sunglasses.  He's a happy man once again.

When I tried to talk to him about his suicidal thoughts yesterday I was trying to figure out what is going on in his head at the time.  I asked him to describe to me what his thought process was that led him to the conclusion he should kill himself.  All I got was a lot of rambling stuff that made no sense.  He said it had something to do with consecutive numbers and how he has a question and answer thing going on in his head.  Then he said it might also be a ploy for sympathy but that he didn't really know.  I guess asking a schizophrenic to describe his delusional thinking in a way that would make sense to me sounds pretty delusional in itself.  So who is crazy in this scenario?

I was reading an article that talked about how difficult it is for schizophrenics to maintain a scheduled routine.  Ohhhhh they haven't met Mike.  Routine is his middle name and you better the heck not mess it up.  Monday, Wednesday and Friday he gets up at 6:30 am.  Eats a sausage and biscuit sandwich and then goes to Subway to get a sandwich for lunch (he gets it before there are too many people there and saves it for later).  Then he goes to Homeland Grocery for his black-eyed peas and pears.  At 10:00 am Lloyd (his neighbor) takes him to his Silver Slippers Aerobics class where Mike entertains everyone and has a ball.  Then it is to Sam's for a hotdog and then back home.  He takes his noon pills and a nap and then calls me to tell me about his morning.  I remind him that he needs to shower and do whatever chores he has around the house.  At 3:00 pm he takes a walk around the block and then eats his dinner at 4:30.  He's in bed for the night by 7:15 on the dot.

Tuesday and Thursday are a bit more of a challenge because he doesn't go to his gym with Lloyd.  He usually walks a lot during the day if the weather is good.  His psych nurse comes on Tuesday mornings and his housekeeper comes on Thursday afternoon so that keeps him satisfied.  Saturdays are hard for him because we are trying to have one day for ourselves but then Sundays are devoted to Mike.  We pick him up for church, have lunch with him and then bring him to our house for the afternoon.  

So, that's his life in a nutshell.  It isn't so bad and it is so much better than it was a year ago.  He's made huge progress and hopefully it gets even better.

We are in the midst of a construction project at our house.  They tore the old driveway out yesterday and I have a huge pile of dirt in the middle of the yard.  They are framing in the new one today and pouring concrete late today or tomorrow.  What a mess that I'm sure in the end will be worth the hassle.

We are keeping one of the grand dogs and she barked so much yesterday that she's hoarse.  No bark......I hope it really didn't hurt her too much.