And that was the week that was...
Jul. 13th, 2002 03:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cmdr_zoomWe now return you to sanity, or what passes for it.
This past Tuesday, the 9th, my father had his annual evaluation by Senior Services. The main worry - and the reason I've been stressing incredibly since the first of the month or so - was making sure he was below the money limit for state health benefits. The problem is that my father is a man of pretty simple needs now, and with his prescriptions covered by the state, there's not much to spend his money on; so his monthly pension from the railroad keeps piling up in his bank account. These last two years, my brother and I have had to scramble to spend it down in time. (He can't just give it away, and we want/have to spend it on things he really needs.)
This year, the social worker gave me some suggestions on ways to spend more of his money on a monthly basis. The one that will probably help most is paying someone to come in during the week and do what my brother does now on Sundays - take him out to do stuff, get him out of the house (and my hair) and around other people. IMO, at this point, more social contact is his greatest unfulfilled need.
The other thing we were already planning to spend money on to get us under the limit, a new mattress for him, became more urgent right after the evaluation. Complaining of back pain from his current, failing mattress, he's taken to sleeping on the floor in his room and, at one point, upstairs on the couch ... right next to my computer, which cramped my style enormously. :( My brother and I already agreed to go out on Sunday, however, so I've told my father to just deal as best he can, and I've done the same.
In other news, it looks like temperatures are finally going to go down a little (to the mere 80s) after the highs of this past week. Yay. Maybe I can actually go out during the daytime again without hating it, or sit at home without having to constantly run the fan. Heck, I might see a movie this weekend.
This past Tuesday, the 9th, my father had his annual evaluation by Senior Services. The main worry - and the reason I've been stressing incredibly since the first of the month or so - was making sure he was below the money limit for state health benefits. The problem is that my father is a man of pretty simple needs now, and with his prescriptions covered by the state, there's not much to spend his money on; so his monthly pension from the railroad keeps piling up in his bank account. These last two years, my brother and I have had to scramble to spend it down in time. (He can't just give it away, and we want/have to spend it on things he really needs.)
This year, the social worker gave me some suggestions on ways to spend more of his money on a monthly basis. The one that will probably help most is paying someone to come in during the week and do what my brother does now on Sundays - take him out to do stuff, get him out of the house (and my hair) and around other people. IMO, at this point, more social contact is his greatest unfulfilled need.
The other thing we were already planning to spend money on to get us under the limit, a new mattress for him, became more urgent right after the evaluation. Complaining of back pain from his current, failing mattress, he's taken to sleeping on the floor in his room and, at one point, upstairs on the couch ... right next to my computer, which cramped my style enormously. :( My brother and I already agreed to go out on Sunday, however, so I've told my father to just deal as best he can, and I've done the same.
In other news, it looks like temperatures are finally going to go down a little (to the mere 80s) after the highs of this past week. Yay. Maybe I can actually go out during the daytime again without hating it, or sit at home without having to constantly run the fan. Heck, I might see a movie this weekend.
