Category: fellowship

2010 International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous…

Johnnyboy

As former GSR of my AA homegroup I am still on the mailing list.  This means that I have received the applications for the 2010 International Convention being held in San Antonio, Texas next July.  I am going, and have only to mail my registration and book my room.  I’ll do that today.

I brought the applications to the meeting last night and made the announcement, held up the flyers, etc…Then I saw that the registration applications went into the chairperson’s notebook, which means they will never be seen again.  This makes me sick, and opens my eyes again to the apathy that surrounds me in this program.  This group is full of people with long-term sobriety who do nothing outside of coming to one meeting a week (maybe two) and leaving it at that.  How sad.  They have lost the gift of desperation and in doing so dampen the exciting fire of sobriety that I felt when I came into the rooms, and still feel at certain meetings.  They no little or nothing of the 12 Traditions (which are not suggestions, like the Steps), and to top it off, I found out last week at a business meeting that the current treasurer (15 years sober) had no idea what a prudent reserve was.  Once again, puking time is upon me.

In any case, their sobriety is not my own, and they can do what they want, but they give the impression that it is OK to just go to meetings and so forth.  They take it all for granted.  Blah, blah, blah…listen to me go.

Good news is all around me…Mom is doing much better (reading, with it, etc…) and the world still spins on its wobbly axis despite my disappointment with a bunch of whinging old ladies.  I am going to finish my thesis and photo class by the end of next week and move along in life.  This, I declare, is my goal today.

Johnnyboy

Goings on at home, i.e. The New Protocol…

Johnnyboy

Mom is adjusting to the O2 scene very well.  She instinctively knows how to adjust it on her face when she needs to blow her nose and hasn’t complained about having to wear the cannula.  The new twist is her mental state.  She doesn’t think she is at home, but rather has been brought someplace else.  We have seen this before, but not at this level of insistence or depth.  It is common with dementia and Alzheimer’s patients to experience this, and it ill only progress deeper.  Last night she woke up several times and wanted to “go home”.  Soon we she will want to make telephone calls to her brother who has been dead since 1984.  Such is life.  As she progresses in her dementia new protocols are put into place to accommodate her needs.

The power went out last week during a big storm and luckily we had backup O2 for her.  This being said, it is time to have a generator installed.  I have done some investigating and a local fellow is coming over this afternoon to fit us with the correct unit.  The price is reasonable for us and the sense of security is priceless.  It is one thing to have the power go out in July, when the nights are merely unseasonably cool.  I don’t want this happening in the fall or winter and be stuck without a furnace, running water, air compressors or telephones  for any period of time.

I’m handling this pretty well.  It is heartbreaking-true.  There is nothing I can do except make sure she is safe and cared for.  The decline now will be swift, I hope, thus lessening the periods of panic and confusion running like frayed threads through her synapses. 

A few months ago a good friend in the program (who took care of both his parents and his wife as they died) told me that when she finally does die I won’t know what to do with myself.  He’s right.  I can feel it already.

I am off to the 41st New York State Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous this weekend.  I will be taking the train, thus saving me and my car a 14-hour round trip drive.  I can plug in my laptop and get some work done.

Btw…”cannula” is Latin.  It means “reed” or “tube”.  It is also where we get the word “cannoli”.