A note on Alzheimer's

It's 10:30 PM on Monday night. I was just awoken by banging and clanking outside my bedroom door. My grandfather had come upstairs in the dark. I opened the door and saw him standing in the dark. "Hey Pop- what are you up to?". He looked at me with a confused look as if he had never seen me before and said "What is this"? He was pointing to the air intake for the AC. It had woken him up. I told him what it was and why it was making that noise. He said "well, we've never had it on before" in a pointed tone. (He is a true Scotsman =)) It was then that I realized that he thought he was at his house in Memphis. I told him I would "get it figured out, and he could go back down and get some sleep". He headed back down, but not before asking me where Dot (his wife) was, and then asking where his room was. I showed him to his room and told him I loved him, and he said "Love you too, boy". He's always called me that.

Most days he asks me "Now, who do you work for? Where are you from?". I tell him this is my parents house and we're in Madison. "Oh, that's good. And who are your parents?" he asks. I tell him Gail and Richard. "Gail is your daughter". He responds with a look of shock and says "Oh is that so? Well I'm obliged to meet you then sir! The name is Troy Scott" as he puts his hand out to shake mine.

I try not to let these times get to me. I love my grandfather, and he loves me, and that's all I need. I just keep loving him.

He lights up when he tells me about his time as a boy and how the doctors said he wouldn't live past 9 (he's 88 now). Just about the time he finishes telling me, he forgets that he had ever told me, and tells me again. I always act like it's the first time I've ever heard him tell it.

Alzheimer's may be taking my grandfather's memories away, but it has left his sense of humor, his compassion for animals, and his courtesy towards others.

After taking Pop out one day to Strawberry Patch Park to feed the ducks, I asked him if he "had fun feeding the ducks earlier". He said he hadn't done that before. He'd "been here (at the house) all day". It's times like these that I hate Alzheimer's. The times when we have a great time and to him it's as if it had never happened at all. But I don't let that get me down. I still want him to enjoy the little things, even if just for that moment.

As I wake up tomorrow and meet the new day, I know that for Pop it won't just be a new day. Everything will be new. Even faces that he's known and loved will be new. Every step that we'd made the day before getting re-acquainted again will be for not, and I'll start over from scratch with my grandfather. I'll do the same the next day and the next, and will keep this smile on my face because it puts him at ease when I smile.

I'm just waiting for that day when we're both in Heaven, remembering all of the good times that we had both forgotten.

Sweet heavens

This semester has been nuts!

A few things I've learned:

-Coffee is proof that God exists and that He wants us to be happy.
-Something about making buildings that don't kill people.
-Maxwell > Folgers.

Ok. Back to work.

North Carolina Bound

Just passed through Chattanooga TN on the way to Black Mountain to visit my beautiful sister and her husband. I'm not typing this in my phone as I drive- no worries. Dad's in the captain's seat while mom is passed out in the back.

I love family vacations more than anything- we're so rarely all together nowadays.

Looking forward to a week of relaxing in the mountains, scoping out some potential locations to intern, a little frisbee, and hopefully narrowing my Kayak search. Hey Ben Taylor- what do you think of the Dagger kayaks?

Peace

It's been a GREAT day!

I landed my first job as an architect! Not technically as an architect, because I'm not licensed, but in MS you can design anything up to 3500 sq/ft. without a license.  I've been talking to the couple for about 2 weeks now and today I finally met them and we went over the program of what they wanted.  I cased the house two weeks prior to meeting them to get an idea of the house and context.

As she was describing what she wanted done, I was getting more and more excited because it's the exact type of things that I LOVE to design and have had experience with designing/building them in the past.  I'm a big fan of timber-framed construction (much like you would see in nice timber homes in NC), and that's what they're going for.  

I will be designing a carport addition to begin with, then two other pergolas on the deck that tie in with everything.  They have this beautiful 125' deck where the pergolas will be.  

I haven't had time to let this all even sink in yet.  I'm just extremely thankful for this opportunity!

"We live in an amazing, amazing world, and it's wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots."

Louis CK

Dryer

Last week my clothes dryer broke, and I just now got around to fixing it.   Turned out to be a broken belt.  Long story short, it's working like new (which is great if it weren't made in the 70's). 

Now that it's working, I'm wondering why I fixed it at all.  I came up with this ingenious and FREE way of drying clothes that didn't even use any electricity!  I call it a "clothesline".  I'm hoping to get this product in stores before someone else thinks of it.  

Right now it's just a rope tied between two trees, but I'm going to put glitter on it and put it in that really annoying plastic packaging.  You know what I'm talking about.  The kind where the only way to open it is to anger a medium sized grizzly bear by taking her cub captive so that when you use the packaging as a barrier for your face, it instantaneously rips open the package from the shear force of the bear attack. 

Speaking of bear attacks, I haven't been attacked by one this week.  

Thanks! I'll be here all night. 

Back to the Grind

The first project of the semester for studio has come and gone.  And I freaking rocked.  Most people threw some crap together in 10 minutes and said "these are abstract trees".  I spent the entire weekend cranking out 3 pristine finely crafted models (one of which shown):

My professor: "Well, you are about 14 weeks ahead of schedule.  This is incredible".  

The model almost fell out of my hands.  Did I just hear an architecture professor say something positive? Did he just use the word incredible? Where am I? Who are all of these strange people?  When do I get the chocolate, Mr. Wonka?  These were the questions running through my head (well not really, I made the last three up).  

So I'm pretty stoked about this semester to say the least. 

Our site (represented by the 3" cube in my model) is a levee/bridge on the edge of a lake at the Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge:

I love architecture school.