You can clear a wall? I thought this was the internet where once written, never removed.

Dilly Dilly!

GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) started in about 3rd grade back when dinos roamed the earth and I was in school. I consistently scored above the 98% range, which was the qualification for GATE. 2-3 of my brothers were 98%ers, one was only a 97. My father's side of the family is blessed with brains. I have several cousins who are MD, one is even literally a brain surgeon working on Alzheimer's patient. She did her thesis on the holes in the tissue.

Glad to see the Finnish school system is as messed up as the American when it comes to exceptional children. Yes there is something to be said for the socialization experience of keeping them with their age group, but there could be a few special teachers/classes to let them go at a challenging pace and keep them motivated to learn.

I skated thru up to high school, got better than a 4.0 because of "Honors" classes, and never learned or studied a bit. THEN I went to Electrical Engineering college, on my own, in Santa Barbara and flunked out because I didn't know how to study or learn.

A simple variation of what all husbands know:
"Yes, son"

If you just admitted you lost your wallet, they could give you some money to go get more berries at the store.

Or give them maple and brown sugar . . . that's what I had yesterday morning.

Are you monitoring my phone??
Sunday was mom's birthday. I was stoked because I went by and picked up her favorite biscuits form Popeye's Chicken. She ate almost a whole one. Monday morning she was back in the ER from severe pain, apparently caused by extreme constipation. Now they are preparing to bypass a portion of her colon to get her strong enough to bypass her aorta. I didn't even know she had a heart issue

So today, I shaved it all off . . .

Things are OK at the moment. Mom is stabilized again, brothers are taking action to get her more help in the home, where they coincidentally stay a lot of the time

Getting colder over there in Finlandia? It dropped off to the mid 60s here today, we set record highs last week near 100.

We were all set to go see my mom last night, then our "daughter" (really niece) popped in and we had to council her on living with her mil. She and Alicia went on mostly in Spanish, but I could understand most of the direction. It gave me the opportunity to watch baseball playoff and avoid being in the hospital. Tonight I was volunteered to help Alicia's family move since I have a truck. So again, because of Alicia, I get out of seeing mom suffering.

Mom's biggest 2 issues right now are a wound on her foot that hasn't healed in 3+ years, and her arthritis. Drs have kept her off her RA medicine so that the wound will heal, but that is what is causing the pain. Her hands are so bad that she couldn't even push the button to call the nurse.

So, there are some tough choices she has made in terms of care. She is about ready to make the decision to get back on her RA medicine and risk/have the foot chopped off. She know though that will mean she has to go into long-term care unit because dad isn't strong enough any more to care for her. She had spent a few weeks in one before, while trying to heal her foot, and she HATES those places. I can't really blame her, and feel bad that I have to carry on with my life and family responsibilities.

Euthanasia, like what Sugar did with Bowser. Taking an ACTIVE roll, like crushing up a bunch of her oxy, mixing them into the jello, then making the airplane noises and making her eat it all. Then she goes to sleep and her pain ENDS. But that, while still caring, is really selfish when I strip away the excuses. It saves ME from suffering as much as it does her.

Plus, I GOT to stop watching any of the Walking Dead. Wife and I were adjusting mom in the bed, so the pillows supported her neck better to ease some of her pain. I'm there, visualizing ramming a knife into the base of her skull, so she doesn't "turn" Not sure you know the reference with Walking Dead series or not.

HOW did you know??

I spent about 4 hours in hospital yesterday. Dad had her taken there from the house by ambulance since she had uncontrollable pain. I had a hard time getting thoughts of euthanasia out of my head ;(((

BUT, we did have a fun moment when I was feeding her some jello. She seemed to loose focus on what we were doing, then I started making airplane noises and "flying" the spoon around until she opened her mouth