I Don't Drink Coffee

I don't drink coffee, but I sure mess with it a lot.
      It became a sore spot with me because for the last couple of years before my parents moved to the nursing home, Mom started asking me if I wanted to drink a cup of coffee with her. I have my beloved Diet Coke, I am fine, thank you.  I don't drink coffee.  It hurts my stomach.  I love the smell though.  Mom knows all that. She has known that about me for 52 years.   Well, she sometimes knows that. It was a red flag that something was going on in her brain.
   The  beginning signs of dementia.
    When I really realized what it was, I would go home and cry. It was the realization that Mom was going down. Little by little she started doing things MY mom would never do.
 Leaving food out and uncovered.
 Missing the trash can, and not notice or care.
 Not want to go to Church.
Anxiety about the oven getting too hot and starting a fire.
I could go on and on.  Looking back it is pretty clear.
     Her doctor finally diagnosed her about 3 years ago. Her brain is shrinking. She is getting old.  She has dementia.
     So, her coffee drinking became more of an issue after she moved because she wasn't getting as much of it as she used to.  She became dehydrated which leads to awful bouts of dementia.
     Now, the nurses have her coffee for her when she gets up, or Dad goes to the kitchen and fills their carafe and they have it in their room.
      We still have coffee and Diet Coke, or hot chocolate and talk about everybody. The hot chocolate machine at the home is pretty nice and the hot chocolate is perfect.  Just stick your cup under the thing.....
   Monday,  she asked how Bud and Virginia were doing, she hasn't seen them in a while.........
Bud and Virginia have been dead for years now...........
.................I said,  " I don't know, maybe we will hear from them soon."
She smiled......
I cried inside....
..but at least she smiled.
     Back to messing with coffee.....
     Justin has to have his coffee in the mornings.  We have this unspoken thing we do------I make his coffee so that it is ready in the mornings and he keeps me in my beloved Diet Coke.
                                     If I am really mad at him, I won't make the coffee and therefore he has no coffee ready when he wakes up.
 He knows if I don't make the coffee, he is in some serious stuff.............
      I know it makes him so mad to have to get out the filters, get out the coffee, fill up the pitcher, pour the water, measure the coffee, put the filter in right so the top will snap shut, turn on the machine, put the coffee up, put the filters up, wipe up the spilled coffee grinds you spilled. Now, after all that, he is now a few minutes off of his morning routine,  he will not recover the rest of the day.....poor baby.  I usually make the coffee of a morning, so by the end of the day, if he has made me mad and I have already made the coffee........Oh well... I could pour some salt on top of the coffee grounds........... hummmmm.  I must say I have only thought about pouring salt in his coffee....... I have never done it.....haha.  He has however, let me run out of Diet Coke, but not very often. On Saturdays, he really thinks he has the world by the tail if I bring him a cup of coffee in bed while he watches the car auction..Justin's Heaven on Earth.
  I call him my fuzzy little man peach.
He is pretty fuzzy and cute.
I better go make the coffee......Want a cup?