You know, dementia is a very strange and sad thing. I saw dementia set in with my father and that was sad. Well, I didn't see it, and that's what's so strange about it; I should have seen it. And, I saw dementia show up in a neighbor I had once, and that was just straight up weird, like Slow Joe (Biden) style.
With my father, I should have seen it; we all should have (my sisters, mother and I). But we didn't see it. In retrospect, it never even entered our minds. I'd love to say it was collective denial, but I don't think it was. Dementia doesn't always manifest itself as impaired memory and/or speech, or forgetfulness. Sometimes it has physical manifestations long before the mental ones show up. With my dad, he got really slow walking (like REALLY slow). He said his knees hurt. Even his doctors didn't think it was dementia to the point where they did knee surgery on him. But he kept slowing down, physically. He got to the point where it would take him 15 minutes to walk across a small room. His mind still seemed sharp, but his physical coordination was gone. He said it was pain, but in retrospect it was his mind slowing down. At the same time he became, according to my mother, "Deaf as a fence post"
My parents came to visit us in CO once and I took Dad on a little road trip, and I decided to perform a little test on him. Whenever you'd say something, his immediate reply was..."WHAT?" So, I stopped repeating what I'd said and just remained silent. Usually about 30-40 seconds later he'd come around and respond to what I'd just said. I had him isolated from everything but me inside of my truck, no other distractions. It was then I knew...he heard what people were saying, but it was just taking his brain time to process it and then formulate a response. Dementia. Sadly, about a year after that things went downhill fast for him and he ultimately passed one day before his 90th birthday. RIP, Dad. I should have seen it. I'm not sure what we could have done about it, but we all should have seen it.
Next, my neighbor, and this is particularly enlightening. He was an old guy, old leatherneck Marine. Nicest guy you could ever meet on most days. The wife and I used to help them out by bringing over food to them because they were kind of shut in's and their son was a jackass (2 doors down). One night his son brought this stupid flatbed trailer home with a truck camper strapped down to it. Me and the old man are out in the street chatting and he says to me..."That's about the dumbest thing I've ever seen!"...pointing at the son's trailer. I replied back..."Yeah, it looks pretty goaty". I'm glad I try to keep situational awareness about me because at that exact second this old man wound up with a hay-maker punch and took a full-on swing at me!! Now, I'm like 6-4" and about 270 lbs. at this point, and this old man was 5'-9" and maybe 100 lbs. soaking wet. I was like..."WHOA! BOB...WTF did THAT come from?????" This old geezer started speaking complete nonsense, just a raving lunatic, not one word made sense.
Over the next couple of days I did some research with some mental health people I knew and they told me this is common when the sun sets (which it was at that moment) in dementia patients. They call it "Sundowners". A couple days after that, the old guy, Bob, walked up to me while I was getting my mail and was talking with me like nothing ever happened. He didn't remember a thing. I would later learn his wife was worse off than him, so it must have been some crazy shit inside their house once it got dark.
Fast forward to our president, Joe Biden. Based on what I've said above, from personal experiences, it's pretty clear...this man was not competent to be running this country. Can you see all the similarities??? The lingering question is...how long did this go on. In my opinion, it went on for FAR longer than most (democrat) Americans want to admit. And now we see all the stories coming out about just how bad this man was, mentally.
Folks, that's some scary shit! We can't let that happen anymore!!!!! EVER!!!!
With my father, I should have seen it; we all should have (my sisters, mother and I). But we didn't see it. In retrospect, it never even entered our minds. I'd love to say it was collective denial, but I don't think it was. Dementia doesn't always manifest itself as impaired memory and/or speech, or forgetfulness. Sometimes it has physical manifestations long before the mental ones show up. With my dad, he got really slow walking (like REALLY slow). He said his knees hurt. Even his doctors didn't think it was dementia to the point where they did knee surgery on him. But he kept slowing down, physically. He got to the point where it would take him 15 minutes to walk across a small room. His mind still seemed sharp, but his physical coordination was gone. He said it was pain, but in retrospect it was his mind slowing down. At the same time he became, according to my mother, "Deaf as a fence post"
My parents came to visit us in CO once and I took Dad on a little road trip, and I decided to perform a little test on him. Whenever you'd say something, his immediate reply was..."WHAT?" So, I stopped repeating what I'd said and just remained silent. Usually about 30-40 seconds later he'd come around and respond to what I'd just said. I had him isolated from everything but me inside of my truck, no other distractions. It was then I knew...he heard what people were saying, but it was just taking his brain time to process it and then formulate a response. Dementia. Sadly, about a year after that things went downhill fast for him and he ultimately passed one day before his 90th birthday. RIP, Dad. I should have seen it. I'm not sure what we could have done about it, but we all should have seen it.
Next, my neighbor, and this is particularly enlightening. He was an old guy, old leatherneck Marine. Nicest guy you could ever meet on most days. The wife and I used to help them out by bringing over food to them because they were kind of shut in's and their son was a jackass (2 doors down). One night his son brought this stupid flatbed trailer home with a truck camper strapped down to it. Me and the old man are out in the street chatting and he says to me..."That's about the dumbest thing I've ever seen!"...pointing at the son's trailer. I replied back..."Yeah, it looks pretty goaty". I'm glad I try to keep situational awareness about me because at that exact second this old man wound up with a hay-maker punch and took a full-on swing at me!! Now, I'm like 6-4" and about 270 lbs. at this point, and this old man was 5'-9" and maybe 100 lbs. soaking wet. I was like..."WHOA! BOB...WTF did THAT come from?????" This old geezer started speaking complete nonsense, just a raving lunatic, not one word made sense.
Over the next couple of days I did some research with some mental health people I knew and they told me this is common when the sun sets (which it was at that moment) in dementia patients. They call it "Sundowners". A couple days after that, the old guy, Bob, walked up to me while I was getting my mail and was talking with me like nothing ever happened. He didn't remember a thing. I would later learn his wife was worse off than him, so it must have been some crazy shit inside their house once it got dark.
Fast forward to our president, Joe Biden. Based on what I've said above, from personal experiences, it's pretty clear...this man was not competent to be running this country. Can you see all the similarities??? The lingering question is...how long did this go on. In my opinion, it went on for FAR longer than most (democrat) Americans want to admit. And now we see all the stories coming out about just how bad this man was, mentally.
Folks, that's some scary shit! We can't let that happen anymore!!!!! EVER!!!!
