"I (underscore)stand."

cigarette smoke rears its ugly head into the house upon my uncle's return to the living room. the first time i've smelled it in this house in years. he's staying with us for a week, while the family tries to figure out what can be done about his dementia. he seems rather about his wits, except for the occasional lapse. i think my family's more paranoid about letting him be autonomous than he's demented.

earlier today, he went off for a walk with the two dogs, although i told him he shouldn't go any further than the apartments on my street. after helping him out getting the dogs leashed, i proceeded to watch some of the world cup with bobina, who was spending the day with me. we had gone out to eat breakfast and spent a while traversing the people-infested, bro-ridden, quasi-rocky sands of Jenness Beach. anyways, my mom came home, and told me that she saw my uncle with the two dogs at the top of the street. he went past the apartments, and was crossing the street. i told her that i told him to not go that far. she then panicked, hopped into the car, and went on a search mission for him. after a few minutes, i was now panicking myself, she called and said she couldn't find him. so Bobina and i hopped in her car, and frantically searched for him as well. no dice. i was starting to imagine that we were going to have some missingpersons case on our hands, and i was going to be solely responsible for the disappearance of my uncle and the two dogs. bobina and i resolved that we'd go home, and hope he'd come back. a few minutes later, my mom called telling us she found him, with both the dogs still at his side. he made it home and told us that he had gone down to his old dock where he used to have his boat, and neither of them barked. i was dumbfounded. and lucky, he was going to turn down the wrong street to get back to our house if my mom hadn't caught up with him.

he also left the garage door wide open.

outside of this incident, and a couple other minor ones, he's perfectly conversational and mellow, alright to be around with. i don't get it. i don't get brains, i guess. he's sniffling a little bit right now.

~-~