Uncle: 03-09-2008
comments | Posted in schizophrenia on Sunday, March 09 2008 19:00:04 GMT
I spent the weekend in LA again visiting my uncle. I had planned to visit him next weekend. But, this weekend was special ... it was his 63rd birthday. So I went down unexpectedly.
Finding my uncle can be a chore. He is not always home, and since he has no cell phone and a bike to traverse the city I never know where he is or when he will show up at his house (if ever) when I visit. Thankfully, he showed up at his house about 3 hours after I arrived to his house.
I spent 3-4 hours each day with him. The first day I tried to see if his phone line was working because 1 month ago we got his account activated through Verizon. But, we are uncertain if the physical line into the house is operational. I am not an electrical technician but do know computers and basic wiring. I jimmied up a test line with an outlet and in 3 hours we tested the outlet in the living room, and junction box under the house and the main entry point at the outside of the house. My uncle was very helpful with tools, magnifying glasses, and flashlights to see things better with. I explained often what it was I was trying to deduce or debug with the land line, and he explained for 1 summer he had been an electricians assistant down the road so he knew some stuff about the wiring ... but wasn't certain how to fix it. All in all this was a very exhausting day because so much effort was put in by both of us mentally to try to figure things out. Perhaps more tiring for me because in my efforts to get something done I had to filter talks from my uncle about seasonal spells on the phone line or ghosts underneath the house. But, in the midst of all of his un-related thoughts was my uncle ... trying to help me fix his phone line.
I left that night somewhat disappointed that I had not completed the one task I had prepped for in the last 2 days (going to the hardware store and buying parts and tools to try to inspect the line).
The next morning my uncle was up bright and early and I told him it was time to set his watch an hour ahead because of the Winter Solstice (or whatever it's called). He then showed me a book from Home Depot, (Home Improvement 1-2-3)[http://www.hometime.com/store/b_0238.htm], his mom bought him years ago and it had 1 page on installing phone lines. That page has 6 diagrams on how the phone line works from the outside of the house to the inside of the house. He had me review it twice so better understand the intricacies and permutations in the process, so we could see how the work we did yesterday related to the steps in the book and understand where we may have made mistakes. He also showed me a book he had on simple low voltage circuitry (but it was too theoretical to be usable). I was very happy that amidst his rambling he has the presence of mind to find resources like these books to try and understand the problem better. Yet at the same time it's very saddening to know that almost no one could use the Home Depot book to do anything because the directions were so simple (like a "See Spot Run" book for kids). So that when the house has honest-to-god problems because its a 50 year old house ... a book like that simply doesn't have the answers. We need a contractor to go to the house ... maybe my Uncle can take me treasure hunting and my dad can help the technician work on the phone line. My uncle would only get in the way.
The 2nd day I managed to go in the house take measurements of his bathroom. His bathroom is my least favorite place to go in his house because its -- beyond decrepit. But, even then he helped me to measure the room by holding onto 1 end of the measuring tape while I read numbers off and wrote them down. Hopefully we can fix his bathroom soon (but the toilet does work).
My uncle also mentioned in the morning that the previous night he had been to (wienerschnitzel)[http://www.wienerschnitzel.com/] and had stopped by my hotel to the front desk to inquire if I was there. He said the clerk said no one by name was staying there (my hotel is ~500 feet from the fast food place he frequents often). This information upset me very much. I think that the clerk dismissed aiding my uncle because he is so dirty, smelly and unpleasant to be around. If you were to see a person so filthy go to your front desk at 10pm (or well into the night) ... you would just want them out of your vicinity and place of business. Next time I intend to show a picture of my uncle to desk clerk and explain if a homeless person comes looking for me at night ... please call my room and I will go to the front desk and retrieve him (that sentence sounds like it came out wrong to me, but what else can you do but "retrieve" him, can't bloody well have him walking around the grounds scaring tenants late at night who might be out). That was so difficult to hear from my uncle.
I was very pleased that he had the presence of mind to find me at the hotel, that for a moment he was not paranoid about the people around him, or at least focused enough on me for his paranoia to be irrelevant and to speak with someone and ask if I was in ... I'm just sad because the person he asked was an inconsiderate soul. If my uncle wants to see me at 10pm or 1am I will see him, and if by some miracle he wants to watch some TV or take a shower; to do something "normal". ... by all means let him in.
The phone line and measurements are the 2 big events of the weekend that I did with my uncle, spending 3-4 hours straight with him every day. I don't really want to talk about all his treasure, rocks and minerals littering his rooms, garage and property in every box and compartment there is. He showed me them all in a grand tour and explained so many fantastical things about them involving alchemy, magic and spells I couldn't begin to relate them all. He did show me 3 items from his tour in Vietnam. 1 was a picture he took of a huge explosion of a village being wiped off the face of the Earth by a rocket assault from about a 1 mile distance with his 35mm camera. The others were 2 ornaments. The first ornament was an vase he found 50 feet within a tunnel-rat hole in Vietnam. The other was a Tibetan deity figurine he purchased on the streets of Bangkok, Thailand ~1969 ... all three were pretty, terrifying and cherished at all once.
I go again to see him in 1 month. Hopefully I can take a friend along with me -- in my opinion 2 sane minds are better at tackling problems and can reinforce each other. It can be difficult for 1 person to work with a paranoid schizophrenic like my uncle ... sometimes you just can't find the right sequence of words with the right "meanings" to connect to them.
He was very happy to see me and talk with my for so long. He was very happy to have a loudspeaker conversation with his mom and brother for a happy birthday wish on my cell phone. He and I are very alike. We respect and cherish our time together.