Mom's condition began to seriously deteriorate last summer, and she passed away on Aug. 30, 2005 after spending several months battling one problem after another. I've tried to pass the news along to as many friends and family members as possible, but I know I've been remiss about getting in touch with some people and I apologize for the oversight (and I promise to do better about staying in contact with everybody from now on).

Tom and Charlotte are both retired from Carnival now. They decided to buy a house across town and move here, and Tom has been busy taking care of some repairs and improvements. Charlotte also found out last fall that she's expecting, so I'm looking forward to having a nephew or niece sometime in June (probably a niece, according to the ultrasounds).

Aside from settling Mom's financial affairs, I've been busy with the usual . . . house work, yard work, trying to catch up on movies and books, and trying to do some work on my home page and web log. I'm still thinking about taking some classes in website design and computer graphics, but I've also thought about taking some online courses as well, or seeing how much I can learn on my own via books and online tutorials (I've taught myself everything I know up to this point, in case anyone is wondering).

I've also upgraded to cable internet service, so my e-mail address has changed. My new address is scooterokc@cox.net; my back-up address (in case anything goes wrong with my main address) is scooterokc@yahoo.com.

Since I communicate with so many different people, it's often difficult for me to remember who's been kept up-to-date on what's been going on in my corner of the world and who hasn't. This is part of my attempt to remedy that situation. General news will be posted here; everything else (more detailed, day-to-day stuff) will be posted in my web log.

My mother is currently in a nursing home in Norman, in the last stages of dementia. She had been suffering from what we thought was Alzheimer's for several years, and finally had to be moved into a nursing home after falling and fracturing/dislocating her ankle in October of 2002. Her mental and emotional state began to deteriorate so rapidly after the accident that one of the doctors who dealt with her after her accident felt sure that she must be suffering from some other form of dementia, possibly fronto-temporal dementia or Lewy body disease.

I go to see her once a week, but there isn't much I can do besides sit with her if she's awake. She sleeps most of the time, and when she's awake, she's barely coherent and can't communicate very well, and it's hard to tell if she recognizes me any more. Sometimes she seems to take some interest in watching TV, but I don't know if she really understands what she's watching or not.

In the meantime, I'm living in Mom's house (actually, my house now) and trying to finish settling some of her financial affairs, after which I'm planning to go back to school and update my computer skills so I can reenter the wonderful world of being employed. I had my own apartment for a while, but I was laid off from my job at First Interstate Bank quite some time ago and had to move back in with Mom. Being unemployed and having to move back home turned out to be a good thing--when Mom started showing signs of confusion and memory loss, I was there to move into the role of caregiver and take charge of the things she wasn't able to handle any more.

While I'm waiting for the last of the financial matters to be completed, I'm trying to get caught up on a lot of things . . . yard work, reading, movies, and staying in touch with family and friends. I also spend a lot of time moderating an online message board and managing a related website.

Tom (my brother) and my sister-in-law Charlotte are still working for Carnival Cruises (he's a lounge singer, she's a dancer). They're planning to stay with Carnival for another year, then try to move on to something else. They both want to keep doing the same type of work, just somewhere besides a cruise ship, which is where both of them have been working for quite a few years.

Anyone who wants to know anything other than what I've posted is welcome to e-mail me. If you know of anyone else who might want to know about this page (i.e., some of Mom's friends from Ft. Thomas or from church), please feel free to send them the URL.