My father in law decided yesterday to drive from Medford, Oregon to Santa Cruz. It's normally about an 8 hour drive. Only problem is, he is 80 years old, has had multiple strokes and has memory loss. Oh, and he also has night blindness.

A little back story: The inlaws have found a place to live in Oregon, close to Steve and Roberta. Handy, since both of them are FNPs, and we live about 2-3 hours from Santa Cruz...too far in an emergency:/ Anyway, Steve had driven MIL down so she could get some things taken care of without FIL being underfoot. He was to stay with Steve & Roberta while she was gone. Saturday afternoon, he was 'supposedly' resting in his room, so Roberta went into her room to read a book, and fell asleep. When she woke up about 1:40, all she saw was a note from FIL that he was going home to Santa Cruz.

We all panicked. I am usually Pollyanna, but this time I was sure he had either taken a wrong turn and was headed off into god knows where, or had fallen asleep at the wheel & crashed, or, or, or....

This is a snippet of the email we got from MIL today: I thought that for my part I could check with the credit card companies and have some notion of where he was. NOTHING was charged. Today I asked him about it. He simply did not stop to eat or sleep. He stopped once at a gas station and got a cup of coffee and a candy bar. After that he simply peed on the car seat and kept driving. He did what we both thought was not possible - drive in the dark. He merged onto I-80 and kept going to the Bay Bridge and out to Highway 1, down the coast and home, all with only that one stop in Northern Cal. At 10:00 I was about to get into bed when I saw the light from a car coming into the park. I looked out the window and saw Roy parking the car perfectly between the lines out front. So I went out and gave him a warm welcome. We slept through the night, and today have alternated between forgetting about it and filling in the blanks. NEVER again!........

Roy's last prayer last night was: "Thank you, God, for saving me from myself." Amen to that.

His guardian angel HAD to be with him last night. I can think of no other explanation. There is so much that could have happened,especially with him driving down the coast. At night. That is a miserable road, and so many accidents happen at Devil's Slide, even during the day, but GOOD, ALERT drivers.

I don't know what we're going to do with him. He is so DAMN stubborn. He shoudn't be driving at ALL. That is what is so freakyabout the whole trip. He has been getting lost a few blocks from his house, and can't remember WHERE HE LIVES.

*sigh*

No wonder my hair is so fucking grey. If it weren't for Miss Clairol/L'Oreal, etc, I would be white haired:/

Speaking of.....the grey is gone, thanks to Revlon Medium Brown;) Can't have grey roots when I go see Paul McCartney tomorrow;-)