Jean has a husband obsessing about her parking. I have a husband now obsession about Rabid wild animals. We have a garden and a live animal trap. With the corn now ripe the varmits are invading and day before yesterday we caught a skunk and last night it was a coon. Yesterday he started thinking they might be Rabid and how we all needed shots for 14 days. Well today he thinks the coon may be rabid. Did I check to see if it was foaming at the mouth - not-. Starting now there will be no more mention about varmits in traps. Grandson is relocating them for me for $20.00 each and it won't be difficult to keep it from husband. In case your are wondering about the skunk, he covered it with a tarp and put it in his old car and let it out a few miles away for $20.00. I am not going to let him do another skunk because if it had sprayed I would have had to have his car fumigated. (His Mom said it needs fumigated anyway). Next year there will be no more corn in our garden. I can't afford to grow it.
divvi 1 hour ago edited jean think obsessive compulsive.. i think all of us at one time or another go thru this sort of behaviour. can you make up some sort of 'sign' on the computer that would ease his mind and put it on the dash? like apt 401 parks here" or something you think would ease his stress? you'd be surprised what we have to do sometimes to get thru these obsessions. my DH went on a binge once asking when we'd be going on our 'ski' trip. i had to make huge signs and tape them all over the house with big letters saying 'ski trip jan 17-24..' so he would not drive me insane. it worked. i saw him making rounds to EACH sign reading and re-reading til he was ok, then it would start again later. and by the way we were not going on any skitrip. it was too dangerous for him to ski anymore---:) and it can drive you bananas. divvi
Lois, maybe it would be cheaper to surrender the corn to the varmints this year and just buy corn for yourselves to eat ! ! ! Maybe if they eat that they'll leave the rest of your crops alone.
I know it would be cheaper but DH loves to keep track of the corn progress so we will do this for him this year. They don't seem to bother anything else. His other favorites are the watermelon, squash and butternut squash. We always have enough to donate to friends and neighbors.
Wow, lmohr, great story, that is expensive corn but your devotion is exemplary. Another obsession: my dh likes to close and lock doors all the time, even on hot days. We have a sun room that really collects the heat on sunny days and the big double door to the patio just HAS to be open to keep the house livable (no airco). I had lovely screens put in last year and there's usually plenty of breeze. He will go close and lock those doors several times a day (and we're not even home that much). For a while I kept trying to explain how I needed the door open, but OF COURSE that didn't help. Now I just go round behind him after a few minutes opening the doors again. Sometimes he doesn't notice for quite a while. We also have an outside door in the living room that we've never used much and usually he will not even notice if that one is standing wide open. How devious are my ways! Another solution is to go and sit outside. Make sure I have a key with me if he decides to lock the door while I'm out! Same thing with our security gate; he prefers it closed when we're home and I prefer it open (more welcoming to friends and neighbors). If I open it again after he closes it he often will not notice.
My husband is a door closer and a light switch man. He will close the walk-in closet door and turn off the light with me in the closet standing right in front of him. I can be reading a book and he'll turn off the lights. He gets up and checks to see if the garage light is on. Then he turns off the front porch light. Everyone keeps these lights on until 10 pm for added security in our neighborhood. We've been told by our neighbors that they thought we were gone, because our house is always so dark.
These obcessions are mostly minor but they can drive us a bit crazy at times. Now husband is fixated on the controls for the electric fence around the garden. I have to keep an eye on him and I usually go turn it off and open the gate in the morning and close it at night. Yesterday evening he decided it needed worked on so got his electric volt meter and a pair of pliers. The fence was working fine. He wanted me to hold the electric plug in half way so he could test the voltage. I told him no way. I didn't want to electrocute myself or get a shock. I couldn't get him to leave so I returned to the house and turned the main electric off to the fence so I didn't have to worry about him. When son in law gets back from vacation on Wed. I am going to have him do some more security there. I don't think there is enough electric in that line to cause serious problems but electric scares me to death.
I'm glad to have so much company...thought I was alone in the "dark closed door" room! Isn't it really odd that so many would have the same obsessions? I wonder if it is one of those crazy control issues...in any case, it drives me nuts.
My husband locks the doors and shuts the shades early. It is now 7:22 pm. Full daylight and some of the shades are already closed. Sometimes he will let me open the doors and windows, sometimes not.
And he can't deal with the idea that if I'm up I want a window open some of the time.
My SIL's father in Honduras shuts the house down as soon as it gets dark. Over 100 degrees in the shade where they live and the house is shut up tight. And yes, he has dementia too. I passed on drug information to the cousin who is a doctor earlier this year. He wanted to know what this group thought would work.
My husband has worked the shade in the computer room so heavily that it broke this weekend. I've got other shades that need replacing as well (not his fault in that case) so I'm planning on going somewhere to talk to them about shades tomorrow morning. I've put it off and put it off and put it off. Time to deal with some of this stuff.
Oh, and he overfeeds the birds and has to water the plants outside every day. Doesn't matter if it rained or not. But he will come in and stop if it is raining WHILE he is watering. He drowned all my houseplants except for the ones that like living in a swamp.
My husband is obsessed with the bed being made first thing. Some mornings he gets up really early (like 5-5:30am), earlier than I like to get up, a couple of times I have gone to the bathroom and came back and found the bed made. How he does it so fast amazes me.
Deb, I posted somewhere that my husband pulls up the sheets, popping them in the air to make them smooth, then tucks them in and smoothes the top sheet EVERY BLASTED TIME HE GETS UP TO GO TO THE BATHROOM IN THE NIGHT...with me in the same bed with him. Thank you everyone for letting me get that silly, insignificant habit of his out into the open. In the overall big picture of AD, I know this little quirk is nothing, but dad blast it, he's going to do it several times every night, ...no matter how much I protest. It's the popping of the top sheet, (when he lifts it up in the air and gives it a little pull and jerk) that is the cherry on the top. awgggggggggggggggggg.
I would not, could not, share my room with DH anymore. It has become my safe haven from dementia, the world, etc., and I spend more and more time here...
Me too Wejun, although he comes in early mornings for a couple hours and naps. I go to bed with my TV, Laptop, book, popcorn and a bed lamp. Jack up my adjustable bed and have my own party. If I wake in the night and can't sleep I turn on the light and whatever other entertainment I want.
lmohr, me too I've got my bed, my netbook (smaller than a laptop), my t.v., my IPOD, magazines, bookcases full of books, my cell, the landline, and way too much stuff that needs a place to go, and Mika (our little Diva Bichon Frise) and sometimes Charlie (the other bichon) too. DH usually gets Charlie. We call them our love dogs.
My DH likes to take his shirts, on hangers, out of the closet and place them all over the house...I call him my "shirt thief" and he just laughs...I usually say "oh thank you for bringing me this shirt"...it works alot better than "What the #*^&@ are you doing with those shirts out again?!!" :)
This is exactly what I plan to do when we move to a new house. I'll just put his things into one room and mine into the other... I promise you that! Thanks for not thinking I am fussing about an insignificant little thing. In the overall picture, I know it is, but it is the main thing I fuss at him about! Nighttime SHOULD be our "free zone". As it is, I cannot recall the last time I went to bed and slept all night long!
mine is obsessed with selling and buying stuff nice if you have the money for the buying part but his ss disability wont start till sept wants to sell anything for lots less than its worth or less than we owe he also does the lights thing where he'll turn them off wheather im using them or not
Mine is obsessed with being cold all the time. Will ask how's the weather outside, is it cold? even after he just came in and it was lingering around 95 degrees. He will turn the a/c off and the HEAT on when I am in the shower. Did that to me twice last week. As soon as I realize it I change it back. Years ago before AD he used to keep it so cold in the house that everyone who came here complained that it was like a meat locker. I now keep it around 78 and it helps the electric bill anyway. So glad for this website so that I can learn that so many of these quirks are "normal" for this dreaded disease.
Sorry, Nancy, but that really made me laugh. I know, it wouldn't be funny if it were me. Mine is just fascinated with every semi truck on the highways. He acts like he never saw such a big one.
i mentioned it before on another thread but DH became very obsessive over flags!!!!!!! flags mind you. carolyn yours is semi trucks. ours was flags. every flag we saw i nearly wrecked the car he would scream and get so excited. i finally found myself pointing out the ones he'd miss:)!
oh yeah and the humongous dealership ones, well we HAD to pull over sometimes so he could just admire how big they were. sigh--
oh my, those were the days my friends.. i thought they'd never end... remember that song??? how appropriate.. divvi
My DH is either too hot or too cold. He doesn't understand the thermostat so I MUST get up and change it for him. The poor thermostat is going to wear out.
He also had the bed making obsession. Fortunately we have separate bedrooms but the minute I get out of bed he makes my bed--even at 3 AM.
I have a friend whose husband is obsessed with peanut butter jars. Has a garage full of them. Go figure.
Mine can't get the concept that we don't need to buy everything in BULK. If it's on sale, he thinks we should STOCK UP. As if we were that family on TV that has 18 children.
Ditto on watering the plants in the rain - AND flooding them inside the house. He'll even put water in the containers of plastic flowers he's spread throughout the house - "beooooootiful!!". He also is fanatic about bedmaking, refilling every little thing that might be not quite full. He also sleeps in long sleeved winter pyjamas with blanket and comforter in the summer - will NOT have a fan on anywhere he is, bedroom, car, nowhere.
My DH is obsessed with jet plane con trails. When he sees one he gets so excited and wants everybody around to "come see this". It is kinda funny, really. When we are outside or in the car I'll point them out to them to watch how happy and excited he gets.
Gmaewok, that's really interesting, my dh loves jet plane trails too. I think he always has liked them though.
All of you with separate bedrooms: I have certainly thought of it, I hardly dare get up in the night for fear he'll decide it's time to get up at 3am. But I don;t think I'm ready. I'd have to abandon my lovely downstairs bedroom with en suite bath and walk in closet to him and go upstairs to a boy's room. It may come to that. But I think he would feel abandoned and would come looking for me all the time. How did you manage it?
Vickie, when my dh does the blowing he blows stuff all over the place and tends to end up out on the ROAD, trying to blow it clean. Oh, well, if he's happy.
Isn't this the oddest bunch of obscessions. I had to laugh too, even tho my DH's one drives me crazy. (Making up the bed over and over throughout the night, with me in it.
Our son used to point to contrails in the sky and say, "When I grow up, I want to scratch the sky like that". He just retired after 24 years in the Air Force flying fighter jets. Now he flies for a major airline....still "scratching the sky".
Nancy B, tell your son I said "thank you" for his service.
Jeanette, the separate bdrms just evolved over time at our house. DH would wake early, get up to smoke in garage and then come back in and lay down on guest bed because that room was closest to garage. Then he began napping in there and that evolved into sleeping all night. Since he sleeps in his clothes (!!!!) I wasn't sorry to see him go.
bluedaze i have been lurking but check in often we have been getting by sometimes he makes me crazy but mostly sad to see someone who was so proud losing himself
hmmm my wife hides her damn purse an then we spend all day looking for it an of course she says someone stole money from it,I bought a big lock box over the weekend to lock it in an while cutting the grass the BOX ended up missing,found it in the basement under the steps covered with a bunch of "stuff" but she has no idea how it got down there,says she never go's in basement because of the steps,finally chained the box to the bedsprings with a padlock,this should last a day or so,at least if she moves the box now it should be easy to find with a king size bed chained to it
ol don, thanks for my first good belly laugh of the day. How creative we can get at times. I took everything of importance out of my Mom's purse and left her a couple dollars and some stuff that didn't matter. When she lost it we just couldn't find it and it kept her busy for a while trying.
I have a mental picture of her pulling the bed, box and chain down the basement stairs! Thank goodness,.. we haven't gotten there now. Sometime the stages "skip" certain quirks, and that's why I cannot truly say my husband is 6 or 7. At first I thought he had to "check off" everything in Stage 5 before he would be promoted or moved on to Stage 6. He goes back and forth, and some things were skipped altogether.
My husband has lost the key to the sunroom and so all day he was unable to lock it up! He could have closed it, but since he knew he didn't have a key he seemed to forget all about it. It was a lovely day, and nice and cool both inside the house and out! I am keeping the spare key in my pocket but told him I didn't know where it was and would look for it and lock the door after he went to bed.
this is so funny....my husband also is facinated with the Jet Trails...is always fixing the bed...makes a big project getting the sheets and blanket just so, every time he get up during the night....is forever checking his wallet, to count the money in it....will stand in front of the mirror and comb his hair for about 20 minutes...will do that during the night...strange how they all have similiar habits....One day at a time....bless us all....Rosalie
Rosalie, my husband combs his hair very carefully several times every night. Funny, I have to remind himto comb it in the morning when he gets dressed! Everything else the same except for counting money. He has probably thrown his away. He tosses everything into the trash can!
My husband is also fascinated with jets & their trails, his wallet, checking the money...even though he doesn't know how much it is. Moving his golf clubs up & down the wall in the garage. They all do seem to have similar habits. Seems like all have a problem with water after a certain stage. Not wanting to brush teeth, shower, wash hands & etc. In the past my husband drank water constantly, now I can only get him to drink water with pills. I have begun to order water everytime we go out to eat, sometimes he will not even drink it then. However, if he had diet coke he would drink as many as the refill.
I also have trouble with getting DH to drink--thus some constipation. I read someplace that as we get older we lose our sense of thirst. We have a large window in the living room of our apartment, and he loves to watch the jet trails. Sometimes thinks some of the clouds are jet trails, but so what. Never argue with him. He also sleeps in his clothes. The one time he got out at night and went visiting at least he was dressed. We now have a buzzer on the front door when it is opened. The first few nights he went out, with me chasing him, several times, but now he has decided he doesn't like that buzzer, but fortunately does not know how to turn it off. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.