Thank you all for your kind comments; my creative juices are coming back. I just need that sweet thing called "time".
We have just found out that dad has cirrhosis of the liver; they need to run test to find out what stage. Since, he is not a drinker and has never touched the stuff; they are thinking it is his gout medication. So maybe this will explain some of the crazy things that have been going on with him. It is hard to watch your parents get old. They don't want to and you don't want them to. They want you to stay the child and them the parent but as the years progress the tables turn. I sometimes wish that we lived as the Walton's did; all together. Parents, children and grandchildren. Yes, you have problems; but like with any family, you work them out and proceed on.