The heat has eased off and still Jim seems more confused than normal. I’m beginning to fear this may be a new stage of dementia.

Until now, it’s been mostly his memory affected by this disease but over the past few days, he’s not been himself. He’s hesitant, and questions himself more than I’ve ever seen before.

He set out to water the lawn. It’s been hot and our lawns were brown before the end of June. I was content to let the grass stay dormant until fall but Jim, as in years past, felt it reflected badly on him if the lawn wasn’t kept up. Rather than argue with him about water restrictions, I let him go. It would give him some exercise and he’d get some fresh air.

After half an hour of listening to the outside water turn on and off, I went out to investigate.

For some reason, Jim didn’t just connect the hose to the big sprinkler which was in the same spot as last time he used it. All he needed to do was attach the hose and turn on the water.

Instead he had Frankenstein-ed two sprinklers together and in the process, rendered our big one useless. I wished I’d brought my phone with me to take a picture. The drawing gives you a general idea. He removed the plug from the end of the 360*oscillating sprinkler and attached the vertical, back and forth sprinkler. Which sadly was big enough to break the first sprinkler as it rotated.

Normally, I try not to correct something he’s done, at least not in front of him. Especially when he’s already feeling so unsure of himself. I had no choice because water was pooling under the sprinklers and not getting where it needed to.

As I untangled his innovative solution I was astounded at how complex his thinking actually was to attach the sprinklers in this manner. Sure it was a round-about solution but technically it worked… sort of.

He’d come up with a brilliant solution to a problem he didn’t have.