Marty and Alfred

I figured Marty would feel slighted if he was in the headline but not in the story.
I figured Marty would feel slighted if he was in the headline but not in the story.

CAREGIVING: Monday morning when Kathy’s new aide, Betsey was here, I decided I needed to run down and make a bank deposit. I was transferring some money from my business account to my personal account at Monson Savings. I thought Marty might like to go for a walk so I brought him out the back door and we waddled down as far as the car. As he gets older he is having trouble getting up stairs and into the car. He is still pissed that we traded his short Corolla for a tall RAV4. I have a little step stool for him to step on but he can’t figure it out. I tried the other doors and even the back door. No luck. I can lift him in when I have to, but he weighs a good 65 pounds. My friend has a whippet that jumps through the open window. No such luck with the old man. Finally, I gave up and let him back through the front door into the basement.

2014-09-30 webcams
Top is the IP camera that works great when I am on my home wi-fi. I can watch Kathy from up in my music room and when I’m doing laundry. It has infrared so it sees in the dark. The “web can” is my old Pantech phone running an Android app called Alfred. I stuck it in an empty dog food can. Click on the photo to enlarge.

I drove to the Bank of America ATM and almost deposited the check into the wrong bank. I hate when that happens. (I hate the bank too but that is a different story). I caught myself and went to Dunkin’ Donuts instead to clear my head. While I was drinking my coffee I decided to check on Kathy. I’ve been using an Android app called Alfred that uses my old smart phone as a nanny cam. Basically it bypasses the router problems I have with my real surveillance camera. You run the same software on both phones and log into google. Works pretty good most of the time and the audio is better than the regular camera.

Unfortunately, at our Dunkin’ the wi-fi doesn’t cooperate with my new phone and I was getting crappy phone reception too. I did remember to make that deposit I had intended to make. In the right bank, too. Alfred wasn’t cooperating there either. I headed home and back down my street I was getting my 4G speeds so I stopped at the park. I figured I could finish my coffee and enjoy the nice day.

Alfred worked well. I could see Kathy was sleeping. Betsey was mopping the floor. Then I heard what I thought was a siren or something….

It was Marty howling in the basement. He couldn’t get up the stairway. So, the coffee went back into a cup-holder and home I went. 🙂

2014-09-23 13.30.48
A screen shot from Alfred. Kathy is sound asleep.

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