Grandpa's Schedule (91)

He smokes nearly two packs of cigarettes a day and has a cough that makes diesel rig sound like a kitten. His day goes something like this:

3 am -- wake up, go downstairs, sit in chair in total darkness and smoke cigarettes until dozing off

 5 am -- wake up (in chair) and turn on TV

7:30 - 8:30 am -- (depending on when I come downstairs) turn off TV and say, "Let's go get something to eat," or I might say, "You getting hungry yet?" and the answer is always "yeah." Put on shoes and either drive to diner in separate vehicles or in my car

7:45 - 9:30 -- (depending on my school schedule) eat breakfast at diner (coffee, chicken-fried steak and eggs, hash-browns and toast--of which he will ignore the toast and potatoes). Ask "question of the week" (a question which gets repeated 2 to 3 times a day for a period of 1 to 2 weeks. For example:

"Is Tim still working for Douglas?"

"No, I believe he works at LAX."

"The airport?"

Yeah."

"I wonder what he does."

--or—

"How far is it to that college you go to?"

"About ten miles."

"Is that south of here?"

"Yeah."

"I never seen it."

9:30 -- 2:00 pm -- return home from diner, sit in chair, turn on TV (viewing random programming and switching channels at random intervals), smoke cigarettes until dozing off

2 pm -- check mail, make lunch trip to diner (I seldom go to lunch and so this trip is sometimes postponed until the evening run) return home, watch TV, smoke

4:30 - 6:10 pm -- evening diner run, repeat "question of week"

7 pm - 10 pm -- chair, TV, smoke

10pm - 3 am -- climb stairs, sleep

The only variable to this is on weekends or times when I don't call or come home in time for the evening diner run. On these occasions he will drive over to Steve's shop, usually in the middle of Steve's nap or when Steve has friends over. Everybody is really pretty cool about it. I call him Grampa, Steve calls him Dad, and everyone else calls him Arnold or Mr. Buckwitz. He'll just sit there on the couch Steve has, watch TV and smoke until it becomes time to eat.

He will lead the diner brigade unless Steve makes an issue of eating at someplace different. When he does usually he winds up paying for dinner, with Grandpa contributing a token amount. And Grandpa never tips. Once Steve had just got done paying for dinner and had just put the tip on the table when Grandpa scooped it up and put it in his wallet. He thought he had change coming to him.

But it is not all routine. Once, out of the blue, he made a statement that made me look at him differently from then on. It was this: "Ninety-five percent of the time when I dream, I am in my own flying saucer, flying out over different parts of the world."

Fly on Grampa.