A break from the usual

 My sister and her husband are on holiday at the moment, so I am "housesitting", but really here to pop round to Mum's every day, and do some jobs for her, like my sister does.  Basically, to make sure she's eating. 

It's a tough time, as Mum wants to stay in her house, but she's got two types of dementia, and has deteriorated quite a bit since I last saw her.  I expect that the inevitable will come, but she's also started throwing, "if I'm still here" into conversation, why she's having lucid times.  

Mum isn't the easiest person to help. 

Self checkout, boon or curse?

 You've probably all seen the things going round Facebook about self checkouts, and in some shops, a shop assistant will stand supervising the use of them. Also sometimes checking the receipts as folk leave the shop. 

This tale made me think it over. 

I won't use them as I am disabled, however the growing trend for self checkouts might be a good thing for some, for others chatting to the shop assistants might be their only contact with folk from one shopping trip to the next.  Back in the past, when I worked on a fruit and veg concession, there was a lady who would come in two or three times a week. My boss asked me why she did that. "Why doesn't she buy more at once? Then she wouldn't have to visit us as much."  As I knew the lady from when I had delivered milk, and collected milk money as a teenager , I told my boss that she lived alone. She would visit as much for a chat with us, as to buy her fruit and veg. 

So, the rise of self checkouts is isolating the elder generation, the people who live alone, and I can't help thinking that it could be contributing to the rise of dementia.