carl mciver wrote:

I just had an idea that could kill two birds with one stone. Merge your
time spent with him to time spent with him _and_ his tools, and see what you
can learn from him while he's still "good." If he wants to relive his past,
then perhaps having him share his machine knowledge as well would do you
both a world of good.
I'm not you, of course, so whether this will work is for your and your
family to decide.
Oh how I wish that I could "sit at the feet of the master" but his
mental abilities have ebbed over that past few years.....
His instructions so far have been," You put the ,the ,the...stuff in the
thing that goes around and the you use the sharp thing and ah...... you
use the whatamacallit to make what you need.... Are the Cubs or Sox on
today?"

I have shown him pictures of the lathe's ways after I cleaned it and he
was very proud that he had been able to keep it from rusting......

It's kind of strange, the last time he was in the hospital (brought back
from the edge of life,or death, once again) he was agitated and angry at
everyone and every thing (I think it was the pain meds) but when I sat a
talked to him, he calmed down and became almost lucid. There must be
some kind of bond between us that I'm not aware of.

I had the same Kind of relationship with my next door neighbor. He was a
retired carpenter and ten years, his body gave out. He would start a
project and not be able to finish it, so I would. He always felt bad
about that. I told him and "Everyone needs a hobby and you are mine..."
When my folks died, he and his wife asked me if they could "adopt me".
I was honored. "No one should be an orphan, even if they become one at
age 50" was their reasoning...

BTW way, both my FIL and my neighbor were/are cranky, cantankerous old
farts, and I seemed to be able to bond with them very well. Maybe they
recognized a "cranky old fart in training"....

Greg