I've returned from Arizona. It was a pretty nice trip, although it was disheartening to see how much mom has declined. She can't drive, or use a phone or stove, and has a hard time remembering words, but at least she's fine physically. And she forgets things pretty much as they're happening. I got to the airport on Saturday evening, Laura and Thomas were there a bit earlier and all of them had gone out to eat. Laura left them to come pick me up. A bit after I got there Dad went to the restroom, and when he got back Mom says to him "look who's here!" meaning me. She had forgotten that he was there when I arrived. Things like that. Anyway, the point of the trip was to see how they're doing, and to see whether they need help, especially Dad, for taking care of Mom. Dad and I went out to the spot where the camper is stored so I could help him get an ad placed to sell it (I have a feeling it's going to be an albatross), Laura and I both rifled through all their papers (and found a long-term care insurance policy, yay!) and Mom told us over and over again which pictures on the walls she wants to keep. But she doesn't care about the David Winter cottages (again, over and over). We also found that Mom had literally thousands of unread e-mails on her computer because she can't figure that out any more either. Laura and I took Mom and Dad around on Monday to a couple assisted living places. Some of those are better than others, it seems. We went to one...looked like an apartment complex...that Mom didn't even want to get out of the car for. A second one, in a high-rise, was a lot more expensive but is similar to the one the LaRues live in so Mom was willing to look at it. It was nice, I must say, but pretty expensive. Another one we went to was less impressive, but quite a bit cheaper, although I felt like it was the kind of place that when things break, they get fixed, but not well. For example, when the towel bar pulls out of the wall, they'll patch it, but you'll always see where the patch is because it was done sloppily. And it kinda smelled. And the manager was creepy. And at one point during the tour Laura sent me a text saying "This place is a dump!" and I couldn't disagree. Dad actually said he liked that place the best but I bet that was just because of the price. Anyway, the point of this visit was to see how Mom and Dad are getting along, and at the end we both figured that they are OK for now, but when their lease expires in the spring, we'll work on getting them moved in somewhere that can take care of both of them. In the meantime, we've been trying to drive home to Dad that HE has to be the one to make sure Mom takes her medications and such. That's been a problem lately. Beth and I are going to try to arrange a trip out there again for fall break, if we can. At least Beth's ticket is already paid for with the cancellation. Hope they're OK til then. For now, they seem to be.