grounding

Camping Out

/ Shirleyjdietz / Leave a comment

Crazy Day

6-17-2019

I was in such a cooperative mood today – determined to help this guy feel comfortable somewhere other than in the house. I told him we were going to set up camp out in the field. How could that not work?

⁃ Tent has a polyethylene floor so it’s not grounded

⁃ Truck has rubber wheels so it’s not grounded

⁃ Nothing to plug the grounding pad into

⁃ Must find Ohm meter so we can tell if we’re conducting anything

⁃ Must have multiple things to sit on besides the truck, for comfort

⁃ Must have peanut butter, cheese and magnesium water

⁃ Must be in the shade in case it’s hot

⁃ Must have jacket

⁃ Must have head pillow

On and on. We spent quite a while fixing alligator clamps from the Ohm meter onto a grounding spike, which was really a huge wood file I had scrounged from the workbench. This contraption was then attached to the truck to ground it. He figured he could ground himself by holding on to another wire attached to the same spike. When we got out to the field and set up the chair, the snacks, and the ground wires and the grounding pad on the chair, I was all set for a good time tending the garden while he communed with nature and his phone.

Less than an hour later I was getting phone calls. The grounding wasn’t working and he knew why. And then the call that he and the walker had made it back to the house and couldn’t get in – back door was locked (um… try the front door, it’s not.) Next, where is the remote that changes the channels on the tv? Next, bathroom problems. I gave up and went to the house. Later I walked back to the truck, loaded everything up and drove it all back. So much for camping out. Not doing that again.

Grounding the truck, or maybe not.

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Exactly What?

/ Shirleyjdietz / 2 Comments

What exactly am I to do?

He came shuffling from the bedroom where he had gone to sleep and found me, still working on the computer. I dread the sound of him coming because I know he is going to tell me some new reason why he has to get out of this house.

“Do you see this?” He hold up his hand with the fingers curled nearly shut. “My hand was frozen like this. Locked. I couldn’t move it.”

His face has “that look”. Haunted, bleary eyed, almost motionless even when he’s talking and trying to be dramatic.

I don’t know what to say. “It’s a movement disorder, Parkinsonian problem. How do you want to remedy the situation?”

“There is no remedy. I have to get out of this place.” He teeters and catches himself as he turns and shuffles out again.

I think for a while and follow him into the dark room. We talk. I’m desperate. He’s desperate. In frustration I tell him to get his clothes on and get in the truck. I’ll take him somewhere remote and we’ll both sleep there tonight. He refuses my offer. The truck is not grounded, so it wouldn’t do any good.

He’s so good at throwing something crazy back at me, almost like a test, but he doesn’t think it’s crazy at all. “We need to call Mayo Clinic and see what they do for this. They’re here in the Midwest where there are lots of dairy farms with grounding problems. They probably have people with this and know what to do.”

This sounds ridiculous to me, and I know what Mayo Clinic will think when they see his diagnosis, but it is something I can do. I can ask. Will that satisfy him? I tell him they aren’t going to get back to him tonight.

He knows that. “They’ll probably just tell me to get away from the house.”

Yeah, probably.

Father’s Day 2019

/ Shirleyjdietz / Leave a comment

6-16-2019

Today was Father’s Day. It was not a bad day, but in some ways a sad day.

The better part was that we left the house early for church, ate breakfast afterwards at a restaurant, and then stayed outside away from electric fields all day. At least that was the way I saw it.

Dennis talked to both his daughters on the phone today and listening to those conversations was the sad part. He has changed so much, even in the last two weeks – rambling, sometimes confused, distracted by clouds or his own thoughts. In his account of the day he mentioned a major mistake he (we) made. I didn’t agree, but it made no difference.

I decided that since we had such a nice rest in the truck the day before, why not just drive our truck out in the wetland meadow behind the barn and he could spend as much time there as he wanted. Why not, indeed? So we did that, found a nice shade tree to park under, repositioned the truck several times, rehearsed how to open or shut windows and then I left. He could call me on his phone if he needed anything – I would be only a short distance away.

He stayed there several hours while I did my cleaning job and only called me twice. I went out to check on him and he was so busy talking on the phone that I left again and went to the house to do chores.

His next call to me was about his mistake. He hadn’t been thinking and had wasted a few hours already by not being grounded. The truck, having rubber tires, is not grounded unless a chain or something metal is touching the earth. He was having to get out of the truck and put his feet down and walk around to remedy the situation. Could I bring the walker out so he could sit on the seat and still have his feet on the ground. Yes, I could. I even brought him a snack and his magnesium water. After all, it was Father’s Day.

I heard him repeat the story twice to our daughters later. After hearing it the first time I asked him why he needed to be grounded if there were no electric fields, no EMFs in sight, but he didn’t answer – just shook his head. I guess I don’t really understand electricity (along with a lot of other things…).

Walker with seat attached

Not so long ago he would never have been caught using this. Now it is his best friend.

The First Days of June

/ Shirleyjdietz / Leave a comment

The hard thing happens every time the husband comes up with new evidence of his “theory of the day”. He looks at me dramatically with a horrified expression on his face and explains the newest evidence of the connection between electricity and the way he is feeling. Today his thoughts have been directed to the ants who have nests in the ground around our house, small red ants that are common everywhere. He tells me that it is a well known fact that they are drawn to electrical current, citing several experiences with ant nests in electrical boxes and outlets. He has gone around the house locating any pile of sand that the ants have deposited and lining it up with an electrical outlet inside or outside the house. When asked what that means for us, what should we do about it, he says that we should get the house properly grounded. I remind him that it is already grounded to code and more (yesterday’s episode) and he then remarks about the age of the water heater, as if that cancels out the electrical grounding.
Last week he insisted on buying a grounding mat for the bed. I spent several hours researching the ones he was looking at and finally did the ordering for him. I decided it would be worth the expense if it would buy him some peace of mind. I even bought a smaller grounding mat for his feet when sitting in his chair. The first night, the effect was too much, although I’m not sure how one gets too grounded. We tried putting a sheet between him and the mat. When that didn’t feel right either he decided two sheets would be better. When that didn’t feel right he presumed the sheets weren’t effective because they were polyester. When he found out they were both 100% cotton he had no answer, but he still couldn’t sleep on the mat. Please send it back.