Once All-Caring Now All-Uninhibited

I remember when I was snowboarding for the first time in Tahoe and I was going full speed ahead sans control. There was a little boy, maybe five years old who was about ten feet in front of me and I did everything in my power to avoid him, but failed miserably. I was able to yell and scream so that he was aware of the crazy lady barreling towards him, but I still took him out and felt horrible. He got right up and continued down the hill, while Jesse laughed hysterically at the whole thing. I knew I had to protect the kid, because I was obviously bigger than him and could have caused major damage. Unfortunately, today, I realized that my pops doesn't have this recognition and though led to a funny story, it's yet another reminder of how terrible this disease really is and how important it is to make sure that society recognizes and understands how these patients are affected.
Since I've been back in El Paso, it's really thrown my dad for a loop. I'm convinced he thinks of me as my mom's relief and doesn't want to leave her side even more than he has in the past. Being mom's relief means that mom is off doing something sinister in his mind. So since he won't go with me alone, I have decided to play sports in the park and have my mom go, but allow her to sit and read or just veg without my dad hounding her. She's an amazing woman and how she puts up with my dad's stalking (really there is no other way to describe it) is beyond me. All I can say is that she has the patience of Mother Teresa and the loyalty above anyone else I have ever met.
Today was soccer day. I asked my pops to change clothes, but he refused, so we went off, me in my shorts and t-shirt, him in his slacks and button down. At least he traded his penny loafers for some tennis shoes, so it was a start. We drove up to the park and there were more people than usual, so I worried about kicking the soccer ball into someone's space. We opted for a shady area and started kicking the ball back and forth. In the past, whenever my dad was in an athletic situation, his disposition was a lot brighter, he would tell all kinds of stories of his childhood and college and was happy-go-lucky as can be. Today he was a bit tense and kept looking around for my mom. She was at the other side of the park, but even after he saw her, he was still grumpier than usual. Anyway, we had a good time kicking and running the ball, he even kept bragging when he would kick with his left foot:"you see that kick? that was a lefty, you see how good I am, I'm the ultimate jock"
After about forty minutes, he quit and I started to poke fun at him about how he couldn't hang (I wanted to keep running and thought it would be good for him to as well). He then started to kick the ball and wouldn't let me get to it, holding his stance and elbows strong. He's still super strong and when he gets physical he's scary. He started man-handling me and finally I said "ok, you're scaring me, lets go home", his sweet disposition took over like a flip of a switch and we dribbled the ball back to where my momma was sitting.
As we were walking down the hill to leave there was a dad and his eight or nine year old son throwing a football. My dad kept looking at the football and obviously wanted to play. After watching the ball go back and forth a couple times, my dad decided to go for it. There he went full-speed ahead towards the ball, completely oblivious to the fact that there was a child in his way of catching it and totally took the poor kid out. All we saw was this 5'7 foot ex-wrestler barreling down the hill towards a itty bitty child, I was worried about a concussion or a fight from the dad. Fortunately, the kid just lost his footing and stumbled forward. My dad didn't even apologize or realize what had just occurred, all he could see was the football. The dad, who had been trying to toughen his son up (he kept yelling "son don't be so scared of the ball")told him to let my dad catch and throw the ball. So there went my dad, ultimate jock, to the rescue. The father of the child was actually really gracious and perhaps knew what was going on or was just a really nice guy, because he didn't rush my dad and even thanked him when we left. Now I'll only be going to the park with my dad when no one is around to get hurt.
Alzheimer's causes many changes in the brain and we know the loss of inhibition occurs when the disease starts to affect the frontal lobe. The frontal lobe is responsible for logic, regulating behavior, complex planning, and learning. There is a disease called Pick's Disease (Frontal Lobe Dementia) which differs from Alzheimer's because of it causes behavioral changes instead of memory changes. Our neighbors husband had it in the 90's and I remember seeing him run through the streets butt naked in the winter time, back then it was funny, now I realize the tragedy. The changes in inhibition vary from benign like placing silverware on the table when it's already set, to socially unacceptable behavior, like telling someone "you're really ugly". Loss of sexual and social inhibition is inevitable and I know it's just a matter of time before it starts to be more evident in my dad. I'll learn to deal when it happens as we've all learned to live with him and his changes throughout the years. I just hope that it doesn't involve his physical prowess, because he's uberstrong and people will get hurt (but it may make for a funny story).