Dealing with aged P

[rejectomorph]

My dad is still not clear on the concept of sharing a phone line with a computer. He keeps trying to dial out, and either disconnects me or thinks that the phone is broken. Well, he will be 92 in a couple of months. More disturbing than his inability to grasp new technologies is the fact that he has lapses in dealing with old ones. He seems to remember everything clearly except how to avoid doing dangerous things. It is as though he had a very selective form of memory loss. This afternoon, I came in from the yard to smell the house full of gas. He had a burner on the stove wide open with no flame. He can't smell things very well anymore, and he forgot to look at the burner to make sure that it was properly lit. Something like this will happen a couple of times a week. That is the main reason I don't dare leave this place, even for a weekend. And, of course, who else could operate the VCR, or re-program the remote when he hits the wrong button? If he didn't spent hours with the television, I just know he'd be doing something dangerous. I only wish he could remember not to dial the phone when I'm on line.