It's not true that old dogs can't learn new tricks

They can. It's a proven fact.

And so can old people.

In fact, human beings never get too old to learn how to do something new--that's a proven fact, too. You can be too stupid to learn something new or you can be too physically/mentally handicapped to learn something new but you can't be too old to learn something new, and it's just ridiculous when folks use that tired old platitude as an excuse for not wanting to do something new.

There's a HUGE difference between not being able to do something and not wanting to do it, and I can but assume that everyone who says that I'm crazy if I think my grandmother is going to change is not really talking about my grandmother's ability to change, they're referring to her desire to change.

Am I assuming correctly?

Because if that's the case, then I have to completely disagree with all the naysayers. If my grandmother wants to live with me badly enough she will do what it takes to make that possible for herself. Of course, all I'm talking about her having to do is be considerate and polite. It's not as though I'm insisting that she perform a total personality makeover. As nice as it would be to have that happen, I'm not completely crazy, I know that would be impossible. But it's not impossible for her to use her manners and adhere to a few reasonable expectations necessary for living in the same house with others. If, of course, she wants badly enough to live there.

And I've been honest and straight with her from the beginning about this, so it's not as though these expectations are things that I only talk about here, they're things I talk about with her almost every time I talk to her. And she says she understands and she assures me that she's going to get along just fine. But I'm not so naive as to think that she is going to say anything differently--she's going to say whatever she thinks I want to hear in order to herself moved in with me. I know for a fact that what we talk about in theory is not going to pan out smoothly in reality.

It'll be a challenge.

It'll be a huge adjustment.

It'll be interesting.

It won't be easy.

No doubt.

But lest anyone forget, I've lived with my grandmother for over half of my life. I lived nearly all of my childhood with her and I've lived with her four times since being a married adult with children of my own. If anyone knows how she is to live with, it's me. I'm going into this with lots of past experience to draw one. I know exactly what I'm getting into. I also know exactly what my grandmother is and is not capable of and she is definitely capable of meeting the expectations that we will place upon her.

Whether she'll want to meet those expectations or not is another story and it's something that is outside of my control. All I can do is make the situation possible, give her the options and let her decide if it's something she wants to do. If it isn't, then it just isn't. But it's up to her. And she CAN do it.

P. S. Donald was right, the toilet fixing project was (is) a huge, messy, time-consuming ordeal. The floor had rotted and the subfloor was soaking wet. Dad got here at 10:30 this morning and started on it. It's now 6:30 p.m. and he and Donald are still working on it.