Saturday, August 18, 2012

Pooped

So as day three comes to a close I finally find myself in a place where I can actually sit down and take a breather, in fact I plan on taking a breather until sometime tomorrow afternoon.  I just spent the last three days with help from the hubby and my most favouritest daughter (FD) packing up my mom's place, dragging it all into a cargo trailer, unpacking some of the stuff into a new nursing home, then carting the rest of the stuff to FD's place, sleeping for four hours, waking up and transferring the stuff from the cargo trailer to the house (where it will reside until we can sort it) then going back to the nursing home and arranging it so it looks like a mini version of her old home, then going to the hospital and getting her discharged, then taking her to the home and having all the papers signed, then taking care of her meds, and then starting the process of trying to get her un-institutionalized (she has only been in the hospital for two months but has already started down that road in a big way).  Truly, and utterly, I cannot believe that we are finally at this stage.  Fingers crossed that all goes well!  At least she is loving it, and loving being out of the hospital and in her new digs. 

Next will be the hell that is her paperwork.  You see my mom has the organizational skills of a raven building a nest.  When I open a box she has packed I am no longer surprised at what I find.  It could contain a box of expired batteries, a half a doughnut, seven postcards tied with twine, an old shoe, two pencils which have been chewed by badgers, a small plastic doll, fourteen copies of a print out of a picture of salad someone sent her on an email, $1.13 in change which has been carefully placed in a sandwich bag, my kindergarten mid-term report card, a copy of her citizenship papers, a can of soup, another slightly larger can with the label missing, two balls of yarn, and a tooth.  And don't even for a second think that I am exaggerating for effect here...because I can most certainly assure you that I am not.  And her entire house is like that!  We have divided the boxes into three categories, 1) must be sorted through with a fine tooth comb, 2) probably have to sort through with a fine tooth comb, but could just be a box of yarn, 3) for sure do not have to sort through it because it is a chair...or a foot stool.  Guess which pile is the biggest?

Now me, I'm more the, "Did you find that spatula in that drawer?  I can answer that question for you.  No you did not.  Because if you were to look in the drawer underneath you would find another two which are similar to that one, and that should be a big clue to you when putting stuff away." You see I got this thing about wanting to be able to find my shit on a regular basis.  I am a huge proponant of always putting stuff back in the same place every time you use it.  I am also a big fan of putting stuff in logical places.  I find it saves much aggravation, annoyance, and time.  For example I hang clothes in the closet, I fold underwear and put it away in the same drawer ALL THE TIME, when I use the suntan lotion I always return it to the same basket I keep the other suntan lotion in.  I put toilet paper in the bathroom, I put printer paper in my desk, I always put paid phone bills in a file marked, phone bills, I store laundry detergent in the laundry room. 

My dad was just as bad about this kind of shit as my mom is, so really the only explanation for me being a bit on the organized side is that obviously I was adopted.  Anyway enough ranting and more sleeping, this girl is pooped so it off to my bed, which by the way, has hospital corners. 

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Quickie

I thought I would throw a quickie post up on this here thing before heading off for the day.  I am going to go and break my mom out of the hospital on a day pass so she can hang out with the kids.  Yesterday she was hell bent on checking herself out even though she can't walk more than five steps on her own, and can't sleep horizontal for more then ten minutes, but she is pretty stubborn though and when she gets something into her head she doesn't exactly think things through. 

The temperatures are supposedly going to go way up today so hanging out in and around water is probably a good idea.  Depending on how things go I may take mom down to the ocean for an hour so she can take in some warm weather, waves, and bracken.  Hopefully she will enjoy it, although that seems to be a bit of a stretch as she has given up on caring about anything which is happening now and is only interested in the latest breaking stories from 1948 and earlier.  Now if I could just figure out how to get the hell hound and the wheel chair into the car at the same time?

Hubby of course will be spending a scorching day on someone else's roof.  If I could harness the energy he has for working himself into the ground and focus it on running I would be an Olympic gold medalist!  Well I am off to the races...taking deep breaths now...enjoying the moment of peace. 

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

One Day At The Lake

Today was without a doubt the most beautiful day at the lake...ever.  It started slow, I slept in because for the life of me I couldn't get to sleep last night.  My daughter and I even stayed up until midnight watching the Olympics.  It was the first time I had a chance to watch any of the events this year, mainly because I do not have cable, satellite, or any other way of watching the events.  She got her TV hooked up yesterday so consequently we ended up getting involved in some of the events.  This is the only time ever that a person can watch something besides hockey, football, baseball, or basketball and I like to take advantage of it.  We both got quite caught up in the volleyball game between the Chinese and Japanese women, both teams were most excellent, the games were pretty much nail biters. 

Today I got to paint some trim for the house (have I mentioned how much I loath and despise painting trim?) The humidity finally wasn't in the 99% range so I thought I would take advantage of it.  I also blanched a whack of green and yellow beans that my neighbour was kind enough to donate to us from her garden, then I got to go and hang out on the beach and pick rocks and go for a swim...or two.  The only thing which would have made it better was if the kidlet had decided to come out and go swimming as well. 

The neighbours have decided to change their roof this summer so the hubby, who apparently can never get enough of home renovations, was over there all day long helping out.  So it was just me and the dog, who every which way wanted to go and hang out at the neighbours.  Everybody hates me, nobody loves me, might as well go eat worms.  LOL 

Friday, August 3, 2012

Teeny Tiny Birds Putting the Squeeze on the Budget

I thought I had better put up a new post before I forget how to, or before I am rendered catatonic from lack of blogging.  Hmmm...I wonder if that is possible?  Catatonic due to no blog post?  I doubt it, more like catatonic due to the vast amounts of junk food consumption I have been partaking in.  You see, I am one of those types which can be termed a "stress eater" and also the type which can be termed "junk food junkie" so the combination is not good for me this past two months.  And good stress, or bad stress, doesn't seem to matter, so it hasn't been good here at Kitpu Estates, the sweet and salty snacks have been flowing. I haven't weighed myself in awhile but based on clothing fit, or lack thereof, I am assuming I have managed to permanently attach a substantial amount of the junk food to my mid section. 

Yesterday after my brother and his partner in crime left I did some catching up on sleep (not really I just lazed around and watched movies all day) and consumed the last of the junk food in the house.  So today I have the classic junk food hangover...let me tell you it isn't pretty.  And not having run in the last month or so I am not in great shape.  The good news is that my daughter is all settled in and typically she is a bit of a health nut and is usually up for some running, and eating properly, so between the two of us we should be able to get back into a healthy routine.  

The bad news is that mom isn't a viable candidate for open heart surgery and they are trying to find a palliative care unit close by.  But she does seem to be trying to ween herself off full time hospital care and has started trying to move around on her own.  This in itself is pretty surprising as she has been   unable to even sit up in bed on her own these days.  The one thing about mom is that she is really stubborn and when she wants something she can be single minded about getting it.  Her ability to win Doctor Mario, or kick ass in Angry Birds are proof of that.  So now that they have her somewhat more stable by tweaking her meds maybe she will enjoy a few more months of independent living.  Stranger things have happened. 

In the meantime I thought I would put up some pictures of our summer visitors.  This first picture is unusual by the fact that this guy is by himself. 


More typical of our feeder.


And a little less typical.



Humming bird central at Kitpu Estates. 


It isn't a wonder that we have been having to fill the feeder three or four times a day now.  With our tight household financial budget I'm not sure if we can keep feeding their addiction.