Getting it all done

It was a busy and very productive day yesterday, all in about 5 hours. I had told my mom I'd pick her up outside (there is a porte cochere you can pull up and pick up). Usually when I do that I will call her a few minutes before I get there to let her know I'm pulling in soon and she can start heading downstairs. I tried to call and no answer. I'm thinking crap! she forgot, she's still in bed or down at breakfast. But, I pull in and she's standing there waiting, LOL.

The clinic with the lab is just a very short drive. It's also an urgent care/regular dr's/xray place, but only one other person was in the waiting room. It was warm in there (already at 8am) and we had to wear masks which made it feel even warmer trying to breathe. She was done by 8:20 and I gave her some water and a granola bar I brought so she'd have some food, but my mammogram appointment at the same place wasn't until 9 (earliest they do them), so rather than sit in that warm waiting room with masks on, we went back out to the car. I moved it to a shady spot under a tree and we waited until I could go back in. Their a/c must have kicked in by then as it felt much cooler in there. I was back at the car at 9:15.

Her dr appointment, a couple miles down the road, wasn't until 10am, so I decided to go through the car wash and get that done. I had looked at bugs all the way there, then streaks of bugs, as I tried to get them off with my windshield fluid/wipers, LOL. We still had lots of time left and I also needed to pick up the laminate flooring transition strips I had ordered, which was just past the dr's office. We got to the dr. office at 9:45 and got checked in and didn't have to wait too long at all.

Her weight has been gradually going down, now at 155, so that's great. I know at one point several years ago she was at like 180 or more. She's totally shrinking! While she was always 5'4", she is now 5'1 1/2". And this time they did a couple of memory/cognitive type tests. The nurse told her 3 items to remember and she was going to ask her if she could remember them in a few minutes. Then asked her to draw a clock. I could not see, from where I was sitting, if she was doing it or not, but from mom's questions I was assuming she was having trouble. She couldn't remember any of the 3 words.  When the dr. came in (very pregnant, haha) she just said that is common for her age, with the memory loss. Really, there is nothing they can do for it. As mom's previous physician had told her, she said same: activity and socialization is the best medicine for it. I did tell the dr that I have taken over the checkbook/banking now. Mom chimed in with her usual "well, if I did it more often, I could probably still do it". I just said to the dr that it was a couple months behind, so it was time. Mom did bring up that she is noticing her hands shaking more. (she has had this for quite awhile and her mom had it too). Dr. said it's called "essential tremors" and fairly benign, unless it interferes with writing or holding things. She said there is a drug very similar to the atenolol she is on, that does the job of atenolol and helps with the tremors and she felt she could easily transition to that drug instead of the atenolol, so we will be trying that. I also asked her to change the paxil dosage so that I don't have to cut the pills in half anymore. That will make my life easier.

Mom's BP was a bit high. Dr. asked when she normally took the atenolol and she said morning and asked if she took it this morning? Mom said "oh, I think so....." Dr. was thinking maybe it was high, if she hadn't taken that days dosage yet. I said she probably didn't with getting up early and not eating yet. With the change to the other BP medication, she wants me to bring her back in about a month to have it checked, just to make sure. I did check her chart notes online, when I got home and it noted she did fail both memory tests.

We were done at the dr. at 10:45, but the appointment at the attorney's office, to sign the will, wasn't until 11:30. I decided to give them a call and see if by chance they could do it early and they said no problem. I said we'll be there in about 10 minutes. Their office is just a couple blocks behind where my mom lives so very close and convenient (most attorneys are downtown, paid parking, etc). We were done by 11:30 so decided to go get lunch at Wendy's and go inside to eat. First inside eating I have done in a year, haha. We got there at a good time, just before the lunch rush. She never really seems to know what to order anymore and will always just say "what are you having? ok that sounds good". I wanted a grilled chicken sandwich and strawberry lemonade, so that's what she wanted. But, note to self, she apparently doesn't really like strawberry lemonade, haha!

I took her back to her apartment and had about a half hour before needing to pick up my grocery order and I wanted to find those refills of her prescriptions I had ordered. I found them up in her kitchen cabinet. Whew! And of course she hadn't taken her morning pills yet, nor had she taken the day before. Ugh. I'm ready to get her one of those pill dispenser systems. As we were checking in downstairs, someone had left their keys on the counter. Then the lady at the desk said, oh this is for you and handed my mom an open envelope addressed to her. It was a card from step bro and his wife for my mom's birthday/mother's day last month. I didn't look at the date on the envelope stamp, but not sure how it ended up at the front desk. I'm thinking it got put in another residents mailbox and finally made it to my mom? There was also one of those "car warranty" junk mail cards inside the open envelope, that was addressed to someone else. Who knows. My step brother wrote the note inside wishing her happy birthday and mother's day and said they read that her apartment is all vaccinated now, so that is great. I'm thinking how would they know that?? I had read that somewhere, too...so I was thinking maybe the senior living's facebook page? but no, Step bro and wife don't do FB. Maybe the senior living place website? I looked when I got home and neither had it. I had to have read it from one of the manager emails that go out to residents and family on record......

I got home and took a nap!

Last evening, dh gets a text that just pissed him off. Mr had told dh a few days ago that son and family were coming to pick up their dogs and staying until Saturday. Both dh and I said to each other, well...at least with it over 100 degrees out this week, we won't have to listen to them outside much, haha. Mr. texted dh last night and says his son would like to do some fireworks - would you be ok with that?  WTF?!!!! It's not July 4th yet, it's fire season, it's 101 degrees out. And as we were reminded at that recent fire dept meeting we went to a couple weeks ago, they are 30-40 minutes out to our area for a fire, not to mention since we aren't in the fire district, if they do come out we have to pay for them to put out a fire. Not to mention we don't want to listen to that. That's the whole freaking reason we moved where we did. Peace and quiet. Not have to experience their son's vacation (again) to just live in our home. Not to mention the stress to our dog listening to it.

DH didn't reply back until hours later. He just didn't know what in the hell to even say. Like we said to each other damned if he does, damned if he doesn't say ok. If he says he's not ok with it, he's the asshole, if he says he's ok with it, we have to deal with it interrupting our lives and adding risk we don't need. These people obviously can never say no to their son about anything. And dh is damned tired of being the one who has to be the asshole, because he doesn't want to listen to fireworks on June 29, 30, July 1, 2 and 3rd (not to mention the fire danger). We expect to live with it, to some extent here, on the 4th, Not 5 days before. How about son drive down to his 40 acres he just bought and do it THERE?! Dh has made it no secret to any of our neighbors that he had moved here for peace and quiet, so for Mr to even ask was annoying. He knows how dh would feel about it. If they had to even ask, then they already knew the answer. We thought about replying, ok, let us know the day and time, so we can take our dog and go out while it's going on. So tired of having to live his son's life so that he can do what he wants. He doesn't want to be inconvenienced by his own dogs, so we have to, month and months every year. He wants to come here and vacation and do all the things they can't do where they live, so we get to live it in our home, while he's here. And being put on to respond to something like that just made dh stressed to the max and he still is this morning. His reply he finally decided on, way late last night, was "I'm not sure how to answer that Mr, I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't. I let you guys decide what you think is best".

Maybe this is the time to sell and find somewhere where neighbors are a mile away. I'm just trying to figure out how come we manage to not to do anything to disrupt our neighbors lives...We have the occasional visitor, but no one would even know that, except the neighbors 5 dogs have to bark because someone is pulling in.