The afternoon

It was a bit of an exhausting afternoon, yesterday. I left the house around 11:45, with plans to run through the car wash and then stop at Walgreens for the few food items mom wanted. On her list was 2 bananas, which I couldn't get at Walgreens, so I had planned to take 2 bananas from the bunch I just bought the other day. Of course I forgot them on my kitchen counter, so that means I needed to go to the grocery store for everything. Gah! It just takes more time, but oh well. So, I first went there, grabbed a couple of items for myself that weren't in stock for my Walmart order.

Between leaving the house and putting the groceries in my car, my mom called 6 times! OMG. I was about done for just from that! The first call was to ask if I called her and she missed my call (she's constantly looking at her recent calls, so she thinks I called and she missed it). Then she called back to find out what time I'm coming. 1pm. She'd just wait downstairs after lunch. Ok. Then she called back to say lunch was being served in their apartments so she wouldn't be downstairs. Then she called to say call her and she'll come down and help me carry in her groceries. It's only two bags, mom. I got it. Then another call about helping me carry. Then as I'm putting the grocery bags in my car and trying to put the cart back she calls again. Seriously? again? LOL "where are you?" I said I'll be there at 1pm. So, I was frazzled and exhausted before I even got there.

I pull in and she's waiting outside for me. LOL. I hand her one bag and get checked inside (guests have to Covid check in) and get upstairs and her lunch is still sitting there in it's container. Oh you haven't eaten yet? It's 1:00, I figured you'd be done with lunch by now. "well, I was waiting for you, usually there's enough here to split (there's not)". Oh, I'm good. I ate lunch just before I left home. I figured you were eating around noon or 12:30 so you'd be done when I got here at 1pm. Back and forth. No, I'm good, I already ate. So, while she was eating her lunch I gathered up her laundry to take down the hall. Of course she wanted to tell me not to do it, that she could do it. I'm just to the point where I say "it's no problem. I literally takes me 2 minutes to put in the machine and turn it on. I'll be right back". At least this time she actually had one of her pair of jeans in the hamper. Between getting her few groceries unpacked, arguing with her that I don't need lunch, etc. First going to the laundry room to make sure there was an available machine, it was 1:20 by the time I got the load started. 

Came back and sat and visited while she finished her lunch. I added a few pills to top off her medicine dispenser. The plug in for the machine is very large. If you put it one direction you cover up both plug ins. She had it in that way and so her microwave was unplugged now. I'm guessing she's been unplugging it so she can use her microwave off and on. I turned it facing up and plugged her microwave back in. Then I put the tape across the plug in and wrote "DO NOT UNPLUG" on the front of the tape. Let's see how that works! For some reason she's thinking it's plugged in and charging. No, no batteries, just has to run on electricity.

At this point I don't care if this looks ugly. It just needs to stop getting unplugged.

Then I got out her new landline phone I brought with me. Plugged it in and no dial tone. Good grief. So I had to turn her computer on so I could look up the phone# for the phone company. Of course the menu system wanted me to give her 4 digit code (which I didn't have with me). I finally talked to a live person and explained I had called a couple weeks ago to set up phone service and was told it was activated and to just plug the phone into "line 1" in the back of her modem. The lady checked a few things, saw I had added it, then transferred me to tech support. She put me on hold a bit, then determined it never got activated, so she took a few minutes to activate it. Then it worked. 

I should have waited to call after I went and put mom's clothes in the dryer, but I didn't as I wasn't expecting to be on the phone 20 minutes. Whenever I'm on the phone at my mom's trying to take care of something she's in the background trying to talk to me. Hold on a minute mom...I'm still on the phone...

I had hoped to have her clothes done drying before I needed to leave at 2:45. Since I didn't get time to stop and get my car washed before, I still needed to do that. As I'm heading out her apartment to go put the clothes in the dryer, she of course wants to come with. But, she won't step foot out of her apartment without having to lock it and then coming back it's 3 tries to unlock it. I just said oh, just stay right here, I'll be back in just a minute, then you don't have to worry about locking up for 2 minutes.

At 2:40 the clothes still needed at least another 20-30 minutes. Ugh. She's like "oh I can get them out". So, I took her down to show her which dryer they were in. I knew she'd forget, so I had taken a piece of paper with tape and taped it, with her name on it, to the top of the dryer her clothes were in. 

Then I went through the car wash. At least there was no line. But they upped their prices 30%! Drove over to Walmart, but had gotten a weird text 10 minutes earlier that "part of my order was ready". huh? I checked in and one of the workers stopped at my car on his way back inside and determined that my order was not at this store, it was at the other Walmart clear on the south end of town. Are you kidding me?! What the hell is wrong with their online ordering system? I have never had this happen before. I have my store saved as "my" store. So, a good 10-15 minute drive way out of my way to the other store to finally get my groceries, plus added that amount on to my drive home.

It was now like 3:40 so I decided to call my mom and make sure she remembered to get her clothes out of the dryer. No answer on her cell phone. Tried 5 minutes later, no answer again. Waited another 5 minutes and tried her new landline # and she answered. She said she just got back with her clothes. Hopefully she did, haha! At least the landline worked! When I hooked it up, she seemed to remember this was familiar from all the years of having a phone like that on her desk, so that was good. 

When I as on hold with the phone company mom was looking at her cell phone and said it shows you called me 6 times today? I said no, YOU called me 6 times! She said "I did? what for?" I rattled off a few things. Then she said well, next time just tell me to knock it off! We got a good laugh at that.

Got home and young neighbors had just stopped by for their little Batman to trick or treat. So, at least I got to see that. 

Dh just wanted soup for dinner, so thankfully I didn't have to turn around a make dinner when I got home. For some reason my back was bothering me again, so I took a bath to see if that helped. By 8:30 I was falling asleep in the recliner trying to read my book, so I just went to bed.

I also decided to see about ordering mom a couple more pair of jeans, since that is all she wants to wear. (she has oodles of other pants, just not jeans). I found some elastic waist type online at JCP, but wasn't sure what size. I looked at the pair I was putting in the wash and it was the exact same brand/style as I had found online, so that's most likely where she got them years ago. I'm going to just order her a couple pair. Trying to find something else to add to the order to bring it up to $75 for free shipping. Oh of course. I find something for her to add and I'm .02 cents still from free shipping. Story of my life.