Terrific (positive thinking) Tuesday

Back to work this morning. Well, for the first 5 hours anyway. Then we have to leave to take kitty in for his 2nd round of shots. I did end up logging into work yesterday for about a half hour to take care of something, so I'll count that towards today's hours and make up some when we get home and the rest of the week.

Speaking of kitty - ya, he already tried to climb up the big Christmas tree......it's going to be a long month, LOL.

Yesterday we ended up going to the city so dh could get a new floor jack. The one he has always had, is probably at least 40 years old and doesn't work anymore. He decided to just go with a bit cheaper one at Harbor Freight and feels it will work fine for what he uses for off and on. We also stopped at Home Depot as he now needs another one of those huge 55 gallon storage bins. 

Every year Mrs Neighbor decorates the 3 mailboxes out at the entrance to our street. No decorations this year. I'm sure that's a message, too, LOL. I have always thought it neat that she does that. I'm sure she always just decorated theirs, before the other 2 of us moved in, but once we put up boxes she just did all 3. I'm not doing it, if that's what she's thinking. We've done enough to cheer up the neighborhood with outside stuff and since that's always been her "thing" to do, I wouldn't want to feel like I was taking away something she has always done.

Pay day today. Bills are now paid. I still have yet to get a bill for the dr's that saw dh while he was in the hospital. Only received a bill for one, but claims processed show several (9 days worth). We will have to go back to the city in the next week or so. Dh's mechanic friend just wants cash for the transmission rebuild, rather than just giving him a check. Too bad we didn't know this yesterday while we were driving past our bank! I usually only go to the city on weekends, since I work weekdays, so I guess another trip. If it turns out he's coming back to put it in after the 8th, then we will just be able to pull the cash out when we go in for dh's prostate biopsy on the 8th.

I completed dh's health insurance application through the healthcare.gov website last month. I keep getting emails that say "finish your application". Every time I log in to double check it shows "application completed" with a confirmation code. Frustrating and confusing. My luck he'll end up with no insurance.

My neck is back to bothering me, with the headaches. My elbow is still an issue. Ugh. I'm going to order that neck extender thing I used to use at the chiropractors office. Elbow isn't as bad, but certainly not better. Mostly I'm just tired of the daily headache after I get up and my neck starts hurting more and more.

Monday off

I'm so glad I have today off. I kind of forgot it's Monday, LOL. I was on Facebook and dd just tagged me in a funny post and I'm thinking boy, she's up early at 7 her time. Then I remembered it's Monday, she's working.

Almost all the inside Christmas decor is put up. I just have some kitchen stuff and the one guest room to put on the Christmas duvet. I'll do that after I wash all the sheets today. 

Kitty has already tried to climb the big 12 ft tree......sigh........

DH sent me a link to a solar powered landscape light he wanted me to get to light the manger scene. I've been trying to order it from Home Depot online for 3 days. The screens just keep freezing up with the spinning circle. I finally got it in my cart and then couldn't get past that. So, this morning I tried logging in with a different browser and it worked fine. Of course, story of my life, I was $2 away from free shipping, then I remembered dh is out of electrical tape so I ordered a 10 pack rolls of that.

It was almost 60 degrees here yesterday. Very unusual for here this time of year and looks to be lasting a couple more days, mid 50's. 

When I called my mom yesterday to say hi, she did remember that she had been to my place for Thanksgiving. Honestly, I was kind of surprised she did.

Apparently the neighbors and neighbor down the road think our Christmas lights/display is a bit too much. One's response was to jumble one string of lights on the ground next to their driveway and plug it in (which was funny). The one down the road a mile told that neighbor "so, what? we have to start putting up lights now?" or something to that effect.  Dh told Mr. Neighbor we don't care what anyone else does. We like Christmas lights and decor for 5 or so weeks out of the year during the season and we do it for ourselves to enjoy. Dh said Mr. did say our place looks nice with the lights, though.              

Weekend fun

Ok - back to normal, haha! But, it was so nice having dd and her dh here for a few days. The left about 8:30 this morning. Friday after lunch dd and I took my mom back to her place. Dh and SIL were going to get that yard Christmas manger scene I bought after Christmas last year set up. After we got mom dropped off we went to Home Depot to buy a huge storage bin dh wanted. While in the store we get a message from dh that he wants a huge blow up snowman. I messaged back OMG - are you serious?! Yep. We ended up coming home with an 11 ft Santa! along with a snowman and friends. Go big or go home ;)

After getting home around 3:30 that afternoon the rest of the afternoon was spent doing more inside Christmas decorations, while the guys did the inflatables. Plus they had a minions Christmas inflatable to put up. While I worked on putting some various Christmas stuff downstairs around the house, dd decorated the 7ft tree in the dining room. I still have lots to do, but at least 2 trees are done. That evening after leftovers turkey dinner, we played a game dd brought called Mexican dominoes or something like that. That was fun to do. We never did end up watching a movie this weekend.

Saturday we took about an hour and a half drive and toured an old prison and car museum. The old prison was really neat, but boy was it cold as we just had light sweaters or jackets on. We hadn't planned on being outdoors, but it was worth it to see that old prison, originally built back in like 1880 and closed in 1980. Then we drove about another 20 minutes to the town dh's mom grew up in and found the house she grew up in and dh took some pics and we went to look at the huge mine her dad had worked in as a the paymaster, but the visitor part was closed.

We got back at 5:30 yesterday evening and got to see our yard lit up from the road. I think we did good! Though we need a light to shine on the manger scene at night.

We were all pretty tired from the busy day and lots of walking. We just had turkey sandwiches and snacks and lazed on the couches for the evening. DH was doing more history searching online about the old prison.

I still have a ton of inside decorating to finish. Still need to do the garland on the stair railings and everything to do upstairs. But I have today and tomorrow, as I have tomorrow off work.

Mostly I think I need a nap!

Post Thanksgiving

Whew! It's been an exhausting couple of days. I got my mom picked up - at 2pm!! I lost count how many times I had to tell her what time, but at least besides the 3 calls before I left my house to pick her up, there weren't any more, which was surprising. After picking her up I got my Walmart order picked up, which for once went smoothly and we were back to my house around 3:30. Dinner was just leftover taco soup and some french bread. DD and her dh got here around 7pm. I think mom went to bed around 8:30 or 9.

After getting back with mom I totally forgot about making the pie. I had gotten premade crust with my grocery order. So at 9:30 I said to dd "feel like making a pie?" LOL. The 4 of us were still catching up anyway and I got to bed about 11. The pie was supposed to cool 2 hours and then go in fridge, so I had to set my phone alarm to wake me back up to do that. 

Yesterday was good. DD brought lots of delicious snacks. Turkey and all the trimmings dinner was ready about 3pm. In between the morning prep and waiting for turkey to get done son in law helped dh carry down the big 12 ft Christmas tree from the storage upstairs, which was a huge help. He set up the bottom section (there are 5 sections to it) and I started unfluffing it. What a job. Mom started to help and I thought oh this is a good activity for her, but she only did a couple branches and said standing there hurt her back, which I totally get. Mine was getting sore too, bent over to that first level.

My elbow was a little better but of course using it all day didn't help. Plus my neck was bothering me again and by dinner prep time I had a headache. DD has always been a great cleaner upper of all the dinner dishes. She and her dh just got Netflix so we turned that on our tv and started watching a funny "cowboy life" show. DH and SIL fell asleep. My mom kept saying "we can watch something else if you want" LOL. DD and I were like no, this is good. She must have asked me 30 times what time I was taking her home. She didn't end up going up to bed until like 9:30, which I was kind of surprised she was up that late.

Then over the next few hours my mom got totally confused. She kept saying as she was going to bed that she was going to set her alarm. I kept saying no need. We have all morning to get ready and not taking you home until after lunch. I went to bed at 11. About 20 minutes or so later dd tapped on my door (she was still up) saying Grandma is awake and doesn't know where her purse is. I said well, it was in her red bag when she brought it in from the car. DD went back up and helped her look but couldn't find it. She just told her it's here somewhere and we'll have to find it in the morning.  DD also told me she must have messed with the alarm clock because it now said 3am. Then she got up another time standing up at the stair railing that overlooks down into the living room and asked dh what time it is. Then a little after midnight dh woke me up because he accidentally got something in his eye. I had to get it out with a q-tip.

I noticed the bedroom light on up in the guest room mom was in, so I went upstairs to check on her. Just as I got to the top of the stairs she had closed her bedroom door, but I went over and tapped and opened it. She was standing there by the door, light still on, holding her cellphone open and looks all surprised to see me and says something like "oh, it's you!". I asked her if she was ok. She said she was confused. Boy howdy was she. She had no idea where she was or what time of day it was. I told her she is at my house and then she calmed down some. She was worried about her purse, worried she couldn't lock the door, worried about setting the alarm to get up in the morning. I found her purse under the comforter. Explained she's at my house and the bedroom doors don't lock, but all the doors to outside downstairs are locked and got her clock fixed to 12:20am. I told her it's after midnight and time to go to sleep. She said she was ok now and was going to sleep.

So, of course I hardly slept, worrying about her. I think I got 5 hours sleep last night. And she woke up, just like everything reset. No memory of last night and told us all she slept great. She was her "normal" self all morning. We had a nice breakfast. Did some tree decorating and then had some lunch and took her back to her place. I'm sure she was happy to get back where she's comfortable and knows her surroundings well and her routine. Poor mom.

Quick post

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I think I'm going to take today off from a long blog post. Even typing a bunch now causes pain up at my elbow. I've lost count how many times my mom has asked me now what time I am coming and what time she is going back. I know she wants to let the front desk know and for meals and I'm sure she's told them just as many time now. I can't even imagine how many calls I'm going to get today between now and when I pick her up at 2pm.

I have a little to-do list of things to get done before I go pick her up. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the vacuuming upstairs and mopping downstairs done. I'm right handed and probably wouldn't even be able to move my arm when I get done. Ugh. I'll see what I can do using my left hand/arm.

We got a dusting of snow last night. Very pretty outside this morning.

Tuesday before 6 days off

I'm trying to do a better job this year of staying on top of things I need to do for holidays. Like I really haven't sent out Christmas cards in years....except I have a box of cards leftover from years ago and usually get 2-3 cards from friends, so then I send one back out. This year I decided I'm getting some new cards and sending out cards. I ordered a box of Christmas cards from Amazon that are supposed to be here next week. I also told dh to ask our great UPS guy when the extra drivers start filling in, because I always wait until like the week before Christmas and then he's not the one delivering. I want to get him something nice this year. He has been so good to us. He always texts dh to let him know he's getting close (and dh will usually meet him out at the gate), dh had enjoyed chatting with him all the time, and he's also stopped by a few times and picked up packages from us to go out. I'm trying to decide what to get him. I have a Harry and David catalog and they always have nice food baskets, or maybe something from Hickory Farms. Whatever I decide I want to get it ordered this week. DH said if we start getting the fill in driver(s) then we will just wait and give it to him after Christmas, when he's back as our regular driver. I'm like how come he's doesn't get to stay our regular driver? He has to stay as someone's regular driver, LOL. Why is it never us? Maybe I'm imaging it, but it does sure seem like the prices for these boxed food gifts have gone up. 

For a couple years now I have been ordering my dog food from Amazon subscribe and save, along with other dog treats and whatnot I need monthly. Pretty much since Covid, most of my extra dog stuff is unavailable to ship - every single month, but the dog food has always shipped. Now I just got notification that that is not going to ship this month. It's not a dog food you can get at a grocery store or big box store. I can get it through Chewy or pick up at a feed store in the city. Ordering it from Amazon was just a bit cheaper and more convenient. Plus it was shipped via UPS and dh prefers UPS to deliver her vs. FedEx. I will probably just start picking some up at the feed store when I need to get my chicken feed and bedding. And Chewy's website has been changed. Takes forever to load and there isn't even a box to type in what you are looking for. I think when we take my mom back home on Friday, I'll put in a pick up order at the feed store. I'm getting low on chicken feed anyway.

Dh's mechanic friend is coming sometime today to pick up the transmission they took out of dh's pickup, to take back with him to be rebuilt. He didn't say what time, but dh got up when I got up at 7, as he assumed friend would probably be coming sometime in the morning, as he has a 7 or so hour drive back to his home. I hate dh getting up early. He throws off my morning schedule and he's crabby. He never feels good when he first gets up anyway and takes him about an hour to feel like he can get started with his day.

My mom took her evening pill fine yesterday, so I'm hoping the accidentally choosing skip was just a one time mistake. I guess I'll know here in the next 15 minutes or so, as it's now time for her morning pills.

DD told me yesterday that she is only working half day (which for her is like being done at 10:30am) tomorrow so they can get on the road and out of their area before afternoon commuter traffic. And she said they decided to stay until Sunday morning, rather than leaving Saturday afternoon. Yay!! More time with them is always a good thing. DH asked what time they were getting here and I said sometime Wed evening. He said "did you be sure to tell her for them and their 2 dogs to make as much noise as possible when they pull in and get out of their truck? and pull in sideways so that their headlights are shining on neighbors windows and leave them on for a half hour". She also said they have picked out some movies to watch and that her dh is a good movie picker. I'm glad I gave them that task, LOL. First she was going to bring some dvds, but I said I don't have our dvd player plugged into the tv and not sure if I could even get it plugged in up there now. Best to just find something streaming and I don't mind if we have to rent a movie or two via streaming. She said they have always been on his parents Netflix account and she's been wanting to just have their own account, so she kind of hinted to her dh that if they had their own Netflix they could sign in here for some movies and he said sure. Then she said she'll give me the log in and my own "profile" and I can now use their account. Sweet :)

Dh is being grumpy because of course it's almost 10am and friend still has not shown up. "this is rude, he could have at least given me a time". How about you just text him and ask?? and what does it matter what time? you aren't doing a damn thing today anyway, so when he shows up he shows up. 

So, I always forget something for Thanksgiving. This time I forgot to buy the premade pie crust for the pumpkin pie I want to make tomorrow morning. Oh well, I'll just do scratch crust. Probably won't be good, but it'll pass. My grandma was always the good pie crust maker and even in later years, after they came out with the premade, she she started using them, saying they were just as good.

Oh Monday!

I really didn't accomplish much at all yesterday. My elbow was hurting any time I moved it. Even to just grasp something in my hand made it hurt. I kept putting the heating pad on it off and on all day. Really annoying.

I have this cute little sugar bowl that used to be my grandma's. The top and spoon are silver and it was time again to polish it up, so it looks nice with guests coming to use it.

Yep, that's all I did yesterday! I went upstairs to the guest bedroom where I had left the washed Christmas duvet cover and decided I didn't feel like wrestling the comforter inside it, especially with my elbow hurting, so I folded it up and left it there :(  DD can help me next Friday get it swapped over to Christmas decor.

I spent some time online putting together a grocery pickup order for Wednesday. Back to Walmart, since Albertson's was a bust. I really don't even remember what I did (or rather didn't do)  yesterday. But I must have done something between getting up at 7 am and taking a nap at 2pm. Oh, I did do some ironing of 2 pillow cases and 2 shams. They came out of the wash the day before super wrinkly. I haven't iron anything in so long. What's up with the wrinkles not coming all the way out of cotton?? While I got the big wrinkles out, I kept spraying with water and ironing and still you could see faint wrinkles that would just not come out. I had the iron set on the cotton setting and it seemed plenty hot. Maybe my iron is just getting old. I've had it for probably at least 20 years, but it was good one.

The neighbors to be were at the property yesterday (at least it wasn't a drive up, turn around and leave visit this time) but they literally spent like 5 minutes standing there staring down at the survey stake their surveyor placed right in front of the original one that was already there......we could see them from dh's den window. We were kind of laughing with each other wondering what in the world they could be thinking/saying to each other looking at it for 5 minutes, LOL. "Well, dear, I guess his fence is inside his side of the property line" "Well, dear, we apparently don't get an extra 3 inches of property". I don't know, LOL. It'was just weird.  

DH kept pretty busy all day, but didn't over do it. He cleaned out 2 gutters at the back of the house (from all that wind and rain we had recently) and then used the leaf blower to blow off all the million of fir needles all over the patios and driveway. His mechanic friend called again. Now he's not going home until Tuesday, so won't be stopping by until then to pick up the transmission to take with him. DH said if he keeps this up, he'll end up inviting himself for Thanksgiving dinner, LOL.

When dh came to bed last night he said he remember he had one of those elbow wrap support things from when he injured his elbow. I had forgotten about that. He said he left it on my counter in the bathroom. I was thinking to myself it's probably too big. I remember buying it and think I got a Large, of course.  He got up this morning when I was making my coffee and said he'd help me put it on. I said it's probably too big and he's like it's adjustable! I said I know but it's still a large, LOL. And I have small arms/bones. He ended up having to wrap the velcro straps around my arm twice, haha! Before he put it on I had used my arm a bit this morning to feed the dog and it wasn't hurting quite as bad as yesterday, at least. The elbow wrap does seem to feel like it's giving it some support now, too.

My mom called me yesterday. I was surprised to see she called from the new landline phone. But that's good. Means she actually remembered it's there on her desk and knew how to push the button with my name on it to call me. She did remember now she is coming for Thanksgiving, but still can't remember when and then keeps saying "and you're taking me back Thursday after dinner?" No, we'll take you back Friday.

oh goodness me! I just got a notification on the medication system app that my mom chose to skip this mornings dose. Well, that's a new one that hasn't happened yet. The menu on the front of it will be highlighted at "dispense". Below that is "skip" (wish it wasn't there!). She would have to push down below the push button to get it to move down to skip. I'm sure she did accidentally. She then called me as she tried to push dispense button again but of course now it told her this feature is locked, contact your caregiver. I had to call the company. I was impressed that someone answered the phone right away and was able to help explain to me how to dispense. She had to push the down button several times to get to "skipped/missed dose" on the menu and then press the ok button. She has her morning meds dispensed now. Whew! I just hope her accidentally pressing the down button to "skip" doesn't become a new thing she keeps doing. 

Ok, that's enough excitement for one morning. Not to mention my dog came upstairs this morning and decided he wanted to play with the kitty, LOL. There was some rambunctiousness going on. No wonder dh got up a bit earlier, haha.

Miscellaneous weekend chores

I had 2 laughs yesterday. The first was I called my mom to say hello and she was busy with wii bowling so she answered with "I'll have to call you back". About a half hour later she did call back. I was like well, she actually remember to call me! Yay! Then the next words out of her mouth were "what are your Thanksgiving plans?"......and then I tell her again I am picking her up on Wednesday and again she has to act like this is some huge inconvenience for me. No, it's just a 40 minute drive. I have to go to the city anyway to pick up some groceries. 

And then an hour later she remembered to call me back - again! LOL

The second was I had gotten kitty some toys when I ordered his food and litter. One is a plastic stick with a stuffed bird on the end of string attached to it. I was taking off the bedding in one of the guest bedrooms to wash everything and see the stick part sticking out from under the bed. I take it out and play with kitty a bit and then start to walk downstairs with it, him following. As I got downstairs was my mom's 2nd call, and I dropped the toy to the ground. As I'm talking to her I hear kitty dragging it back up stairs and when I went back up there he had put it back under the bed! too funny.

DH pretty much spent all day (and all his energy) putting up the Christmas lights. He doesn't have a ladder tall enough to get up on the gables and dormers. He'd probably need a lift to do something like that, not to mention he really isn't a big fan of heights anyway. This will do. More than anyone else in practically the whole county bothers with. We still have some yard stuff to add. After Christmas we bought a manger scene and an inflatable minion. And we still need wreaths on the front patio and a few along the front fence.

I spent most of yesterday washing bedding. I have decided I am too old to wrangle with duvet covers anymore! I tried that rolling method with the smaller queen sized one. It seemed just as much work. Still need 2 people to be able to roll it on each side. I only had me and kept having to walk back and for around the end of the bed to each side of the bed to make one roll. Then I got to the end and couldn't get it to fold over the roll. I gave up and did it the old way, LOL. I did one guest bed and my king sized bed. Then I washed the Christmas duvet cover for the other guest bed. I store it in a plastic zippered bag, but it still smelled musty. I decided to wait and put it on today. I also vacuumed downstairs and before I pulled off the duvet from our bed I decided to try out the pet hair attachment. I hadn't tried it on my first purchase of this vacuum. No matter which vacuum I've had over the years those pet hair attachments were always pretty worthless. But, I wanted to get some of the black dog fur off, before I put it in the washing machine. The thing worked like a charm!

I'm really glad I decided to get the bedding all done and ready early, rather than wait until my day off Wednesday. I tend to procrastinate and think I can get everything done when I really can't.

DD had messaged me that her USPS informed delivery was showing something being delivered from some wreath company. She didn't order it and was wondering what in the heck. Turns out it was a gift from their new investment account lady. I said, huh. All's grandma got from her investment guy after being a customer is a picture of him and his 2 assistants, LOL.

We have 2 out of state friends we always send some sort of Christmas gift to. This year I've decided to send them the Corinthian Bells wind chimes. I think both will like them just as much as we love ours. DD loves the one I gave her.

Dh's mechanic friend was supposed to stop by on his way back home today, to pick up the transmission they pulled out of dh's truck, but he called yesterday and said he decided he's not heading back home until Monday. I told him he'll be here LOL. I was kind of glad to hear it's now Monday, haha. I'll be busy working.

Oh my elbow is sooooo sore! I have not slept on it the last 2 nights and am being so careful, but I think it hurts more now.

 

Maybe, hopefully

I was messaging with my boss yesterday about something related to payroll and we both brought up how impressed we are with our newly assigned payroll person at the payroll company. My boss said she had been trying to run some report and couldn't get the info so she called her to get help. Turns out some reporting things never got turned on at their end and is info/reports we should have easily had access to all along. Then my boss said she was trying to run reports that showed dates of salary changes and salaries. Hmmm...I am really hoping that means some damn raises are in the works! Because my last salary increase date was almost 3 years ago and same for almost everyone else. Maybe not in my case, but for those employees that live and work out of the office, in that major metropolitan area, I'm sure a lot of them would now have other opportunities to find higher paying jobs, with the way the job market is now. It's hard to feel valued and appreciated when you haven't seen a raise in 3 years. My dd and her dh work for a huge huge company and one of the reasons dd got such a large salary increase is that they want to make sure to keep employees and keep up with what other companies are offering. Plus they also increased their benefits. My company needs to get on the ball with this. They have really slid back the past 2-3 years, where before they were always ahead of the curve. I can understand not getting bonus's because we haven't met sales goals, but performance reviews and salary increases should still be on the table for all of us. Another thing that kind of irks me. About 4 years or so ago the company spent a buttload of money to hire these "office culture consultants". It really did nothing of benefit that I can see, and that money would have been more well spent on the employees salaries and or benefit packages.

I think we are going to skip going to visit friend today and dh is going to get started putting up all the Christmas lights outside. I'm going to start getting ready for Thanksgiving and having guests. I do have Wednesday off as a vacation day, but I'm really going to try to get as much prepared before then, rather than try to get it all done Wednesday (my normal modus operandi) and be exhausted by the end of the day.

We've been letting kitty outside a little bit and training him what door to use. He's got that down. And being a typical cat he likes to go out in the dark, LOL. And it's darker early now. DH let him out after dinner last night. The past couple of times he's only been gone like 10 or 15 minutes and comes back to the door to be let in. Last night it was almost an hour! We were both getting a little worried. I tried calling him 3 different times. Then all of a sudden he was at the patio door and wanted in. He slept with us again last night and stayed until just before I got up. I think he's getting all this figured out.

I told dd she and her dh are in charge of figuring out a movie or two to watch Thanksgiving evening and/or Friday evening. Usually we.....and by we I mean I, will find a movie for us all to watch. So, I'm hoping they will have something figured out to watch or rent online and I don't have to scroll through trying to figure out what the 4 of us would like. I told her don't worry about it also being something Grandma would like to watch. Pretty much now when she is at my house and I turn the tv on she picks up her crossword puzzle book and does that, as she doesn't have much interest anymore as she can't really follow a storyline. If nothing else, dd will have 7 hours in the drive over to find something, haha.

Well, time to get back down the the kitchen and see if I can even make room for this big turkey. I wish I could have gotten one a couple pounds smaller but they didn't have a lot there last weekend and it was either like 12# or 20# or bigger, there was nothing in between. I did pick up some canned yams at our town store yesterday, so I think I have everything now but the rolls. My plan is to pick those up when I go get my mom on Wednesday.

 

Friday this and that

This week sure has gone by fast. It was at least a success in that my mom hasn't unplugged anything this week, but hey, the week ain't over yet, is it? We haven't heard anything on dh's MRI done last Monday. this morning I sent an email to the doctor, via Mychart. I know if I call I will not get through to even their front desk and would just have to leave a message anyway.

Kitty got to stay out of the cage all night last night. He's been going to bed with me most nights, but I've been putting him back up when dh comes to bed as he gets very rambunctious. Last night he was good and slept in between us, or so I thought. I woke up a few times thinking he was still there but obviously not, as he jumped back up on the bed at 7am. LOL.

I have to run into town sometime today to pick up dh's prescription refill. The pharmacy isn't open on weekends, and he took his last one this morning. While there we'll stop at the grocery store for a few things. This morning I gave dh dinner choice of either spaghetti tonight or pick up chicken from the deli. He chose the baked chicken from the deli, so that's what we'll do later this afternoon.

My neck is doing better. Still have the knot somewhat, but at least have not had the headache anymore. I think I figured out why my right elbow was hurting for a few days last week or so. I woke up last night with it hurting and realized I am sleeping on it in a weird position. So, now it's been hurting all morning, again. Hopefully, now that I know what's causing it, I can stop myself sleeping on it that way.

I think I should take the 20lb turkey out of the freezer tomorrow morning and put it in the refrigerator to start thawing. They always seem to take awhile. How soon do you do that?

We are thinking of taking a drive tomorrow to go see dh's friend. The one who stopped by on his way to his place over here, and took out dh's transmission for him. He's spending the week at his place, working on his log home that was only partially finished when he bought it. He's putting in some flooring or something. DH will see if he needs any help with anything and I've never seen his place, so might be nice to get out of the house for the day. I think it will all depend on how dh's feels when he gets up tomorrow. We have to play it day by day.

I was emailing with my side job lady. She was asking how to cut a check to help a long time employee out with something (how to handle it accounting wise). I gave her the answer and also said that is nice of them to do that for him. She said yes, her hubby does that all the time to help employees out with emergencies. I said yes he does! I remember years ago our 20 something year old furnace went out and it was an unexpected repair (winter of course) and I had asked him if it was ok if I cut my monthly check early because I needed to pay for this and he had me add extra to pay for the repair. I had forgotten about that! I think it was an extra $700 or $800 he gave me.

Neighbors and real estate

Our new neighbors-to-be (I'm going to have to come up with a name for them, haha. Can't  be Mr and Mrs Neighbor and certainly aren't our young neighbors at the end of the street) had someone out the other day doing a survey of the lots they just purchased. DH just shook his head and thought what a waste of money! I said ya, I could see if the original "monument" property corner marker weren't visible or not longer there (a lot of times over the years they end up getting buried a bit), but they are all visible and easy to find. So, why pay someone $$ to come out and survey? Do they think our fence is on their property? Dh isn't stupid. First off he found the corner markers when we bough it. The one up at the corner between us and our other neighbors got buried years ago when utilities got put in, but dh had a good idea where it was, from measuring over per out short platt drawing, and started digging. He found it and put another stake there, that sticks up above the ground. Mr and Mrs Neighbor were happy with that, too. So, of course this surveyor ended up putting his stakes and flags right next to where the property markers are, LOL. When we had our fence put up, dh strung the line from one corner post to the next, so he'd have his fence line and put our fence on our side just inside a bit.

I took Tuesday off from calling my mom. I do that every so often, especially if I have talked to her more than once the day before. Plus, that was the afternoon with the worst of the headaches and the headache was also making me feel nauseous. So, I called her yesterday afternoon. She is remembering that Thanksgiving is coming up and she keeps asking me what I am doing for Thanksgiving. I keep telling her I'm picking her up on Wednesday, the day before to stay at my house. She did write it down, so we'll see if that helps her to remember when we talk next. I've also told her a couple of times that dd and her dh are also coming, but that isn't sticking, which isn't a surprise. I don't think I mentioned this, but I did find out that her landline online account does show a call log. Nice. It had a whole bunch of spam calls, so I changed some settings to block and added her new # to the national do not call registry. That seemed to do the trick. There hasn't been any more spam/robo calls this week. I now can also see uncle seems to be calling her on this number now, rather than her cell. He had asked me if he should just call this number going forward and I said either one. I got this mostly as a back up when her cell isn't working.

Taking that 1/2 of a muscle relaxer pill the night before did help yesterday. While my neck still felt tight, I did not get a headache. I tried to stay in front of it all day. Took ibuprofen in the morning and used the little rice heating pad a few times during the day and did the stretching exercise. I decided to take the other half of the pill again last night, hoping what's left of the knot might reduce some more

During the winter dh puts these snow stakes along the driveway on each side. Partially for his own benefit so when it gets deep and he's plowing he knows where the edges of the driveway are. And for anyone coming into our driveway, so they aren't driving off. Part of the island in the middle of our driveway has big rocks along it. In a foot or two of snow that often builds up, you could not see those there.

We are letting kitty outside just a little bit by bit. We go out our living room patio french door and us and the dog would stay with him on the back patio. He wouldn't go to far away ever and then we'd go back inside. Tying to get him used to that is the door to use (so we can see when he wants back in, eventually). Usually in the early evening, when I'm sitting in the chair near that door, the dog will sit in front to tell me he needs to go out. Kitty is noticing he does this and goes and sits next to him, LOL. So we go out a minute. Lately he's been wanting to stay out a bit longer, so I let him and stand inside the door to watch. Within a minute he wants back in. The last couple of night, after it was dark, he didn't want to come right back in. The first night he was gone about 5 minutes and last night about 10 minutes and then he comes to the patio door and I let him back in.

DH likes to watch online the real estate market around us. Mostly on Zillow. He likes to see what goes up for sale, how much asking, if sold, etc. Though you can't see what things sold for. Haven't figured out how to find that yet, haha. Though I do find it interesting that our old house, in our previous state, does show on Zillow what it was sold for back in 2016. I wonder why that is. Our house in town, we sold in 2018 does not, it just shows what it was listed for and said sold with no price shown.

Anyhow, not too long ago, earlier this year sometime, a nice house about 5 miles from us went for sale. It's on the river, but even higher bank then we are. Home was built in the 1990's. It was nice, but inside did look a bit dated, but still nice. It sold very quickly and our memory is that they were asking close to a million dollars, it was something in the $900,000 range. I think it was on about 20 acres, too, maybe more. I think this was back last spring and it sold within weeks. Well, now it's listed again. DH says look, that place that just sold is for sale again. He started scrolling through the pics and I said it's been updated. The inside didn't look like that before. Looks like they updated some carpet and countertops.Then dh figured out someone sort of local, just bought it to update and flip. But, now they are only offering it with 5 of the acres. Now asking price? $1,395,000! 

It's only been on the market 11 days and yesterday it shows as a "price drop". By a whopping $10,000 LOL. I'm like if you've priced it too high at 1.4 million, ya - a little $10,000 price drop is not going to make a difference, LOL. They need to be dropping it like $50,000-$100,000, at least. And dropping it already, after only a week and a half on the market, tells me that that flipper needs the money and needs to get it sold. Stuff like that pisses dh off. It's the reason regular folks who live and work in this area cannot afford anything anymore. I don't think it will sell fast at all. Everything else around here that people are asking a million or more is taking awhile to sell. Like a year or so.

Go away

This pinched nerve/knot in the back of the right side of my neck is getting annoying. It was feeling better last week, after I used the small rice heating pad on it a few times. Then Monday it's back and by afternoon I end up with a terrible headache that nothing works on. I can feel the knot back there. The left side of the back of my neck is all smooth and kind of concaves in slightly. The right side you can feel the knot. I decided to take one of those old Flexeril pills I still have bunches left when I went to bed last night. Hoping it would release the knot. I sure slept good, of course. But woke up late (of course) and still feeling a bit slow and groggy. I'm not sure if it helped or not. The pain and headache is kind of a gradual thing that comes all day. Yesterday I also started doing some neck stretches my old chiropractor used to have me do. I'm trying to stay ahead of the pain/headache today. I took ibuprofen this morning and also have used the rice microwave heating pad on it.

We got some snow most of the day yesterday but it didn't really stick until later afternoon, so we have a dusting on the ground and in the trees, since it got below freezing.

I'm thinking of starting a second blog, just to write about what it's like to help take care of someone with progressing dementia. I know I talk about it a lot on here, and some of you probably get tired of it. But, I'm sure others, who are experiencing the same thing or who might be in the early stages with their loved one, might not mind reading about it on a regular basis. 

Sometimes I find the medical/science part of it all fascinating. Other times I just need to vent and rant because it can all be so frustrating and exhausting to deal with. I'm sure my dd gets tired of hearing about it, just about every day from me. This might provide me the outlet where I don't need to burden her with it every day.

So....as soon as I can think of a blog title, I'll start, LOL. Maybe.

Crazy weather

Dh's mechanic friend (I've also referred to him as "loud friend" LOL) came yesterday afternoon and took out the transmission from dh's pickup. He was on his way to his house/property about 90 minutes past us. He's slowly been finishing the log cabin home, that is not his permanent residence yet. He will stop back in Sunday (when the back up his pickup isn't loaded with building supplies) and pick up the transmission to take back with him to have fixed by another guy. He said that guy usually has transmissions back to him in a few days and then next trip over here, in a couple weeks, he'll bring back dh's transmission and get it put back in his truck.

While he's a super nice guy, he's so loud and very very know it all. He's the type of guy you can handle in small doses, haha. I know dh was kind of dreading him even being here for a few hours, not to mention he said he would have his dog (lab) with him, which we figured would be just hyper. But, dh said friend wasn't too bad and the dog was surprisingly well behaved. I said probably because friend does his mechanic work from home now and the dog is always with him and not left alone all day.

He left about 4pm. Then the winds started in. We'd had some strong gusts off and on during the day. I was making dh an omelette for dinner and thankfully was just about to fold it in half and get it on his plate when our power went out. Good thing I had planned to just have a bowl of cereal, LOL. And good thing earlier I had filled up the tub with water for toilet flushing, just in case. DH went and got out the little emergency lanterns we bought awhile back. They really light up bright. The power didn't come back on for about 2 hours. With it being 61 degrees out yesterday, at least we never got cold in the house at all or even needed to turn on our gas fireplace for heat.

Shortly after power went out my dd called. She said she needed "adult advice". That's her word for when something comes up she hasn't had to deal with yet in her young life, LOL. Though not funny in this instance. They were also experiencing a big wind storm and a big cedar tree in their back yard blew down and into their neighbors yard, at a minimum doing damage to neighbors fence and possibly their shed in back. Is this covered by insurance? Do we just give the neighbors our insurance information, like you do in a car accident? I said, yes it's covered and I would call your insurance company myself and check with them what you should do. She said her dh was going to call now. Then I got on my phone and googled the situation and was surprised to see it say that it was actually the neighbors insurance that would cover damage to their property from a neighbors tree. So, I called dd back to tell her, but said I'm sure her insurance will obviously know and clarify this. In the meantime she had sent some photos of the tree down to our family group chat. Dh told her he was afraid of that happening when they told us about all the other trees they had had removed from their backyard the past 2 summers. It takes away the support for the remaining tree(s). Dd then called me back to say her insurance company did say that the neighbors insurance would cover it and their neighbors had called their insurance and was told the same. I did not know that's how it worked. Good to know. 

DD and her dh, being the conscientious and good neighbors that they are, offered to chip in on the neighbors deductible. Once they all could get through the limbs and branches a bit they could see that the shed did not get damaged, only the fence. So, it was not nearly as bad as it could have been, that's for sure. A couple hours later dd sent me a sweet message:

Thanks for being a phone call away and being a helpful mom. R called his parents too and while I understand it's not a thing everyone knows what to do in the situation, they were no help at all and were more concerned with telling us about stuff they're remodeling in the house and progress with that today. Like, I don't care, I just had a tree come down that very well could have landed on my house. Lol. So, you da best!

While I had a little reprieve last week from my pinched nerve in my neck and headaches from it, it came back yesterday. I took Tylenol first. Then Aleve later. Nothing helped. While the power was out I went and took a nap. I remembered some neck stretching exercise my old chiropractor used to tell me to do, so I am going to try that. I need one of those things I used to use at his office every so often, that you wrap around your neck and pump it up to stretch out the neck for 5 or 10 minutes.

Ok, time to get some clothes on and take mail to the mailbox to go out. It's the beneficiary form on my mom's retirement account. I also emailed the assistant and let her know I am putting in today's mail and she should see it in a few days.

 

Halfway through Monday already

Dh has his MRI this morning to follow up on his pancreas. The GI dr had wanted to look at it 6 weeks out from his endoscopy (or however long it's been) to see what the pancreas tail looks like. Not sure when we'll get the results. It was nice that it was able to be scheduled at the mobile MRI unit at our town hospital, so we didn't have to drive to the city for it. Last night he asked if I was going with him. I asked do you need me to? His reply was well, they might ask about insurance...I rolled my eyes and said then you hand them your insurance card...this morning he decided I should go, because he was having an MRI w/contrast and what if something happened to him? we only have one working vehicle and what if he couldn't drive, what if...Fine. As they flip flop every time we are there whether they will let another person come in with the patient, today was a no. I would have went and waited in the car anyway as we were parked out by the trailer the MRI is done in.

His mechanic friend is supposed to come today to take out the transmission from his pickup. 

I'm barely back to work and now see the power is out at the office, which explains why I got disconnected from my remote connection, LOL. Before it went out I was able to set up my new voicemail greeting on our new phone system. I did the recording from my webcam speaker and the playback kind of sounds like I'm in a tin can. I think I'll see if I can do it from my phone to have a better sounding greeting. Nope, I can't figure out how to access the voicemail menu. Oh well. At least I finally have working voicemail again.

While I was waiting for dh to get done with the MRI my mom called. She didn't think she had taken her morning meds but it wasn't dispensing. I looked at told her she did take them 20 minutes earlier. This is so good to have this info available to me. I honestly cannot believe she wasn't doubling up on med doses before!

I was outside yesterday for a couple minutes and was like boy, it sure feels warm out here. I went inside and looked at our thermostat and it was 61 outside. Same today. Pretty warm for mid November around here. Weather to be colder next week, but no snow, so should be ok for dd and her dh to travel over here and spend a few days for Thanksgiving.

Still no power back on at the office. Been chatting via our Teams messaging with my boss, who has the day off, LOL.

Sunday morning quiet

I picked up a premade pizza from the deli for our dinner last night. As dh said, not near as good as my home made pizza, but we were both hungry and managed to eat all but one piece. While I was gone yesterday dh did some work out in his shop to hang his air compressor reel/hoses up on the wall between 2 of the garage doors. He screwed some boards he cut and stained into the wall in between the garage doors to help support the reels. Well, apparently the stupid guy who installed our garage door openers ran the wiring right down the stud and stapled to the stud and dh screwed right through a wire so that garage door opener wouldn't work anymore. He hated that guy the minute he showed up and dh has never felt he did a very good job and then this just proved it. He was like who staples stuff in front of the stud? you're supposed to run wiring down the sides of a stud. So, he found some temporary wiring he had and at least got it to work again. He's going to order the correct wiring and re do it.

His mechanic friend who was supposed to come today and take out his transmission canceled, of course. Not sure now when he will come. It's not like this is a favor type deal. We are paying him.

Looking through Facebook this morning and I see dd and her dh were tagged in some pictures. Looks like they all got to go out and have some fun at a hockey game and looks like they got to sit in a suite, haha. DH and I got to sit in a suite at a pro basketball game one time. It's the way to go, LOL.

My cat is a tv watcher. Crazy kitty. Last night it was the scene in The Proposal where the dog is getting chased and picked up by the eagle. The last 2 evenings dh has taken a nap reclined back in his recliner with the soft blanket over him. Kitty just totally lays in his lap and zonks out and looks so comfortable. He loves going to bed with me and plays just for a minute or so and then sleeps. Until dh comes to bed few hours later and then it's play time and I have to take him back upstairs.

Oh and the new beneficiary form that was supposed to be mailed to my address was mailed to mom's. At first the assistant told me she was mailing it to me. Then she called and said it was getting mailed out of their corporate office back east, so would take a little longer to get to me. But, she didn't say it was getting mailed to mom's address. But I found it yesterday, mixed in between all her tv guides and crossword puzzle books. Good thing I did a thorough look. She used to be good about setting mail on her desk or her kitchen table. She doesn't usually put mail she's opened with her tv guides (plural because she doesn't throw the old ones out) and crossword puzzle books. 

oh good grief. I just logged into Walmart to find something I need to order shipped. Now my "home" store is showing as Sacramento CA. Thank god it's not, LOL.

Stupid Saturday

Another bad grocery pick up experience. Got a text from Albertson's about 3 hours before my scheduled pick up time that my order is being canceled because they do not have staff available to do curbside orders. OMG! Just great. Now I had to re write out my grocery list and take an hour to shop. What a complete waste of time yesterday to get online and do up the order. Guess I won't be trying to ever order from them again.

Only 3 calls this morning from mom before I got there (6 last trip). First one was this morning saying did you say you were coming today? Yes, I'll be there at noon and I'm bringing lunch for us to eat. Call 2 at 11:30. "where are you?" I'll be there at noon and I'm bringing lunch for us to eat. Then she says she'll meet me downstairs so she can help me carry it up. Ok, I didn't bother to tell her it's only one bag of food. Then she calls a 3rd time. "I'll have you pull up by the front door to hand me the stuff so you don't have to park and carry it". No, it's one bag of food, I'll just park and meet you inside. Then she said something about a suitcase and I thought she meant my purse.

I get inside and the lady working today at the  front desk asks me how long I'm staying and I say oh, an hour and a half or so. She says "oh, your mom thought you are staying overnight, so I was going to add you for a dinner meal.". Oh no, not overnight, LOL (Like where would I sleep? LOL). As we are going up the elevator mom says "boy this is a long day for you to come and see me". I'm like no, I just live about 40 minutes away. I'm not sure what she's thinking, but obviously isn't quite remembering how far away I am. We had lunch and then I got out my tape and taped plug ins. I see what she did with that med dispenser I taped in thick blue tape to her wall. Unplugged it, wrapped the blue tape around the big plug in and put it back in upside down and had her microwave unplugged again. I plugged it back in and retaped the tape that says "do not unplug" across it. She suggested putting a note above it that says do not touch, so we did. Then I took the electrical tape and taped the plug in to the back of the machine and the same thing on the 3 things that plug into the back of her modem. Hopefully that works. I used lots of tape, too.

Then I turned her computer on. Wi-fi wasn't working so I got that going again. And for some reason her background and the background for every app/program was black. It took me a bit of googling to figure out what setting to fix that. No clue how that got turned to black. The whole time I'm trying to figure it out she's yakking away "is it this? is it that?" Then the best one: she said if I can't figure out out, she's sure her guy friend could. LOL Then I remembered to log into her internet/phone account so I can get her 4 digit code to log into it from my computer. It's on auto pay, but I want to see if they have anything that shows a call log like her cell phone does.....

Since I had to take an hour or so to grocery shop this afternoon, I skipped doing her laundry. I will be picking her up before Thanksgiving to have her here a few days, so I will get all her laundry then and bring it to do when we get here that Wednesday afternoon. And with getting upset that my grocery order got cancelled and having to take time to write up a new list I totally forgot to bring her new jeans with me. Grrrr!

I hate grocery shopping LOL. If I was going to do it myself I sure wouldn't do it on a Saturday afternoon at peak people time! I didn't really even have that much stuff but the cart was full and no more room. Finally got checked out - slow checker, plus she had to bag it all herself. I get it pushed out to my car and think "ugh! now I have to load it in the car, too" LOL.  I texted dh that I was heading home and that grocery shopping sucks and he said "see, you miss having me as a fun shopping buddy!" LOL.

And I still don't have canned yams.......

TGIS (thank god it's saturday)

I kind of enjoyed placing my grocery order online with Albertson's. I even got to add digital coupons to things I was buying with links they supply. It was nice to look through their ad and also see what was on sale. Well, I noticed Del Monte canned veggies for .69 which is a very good stock up price, so I ordered some of each to stock up. In the ad was also a coupon (can be added digitally too) for a Butterball frozen turkey for .99/lb (reg 1.99/lb) if spend $25. In previous years with them (and other stores) I've seen $50 min orders. I want to go inside and actually pick out my own size (I want closer to 16#, not 22, LOL), so I will run in and do that after they get my order loaded. I will grab a few other things to get myself to $25. I also want to pick out my own bananas. DH now has cut up bananas on his Cheerio's every morning and doesn't like them super ripe. If I get a bunch that is all the same ripeness they get too ripe before I can finish them and then I have to run to the store in town again in a few days. My last trip into the town grocery store the other day I got 2 just turned yellow and 2 green. That should work better, so that is what I will do tomorrow to pick up some more, get the greenest possible.

I also liked that when you choose your pick up time, they give you from that time until 8pm that same day to pick up. No hour window. It was also quicker/easier to order as everything online is for pick up,  not mixed pick up and shipping, like Walmart is now.

The main page said there was a $30 off coupon code for your first pick up order, but it wouldn't let me use it. I got a pop up that said only valid on your first order....it was my first order! I never could get it to work, oh well. 

So, with a Butterball turkey only being .99/lb and even $1.99 at reg price, I'm not sure where these news articles I've been reading/hearing that the cost of Thanksgiving dinner this year has tripled. I'm finding it to pretty much be the same cost as previous years. In fact, last couple of years I have not gotten a discount on a turkey, so this year will actually be cheaper for me than the past few years.

I decided to go see my mom when lunch starts today. I told her I will stop at Arby's and bring some sandwiches for us to eat. She seemed to really like that plan. That way I'm not trying to be there and gone before lunch or have to wait to get there until after lunch. I'm not leaving my house until just before 11, so I have all morning to get stuff done. I'll be home around 3 or 3:30, so not too late. I can get her laundry going right away and get it all dried and back to her apartment before I leave to. I have 2 new pair of jeans to bring her, hopefully she will remember about them and start wearing them. I'm going to find out where she keeps her jeans (I think she hangs in closet) and put these either right next to or on the same hanger. I need to take a look at her computer while I'm there. I'm sure it's fine, but she thinks it's having issues. I'm not sure there is much more I can do with it to simplify it. I only have her browser and her solitaire games as the 2 icons on her desktop. Several years ago we got her an ipad to play games on and that worked for awhile, but then she forgot about it, couldn't keep the charger with it. When I was moving her here I never did find the charger for it. Got her a new charger, but the ipad just sat there on her tv stand shelf. Finally, I took the ipad to use, as it's a bit more updated than mine that is so old, LOL. 

I ordered all the cans of various beans to make taco soup. It's that time of year/weather when taco soup sounds good and it makes so much I'll have lots to freeze for future meals this coming winter. I'm glad I'm getting the stuff to make it, as dh's long time mechanic friend is coming to take the transmission out of his pickup. He's going to take it back with him to another friend of his who rebuilds transmissions. This option is going to be thousands cheaper than who dh had originally planned on getting it done at. All the hospital/doctors bills put a wrench in that plan. He'll be here tomorrow, so this will be a good dinner for us, and I make it in the crockpot so it can just simmer warm until they are ready to eat. DH said he's also bringing his dog with him. I'll probably leave kitty up in my office, then. My dog is the calmest statue around silly kitty, but I'm not sure how this dog would react to a curious cat and I don't need a big dog crashing through my house chasing a cat!

Now that friend is coming tomorrow to help dh, I'm glad I'm going to see mom/get groceries today, instead. Plus, there is not supposed to be any rain today, like tomorrow, so better day to drive 50 miles each way.

Happy it's Friday

Boy, I was pretty close to what dh's gallbladder surgery cost in total. I guessed about $15,000 and it was around $15,600. With this billing he maxed out his out of pocket for the year and we only owe like $630 of it. I still have not gotten the bills from the local hospital for the physicians that saw him in the hospital. I think I got one is all and also at the same time the bill for his follow up appt a week later. I don't know why we haven't gotten the bills for the doctor(s) that saw him each day. The claims have been processed quite some time ago, it appears. I called the hospital 2 or 3 weeks ago to inquire. She looked him up and said their billing company (back East) just sent out a billing. But when it got here it was only for one day's dr visit in the hospital and that follow up appt. 

DD went to call my mom this afternoon and her cell phone is going straight to voicemail, still. Same as when I tried to call last night. DD then called on landline (I'm so glad I put that in!). I told her don't even mention her cell phone. Maybe she'll eventually forget about even using it.....I also told her since she is calling her today, I'm taking the day off from calling, LOL. I'll call her tomorrow and let her know I'm coming on Saturday. I need to figure out what time.

My mom called after dinner last night. She must have got her cell phone charged again. It was actually a pretty normal type of conversation for a change of late. She was wondering about Thanksgiving and wanted to let me know that if I didn't want to have to go get her, her senior living place is having a Thanksgiving dinner for the residents. I told her I'm doing dinner and will be having her stay here for a couple of days and that dd and her dh were also coming. I told her I have to make dinner, it's dh's favorite meal! She said since she couldn't help prepare/cook anymore she wanted to help pay for it. I of course said oh that's not necessary, but she said it would make her feel really good, and that she has plenty of money and wants to spend some of it now. I told her thank you :) I get it, she wants to feel like she is contributing and helping. The part of all this memory loss I don't like is today she won't remember she offered that, LOL. But, it was nice to have a more normal conversation with her. I asked her if it snowed at her place and she said yes it was a little earlier in the day but then turned to rain and I said same at my house.

A week or so ago dh suggested I get another vacuum like the Shark one I got awhile back, so I'd have one upstairs and one downstairs and not have to carry it up and down. I had gotten such a good deal on the first one. A little over $100 for it. I looked online earlier this week and Macy's had it on sale at $220 and Kohl's at $249. Even with a coupon code it was still around $180. I decided to wait and see if maybe a better deal on Black Friday sales. Then I got a 30% off coupon code in the mail from Kohls the other day, that started on 11/11. I went back online yesterday and wooo! now the vacuum was $220, plus the 30% off plus like 3 or 4 other coupon codes it let me stack. With coupon codes and Kohl's cash I will get back, brought it down to $110, which is what I think I paid for the first one. So, I ordered it. I really have liked the vacuum so far and it will be nice not to have to carry it up and down the stairs. It has a self cleaning brushroll, which with all the long pet hair I deal with from our dog, it has worked well for me. The very expensive Dyson I have, I had to stop and cut out the fur (and my longish hair) out of the brushroll at least once every time I vacuumed or it would get too much and burn into the rollerbrush and the brush motor. Over a 2 or 3 year period I had replaced the brushroll twice and they are not cheap at all. I think they were around $90. While I know a lot of people swear by a Dyson, it just was not the one for me. It would probably work fine if my dog didn't have long fur and I didn't have long hair.

Our town auto parts store used to take used oil, but not anymore. Now dh was wondering how to get rid of it? He asked our "retired" friend from town if he knew of anywhere to get rid of it...Yep...he even stopped by and picked it up for dh! Our car has new oil and filter, new air filter and new windshield wiper blades. 

Well, I need to get my grocery list written up and ordered. I'm going to try Albertson's grocery order/pick up this time and see how I like it. Walmart has just been too annoying on their website lately. Plus I want to go into Albertson's, too, to pick out a turkey or maybe even 2. Might as well get the Christmas one, too. I have plenty of room in the freezer. I'm just trying to figure out what time I want to pick up (assuming they do the hour window, like Walmart) and visit my mom first. And time to do a load of laundry. I really like going in the morning, but doing laundry will put me there at her lunch time, which drives me nuts. I could get there at 1pm (like last Sunday) but then feel like my whole day is taken up by the time I get home late afternoon, get groceries put away, it's time to get dinner started. I think I will try to get to mom's just before lunch and bring her lunch from fast food. Then I can get laundry started, we can eat, I can do my tasks (tape!!!) and then pick up my groceries fairly early in afternoon. I still have not received the paperwork on her retirement funds beneficiaries. First I was told she was mailing it to me. Then she called and said it was getting mailed from their corporate office in New York, so would take a little longer to get to me. But, it's been over a week and I'm now thinking it's probably got mailed to my mom. I'll ask her today if she has mail from them. If I can't find anything at her apartment from them, tomorrow, I'll get a hold of the lady on Monday.

Car maintenance and whatnot

Yesterday, during lunch dh, and I ran into town to pick up the air filter for my car we had to order. As usual this auto parts store hardly stocks anything and always have to go back and get it in a day or two. Then we get back home with it and it's the wrong one. The part number was right but the filter wasn't the one for my car. 

Kitty has quickly learned he wants to go to bed with me. Last night as soon as I walked into the bedroom to get ready for bed he jumped up on the bed. He was a good boy and slept next to me until dh came to bed at little after 1:30am. He tried to be good then, but he's a cat, LOL. Five minutes in, dh laying there still and kitty pounced on his chest, LOL. 

Last evening I got a notification mom hadn't taken her evening pill. Most often she actually takes it a bit early. It will notify me if she hasn't taken it after 15 minutes. During that 15 minutes the machine would have chimed at her for a little bit every 5 minutes and it will remind her for 30 minutes, every 5 minutes. So, I decided to wait until the 30 minutes were up. Then as I was going to call dh texted me to help him with something out in the shop, so it was another 10 minutes before I got to call her. Her phone went right to voicemail. Ok...phone is not charged...and I'm like oh cool, I can call her landline! No answer. Well, she must be either at her guy friends or outside her apartment visiting with someone. I tried one more time about 15 minutes later. Finally, an hour after she was supposed to take it I got the notification she took them. I don't think it was chiming anymore to remind her, so it's good that she remembered on her own she still needed to take the pill.

I did the training meeting for our new phone system. Should be easy. Just like we've been using to call internally, now we'll be able to make and take external calls. The only one it sounds like it will be harder for to get used to is our receptionist, who of course, had lots of questions on it, since she's the one who has to take incoming calls and get them transferred. The problem I think she is seeing is that our old system let the call bounce back to her if the person didn't answer so she could try to find another person (say they are just asking for customer service). This new system just dumps the call into the person's voicemail if they don't answer. From all her questions it almost sounded like she wasn't even consulted on this big change and what challenges it might cause her. You'd think she'd have been the first person the management would have worked through this with.

I had ordered some food stuff for Thanksgiving from Walmart online. Usually they are really good about packing things that might break or leak. Well, not this order. There were 3 jars of gravy in it, one was broken and a mess all inside. I can't believe it hadn't started leaking, so I'm guessing it must have gotten broken loading on the van. I didn't bother notifying Walmart for a $1.78 credit. It wasn't worth my time yesterday.

Woke up to a bit of snow on the ground and it's still lightly snowing. I must have banged my elbow on something and not remembering doing it. It started hurting last night and is still really sore this morning. 

I joined this Facebook group for dementia caregivers. Boy, I feel so bad for some of these folks. So many of them have their parent living with them and are in much worse shape then my mom is, so far. DH keeps trying to tell me to have her live here. After reading what it's going to be like when she gets worse, it's a double no for me. Sorry, if that makes me a bad person/daughter, but I am not, nor have I ever been, a good nurse type of person. And with me having to work at least 10 more years, there is no way I could have her here 24/7 and work, even though I do work from home. I told dh she can more than afford assisted living/memory care when that time comes. He's like "well, I just hate that it would cost that much, no matter if she can afford it". I've learned over the past year and a half what my limits with her are. 2 days, 3 days max. By then I'm totally fried from repeating myself all day long. I can't even imagine then adding in what all these people deal with who's loved one is in later stages of dementia.

 

Plug ins everywhere

I really did not need to deal with mom's unplugging again today. On top of it being payroll day for both companies, my mom now unplugged the cord into the back of her modem and also the landline cord that was plugged into the back of it. So, her medication machine needs wi-fi to communicate with me whether she's taken pills or not. I thought she has taken, because the display on her screen is showing her next schedule is this evenings. It just can't communicate with me now to tell me what's going on. It's plugged in, so why isn't it working on the app? Then she mentioned something about she was trying to use her phone and was having trouble. I said who were you trying to call? She said she didn't know, probably me. I then reminded her about the landline she can use. That is when I figured out that is unplugged and also she unplugged the main cord that goes into the back of the modem, so no wi-fi. She tried to plug stuff back in, but of course had no clue. I am not taking 2 hours out of my day to plug in a modem. I called her front desk and asked if they could send someone up to plug her modem back in. I think they have like a maintenance guy and he was quickly sent up and in a minute or two it was all good to go again. He had her call me and tell me it was working and I chatted with him a few seconds and thanked him, then he put her back on the line and left. She told me she offered to pay him, LOL. I'm like they can't take money, they work there.

 

The only thing I can think to do is, when I go there on Saturday, in addition to putting black electrical tape over the back plug in on her med dispenser, I also now put tape across the back of her modem, so that they are not easily unplugged. She doesn't remember doing it and doesn't know why she would have unplugged it. She even said "I don't know, I don't usually unplug things". I'm like yes you do!! 

I'm ready to unplug.

Just another day

That last claim, from dh's August hospital stay, and under his old insurance, was finally processed. So, instead of the imaging place trying to bill me $765, it went through insurance, they adjusted it down to $474, paid 60% and my share will now be $189. Much better. I'm still waiting to see what the bill was on dh's gallbladder surgery, though at this point he's only a few hundred dollars away from meeting his max out of pocket with the insurance I put him on Sept 1st, so that's all I'm going to owe towards it. My guess though is the total bill for the surgery will be like $15,000. Next Monday he has an MRI to be done on his pancreas. This will be 100% covered by insurance now.The GI doctor had wanted to do this to see what the tail of his pancreas still looks like, in comparison to what it looked like when he did the endoscopy. Then in early December he goes into the urologist for the biopsy of his prostate. Dr. said at his age and psa level a 25% chance of it being cancer, so needs to get checked out.  This will also be 100% covered by insurance.

This afternoon I have to do a training meeting to learn how our new work phone system is going to work. We are switching to using Microsoft Teams phone system. I have a feeling it will be a pretty easy transition, as we already use Teams quite a bit and almost everyone already uses it to make calls internally. Starting next week we'll be able to take and make external calls with it. Good and finally I will have working voicemail again, LOL. I won't really (unless I want to) even have to use my cell phone for work calls anymore. I have a webcam and speakers on my computer and will just most often probably do the calls through that. I've gotten used to it with our internal calls this past year. I do have the Teams app on my phone and can take calls that way, if I prefer, but I've gotten myself in the habit of answering the calls via my computer, ever since I got the webcam. We also use Teams internally like messenger (more often than calling each other) which I've gotten used to, also. The only thing I don't like about it is emails provide me with a trail, if I am trying to research answers to an old issue. I find Teams to not be very useful when I'm trying to figure out something or find where I thought I was told something and then finally realize "oh, I'll bet my boss told me that in Teams".  Unless it was very recent, very hard to go back and find the information.

I'm still only getting one egg a day. 3 of the 4 chickens look great - feathers all grown back. I'm not sure why one is still missing some on her back and still her behind is bare. If it was caused by mites (the 3 started to grow back after I started adding the diatomaceous earth to their coop) The other 3 also look fluffier as it's their winter "coat" grew in. I had to turn the water heater base on a couple weeks ago as many nights it's getting below freezing and freezing the water in their waterer. I wish that last chicken would get her feathers growing back with this cold weather.  

I managed to sleep until normal get up time this morning. It usually takes me a good few days to adjust to the time change. I've had a pinched nerve in my neck for at least a couple weeks causing me daily headhaches. Yesterday finally seemed a little better, so I'm hoping it's finally going away. I get this happening (from old car accident) every so often, still, but usually doesn't last this long. The other day I finally dug out my little rice heating pad to heat in the microwave to use on my neck. Maybe that helped loosen it up. Yesterday dh was complaining his neck hurt. Then while we were watching tv last night he falls asleep sitting up on the couch with his neck all bent over to one side. I'm like no shit Sherlock! You fall asleep like that (he does that sitting at his desk too) and no wonder your neck hurts.

ANDDD, told ya yesterday I spoke too soon about my mom not unplugging her med dispenser. I see it's unplugged again this morning. Oh well, only a few more days and I'll be there to permanently fix that with more tape.

Trying out a friend, again

This friend dh got caught up with the other evening, he's known for a good 20 years or so. After we moved over here and around the time we were building, dh eventually gave up trying to call or text. Dh would text and get no replies back. Or he'd do a group text with this guy and another friend. I think dh was the one who tried reaching out again, finally, with a text hello the other day. Friend texted back and then called. Acting like dh ditched him! Said he didn't get his annual birthday text last summer. Dh said well, I was in the hospital thinking I could die, so well, ya...."oh I didn't know". dh: Ya, well that's because you would never reply back to my texts, so I gave up. Friend said something about he was dealing with his son a lot a couple years ago (he had dropped out of college, no job, no ambition) and going through a lot. Dh just said, yes, I can certainly relate to that (and friend knows that). DH also told him checking in on each other has to go both ways.....this was also the friend, who every time dh told him something he's doing (like with our house build) he had to tell dh he was wrong, or "what are you doing that for?" type of thing. It gets old, though I know dh has missed having him for a friend.

Seems we're all dealing with aging parents now. Friends mom has Alzheimers and his dad has cancer. He is good friends with another guy dh was friends with, but again, gave up on trying to stay on contact with him even before this guy. Friend said this guy and his wife, who had moved to Hawaii to retire, are now moved back to the mainland take care of both of their parents. Sad they didn't get to stay in Hawaii as I know that they really wanted to live their retirement years there. I think they even built a house there. I'm feeling glad I was able to move my mom close to me to help take care of her.

For some reason yesterday my mom kept calling my uncle yesterday. I'm not sure if she thought she was calling me or what. The first time was 8 am and she called him because she couldn't get her med dispenser to work (it was 7am his time zone, not that she probably realizes that anymore). He must have said to her that I could probably help her better and he says she asked him to have me call her. It turns out she was trying to dispense the morning meds more than 30 minutes before the set time, so it won't dispense that early. Then he texted me at noon that she seems worried and confused and again asked him to have me call her. 

When she answered she said "oh, this isn't important, while you are working today". I said it's ok, what's going on? Something wrong with her computer, but she can wait on it. I told her I'll be there this weekend and can take a look at it. I then asked her if she's having trouble calling me? She doesn't think so. I said she's called uncle twice today and asked him to have me call her. She honestly acted fine during that call. I don't know if uncle is just doing his usual over reacting about her calling or what. I don't need to deal with both of them, LOL. 

I keep waking up at 6am. I even tried to go to bed a little later last night, hoping I'd sleep in. Last night when I went to bed the kitty followed me to bed, so I let him stay awhile. He only played for a couple minutes then settled down and slept next to me until 11:30. Then he started getting restless so I took him back upstairs to sleep in his crate.

It's supposed to be snowing this morning. It's not :/

A nice Sunday

A pretty relaxing day yesterday. Only 2 calls from mom about the time change and her clocks. Well, one about her clocks. The other was a question again about filling up her med dispenser (it holds 90 days). I finally figured out why she keeps asking about that. When she had her little weekly pill box I had written her a note with her meds list and on top wrote "fill on Sundays". So, she still has this note and thought it had something to do with this new dispenser. I will throw that note out next visit. I'm probably going to regret saying this, but she hasn't unplugged it anymore.

While my mom's place isn't "full assisted living", it is assisted in the sense that all their meals/cooking is provided, as well as housekeeping and they also provide bed linens and towels and the housekeeping does that laundry for those. And of course they also provide numerous activities all day for the residents. And the people that work there are great about encouraging to join in, as well as they have speakers out in the hallways and they can hear the announcements of activities to remind them. The first senior living place she lived was the same, but they did not encourage participation at all. All the apartments only have a "kitchenette", I guess it's called. Just some cabinets, a sink and a small refrigerator. No stove or cooktop. If you want a microwave, you provide your own to use. (there is also a common use room that has a full kitchen if someone wants to cook or bake something). So, there is no chance she could leave an oven or burner turned on, which is good. Her previous place had a full kitchen, which I doubt she ever used anything but the fridge. Since physically she is good, she has no need of assistance to help her get around or to do any activities in her apartment (or out).

At this point,  have the medication under control in that I know she is getting her meds taken every day now and on time. I basically have her laundry under control, in that I am just doing it now when I visit. She is still showering regularly, so no issue there yet. And I now have the back up landline telephone so I can reach her. When I first looked at this place, I mentioned to them I was concerned about her memory issues progressing and whether this place would work for her down the road. I was told they do have some who have trouble remembering things, but as long as they are making it down to meals on their own, they feel they are still do well to live there. I was also told many hire outside help when it comes to that time, and find it cheaper that way than full assisted living place. Plus, mom is still very involved with at least one, usually two, activities per day, as well as the meals in the dining room. I plan to try to keep her there as long as possible. If her memory starts getting where she starts wandering around at night or something like that, then she will need to be moved. It won't be a far move, haha. The assisted/memory place is just on the other side of the parking lot.

DH's computer has been acting slow. I saw there was a notification to update to Windows 11, so I did that. Took forever, so he went out into the garage to hang some hook things to put the folding lawn chairs up on the wall to hang. Once it was finally done, I took a little nap.

I really wanted to watch Yellowstone last night, but just couldn't stay up that late. I usually go to bed around 9 or 9:30, which for last night still felt like 10, with the time change and then to stay up another hour to watch it would put me at 11, like 2 hours past my normal bedtime. and on a work night! LOL. I have it set to record the season. Plus dh wants to watch it too. He was going to watch it last night without me (how rude!) but then an old friend he hasn't talked to in a couple of years called, so he spent the rest of the evening talking to him anyway. And somehow up in Canada, my half sister got to watch it on Prime and an hour early (even though she's in my time zone). I'm like hey! it's not on my Prime. Lucky!

I was hoping this morning would feel like sleeping in an hour, but no. The kitty started making a racket upstairs at 6am and then the dog, laying on the floor next to me barked. I was awake after than. I got up at 6:30. Still not awake, obviously, as the first cup of coffee I made I forgot to put in the new cup of grounds, so I had to dump that cup out and start over. I'm ready for the week now :)

                                          

Money update

Currently, my mom's annual expenses are running around $40k a year to live in her senior living place, including her health insurance, phone and internet. She gets about $21k a year in social security, so for now, she's only needing to use about $20k a year of her retirement money. So far, this year, she has earned a nice 15% return on her money. As much as her investment guy ticked me off, he does do a great job investing. While, of course that 15% could change by the end of the year, with still 2 months to go.

So, she's increased her investment account by a whopping $139,000 since Jan 2021. Plus the $21k of social security (next year should be about $22,400 with the increase). A total "income" (of course I realize the $139,000 is unrealized gain) of $160,000, just to be retired, LOL. When I first created the spreadsheet to track her money and estimate how long it would last, I used a modest 4% return. Last year she earned 12%. Even at a very conservative 4% she was not going to run out of money until she was like 100. At these higher rates of return each year, she just keeps earning more than she is using and it's snowballing. At the beginning of each year, I just update her spreadsheet to show that years beginning balance and then it projects forward. Last year she increased by $124,00 (not including social security), this year by potentially the $139,000. 

So, I'm confident, no matter how long she lives, she has more than enough money to take care of her needs. I know I've said it too many times, but step brothers "she only has 8-10 years of money left" (which would now be 6-8 years, since it's been 2 years ago he said that) is a crock of stupidity, LOL. She is in no absolute danger of running out of money between now (age 80 1/2) and her end of life. 

She is always saying to me "you should just use some of it now, if you need something, rather than wait until I'm gone. I don't need this much and you're going to end up with what's left anyway. You might as well enjoy some of it now. Just take some". I always say oh that's really sweet and change the subject, haha. While I know she could gift me $15,000 a year, with no income tax, and honestly it would hardly even make a dent in her money, I just can't do it. Part of it is just me, part of it is with her memory now, I'd feel like I'm taking advantage, even though she is the one always bringing it up. If her memory was intact she would very most likely do the gift thing. Years ago, she and my dad would gift us like $1,000 a year at Christmas. It was always such a nice gift, especially as dh and I never had any extra money.

I'm just relieved that while it's so hard to deal with her memory loss and the issues it brings, I do NOT have to worry about her money!

Just Saturday ramblings

Now that another grocery store is offering online ordering and parking lot pick up, I'm going to give them a try. DH and I used to shop there all the time until I started using the Walmart grocery pick up. Plus I've always felt I've saved more shopping at Walmart. So, I just did a price comparison of 20 items I regularly buy. Walmart came out $6 cheaper in total. Some things were quite a bit higher at the other store, but some things were on sale and cheaper. I'm sure by watching their weekly sales flyer, a person could stock up on the good sale prices and probably come out better than Walmart, or at least Even Steven. 

I received an email from my health insurance company to do a health questionnaire and get a $25 Amazon gift card. Took me all of about 5 minutes and now I have $25 to spend. Plus I got my monthly $3 Verizon up rewards Amazon gift card. Last month I got a $50 Amazon gift card from a work deal.

Dh's wealthy friend must have finally sold his house after almost a year of trying. He posted on Facebook a link to the new big 240 some acre ranch he just bought. Only like $5 million. Just gorgeous, of course (like his house he sold for $4 million). This is the 3rd time they have moved in like 3 or 4 years. First they sold their big ranch nearby us, because it was too much work. Then lived in a fancy big condo while they looked for something new. Bought like a 25 acre "ranch" but not really happy there and turned out they missed their big ranch and wished they hadn't sold it. So, now they will be on an even bigger ranch then they had the first time, LOL. His wife has amazing decorating taste, as well as the $ to do it. From the listing pics of their new place just purchased, whoever owned that place did too.

DD always watches her local Facebook marketplace for stuff. A cute little rustic cabinet popped up for only $10. She messaged right away and got it. It's adorable and she put it in one of her guest bedrooms and is using it to store their board and card games.

Has anyone had the Covid booster shot? I'm not sure if my mom got it or not. I know she had some paperwork from her place about it, a couple months ago, but I'm not sure if it got done yet. (they did do flu shots for them). Someone I know, in her 80's got the booster shot and was very sick for 2 days after. Well, I hope my mom already got it, because if so, then she was fine with it. Too bad she can't remember. I wonder if it would show on her health insurance as a claim? I suppose I could ask at the front desk of her apartment place.

When I ordered my mom's new jeans from JCP, so I'd get free shipping, I ordered myself a few things I need. Two new cardigan sweaters. The two I wear most often are getting pretty old. I got another dark brown one (but it almost looks like plum color) and a dark blue one. Both have pockets in front and one does have buttons. I also got another set of queen sized sheets that were on sale. While both my guest beds are queen sized and made up, I do not have a spare set of queen sheets, in case something happened and I needed to do a quick change of bedding.

I made it through a day and a half now of mom not unplugging her dispenser. Let's hope it continues.

Meds and money

The below picture is what the plug in for the back of the Hero medication dispenser looks like (I took this from the online manual). Looks like I'll be able to put some damn tape over that, too (Plan C, jj!)

 

My mom's other new "thing" she's doing every day now is she calls me and says "I see you called - did we already talk?" She is constantly looking at her cell phone and seeing me (because I'm the one who calls her every day) on her call log and thinks she missed my call. Sometimes we just talked an hour before. Sometimes she calls me the next morning and I tell her it was from the day before and yes, we talked.

I feel like our calls anymore aren't chats to just say hello or to see what activities she's been doing, or tell her what I've been doing. Now it is either me calling to tell her to plug in her machine or take her meds. Or it's her calling me because she doesn't remember talking to me and thinks she missed my call. Or her calling to say the machine won't dispense her pill(s) (usually this is an evening problem) and I tell her she already took it a half hour before.

Gosh, employees sure can be strange. So, this new employee (who was told to get her direct deposit set up) had mobile deposited her check a day before the date of the check. Then she destroyed it. So, our payroll company has to send a replacement check, but in order to help her out so she has funds in her bank, while she's waiting for the replacement check, my sweet boss figured out a way to get her some money instantly into her bank, by using Venmo. Then the girl has the nerve to say "but my paycheck was $87 more, I only got $2000" My sweet boss, said "I had to send you this money out of my personal account!! That's what you get to tide you over until the replacement check comes.".  My boss said after her 2nd live paycheck she told her to get her direct deposit set up and girl said "do I have to?" Boss told her yes, live checks are too much chaos. They show up at the office and boss isn't always in the office to get/hand out checks, etc. Then this happens.

And another one, on his way into my boss's office to talk to my boss about someone he supervises that he is having problems with, while my boss is having problems with him! She and I were on the phone discussing his issues (he never turns in his monthly expense reports, except like once a year) and getting him caught up so she said before she even lets him talk about this employee he supervises, she's going to blast him with his own issues LOL. I'm like boy, must be nice not to need that $500+ expense reimbursement every month! Not to mention his wife also works for us, why isn't she hounding him to get those reports in so they can get reimbursed? Weird. Must be really nice to either not need that money every month or be so oblivious to your income/spending that it doesn't matter.

Did I mention mom also threw out the box I put in her closet, that the medication dispenser came in? Sigh....I wanted to keep it, as, at some point, I will need to send it back when she is done using it. It's a fairly large box and I figured she has a bunch of closet space in her large kitchen closet, so rather than storing it at my house, I'd just put it back in the corner of her closet. Nope, next visit it was gone and she threw it away. Honestly, there is absolutely nothing stored in her closet that she even uses now, so I didn't even think she probably even slides the door open ever. 

And last evening she UNPLUGGED IT AGAIN!!! What in the hell? (ok that's not what I typed to my half sister, LOL. I texted "what in the absolute F---?". Then I told dd she did it again. DD sent this meme back:

Pretty much sums it up, right?! I calmly said to mom "I'm not sure why you keep unplugging it and I'm not sure what to do about it. She says she doesn't remember doing it, doesn't know why she does it, she doesn't think she unplugged it (ghost?), she thinks she unplugged it because it wasn't dispensing her meds. I said well, it can't dispense if it's not plugged in. This time I told her to look in back of machine and see if unplugged. She said it's plugged in. App was showing me it's not. I said ok, unplug it from back and plug in back in. Then it came back on. Here's my theory as to what might be going on. After her evening pill (around 6pm) she seems often to forget she already took it and tries to take it again. The machine won't let her. Maybe she's unplugging it to try to get it to work? I think last night she thought she got it plugged back in all the way and didn't. Who knows. Next visit I will be armed with some black electrical tape and taping that plug in to the back of the machine!!

Hey, at least it's Friday. And it's the time change weekend.....ugh...so my mom has one of those digital desk calendar/clock things. Tells her the day of the week, time, date and whether it's morning, afternoon or evening. But, it has to manually be changed for the time. I was not planning to go see her this weekend. My plan is next weekend. I think I'm just going to see if she can tough it out a week until I can change it. I also think she really doesn't even pay much attention to it anymore and as much as she looks at her cell phone, she probably uses that for time. And her apartment place has loudspeaker system outside the rooms and announces everything going on, so she probably uses that as her cue's for when it's time to go do stuff. I'm sure it will be a week from hell for me, dealing with that. If worse comes to worse I'll drive in one afternoon after work or take a long lunch to fix it. If nothing else I guess I can have her write a note (she has notepads everywhere) that time is 1 hour earlier and tape it to her clock.