The half day off

My mom's prescriptions arrived in the mail yesterday morning around 10:30, so that was a big relief. I had chatted with my boss and told her I was going to take a half day and then a half day on Friday and just use one day of PTO (salary employees can't do partial days of PTO, it's either all or nothing) for Friday. As usual she said don't worry about the PTO. But, when I do payroll next time I'm putting the day of PTO on there anyway, LOL. There's no way I'll be able to use it all up and as just evidenced by a long time employee leaving, you can't take your unused PTO with you. He had the equivalent of almost $20,000 in unused PTO on the books. Though, as I kind of expect might happen on a case by case basis (even though it's "company policy" not to pay out unused PTO when employment is terminated, either voluntarily or involuntarily) they did decide to pay him half of it in the form of a bonus. He has been a long time, good employee, and is also being very accommodating in helping transition for his leaving. Honestly, I think something like a case of me retiring (in like 12 years LOL) after almost 30 years of employment, they would pay me unused PTO as a "retirement gift", is my guess.

I left the house at 11:30. Halfway through the drive I'm reaching over, into my purse, trying to feel for my chapstick and what do I find? One of the missing catnip mouses, LOL. It gave me a good laugh.

I hadn't really had lunch before I left, other than a couple pieces of cheese. I treated myself to "lunch". A peanut buster parfait from Dairy Queen, haha. It was delicious, though they raised their price from $5 to $5.40. Used to be an even $5. Then I stopped at Walgreens to see if they had the gift cards I wanted to get. I knew they'd have the Visa/MC type and hoped they also had an REI one. I looked and they didn't have the REI, so I went over to Target. Well, Target had the REI but all their Visa/MC were set amounts and not in the amount I wanted. I didn't want to get dd/sil 2 separate cards, so I just got the REI card, along with 2 thank you cards. Then paid and forgot to get the cookies my mom asked for! Gah! So, still needing a Visa gift card and cookies, I stopped back in Walgreens and they had the Visa's that you could put what amount you wanted on them - and cookies.

Got to mom's about 10 minutes later than planned. Needed to do laundry, of course, but at least that's a good sign that she's not wearing the same thing every day (that seems to be a common thing in dementia, from the group I am on with Facebook) and she's now wearing those new pairs of jeans I got her for Christmas. Both machines were free, so I decided to do 2 loads and was looking on the settings to see if there was a shorter wash cycle. One machine had a "quick wash", the other didn't. Well, when I went back the quick wash was still going and the other was already done! Good to know. I'll start trying to just use that one machine that is faster. 

While washing, I went back to mom's apartment and got her meds filled up in the machine. Checked her computer again, turned it on and it was disconnected from wi-fi again, as usual. I reconnected it. Restarted and it came back on connected. I could find no way to remove that "icon" from the bottom right taskbar. I don't think she's even tried to get on it again, for several weeks now. I just kind of fibbed and told her if she still has problems with it next time I might have to take it with me to get it fixed.

She didn't have too much junk mail, but still interesting how their mind works now. She had some notification letter about car warranty or something. She hasn't had a car in 2 years now, so not sure why she would think it's something she needs to keep. The other thing was an empty envelope some other mail had come in. The other interesting thing I've noticed that past 2 visits is her sink is filled with dirty silverware....I didn't want to just start doing it for her....she's still very aware and then gets a little upset that I'm doing something she (thinks) she can or should be doing. It's been a struggle with laundry in that respect, but I KNOW she is not doing it, so I just override her. I was wondering is this pile of silverware in the sink the same as last visit? While she was in the bathroom I snapped a picture of it in the sink. If it's there next time, I'm going to kind of try to see if I can tell from the picture if it's all just the same that's been sitting in there, untouched. If it is, I'm going to get it all washed up, or at least say "hey, let's get this washed up and most likely, she'll do it.

After I got the loads in the dryer I said let's go over to Home Depot (half a block away) as I want to get a new houseplant to replace the one that died. Figured we had about an hour for the drying to get done and plenty of time. She is the SLOWEST walker LOL Her little short legs are just a going and I've taken like one slow step, haha. I found a plant I liked and we left there and I decided I should go pick up my Walmart order now -then I won't have to take more time after I leave mom's! This is what I need to start doing in the future. Saves time! We drove over to Walmart and got the groceries picked up and then I asked if she needed any cash. She couldn't find the $20 (from at least 6 weeks ago) in her wallet or pants pocket, so we got out $40 for her. 

She also wants/thinks she needs to come with me when I take the laundry down (laundry room down at end of the hall) but this time I just told her to stay in her apartment. I can literally be down there and back before she is halfway down the hall and I had a feeling I was going to need to put a little more time on the larger load, which I did. The good part was while waiting to finish up her laundry AND get it all put away for her, I didn't feel rushed because I still needed to go get my grocery order in my time slot. She also wants to try to tell me she can/will put the clean laundry away, but I know she won't end up doing it. She'll forget and then forget again that it's clean stuff to be put away, so we got all the clothes hung up and in drawers. She has too many clothes still in her closets (she has 2 closets in her bedroom) that she doesn't wear! She always had a lot of clothes over the years, so still has much of it. If/when she has to move again, I will try to pare down some of it.

I got back home about 4pm. Dh had been moving his crap around in the garage (AGAIN) to make more room. Rather than having his big hoard stack in the middle garage bay, he moved it all to the end bay, so while it did nothing to really make more room, it feels more open because there isn't this tall stack of tarped "stuff" that is tall in the middle of the space. Also, now there are 2 car spots side by side. He wanted dd/sil to be able to park their car inside while here (we'll park our old car outside for the weekend). And SIL said he bought "hood mount struts" for both of our cars and is having them delivered here to our house this week. In our group chat I said "oh what did I buy now for the car? LOL". He said it's a "gift". Dh said we should be buying you a gift, haha. Anyway, they plan to install them on both cars while they are here. I think it's something that when you raise the hood it still stay up on it's own. I'm sure the 3 guys will have fun installing something. 

Today is payday. Everything's on auto pay, except for paying off what is charged to my rewards credit card, so I got that paid and also transferred $75 to my Capital One savings account, where I'm putting away money for future propane fill up cost.

I told dh I liked being able to go get errands done in the city on a weekday. Wish I could do that more often. I think I might just start taking one day of PTO a month that is just to do that. I like having my weekends for cleaning house and relaxing after working all week. Especially with the weather going to be warming up and nicer days.