Shopping spree

Yesterday turned into an unplanned outing. From his birthday dh has a gift card he hasn't used yet to Harbor Freight. He's been wanting this small air compressor they have to put in the garden shed, so he can easily blow off lawn tractor and push mower before he puts them back inside. They've been out of stock with the one he wants and he noticed it was finally back in stock.

He's also been wanting some shorts and some button up shirts. He's had several of these heavier long sleeved button "work" type shirts that he's had for years but he finally had to throw the last one out. I haven't been able to find any. The brand they were is no longer made and I tried to order a couple different ones online and they were a very thin material. Plus I told him I want him to pick out the type of shorts he wants.

We went to Harbor Freight first and ran into that lady that had tried to help us with our dog with her natural stuff. We chatted with her awhile and then dh got his air compressor as well as some tools he wants to put in a bag to carry in the side by side. Then we went over to Sportsmans Warehouse to look for shirts and shorts. They didn't have a huge selection and expensive, but just getting him into a clothes store and trying stuff on is like pulling teeth, so I was trying to get him as much as we could find, haha. He ended up with 2 shorts, a pair of pants, a shirt, some winter socks, and a bag of cinnamon bears he found at check out. $199. I didn't catch that the pants were $75. Everything was name brand stuff, so you are paying for the name.

It was 2:30 and we weren't quite ready to eat, so dh wanted to drive to another part of town, where the house is he grew up in. We were passing Cabela's and I said let's try there. Maybe we'll have more luck finding more shirts. He wanted both long and short sleeved.  They had some clearance items outside and I first stopped at some long sleeved shirts, but they were a soft, almost flannel type, but solid colors. He actually liked it, so we grabbed one of those for $17. Inside, they had lots more clothes and also a store brand with lots of choices and decent pricing.

He kind of went to town and even tried on some of the stuff. He got twice as much items at Cabelas for the same amount we spent at Sportsmans. We both decided we liked Cabelas much better and that would be where we shop for him from now on. At check out I was joking with the cashier this was our once a decade clothes shopping trip for him. LOL It pretty much is. About the only clothing I buy him every year is typically a couple pair of jeans (to replace too worn ones) and a few t-shirts and a new pair of tennis shoes.

Then just a few blocks over was the street he grew up on. Somehow he had heard that a guy he knew from growing up still lived in the same house near the house dh grew up in. DH said he remembered the family, but more specifically this guy because he drove a big semi truck and he was always really nice. I'm like how old his this guy now? LOL. Dh is like I don't know, has to be in his 70's. So, dh knocks on his door to see if he's home. I just stayed in the car, where the a/c was, since it was 101 outside. I turned on one of the comedy channels on SiriusXM radio. The guy was home and while he didn't remember dh specifically he definitely remembered his family name and dh's family, which house they had lived in. They visited awhile. Turns out the guy is 69 years old now, so  said to dh well, then he's really not a lot older than you are! Just 11 years, so he would have been in his early 20's when dh remembers him and dh said he seemed so much older to him, LOL.

One of the comedy clips I listened to was Phyllis Diller. Only old people like me will remember her LOL. I laughed at this one: "I didn't get my mother in law a Christmas gift this year, because she didn't use what I got her last year.........a cemetery plot!" LOL. 

Then we were both hungry and close enough to dinner time at 4:30 so we tried this nearby little drive up burger place that was pretty good and then headed home and got home about 5:30. At least I didn't have to make dinner then. DH went to the shop to put together the air compressor and I took a short nap, with the cat. Of course my mom called during my nap. I swear no matter what time of day on the weekends I take a nap is when she calls, but I answered and chatted with her awhile. 

The 1.3 Billion dollar Mega Millions?.........ya we won $2. 

DH ended up doing a temporary "fix" for the boaters and rafters using our street/driveway and yard for a turnaround. He had a bunch of 4" beams in about 4 ft lengths left from the build so he laid them along the side of our street (just on our property), spaced out far enough that they'd have to drive over them to turn around. Once summer river season is over he can easily pick up the beams and they won't be in his way for winter plowing. He's also considering making a sign that says "turn around at end of street". He also realized yesterday that someone actually tried to push on our gate to open it. It doesn't look like they backed their trailer into it, but he's guessing they thought if they could open it they could then pull in to then back up to turn around. The gate isn't locked, but it is on an automatic gate opener so trying to force it open like that could break it. He also put his little game camera out there, just to see if anymore try to drive through. We drove by the boat launch area (it's actually over a mile and a half from us) and it was packed. They could just drive about another 8 miles down the road and there is another boat launch that is wide open with more than enough parking.

I'm really trying with the less sugar but dang, it's really ruined the one thing that is my favorite thing - my one and only cup of coffee when I get up in the morning! It's my favorite thing of the whole day, haha. I tried the heavy cream (not too bad) instead of the processed french vanilla creamer. I've tried Stevia and now I've tried Monkfruit in place of sugar. Liking neither of those, though if I had to use one Monkfruit would be better, but it's super expensive. Maybe I'll stick with this new method but just have my regular good tasting cup of coffee like 2 days a week, haha.

Fasts and fishermen

Dh decided to try my suggestion of fasting for a day and just drinking lots of water. He lasted until 2pm. He got himself all in a fit because at some point during the day (or it could have possibly been during the night, but doubtful) someone with either a boat or rafts truck and vehicle and trailer turned down our street. Realized it was a dead end and drove off our road in front of our house and through what is technically part of our yard to get back over to the main road, barely missing one of the culverts. It's not nice perfect lawn out there on the other side of our street, but it is mowed wild grass. 

We tend to go through this during the middle of summer. There is a small boat launch about a mile down the road. It gets completely filled up with peoples cars/trucks and boat trailers. Then they start parking off the shoulder. Finally the people in the houses on the other side they were parking on in front of their houses and driveways started putting out cones and barriers a couple of years ago.

So, they get there, can't see anywhere to park so keep going down the road, looking. Our street a mile down the road is the next thing, so of course they turn in. Then realize it doesn't go anywhere. While we are the 3rd lot on our street, for some reason ours always ends up being where they try to figure out where to turn. I recall a couple years ago, before we had our fence and gates on our 2 driveways coming into our property, I was inside our garage with the doors open, staining wood. A truck pulling a boat pulls into our first driveway and at full speed pulls through our half circle driveway and out the other end. As they are pulling out I walk out our garage waving my arms up in the air like "What the F do you think you are doing?!" 

How about this easy idea? Pull into our street. Pull into driveway #1 (it's long and goes back to our neighbors house/garage) just enough to get truck and trailer in, then back out onto the street and pull forward to get back on the main road. Apparently that is too difficult to understand.

We could put logs or rocks along the other side of the road to block them from pulling out into the grassy area, but then in winter that will be in dh's way for plowing snow. I'm sure today will be another one with it happening. It's weekend and 101 degrees today. The boat launch will be overloaded. Mrs Neighbor wants to put a sign up (they don't want people trying to use their driveway either) at the entrance to our street, but people will just ignore it. Shoot, we have this really old ONE LANE wood deck bridge down the road that crosses the river. Signs everywhere for big trucks not to use it, yet I'd say every month some truck driver in a big semi decides to go over it and gets stuck. People ignore signs and people do whatever they want.

And speaking of the bridge. Someone put a couple of small US flags on each side at the end of the bridge. Someone else keeps taking them down.

Anyway, back to dh. He was so upset that he decided he needed a sandwich. I'm not sure if he had a mountain dew or not, I think so. I went back upstairs to work. He didn't have any dinner and later evening ended up just having some jello. So, not exactly my "idea" of fasting for at least a day and trying to flush out his system. He just got up this morning and can't decide what he wants to do for eating. Ok, he decided to eat his normal egg sandwich.

We're just staying home and staying inside this weekend. I can kinda do 90 outside, not 100 (or higher). DD told me about a good movie she just watched on Netflix, so maybe I'll check it out. I have some vacuuming and dusting to get done, too. And laundry.

 

Hot days

It's like a hot oven to go outside. I waited until almost 8pm last night to go out and water my flowers, but it was still 94. It doesn't appear we will get any relief from it until Tuesday. DD and her dh recently had a/c installed in their house and it's been pretty hot where they live, too. She said last evening one of their neighbors came over to ask her dh for help with something and when he stepped inside their house he was like "hey! how is it so cool in here?!" LOL. He said it was 89 inside on their 2nd floor. The a/c went out at my physical office, so they had to let whoever wanted to work from home, but it finally got fixed yesterday. The HVAC company had to wait for the parts to come in overnight.

Thank goodness for a/c in the house is all I can say. DH would be absolutely miserable and complaining non stop if we didn't (lived that for years). He's not been feeling well the past several weeks. Says he feels like he did before he had his pancreatitis last August. Not sure what he can do - other than try a major diet change and he's not willing to do that. I don't think anything is ever going to convince him to give up 4 Mountain Dews a day. If he has to get hospitalized for it again, they basically just flush out with fluids (and give pain meds) until the inflammation goes down. I told him I have no idea, but maybe he just needs to fast for a day or two and just take in lots of water and see if that helps the inflammation and his symptoms. I have been mentioning this a couple of weeks now, as well as suggesting maybe a trip to the doctor to see what they say or tests they can run to see if it's starting to act up again.

I guess at least this time, if he does end up in the hospital again, it won't be 10's of thousand of dollars. It will be $4000 max, now that I have him on my work health insurance plan. And I already have almost $1000 of that saved up in my HSA account, plus I've already spent $350 towards his out of pocket max.

Friday cat picture. He says he didn't do it....

 

Desk delay

I was on the phone with Pottery Barn for 90 minutes. NINETY MINUTES! Of course I got a different customer service agent then I spoke with last Wednesday. I again explained: I called last Wednesday and talked to Desiree. My desk order was shipped to your distribution hub last April and as of last week they say they can't find it and were supposed to figure it out in 3-5 days and call me back, but no call.

Literally 10 seconds later she says "ok, I see it's supposed to arrive to you tomorrow"....I said did you actually see that from the response from the dist. hub with the inquiry put in to them last week - or are you just looking online at the order status that says "estimated delivery between July 8 and July 28"? She said she was just looking at that. I sighed and said well that is wrong, that's what it said last week and Desiree determined it was shipped from your warehouse to the dist. hub, but they can't find it now and it's been months. So, she says she will check with the hub and has to put me on hold. and hold and hold.

Finally she comes back on and says the same thing as last week - they are still looking into it. I said I have called 3 times now, plus an email that was never replied to, I need a resolution today. Is there a manager that can handle it and can't it just be re-ordered so I can get the desk and you guys can deal with finding the missing one? She said yes, she has put in a request to speak to "leadership" and is in the hold queue. So, wait and wait. Finally she comes back on and says a manager is reviewing it, please hold. And hold and hold. Then she comes back on and says they are going to put in a replacement order for me, here is the order #.........and now estimated shipping is October 10th, LOL. If we ever see this expensive desk it will be a miracle.

I think in the next trip or so into see my mom I'm going to set up a tour of the other assisted living place that is back behind the place I did tour. This place also has a memory care section. While I (hopefully) anticipate that she will be able to stay at her current place for awhile longer, now that I have the caregiver to assist, at some point she will have to move. I'm realizing it's obviously going to be smarter to most likely use this place, instead of the assisted living place I toured last month. At some point she is going to need full on memory care and then I would just have to move her again if I put her in the other assisted living place. I will not want to deal with another move, so I want to have toured this assisted living/memory care place now so I am prepared.

This past week the mornings seem to be mostly she is up and getting dressed at 6am and trying to go downstairs really early, or she had yesterday where she wasn't ready at all and the caregiver stopped by and reminded her at 7:35 that she had 25 minutes before breakfast started. I see on the camera she went downstairs at 6:30 and came back in 5 minutes. Hopefully someone downstairs told her she was going to have to wait an hour and a half for breakfast! Then she went back down at 7:10 - still early but a more reasonable time. At two times between the 6:30 and 7:10 she was opening the closet that runs along a wall in her little kitchen/dining area. There's just "stuff" in there, from her previous apt and home. But after trying to listen to it twice I finally figured out she said. The first time she said something about she'll be cold, so it appears she was looking for one of her sweaters (she has several and usually wears one when she goes downstairs). The second time she slid the closet door open she said "well...all my clothes are gone". So, she's confused as to where she keeps her clothes, this morning. She has 2 sliding door closets in her bedroom that all her clothes are in, and always have been.

I started reading a good book last night, that I almost finished. It's written by Kimberly Williams-Paisley, the actress, about her family's journey with her mother being diagnosed with Primary Progressive Aphasia (a rare form of dementia) at age 62.

I still haven't received a billing from mom's caregiver and she's been doing it like 5 weeks now. She said she bills monthly and I did check with her last week and she said she hadn't done her billing yet, just got done with a 5 week hospice job that took a lot of her time. I guess she'll bill at some point, LOL.  

100 degree weather for the next 4 days, then we are supposed to get back into the 80's next week.

I ordered a canvas wall decor sign from etsy that arrived yesterday. it's for one of the guest bedrooms. Kinda cute. The floor lamp I ordered (through Target) came the day before. What a total piece of cheap junk. I'm returning it. 

 

Wednesday waiting for customer service

In April I purchased 2 cases of 12 cans each of canned chicken breast from Walmart online. It seemed like a great price for the large 12.5 oz cans. I paid $19.94 for 12. Now the price is $35.30 for 12 cans! I remember when I bought it thinking that $1.66 per can for those large sized cans was really cheap. I wonder if it was a mistake in their pricing because that is usually about the price of the smaller cans. Well, if it was, I'm glad I bought 2 cases at the time. I use it for our enchiladas I make.

I went online with my auto insurance company to add the side by side. I logged into my account but wasn't finding where I could add something like that when I clicked on "add vehicle". So then I logged out and went to their main website page and clicked on "get a quote" and was able to enter the info, as well as it asked if I already had a policy with them. When I added dh as a driver to it, it asked any accidents or tickets in the last 36 months. Well...he had a speeding ticket just shy 1 day of 36 months ago, LOL. So, I said yes, speeding ticket. My total quote, with the coverage I wanted was $185 per year, which I didn't think was too bad. Then one of the last questions it wanted to know the date of the ticket, so I put in 7/26/19. I know it was this date because we were on our way to dd's wedding (the 27th) and dh got a speeding ticket. Then it said ticket must be less than 36 months, so I guess it doesn't count now so I went back to the page it asked if any accidents or tickets and changed it to No. Then the price went down to $122/yr. Nice. I'm hoping now that ticket is off, when our car insurance policy renews in a few months, our cost will go down.

I remember that speeding ticket. We were both pretty sure it was bogus and the cop was lying about the speed. Of course they target out of state plates, just like they do here, because they know you won't come back and fight. Why do we know it was bogus? Dh had decided to take a slower more scenic route the last leg of the drive. We were driving along a river and had both dogs in the car. Our old yellow lab liked to have his head out the window. BUT -and this is key to our evidence, LOL - as soon as dh ever got up to 47 mpg the dog would always, without fail, pull his head back inside. He'd been doing this for years and we always would laugh when he did it because without fail the speedometer would be at 47. Cop said dh was doing like 53 or something. Well, that whole drive along that river, dog had had his head out the window.

Which also means today is dd and her dh's 3rd wedding anniversary.

Yesterday turned out fine. Payroll was a fairly easy, with only one little issue to wait for an answer on. I finally connected with my mom, back in her apartment, around 1:30. She was totally fine. She seems to have slept good last night, only up once at around 5am. She did have to get reminded to get ready to go down for breakfast this morning, but that's ok. That's why I hired the help, just in case.

The past year I've been trying to incorporate leftovers into our dinner meals more. DH was never one to like leftovers, but now I am managing to fit in one, sometimes 2 per week. It definitely cuts down on the food costs. He likes the enchiladas heated up for leftovers. I also try to fit in a "light" dinner meal night. Just soup or sandwiches, or even just a bowl of cereal. The new ham and cheese sliders make enough for leftovers and he will have those the next night or the next day for lunch. It's also nice to not have to make a meal every so often, since cooking dinner is not on my list of things I enjoy. But, the lighter dinners have not helped me lose any weight at all, bummer. 

I'm on my 4th day of my sugarless coffee, haha. I adjusted it a bit this morning. Less heavy cream. I was putting as much in as I normally put in regular creamer and it was too much. This mornings cup is better with a bit less cream. I'm still not loving the Stevia as far as sweetening it, so I ordered some of that Monkfruit sweetener to try, that reader Diane recommended. It hasn't shipped yet, so I don't think I'll get it until next week. Breakfast was the Activia yogurt. I'm just trying to finish what I have left, but with the amount of sugar in one of those cups, I'm going to stop getting those and figure out something else. Lunch yesterday was an egg fried in EVOO and some apple slices and a square of 85% dark chocolate. As an afternoon snack I had some blueberries - supposedly a great superfood, but certainly not one of my favorite things to eat. While dh had the leftover sliders for dinner, I had a salad of dark greens, walnuts and a few cranberries, drizzled with a little EVOO. I'm still trying to drink more water during the day and trying to increase my steps walked. These diet changes aren't going to happen overnight, but I'm just going to keep trying to implement them as much as I can.

Have you heard the recent news that the main studies done/accepted on Alzheimer's back around 2005 were fraudulent? A recent article in Science shares how fraudulent data served as the basis of the dominant yet controversial amyloid hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease, which positions amyloid plaques (kinda like plaque on your teeth but in your brain) a primary cause of the disease.⁣ It's a long article by Science, but just makes one trust these "scientists" less and less, as well as the Pharma industry. It's just really all about getting the millions and billions of dollars.

Well, I guess I need to call Pottery Barn yet again to find out where this desk is. She had told me they would have an answer and contact me in 3-5 days. How about they just send me another desk and they find the missing one on their time and money? Wonder how long I'll be on hold this time....

Good or bad day? Still up in the air

It's morning, but I'm already anticipating this not being a very good day. First off it's payroll processing day, so I have that to deal with. Secondly, I have a feeling this is going to be a bad/weird day for my mom. She's at breakfast now, so I'm kind of waiting to see and give her a call when she gets back.

She called me yesterday afternoon that she had a bit of a toothache. But then she couldn't tell me if it was her tooth or maybe her gum irritated. She did this once before a year or so ago. It was later afternoon and too late to call the dentist office, so I told her I'll have to call in the morning. Well by morning she was completely fine and has never mentioned a toothache since. I was then trying not to overreact about it yesterday and decided to wait and see this morning. Well, I could see all evening on the camera she was pretty restless. She'd sit down in her recliner, get up 10 minutes later for 5 or 10 minutes, back to her recliner, repeat pretty much all evening. She fell asleep in her recliner around bedtime and was sleeping there. I left the motion detection on when I went to bed at 9:30. The rest of the night is her up and down all night, every hour or so. A lot of looking at her clock. She never did put her nightgown on and it appears she slept in her chair. Then she was up at 4:30 and didn't ever go back to sleep. A couple of times she stayed in her chair for what appears to be about 20 minutes or so (due to no motion detection after it shows she sat down). She went downstairs at 6:45 am....breakfast starts at 8. Still wearing yesterdays clothes.

So she apparently stayed downstairs that whole time until breakfast started and she just came back up to her apartment, with breakfast being over. She's been back almost 15 minutes and last clip shows she was heading to her bathroom, but I don't show her back out yet, even in live view. I want to wait to call when she's done. No motion detected, but now she has shut her bedroom door almost all the way. Not something she usually does during the day, so I'm guessing either she's been showering (hey, one can hope!) or taking a nap on her bed (she's gotta be tired).

So, I went downstairs and got my shower in. What does mom do (from the motion clips)? She was back in her bedroom/bathroom for 40 minutes. She comes out wearing shorts and a new top - grabs her keys out of the bowl on her little dining table and off she goes again! LOL. I'm hoping that 40 minutes with the bedroom door shut was because she took a shower.

The propane delivery driver called yesterday to ask if was ok to stop in and fill up for our summer fill. The rate was $2.05 per gallon. Somewhere I have last summer's receipt to see how much and what we paid per gallon, but that was before I got organized and created a "Propane" file folder. It just has in it our winter prepaid contract from last fall. I did look on my old credit card statement from last summer and I paid like $530 to the propane company for the summer fill, but that doesn't tell me how many gallons we used or the price. Our winter contact for next winter came in the mail the other day at a rate of $2.30 per gallon - 18% increase from last winters price. 

I started watching season 14 of Heartland. I kind of forgot about that show, so it appears I have 2 seasons to catch up on. That show sure has been on for a lot of years. It's wholesome and enjoyable to watch.

Leftovers

I didn't do a whole lot yesterday. My lower back was hurting some, probably from riding in dh's pick up the afternoon before for several hours. I finished a science fiction book I was reading. With this new Fire tablet I can't tell how many pages are left in a book, LOL. It shows how many in the chapter are left. This book was high action/suspenseful and I'm reading along and all of a sudden it's the end, haha. It's like it got ended right in all the action, but it was still a pretty good read.

My oven is a little dirty inside so I decided to try cleaning it with this "Pink Stuff" cleaner I got. DD had seen it online and was supposed to work really good. Eh...not too impressed. Yes, it did get some of the gunk off, but not the stuff spots with baked on grease splatters. My oven wasn't really that dirty to begin with, but I'd still like to get it super clean again. The one and only time I used self clean on an oven was years ago and omg - the whole house smelled awful. I'm scared to try that again. DH is sooo sensitive to any smells.

We had brought our leftover dinner home with us from Saturday. DH had had the prime rib and it was way too much to eat and I couldn't finish all of my prime rib dip sandwich I had ordered. For once we actually ate the leftovers, haha. Might have something to do with dh's prime rib meal cost $48! We weren't wasting any of it! I had some sandwich type rolls in the freezer so thawed a couple. Sliced up the meat, sauteed some onions and added some swiss cheese and made him a french dip sandwich out of it. Thankfully the waitress gave me a new small cup of au jus to take home with our leftovers. I thought I had a packet to make some at home, but I did not. 

Dh spent most of the day trying to figure out what stuff he wants for the side by side and where to buy it from. Like me, he overthinks purchases and keeps searching and searching, reading reviews, etc. When he came to bed he said he thinks he found the windshield he wants for it. There are a few things we have to get for it, right off the bat to make it street legal and license it for here. I think a windshield is one of them, along with turn signals. Anyway, figuring it all out is keeping dh busy at least. I seen this morning he sent me links to a couple of inexpensive things he wants. One was seatbelt bypass gadget. I guess if the seat belt is not bucked it will only go up to a certain speed. I think when he will be plowing he won't wear the seatbelt as there are times he'll need to hop in and out and not want to be bothered with a seatbelt, especially with big winter gloves on. 

I need to get online with our insurance company and add the side by side to insurance. Wonder what that costs. I wouldn't think it would be too much. 

A full day it was

Yesterday turned out to be full day. I left the house at 9am to go see my mom and pick up a big grocery order at Walmart after. After calling me twice the day before, to ask what time I was coming in the morning, she of course completely forgot I was coming. Which was fine, up until I finally had to go find her, otherwise I was not going to see her! I got there at 10 and signed in and then saw the caretaker was sitting in the office talking to one of the staff and I said hello to both of them, then asked the caretaker how it's all going with mom. She came out into the lobby area and we chatted for a bit. She said she seems to be doing better after getting off that medication, but is still really anxious. I got up to mom's apartment and she wasn't there, she was doing the wii bowling that started at 9:30. I figured she'd be back in 15 or 20 minutes so that gave me some time to do another fill up of my bag I bring, to keep reducing her unneeded stuff. I found her (empty) purse in her nightstand, so I decided to just leave it there. I found her (empty) wallet in one of the dresser drawers. I decided to just take that with me. Then I found this little sort of "coin purse" type thing. Looks like something homemade (mom likely made it years ago when she used to sew some) with a little velcro to close it. Mixed in with socks and whatnot. I picked it up and could feel something in it. It was her cash (like $25) stashed there, but no cards.

But where is that dang little coin purse I saw a couple months ago she had put her little bit of cash and ID card, insurance card, debit card, etc into? I still had not found this after several visits of looking. I decided to look through her purse again (so many pockets and zippers) but it's not there, so I put the purse back in the nightstand. I'm standing there and I have no idea what made me lift up the corner of her mattress but there was the little coin purse between the box spring and the mattress! In it was some loose change and her cards. I decided to just take with me, too. I wasn't sure if I should or not, but I might take it back with like just some "fake" cards in it. She doesn't need her debit card anymore and no sense having that constantly being hidden/lost with this stuff, as well as her ID card. I'll keep her ID card in my purse.

Then I washed up all her silverware (lots) and some dishes that were filled up in her sink and put those away. By then it was almost 10:30 and I'm thinking bowling should be over by now, I'll have to go find her because I needed to leave by 11. I went downstairs and found her in the tv room, she and 3 other ladies were still doing bowling. I was just going to watch and wait, hoping they were almost done, but they were just starting their 3rd last game, which I'm sure could take another half hour, so I managed to get mom out of there, LOL. We got back to her apartment and I showed her where I found her purse and told her we'll just leave it there, ok? At least this way, if she doesn't move it, when she calls to say her purse is missing, I can say look in your nightstand.

Her caretaker had told me she's getting really confused what times the meals are, especially lunch and dinner. Said she comes downstairs off and on all day to see if it's meal time yet. I saw on a couple of small note pads mom has on her desk she was writing down "dinner 5pm" "breakfast 8" on a couple of note pads. I said to mom hey, I'm going to write down the meal times on this big piece of (printer paper) paper and just tape it to your computer screen (that is next to her clock). I wrote out nice and big "Breakfast 8am" "Lunch 12 noon" and "Dinner 5pm" and taped it on her screen. I see on the camera she has already taken it down. So much for that idea. This morning she went downstairs at 7am, LOL.

I get home with the groceries at noon and we quickly get them put away and then hop in the truck, pulling dh's trailer and we head to Idaho! Dh has been wanting a side by side utility vehicle for years now for 2 purposes. The main purpose it to put a plow on the front and have a good snow plow. The other is it can be used to drive on/explore all these oodles of logging roads all around us. When we first moved here we explored them in my car and enjoyed it and the scenery but it was too hard on the car. Then we got busy building the house and have not done anymore of it, and didn't want to use the car anyway.

DH had been calling some dealers Friday and this dealer in Idaho had just gotten this model in dh wanted, plus it was just a "bare" version, not all the add on's that almost double the price. DH had been wanting black, but this one was white. Someone had a black one with all the add on's, actually more add-on then he wanted and super expensive. He finally decided to be smart and go with the white one. He had already figured out he can purchase and install these add on's himself at half what they mark up the things for by adding on. And he can just add the one's he wants, and not pay for one's already on one that he doesn't want.

I put a deposit down over the phone to hold it and then would be putting a 50% downpayment on it. They said since they literally just got it in, they still needed to get it ready to go, so it would be ready mid next week. Then an hour later the guy called back and said they'd have it ready to go the next day (Saturday) so we said we'll come and get it. Good, then I don't have to take time off to do it.

It was only a little over an hour and a half drive over there. We were in and out of there pretty quick. The sales guy helped dh get it loaded on the trailer while I signed the paperwork. Took longer for dh to get it all tied down to the trailer LOL. It seemed like it took us a long time to get home, though. First we stopped off at a little town that a friend of dh's lives in, to see if he might be home, just to say a quick hello, but he wasn't. Then a stop at a rest area. Then it was 4:40 when we were just getting to the exit of a little hole in the wall restaurant we go to sometimes, so we decided to stop and have dinner. (it was delicious) Then we stopped in our town to fill up the truck and new Mule with gas and it was 6pm by the time we got home. 

DH is super happy with it and the good part is we can do the add ons (plow, etc) as we go, with cash, and not very much is financed. Once he does the add on's and I'm done saving for those, then my plan is to just do a few lump sum payments and get it paid off quickly. He will also be selling our old (1995 Honda quad) quad and can use that money for his add on's. We paid $2000 for it a few years ago and I'm sure he can get the same out of it. He just put a new clutch in it, so it's good to go. This new machine will make plowing so much easier and quicker for him and now wear him out. It has power steering and will also have a bigger plow on the front then his qaud is able to have. Plus the plow will be hydraulic and much easier to operate. With the little quad and plow he'd have to get out there as soon as there was a few inches of snow, otherwise if he let it built up too much, the plow just couldn't handle that much snow at once. The plow he plans to add to this new machine will be bigger and lots less plowing time.

Then in the evening my mom called - said she can't find her purse.....I told her to look in her nightstand. She doesn't know what "nightstand" word is anymore. That is like the 2nd or 3rd time I've mentioned "look in your nightstand" recently and she's like "nightstand??". Yes, it's right next to your bed....

I was tired by early evening. Between 100 miles round trip to see mom and get groceries and then 260 mile round trip that afternoon, it was a busy day.

This morning was my first try with my new coffee "method" to have no sugar. It was heavy cream, in place of my regular creamer filled with sugar and sunflower oil (bad) and I used Stevia to sweeten, instead of 2 tsp of sugar. I also had just finished my bottle of gummy vitamins and after realizing taking 2 of those each morning was also adding 2 grams of sugar a day, I didn't buy more. I'll find some that doesn't have sugar added. So, just for my morning I cut out 20 grams of sugar. The recommended daily limit of sugar intake for women is 25 grams - for the whole day. I sill have a long way to go to cut way down on sugar, but this is a good start. The coffee with this stuff in it tasted different, of course, but it wasn't too bad. I liked the flavor of the real cream. The sweetener didn't seem very sweet though, but I will definitely be able to get used to it pretty quickly, I think.

Nothing much

Now our garbage service bill has gone up due to the gas prices. We are billed quarterly and now paying a fuel surcharge that is an extra $25 per quarter. We are now paying $60 a month for garbage pick up service one time a week. Where we used to live it was $27/mo and that included picking up a recycling can every other week!

I'm going in to see my mom tomorrow morning and pick up groceries. I see she was up and to breakfast this morning. I saw from camera motion clip that the caregiver knocked on her door at 7:30, but she was already dressed. Mom answered and she just said "hi, it's me. I'm just reminding you about breakfast" and mom said "ok, thank you". Quick and easy, but that's what she does need some mornings and I'd rather have them check every morning to make sure.

My grocery order is a lot healthier, haha. Well, for me anyway. Dh is a lost cause. I'm going to start with implementing the things I know I can change pretty easily. Less sugar, eat more salads, berries, nuts, and salmon (wild caught), eat 85% dark chocolate, grass fed butter, extra virgin olive oil, eggs, and organic chicken breast. Weird - I found I totally like an egg fried in olive oil, but did not like a scrambled egg made in it. I suppose it will get to be an acquired taste. I just cannot do one of the "super foods" - avacado. Just do not like it.

Nothing much new going on. Lots of hot weather days in the 90's. Just trying to keep up with making sure all the flowers are watered. Most of the yard is on sprinkler system that runs early morning. It gets the lawn and most of the shrubs and perennials we planted.

Now on to getting through the Friday work day.

 

 

 

Frustrating transactions

Gosh, what a long wait for this desk I ordered for dh from Pottery Barn. Ordered back on 3/11. I then got an email on 4/15 that is shipped, but had this wide date range of like 3 weeks before it's delivered. Then I got an email from Ryder, a delivery company that they would be delivering my Pottery Barn order in the next couple of weeks. Then I called like in May or June inquiring on it and got some vague answer that it was shipped to their distribution company, but not out for delivery yet. Well dang, now it's past mid July and still no desk. Now when I look at the status is still shows shipped and says "estimated delivery between July 8 and July 28". They just keep pushing the date out and every time I wait it out, the date changes to a later date. It's getting a bit ridiculous. Either it shipped or it didn't!

So, I called customer service again. I was on hold for 25 minutes waiting to speak to a customer service agent. Then I was on the call for another 20 minutes while the agent tried to figure out what is going on. Apparently it shipped from their distribution center to their delivery "hub" which is Ryder, but now it's apparently no where to be found. At first she was saying it doesn't appear that it made it to the delivery hub. I said well, I got an email from Ryder 3 months ago that they received it and would be delivering in a couple weeks and when I called last May or June (can't remember when now) I was told it was at the distribution center, it just hadn't been prepared for delivery yet. She got in contact with someone else and now they are putting in a request at the delivery hub to figure out where the desk is and this could take 3-5 days before they get a response and then they will call me back with what is going on. It basically appears that it was delivered to Ryder and they have lost it in their system and never got it out for delivery. Frustrating.

Another weird transaction was my monthly electric bill. I have that set up for auto pay and it charges my credit card (for the rewards) each month on the 20th. Well, on June 11th I noticed that the May 20th charge was showing on my credit card twice, for the same amount on May 20th. I put in a dispute that it was a duplicate, which I keep getting emails that they are working on it...5 weeks now. This morning I get a call from someone from their dispute department that the duplicate charge isn't there so they are closing the case. I said well, it was showing twice and she explained it away by saying well some companies put a hold or put a charge through to make sure it will go through/has the funds. I'm like ok....but it was still on there 3 weeks later?? She really didn't have an answer. Guess I'll just have to really watch it from now on. If it happens again I'll call the electric company and complain.

In trying to finish off that guest bedroom I just added the chair to - that whole wall to the left of the chair is blank and needs something. Dh also thought a floor lamp next to or behind the chair would look nice. This room is all "buffalo" themed, but I just did not want another buffalo picture or art and wasn't finding any nature/scenery type of painting/picture that jumped out at me. I decided on a "River" sign I found on etsy. It's 12" tall and 36" long and says River with an arrow pointing the direction of the river, haha. I found a floor lamp on Target that I liked and they also had the option to scan it into your room to see what it looks like. I was able to put my $50 Target gift card towards it and only $9 out of pocket. For Mother's Day dd had given me a Williams and Sonoma gift card because I had wanted a copper and glass butter dish from there, but at the time they were out of stock and not shipping until August. Well, i finally decided to get online and look again and now it's available to ship, so I ordered it and since I still had $10 to spend more I ordered a new pastry brush. I swear the one I have must be 50 years old, haha. I'm sure it used to belong to my mom at some point. Past time to throw it out. 

Mom (of course) was fine the rest of the day yesterday after she got dressed and up and about. Later morning, before she got dressed, I did see she ate a banana, so at least she is aware enough to grab a banana from downstairs to keep in her apartment and she got something to eat. I see this morning one of the caregivers woke her up just after 7:30 and she got dressed and downstairs. I need to check with the caregiver on her billing - in our initial conversation she said she bills monthly and it's been a month now. I'll send her a text today to ask how/when she bills.

Try again

I had made a note that I called and canceled my mom's cell phone service June 17th. Well, I was looking at her bank account this morning and another Verizon bill charged. I log in to her account and it's still active and this is a billing for after I canceled. So, I called again. It took the guy forever to get it canceled. He did see in the account notes I called last month to cancel. So, then I say I need this billing credited and he says "oh, I will see what I can do, I'm limited in this". Fortunately he came back on the line and said it's been credited. There is no way I was paying this billing when I already canceled it and it was someone on their end who didn't finish the process. He assures me it's all taken care of now.

DH's clutch replacement in the quad worked when he test drove it yesterday. No more slipping clutch. Well, hey, the thing is almost 30 years old! He was pretty proud of himself that he figured it all out on his own without too much trouble. He had never replaced a clutch in a quad or motorcycle before. 

I just got the kitty head butt right as I was trying take a drink from my coffee cup and got most of it saved in the cup and only a little sloshed out on me!

DH's best friend who lives in Texas keeps trying to talk him into moving down there near them, LOL. His wife keeps sending links to nice homes for sale, practically neighbors to them, haha. Dang, for the price of these really nice homes it's almost tempting. We'd basically be mortgage free and have just as nice of home as we do here. But there's one problem. Well, two. It's currently 109 degrees there, haha and there is no snow. Not to mention the thought of moving again is a huge NO. But, not going to lie - the thought of making my salary and having no mortgage is pretty appealing. So are the pools, haha.

Ok, my mom just called again this morning -  says she has diarrhea. I'm like are you sure you really have it or just a stomach ache? she says she has it and wasn't sure what to take for it. I said she doesn't have anything in her apartment for that, just drink lots of water and we'll see how she's doing a little later. Ugh. I know when I call in a couple of hours she'll be totally fine and probably won't even remember she supposedly had it. We'll see, I guess. It's always something, isn't it?

When I was at dd's and we were antique shopping she kept looking for a small bench she could put outside next to her front door. She never found anything except on Saturday she found the store with the live edge pieces of wood. She already got the wirepin legs she ordered and the bench fits perfectly next to her front door! She is going to seal it to protect the wood. I love it!

Her dh just found out he finally got his promotion to the next salary level. He's been promised it for quite some time. And then the manager left and then he had to start over with the new manager. That's the part of very large companies that is not fun. Too much red tape. I'm sure between the 2 of them they now make around $200k per year. Good for them. They have worked hard and set themselves up to do well with careers.

Well, I need to make a walk to the mailbox to mail something before they pick up this morning.

Tuesday this and that

I recently purchased an over the door towel hooks/hanger, but found it very loose over the guest bathroom door (and a little bit smaller than I thought it would be). I was going to return it this week, but this morning had a thought. I have a bunch of various shaped/sized felt furniture pads with sticky on the back. They can also be cut to size. I put those on several areas of the towel hanger and it works great now. It doesn't bang against the door as you open and close it and stays put. 

Here is the chair I got for the guest bedroom. The blanket I just brought home from dd. She bought it or got it somehow, but didn't want it, so I took it to try here with this chair. Not sure if I'll keep it (it's a little large) but will try it out and see if it grows on me. I do like the chair and the color is exactly what I was hoping it would be.

I order my 40lb box of cat litter from Chewy. Amazon has it, but shipping is as much as the litter. Walmart has it too and I think I ordered it there once. I need to reorder and I no longer want to use Chewy since they have a $49 minimum order for free shipping. Now that we only have one pet, I just don't need enough things to order pet-wise for $49. (the litter is about $17 or $18). I was going to just order from Walmart, but of course, they are now out of stock. I found Petco carries it and you only need a $35 min order, so I ordered it and some cat food. It's almost time to switch kitty to adult cat food, so I might as well get that now and start gradually switching him over. 

DH got the other parts he needs for finishing the clutch replacement on the quad (it's an old 1995 Honda Fourtrax quad) and said he'll have it finished today to try out and see how much better it now works.

With re-reading the book "Genius Foods" I'm trying to be more mindful of what I am going to eat going forward and try to implement some of the suggestions. I don't think I can cut out sugar altogether, but I know I can cut it down. The recommended limit of daily sugar intake for women is 25 grams (or about 6 teaspoons). Eek. I get that amount just from my breakfast of coffee and yogurt! I put in 2 tsp of sugar in my coffee, the creamer I use is 5 grams...for a Tablespoon amount. I'm guessing I use more than that. I put in "2 splashes" LOL. The Activia probiotic yogurt I've been eating (which has helped my stomach) is 12 grams. Plus all the other stuff with sugar I eat the rest of the day. It's going to take awhile to get myself used to so much less sugar. Not to mention starchy foods break down in your body as sugar. Eek, again.

The book author recommends using organic heavy cream in your coffee. This has no sugar, so if I can get used to the taste (I do like cream), though still adding my 2 tsp of granulated sugar, I will cut out at least 5 grams. I'll have to see what I can find to replace this particular yogurt. That's too much sugar. I tried just a plain yogurt at dd's. Yuck. No can do. She just uses it in smoothies. I don't think I can add fruit to it - I won't like that either - it's a texture thing with fruit I do not like. 

Yesterday morning I looked on the camera a little before 8am and it appeared mom wasn't there, so had gone down for breakfast. At 8:05 she called me, asking if I knew if she had anything to take for diarrhea, she has a stomach ache. I said I don't think so, but are you actually having it? She said well, no...I said well, you don't want to take anything for that unless you actually have it. Then after I questioned her some more she said well, it's not really my stomach, it's higher up. I then said oh, well I guess you won't feel like eating breakfast then? and she said no. I just told her to drink lots of water and rest and I'll check on her a little later. I then texted her caregiver to let her know she wasn't going to go down. She texted that mom was down at breakfast, had her coffee and ate half her breakfast and then got up and left. So, at least she did get something in her stomach. It's nice having the extra set of eyes on her, so I was able to know she did get some breakfast. I checked on her later and as expected, she was completely fine and had already forgotten about her stomach ache. The caregiving is going much better and have not had any issues with one of them getting there to give her her pills. And on occasion mom actually thinks to push the button and take them herself before they get there. Maybe once a week or so.

More trip highlights

More highlights from my trip. I woke up Wednesday morning with a bit of a pinched nerve in my back, kind of under my left shoulder blade. I did not need that! It bothered me the whole trip and is still bothering me. It would be worst while sleeping and would loosen up during the days (after Advil and using dd's foam roller). Thursday night was the worst. I went to roll over around 2:30 pm and intense pain, no matter what position I tried to get into. I was almost crying from the pain. Finally after about an hour it lessened up and I was able to fall back asleep. I've kept trying the foam roller, which for awhile seems to help, but it just keeps coming back.

DD recently bought herself a Kindle reader, but has been purchasing books for it. I'm like just borrow from the library! - do you have a library card? Yes she did, so I showed her how to link her library to it and she was so happy.  She wanted to read that book I read awhile back "Genius Foods" that tells about research and foods good for brain health. I said I really need to read it again and implement at least some of the foods to my crappy diet. She had to reserve it from her library, but I was able to borrow it from mine, so I read quite a bit of it while she was working Thurs and Friday. The 2nd reading of it, is helping me to absorb all the information more. We also discovered he's written a follow up book of recipes, that we both also reserved to read. She and her dh already eat pretty healthy, though her dh is overweight. He has started doing some mountain biking with a friend and they try to do a hike on weekends when they can.

I'm more convinced that mom's medications, taken for many years, has contributed to/caused her dementia. I had written in a post some time ago about an article I read about "anticholinergic" type drugs and how they have been associated with dementia. This book discusses them also (I don't remember this from my first read) and gives a list of drugs and if they are classified as "strong" anticholinergic". Mom's got a trifecta going on. “Taking an anticholinergic for the equivalent of 3 years or more is associated with a 54% higher dementia risk." So, mom didn't take just one of these types, she took 3! All 3 are considered "high" levels. Paroxetine, Diphenhyrdamine (Benadryl), and Alprazolam. I know she had the prescription for Alprazolam a few years ago, I'm just not sure how long she took it for.

When dd decided to buy that wishing well, for her yard, at the Farmer's Market her dh was like rolling his eyes, LOL. Even when we got it back to their house and she had him put it where she wanted it. We were like "it's a perfect thing for there!". Well, in the past 2 days she has been outside and other neighbors have walked by walking their dog or whatever and both commented they loved the wishing well! and she doesn't even have flowers in it yet. So there! haha.

Yesterday was almost 100 degrees again, but today is much cooler, only to get to 73, which will be a nice change. 

Well, back to work - 3 days of emails and work to catch up on, again.

Home sweet home

I arrived back home last night. but not without delays going both ways. Wednesday morning my flight was to leave at 7:40. It ended up leaving 90 minutes late, so that was an extra long wait just sitting at the airport. It wasn't a full flight, so I didn't have to sit next to anyone, which was really nice. The delay didn't get me to my destination until 9:45 (an hour earlier time zone) which then I knew was going to make it really inconvenient for my boss to come and pick me up, so I told her I'd grab a taxi. That was another super long walk over to the parking garage to find where the taxi's were. It's a pretty quick drive to the office, thankfully ($32 plus tip to go 4 miles) and I was there by 10:30. Our company meeting started at 11. So, I spent the first half hour just saying hello to people and getting lots of hugs :). So many new faces I did not know. Since I'm an introvert there are times I just have to put myself out there and be more outgoing and that day was it, LOL. Some people I just walked up to and introduced myself to. I finally found my boss, haha. She was running around busy as a bee getting ready for the family party out in the parking lot, after the meeting. She looks good and has lost some weight since I last saw her. I figured out when I was last there. It was mid December 2019, just a few months before Covid hit.

The meeting was good. We are doing well business/sales wise. It ran about 90 minutes and then it was time for the family bbq/picnic type event to go on all afternoon. It was a nice high 70's sunny day. My dd got there just about as it was starting. They had catered some good food, lots of beverages, including adult type for those that wanted. We sat next at a table just as a new guy was sitting down. Poor guy had literally just started 2 days earlier, LOL. I welcomed him, introduced myself and said "you'll just be seeing me today and then probably not for another 6 months to a year, LOL" Quite a few people's family came, so it was busy. We played some cornhole and they had other games as well. Again, I had to keep on my "extrovert" hat haha. Got some time to visit with my boss, which was really nice. The afternoon went fast and after chatting with a new sales guy for awhile it suddenly seemed like quite a few had left. It was 4:30 and winding down, so dd and I decided to head up to her house. She's over 50 miles away and with all the normal traffic I figured it could take us up to 2 hours but since we could use the carpool and toll lanes we got there at 5:45.

She and her dh have been watching Stranger Things and were on the last season, which I just finished, but I watched it with them each evening so they could finish it. Neither of us were very hungry since we had eaten a lot that afternoon, so we just had sandwiches for dinner. DD worked both Thursday and Friday (from home) but she finishes up at 2:30 so we had the afternoon to do stuff. Thursday we went into her small town and visited a few antique and gift shops, which be both always enjoy doing. After we got back to her house, her dh made some salmon and watermelon for dinner, which was delicious. She's lucky he doesn't mind cooking.

Thursday morning, I was trying to sleep in. Of course that never gets to happen. At 7am my phone is ringing and it's my mom's caregiver saying she tried to get her to get ready to go down for breakfast but mom was doing her typical "oh, I'm just not feeling very well this morning". Which of course the caregiver knows she is fine, because she told me she's heard it from her before and then she'll show up at 9:30 down in the dining room, totally fine, wondering when breakfast is. But, she wasn't sure what to do to get her down there, so I said I'd call her and try. That did the trick and she got dressed and got breakfast.

Friday was more of the same. DD worked and then at 2:30 we headed out to another nearby town and went through some more antique stores. DD was trying to find a small bench she could put out at her front door, but wasn't finding anything. She did find a wooden hanging flower pot for $4 she decided to get to hang on her shed. There was a cute dog treat bakery we stopped in and she got some things for her dogs. Then we went to this large nursery a friend had told her about and got some flowers for some pots she has, as well as the hanging one she just purchased. 

For dinner we stopped and got Teriyaki to take home. My request, as I haven't had teriyaki in years and it's one of my favorites. Saturday morning the 3 of us went into their town to have breakfast and then walk through the Saturday Farmer's market going on. DD ended up getting a wood "wishing well" from a wood craftsman's booth. They have this area in their front yard from where they took out a big tree and the stump it still just under the surface. She wants to put something there and I had suggested earlier a wishing well with flowers in it would look cute, and there it was, haha. Then we were walking by this antique store that we somehow missed on Thursday, so we went in and the guy had a bunch of different sized pieces of live edge boards that looked neat. DD decided to make her own bench, so she found a piece she liked that was the perfect size and she will just buy some metal legs to put on it.

My afternoon return flight home was on time and for I didn't want to be at the airport an hour and a half or 2 hours early to just sit there. TSA app showed it was like a 10 minute pass through security. My flight left at 4:10 and got to the airport a few minutes after 3. Well the security line was much slower, not to mention I got behind this family that didn't have a clue. But I got to my gate (another long walk) at 3:30 and boarding started at 3:45, so it all was good. Landed just before 6:30, only to have to sit on the plane almost a half hour because another plane was still at our gate. Of course my mom tried to call while I was sitting on the plane waiting for it to get to the gate. I told her every time I talked to her that I was on a trip, but she never could remember. It was 97 degrees out. Then to get off the plane we had to walk through this enclosed (temporary type structure) walkway that was really long and so hot in there! That part was awful. I kind of felt sorry for the lady walking in front of me for part of it. She was older and I'm sure the long walk and heat was hard. I ended up passing by her as I was trying to get out of that area as soon as possible so I could breathe again.

DH survived, haha. He had cereal or toast for breakfast, his usual sandwich and snacks for lunch. Looks like he heated up some spaghettio's for dinner or had a sandwich and looks like he also ate the leftover pizza we had the night before I left. Last night he just waited until he picked me up and we stopped at McDonald's on the way home. He bought a replacement clutch for the quad/snow plow. He got started on that, but is still waiting for some more parts to come next week. Hopefully that will make it work a little better, but we are still considering buying a "side by side" that he can use for plowing and also would be perfect for logging road exploring the area. 

It's good to be home. I don't miss living over where my job is/dd lives. Too many people. The traffic on early Saturday afternoon to get to the airport was ridiculous. We crawled along for a good 10 miles of the trip. Not to mention the concrete walls of all the freeway system going through the major city is covered in graffiti now. Looks terrible.

Sad moment

Well, dang. I went out to the chicken coop yesterday morning to give them their daily bread treat and one of my chickens was dead in one of the nest boxes :(  No clue why. Ugh. Well, I guess glad it didn't happen while dd was taking care of them, she would have freaked out. My half sister said her rooster just keeled over dead the other day for no known reason. She's had chickens for years, says it just happens sometimes. Sad and I wasn't expecting that. It's not like she had been sick or anything, that I was aware of. 

Blogger is still being really annoying with it always seems to be "logged out". Every time I want to reply to a comment I have to go through hoops to get re-signed in so I can reply as me. Same for anytime I want to comment on someone else's blog. So, for those I frequently comment on - sorry if I seem to be MIA - it's just been frustrating to have to go through the hoops to try to comment. I was hoping whatever the glitch was, Blogger would have fixed it by now. 

Our friend, who's dh is in the hospital with his major procedure - wow - just crazy how she has to stay on top of practically everything. No one seems to know what the other dept is doing! It's scary, really. Just like when my dh was in the hospital - he'd have an awful nurse one shift and then a really good one the next. With friend's issue so dire, it's almost like his wife needs to be there 24/7 just to make sure everything is being done right and they don't screw up! There was one thing she wrote about yesterday that could have had pretty major effect/repercussions on the whole reason he is in the hospital in the first place, if she hadn't caught it.

As a money saver, it occasionally pays off that I have the "Honey" app installed on my browser. It will sometimes pop up a cheaper place to purchase something. It will also on occasion offer rewards $ back from purchases. Well, dh wanted another dehumidifier. I was going to purchase the same one we bought from Home Depot 3 years ago, but that model is no longer being made. They have a different model now. I did some searching and found Walmart was actually cheapest and Honey also offered $20 is cash back rewards/points. So, I saved $25 buying it from Walmart (including my 5% cash back on my Walmart credit card) and will get another $20 back to cash in with Honey. Nice deal. The app also always looks for any coupons for purchases. 

I found a new show to watch. Season 5 of Outlander on Starz. I totally forgot (since it's pretty much been the only show I watched on Starz) I still have a Starz subscription until late August, so now I can get caught up with the latest season of Outlander.

And in some good news, we are getting a bonus at the work meeting on Wednesday. As usual, my boss says she can't surprise me, like everyone else will be, because she needs my help entering the checks and even if she did it all by herself, I'd still see that the entries got made, haha. Not huge checks, but decent, considering. I can honestly say I was not expecting for them to pay any bonus out mid year.

I'm all checked in for my flight tomorrow morning. I'll only have my tablet with me, so most likely I will not post again until I get back.

Sunday done

On Saturday I had stopped at Lowes and bought 2 plants. One we needed to replace the azalea that didn't make it (the other azalea is doing great) and one to plant in memory of our pup, with some of his ashes. To replace the azalea I chose a forsythia and for the memory plant I chose a Veronica, a plant with pretty purple flowers. As per our usual "luck" with planting things, I give them about a 50% chance of making it.

Kitty overseeing the planting

After the planting I cleaned out the chicken coop. When I was done I felt like I had taken a dust bath like the chickens do. Fortunately I hadn't taken a shower yet, so threw my dirty clothes in the hamper and got all the poop dust washed off me, LOL. 

For dinner I tried a new recipe dd sent me: Hawaiian roll ham and cheese sliders. Easy and yummy. DH loved them, so I will definitely be making these once in awhile. They will be a good thing to make when our friends are visiting.

I finished watching Stranger Things. I didn't realize the last episode of season 4 was 2 hours, so I had to stay up an extra half hour to finish it, haha. DD started watching the show too, last week and is up to season 3.

Mom's caregiver is going mostly going better. There was only one evening (I think it was Saturday) that she showed up at 6:40, but by then mom had heard the "phone ringing" at 6:30 and called me to ask if I just called, so I told her it was time to take the pills. All the other evenings she or the other lady were there before 6:30. I didn't text her that evening that she already took them. Figured hey, if we're paying her to check on mom, even if she doesn't have to make sure the pills are dispensed, she can still do a "check" on mom. Since I installed the 2nd camera recently is when I started noticing mom will take one of her dining chairs and push it up against the door in the evenings. The caregiver has been noticing this so she has started reminding mom and explaining she can't do this. It's not safe. So, hopefully the constant reminders will start to sink in. I definitely don't see my mom turning into a "wanderer" trying to leave the building (the office lady told me she has one who started doing that so they had to tell the family it's time to move her). My mom just wants to barricade herself in!

This morning just before 8 the caregiver did text me that she's on her way there, but stuck in a traffic backed up for an accident. So, I called mom. As long as she can communicate with me, I don't mind if she can't make it every single day. But, I did text her back that Wednesday morning and Saturday evening I will be on an airplane and not available to help my mom over the phone. 

We have some friends (in another state) who the husband is in the hospital for a major procedure. He's at a well known, supposedly top hospital in the country....she was saying on Facebook yesterday how this awful nurse they had yesterday actually handed the wife the narcotic pills her husband is supposed to take and said "here, make sure he takes these" and walks out of the room. The wife was like OMG! what if I was a drug user/addict?! You just don't hand off narcotics to anyone but the patient! 

Starting off the week good - the work remote connection still working strong. Whew!

Today's laugh

I had a busy morning, going into the city to visit mom and make a few shopping stops. I tried to call her on my way, but she had gone off to do an activity and was still gone from her apartment when I got there. Which was just fine with me! It gave me a few minutes to get her camera down from on top of the kitchen cabinet and get new batteries put in it.

And guess what I finally found? The missing purse! And then I notice her digital clock/calendar is laying face down again, as well as a picture she has of her, me and dd. And then I notice her telephone!

Because doesn't everyone keep their purse under the kitchen sink and their telephone on the floor under the desk?!! LOL

But hey, at least she still has her keys and her tv is still working - knock on wood!

Back to things going right now

Day 2 of not being able to get connected remotely to my work desktop. Frustrating to say the least. After the new Windows version installed, which took a couple of hours, it was finally about 6pm my time when we got to test it out and of course that didn't fix the problem and it's time for the IT to go home, so they said they'll have to start working on it again this morning. I can sign in, but as soon as it does it freezes and then kicks me back off. Just seems so strange that it can go from working all day Wednesday to suddenly "nope, not gonna connect you anymore". Let alone strange that they can't figure it out.

This morning, my boss who is on vacation, called our IT and escalated me to highest priority. Another tech called me and after about an hour or so he had me back up and working ok so far. Keeping my fingers crossed. Everything on my work desktop seems to be working at a faster rate, too, which is nice. His last comment made it sound like it was something with their new VPN program, it wasn't staying "stable" which was why it kept disconnecting me. Which makes sense because all my problems started after they installed this new VPN.

The assistant caregiver did show up at 6:15 to make sure mom got her meds. Not sure about getting her downstairs this morning. With only one camera working, I'm only seeing half her apartment. She was dressed and walking across her living room at 8:15, so obviously not downstairs yet, but with this one camera view it doesn't catch motion at her door. It's the camera on the shelf under her tv, so basically I can just see her recliner and her sink area. At least when I talk to her at some point each day, she is much better mental thought wise. She still has her apartment keys, I see and she's been watching tv with no problems. A little bit still worried about her "accounts" every so often, but nothing like she was while on that medication.

I just ordered an "accent" chair for one of our guest bedrooms from Wayfair. I had $44 in rewards to use ( $24 from the purchase of my office sofa and $20 for doing a review on it) so that saved me some. It's supposed to ship right away and be here next week. 

Caregiver update

I sent a text to the caregiver yesterday morning that said hello, my mom hasn't had any help getting reminded to go down for breakfast or her evening meds the past couple of days (Monday meds maybe because of holiday?). Are you still available to help her? She replied "I'm sorry. The dining room just opened up again yesterday morning. She was at breakfast this morning and she had her meds last night. I'm sorry about Monday. Will try better. She did let me do her laundry over the weekend but refused shower assistance."

I replied: I called her at 8 this morning as I saw on the camera she was not dressed or getting ready to go down for breakfast. I helped her with her pills the last 2 nights. Her dispenser will chime at 6:30. Typically she thinks it's her phone ringing and will try to answer her phone and then call me to ask if I just called. I can adjust the time it starts chiming if there is a better time for their schedule, but cannot change that it will only let it dispense up to 30 minutes prior. (for example if I set it to 6:45, then the earliest it can be pressed to dispense before it chimes is 6:15).

She replied: no need, if we get there before 6:30 we can just press it to get the meds out for her. 

I tried to reiterate that if they are there after 6:30 then it doesn't do me much good because it starts chiming and starts confusing mom what is chiming and I end up having to walk her through it over the phone and cameras at that point. She said that if it's her assistant she is only there until 6:30 so she will get it done before then, but sometimes she (the main caregiver lady) is out on hospice calls and her schedule can vary day to day, but she will try to make sure she is there before 6:30.

If I am the one who has to talk/view mom through taking her pills at 6:30 and then she shows up after that, well, we certainly don't need to be charged for the visit if I've already had to take care of it myself! Getting her meds help was the main reason I hired her in the first place. I don't mind if there comes up occasional times when she can't make it, but a quick text would help me know what to expect. I would even be ok if she said "hey, we can only do this 6 days a week, or 5 days a week" and I took care of the other 1 or 2 days. I just don't like expecting it's going to be handled and then it's not.

I guess I don't want it turning into her thinking "well, if I don't get there before 6:30 it's not big deal, because I'll just get her to take the pills then, but by "then" I've already had to take care of it because mom has called me twice wondering why her "phone" is ringing.

I am very glad to hear she was able to do some laundry over the weekend. I was afraid I was going to have to try to get this done again when I visit on Saturday. I honestly have no care when she wants to fit in doing her laundry, whatever works for her schedule. I'll see if I can get her to take a shower, if it looks like she has not done so recently. I can certainly tell by her hair condition if she's past due. 

So, after all that what does mom do last evening? Takes her pills on her own, LOL. She got back from dinner at 6:05. The caregiver hadn't shown up yet and at 6:12 mom walked over to her dispenser and pushed the button on her own and took the pills. I did text the caregiver and let her know mom had a moment of good memory and took them on her own. Such a roller coaster.

And I can't get on to my work VPN again this morning. Different message this time. This time it says
"server is not reachable".  Our IT company isn't available until 7am so I'll have to wait a half hour. Well, now I can connect the VPN but cannot connect to my desktop. Annoying. It took me about 6 tries but it finally connected me.  Well, for all of about 5 minutes and then kicked me off and now I'm back to trying to connect numerous times with no luck. Coincidence that this all started when they got the new VPN program? I think not. So, I just put in another ticket with our IT group.  If they try to tell me again it's the internet on my end I'm going to have to disagree. I've had this same internet for 6 years with virtually no problems connecting (it's always something from the other end) and this all started with their change a few days before I went on vacation.

I'm down to one camera recording on mom, even though the "dead" camera shows the battery is still good. Makes it hard to see exactly what went on this morning, but she did seem to go down for breakfast at 8:12, I'm just not sure if she did it on her own or had a reminder. I'll replace the batteries on the one camera when I am there Saturday and hopefully that fixes it.

Boiling point

My frustration level is about to reach it's boiling point. First off, no one showed up again to make sure mom get her meds last night. She did manage to take them herself this time, but again, I had to spend time watching the camera and making sure. Plus now one of the cameras will no longer go into live view. I'm guessing its the battery running low. It will record a motion clip if I have it on motion detection, but if I click on live view it won't connect. Then this morning it's a few minutes to 8 am and mom is not getting dressed to go down for breakfast and again, no help, so I ended up calling her myself. 

And I go to log into work and the VPN connection isn't working so I'm waiting on our IT company to call me. Great way to start off my morning. I guess I'm not the only one getting the error message. A co worker who also works remote just mentioned the same thing on our company chat screen. After I get this resolved I'm going to text the caregiver and find out what is going on. Not even sure what to say....um hello....are you still helping my mom?? 

Ok, I'm finally connected to work - now to get caught up on missing a week.........

 

Last day off

Now that I've been up at at it this morning, my voice is mostly back. I've only talked to the cat so far, LOL. Of course mom couldn't remember this and kept calling me....sigh....I'm not sure what is going on with her caregiver. No one showed up to make sure she got her meds last night. Don't work the holiday? Ok, no problem, but that would have been nice to know a bit ahead of time. She's usually been coming around 6:15pm give or take, a few times just before 6:30. Well, at 6:30 mom's dispenser is chiming to notify it's time. I'm watching on camera and of course she picks up the phone, thinking it's ringing and tries to call me (she had been in her bedroom when it started chiming). I let it go to voicemail and hoped Liz would show up soon or mom would figure it out the next chiming in 5 minutes. She did not. Then just as the 3rd one was about to start I decided to call and get it taken care of, voice or no voice, and mom again picked up the phone, but then she noticed the dispenser flashing and took the pills. And she thinks she doesn't need the help.

While I was watching all this on the camera I heard the announcement over their loud speaker system that the dining room was opening back up starting in the morning. So, I check in on her via the camera this morning. She's not dressed or ready to go downstairs. She does still have some milk and cereal and I saw her get herself a bowl of cereal and sit at her table to eat. Liz nor her assistant ever came to make sure she got downstairs for breakfast, that I can tell. I supposed one of them could have popped in for a couple seconds and mom told them she was having her cereal, as I didn't have the camera on every minute, but I really don't think they did. A bit frustrating, to say the least. Those are the 2 main things I wanted done for mom - her evening pills and to make sure she gets down for breakfast.

We only heard some fireworks, off in the distance, right as it got dark last night and only for about 10 minutes, which was nice and short. One less thing for dh to complain about. He never seems to have a shortage of things to find to complain about, that's for sure. I'm also surprised the rapid fire gun shooter was quiet all weekend. We heard it some while dd was here those last 2 days, but just a few quick bursts and then he was done. 

My trip to the office next week (Wed) seems to be coming up fast. I feel like I need to get "prepared" but for what I don't know LOL. Just pack some clothes and go, haha. I plan to go get groceries and see mom this coming Saturday. I'll need to figure out some stuff to leave dh to eat, since he won't cook for himself. I think next Tuesday I'll make enchiladas for dinner and he can have the leftovers Wed night for dinner. The next couple of nights he can heat up spaghettio's or eat a sandwich or something. I'll be home Saturday around 6:30, so we can grab McD's or something near the airport on the way home.

Last night I finished season 2 of Stranger Things and then I went to bed, so I don't think I'll finish up the show by today, which is fine. It'll give me something to watch in the evenings the rest of this week. Since I also have today off as a holiday, I should get some time to watch another episode or two. I really don't have much to do today, so I just plan to relax and take it easy. I have some chicken breasts thawing and plan to make a chicken, rice and vegetable casserole dish for dinner. Should give us leftovers for tomorrow too.

Happy (quiet) 4th of July

Other than the occasional thunder and lightning and rain we're getting, it's a quiet weekend. I'm quiet too - I seem to have developed some laryngitis. No clue why. I have actually probably had it a few times in my life for no know reason. I don't feel sick, no fever. Maybe just a bit tired. I noticed my voice was getting hoarse when my mom called yesterday morning. She wanted me to check her accounts because there are 2 young women working (not sure if she's referring to her new caregiver and her assistant or maybe housecleaner. Who knows.) and she's worried about her accounts. I assured her they are fine and have fraud protection and also that there isn't anything in her apartment that they can get her account information. She said "well, they have my name".  I said they can't get into your bank account with your name, they don't even know where you bank. Then she decided she was just worrying too much. The funniest part was she was she was apologizing for bothering me. I said it's no problem, it's just Sunday and I'm not doing anything and she said well, all the more reason you don't need me bothering you. Ten minutes later she calls again, LOL. I was in the shower and missed her call and since I'm about 90% sure she called again because she forgot she had just called and 99% sure if I called her back she wouldn't remember why she called 15 minutes earlier, I didn't call her back.

DH washed and vacuumed the car yesterday. I finished vacuuming upstairs and chatted with dd some. I watched some more episodes of Stranger Things and am on season 2 now. I imagine I'll be close to finished with it over the next 2 days I still have off work. We had lunch out on the back patio. It's a lot cooler out the last couple of days being rain off and on. We're also getting a break from listening to river floaters and fishermen go by, with this weather. Usually a holiday weekend is lots of floaters (who are usually half drunk and loud, LOL) but with the weather and the river is still up some and pretty fast moving right now. Not so much the slow lazy float down the river conditions, yet.

Then about a half hour after the caregiver stopped in for mom's meds, I got my now regular evening call from mom, I'm sure to again ask how much she is paying this lady....she doesn't need her...she can take her meds herself...etc, call. I decided, since I didn't have a voice and had already talked to her earlier in the day, to just let it go to voicemail. I wasn't going to spend 5 minutes with hardly any voice trying to repeat myself. And I figured 15 or 20 minutes later she'd forget she even tried to call anyway. I saw on the camera she then went and sat in her recliner and watched tv, which thankfully is still working.

Dh has been wearing the same style of New Balance tennis shoe for years. He uses his oldest pair for yard work, another pair for indoor and going somewhere. Well, his better/newer pair he said the left shoe feels like it has no cushion or support whatsoever. He said his old cruddy pair has more than this left shoe. So, I ordered him another new pair and hopefully this pair will be ok. I also ordered myself a new tablet case. I told dd our friends were coming to stay again and since she just spent a week here as a "guest" give me a hotel review - what am I missing? LOL. She said her only suggestion is more towel hooks or rack in the guest bathroom. She said it's fine with just her, but when it's her and her dh there is only one towel hook. There is a towel rack on the wall, but there is a towel and hand towel on it, which of course no one ever wants to use, LOL. It's a small bathroom with low walls and angled ceiling because the upstairs is attic space, essentially. There is no more wall room, so I ordered an over the door towel rack that guests can hang their towels on the back of the door. She said she did like having the luggage stand to put her suitcase on, in the bedroom.

Another visit

Apparently our friends from Texas had a good time while they stayed with us over Memorial weekend as they are coming back up to stay over Labor Day weekend. Fun! And her best friend and her husband will try to come down (live 2 hours north). They were supposed to last time, but had a family emergency come up.

Dh noticed that the couple's house, who bought the lots next to us, is back on the market and not pending a sale now. I guess it must have fallen through. They had told us they were supposed to close in August. They haven't lowered their price at all and the house has been on the market over 9 months now.

I started watching Netflix's Stranger Things yesterday. I'm enjoying it so far. I'm almost done with season 1. My dd said Bridgerton is also a good show, so I'll probably try that one next.

It appears we are going to have a "quiet" 4th of July - at least neighbors son and family haven't shown back up and if they do...well, it's supposed to be thunderstorms and rain the next 2 days. I'll take it, LOL.

We went into town yesterday to fill up all our gas cans and dh's pickp. While he was filling up I went inside the little convenience store to get some Powerball lotto tickets. I have always done the "multi-draw" option, where I pick a set of numbers and it's good for like the next few weeks of draws (or however many you choose). This time the lady told me they changed the machine and multi draw is no longer an option. What? that's stupid. She's like do you still want the $16? I'm like $16 for ONE drawing? No thanks. I'll spend $2 on one drawing. but not $16 for one shot. I ended up not getting any. I cannot find anything online that says this was changed. If you go to our state's Powerball info it still says multi draws are an option. I guess I'll have to try another seller and see. Dh likes to have the lotto tickets. But obviously we're not going into a store 2 or 3 times a week to buy them. How ridiculous. They just lost out on sales that way, in my opinion.

My mom called me again last evening not too long after the caregiver popped in for her meds. Again with the "how much am I paying for this?" and then "are you ok with this lady?" I told her yes I'm ok with her. I'm the one that found her to hire. Back to trying to tell me she can take her meds herself. Me telling her no, she can't. Again I reiterated assisted living is going to cost at least a couple thousand more per month, compared to this lady at a couple hundred (for the med part). "ok, I guess you are right". She did at least know this time that the lady is only there a few minutes. I also just tried to say we all want you to be able to live there as long as possible and having her stop in to make sure you get your meds every day will do that.

I can hear a bald eagle calling out this morning, as I have my office window cracked a bit. Sounds like it's right straight across the river.

More on the trip and whatnot

Usually when we travel by car I bring my own pillow to use in hotels, so that I can at least sleep somewhat better, but I didn't want to be walking into a fancy hotel with a pillow, LOL. That first morning, as we were waiting for breakfast, chatting with some others, another lady said the same thing about the pillows and wished she'd brought hers. But since I pre-checked in and just had to go to the front desk to get our room keys and we parked in the underground parking garage that an elevator took us up to our room floor, I could have taken my pillow ;)

This was the view from our suite. That first night we got thunder and lightning and pouring rain! Then it cleared right up.

And the morning of the driving experience with the cars all lined up 

I see my mom's investment account finally got all transferred over to the new company. One less thing to worry about now. The 20 for 1 stock splits of Alphabet (Google) and Amazon have taken place recently, too. Let's hope that is beneficial in the near years to come.

I'm not loving my Fire tablet. I think the combination of the size (hopefully I will get used to that) and the cover, is what is bothering me. I think I'm going to try a better cover. When the top flap folds back underneath it's very loose feeling and if I lift the tablet up to shift my sitting position a bit or something it's flopping underneath. It has a plug in for my ear buds, which I sometimes use if I'm watching a show or sometimes when I go into the app for my mom's cameras, I can listen to her but for some strange reason the sound from that app will not work through the ear buds, the sound still comes out of the device speakers. Strange. The buttons for the speakers and the on/off need to be a bit bigger/stand out more. They also need to not be right next to each other.

We are keeping our fingers crossed for a quiet 4th of July this year, but not holding our breath. It would not surprise me one bit if neighbors son/family show back up this weekend. 

My dd made it home in record time, and on a Friday for holiday weekend, no less. Probably because everyone was going the opposite direction she was. She got home in 6 hours and 20 minutes. She must not have had traffic on the freeway to her house. She had brought one of her dogs with her, who also has some long mostly black fur, so I have some more dog hair vacuuming to do, LOL. He and the cat were almost friends by the time they left. She had brought her cooler so I sent her home with all that dog food and also a couple dozen eggs. It was funny, usually the chickens do 3 eggs a day. She got 3 eggs out of them the whole 3 days, haha. Apparently they didn't like the substitute chicken mom.

I'm sure dh will be mowing today. It's been since last Sunday he last mowed. Usually he has to do it every 4-5 days. I think he's just been worn out and trying to get rested up some the past 2 days. I have to say the combination of him having to pee every half hour and the trip went ok. He actually was able to go up to 2 hours in between. On the last leg of the way home he went 4 hours. He tried to say it was because he didn't drink much but we had gotten lunch at Burger King at 2pm and he got one of those huge cokes and had drank most of it over the course of the 4 hours home. I'm wondering/hoping it's that herbal supplement I researched and he started taking a week before we left, that is helping some. It doesn't do any good to ask him if it's "better" now because even if it was he'd never admit it LOL. But before he started taking that we could barely make the 40 minute drive to the city and he had to go as soon as we got to a store. And 15 minutes later he'd have to go again. I'm also trying to pay attention if he's getting up less during the night. Seems like he's only getting up once. 

Today's plan is to vacuum and put the washed sheets back on the guest bedroom. DD used our big walk in shower most of the days we were gone.