For the gardeners out there – especially those who are still buried in snow, like I am – Gardening in Canada just came out with a new video on winter sowing.
The temperature fluctuations are so very typical for our region – and she’s farther north than we are!
We tried the winter sowing in jugs a few years ago, and it was a complete failure. This video covers a few of the reasons why. In our case, that year, they basically just froze, thanks to those fluctuations. That is why I tried the in ground winter sowing – sowing in the fall, before the ground froze, and mulching heavily. As an experiment, it worked quite well last year (not counting the beds destroyed by cats). These beds are now covered in deep snow, so they are well insulated from any temperature fluctuations. In the spring, once things warm up enough, I’ll remove the mulch so the ground can thaw out faster. Mulch will be returned once any seedlings are large enough.
Would I try this type of winter sowing again? Possibly, but unlikely. Perhaps a few years from now, we might have a better set up, and catch the right conditions. Hopefully, our direct sown beds will do well this year, too, because doing it that way is a real game changer.
Currently, I haven’t even tried to get at any of the garden beds, as that would require a fair bit of digging. The rectangular bed in the old kitchen garden has our cover with the strongest wire on it. I have a vinyl cover that fits over it. I used it last year to great greenhouse conditions, and I plan to do that again, once we can get access into that garden again.
Such are my thoughts this morning, as we have gone from 3 or 4C/37-39F yesterday, so a current temperature of -15C/5F, with a wind chill of -24C/-11F as I write this. Our high of the day is supposed to be -11C/12F. We’ll be warming up again over the next few days, then back down again. We’re not expected to see highs about freezing until 10 days from now, but of course, those longer range forecasts are constantly changing. Still, by the second half of March, we should start to more consistently see highs above freezing.
Today, I think I will putter around in the basement with our seedling set up. I need to “pot up” the snail rolls of onions, and make space for my next round of seed starts. I think I might end up doing more snail rolls. I didn’t plan to, but I think those might be easier to protect from the mice or whatever that’s been eating my pepper seedlings. I’ve resown new seeds in the now empty cells. Hopefully, they’ll take but, if not, I still have enough seeds left and they have a short enough growing season that I can try direct sowing in the spring. Hopefully, it won’t come to that. Meanwhile, the next seeds to be started indoors can wait a bit longer, though I can do some, like flowers, earlier if I want. I hope to interplant with more flowers this year, including the memorial aster seeds I collected in the fall.
With so much snow on the ground, yet spring just around the corner (we’re almost half way through March already!!!), a bit of garden therapy will be good for the soul.
I wasn’t fast enough in getting the picture I wanted. Ghosty and Tin Whistle were snuggled cheek to cheek and looking so absolutely adorable.
They still look adorable, of course.
This morning, I got a pleasant offer from my brother. He was planning to visit our mother today, and wanted to know if I wanted to go along. Since our truck is in the shop again, that meant extra driving to pick me up, then drop me off later. Of course, I accepted, since I have no way of knowing when we’ll get the truck back and I can visit her again.
It was a bonus for him, too. He got here earlier than he’s been able to in ages, which meant he had daylight to check on a few of their things and get some stuff done before we headed out. It was so warm today, I headed out early so I could scrap the sidewalk clear and get a few other things done outside. We hit 3C/37F, and I was absolutely overheating!
An unexpected extra reason for a joint visit popped up. I had talked to my brother about the check my mother gave me, to help with truck repairs. I wanted to be sure she would be okay before I tried to deposit it. He told me that it was fine and to deposit it as soon as possible. So I went to do a mobile deposit.
It didn’t work.
It turned out that when my mother tore the check out off the check book at the perforated line, a tiny piece of the check tore off. It had a bit of the account information on it. Not even a number, but part of the lines and bars around the numbers. So I was going to return it to her, voided, and – if she were still willing – we would help her write a new one.
My brother goes over my mother’s finances with her, regularly, and he was prepared to do that with her today, but he also had her new phone.
Yes, my 94 year old mother now has her own cell phone!
He chose one of the ones we were looking at on Amazon, and it arrived about a week ago. He also ordered a SIM card, but that never showed up. He ended up going to the phone company and, thanks to a deal he could get through his employer, he was also able to get a Senior’s plan for her, at a discount. The batteries were charged, with numbers pre-programmed, and it was ready to go. While we were driving, he had me get it out to test it by calling his cell phone. Which only worked once, because we kept losing signal. There are several cell phone dead zones just like we have at our place, all along this highway, even much closer to the city. Frustrating!
When we got to the TCU, my mother was in the common room with the same guy she’d introduced me to before, working on a jigsaw puzzle again. My mother introduced my brother and I to him and he volunteered to leave for a while, so we could have some privacy. Which was very kind of him.
Once settled in, my brother asked if she remembered about getting her her own phone. She did, so the next while was spent showing her the phone, the charging port, and showing her how to use it. The phone can actually do quite a lot, but all we could focus on was for her to be able to make and receive calls. Because of her vision declining, he made sure the phone he got did things like voice the numbers as she dialed them. The buttons are large enough that she had only minor issues in hitting the right ones. He showed her how to use the contacts list and got her to call my cell phone, then to manually dial to call our landline at the farm – I made sure to message the family that they were about to get a test call! Then, as a way to give our sister my mother’s new phone number, we got her to manually call my sister, too. I thought we might not get her, as she would normally have been at work, but it turned out she had called in sick and was able to answer. My mother could barely recognize her voice, with the cold she had!
There was a fair bit of confusion for my mother, but we managed to keep it low key so that she did not get completely overwhelmed. After a while, we went back to her room so the charging cradle could be set up next to her bed. We talked about how she should keep the phone with her, then set it on the cradle at night, or if she’s napping. I suggested I could make her a phone pouch so she could wear it around her neck. My brother, the excellent planner that he is, had already picked up a lanyard long enough, so now my mother can always have her phone on her.
My mother did start to worry about “what if’s”, and being able to call out on her own. We told her that even if she has issues, we can now phone her directly, and not have to go through the nursing station and get transferred to a cordless phone. That made her very happy. Then she was worried about knowing her own phone number. My brother had it hand written down for her, on the large print instructions he’d printed out for her so she could read it more easily. She had trouble reading the number, but not because of her vision. It was because it wasn’t written out the way it was “supposed” to be. Mostly with the 7’s. Sevens must have a line across them. Without that, she couldn’t tell the difference between a 7 and a 1, she said. Which didn’t make much sense under the circumstances, but it was a simple matter to just add the marks she insisted the numbers had to have! In the end, she was quite happy with the phone, which was a huge relief.
Next, my brother went over her finances with her. That is it’s own challenge, as she has trouble understanding some things, and kept asking about things he just didn’t get a chance to get to, yet. He kept having to back her up to go over things he needed to show her first. Some of it involved having to explain why her “rent” is so high – it includes her meals, medications, etc. Everything they do for her. The check she wrote to our vandal was in the list on his printouts for her, and he took the time to explain to her that she had to be very careful writing large checks like that, or she won’t have enough to pay her accommodation charges.
Which was a good time to return her check to me, for the truck repairs. We explained what happened, and made sure to void it out in front of her, and my brother kept it for her files. After seeing her numbers, I was much more comfortable accepting the money. Once she understood what the problem was, she was quick to send me to get her purse for a replacement check. I wrote it out for her, she signed it, then my brother stopped her from tearing the check out, so he could very carefully do it for her – after clearing the remaining bit of the first check she wrote to me, still attached to the checkbook!
There were a few other things we needed to talk to her about. One of them, my brother had brought up during the drive out. He had needed her photo ID in order to do some things on her behalf, and he told me she only had her citizenship card. Which made no sense to me at all! I knew that, when she turned in her driver’s license, years ago, she immediately went through the process of getting a photo ID instead. The photo IDs look almost identical to the driver’s licenses. I’ve seen it. I knew she had it. But when my brother asked for her ID to use for some of things he was doing for her, she showed him the citizenship card.
So we asked her about that, and she brought out her citizenship card again. It’s a modern, laminated plastic card, but her photo on it is many decades old! My mother made a big deal about how important this card was, but didn’t understand that it was pretty much useless as an ID, if only because her picture on it is so old.
Her photo ID, it turned out, was hidden behind the citizenship card. I got it out and my brother took pictures of it, as the bank was going to need it. It took a while before I could put it back, because my mother had the holder and kept going on about her citizenship card and how important it was, looking at it, taking it out, putting it back in. Eventually, we were able to get the photo ID back in the holder, making sure that it was visible.
Which is when a thought struck me, and I took a closer look.
It expired three years ago. She needs a new one!
This would be beyond my mother right now, but my brother is going to see what he can do to get her a new one. It’s got the wrong address on it, anyhow, but what could we use as an address now? She’s not going to be living here permanently!
My brother said he would figure it out. The main thing is, he got pictures of it and can use it for what’s needed, now.
The necessary things done with, we got to just plain visit for a while. My mother had asked me to bring a cross for her, which I did, and it’s now hanging on the wall where she can see it from her bed. There were hooks already there that I could use. Her room mate had company, one of whom brought two big, very chill, very well behaved dogs. My mother wasn’t happy about that, but she hates having dogs and cats indoors at the best of times. It wasn’t an issue, though, since we were going back to the common room. Before her guests arrived, though, my mother’s room mate was walking back and forth with her walker in the hallway. My mother was absolutely convinced that she was doing it to listen in on our conversation.
Overall, the entire visit went way better than expected. My brother was really worried Mom would lose it over the phone. That’s her typical response when he gets things for her, no matter how much she actually needs it. The last time I saw her, she would go on about how we needed to get her out of there and would start crying off and on. This time, she still had some complaints, but actually seemed to be in a good mood. She was happy that her friend from church had come to give her Communion, like he used to while she was still in her apartment. At my mother’s request, he will arrange with the priest to come and hear her confession before Easter, so she was happy about that, too.
We were able to stay for quite a while, but my brother checked the weather and realized we needed to head out. There was a storm on the way, and he still had to drive me home, first. The storm won’t hit us, though we’re expecting to get snow overnight, but it’s supposed to pass right over where my brother lives.
He messaged me to let me know when he got safely home, just as the snow was kicking in. Good timing!
As he dropped me off at the gate, he mentioned that we need a people gate. I told him, we were planning to make one, and I told him about my plans to make an arbor to make it look pretty, to have plants growing on it, and about where I was intending to set it up. It turned out we are very much on the same page about this, and he suggested it’s a project we can work on this summer.
Now that they no longer have their own acreage, and all his equipment is out here, we will finally be able to get some things done! He’s planning to set up an office in their mobile home, so he can stay out here, work from home, then work on things out here in the evenings.
Knowing him, I expect to have to struggle to keep up! I also expect we will learn a lot from him, and I really look forward to finally being able to get things done. There was so much we expected to be able to do when we moved out here, and had this whole 5 year plan. So much of it went out the window. We knew it would be a lot, but none of us realized just how bad things had gotten, and how many of the tools and equipment our vandal had taken.
This summer is going to be very, very different, that’s for sure!
Right now, though, I’m just focused on getting through this winter, and hopefully having reliable transportation soon!
Meanwhile, we were both really happy with our visit with Mom today. She seemed to be so much better today, and I think having both of us there at the same time really helped with that. She even got to talk to my sister on her new phone, and seemed quite delighted that she could do it!
Funny how things can go so wrong – yet go so right, at the same time!
First off, I am seriously glad I cancelled both my own doctor’s appointment, yesterday, and my daughter’s on Monday, because of concerns about road conditions.
Second, it’s amazing how there were the right people available at the right time, and even the right places.
The truck just got towed to the garage again.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but my first warning of a problem was while backing out of the garage, to load it for a dump run. I wasn’t going to drive up to the house, but I at least wanted to back up closer to the cleared path to the chain link fence. As I was backing up, the truck basically stopped moving. I knew there was a snow bank I needed to clear and I thought I might have backed into it. I tried to get out in 2 wheel drive at first, then switch to 4 wheel drive, but eventually was able to pull forward while in 2 wheel drive and didn’t try backing up again. As I went to the house, though, I could see by the tracks that I never got anywhere near the snow bank. It was just loose snow over ice, and no traction.
My daughter and I loaded up the truck, and then I headed out. Things were really slippery on the gravel road, but once I was on the highway, it was fine.
It was slippery on the gravel road to the dump, but not too bad. I drove up to the booth to show my access card number, but there was no one there. The guy was at the pit area, using a front end loader to clear up the driving area in front. So I went to the recycling bins first and unloaded there, before heading to the pit. I did notice, every time I tried to move, everything was very slippery and the tires were spinning more than usual before I could get traction.
At the pit, I drove further in, to where it was already cleared, then turned to one side, so that I could back up to the pit and unload.
I got stuck.
Tires spinning, no motion.
I tried a few times in 2 wheel drive, then drive both 4 wheel drive settings. I could move forward slightly, but no traction in reverse.
At one point, the guy with the front end loader passed in front of me, clearing way more snow. I hoped that would help, but it didn’t.
After a while, he came out to talk to me. He made a comment about this being a problem with 2 wheel drive. I told him, I’m in 4 wheel drive! He said that only my rear wheels were turning, not the front wheels. !!!
I tried again, setting it to 2 wheel drive, and the front tires started to spin – but now I started getting messages on my dash. Stabilizers Off. Then Service 4 Wheel Drive.
The truck was not moving.
The guy then said he would try to find some cardboard or drywall or something to put behind the tires. I got my handy garden cultivator that we keep in the truck as a grabber, and used it to scratch up the ice behind each tire.
He found some drywall pieces and set them behind the tires, then suggested something to me, assuring me that he’s done it before, and would be safe. He said that he could try standing on the tail gate and bouncing the truck up and down while I reversed, so help it gain traction. So we did that, and it worked! Once I got far enough out, the tires were no longer spinning and I could back up normally.
He then helped me unload the garbage bags. When it was done, he said he would follow me out to make sure I got out okay.
So awesome!
Once I got on the gravel road, though, I could feel the truck starting to fishtail, and I kept having to slow down. The “slippery conditions” light was on continuously. By the time I got to the stop sign and started braking to stop, I started getting “stabilizer is off” and “traction is off” messages. As slow as I was going, the truck fishtailed to a stop.
Once on the highway and starting to accelerate, it started again.
That shuddering that, until now, only happened while in 4 wheel drive or auto.
I quickly pulled over. After putting it in park, I thought I would just try again and started to move forward again, but the shuddering immediately started.
So I parked, turned on my hazards and got to work.
This is what WordPress AI thinks my truck looks like. No rust. 😄
First was to try and message the family but, for some reason, my phone hasn’t been able to send messages while on data only. So I phoned home and left a message (I knew no one would be close enough to get to the phone before the answering machine kicked in). Then I called CAA.
Thankfully, this time, after going through the initial answering system, it went straight to a live person. The only difficulty there was, they need a physical address. I was on the side of the highway. There was, however, a driveway a short distance away, so I walked over until I could read their driveway marker number. I knew the tow truck drive would be able to find us, but CAA needed a physical address.
That done, I tried to message my brother and his wife, but it wouldn’t send. After some searching in my phone, I found a setting that, for some reason, was off, so my phone was trying to connect to the internet through my phone’s web browser, instead of through a data signal. I’ve never seen this setting before, so this must have been part of the latest OS update.
That done, I could finally send messages, and even look at the CAA map to follow the driver. Not that I was going to use it much, since it’s all open highway. I would be able to see the tow truck from a mile or more away.
Then it was time to wait.
I even had a couple of vehicles slow down beside me to check if I was okay, which was really nice.
I did get a call from the tow truck driver as soon as he got the CAA notice. We talked about my exact location, which side of the highway I was on, etc. He then asked if I would be riding in with him. That was when I asked about the possibility of getting a ride home. He would have to go past the turn to our place anyhow, and we were only 2 miles out of the way.
Also, just one mile past his sister’s place, at the large animal rescue. So he had no problem knowing where I was, and agreed to drive me home along the way.
Which is so extra appreciated, as it turns out my brother wouldn’t have been able to come out – they were on their way to an event in another town – and my sister and her husband might not have been able to, because today is the Sabbath, and their “church” is pretty strict about that sort of thing. Helping me out might have been okay, though. Still, it would have been at least an hour for them to reach me, or they would have to meet me at the garage. Which closes at 1pm on Saturdays.
So that was something else that fell into place.
While we were driving, I told the driver about what happened and what warnings I was seeing. I had left a message on the company phone, but I was able to give him more details this way.
He asked questions about the mileage and stuff, and I told him a bit about the many very odd and unpredictable problems we’ve been having, as well as how this shuddering thing would come and go, and they could never find the cause. It would work fine while they were testing it. He laughed about that part, because he understood completely. He has that happen with his own vehicles! He even brought up that, for the potential cost, first for how much time it might take to find the problem, then the repairs themselves, it might be better to trade it in. I told him that I’ve already been talking to his brother about that, but we still have almost 3 years of payments on it. He assured me, his brother would be able to help us (he even mentioned that, for regular customers, he can do payment arrangements for work done). I brought up that we (my brother and I) have been talking about including my mother’s car as a trade in, but it was suggested we could get a better price by selling it ourselves. I said that’s not something I would feel up to doing, but my brother suggested we could sell it on consignment.
It turns out, our mechanic does sell on consignment!! Plus, we could probably do better that way, since it would be highly visible on the lot.
Something to work out. I co-own my mother’s car, as I needed at least partial ownership to be able to register and insure it. My brother was able to arrange that, as my mother’s PoA. If we do work out something to sell it, it might be easier for him to make me full owner, so he wouldn’t have to come out and sign things on my mother’s behalf.
But I’m getting ahead of myself on that.
Oh, and I did get complimented on the fact that I understood the risks of buying a high mileage vehicle. He said that he’s had quite a few people he’s towed that got high mileage vehicles, then would be really angry and upset because things were wearing out and breaking down. I told him, we knew the risks, but it was what we could afford – and his brother really went above and beyond to help us with the financing (I’m still convinced he sold it to us at a loss). I actually love the truck. It’s the vehicle we need, but all these weird break downs are just too expensive on a fixed income. I told him about some of our past experiences with the high mileage Uplander we had previously, which did remarkably well for us until we finally sold it for scrap. I then mentioned, the vehicle I liked the most was the Dodge Caravan. He perked right up on that. He said that the Caravan is one of the safest vehicles. He told me he’s rolled a bunch of them for the fire department, and has had one roll 10 times, and still not be crushed. !!!
How does one even get a job like that? 😄
As we were driving down the gravel road to our place, I suggested to him that he could drop me off in the intersection, rather than go to our driveway. With the walls of snow, the driveway is pretty tight for such a large vehicle, and he wouldn’t have room to turn around. He appreciated that! Once he got the tow truck turned around, it also gave him a chance to double check the straps securing the truck before he headed to the garage, and I walked the rest of the way home.
As much of a pain this break down is, it couldn’t have happened better.
I had been thinking of doing our Walmart and Canadian Tire run after my medical appointment, yesterday. Because I cancelled that, due to the weather, we didn’t have this happen while we were much, much further from home. Instead, it was only about 10-15 minutes from home.
We did get our Costco stock up shop done. We got the cat food donation. I got our lysine picked up from the feed store. We are good for some time. I even managed to get the dump run done before the break down. Yes, we still need to do our Walmart and Canadian Tire run, but neither of those are urgent. More importantly, I got a visit in with my mother.
I’d already cancelled my daughter’s medical appointment on Monday, just in case, so we won’t be needing to phone to cancel on the day of the appointment.
There was the guy at the dump, able to help me out.
Our regular garage now does CAA towing, and the driver is our mechanic’s brother, so not only do they know the area and could find me where I was, but I knew that anything I told him about what was going on would actually get to our mechanic. Plus, he was able to give me more information and assurances about other things, like that we might be able to get my mother’s car sold on consignment through the garage.
In the end, I have many blessings to count. For something that went wrong, it couldn’t possibly have gone more right in the process.
In the first picture, there were three seedlings – two that I’d planted after the first pre-germinated one. All three, gone.
In the second picture, you can see that one of the cells was dug into – and the stem of a seedling. There were actually two cells that had been dug into.
The third is what’s left in the tray. The row on the bottom is the Sweet Chocolate peppers. They were doing the best. All the cells had seedlings, with the “just in case” seeds sown later also emerging. The row of seven cells had at least ten seedlings, with hints of more emerging. Now, it’s down to two.
The California Wonder row, in the middle, didn’t do as well, but I did have four seedlings. Now there is just one.
The top row is the Caspar eggplant. There were three surviving seedlings, which seem to be untouched. Whatever ate the others doesn’t seem to like eggplant, I guess.
With the evidence of digging, it must be a mouse. There are a couple of ultrasonic mouse repellents plugged in, in both basements. They’ve been there longer than we have, so I’m guessing they aren’t working anymore.
*sigh*
The celery, herbs and luffa in the other tray are untouched.
About the only thing I can be glad of is that these are all short season varieties. In theory, I could even direct sow them. Not that I would expect that to work with our growing season, so I do want to try again, but how do I keep this from happening again?
We could set traps, of course. There are several live traps that are currently stored in the sun room. They’re not really accessible right now, though.
My daughter suggested the three of us find a way to get the big aquarium into the basement to use as a greenhouse again. A mouse can’t climb the glass, and it has wire mesh covers. The original problem remains, though: how to get it down the stairs. There is so little room at the bottom turn something of its dimensions. Not that we can access it, anyhow. We’ve got so many of my mother’s things shoved into the living room, safe from the cats, that we can’t access where the aquariums are, never mind carry the big aquarium, and the shelf that supports it, out. I was planning on getting some of my mother’s stuff out and into the storage house (which is already so full of my parents’ things) so that we could use the big aquarium to house the chicks, but that won’t be until the end of May.
So frustrating.
Meanwhile, our day changed completely. My doctor’s appointment was this afternoon. If the truck behaved and the road conditions were good, I would have gone on to do the Walmart shopping, after. My younger daughter’s appointment was on Monday, but she wanted to come with me as there was something she needed to get at Walmart.
Note, I said “was”.
We were expecting snow today, but when it started coming down, it was harder than expected. If we can see the snow and wind around the house like that, we know it’s a lot worse on the roads. It was early enough in the day that I called the clinic to cancel my appointment. We’re expecting a combination of rain and snow over the weekend, so I cancelled my daughter’s appointment on Monday, too. When I explained about road conditions, the receptionist I was talking to concurred. The clinic is about a 45 minute drive away, and it sounds like conditions were worse there, than here. I’ve certainly driven in worse conditions, but we’ve had so many issues in such a short time, I just didn’t want take the chance.
They are booking new appointments at four weeks right now, so I could have rebooked for the end of March. I told her, we’ll call to rebook closer to the end of March instead, to make the appointments in April. March being the sort of month that it is, I didn’t want to book appointments only to have to cancel them again due to weather.
So, we stayed home today. I ended up going back to bed. I got up again before noon, in enough pain that I could barely walk. I can’t say the nap helped that much, because I still feel ridiculously tired.
Ah, well. It is what it is.
I’ve got to figure something out to protect my seed starts.
I got home late enough to do the evening feeding, and couldn’t resist getting a picture of this fluffy beauty.
Zoomed in from a distance, because she? he? is pretty feral and none of us have been able to get close. It does come into the sun room to snuggle with other cats and eat, so that’s encouraging, at least.
I headed out to visit my mother shortly past noon. I made sure to check on the truck before hand, and the clock still showed the right time, and even the door chime dinged appropriately, so whatever gremlin we’ve got in the electrical seems to be napping.
While today was warmer, we’ve been having intermittent snow and “snow showers” throughout the day. The highway was good, though, and while visibility was reduced, it wasn’t by much – at least not while I was on the road.
When I got to the hospital, I went into the wing I thought my mother was in, but it turns out the TCU was in a completely different wing. I did get to see what the long term car section looked like, though. While at the nursing station, looking for someone, I saw a lot of seniors all over, and several of them demanded to know why I was there and what I wanted! Thankfully, a staff member (a janitor, I think) showed up. I told her who I was there to see, and she knew my mother’s name, then led me through the hospital to the wing my mother was in.
I’d brought some stuff my mother requested, including more Pepto. There was someone at the nursing station, and I was able to leave it with her.
I also had a chance to ask about the photos my brother left of our vandal and my sister. Our vandal has visited a couple of times already, and my mother’s been there for just over a week. I was able to let her know that the last time he was there, he ended up with a check for a substantial amount. This is one of the issues with him; he’s managed to get many thousands of dollars our of my mother over the years. In this case, the check was written out by his wife for my mother to sign. I made sure to say, this was just so they know it happened, not that I was trying to blame anyone. Knowing my mother, she probably didn’t need a lot of persuasion and may well has suggested it herself.
The nurse I spoke to took some notes about it, so other stiff will be aware. I also talked a bit about my sister, as they would have her photo, too. I explained that with her, it’s more that both our vandal and my mother can manipulate her so easily. She has caused problems by going along with them when she should have said no.
Then I had to ask which room my mother was in. I had it in one of my family group messages, but couldn’t get a connection to look it up. It turned out I wasn’t even able to send updates to my family, either.
The nurse told me where to go, and I soon found my mother. She has the bed against the window, but her room mate had her curtain completely closed, so I wasn’t interrupting anyone else.
The visit was… difficult.
We started to talk, but there was some banging going on down the hall. I starting going through the bag of things I’d brought for her, but she was very disturbed. She moved to sit in a chair and started to tell me where to put things, then started to cry (it may even have been partially genuine) and complain about it, saying I had to get her out of there. She brought up the banging, and thought her room mate was doing it. !! I said no, there’s some sort of construction or repairs happening. My mother said we could go to somewhere more private and let me to the common room.
Which was directly across the hall from the banging.
At the time, a workman was using a chisel on the edge of a door for what turned out to be the installation of a keypad locking assembly.
The common room clearly had been a hospital room in the past and wasn’t particularly big, but it was in the corner of the wing, so it had two big windows and lots of light. Someone in a wheelchair was at a table working on a jigsaw puzzle. My mother introduced us. She has her own favourite armchair, right in the corner between the two windows, with a hospital bed table. She told me she eats her meals there.
We started talking and she kept telling me how terrible things where and how much she wanted to get out of there. She made it sound like the banging was happening all the time (the work on the door would have started just today), and talking. Apparently, her room mate sleeps all day and talks to herself all night. Which is curious, since both my brother and my sister have said they’ve talked to her during their daytime visits and found her very nice. After a while, the guy working on the puzzle started to leave, and my mother thanked him for the privacy.
As we talked for the next while, my mother was all over the place. She went from complaining about the noise and how she has all this money, but is stuck living there (I told her, everyone else there is in the same situation as her, regardless of money), to talking about how my sister should visit more often (she’s visited my mother twice in the first week), and even complained about my brother and his wife giving her an Easter card. Now. A month ahead of Easter, so that means they’re not planning to visit her on Easter. I reminded her, they are going on a pilgrimage. They’re going to be overseas. When are the leaving? I don’t know. How long will they be gone? For weeks! They’re going to be walking very far! She scoffed, but seemed to realize complaining that they were going on a pilgrimage for Easter wasn’t probably not a good idea! It didn’t stop her from claiming my brother was “running away” from her (he’s visited her more often than I have!), and so on.
I do think I was able to get her to calm down about things a bit. I tried talking about how this was temporary, and just one step to getting her to where she wants to be, and how the system works. She didn’t like that, but she also started to get upset because someone else came into the room and sat in one of the armchairs behind me. She kept glaring at him over my shoulder, and making comments about him being there while she had company. I kept reminding her, this is a public room!
At one point, she started to get things out of her purse, then got up to leave, telling me to wait for her. It turned out she had gone into the hall to talk to the guy working on the door, complaining about the noise, saying it was making her go deaf (my mother’s hearing is better than mine) and started crying again. He told her he was almost done and it wouldn’t be much longer, so she came back in.
I had hoped she had forgotten, but my mother got out her checkbook. She said, she wanted to pay for the work on the truck. !!! I tried to defer, but she insisted. I admit, she was generous about it, in her own way. Normally, she would ask for exactly how much it cost, then write out for an amount to the penny, or somewhat less. She didn’t even ask how much it cost, but told me to how much to write it out for so she could sign it. It will mostly cover the cost of the repairs.
I’m not going to deposit it until I’ve checked with my brother. He manages her accounts very well on her behalf. At one point, she asked me how much was in her account, thinking my brother told her. I said, I have no idea. It’s none of my business! I’m not sure if she approved of that, or was angry I didn’t know. 😄
We talked some more about her living situation and getting her into somewhere permanent. It’s frustrating to simply not know. In the end, it’s the government that decides, through the health care system. We have no say in the matter, but now that she’s in the system, it should work out better than trying to get where she wants to be from outside the system.
I noticed my mother had her rosary around her neck, so I suggested she pray the rosary. She said it gets hard to pray (referring to her own mental function; she does recognize that she is having increased cognitive issues). I reminded her that God doesn’t need words to know what she is praying for. I suggested that, if she starts feeling really anxious, to even just hold the cross on her rosary and use that to keep her mind on God. I couldn’t remember the exact words at the time, but reminded her of Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. (yes, I had to look it up – I remember the words, not the chapter and verse! 😄) She immediately knew the verse I was referring to, and it really seemed to perk her up. So we held hands and prayed together, and that seemed to help her a lot more.
Eventually, though, I had to head out, as I knew the roads would not be very good for long. She walked with me to the door. One of the things we’d talked about was the vitamin for her dry macular degeneration, and I’d explained that I made the calls to get a prescription faxed to the nursing station. She said she wasn’t getting them yet, so I said I would ask. Thankfully, because she walked me out, it helped me remember – and I’m glad I did!
They never got the prescription.
We talked for a while, and I said I would call the optometrist where she got the original prescription from and find out what was happening. I was concerned about my mother walking back on her own using her walker, but one of the nurses had seen us and was waiting. She assured me she would get my mother to her room okay.
From there, I made a stop at the gas station to update the family. Not to get gas, though. While I was visiting with my mother, the gas prices went from $1.359 to $1.419!
I’m glad I left when I did, as conditions were starting to worsen, but I got home okay – and the truck behaved the whole time.
As soon as I was settled in, I made a bunch of calls. Apparently, the prescription for my mother’s eye vitamin did get faxed, yesterday. In the end, the receptionist I spoke to said she would try and print out what she had in her system and fax it again, as the optometrist was working a different location until next week. Some time later, I got a call from the TCU letting me know they got it. She then explained that this vitamin comes in two forms. A soft gel, which my mother was getting in her bubble packs, and a tablet form. They only get the tablet form. If my mother wants the soft gel, we would have to provide it. I explained that, with my mother, she believes that because they look different, it’s the wrong medicine – she believes that of all her medications – and that we’ve tried to explain it to her. I said to give her the tablets for now (I don’t want her to go without it, as she is complaining about vision loss), and to explain to her what that specific tablet is. We’ll see how she does with that, for now. If necessary, we’ll have to get something set up with the local pharmacy for those.
I’m glad I finally made it to visit my mother, but it’s so frustrating. I understand why she’s not happy there, and absolutely understand her desire for more quiet. It’s part of what we like about living in the boonies, after all! At the same time, I know my mother well enough to know that a lot of this is self inflicted. My mother is one of those people that always sees the worst in others, and interprets things in their worst possible light. I remember when my father when through a lot of this, and at every stage, he was always so thankful, so grateful, to the people around him, whether it was the home care aids or the nursing home staff. He always let them know how much he appreciated them for how well they took care of him. Every time I called him, he would go on about how great they all were. My mother? She’s the complete opposite, most of the time, and it’s not getting any better as she gets older. In fact, the only person she will speak highly of these days is…
Yup. Our vandal. She says, they’re getting along good now. I reminded her of that last letter he wrote to her, and the horrible things he said to her, and that he hasn’t stopped. He may be behaving around her when his wife is around, but he’s still doing things (I didn’t tell her about him driving by while I was shoveling out the plow ridge, slowing down to a crawl at the end of the driveway). She thinks he’s changed. I said, I hope so, but he’s why my late brother’s two kids now say they want nothing to do with our family, thanks to his lying about us. She dropped the subject.
All we can do is hope she can finally get to the nursing home she wants to be in, but I’m starting to wonder if she’ll even be happy there. There will be people talking in the halls. There will be noise. At least she’ll have her own room, though. Maybe that will be enough.
We shall see.
Nothing else we can do. It’s all up to the system…
The first thing I noticed when I started it this morning was that the clock’s time was wrong. I’d reset it yesterday. Which means, we lost power to the console during the night, and it came back.
As my daughter and I were starting the drive, we were talking about what’s been going on with the truck, and how weird it was for the tire warning message and light to not be there anymore.
Then, just shy of the highway, less than 2 miles from home, both the light and the message came on.
*sigh*
We had left earlier than usual to meet someone from the rescue to get our top loading cat carrier back, but also to stop in the town my mother is in (again). We picked up a couple of energy drinks and sandwiches for breakfast, then went to the feed store to pick up the lysine. They were still closed, though, so we kept on going to where we were arranged to meet up. We had plenty of time to eat our sandwiches and just sit and talk.
Once we had the carrier again (they even cleaned it!), it was off to the city and Costco.
I could not believe how full the parking lot was, for a Wednesday morning! It was really busy in the store, but the bigger surprise was as we left. There was a huge line to the customer service desk, running all the way to the main doors outside. I don’t usually see that kind of line except after Christmas.
Still, we got what we needed to get here; anything left on our list will be done on our next Walmart run.
There is is. $760.67, before taxes. After the cart was re-loaded, we had to stop and my daughter reorganized things. Because of the crowds and line to the Customer Service desk, we had to do it outside. As our stuff was being scanned, a guy showed up to load the cart and he basically just threw everything onto the flat cart with no attempt to be secure or even logical about it. My daughter and I are both very keen on packing and stacking things well, so it was hard to watch! 😄
This picture was taken before my daughter was done reorganizing so no, those eggs did not stay balanced on top of the pierogi at the end of the cart!! 😄
This is what we got today.
We did get cat supplies, though with the generous donation, we should only need maybe one more 40 pound bag of kibble before the end of the month for the outside cats. We didn’t need any for the inside cats, so the two 9kg and two 11.6kg bags are all for the outside cats. I think the price on the 11.6 kg bags went up. Either that, or they were on sale that last time I remember getting them.
We also got a case of canned cat food and a case of XL puppy pads. We now have enough canned cat foot that we won’t need to pick up more for the rest of the month. Usually, I get a couple smaller cases at Walmart to have enough for the month.
For non-food items, we got our toilet paper, AAA batteries, and some more Head and Shoulders that gets used as an anti-fungal body wash.
For beverages, we got a case of Coke Zero and a case of Monster. The Monster variety pack had replaced one of the flavours from before, and it’s to one I like but haven’t been seeing in stores much at all lately, so I’m happy. It was also on sale, so that was bonus. There is also a 3 pack of oat milk for the girls.
In dairy, we got a 4 pack of cream cheese, a carton of whipping cream, a block of Old Cheddar cheese, plus 5 pounds of butter.
For meat and other protein, there is a double flat of 60 eggs, a panini pack of sandwich meats, some pickerel fillets for the girls, two big packs of drumsticks that were $5 off at checkout, a pork blade, a pork loin, and a variety pack of dry sausages that was on sale. I also got two garlic coils, as the price was almost half what they are, locally. Oh, and some canned chicken. The price on that seems to be staying under $20 for six cans of late.
There is also a bag of carrots – organic, but they were on sale, and we didn’t see any non-organic ones anywhere, a 20 pound bag of Russet potatoes, frozen perogies, a case of ramen noodles, a bag of basmati rice, a case of tomato soup, large jars of mayo, peanut butter, and pickles. There is a two pack of butter chicken sauce, a shaker of powdered garlic (which, oddly, had more product for a lower price than the granulated garlic I usually get), and a large bag of granulated sugar.
For bread products, I got a 2 pack of rye bread and we got two packs of tortilla wraps. Finally, as a treat, my daughter selected from toffee and chocolate chip cookies.
Note that we did NOT get any beef. We haven’t been able to afford beef at Costco for a while, now. Lately, I’ve been picking up the odd package on sale, locally. The last couple of times I was in town because of the truck, I got some stew meat and some ground beef with sale prices much better than Costco these days.
Once the truck was loaded up, we filled the gas tank. Costco gas was at $1.239/L instead of $1.359/L everywhere else! It cost $51.69 to fill the tank.
On the way home, we stopped at the feed store and picked up the lysine. It came in adorable little 1kg buckets from a different brand this time. The price went up, so the two of them cost $67.20 after taxes. The containers I got before had been $20 each. Still better than buying it elsewhere.
When I saw the buckets, I commented on them, and that I would probably be keeping them to reuse. The woman behind the counter completely agreed with me – you can’t have too many buckets!
She also asked me if I was still wanting to get chicks.
I said yes, absolutely.
She asked if I was after a specific breed or anything like that, and I said I just want laying hens. She named several breeds, and I was fine with any of them. Then she asked about the date I’d want them, snowing the hatchery’s schedule on their white board.
There was no way we’d be ready for them in April! I told her, we need to be able to assemble the chicken coop first, which means, no snow on the ground. (Yes, I know; they’ll be in a brooder for weeks, first, but I still want to have the coop assembled and ready, before we get them.) So she put me down for the latest date they had, which is May 27. She has two other people who are interested in getting a smaller number of chicks than the 24 chick minimum the hatchery sells them for. I told her that, with our coop, we can have a maximum of 10 chickens, so we can go under, but not more than 10. So she will talk to the other two people and see what can be worked out to split an order of chicks between us, as well as splitting the shipping costs. With three people, we’ll be paying $15 each for shipping instead of $45.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to work something out with the other two people and get it all arranged and ordered. I’m flexible on the delivery date, too, as long as it’s not in April! She said, all three of us have said we are flexible on things, so this should work out quite well.
My daughter had been waiting in the truck all this time, so once we were back on the road, I updated her about the chicks discussion.
I think she is actually starting to look forward to having chickens! My daughters had been very reticent about it. Especially her sister. They have online friends who keep chickens, and my older daughter had commented about chickens getting sick, and we wouldn’t be able to take them to a vet.
Well, no, but we would be getting what we need to treat them ourselves! The feed stores carry medications and supplements for chickens, as well as feed. There’s lots of info out there on treating chickens.
Then we got to talking about where to set up the coop.
Ideally, I’d like to have it where we can easily see it, which would be in the south yards. Most of it isn’t level, and some significant portions of it floods in the spring, so that likely won’t work. I mentioned I was thinking of having it sheltered in the maple grove, or even where we currently have a pile of maple logs from the trees cleared away from the roof. The ground under that log pile is quite level, and I can see it out my bedroom window. Inside the maple grove would be more sheltered and there are fairly level spots there.
My daughter suggested we set it up against the retaining wall blocks at the end of the old kitchen garden. I had considered that area, but it would have to be at the northernmost end, as the south end is next to an area that gets deeply flooded in the spring. It’s not as sheltered from the wind, but it does get more light than if it were in the maple grove.
The other thing to consider is being able to secure the coop from being blown over in high winds. We’ve previously talked about getting panels that we can set around the mesh sides on windy days. The roosts are under the floors of the nesting boxes, rather than inside. There are three nesting boxes, with access from outside, at each end of the coop. When we assemble it, I want to find a way to attach a couple of roosts in the space in front of the nesting boxes, so they can roost for the night indoors, and not be exposed to the wind.
Ultimately, though, where we set up the coop will be temporary. I still plan to have some sort of polytunnel or greenhouse of some sort over garden beds in the main garden area. The coop and chickens would spend the winter inside that. So while we will need to secure it to make sure it doesn’t get blown over in high winds, we still need to keep it mobile.
I quite enjoyed talking it out with my daughter!
Anyhow.
Once at home, I had to drive up to the house to unload. I had some concerns on whether or not I’d cleared away enough snow before my body gave out. Especially the area I pull into behind the garage, so I can back up to the house. Sure enough, while in 2 wheel drive, I got stuck. I switched to 4 wheel drive and was able to back up. It was hard to tell, but I think that shuddering had started up again, while I was reversing in 4 wheel drive. The distance was so short, though, I really couldn’t say for sure. I just made sure to switch back to 2 wheel drive as soon as I was stopped, so I wouldn’t forget later.
Then it was the assembly line to unload the truck into the house. Last of all, my daughter and I took the kibble bags into the old kitchen. The whole time, we were constantly needing to make sure Sir Robin didn’t get into the house! He so wants to be inside!
Once the last of it was done, I left my older daughter to put things away while I grabbed some hot water and did the outside cats early. My younger daughter took over doing the kibble while I topped up the water bowls. Once all the cats were distracted, I was able to drive the truck out of the yard. I only had to scoot two of them away, first!
So there was have it. Finally. Our Costco stock up trip is done!
We will still need to do the Walmart and Canadian Tire trips, but that’s not as urgent, and there isn’t a lot we need to get there.
What I do need to do is visit my mother! I am planning to do that tomorrow afternoon, so I’ll be calling her tonight to let her know. My sister should have been able to visit her today. Maybe. During the drive home, we hit some pretty crazy blowing snow conditions, but it did clear up before we got home. As I write this, we are at our predicted high of -13C/7F, but the wind chill is -28C/-18F
Oh, my! Not only are we warming up over the next few days but, as I write this, we’ve got a high of 6C/43F forecasted for Sunday! 6C!!!! Wouldn’t THAT be nice!!
So, tomorrow (Thursday), I visit my mother. The day after, I have my doctor’s appointment. Saturday, I want to make a trip to the dump. Just a regular garbage and recycling run, though; my mother’s old mattress and box spring, and the broken office chairs, will have to wait for another day. Monday, my daughter has a doctor’s appointment. After that we don’t have anything scheduled until my dentist appointment near the end of the month, but March is also a birthday month for my older daughter. For her special birthday dinner, she usually chooses Pizza Hut pizzas. So at least one more trip there (no one delivers where we live. 😄)
Well, our mechanic has said, we need to drive the truck often. Mechanically, it’s running fine, with the possible exception of the shuddering in 4 wheel drive that comes and goes. I can just keep it in 2 wheel drive until absolutely necessary. They’ve checked and re-checked, and they can’t find anything wrong that could be causing it. The weird electrical thing has only affected the console and radio. The dashboard display has not been affected.
It’s still hell on my nerves, though.
The main thing is, we have transportation again, AND we finally got our first stock up shopping trip done – a week later than usual!
He said the paw disappeared right after he took the photo. 😄😄
On to the weirdness of the day.
Today, I had an afternoon appointment to get the truck looked at again. When I headed out – very early – I found the console display was still working, but the warning dings from the door still weren’t happening. I didn’t even try to test it out on 4 wheel drive, though. I was already stressed out. Whether the shuddering was happening or not happening, it wasn’t going to alleviate that stress.
When I got to the garage and dropped off the key, I spent time some time talking to the owner. I told him what was working and still not working, and that I hadn’t tested the 4 wheel drive (he understood why not!). We talked about the battery, and the possibility of there being something draining the battery while it’s parked. The battery is only 2 years old. He said some batteries only last that long. We got it from him, though. It wasn’t the highest end battery, but it’s far from the lowest end, either. We also talked about the cold potentially affecting it, and I remembered to tell him when we first had an issue with the battery, early in the winter.
Then I was off.
I walked across town (all 5 or 6 blocks) and had lunch, then walked the last couple of blocks to the beach. The ice fishing village is still there.
There was also heavy equipment clearing the snow to make roads and open areas on the ice. I seem to recall seeing fliers for some sort of ice event coming up.
Clearly, the ice on the lake is still incredibly thick!
Then I started walking back, stopping at a few places long the way. I even remembered to stop at the pharmacy and get our printouts to do our taxes. My husband finally got his second T4A, so we can do that now. My daughter will be able to claim prescriptions on her taxes for the first time. I couldn’t get her pharmacy records without her permission (I have a signed document so I can get my husband’s, every year), but I was able to arrange for it to be included with her prescription delivery later in the week. This will be the first year for both my daughter and I that we can claim the Disability Tax Credit.
By the time I got back to the garage, it was about 45 minutes past my appointment time. The truck was still in the garage and the mechanic was about to take it out for a test drive to see if it was still doing that shuddering thing while in 4 wheel drive. I suggested he try it in the grocery store parking lot, rather than the highway, since it seems to be triggered in slippery conditions.
The mechanic asked me about the door chime. I told him it still wasn’t working when I drove over.
It’s working now.
???!!!
They didn’t do anything. It was simply working when he drove it into the garage.
When talking to the owner, he said he could even hear it from his office when the truck was driven in, and the mechanic got out, leaving the keys in the ignition.
I told him, when I parked in their lot, it still wasn’t working.
Like I said, it’s a good thing we have a good relationship. If I say it wasn’t working, he doesn’t doubt me. It’s just so very strange!!!
He told me he tested the battery himself.
It’s fine. No sign of any problems.
We talked about that for a bit, and he told me of a possibility that had occurred to me when I was first driving the truck home and realized the console display wasn’t working. It is likely that when the battery got low enough, it started shutting off anything unnecessary that was using power. With some vehicles, once the battery drops below a certain threshold, you can’t even start them until it’s been charged again. Once I recharged the battery on Sunday, that would have allowed the console display to start working again. Why the door chime didn’t start working again until today, we don’t know, but it’s likely related.
Around then, the mechanic came back with the truck, parking it just outside the bay doors. Watching the cameras, we saw him step out, look at the camera, raise both hands and just shrug.
It was working fine.
I told him about needing to drive into the city, and various other things I need to drive to, and he said it should be fine. Driving is good. Sitting parked is not. I do know that, but I try to avoid driving in winter in particular.
I did remember to ask for a price on the light on the back of the cab that I idiotically broke because the garage door wasn’t open far enough. He started to look it up and then said, get it from Amazon. I will get a better price there. Then, once I have it, I can bring the truck back and he’ll install it for me. I asked if he had a part number and he said just to look up, third brake light.
I even got to talk to the mechanic a bit as I was going to the truck. He also assured me that it should be fine for all the driving I need to do.
From there, I drove across to the grocery store, then updated my family. There were just a few things I wanted to pick up for today because, tomorrow, my daughter and I will be finally doing the Costco run! I plan to go to the older location we’ve been going to for years, instead of the new location on the other side of the city, as the old location is right next to a Canadian Tire.
Just in case something goes wrong. Because I’m still absolutely paranoid about the truck! 😄
Right now, though, not only has all the recent weird stuff gone away on its own, but so has the tire warning stuff that’s been there for so very long.
Which means that truck is actually better now than it was before, with no one having actually done anything but do lots of testing and checking.
For that, all I can say is, Thank you, God.
When I got home, I texted the garage about the tire warnings that have been there for so long, now being gone. He said, it must be a ghost! 😄😄 They’d had trouble getting readings off the sensors the last time I brought the truck in for the front tires to be worked on. They checked all four sensors because of those warnings. I remember watching four guys going from tire to tire, looking perplexed at their device’s screen. We had originally thought it was because the batteries might have died or something, but clearly, that cannot be the case! The main thing was that the tires themselves were fine.
So that’s where we are at now. The truck is home, and we’ve got a lot of driving to get caught up on things that should have been done a while ago.
Since we are finally going to be going to the city tomorrow, I’ve contacted the person from the rescue that picked up Kohl from us, taking the carrier with her. The sun room cats have knocked one of the carriers off its shelf a few times too many and it can’t be clocked shut anymore, so we need to get the carrier back. The carrier is now with someone else, and we’ve just arranged to meet along the way tomorrow morning, before she gets to work. We’ll be leaving quite a bit earlier than usual, but that’s okay.
Now it’s stock up shopping, doctor’s appointments, dump runs, runs to the feed store and, of course, finally getting to visit my mother! Once again, we are now the closest to where she is.
Oh, and our vandal and his wife have already visited her twice since she’s been transferred to the current TCU. The staff there have been warned about him, and yet… today, my brother told me that a check just went through my mother’s account. A check for a substantial amount of money, made out to our vandal and written out by our vandal’s wife for my mother to sign (my mother can no longer write checks out herself), dated just a few days ago. This is one of the reasons why we didn’t want our vandal to be able to have access to my mother without supervision. The problem is, they can’t have a staff member just hang out in the room with them. So, they managed to somehow guilt my mother into throwing money at our vandal again. The crazy thing is, while she has been able to help out with paying for things at the farm, even things she offered to pay for in advance, she does things like try to back out, or tries to use it as a way to control us, or guilt us, and makes a big deal over the fact that she “helped”. Which she has never done, when it comes to our vandal. And there’s nothing we can do about it, as long as her cognitive decline is as relatively mild as it is now. She isn’t at the state where my brother, as PoA, becomes wholly responsible to act on her behalf in that regard. At least we were able to get the doctor at the hospital to agree, officially in her file, that my mother cannot sign legal documents, and that if she is convinced to do so, it would not be legally binding. I don’t think that quite applies to writing checks.
Meanwhile, my mother says she wants me to bring her some of her cash stash she asked me to hang on to for her. Most of which got deposited into her account, which my brother explained to her when going over her finances recently, but she still thinks I have all of. She has no need for money where she is, and we don’t know where the money she had before went to. Sure, she sometimes insisted I take some cash for gas, but almost never enough to actually cover the cost of gas. A few bucks here and there. We did learn she tried to give money to staff at the hospital to basically bribe them to pay more attention to her, but never managed to actually give them any (that probably would have gotten them fired). I guess now we know where the rest of her cash went to.
We also know why our vandal and his wife have been finding ways to visit her so often, even though he’s supposedly at death’s door right now.
*sigh*
It is so hard to protect my mother, when she works so hard to sabotage our efforts.
Anyhow.
Visiting my mother is on the list of things I need to do, now that I’ve been assured the truck has been checked and rechecked and everything is running just fine.
It took me a while to get around to it, but lately I’ve been catching up on the series, The Chosen. I’ve been hearing quite a bit about the series, but I just don’t tend to watch TV shows. I saw it was available on Prime, though, and decided to give it a go.
I’m into season three now. I’ve been enjoying it a fair bit. I do see where some of the criticisms are coming from, but I also see where the criticisms have been unwarranted. Given how little detail we have in the Bible for a lot of things, it is understandable that they would have fleshed things out quite a bit. I question some of the directions they chose, but found others interesting. Portraying Matthew as being autistic, for example. Then there were continuity issues. For example, in an early episode, it shows people reciting the Lord’s Prayer, but Jesus doesn’t teach that to his apostles until a season or two later.
One of the things I question is their use of modern concepts projected onto the past. Like seeing writing on a stone marker that was translated as “private property, trespassers will be prosecuted”.
Another is the usual trope about how Jesus and the Apostles were all poor, and that Jesus was homeless. Fishermen in Galilee would have been solidly upper middle class. As for Jesus, when Joseph died, as the eldest son, Jesus would have inherited the family home as well as the family business. They may not have been wealthy, but they wouldn’t have been poor, either, and he would have had a home to come back to.
Other things, though, were niggling at me. Little details – and they clearly paid close attention to details in this series.
For a bit of back ground, I have a keen interest in history. Particularly ancient history. However, my approach to history is rather different. I want to know how ordinary people lived and, in my view, to really understand a people, the best way is through learning what they ate and what they wore. It’s amazing just how far reaching those two things are. They are influenced by everything from climate and geography, to proximity to trade routes. What fascinated me about ancient foods, for example, is just how far ranging some of the ingredients were, even for those who were not wealthy, and the remarkably complex and sophisticated their food was. Cooking methods, seasoning, methods of preservation, flavour combinations, etc. When we were actively homeschooling, we regularly recreated historical dishes as best we could. I was particularly amazed by just how much salt, fat and sweeteners were part of ancient meals. Downright staggering, in some cases.
Along with food, their clothing, their homes, their everyday tools, their methods of transportation – everything is so interconnected.
In the series, there’s a lot of worrying about food, but it is very… vague. Which is remarkable, considering just how important food was to the Jewish people and their celebrations. Seeing tables loaded with… bowls of … seeds? There’s fruit. Bread. Talk of cooking lentils. Chopping of cucumbers. Talk of buying vegetables, etc. Talk of cooking. What I wasn’t seeing was pretty much any sort of protein, in a land where they would have been eating massive amounts of fish, at the very least. The eating of fish is often mentioned in the Bible. I’ve recreated meals from 2000 years ago, and it just all seemed… wrong.
Then there was the clothing. Why are there frayed edges all over the place? Why were there so many seams? Why were almost all the seams showing frayed edges? Also, some of the colours. People did try to wear as much colour as they could, but some of those colours required dyes that were exceedingly expensive at the time, while others could only be worn by people of specific class or status.
Other things niggled at me. Like the shelters being built, or how people seemed to just be… doing things with their hands that had nothing to do with the task at hand. There was also a lot of, why is that there? I’m no historical expert, but I know enough that a lot of things just felt… wrong.
Then I got to a scene in season three, episode four. An item on a table that was so incongruous, it distracted me away from everything happening in the scene.
I ended up taking a picture of my monitor to show you.
I wasn’t able to get a shot that included the lid, but that box?
I have one.
These boxes are made in Poland. Granted, they’ve been doing it for about a thousand years, but not two thousand years, and certainly not made with the modern tools, patterns, colours and sealant that were used to make this box.
So I’m just laughing at this, and completely distracted because I HAVE THAT BOX! In the exact pattern and colours. A nesting set of three. The box in the scene is the middle sized one.
I admit, with all these little things niggling at me about the food and clothing and shelter and so on, I did find myself wondering if Metatron has done an episode on the Roman armor and uniforms. 😄
I heard back from the garage when they checked their messages this morning (they don’t check while the shop is closed), and the mechanic agreed that it was likely a burnt fuse. I ended up talking to him on the phone and we made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon so they can look at it.
Then, I headed to the post office to finally pick up our packages. One of them was my West Coast Seeds order that came in almost two weeks ago!
Also, I’m an idiot.
I’m also short. Have I mentioned, I’m a bit on the short side?
Well, I didn’t open the garage door quite far enough. As I backed out of the garage, I hit the door. Broke the light above the box on the back of the cab. Just cracked the plastic, but still… What a doofus!
Our driveway may be mostly clear, but there is still that mix of hard packed tire tracks and softer snow on either side. The hard packed snow was already getting slippery – we have been warming up all night and were just a few degrees below freezing. Still, I got through all right and onto the road.
Where it started again.
That strange shuddering that wasn’t there when the mechanics test drove the truck before I took it home.
I was still on 4 wheel drive, as I needed it to get the truck unstuck, so I stopped and switched to 2 wheel drive. After that, it ran fine.
Then I saw the clock.
The time was wrong, but the clock was visible. I turned on the radio, and all the display information came on, as usual.
The console display is working again so, obviously, it’s not a burnt out fuse!
When I got to the post office, though, I confirmed that the warning dings for keys still in the ignition or headlights left on, that are supposed to start when the door is opened, didn’t.
I got our mail and a few groceries in the store, then headed home. As soon as I was settled, I sent a message to the garage, along with the picture of the broken light, asking what it would cost to get it fixed. Then I asked him to call me so I could tell him what was going on with the truck. I did add that it was NOT a burnt fuse, but maybe the ignition switch?
He called me back right away. I described what was happening, both with the shuddering back while on 4 wheel drive, and with the console display being on again, but not the warning dings that should go off when the door it opened.
He doesn’t think it’s the ignition switch, as he thinks that would cause other issues as well, but he will check it out.
He also asked how much we had left to pay off the truck. He knows we just can’t have this happening all the time, and we’ve already talked about trading the truck in a bit. We’ll see what happens when I get there, tomorrow.
I would really, really like to get our stock up shopping finally done!!
Meanwhile, I got to check out my new seeds and decided to make a short video of it.
You can also see how the seedlings are doing. Not the best. I’ve added “walls” around two sides of the trays to help keep the heat from the heater from blowing right past everything, and moved the thermometer to one end, away from the heater. I’ve actually seen that thermometer at 20C/68F since moving it closer to the trays! When I was doing the video, though, it was more like 17C/63F or so. It really should be closer to 24C/75C for the seedlings, but we just have no way to give them that. Still, I’m seeing more of the extra California Wonder bell pepper seeds I added, just in case, emerging. We’ve only got 3 surviving Caspar eggplants, but at 75 days to maturity, technically I could direct sow those.
There we have it, though. My little West Coast Seeds haul
After three days of shoveling and snow blowing, my daughters made sure to let me know that they would take care of the cat stuff, inside and out, this morning. Much appreciated, as we did reach that -31C/-24F last night. I don’t know what the wind chills were at the time, but from the weather reports I read this morning, we did get wind chills of -45C/-49F during the night.
Sleeping in a bit past sunrise was nice, at least.
Then I headed down stairs to check on the seedlings. I heard the septic pump running and went to the old basement to check on things.
I found water on the floor.
Not a lot, and with how uneven the floor is around there, it wasn’t quite clear where it was coming from at first. Then I opened the access pipe, and found it full of liquid and toilet paper.
I uncovered the floor drain and it was backed up to there, too, though not to overflowing.
*sigh*
What a way to start the day.
Thankfully, that commercial drain auger we got is enough to punch through such clogs without bothering to even plug it in. It’s the bottleneck somewhere between the basement and the tank that was the issue again. Thankfully, I caught it as early as I did.
Once I got through the clog, I switched to the old garden hose that’s missing its end. I don’t even bother to take it off the tap that used to be the cold water tap for the washing machine before the laundry got moved upstairs. The hose just gets hung up on hooks from the floor joists above.
The next part took longer. The drain from the weeping tile goes through past the floor drain and into the access pipe. It was blocked all the way, and took quite a bit of work with the hose to flush it all out. Then the concrete floor got hosed down and cleaned up.
Great fun.
Not.
My goal of the day was to work on clearing snow from the inner yard, though I also wanted to put the charger on the truck battery. We’ve had issues with it being low before and, with the cold we’ve been having, I had my concerns.
It took me a long time to get my act together and get back outside.
The first thing I had to do was get the extension cords running out the back door of the garage, for better reach.
What is is about extension cords? How can an inanimate object seem so determined to actively try to trip and injure? Granted, with the cold, the cords aren’t as flexible so there are plenty of loops that don’t want to straighten out, but those loops were constantly finding ways to wrap around my feet!
Then I could get little Spewie out the back door before heading back in to hook up the charger. Then I had to drag Spewie through the snow. It might have been easier to just pick it up and carry it!
Finally, all set up, plugged in and ready to go!
Nope.
As soon as I heard the off sound, I stopped it immediately. The auger wouldn’t turn, but the motor was trying to get it to!
I tried to turn it manually, which normally is easy, but it would not move.
I did make sure to brush it off when I put it in the garage last night, but I think somewhere in the workings, something froze and it keeping the auger from turning.
I didn’t have the time or energy to fuss with it.
It was going to have to all be shoveled by hand.
*sigh*
I’d already used the shovel and ice scraper to break up the more drifted areas that I knew were too packed or deep for little Spewie, so those were still handy.
I focused on clearing the area closest to the house. Then I cleared the most drifted areas along the sides, as well as clearing to the outhouse and to the litter compost behind it. I took it slow and careful. Given my physical state by then, I knew I was at higher risk of hurting myself. What I didn’t clear wasn’t deep enough to cause problems for the truck.
I hope.
Part way through, the battery reached full charge and I pause to put that away. I didn’t bring my key, so I didn’t check on the console display. I’ll do that tomorrow. I plan to call the garage as early as I can and see if I can swing by. I’m about 80% sure it’s just a fuse. I don’t have a fuse tester and even if I did, the last time I tried to check the fuse box, shortly after we bought the truck, I couldn’t get it open. It’s supposed to easily pop off. There isn’t supposed to be any sort of trick to it. I just wasn’t able to do it. I even got our mechanic to show me how. He got it off not problem, without doing anything different than I had. I’m obviously missing something, but I’ve no idea what. I mentioned that to my brother. His response was, YouTube is your friend.
YouTube is not my friend.
I did later try to look, searching specifically for the 2011 Sierra. I got videos on how to find the fuse box – with I already know – and what’s inside, a video on how to test fuses, but nothing on how to open it. Then I found lots and lots of videos on the Silverado and various other makes and models of trucks that had nothing to do with my search terms.
I just don’t have the energy to work it out.
Taking it easy did mean I was out there for quite a while. When I was done, it was late enough that I went ahead and did the evening cat feeding before heading in.
I am so tired.
One of the things I wanted to do before it got too late in the day was to call my mother. I was rather dreading it. I knew she’d be asking when I would visit next, which I probably won’t do until I at least talk to our mechanic, first. I knew that if I told her that, she would start giving me a hard time again. She doesn’t understand anything about vehicles, which is fine, but that doesn’t stop her from demanding explanations for things she can’t grasp, then making sure I know exactly what a failure of a human being she thinks I am for having any problems at all.
Still, I knew I had better call. My brother and his wife had visited her yesterday, so I knew she was struggling with things. My SIL said she was seeming pretty depressed. She doesn’t like where she is, even though she just got there and there are activities that she didn’t have access to while in the hospital, and the other TCU didn’t seem to have at all. Life is not meeting her expectations. She had told them, she has all this money, but not even a bed to call her own.
She doesn’t have a lot of money, really. What she has may have been considered a lot, 70 years ago, but our dollar is worth so much less today, it really wouldn’t get her very far. It certainly can’t buy her way into the nursing home she wants to be in, either.
My SIL said she asked my mother if she maybe wanted her own little house here at the farm, like her mother had when living on my aunt’s farm, before she moved here for her final years. My mother said no. She isn’t able to take care of herself on her own anymore.
Anyhow.
I called her up and she did sound rather down, right from the start. I asked how she was doing and she said I probably didn’t want to hear it. She was also in the common room with other people around, so she wouldn’t have wanted to talk about it. They did leave shortly after, though. She then started telling me about how she has such a tiny bed (?? it would be a standard size hospital bed), such a tiny space in her shared room, there’s always noise and TV and talking and laughing… No peace. No privacy.
She’s been there for less than a week.
We talked about how this is temporary and hopefully, she will soon get transferred to the nursing home she wants to be in. I did remind her, thought, that there will be noise in the nursing home, too. She would have her own room, though. If nothing else, she could close her door.
I did confirm that she got communion today, and it was brought to her by the same guy that was bringing it to her when she had her apartment. She was happy about that, at least.
Of course, she started asking me when I would come to visit. I told her I did get the truck home and got stuck in our own driveway, because there was so much blowing snow. I then mentioned that there was something else that I needed to get checked, even though the truck seems to be running fine. As expected, she started demanding explanations and started giving me a hard time about it. I basically just cut that off and changed the subject. I told her, I just don’t know when I’ll be able to visit, but I would let her know before I do. She did make sure to tell me what she wanted me to bring to her when I do make it out.
*sigh*
She told me she had been able to get her short wave radio set up and working. My brother had tried to set it up while she was in the hospital but just couldn’t get a signal. It was even worse in the first TCU, but where she is now, she can get a signal. She was looking forward to listening to Mass in Polish soon, so we didn’t talk for too much longer. She did start going on about how she wants us all to find someplace for her, where she can have peace and privacy. I told her, even if we found someplace, if she leaves where she is now, she goes to the bottom of the waiting list (or off it entirely, now that I think about it) for the nursing home she wants to be in
I don’t think she heard me. I had a hard time hearing her at times, though for a different reason. It was as if we were losing the connection, but when I mentioned it was happening, she said something about how she was accidentally doing something with her fingers. ??
Well, hopefully that won’t be an issue for much longer. After going back and forth with my brother about it, he went ahead and ordered a phone for seniors for my mother. It’s in already, but the SIM card is still on the way. The phone company has a senior’s plan, too. It’s a cell phone that looks like a small cordless phone, and is even more basic than the phone she had before. It has a charging dock just like her old cordless handset had. The display screen shows the time, day and date as default, which I think she will find useful, too.
I would absolutely enjoy having a phone like that for myself, instead of a touch screen smart phone. Those may be convenient, but I’ve never liked touch screens.
Hopefully, it won’t take her long to figure it out, and we will be able to call her directly instead of having to go through the nursing station and have them bring a cordless handset to her.
The call with my mom wasn’t as bad as I half expected it to be, at least. I just don’t quite understand what my mother’s expectations are anymore, other than unrealistic. She hated being at her apartment because there was no one around in case she needed help, but now that she’s where there is always someone around that can help if she needs it, she hates that there are people around all the time, and they make sounds.
Ah, well. Hopefully she will get to where she wants to be, soon. She told my brother that her room mate has been there for a long time already, and is staying. Which doesn’t make sense, since this place is for temporary placement only, not permanent.
As for me, it’s time to pain killer up for the night and get to bed.
I am so very tired. Tired physically, tired of the truck, tired of always being on guard when talking to my mother, tired of winter, tired of cold, tired of the plumbing in this house, tired… tired… tired.
The Re-Farmer 