Plans? What plans?

But first, the most important thing.

Yes, we still have hot water. Lol!  Oh, it is so good!  And no waste of the day, heating water all morning.

With the temperatures dropping, I had intended to not go ANYWHERE if I could avoid it.

However, I forgot about doing a dump run.

Since we were doing a dump run, anyhow, we stopped at the post office in our own hamlet. Then we went to another town so my daughter could do some banking.

Our poor van. With the colder temperature, my alternator is screaming again. It stops when the engine is warm, either from being used, or overall temperatures being higher.  Until we can get it checked, nothing short of a heated garage will keep it from happening.  So I really don’t want to go out when it starts to get nasty cold, over the Christmas weekend.

So I hope today was the last of our running around, just for the sake of our van.

Later in the evening, after starting to catch up on the dishes that piled up while we waited for the hot water tank to be installed, I realized I did not have the energy to do all of it, but I needed to do all of it to have what I needed to cook supper.

So I decided we needed a break.  My daughters and I headed to a different town for some take-out fried chicken.  We took advantage of the situation to play Pokemon Go. Then, while I waited for the food and took advantage of their WiFi to get updates on my phone (we maxed out our satellite data several days ago, so our internet at home is down to a crawl), the girls went for a coffee – while playing more Pokemon Go.

That was how the day ended.  The day’s start was rather different.

My goal for Christmas is to get the dining room to the point that we can all sit around at the table to eat together again.  The girls and I started on boxes and shelves, until I got a phone call from my mother.

She was trying to figure out why she got a phone bill for this place.  She thought my brother had said he changed it to our name for her. Except he hadn’t.  He was talking about the electricity.  Unfortunately, such mis-remembering is happening a lot with her, as her cognitive functions continue to decrease.  It took some doing to get her to understand that I couldn’t do it for her, even if she “gave me permission.”  She needed to tell the phone company that she has given me permission.  Just saying it to me wasn’t enough.

Long, dramatic, soap opera story short, she made the call to the phone company herself and started the process. Then I got a call from the phone company to get it finished at our end.

So it is finally done. My childhood phone number is now my own. We have had this number since the mid-50’s, which means it’s more than 10 years older than I am!

Thankfully, my daughters continued to work on the dining room while all this was going on, because it looks like we will have company for Christmas.  Maybe.  My older brother and I had been discussing a visit if they were in the area to visit my mom.  He mentioned that possibility to her.  She then invited herself to come with them.

I was really hoping for a quite, peaceful Christmas. Especially since we still have so much chaos surrounding us.

Ah, well.  We will work it out.  We just never know how my mother’s mind or mood will be on any given day.  The visit might be good.  It might also be pure hell.  We won’t know which until it happens.  If it happens.

Company or no, my goal is the same.

Though I had hoped to avoid it, we have reached the point where we have to start putting things into the basement until needed.  The new part basement, so we don’t need to worry about dampness when the ground thaws. Still, we aren’t going to even consider starting to clean out the basements until the rest of the house is done.  I hate having to stick our own stuff down there so soon.  But we were starting to look like a rabbit warren, with just paths in between stacks of things.  It’s frustrating to need to unpack things into an area, but not being able to because it’s blocked by other stuff, which can’t be moved until more of my parents’ stuff gets packed, which we can’t do until we unpack the stuff in front of it, which can’t be moved until…  and on it goes.

Progress was made, however.  The girls even managed to take down another huge mirror, then hang family photos in its place.  We have also figured out how we want to arrange some shelves, which will allow is to clear out some other areas.

Little by little, it’s getting done.  One baby step at a time.

Oh, I was wrong about how the day ended.  It ended with the girls finishing off the dishes.  The topic of Christmas carols came up.  I ended up singing for them, using my father-in-law’s choir song list.  Later, I found the box with our music books and my younger daughter and I sang together.

It’s been ages since I’ve sung (not counting wailing with a CD! LOL). My voice is not anywhere near up to par!

It was fun, though.

The Re-farmer