Amazing what a difference a few hours makes.

This morning, I had pretty much decided, Costco would wait until tomorrow. Which freed up my day for other things.

I was just starting to make a ham, leek and potato soup when the phone rang.

It was my mother.

After an atypical hesitant start in the conversation, of my mother saying she hoped she wasn’t interrupting anything (red flag! red flag!) she started asking me about a particular plaque that used to hang in the entry, above the doorway into the dining room. It had hung there for many decades, and was it still there?

No. It isn’t. She knew this, too, because we hung a cross of our own up there, made of olive wood from the Mediterranean, with the Lord’s Prayer engraved into the wood. She and I had had a conversation about it when she saw it. That was a while ago, so no surprise that she didn’t remember.

Then she started asking where the plaque was, asking if I even remembered it, and so on. I did remember it, but I did not remember where we packed it. I figure it’s on the storage warehouse. This building used to be a workshop, but it is now jammed full of my parents’ belongings, to the point we can barely move around in it.

She wanted me to get it for her, because she would like it now.

…

I reminded her that we can’t get to the warehouse because of the snow.

Oh, of course. It can wait until spring and the snow is going.

I pointed out that this is a very small item and would be very hard to find (in fact, I am not even sure it ended up in there, but it’s the most likely place) in all that stuff.

That’s okay, she tells me. It’s very important, you see. It’s patriotic.

The plaque has a Polish eagle on the front, and the Polish national anthem on the back.

*sigh*

Hopefully, but spring, she will forget all about it.

This is something that has frustratingly become more common. My mother suddenly remembers some possession she left behind when she moved out of here, decides she absolutely MUST have it, and then I have to find it and dig it out. Which isn’t too bag when it’s a large item, like a couple of framed prints she now has on her wall, but there is just no way we can keep on top of the little things. There was just SO much STUFF we had to pack away, just to be able to have the movers bring our own stuff out here, never mind the stuff we packed away, clean out and disposed of over the next couple of years. By the time we were cleaning out the old kitchen, we were having to put things in the old storage house in the front yard, because there is no more room in the warehouse. And the storage house is already full of junk and is so far gone, cleaning it up would require haz mat precautions. I don’t think we went in there even once, last year.

My mother has a very tiny apartment. The room I’m now using as my bedroom/office is probably bigger than her entire apartment. She has frequently rejected gifts, in her typically rude manner, because she has no room for them (then showing off the gifts given to her by family members that have been abusive towards her, but that’s a whole other issue…). Now, she’s suddenly wanting these old possessions she abandoned years before we even moved out here, with absolutely no consideration about how difficult it would be to even find these, while also worrying that someone is going to go into the warehouse and steal the things, and ALSO insisting we don’t throw anything away, because “they have value”.

*sigh*

I really don’t think anyone is interested in my late father’s old clothes, or the underwear she left behind in her dresser, along with the piles of old junk they just couldn’t let go of. Yes, there is some good stuff in there, too, but those pieces are literally buried in boxes and bags of stuff.

Thank God neither of them were actually hoarders!

Anyhow, after that conversation was done, my mother started saying she needed to run errands.

Which I will be helping her do tomorrow, thanks to her car being all fixed up, checked over and home again.

Since Costco tomorrow was not going to happen, maybe I should just go it today?

Nope. Not going to happen. Costco will wait another day.

I went back to making my soup.

After that was done, I came into my room and my daughter joined the cats on the bed as we got caught up on things. Even Butterscotch came out for attention, so she stayed longer.

There’s a problem with that.

I have a very comfortable, very large, bed.

It was covered with warm, sleeping cats.

We both got sucked into the cozy.

I fell asleep.

My daughter, sweetheart that she is, got up, laid more cats on top of me, covered us with blankets, then put away my glasses for me. She had some problems with my glasses, though, discovering that they don’t close anymore! LOL

Some time later, I got up, found my glasses, put them on and…

They don’t sit right on my face anymore.

It seems she bent them somehow, while trying to close them. They are so old and fragile, I don’t dare manipulate them too much.

So now I’m wearing my “spare” glasses, which are no longer the right prescription, but right now, the eye strain is slightly less.

Which means my plans for my tax return have changed.

With how much my progressive lenses alone cost, I’ll be lucky if I have anything left of my return by the time they’re done. Yes, we do have insurance, but only a few hundred dollars. Less than what my lenses cost – and that was years ago. At least the eye exam will be fully covered.

I just double checked. The plan covers 90% of lenses and frames, but only up to a certain amount. I go for the bargain basement frames, since I really don’t care to pay hundreds of dollars for a brand name and fancy colours. Maybe I’ll have something left over. We’ll see.

*sigh*

Well, it was nice to think about getting that portable greenhouse for a little while, at least…

The Re-Farmer