I would really like to be able to get that fluffy lady and get her spayed! She does sometimes let me pet her, but not very often of late.
This morning, I tried for a head count and got 29, which is the highest I’ve counted in a while. Not sure what to make of that, but cats will cat, I guess!
A brief update on our plumbing situation. Any time I hear a pump go off, I am checking the basement, even if it’s just the well pump. The septic pump makes a different sound now that the diverter is attached but, strangely, it sounds just like the fan in our bathroom!
There is still a leak somewhere, and I’ve had to top up the filter a few times. Sometimes, the filter cap will be tightly seals. Other times, it won’t be. There was one time I checked when I heard it go off, and the filter was low on water, but there was inflow happening. I waited and watched, and the inflow pressure increased as the water level in the filter increased faster than it drained out, and soon it was properly full and working right.
I updated my brother on all of this. He asked for some photos from different angles, and I figured he was planning to come out and see what he could do about it. Something he did eventually confirm, saying he was going to try something with the “back valve” on the pump. I assume there are valves, but I don’t know anything about what they are or where. I look forward to seeing what he does and learning more about it. Meanwhile, my SIL confirmed that she would be driving my brother out and drop him off, so he can take back their car that they loaned us.
My younger daughter and I needed to go into town to pick up our prescriptions today so, of course, we took advantage of the trip to run other errands.
This meant using the truck. I can’t be using my brother’s car, just because it’s there. I’d used the OBDII scanner last night and confirmed it was still the same sensor that was the issue, so there was really no excuse.
It ran just fine, but I really hate having the check engine light on, and the oil pressure gauge not working.
Our first stop in town was, of course, the pharmacy. My new painkiller prescription was filled yesterday, but my daughter’s was just put on file; when my prescription arrived, they called us about it, asking if I wanted it filled. They never called about my daughter’s prescriptions. They were going to need some time to fill it, so I left her to wait for it and did our other errands. The first was to return that security camera I’d picked up, so we could monitor the septic pump without running up and down the stairs all the time. We never did figure out why it wouldn’t connect to our WiFi.
The exchange was pretty straightforward and quick, so I had time to stop at a grocery store near the pharmacy. It’s not one we normally go to, but it was on the way. All I needed to pick up was butter, but on the way out I’d asked if my daughter had eaten anything, and she hadn’t. It was coming up on lunch time, and I knew she’d been up at around 3am and unable to get back to sleep. So I picked up something for her to eat as well.
That done, I went back to the pharmacy, where my daughter was still waiting. They didn’t have one of the meds as a generic in stock, so she got a name brand, instead. Another, they could only fill half of it. It didn’t take too much longer, though. My daughter used to work at this pharmacy, so she got to catch up a bit with former co-workers.
Since I was able to run our other errands while she waited, once everything was paid for, we were done in town.
This town, at least!
We were starting to run low on kibble, especially for the outside cats, so we made the trip to my mother’s town, next, and to the feed store.
The price on the 40 pound bags has gone up.
The lysine I’d ordered wasn’t in. It’s been quite a while since I requested it, so I was a bit surprised.
From there, we picked up some fuel and headed for home, with a quick side trip to the post office. I was giving one more day for the letter mail that got delayed by the postal strike. If it didn’t come today, I was going to assume it was lost and would have to make arrangements.
I was pretty happy to see that it had finally arrived – but also found a parcel slip. I was not expecting any parcels until next week!
The post office hadn’t reopened for the afternoon, yet, so I couldn’t pick it up. They’d reopen in only 20 minutes, though, so my daughter and I headed home and unloaded. She headed in to put things away, and I went back to the post office, just in time for it to reopen.
This is what my brother and I want to try on the ejector. We can’t use the 100′ extension cord my brother set up when he was going to try his heat gun, as it is for 2 prong plugs. We have two, but they are both in use right now. Once my brother retrieves his car, though, one will be freed up, as it’s currently what his block heater is plugged into. I don’t know that we’ll set that up tomorrow, though. If the source of the problem really is the over saturated soil under the ejector, thawing the stand pipe out isn’t going to do much good. It’ll just freeze again. And we certainly don’t want to be switching from the emergency diverter to the ejector on the pump, if only to have to switch it back again later.
We shall see what my brother thinks, when he gets here tomorrow.
Meanwhile, now that we no longer have a clogged drain from the kitchen sink, and the diverter is mostly working fine, we’ve been catching up on dishes and other cleaning jobs. We still haven’t needed to do laundry, though. I’m still on constant alert for the sound of the septic pump; I’m the only one that can hear it when it goes off, and only when I’m in my office/bedroom, which puts a limit on what I can get done.
I really hope whatever my brother has come up with, works!
I must say, though; it may be a pain in the butt to be constantly listening for and checking on that pump, things are a LOT more relaxed now that both the diverter is working, and that clogged drain is cleared!
Meanwhile, I’m hoping to get a much better night’s sleep tonight, with these new painkillers.
The important thing is, we can use our kitchen sink and laundry drain again! Yay!
We couldn’t wait until today to do our laundry, though, so yesterday we did something like four loads of laundry, with the hose draining out the door. The furthest end of the sump pump hose we’re using curls, preventing it from draining completely, so I kept going outside to lift the hose, from the door to the end, to get it empty before it froze.
This morning, we were expecting the plumber to arrive first, then a prescription delivery, hopefully before my daughter and I had to head out. My daughter had started her shower just as I was about to start heading outside for my morning rounds and to open the gate, when I heard a strange noise.
The septic pump had finally been triggered!
So I immediately dashed downstairs to check the filter.
Which was empty and running dry.
I shut the pump off, opened the filter, primed it again and turned the pump back on. It worked great! When it was done, the filter stayed full enough that the filter basket inside was floating and spinning slightly in the water – something I haven’t seen it do in quite a while!
From there, it was outside to feed and water the kitties, then do my usual checks, which this time included checking the outflow pipe. Everything looked clear, and there was no sign of backflow towards the house.
Yay!!!!
While doing my rounds, I got the truck running for a while, then popped in the OBDII scanner. The check engine light was on and the oil pressure gauge was still at zero. I did a full scan and got the same code as before: the oil pressure sensor that has already been replaced and cleaned.
At least it’s just triggering a check engine light, and not setting off the flipping alarm with the “turn off engine” warning.
From there, I cleared the codes and left the engine running until it shut itself off, as I’d used the remote starter to turn it on. Though it is much warmer today, I still plugged the block heater back in.
With our trip to the doctor’s office, though, I planned to use my brother’s car, which is parked and plugged in, outside. We had a bit of snow last night that needed to be brushed off, but that’s it.
Not long after I was back inside and checking the trail cam files, I got a call from the plumber. He was on his way and wanted to confirm directions to our place.
They can be a bit difficult to explain at times.
They got here soon after. Since the entry is where the laundry drain is, with the kitchen sink on the other side of the wall, I explained a what was going on there, then we went into the basement where I could show him the rest.
After looking over the pipes in old and new basements, as well as the plumbing under the sink, he decided to find a better way than trying to run his auger through where the last guy did. Access there is not easy, and it was put back together with adhesive. He didn’t want to cut anything there.
Since we knew the clog started past the laundry drain, he did it another way. He cut away part of the pipe in the root cellar, on the kitchen side of where the laundry pipe joined (not that he could have cut it on the other side, since it goes into a wall, there) and removed a couple of inches. It would then get sealed up with a rubber union and steel clamps, so that it would be easy to access, if we ever needed to have this done again. In fact, with our big drain auger, we’d be able to do it ourselves.
I don’t feel so bad about not trying to open things up where the other plumber went through now.
He used his smaller powered auger on the drain, and he really felt it when he hit the clog. After he worked on it for a while, with his assistant holding the other end of the pipe out of the way, he had his assistant go into the other basement to see if he could tell if the auger had reached the corner under the bathroom. I went along with him.
Not only had he reached the corner, but I could hear the tip of the auger rattling in the pipe near the old basement steps. He’d gone through the turn and was about 2/3s of the way down the other pipe to the septic tank.
After clearing things out, he sealed up the pipe, then headed for the kitchen to flush it. This will be our regular maintenance routine. He filled one of the kitchen sinks with straight hot water. After pulling the plug, he squirted some dish detergent into the vortex as it drained.
Then he did it again, with the other sink.
The first time, we could hear a lot of gurgling from the laundry drain pipe. A certain amount of that is normal, as we would be hearing the water pass by where it joined the main pipe. The second time he did it, we heard almost nothing from the laundry drain.
The assistant, meanwhile, was in the basement, making sure the new rubber union wasn’t leaking, and listening along the pipes. They couldn’t hear each other, so I went down and found him following the sound into the old basement. He could hear the water sloshing through the whole way.
I think the sinks were both filled and drained a total of three times each before he was satisfied.
I told him about what we’d found under the sink, and that my daughter had replaced everything but the trap, so he kept an eye on that, too. There were no leaks anywhere, so that was installed just fine.
While all this was going on, we chatted a fair bit. For some things, I explain the history of the plumbing, so far as I knew it. I even showed him our drain auger, and he quite approved. He let me know that, if we ever needed it, he does have a larger one. Hopefully, we never will!
He was one of the plumbers I have been talking to about the ejector, so while following the pipes, I showed him the diverter set up – and that the pump was triggered for the first time since the tank was emptied, just this morning. He was the one that has suggesting setting up an ice fishing tent over it with a heater, but we don’t even know someone we can borrow one from. He also suggested putting straw bales around the ejector, but we don’t have straw bales, either. We did get get straw, it was one of the big round bales, not the small square ones.
Oh, that reminds me…
While talking to the plumbing guy at the hardware store yesterday, we talked about the ejector and how to thaw it. He’s on an ejector system himself and said, this sometimes happen. I told him, it’s been some 50 years, and it’s never frozen before, so why now? He said it could be a few things and started listing some off. The only one I remember was when he said the ground could be saturated.
*dingdingding*
When they excavated down to the pipe to install the ejector, it was full of water. I even asked one of the guys if that was from the leaking old ejector, or if the water table was high. He told me it would be from the leaking ejector.
Which means the ground at the based of the new ejector was indeed saturated. Which would not have been a problem if this was done in the spring or summer. With nothing leaking anymore, it would have eventually drained away. The soil is clay heavy, so it might have taken a while, but it would eventually have dried up.
The ejector, however, was installed in… November? We were lucky not to have snow, which we did get, not long after.
Which means the water the drained to the bottom of the 4″ stack pipe had nowhere to go, and just kept building up and up, until it froze.
So… that rather eliminates any chance of us being able to use the ejector again until spring. The ground is already frozen, so even if we insulated around it, it wouldn’t make a difference.
*sigh*
We’ll figure it out.
The main thing is, we can now use our kitchen sink again!!!
In asking him why it would clog again so quickly after we’d already had it cleared just a couple of years ago, he said that having the laundry and kitchen drain into the main pipe so close together was not really an ideal situation. Between any grease from washing the dishes, to lint and such from the laundry, things build up pretty fast.
I’d been concerned about the pipe that didn’t get cleared, from the bathroom towards the septic. That, however, turns out not to be an issue at all. With all the water from showers and washing – even the toilet flushing – it would have kept that section of pipe pretty clear. There’s a lot less water running through from the kitchen to under the bathroom – and even less, when we started running the laundry drain outside. As the greasy water from the sink swirls its way down the pipe, the gunk would build up faster. Which is why flushing the drain with sink-fulls of hot water and detergent (he suggested using Dawn, as it is the best for grease cutting) regularly is recommended.
I asked him about using the bacteria and enzyme drain maintenance stuff, and he couldn’t really answer, as he doesn’t know much about it.
I also asked him about the possibility of the pipe from the house to the ejector getting clogged, and he said that was highly unlikely.
On top of all the other stuff we talked about, I mentioned that we want to replace the well pump, but there’s a risk of the foot valve breaking apart, so no one wanted to take the chance.
He pffffttt’d to that and said, just put in a check valve. No one really does foot valves anymore.
???
I’ve had three different plumbers look at that well pump. No one mentioned a check valve, so I asked him about it. He looked some up on his phone and found the style that would be used on our pump. He told me, just install that on the pump at the intake from the well, and don’t worry about the foot valve. Even if it breaks up, we’ll still get water.
I asked him, is this something that is new within the past few years?
Nope. They’ve been around for a while.
So now I wonder, why hasn’t any other plumber mentioned it??
Then, since we were walking around the three broken hot water tanks while looking around the basement, I told him about replacing the elements on the hot water tank recently, and what we found on the bottom. He told me, we need a water softening system to put a stop to that.
*sigh*
That’s something my husband has suggested, but a whole house system? That’s really expensive, and do we really want that for the entire house?
As to the cost, he was able to tell me that it’s $2500, installed, if he does it. He didn’t try to sell me on it; just let me know.
So all of that went fairly quickly. Before he left, I gave him my email address for him to send me the bill, so I still don’t know how much it will cost. I should get it tonight some time, but he told me that if I don’t, check my spam folder! That’s been happening a lot, lately, he told me.
That done, we can finally hook up the washing machine’s hose back to the drain pipe, but we haven’t done that, yet. Priority is catching up on dishes!
I wanted to head out early with my daughter for our appointment, but we still had the prescription delivery that I wanted to wait for first, so we could lock the gate behind us when we left. Not too long after the plumber left, someone used the washroom, and I heard the septic pump go off again. No surprise, considering how much hot water got flushed through the pipes!
I went down to check and…
It was running dry again.
I shut it off and primed the filter – the seal on that lid was quite tight – turned it on and it was working fine again. So fine, in fact, that it took only 2, maybe 2 1/2 minutes to drain the tank!
Hopefully, you won’t have to go to Instagram to wash this.
The moisture underneath is from the water used to prime the filter.
When it was done, the filter stayed nice and full. I paused to update my brother on it (I’d been keeping him up to date with the plumber the whole time, too). As I was doing that, I heard a strange noise from the filter.
You might need to turn up your volume to hear it. Somehow, there was air getting in.
I grabbed some paper towel and dried up everything around the filter and pipe joins, then watched and waited before checking them again. Everything was dry. There is no leak.
So what is happening???
One of the things I did a while back was put a brick and a very thin piece of Styrofoam under the filter to support the weight of the water in it. I ended up finding another thin piece to raise it up just a bit higher, so there is now no sag or play at all. I primed the filter again, and that bubbling did not happen again.
Were were good? I don’t know. But I did pass that on to my brother, too!
Not long after, the prescription delivery guy arrived, and my daughter and I were soon headed out to our appointments (after having to chase a kitten out from under my brother’s car!). We left early, making a brief stop in my mother’s town to pick up some lunch at the gas station – they had chicken kabobs available this time, which my daughter loves. Those sell out really fast, and they don’t seem to make more of them throughout the day. By the time we got to the clinic, we were only about 15 minutes early, so I’m glad we headed out when we did.
I went in first for my meet and greet. Her first question was whether or not I already had a doctor, and I explained about my previous doctor moving to another clinic, and having an interim doctor now. I’m sure she’d be fine to keep seeing me, but it’s just more convenient to have the same doctor as my daughter.
So this was mostly a question and answer session and I explained some of the issues I’ve been having, and she is now officially my doctor, too. I mentioned my painkillers just aren’t cutting it anymore, especially since I had to switch to acetaminophen. So I did get a prescription pain killer. I’d mentioned how bad the joint pain can get some days, where every joint in my body hurts. She asked me what supplements I was one, and I told her. She then recommended I go on a B complex instead of the B12 I’m on, as one of the other B vitamins should help me with the joint pain. She also told me to take double the recommended dose. I mentioned the Charlie horses I’ve been getting, but I have also run out of zinc, and suggested picking that up might take care of that, and she said yes. (I’ve also increased my salt intake, before I ran out of zinc, and that’s when the Charlie horses seemed to stop until just recently)
So once I was done, I went across the hall to the pharmacy to pick up the supplements while my daughter was seen next. Then I went to the grocery store that shared the parking lot and picked up a couple of small things we’d run out of at home. From there, I waited in the car for my daughter.
Which is when I got a test from my husband. He’s just picked up a call from the pharmacy for me. They’d received my prescription, and did I want to get it filled right away?
Talk about fast!
Of course, my husband had no idea what they were talking about, yet! So I called the pharmacy and said to go ahead and fill it, and that I’d likely pick it up tomorrow, since I was still in another town.
Then I got a message from my daughter clearing a calendar date in three weeks for another follow up appointment. So that was done, too.
My daughter got some adjusted medications and another prescription. Her bloodwork showed her to be vitamin D deficient. I wasn’t surprised by that. This is Canada, and it’s winter, after all! She has also been referred to an endocrinologist for her PCOS.
So tomorrow, we’ll both go into town to pick up our prescriptions.
This time, I plan to use the truck.
From there, we started for home. Along the way, we stopped in my mother’s town so I could go to a branch of my bank and take out cash, then we stopped at the home of the guy who empties our septic tank to pay our bill. With tip!
We made one more stop on the way back, at the post office. I wasn’t expecting any parcels yet, but there were a couple for my husband and some regular mail. The letter mail I’ve been waiting for since the strike delayed it, still isn’t in, though. This is getting ridiculous.
After that, we could finally head home. I’m sure glad for the longer days, as it wasn’t full dark, yet!
The first thing I did once we brought everything inside was do the evening cat feeding. My husband had let me know my mother had called (he does not answer calls from her), once I was settled, I checked her message. Apparently, when they delivered her new bubble packs, they didn’t deliver her inhaler. So I called her back and she told me her adjusted dose bubble packs were delivered, but there was no puffer. She then started going on about how it was a guy who delivered it this time, and she didn’t recognize him, etc. So I asked if she called the pharmacy to ask why it wasn’t there, and she said no, then tried to go back to talking about the delivery guy. I told her, she needed to call the pharmacy right away.
Which is when she asked if I could do it, because her English isn’t so good.
Ah. Okay!
Then she gave me the number, so I didn’t have to look it up.
The thing is, my mother’s doctor’s appointment was on Monday. Her prescriptions were delivered on Tuesday. Today is Thursday. Why didn’t she say anything on Tuesday??
So I called the pharmacy and quickly realized why my mother didn’t want to call herself. They have an automated answering service, which she has a hard time with at the best of times. With this one, after I made the first selection (after having to listen to a promo for vaccines first), it put me through another spiel for other choices. When I selected one of those, which turned out to be the wrong one. It took me to another and, as I was going through that, it started asking for things like the prescription number. WTF??? It did give the option to go back to a previous menus, and the net thing I knew, I was listening to the vaccine promo again.
I finally got to a real, live pharmacist.
They know be my now. 😄
When I explained what my mother had told me, the pharmacist said it was there. She’d put it in the bag herself.
I told her, my mother said it wasn’t, and she suggested it might be on the bottom of the bag, and described the box to me. It’s purple, so it would be easy to see!
I called my mother back and explained it should be in the bag with her bubble packs.
Oh! Let me go check.
It was there.
My mother had never looked in the bag. She had expected the delivery person to hand it to her seperately.
My mother was supposed to start her new bubble packs immediately, setting the current one aside, to be taken back to the pharmacy, so they could update the dose on one of her meds for her.
I didn’t get a chance to ask, but it sounds like she just kept using the same bubble pack instead of switching to the ones with the correct dosage in it.
*sigh*
I let her go, though, so she could go over the instructions for the inhaler.
I’m starting to wonder if she’s up to even using one.
Something I will have to follow up on.
Meanwhile…
This evening, I heard the septic pump go off again, so I went down to check. The filter was empty again! This time, however, I could see there was a very slow flow was water going in. It wasn’t running quite dry, but the flow from the tank was barely more than a splash. I stopped it and primed the filter again (it was tightly sealed), and it ran great after that. When it stopped, the filter was still full of water, and no sign of bubbles to show if there was some sort of air leak.
If this thing needs to be primed every time the pump goes off, that’s going to be a problem. I’m the only one that can hear it go off, and the camera I got to monitor it is going to be returned tomorrow, because it won’t connect to our WiFi.
This is incredibly frustrating.
If there is anyone more knowledgeable than me reading this and has some idea of what’s going on, please let me know! I’m running out of ideas.
As for me, I am done with this day.
I am so glad the plumber could come in this morning, and that we got that clog cleared. We learned a lot from him while he was here, too, and have steps to take to keep it from happening again – or at least keep it from happening again too soon!
I’m happy to learn about the check valve that would allow us to get that well pump changed and not worry about the foot valve.
I’m glad to finally and officially have a new doctor, and that my daughter got that referral to an endocrinologist, though it will likely take months before she actually sees one.
I’m glad the emergency diverter is working, even with the flow problems.
I’m thankful to have my brother’s car to drive today, even though it would have been just fine using the truck. I’m just paranoid about the truck. We need to get their car back to them soon.
I’m thankful for my other daughter’s financial help that paid for the septic guy, and is helping to pay for the plumber, too.
I may be done with this day, but it really was a very good day!
Today, I needed to drive my mother to her doctor’s appointment, but didn’t have to leave until morning.
That gave me a chance to check on our emergency diverter set up that my brother made outside the house, ensuring that things were still sitting where they needed to.
Aside from making sure the PVC pipe my brother found was snug against the house, this is the important part.
The orange tarp partially buried in snow is the end of the insulated tarp covering the septic tank that we did not have to move. It was pulled away from the house, instead. This end gets frozen harder to the ground.
The two lengths of pipe need to be kept straight and slow downwards. At the bottom left corner of the above photo, you can just see the section of chimney flu that is supporting it closer to the house. We used basically what we could find in the dark. They will do the job, as long as things stay where they are supposed to. The shoveled area in the snow will basically become a skating rink.
In the distance, you can see the large flexible hose that was meant to be used. The problem is, it doesn’t straighten out entirely. Ever snake-like turn is an area that water could potentially slow down and freeze. The pipe is about 6″ in diameter, but even that can eventually fill and freeze solid. So it looks like we won’t be able to use it.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Using my brother’s car (and making sure to give the engine time to warm up, first!), I headed out early enough to hit the post office.
Alas, the mail that I’m expecting that didn’t come in due to the postal strike, still has not come in. Nor has anything else. Not even junk mail. The strikers may have been ordered to return to work (as a Crown corporation, the Federal government has the authority to do that), but apparently, that doesn’t mean they are going to actually do their work.
Oh, something I learned about this strike. It turns out that Canada Post has two unions. One is for the regular postal workers we see delivering our mail and in the physical buildings, like in our little hamlet. The other is for the ones that work in the distribution centres and such. Those are the ones that went on strike. So, while regular postal workers still showed up for work, they couldn’t do anything, because the distribution centres were shut down. It was a rotating strike, so every week, a different distribution centre would be active again, allowing for some mail to trickle through. Of course, if it was going from one distribution centre to the next, that really didn’t make much difference.
But I digress.
From there, it was off to my mother’s town and, since I was so early, I swung by the hardware store. After talking to one of the staff, I picked up some reflective insulation. They sell this stuff in sizes large enough to wrap around hot water tanks, to narrow strips that would be wrapped around pipes. Which is exactly what I wanted. I also got a small roll of aluminum tape. I plan to wrap the outflow pipe where it butts up against the house, as that is the area most at risk of freezing. Then I plan to add some between the pipes and the supports. Where the log is, isn’t much of a concern, but the ceramic chimney flu and the brick can both chill the pipe and potentially cause an ice build up on the inside. Just a bit of insulation would prevent that.
From there, I made a stop at the gas station. I didn’t need gas yet, but I knew my mother would be getting her Meals on Wheels today. Though I had a large and late breakfast before I left, she had told me she didn’t like to be eating by herself, with someone watching her. So I picked up some of the potato wedges she likes so much, so that I could snack while she was eating, and she could have the rest with her supper, later on.
When I got to her place, though, she had just finished eating her main meal. So we had some tea while she ate her desert. 😊 We were able to have a bit of a visit before we had to leave, and I updated her a bit on what was going on, and that my brother had lent us their car rather than my SIL driving all the way out to drive both of us around, and that he’d installed the diverter. I’m not sure, but I think she was still living at the farm the last time (and first time) it was used.
We left early to go to her doctor’s appointment, and I’m glad we did. I ended up having to go back to her apartment to get her little folding foot stool. Even though the car is so much lower than the truck, she still needed the stool to be able to get in! That is a definite drop in mobility.
Once at the clinic, we had a long wait, as everyone was being called in late. Once in the examination room, we still had a bit of a wait. When the doctor finally came in, she started off asking if we could move to another room, but then she saw my mother and told us to stay put, she would go get her laptop. It turns out the clinic was having network problems with all the examination room computers, and that was why everything was behind.
So we tried to keep it short. The main thing was to get my mother rescheduled for the MRI we didn’t get to, due to dangerous road conditions. I confirmed that my mother’s file was up to date about her macular degeneration and treatment. The doctor has nothing to do with this, as my mother is being treated at the eye clinic in the city, but as the primary doctor, she is supposed to have all this information sent to her. Then we talked about my mother’s breathing issues. One of her neighbours has asthma and uses a puffer (inhaler), so my mother decided she should have one, too. So could she be tested for asthma?
The doctor just prescribed her a puffer. She explained that she could recommend her for testing, but that is done in the city, and my mother would be on a waiting list for probably a year. Using a puffer won’t hurt her. I don’t think my mother as asthma, but even if there’s just a placebo effect, it would be worth it.
After giving my mother a basic physical exam, the doctor adjusted one of her dosages, and that was it. We knew the doctor was behind because of the computer issues, so we didn’t talk about much else. Which is good, because my mother usually wastes time by asking personal questions, or bringing up issues that she has… opinions on, shall we say.
My mother wasn’t due for any bloodwork, but the doctor did want to see her again in 3 months, so I made that appointment before we headed out.
Since the doctor faxed the new and updated prescriptions directly to the pharmacy in my mother’s town, that was our first stop. I went in while my mother stayed in the car, as it was just too much for her to go in and out. My mother was due to have her bubble packs delivered on Friday, and has started her last week’s current pack, so when I got there, her new packs were already there and ready to go. So that got pulled and adjusted for the new dosage. Instead of delivering on Friday, they will deliver tomorrow. As for the last pack my mother just started, the pharmacist said for her to set it aside and use the new once when they arrive, and the current pack can be brought back and adjusted.
As for the inhaler, it would take an hour before it would be ready, so that will be delivered tomorrow, too. Having been given an inhaler to see if it would help with my own respiratory issues (which we’ve never found the cause of, and I’ve basically given up trying to find one), I was able to explain to my mother how they work and how to use one, etc. She’ll need reminding, of course, but I hope the staff that delivers her meds tomorrow will be able to explain it again.
That done, there was just a brief stop at the grocery store for me to run in and pick up a couple of things for my mother before I took her home. I didn’t stay too much longer after that. I’m glad the days are longer, and I did manage to get home while it was still light out.
In between all this, I was able to send the OBDII scan results on the truck to the garage and he was able to respond. It’s basically the oil pressure sensor again. The one that was recently replaced, and also recently cleaned out because it was triggering the alarm and “shut off engine now” warnings, because it thought the truck was out of oil. This time, it has so far just turned on the check engine light again (though I did clear the codes, so that should be off now), and it why the oil pressure gauge isn’t moving. He told me, even if he replaced the sensor again, it’ll keep happening, because of the weather we’ve been having. There’s really nothing he can do about it. I suppose I could pay him to take it apart and clean it again, but that’s about it.
So really, what I need to be doing is getting the engine warmed up and staying warm long enough to evaporate any moisture in the system and triggering the sensor. It’ll resolve itself as things warm up again, as there won’t be that build up of moisture anymore.
I don’t need to go anywhere tomorrow, and it’s supposed to be a bit warmer, so I’ll run the engine while I’m outside.
Which leads me to my phone call with my brother this evening.
I’d sent the pictures he took to the company that installed the ejector, and the response was the same. The pump isn’t pushing out the water fast enough to create the pressure needed. This frustrated my brother to know end, because he knows the pump is pushing fine. As for how long it takes to drain the tank, he told me that 5 minutes is about right, because our tank is about twice the size of most other tanks. It’s huge. I was so young when it was installed, I was probably not allowed to go anywhere near it at the time.
Plus, that ice wall on the sheet of metal roof the ejector expels the water onto shows just how far and how strong the flow of water is.
Or was.
I know I’ve described the ejector system before, but my brother sent me some info with a diagram. The image was a pdf and terrible pixelated, but I think I got a decent screen cap of it.
I don’t know if ours is from this company, but it’s the exact same design.
With our new ejector, it’s about 2′ above ground, so about 8′ is below ground. I think the original was more like 12′ based on how much more was above ground than the new one. The venturi pipe – the discharge pipe, in the diagram – should never stay full once the pump shuts off. Once installed, the venturi pipe can be (carefully!) removed and replaced, which is what we were supposed to do after using enough hot water to thaw the ice and free it.
One of the things my brother brought up again was electric heat tape. There are all kinds of heat tape, and my husband had sent me a link for one that he’d found on Amazon. As my brother voiced concerns that, if we did try to use heat tape to thaw the above ground portion of the 4″ stand pipe, it might melt the plastic, I sent him the link. It is safe for both metal and plastic pipes, and self regulating. It’s also available in a huge range of lengths. He estimated that a 12′ length would be enough to wrap around the pipe, up to the elbow coming out of the cap. It was affordable, so I ordered it. It’s estimated to arrive on the 17th, though, so we have other things to try.
One of the things my brother thinks is a contributing factor is the new location of the ejector. The old one was about 10-15 feet away, and had a big willow overhanging it. The willow may have protected it from the elements (even though the roots were probably why it was starting to lean backwards and eventually start leaking). Right now, the ejector may be in full sunlight, but it is completely exposed to the winds we get. With the temperatures we’ve had lately, that could be a contributing factor so a slow freeze happening, and to the slow flow I was seeing in the filter. As long as some water was getting through, it wasn’t freezing completely, though, and just building up. I have a theory. The night before I discovered no flow was happening at all anymore, the septic pump had not gone off at all. Normally, between the 4 of us, plus my older daughter working at night, there’s plenty of toilet flushing, dish washing and even at least one shower. That didn’t happen, and it may have allowed for the stand pipe to finally freeze solid, and the venturi (discharge) pipe along with it.
I had already been thinking that, in the spring, I would need to put some sort of fence around the new ejector. Being so much lower to the ground, the renters cows out traipse right over it, even with the metal sheet butted up against it to divert the flow of water. My brother was thinking we’d need to build some kind of semi-permanent shelter over or around it, to protect it from the element in winter. I say “semi-permanent” as we need to assume that, some day, it will need to have work done on it, and we’d need to be able to move it.
At one point, I thought of the catio. It has a clear roof and is wrapped in plastic, making it almost a mini greenhouse. It would fit over the ejector.
Then I remembered the metal sheet. It couldn’t fit on top of that, since it has a curl to it that ensures the water flows away, and not off the sides.
But, there was possibilities.
So, while we wait for the heat tape to arrive, we need to see if we can find something we can use to build a shelter over it for this winter. My brother thinks a couple of pallets set up as a V around it, then something on top, would do the trick. We have no pallets, but he’s sure he brought some. There might also be some scrap plywood we could find somewhere.
Which means, I have a task for tomorrow. Going through the barn and sheds to see what I can find that could be used to build a shelter over the ejector. Just something we can slap together for now, but strong and heavy enough to not be blown over and destroyed by the wind. Ideally, I’d find something clear for a “roof” and add a little passive solar heat.
Trudging around outside will also give me a chance to get the truck running and see how it does! We’re warming up over the next few days, including the overnight lows, which should help, too. The day after tomorrow, my daughter and I have our joint appointment. It would be good if we could use our own truck and return my brother’s car! They really do need two vehicles.
Well, we’ll see how it goes. There’s not much else we can do!
Meanwhile, our septic tank still hasn’t filled enough to trigger the pump, so we still don’t know if the diverter will actually work, yet. It should work just fine. It’s just that we’ve had so many things breaking down for so long, now, I’m getting pretty paranoid about it all!
Today was the day my husband and I were able to head into the nearer city to trade in his phone. With his contract expired, returning the phone would save getting hit with the balance of the after contract bill, and he could trade up to a newer version.
That was the plan, anyhow.
Since trading in the phone meant it needed to be checked as being in good working condition, that had to be done in person. It would be a painful trip for him, but it’s been a long time since my husband has gone anywhere other than doctor’s appointments, so we were going to make the most of the trip. The store location is right next to the Walmart I normally go to if I’m not going to the larger city, plus there is a restaurant right near by.
We could *gasp* go on a date! 😄😄
So we headed out about mid morning, with a quick stop at the post office (the mail I’m expecting that’s been delayed by the strike still isn’t in – and it’s coming on on 2 months since it was sent!), and got there in decent time. Some sections of roads running East-West were in rougher shape, but better than I expected.
When we got there, I dropped my husband off at the cell phone store with his walker, then found a parking spot in between the three places we needed to go to. We had several choices on where to go for lunch, but decided to go to a Boston Pizza. My husband already knew what he’d be ordering, and asked if I could pick up some lactase for him, so I made a quick run into the Walmart to get that, first.
When I got back to the cell phone store, he was still in line. It was very busy. He’s been there long enough to hear and see transactions ahead of him and realized he might have a problem. They required photo ID.
He doesn’t have one.
He has other ID, but no photo ID. This goes back to when we tried to transfer his driver’s license the province we moved from, to this one, back in 2017. Even though his old driver’s license from this province was still on file, the laws changed because of identity theft. None of his ID match his birth certificate. It’s tradition in his family from the area he grew up in (he’s from the East coast) for everyone to have four names – three “first names” plus a surname – and use the second name as the given name. This only ever came up as a issue while he was in the military, and all they did was reverse his first two names on his paperwork. His old military passport has that version of his name in it.
What they told him he had to do when he tried to get his new driver’s license was to legally change his name to… his legal name… It was bizarre. Also, expensive and a weeks long process.
Unfortunately, it took so long to finally get to that conclusion, he was in insane amounts of pain by the time we left. We made a number of calls and ended up talking to the ombudsman, only to be told he just needed to have two bills/official documents with his full legal name on them, and they could issue him the ID. My husband, however, was not physically up to going back and going through all that hassle again. For the most part, however, when he does go out, all he needs to show is his health care card as ID, since it’s typically for medical appointments.
My thought was, if he could get his phone online in the first place, without having to prove his identify, there must be some way to do it in real life.
As we were waiting, I messaged my younger daughter to update her on things.
She sent me a photo.
I’d brought the truck up to the house for my husband, and shoveled the walkway up to the truck. After we left, she went out to shovel the rest of the walkways. In doing so, she startled some of the more feral cats out of the isolation shelter.
One of them jumped out in totally the wrong spot, so she went to take a look.
When we still had the large heated water bowl in there, and the cats kept knocking it down into the gap between the floor and the front that the cats can climb through, it knocked a screw loose right at the corner of the plastic window. I’d bought longer screws to secure it again, but hadn’t gotten around to actually doing it yet.
*sigh*
Well, a cat forced its way through the loose corner and snapped off a section of the plastic window.
The broken off piece could be put back and the corner patched up, though.
We were out of the neoprene washers we’d used for securing the plastic to the frame. I’d found them at the Canadian Tire, which was across the street, so I walked over to get some, along with some clear Gorilla tape, while my husband stayed in line. Depending on how long things went, I could meet him at the Boston Pizza.
I knew exactly where to go to find the washers, though, and the tape section was nearby, so it didn’t take long at all. The only down side is that the smaller washers I’d used before were not in stock. They had the next two sizes, and I went with the smaller, half inch washers.
After getting those and dropping them off in the truck, it took such a short time, I figured my husband might finally be at the counter, so I went back to the cell phone store, first. I checked inside, but was pretty sure my husband was already gone, though, as I saw fresh tracks in the snow on the sidewalk that looked like they could be from a walker or wheelchair.
Sure enough, he was already gone, so I ended up following his tire tracks all the way to the front door of the restaurant. He had pretty much just been seated when I got there!
He didn’t get a new phone.
Sure enough, his lack of photo ID meant he couldn’t trade in his old phone and couldn’t use it to trade up to a new one.
Which means, we’re going to get almost $700 added to our next cell phone bill.
*sigh*
On the plus side, I always pay what’s in the budget, not the actual amount for new charges, so we’d been building up a credit. My own phone had ended its contract and I got a much smaller end-of-term bill added, so that credit came in handy already. We’ll also be able to change our plans to reduce the monthly billed amount, which my husband will look into. We’ll still be paying the budgeted amount, though, so between the two, it won’t take long to pay it off, but still… what a pain!
For my husband, literally a pain.
Still, he was very happy to be out and about.
As for our meal…
We started out with a shared plate of onion rings for an appetizer, and those were good. It came with a lovely creamy dill sauce for dipping.
My husband ordered their nachos for his meal – they are an appetizer meant to be shared, so it was huge, as well as loaded with all sorts of toppings. He really liked it, and ended up having almost half of it boxed up for home.
I decided to try their maple bacon burger (no tomatoes, no onions). For the side, I chose a coleslaw.
I had the coleslaw first and it was the blandest coleslaw I’ve ever had in my life. I tasted zero vinegar. There was a dressing on it, but I couldn’t taste anything I could even give a name to. Oddly, though, I started feeling the heat of spices in the crevices of my tongue (this is something that is hereditary, and is the reason I can’t handle the heat of spices; the chemicals get into the crevices and even mild spices burn painfully). I couldn’t taste any spices, but that heat was there. It was so strange, and disappointing.
Then I had my burger.
I may not have had tomatoes or onions, but it was still loaded with toppings. Cheese, pickles, bacon, cheese, lettuce, the maple flavoured sauce and condiments, all on a brioche bun. It should have been packed with flavour.
It was bland. How all those ingredients could be bland, I don’t know, but they managed it. Perhaps it was because of the second issue I found.
It was barely even warm. The slice of cheese had melted over the burger, but was no longer melted. It’s like the burger had sat in the kitchen, and not under heat, long before it came to our table.
It still tasted okay. It certainly wasn’t a bad burger. Just not a very good burger.
As I’m writing this, I realized it never even occurred to me to say anything about it. I just ate it anyway.
In the end, the food, plus our Pepsi’s, totaled just over $68 before tip.
Ah, well. We had our date, and enjoyed each other’s company, and that’s why we were there in the first place!
As we were talking, it occurred to me that the last time we’ve been to a Boston Pizza, it was before we moved out of the city, and my husband was still working. There was a BP not far from the office he was in, and he and his co-workers would go there for lunch. Sometimes, the girls and I were able to meet him there during his lunch break. Which means, it’s been more than 10 years since we’ve been to a BP!
I don’t think we’ll go again for probably another 10 years, if at all. There are far better, and better priced, choices out there.
That done, my husband was actually up to going to the Walmart with me. He had something he wanted to pick up himself, so I told him where he could find what he was after, then headed to the pet section. I’m not sure when I’ll make it back to the feed store for 40 pound bags of cat food, so I wanted to get a few 9kg bags for the outside cats, just in case. Plus, I got more canned cat food for the inside cats. My daughter let me know she and her sister were out of oat milk, so I picked up a couple of cartons for them, plus a case of Kraft Dinner that was on sale.
As I went into the winding lane to the self checkouts, I caught up with my husband, at the next till. After talking to him for a bit, I grabbed a couple of snacks and drinks for the road, then paid for my cart load. Much to my surprise, I went through the exit just as my husband was done loading his stuff up into the basket under the seat of his walker!
Then the cashier handed him a Ziplock baggie with stuff in it. He was confused by this. It took a while to figure it out, but he’d made a donation to the Children’s Hospital, and I guess they have some sort of promo for donations of a certain amount. In the past, I’ve received a reusable bag, a lanyard and a pen at different times.
The baggie he got, though, had baby food items in it. A box of baby cereal and some sort of squeeze container. I’m not sure what else was in there. We had asked the cashier about a donation bin, and she said something about giving it to the food bank.
We’d gone through the first set of doors out when my husband stopped to put on his jacket, so popped back in and looked around some more for a donation bin. I didn’t find one, so I went to the customer service counter and asked the woman there. She stopped to think for a moment, told me they did have one, but she didn’t know where it was! She did take the baggie, though (it had “paid for” written on it already) and said she would take care of it, and talk to her manager. As she was talking to the back room, she passed another employee and I could hear her saying “we need to put a donation bin by the doors!”
So… that worked out, I guess! I have no idea what else we would have done with a baggie of baby food. There are no food banks in our area, and we don’t know anyone out here with babies to give it to. There’s a food bank in the town nearest us, though I don’t know where their donation bin is. The grocery store has one they keep near the exit, so I suppose we could eventually have left it there.
That done, we loaded up the truck and headed home. My husband had bricked his phone last night, expecting to be coming home with a different phone, so he didn’t have any of the apps we normally use. He was at least able to text my younger daughter to let her know we were on the way home.
Once at home, I backed up to the house to unload, but had to quickly dash ahead in to use the washroom – going in and out from warm buildings or a warm truck, into the cold, does terrible things to my bladder! My husband caned it in, leaving the walker for me to bring into the house later.
The first thing I noticed when I went into the washroom, though, was the quiet hum of a pump. Not the louder sound of the well pump, right under the bathroom. The septic pump, barely audible.
My daughters were upstairs, and no water was running to turn trigger the pump.
As soon as I could, I dashed into the basement to check.
Sure enough, I could see through the filter lid that the pump was running dry. It had been running for so long, not only was the motor hot, but the exit pipe was also hot!
I shut it off, then popped open the lid on the filter to prime it. The lid came right off; it wasn’t sealed for some reason!
I think we need to replace the O ring!
After priming it, I turned the pump back on and watched carefully. Sure enough, water started flowing through. So the tank did fill and triggered the float, but nothing was flowing through. It could be that something had blocked the pipe, or it could be because the filter lid was too loose and there wasn’t enough of a vacuum. This has happened before, though, and I had to pry the filter lid off, because the O ring was sealed so well, so I can’t say for sure.
Thankfully, once water started flowing through, that actually cooled down the pipe, and even the pump itself. I still stayed and watched until it shut itself off.
Part of the problem is, there are few places in the house were the pumps can be heard. Especially the septic pump, which runs quieter than the well pump. So unless someone is in my bedroom/office, in the bathroom, or standing by the basement door, they can’t hear the pump – and even if they were, they wouldn’t necessarily be there long enough to know if there’s a problem.
I’ve been looking at indoor security cameras to replace the critter cam in the sunroom. I want something that allows us to keep the live feed going continuously, and save files to a micro disc, without having to pay for a subscription. The ones I have been looking at can also be directionally controlled through an app.
We might need to get one for the basement, so we can check on the pump from anywhere. Depending on where we set it up, we could also see if anything is backing up through the floor drain again, too.
We need to replace the pump itself, but a camera is something we can afford in the short term. I was thinking of getting one in the spring, but we might just pick one up sooner, rather than later!
That taken care of, I unloaded the back of the truck, then fed the outside cats so I could park it. Which is when I remembered my husband’s walker was still in the back! 😄 So were the things I picked up at Canadian Tire, and his box of nachos.
I was just a big distracted after dealing with the pump!
Once I got everything to the house, I got the drill and driver to patch up the isolation shelter.
I don’t know why Instagram cut the pictures. I specifically set it to show full size when I uploaded them!
The first photo is the one my daughter sent me. The broken off corner was set on top of the entry shelter box. When I was going in and out of the house to unload the truck at point point, I was seeing Stinky watching me, through the hold in the corner!
Much to my surprise, several of the younglings actually stayed inside the shelter while I worked on it. The broken off piece has frost on it, and I held it in front of the heat bulb to get it melting, wiped it down, melted it some more, until I got it clean and dry.
The cats were quite confused by my actions!
I got the corner piece back in place and partially secured with new, longer screws. Then I covered the broken edges with clear Gorilla tape on the outside. I mean to do the inside, too, but that’s frost covered, so it will wait until that melts away and it can be cleaned and dried.
The very corner screw, however, wouldn’t secure. It stripped the pilot hole, and would need a wider screw. Since I was adding more screws to secure the plastic window in strategic places anyhow, I added a couple more on either side of the corner screw. The neoprene washers are too big for the screws, but as long as they are tight enough, they’ll keep the moisture out of the screw holes.
In the summer, what we might end up doing is cutting away the half of the window with the broken corner and putting in a new section over that side. My brother gave us a bunch of scrap wood and other materials, including a section of clear plastic (most likely Lexan) that might be big enough to cover the opening.
This patch will have to do for the rest of the winter, though.
By the time I was done, my daughter had put away the shopping and was helping my husband set his phone up again. He’s got it done enough that it can be used again, and he can log into his various accounts and apps.
The whole purpose of our trip to the nearer city was for him to trade in his phone, and that didn’t happen – but it wasn’t a wasted trip at all. My husband got to get out and about, which he hasn’t done in such a very long time. It was painful, but he was glad to have done it, and we even got a date out of it.
So all is good!
Tomorrow morning, though, I’m out again, this time to drop the truck off at the garage at 9am. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to replace the sensor and the block heater cord, or even if they’ll get to it right away, so I have no idea how long I’ll be in town. I don’t have any errands to run, though I will make a stop at the hardware store. In the summer, I would walk to the beach or something and enjoy the outdoors. There are no indoor places to just hang out in the winter, and the high for tomorrow is expected to be -20C/-4F. There are just stores, restaurants and gas stations, and I don’t like to linger if I’m not going to buy anything.
Ah, well. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve had to hang out in town during the winter.
After that, I should be able to stay home for the weekend and just enjoy not going anywhere! 😄
Okay: the plan for the day was to head over to my mother’s and take her for her MRI appointment.
With our New Year’s celebrations, I didn’t make it to midnight, and instead went to bed, so I did at least get some sleep – until I was awakened by a cat starting to hork right next to my head. How’s that for an alarm clock?
I intended to be on the road by 6am, so as to arrive at my mother’s place early. Sunrise, this time of year, is 8:30, so it was still full dark when I headed to the garage. I did meet my goal, though, and was on the road by 6.
I’m glad I did leave that early, because it took an extra 10 minutes to get to my mother’s. We’d had some snow last night – just enough to cover everything with a light, fluffy layer.
Which makes driving on already icy gravel roads even more slipper, so I was taking it slow.
When I got to the highway, I was playing “find the lane” for much of the trip, and doing 10-20km/h below the speed limit. It wasn’t icy for the most part – at least as far as I could tell. I just couldn’t see where the lanes were, and I often would reach a clear spot and find I was diving in the middle of the highway.
Thankfully, there was no traffic. I saw only 2 other vehicles besides me, the entire time.
When I got closer to my mother’s down, I drove into snowfall. Again, nothing major, but so reflective, even on low beams, that it got even harder to see. I was quite happy to get to my mother’s, and not looking forward to the drive to her appointment! I knew that certain sections of our route would not be good.
When I got to my mother’s apartment, her walker was gone. I knocked and the door was open, but I didn’t see her. Popping back into the hallway, I saw her down the hall. She had come out to meet me, but I happened to arrive just when she’d popped into the washroom. 😄
The walk back to her apartment was really hard on her, and she was panting like she’d been running a race by the time she came inside.
I told her that I’d want to leave right away, because of the road conditions. She started asking, what would they do if we came later? There’s something fishy about this appointment. They just want old people to die.
I asked her, do you want me to cancel? It was really last minute, but given the road conditions, combined with how much she was struggling, I wasn’t going to push her on going like I normally would. I can’t make that decision for her, though.
She hemmed and hawed so long, it was past time we should have been on the road, so cancelling it was.
Then I had to find the right number to call, because of course, there’s no number just for the hospital. The only number I could find was for the regional health center corporate office.
It took some doing, but I did eventually find a number for the diagnostic centre at the hospital and called. No one answered, of course, but I left a message about my mother and her appointment, the road conditions and that she was really struggling, so we would have to cancel. I left our numbers for them to call back, but don’t expect to hear from anyone. My mother has her regular doctor appointment on Monday, so a new request can be made then – this time, specifying an afternoon appointment!
That done, we settled in for a visit, because I was not going to head home until it was light out. We made some tea and were chatting when I heard a distinctive noise from the door behind me. Something had been slid under the door.
I went to get it and found a note that read, “Happy New Year, Old B***c”
My immediate thought was that it was our vandal again – he’s slipped many a vile note and letter under my mother’s door over the years – so I opened the door and went into the hallway, just in time to hear a door closing. My mother’s apartment is near one of the exits. I went far enough to see the doors (there is a tiny vestibule in between inner and outer doors), but by then, there was nothing to see, and I wasn’t about to leave my mother and run for the outside doors.
So I went back inside to my very curious mother and showed her the note. Then I documented it, taking a photo and sending messages to my siblings and family back home, describing what just happened (I am so glad I got into the habit of documenting everything, so many years ago. It has come in so handy), when I heard a strange noise in the hallway.
I looked through the peep hole and didn’t see anything, but when I opened the door, I found a woman walking down the hall and just reaching my mother’s door, in her housecoat and slippers. She saw me and started going on about how, my mother shouldn’t be doing this, it’s against regulations, it’s a fire hazard. It took me a moment to realize she was talking about my mother’s walker…
… which was down the hall, next to a neighbour’s door. That was the noise I’d heard.
The woman kept ranting, swearing and going on about regulations and fire hazards while I retrieved the walker, asking her what was going on (I think she was getting even more angry because she couldn’t get a rise out of me), and she told me she’d found my mother’s walker in the street. So I thanked her for bringing it in, and said my mother hadn’t done this, and that someone had just left a nasty note under my mother’s door. She basically said that she wasn’t surprised about the note because of my mother being how she is. I parked my mother’s walker where it belongs, under the little shelf by her door, and she ranted and swore at me some more, saying it didn’t belong there, while going back to her own apartment at the end of the hall.
I went back inside and was telling my mother what happened when I heard another noise at the door. I opened it and found my mother’s walker against it. The woman had come back and bashed it against the door. She demanded I take it inside and started saying more insulting things about my mother and me (I’m fat, so I must be just like my mother…) and swearing before going back into her apartment.
When I went back inside, my mother was just shaking her head. She could hear some of what her neighbour had been saying. Apparently, this behaviour is common with her.
She’d brought stuff up with public housing people before, and was told to call in and make a formal complaint. They can’t do anything if people don’t complain. So I found the number and tried calling them. I knew it would go to voice mail, since it’s New Year’s Day, but the mail boxes were full, and I couldn’t even leave a message. We will have to try again during regular office hourse.
So we talked about it some more and I documented this to my family as well.
My mother thinks the neighbour is the one who left the note, not our vandal. She says the use of the word b**** is very much her style, while she’s never heard our vandal say it. I’ve heard him use it, particularly directed at me, though not often, so she does have a point. I did hear the door closing when I went out, and I thought it was an outer door, but I suppose it’s possible I’d heard the door at the end of the hallway, which is even closer to the exit than my mother’s door.
So… that was fun.
My mother, meanwhile, was getting very tired, so she soon went to bed while I stayed a bit longer, waiting for it to get light before I left.
The drive home was much better, but I’m definitely glad we didn’t make the drive to the hospital for the MRI in the dark. I got home just in time to meet my daughter coming up to the gate to switch out the trail cam memory cards, as she started the morning rounds for me once it got light out.
So this whole day has turned out far stranger than expected. The note was bad enough, but for the neighbour to get all weird on me was really… something. The woman definitely has issues. My mother tells me there has been police involvement because of her, and her own son had shown up that time and basically told them, he was done with her. This has been going on since well before she moved into the building my mother is in.
Slight pause in writing this; I just got off the phone with my brother, and he agrees that the note must have been from this woman. The door I heard closing had to have been her own door, not the exit door I thought it was. I’m just so used to our vandal being the one doing this sort of thing, and there was no one to be seen at the time, I just made the assumption. If the neighbour hadn’t come out and started making noise and messing with my mother’s walker, I would never have had reason to think otherwise.
We really need to get my mother out of that place and into some sort of assisted living. For her own safety, as well as for her health needs!
As for me, I’m so very tired. I did get some sleep last night, but not much.
Time to see if I can squeeze in between the cats on my bed and get a nap in!
There was one heck of a crowd in the isolation shelter when I came back from doing my morning rounds! As I came closer to the shelter, some of the more feral cats ran away, leaving “only” eleven left in the upper level of the shelter. I think there might have been as many as fifteen cats, crammed into that upper level, as I was walking up to the shelter!
Once I was back inside and having my breakfast, my daughter suddenly came in with her phone. She’d been wanting to book a follow up visit with her doctor today, which was on my morning to-do list, as I wanted to book a meet and greet for myself, too. The doctor I’m seeing now is still the interim doctor. It may be convenient having the same doctor as my mother, but we’re working to get my mother into assisted living, and it would be more convenient to have the same doctor as my daughter. That and the clinic is right next to a grocery store, which is extra handy. 😄
Well, the clinic called her cell phone (I’m shocked they got through!), and she was wondering what date worked for me to drive in. So I talked to the receptionist and booked a double appointment for us. After the call, my daughter asked, who goes first? I told her, I would, and then I could go to the grocery store if we needed anything, while she had her appointment. It’s been a long time since I’ve had my bloodwork done, though, so I won’t be surprised if I get a requisition for that to be done. There is a lab in the pharmacy right at the clinic, too.
After the call and while finishing breakfast, I was wrestling with myself. There were a few things I wasn’t able to get at the grocery store yesterday. If I left early enough, I might be able to find them before they sold out. Mostly, I was looking to get a party tray of fresh vegetables, and maybe another of fruit, to go with our finger food New Year’s celebration. Plus a flat of eggs. With tomorrow being New Year’s Eve, I knew things would be busy and things would sell out fast, but none of it was necessary, and I really didn’t want to go.
Then my mother phoned.
She was worried about her MRI appointment on the first. It’s a big holiday, and everybody has the day off, so there must be some sort of mistake. I told her, hospitals don’t have the day off. Oh, for emergencies, sure, she tells me. I finally asked, are you wanting me to cancel the appointment? Oh… no… but are you sure there’s no mistake?
I assured her that, when I got the call, I did ask because the appointment was on New Year’s day. They confirmed.
Then she started talking about how, when she looks into her fridge, it’s looking pretty empty.
Did she want me to come over?
Oh, no, she tells me. Then starts listing off all the stuff she still has (even after telling me she was out of various things). Plus, it’s cold, and she also needs to go to the bank, and she doesn’t want to go out in the cold. Plus, today is Bingo day.
I told her, it’s going to start getting colder again after New Year’s. Looking at my calendar, I added, it’s either today or Thursday, and it’s supposed to be colder on Thursday.
She hemmed and hawed some more.
Finally I told her to just start her list, because I can come over today. She was getting her Meals on Wheels today, so I told her I would be there for about 1pm, after she had a chance to eat.
I ended up leaving early enough to do my own shopping first. This little grocery store doesn’t do party trays, so I ended up getting some fresh vegetables to make our own party tray, some grapes to go with our charcuterie board, plus a few other things. Then, because the price was right, I picked up a 2 pack of frying chickens for less than a single chicken normally is. The Instant Pot I got for my daughters is big enough to fit a whole chicken in it, so that would work out well.
(As I write this, I can hear the pot venting away; they’ve started a pot roast for the first meal with it!)
From there, I put some gas in the tank (we’re going through a lot more gas than usual, with all the extra driving around!), got my own lunch to eat in the truck (the truck seats are more comfortable) and still ended up at my mother’s about half an hour early.
When I got there, she was in the lobby, looking for something.
She was wondering why bingo wasn’t set up yet.
I asked how she was doing, and she was silent, making motions and acting like there was some reason not to speak out loud. Finally, she said, it’s better not to say.
So…. I guess that meant she wasn’t feeling well?
She did manage to tell me that she wasn’t up to going out and would just give me her list. Then she was going on about where bingo was one or not, then knocking on a neighbour’s door right by the common room to ask him if he knew if it was still on. He didn’t, and seemed confused that she was asking him. She told him she could just phone, instead. I told her, it’s barely past 12:30. It’s probably still too early, thinking it started at 1, but nope: turns out it starts at 1:30. Way too early to be setting up!
I managed to get her back to her place and, as soon as she sat down, she started digging around for a phone number. I eventually figured out she meant to call the senior’s center (they run the social events in her building) to find out if bingo was still on. I told her, why bother calling? Just go over at 1:30 and see. It’s either on or it isn’t, but there’s no need to call. She agreed that she could do that.
Then we went over her list, she gave me funds for her shopping, and I was soon off. The shopping is a lot faster when it’s just me using her list. When I got back and made my way through the common room, I saw that they were starting to set up for bingo! 😄
I made sure to tell her that, when I got to her place. After putting away her groceries, there was time for a bit of a visit before bingo started. As we were talking, she told me how her breathing issues seem to be connected to how much commotion is going on. After asking some questions, it seems like a stress response. The problem is, my mother is creating a lot of her own stress, like worrying about there being a mistake with her MRI appointment (this isn’t the first time she’s done that with appointments, so it’s not just about it being on New Year’s day), or that bingo was cancelled because nothing was set up an hour in advance.
Then she started talking about her vision. Oh, her vision. It’s getting worse.
Now this set off all sorts of alarm bells with me. With her wet macular degeneration, we were advised to monitor it closely and, if it starts getting worse, to get her back to the eye clinic in the city right away. So of course, I started asking more specific questions.
As she started talking about how her vision is getting worse, she casually mentioned that the “black spot” is gone…
Wait… what???? !!!!
Then she mentioned the wavy lines are gone.
????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The wavy lines were from dry macular degeneration in her left eye. She’s taking special vitamins to keep that from getting worse. For those to be gone is amazing, but not as amazing as for her to say the “black spot” in her right eye is gone!
I got her to cover her left eye, then held my hand about two feet from her face, raising two fingers. I asked her, can you see the two fingers?
Yes, she tells me.
I raise a third finger without saying anything.
Three fingers, she tells me.
I’m totally shocked that she could see any fingers at all!
I moved my had back another couple of feet and tried again.
She couldn’t tell me how many fingers, but she could see that “something” was there.
I am totally blown away. While at the clinic with her, less than a month ago, a tech did the same test with her, and she couldn’t see his fingers. When he had her try and look at a single letter on the eye chart, she saw nothing at all.
The eye doctor had told her she shouldn’t need more injections, but also that her eye would not get better. There is scar tissue that will not go away. The injections were to keep it from getting worse, but that we shouldn’t expect it to get better. Her next appointment is in February, and we are to monitor her and bring her back if it gets worse.
Now, it seems her vision around that scarred area in her eye has healed enough that she can see more.
But, she told me, her vision is getting worse. It’s getting “dimmer”. I tried to ask questions to get a better idea of what she meant, but she started getting really frustrated. She simply doesn’t have the vocabulary to tell me what she means. So we dropped that part.
She’s been wearing her old glasses, though, since she decided the eye doctor she got her prescription from gave her a bad prescription and cheated her (they treated her like gold). I suggested that tomorrow, she try wearing her new glasses, as those would have the most up to date prescription. She agreed that it was worth a try.
Hopefully, she will remember to do it in the morning.
Then there was a knock at the door. One of her neighbours had come over to let her know, bingo would be starting soon!
So we said our goodbyes, and I headed home.
By then, it was pretty much time to do my evening rounds, so I headed out and topped up the kibble and warm water for the outside cats.
The one in the freshly emptied food bowl is Magda. She is pretty friendly and lets us pick her some and sometimes even carry her.
The one above her, with the black splotches on its nose and mouth, has been named Ink by the girls. It also has black splotches on its front paws. The girls think it looks like he’s been playing with a pot of ink, so that’s what they’ve named him.
Or her.
He’s pretty feral and won’t let us anywhere near him to find out, one way or the other!
Oh, there was one other unexpected thing today.
Not long ago, my daughter tried to log into her bank account and found it locked. I got a message from her while I was on my way home. She’d gotten through to the bank on the phone and discovered that someone tried to use her debit card number (she has no credit card) at a restaurant in the US. !!! It was stopped and her accounted locked as potential fraud, so nothing was taken from her bank account, thank God!
She would, however, need to go to a branch and get a replacement card.
As soon as I could, I called the branch in my mother’s town to confirm their hours. They are open tomorrow.
Which means that, tomorrow, I will be driving my daughter to our bank branch in my mother’s town (we won’t be able to do that much longer; I hear this branch will be closing!).
Then, the day after tomorrow – New Year’s Day – I will be taking my mother to her MRI appointment.
Then, on the 2nd, my husband and I will be going to trade his phone in before they ding him with the end-of-contract bill of almost $700. It has to be done before the 4th, and that’s the only day I’ve got left.
The next day, Friday, I’m taking the truck in to get the MAF sensor and block heater cord replaced.
Then, on the following Monday, I’m taking my mother to her regular doctor for a follow up appointment.
Then, on the Wednesday, I’m going back to the same town, but a different clinic, for the joint appointment for me and my daughter.
I’m doing as much driving in the next couple of weeks as I would normally do in a month in the summer. In the winter, I try to do as little driving as possible, but that’s just not working out!
Thank God winter has been mild and conditions pretty good, so far. Based on the 10 day forecast, though, that joint appointment is going to be on a day where the high is expected to be -24C/-13F, while the lows are supposed to be -29C/-20F.
At least we’ll be able to plug in the block heater by then! That’s being replaced on Friday, and Thursday night is when overnight lows are starting to dip below -20C/-4F again.
Weirdly, the long term forecast now says we’ll have about 10 days of that, then 10 days or so of temperatures rising to just below freezing again. This is a La Nińa winter, though, and the system should start affecting our area more over the next couple of months. For our region, that usually means colder temperatures, but it looks like we’re going to be getting temperature whiplash, instead!
Once we get past that last appointment, I hope to not have to do anything more than short trips into town – and hardly any of those! – until it’s time to go more stock up shopping at the end of January!
My husband had just a few days left of his painkillers. With their new delivery driver, the deliveries are now on Thursdays. My husband would have been out by then, plus, Thursday this week is Boxing Day, so obviously, that wasn’t going to happen.
My husband called the pharmacy yesterday (Sunday) to ask about it. It turned out, for this week, deliveries were going to happen on Monday (today).
The problem?
His pain killers are considered “controlled substances”. Which means that he can’t refill them until he’s almost out. The earliest he could refill them?
Tuesday.
Given how things are, the pharmacist said she would try to call his doctor today to try and get his prescriptions delivered early, but she didn’t know if his doctor would even be working this week, or if she would be on holidays.
Well, I got a call this morning, and got good news! They got through to his doctor, she okayed the early refill, and we would get them delivered this afternoon.
We got the delivery shortly before 12:30!
Meanwhile, I checked the holiday hours for our garage. They were open today, so I called and left a message, though I did not expect them to be able to look at the truck on such short notice.
I left a message, then decided to head out to the general store and post office. It’s just a 5 or to minute drive away. Short enough to not trigger that oil pressure sensor and have it start screaming at me!
Since we aren’t going to be able to do the last minute shopping we originally intended, the girls wanted to do some baking, so I picked up a couple of dozen eggs and a few other things to tide us over, including a cheap (on sale) bottle of wine. We actually had mail today – a letter from the health authority for my husband – but there are still quite a few things we’re expecting, including a donation of cat food.
Ah, well.
After I got home and put things away, I tried to get a nap in – I’ve been really sleepy, lately – but wasn’t very successful. Then the phone rang. I kept it close, because I was expecting a call from the delivery driver, and it was him. I’d left the gate open already, but I headed outside earlier and used the time to do a bit of shoveling. The delivery driver even drove up into the yard, which was nice of him!
After bringing the meds in, I went to close the gate. On the way back, I found myself being watched, attentively.
There was eight at the time, but there had been more earlier.
When I came out this morning, I counted a full dozen cats in the upper level!
I also found the heated water bowl knocked over again, and hanging through the narrow opening under the window. This time, however the managed to knock it over, it was enough to push a corner of the window loose. The screws holding it are shorter, but still! I’ll have to find a longer screw that will fit the pilot hole to replace it with. For now, they have a small gap in the corner of the window.
This time, I took the heated water bowl out completely. After moving the cat bed out, I could grab the insulated box nest and remove it – with a kitten sitting on top, along for the ride, at first!
I had thought to put it in the lower level, but didn’t want to fight with the entry shelter box, so I put it in the catio, with the other box nest.
Then I put the cat bed where the box nest was. It’s slightly wider and overhangs the opening where the hammock and cat scratcher ramp is. Hopefully, it will stay.
I then took the smaller heated water bowl from the sun room and traded it with the one I took out from the isolation shelter. After securing the cord around the cross piece, I set it more into the corner, where the cat bed had been. Hopefully, this will give the cats more space to move around, and they won’t knock it down anymore.
Judging from the photo above, they are happy with the new configuration!
I could also see cats in the catio, sitting on top of the insulated box nest. There is exposed rigid insulation around all sides, secured with pieces of wood lath, so it would be like sitting on a self warming mat.
So that seems to be working out, too.
Meanwhile…
Once inside and settling at my computer, I saw I had a missed call note that I’d missed, earlier. The garage had tried to call me back while I was going to the post office!
So I called back right away.
We talked a bit about what was happening; he says there would be moisture in the sensor, setting it off. He completely understood why I didn’t want to be driving it with that alarm going off.
They are open on Friday, and he could fit me in that afternoon. I told him, we’re down to one vehicle, so when I come in, I’m stuck in town, and he understood. He probable gets that a lot, I’m sure. He confirmed that he would just be looking at the sensor (if he couldn’t get us in until after New Years, I told him in one of my messages that we may as well get the MAF sensor and block heater cord replaced, too), then said it would be no problem. He also assured me it would be okay to drive the truck into town – the alternative would have been to book a tow truck, and there’s no need for that.
So that should be fixed before the end of the year.
Yay! Something else to be thankful for!
Plus, since they’re right across from the grocery store, I’ll be able to get some of the things I wanted for New Years. It’s only Christmas dinner that’s going to be a bit different than planned, but not by much.
All in all, it’s about as good as it can get, under the circumstances!
Today, I’d hoped to stay home for a few days (I really, really didn’t want to go to the dump today!) but when my husband needed something from the pharmacy, I figured I’d do that right away, since it was supposed to be milder. The next couple of days are supposed to get much colder.
A high of -9C/16F is milder, right?
It seemed all right when I headed out to feed the outside cats.
The full belly kitties were content to stay in the sun room. Not all of them, but enough to make nice, warm cuddle puddles!
The isolation kittens are doing fine, too.
It was a different story, once I started heading to town!
The first thing I realized was that the driveway needed to be cleared. Best to do it while the snow is still light and fluffy, too. Much easier on little Spewie. After closing the gate behind me, I made sure to message the family about that, because I knew I would forget once I got going again.
Driving conditions really sucked!
Once on the main gravel road, visibility was low with blowing snow, made all the more interesting when I had to cross paths with oncoming trucks bringing in bales. The trucks alone are wide loads, but their trailers were loaded 3 round bales wide. To fit them, about a third of a bale sticks out on each side of the trailers, adding about 3 feet to the total width. The main gravel road is wide enough for two vehicles to pass each other well enough, with room to spare, but it’s a very different story with these trucks! They did try to go to the side as far as they could, but with how slippery things can be under the snow, it wouldn’t take much to hit some ice on the shoulder and slide right into the ditches… and these ditches are narrow, steep and deep!
Even on the highway, it wasn’t much better. I found myself doing 70-80 kph (43-50mph) in a 100 (62mph) zone – and no one was trying to pass me!
I’m glad the roads were plowed yesterday, or it would have been so much worse!
Once in town, I did my errands, with my last stop at the grocery store. My husband had called in a prescription delivery for Thursday that I was able to pick up today, instead. At the grocery store, after refilling a couple of our 18.9L/5 gallon water jugs, I ended up taking advantage of some sales and picked up a few extra things besides what was on my list, and my older daughter’s list that she send funds for, once she found out I was going into town. Poor thing is not feeling well at all, today. PCOS sucks.
The drive home was not any better than the drive out, so it was slow going. I’ve driven in far worse. I just didn’t want to be driving at all today! Ah, well.
With the water jugs on top of everything else, I drove up to the house to unload, but had some troubles backing up to the main doors. The truck had to go over the sidewalk from the house to the gate, which was shoveled, and it was just too slippery!
I was quite happy to be parking the truck back in the garage!
My younger daughter was a sweetheart and took care of clearing the driveway after everything was put away, and the outside cats got a light feeding to keep them distracted. The isolation kitties seem very content in their shelter. I was even able to pet the fluffball! He started to run away, but once I started petting his back, he stopped and let me!
I’m going to be worrying about them over the next while, though. As I was writing this, I could see the temperature on my task bar dropping. We’re down to -14C/7F right now, but the wind chill is -30C/-22F!
The isolation kittens are protected from the wind, so that shouldn’t affect the heat lamps ability to keep them warm, but we’re supposed to drop to -25C/-13F tonight, and the high tomorrow is supposed to only reach -23C/-9F, with an overnight low of -26C/-15F, before wind chill. The next day is supposed to be slightly warmer, before our highs are supposed to get back into the single digits below freezing (Celsius).
Those would be good days to stay home, but I’m expecting to pick up our 1/8 beef share on one of those days. I’m just waiting on an email to confirm the date.
I hadn’t been home for long, when I got a phone call from my mother.
Guess who had just showed up at her place?
*sigh*
Yup. Our vandal. My surprising him by being there yesterday didn’t scare him off for long.
My mother was in the common room, though, and our neighbour was with him again, so he was on his best behaviour. Apparently, he was in the nearer city for “treatment” (chemotherapy?) so they stopped by on the way home.
I’m glad my mother called me as soon as she got back into her apartment after they left. In the past, she wouldn’t tell us if he showed up, even when he was alone and his behaviour was verbally abusive.
Then she told me that the doctor that was supposed to call her at 2pm, did finally call! It was past 4pm by the time he did. Thankfully, my mother still remembered our conversation, and on telling him how things went, his recommendation was exactly what I said was most likely. He wanted to increase the dose of the medication.
Then my mother, being the way she is, asked him if she could just stop taking them. What would happen? His response was, probably nothing would change. She could stop taking them, if she wanted, but to call him again if things got worse.
*sigh*
I just had to express my frustrations with her, as carefully as I could. She keeps complaining about all sorts of health problems, but when people try to help her, she won’t do the things that she is supposed to do to make things better. When we first moved out here, she mostly complained about her knees, but refused to wear the braces my brother got for her (as recommended by her doctor at the time), for her knee that’s bent sideways. I forget it he got two or three different braces, trying to find one she was willing to wear, but she wouldn’t. Instead, she would wear sport knee pads. They kept her knees warm, therefore, in her mind, they were helping her knees more than the brace.
It’s the same thing with this new medication. I tried to explain again, it takes time to see if a specific medication would work, and at what dose. As an example, I told her how my husband it still trying to get the dose right on the new pain medication he’s on (the previous one is no longer available), and it’s been about a year. Her response was to start talking about how much she pities us for him having health problems, but I had to cut that off. I told her, this was just an example of something that is common. Everyone is different, so they have to take the time to figure out exactly what will work for each person.
Her bubble packs are due for new ones, and the doctor would be faxing the increased dosage to her pharmacy, so I told her that when she gets her new bubble packs, they should have the new dosage, and nothing would change. Just keep taking her prescriptions as always, and give it time to work.
I don’t know if I got through to her. I might have, at least for a little while.
I’m so glad she has homecare doing med assists, now. Even with the bubble packs, she was messing with her prescriptions. Which is more of a problem because she forgets what some of them are for, and gets them mixed up.
I need to remember to call the home care office and see where her application for assisted living or a nursing home is at! There’s only so much my siblings and I can do to help her. Especially when she isn’t willing to help herself at times!
So today didn’t turn out the way it was intended to, but things got done and, more importantly, my mom is okay after our vandal showing up at her place again.
I really, really wish she would just tell him to not come around anymore, but she still holds out home that things will get better.
Another reason to get her into some sort of long term care! She can move to a better living situation, and no one needs to tell him where she is. As long as she doesn’t tell him herself, of course. 🫤🙄
Ah, well. It is what it is! All we can do is deal with the cards we’ve got.
… I am extra glad I had to go to my mother’s place today!
The trip itself was not particularly pleasant. We had that super warm day when everything melted, then we got snow on top of that. Yesterday, the southwestern part of our province was hit with a snow storm, but we were fortunate. I saw photos and video people shared on FB, and the one that blew me away was the sand truck – upside down in a ditch!
We got snow, but no storm. When I headed out, the roads were not plowed yet, though I could see the plow trucks were out. While our temperatures were below freezing, between the traffic and the darker surface, the highways were melting in patches, making things even more potentially dangerous. I took it slow, and was pleased to see, most of the other traffic was taking it slow, too! We’ve got good tires and a good truck, but there’s no weight in the back, so it doesn’t take much before I can feel it wanting to fishtail.
I left quite early and still had time when I got to my mother’s town. I decided to fill the gas tank and pick up some fried chicken for my mother and myself for lunch. I remembered that today is Monday, so she would have her Meals on Wheels delivery, so I asked to have the food split between two boxes, so she could have hers later in the day.
As I was paying for everything, one of the regular staff who was having her own lunch break started chatting, asking if I was having lunch with my mother today. I told her, sort of, and mentioned she would be having her Meals on Wheels, so I got hers separate for later. That’s when a customer sitting at another table (this gas station has several tables for people to sit down and have their coffee or chicken dinners) said that she would not be getting her Meals on Wheels today – all deliveries were cancelled today! With the road conditions, I’m not surprised.
So I was extra glad I’d decided to pick up food while getting gas!
I still got to my mother’s early, which was still good. I was able to get some stuff done for her before we settled down to eat. She still has her cold, and was feeling rather sorry for herself. She has developed a terrible habit, though, of making herself gasp and pant. She says it makes her stomach feel better. ??? It’s rather alarming to hear, and then she just stops and starts breathing normally.
As I was boiling water for tea, I asked her which tea she wanted and she suggested the immunity boosting teas my sister got for her, that she’s been drinking since she has a cold.
There were two different kinds, and they were both citrus based.
*sigh*
So my mother is supposed to avoid citrus, etc., but my sister keeps getting her this stuff!
At least the Cup-o-soup went over well, but I’m pretty sure those have onion in them, which is also on the avoid list.
While puttering in her kitchen, I remembered to look at her cupboard doors and saw that the printout of foods that she needed to avoid, and which were still good, for her acid reflux, was gone. There was just a bit of torn tape left where it was.
*sigh*
After we ate, we talked about her upcoming appointment and what to tell the doctor. She brought up again, how she figured she should just stop taking the pills, because they aren’t doing anything. She says there has been no change. I went through again that he’d explained: he was going to start her on a low dose first, and if that didn’t help in 3 months, he would increase the dose for another three months. Or, he might try prescribing a different medication, but that is less likely.
I asked her if she were following the other instructions he’s given her, and if she still had the information printout with all that on it.
No, she wasn’t doing the other stuff, and she didn’t know where the printouts were anymore.
*sigh*
She started complaining again about how she’s taking soooo many pills, and she’s tired of taking soooo many pills.
She’s not taking that many pills and, right now, one of them is basically a special multi-vitamin for her eye with dry macular degeneration, to keep it from getting worse.
I reminded her of just how fortunate she really is. I told her how many pills my husband takes, plus two injections, and even he isn’t taking all that much compared to some people. The thing is, the pills are doing their job, so she’s not feeling the things they are there for, so she thinks they are not needed. She’s not understanding that if she stops taking them, all these things they are protecting her from would start making her sick. I can’t imagine how terrible she would be feeling, for example, if she were NOT on the acid reflux pill, when just having a bit of citrus makes her think she’s dying (until she takes some Pepto).
Her phone appointment was at 2pm. When it was 10 after, she started saying, maybe they forgot about her. Another five minutes, and she was saying, maybe we should call them. I told her, if we were at the appointment in person, we’d just be sitting in a waiting room right now.
Still, I did find the number and tried calling the clinic. The automated system eventually got me to a message saying they were so busy, they weren’t taking any more messages, but to leave a message (???) and they would get back to the caller in 48-72 hours.
!!!!!
So I hung up, since there really wasn’t much point in leaving a message, when it was still possible they’d be calling.
My mother, however, was getting really tired by then and falling asleep in her chair. I finally told her, go ahead and lie down. I would stay close to the phone. Just give me time to go to the bathroom first, she could like down and leave the phone to me.
I had just gone into the bathroom and was closing the door when I heard a quiet knock.
Who would be knocking on my mother’s door at this time?
So I started opening the door again to answer the door for her, but it was already being opened.
There was our vandal, saying something about how my mother must be on the phone, walking right into her apartment! The bathroom door opens out and partially blocks the entryway, so when I was basically right in front of him when our vandal saw me and stopped dead in his tracks.
He quickly said he had to go. There was a container in his hand he quickly dropped on her dining table, and practically ran out the door.
Behind him, I could see a neighbour he’d brought along. I was very happy to see our neighbour. This is someone else I grew up with and consider family. He’s a very good man, and has been a sort of go-between for us, trying to get our vandal to see some sort of sense.
When he saw me, from the hallway, he looked like he was fighting back laughter.
Our vandal had left so fast, he’d left the door to close on its own behind him. I was able to grab the door and say high to our neighbour as he was leaving, but our vandal had gone down the hall so fast, I couldn’t see him anymore.
When I turned back, there was my mother, laughing.
I am so glad I was there! While my neighbour would have made sure our vandal treated my mother well, having him show up, on top of my mother being sick with a cold, would not have been pleasant for her at all.
I wasn’t really surprised to see him. I’d already called my mother to warn her he might suddenly show up, since I’ve been seeing him stalking our driveway again. I just expected him to show up earlier than today!
As for the container he left, it looked like it had pea soup in it, or something like that. My mother told me, she didn’t want it. She already had two other containers in her freezer from his, she doesn’t want. She said, with the way he talks and the things he says, it makes the food taste bad.
I totally get it.
I ended up popping it into the freezer, though, to be dealt with later.
After that little adventure, my mother was able to lie down and I settled into her armchair, in her view, with the phone.
Well, wouldn’t you know, as soon as she lay down, suddenly my mother was wide awake.
Our vandal showing up might have had a bit to do with that.
After a while, she gave up and got up.
By then, it was almost 3, and the doctor still hadn’t phoned. I didn’t want to stay much longer, as it would be getting dark soon. So I called the clinic number back and this time, left a message.
The drive back was both better and worse. Better, because the roads had been cleared by then. Worse, because I was not driving right into the wind and getting buffeted a lot more. Again, most vehicles were also taking it slow, which was much appreciated.
I got home in time for the evening feeding for the outside cats. I quickly did that, topped up their water, and played with Kohl in the isolation shelter for a bit.
Patience was not very patient just then! He was a hungry boy. 😊
Then I grabbed something to clear windows with and went to my brother’s truck to clear the windows of snow, so his solar trickle charger could get some light. I’ve since learned that another truck that’s parked here also has a trickle charger, so I’ll have to remember to clear that vehicle’s windshield, too, the next time I’m out there.
All in all, I’d say it was a good day, even though the telephone doctor’s appointment never happened. It meant I was there when our vandal showed up, and that made it worthwhile it all on its own!
I did the morning routine today. We were under weather warnings yesterday for snow, but from what I could see, we didn’t get much of any, overnight. Or, if we did, it melted right away, then froze by morning, because it was SO slippery! It’s snowing now, though, so we’ll see how that works out.
Of course, the isolation babies got their extra treat of wet cat food. The cat beds we washed last night were returned, so they now have two in their shelter again. Unfortunately, they seem to be ignoring the freshly cleaned litter box and just using the floor on the bottom level. At least some of it will be easy to clean up once they are frozen. 🫤
Kohl really wanted attention! I spent quite a bit of time petting her through the sliding windows. She made no effort to get out! The closest was when she rubbed her face against my arm so far, she almost fell through the doorway.
Her partner in crime deigned to sniff my fingers a bit, but Kohl was so aggressive for pets, she got in his way. When I saw him at the food bowl, I thought I might pet him while he was eating, but as soon as Kohl saw me at that sliding door, she came right over. She was pushing her way through to get pets so aggressively, she pushed him away from the food! So I stopped, to give him a chance to eat. He, also, made no effort to leave the isolation shelter. Other cats, however, saw the open sliding doors and wanted in!
Later on, I got to enjoy another bit of adorableness. Our elderly grandma managed to get access to the new cat bed again. With the other cats, we’ve found as many as three of them squeezed into there, all at once!
There’s barely room for Grandma in there, never mind three cats!
After yesterday evening, I’m happy to say that today really has turned out to be a day of Peace, for the Second Sunday of Advent.
I got a call from my mother “late” last night. It actually was pretty early, but had been dark for so long already, I thought it was closer to midnight, not early evening!
She had clearly called for a reason, so I asked what was going on.
Very long story short…
She was dying and needed to go to the hospital.
Of course she did. It was a Saturday night. *sigh* It’s always on a Saturday, or Sunday on a long weekend.
I really don’t want to be so jaded by this, but she does it so often!
I told her, we’re under a weather watch. If she really felt she needed to go to the hospital, it would be safest to call an ambulance.
Then I had to keep asking questions to get some idea of why she felt she needed to go to the hospital.
Her cold was getting worse. She was coughing lots. There was pain in her stomach. She had a headache, which she thought was connected to her stomach.
Even the pain in her stomach took quite a while to get straight. About all I could get out of her is that she felt pain directly below her sternum. Every time I tried to get a clearer description, she’s start to tell me, then launch into something else, like did I know where her important stuff in her apartment was hidden (in case she dies or is in the hospital, and people go into her apartment to snoop).
She didn’t want an ambulance, because she wanted someone with her to watch her purse for her; she has important stuff in her purse, and she didn’t want people going through it while she was getting tests done.
She didn’t want to go to the same ER as last time, because that hospital is run by Muslims now. The last time she was there, when I went to pick her up, she told me she had a Muslim doctor (a hijabi woman), and that she had “stolen my heart”. She’d had a very positive experience with her, but has since rewritten her memory again. Now, because there was one Muslim doctor, she has decided that means the entire hospital is run by Muslims. *sigh*
Then she didn’t want to go to that ER because last time, she was in the waiting room for 15 hours (she did get called for tests in that time frame, but I had to explain triage to her again).
I ended up going online to see which hospital ERs in our region were open. The one nearest us was still open, but closing at 9pm. The other, in the hospital her doctor’s clinic is in, was open for the night. Did she really want to go to the ER? We talked about how, every time she’s gone, they would do tests, find nothing wrong, and send her home.
Oh, they found something, but they won’t tell her, because they want her to die. They take advantage of old people. They don’t care. Etc.
It was while I was looking up to see where there were any open ERs in our area, and talking about how busy they get on the weekends, that my mother even commented on how this always seems to happen on a Saturday! I wonder why? she asks. 😄
Then, because I wasn’t leaping to drive her to the ER immediately, she launched into how her children didn’t care about her, either. When that didn’t work, she shifted to, “oh, you are already dealing with so much. I’m sorry I called you. I shouldn’t have called you.” (a regular passive aggressive dig about my disabled husband)
*sigh*
After straightening that out, too, she started talking about how she needs to be in a nursing home, she can’t take care of herself anymore, she needs help.
I told her (again), you can’t just walk into a nursing home and get accepted. We are working on it. There is a process that has already been started, but it can take a while. Nursing homes are for people who are a lot further along than she is, and we would basically be waiting for someone to die for a bed to open. She forgets how my dad was before he went into the nursing home. By then, he was getting home care visits for personal care three times a day, and had declined to the point that they could not longer meet his needs. Very different from my mother getting three med assists a day, to make sure she takes her pills properly.
I was finally able to calm her down and told her that I would talk to my siblings and let them know what’s going on, suggesting she have herself some hot tea and rest. Which she agreed to do.
Once off the phone, I created a group chat to message my siblings, thinking it would be faster than email. My sister turns her phone off when she’s at home, though, and didn’t respond until well past 1am. I was finally able to reach my brother in a side chat, and he only had time to ask if Mom had been eating those mandarins my sister had picked up for her. I completely forgot about those. My mother isn’t supposed to eat anything citrus, as it triggers her acid reflux, but my sister got them for her because she felt they were mild enough *sigh* and because my mother had a cold and needed the vitamin C.
For someone who was really sick with a cold, my mother had sounded really great on the phone. Just some mild coughing, towards the end of the conversation.
So I finally went to bed and didn’t see my sister’s response until past 6am.
After doing my morning rounds and having breakfast, I figured it was a good time to try calling my mother. Her morning med assist should have come and gone by then.
I’m happy to say that my mother reported feeling much better. The “pink medicine” (the Pepto) helped so much. Her stomach was hurting much less and her cold was getting better.
Her voice was sounding hoarser this morning, though, and she was coughing more throughout our conversation, but overall, she said she was improving.
I remembered to ask her if she’d been eating the mandarins. She bounced around the answer, saying things like, not this morning, or, let me check, and, only during the day (since she insists on eating foods that will trigger her acid reflux, I’ve suggested that she at least tries to eat only a small amount, early in the day, since it’s when she lies down to sleep that it really bothers her) and so on. So I concluded that she probably did have several of them before all this started, but wasn’t about to admit it.
We talked a bit about the list of foods I gave her that could cause her problems, and which were okay. I think the printout I gave her might still be taped up on one of her cupboard doors. I brought up tomatoes, because I knew my sister had been giving her tomatoes from her garden, first fresh, then canned, over the past while. She said, no, she’d already finished those off. My mother even had given me one of my sister’s jars of tomatoes a while back, because it was just tomatoes; my sister didn’t even put salt in it. 😄 I forgot to bring up onions, though. I think she does still have some of those. So anything citrus, anything in the onion family, and tomatoes are the things she most commonly eats that are causing her problems. She is on acid reflux medication, and I’d hate to see how bad it would be for her if she wasn’t! The Pepto helps her for these short term problems, though.
At one point, when I was asking her questions about how she was feeling and what she had been doing, she brought up dry mouth again – this time, blaming the mandarins. We talked about her need to hydrate, but she just doesn’t want to drink water! As she put it, her mouth wants water, but her stomach doesn’t.
I do get that, so we talked about other ways to hydrate, including through some kinds of foods.
With her voice being so rough and her coughing, I didn’t want to keep her talking on the phone for too long. I tried to say good bye a few times, but she kept finding other things to talk about, like how she had “forced herself” to change her bedding, and mopping her bedroom floor with disinfectant while her bed was moved away from the wall, and how she was so sick, she never even got out of her nightgown, all day…
Honestly, my mother has no idea how strong she is, and how well she’s doing. She’s practically indestructible, but constantly complaining about how sick she is and increasingly talking about how she is dying.
Today, though, she was able to recognized that yesterday was a combination of things that made her feel so much worse, and now she’s glad she didn’t go to the hospital.
I really do hope they are able to get her into some sort of assisted living soon. It’s so hard to know what’s going on with her, how much is real, how much is her deciding things are worse than they are, and so on. She really does need someone around that can monitor her. Between me and my siblings, none of us are in a position to be that for her.
After I was done talking to her on the phone, I updated my siblings. My sister later reported on her own phone tall to my mother. It seems she’d picked up some cup-o-soup for my mother when she did her grocery shopping for her – something my mother would never had bought for herself – and that Mom was going to have some for lunch.
So all is improving with my mother.
Meanwhile, it has been slowly snowing throughout most of the day. We have another ongoing weather warning for “snow showers” right now, because we’re at only -3C/27F, though the wind chill puts us at -12C/10F. It’s supposed to keep snowing, heavily, at times, until about 3am. It’s also supposed to slowly keep getting colder overnight until we reach about -11C/12F by about 7am, and stay that temperature all day.
Hopefully, the roads will be cleared and no longer slippery, by the time I have to go to my mother’s, tomorrow, for her telephone doctor’s appointment.
For now, though, it does look all peaceful outside, and I’m much relieved that my mother is doing better today.
The Re-Farmer 