In the first photo of the above slide show, you can see more of the Sub Arctic Plenty tomatoes are ripening. There are more than what’s visible in the frame of the photo.
The second photo is of some wonderful new leaves coming up on the Opal plum, recovering from what the deer ate.
Last of all is a developing pumpkin. Sir Robin was happy to pose for size reference. 😄
We apparently had rain not long before I went out this morning, so no garden watering needed. In the evening, though, I did water the things that need it the most; the winter and summer squash! I did the melons, to, even though I really don’t see any chance of them growing. Some are blooming, though, so you never know!
Late this morning, I headed out to meet my brother, SIL and their grandkids for a surprise lunch with my mother. That turned out not at all as planned, but it worked out in the end. I brought along several take out containers of the turkey and vegetable soup I made in the slow cooker yesterday (I had it for my breakfast, too) for her freezer. During lunch, I ordered a 3 pc chicken and fries, then packed up most of the fries and the biggest piece of chicken for my mom to have for supper. Between two very active young boys and having to distract my mother when she started to go into one of her odd tirades, we were all very exhausted by the time lunch was done! The boys did really well, considering how many hours they’d spent in a car. My mother wanted them to go to her place, which was not an option. It’s soo small and too full of things rambunctious children could get into and hurt themselves or destroy. They ended up going for a walk with my SIL when we were done, while my brother focused on getting my mother home and I went ahead with their stuff along with what I brought for her. I had time to get the meals I brought into the freezer, and left the restaurant food on the counter to cool, then get to the side door and open it before they had to fight with keys. My mother can get in and out of my brother’s car without a stool, so he could park closer to the side door she prefers to use.
We both had to head out as soon as she was settled in. By the time we got out, my SIL was almost there with the boys. We’d talked about them coming her to the farm afterwards, but that went out the window. They’ll be coming out next weekend and staying overnight in their new abode, so we’ll get to visit with them and the boys soon.
As we were settling her in, my mother made a point of telling us not to make “surprises” like this for her anymore. Which we really can’t do. If we plan this stuff and tell her in advance, she works herself up and behaves even worse – downright cruel, in fact – than if she doesn’t know about it, first.
At least my brother was able to get a visit in, and she got to see her great grandsons. Of course, all she cared was to lecture them about making sure to take them to church. This was the time! When they’re young! Of course, they had just gone to church with her earlier (which was not planned). My SIL had to repeatedly tell her, they don’t live with us. It’s not up to us. They don’t live with us.
I was sitting next to my mother and repeated to her with slightly different working, that they don’t live here.
Well, where do they live, then? she asked.
…
Uhm… with their parents?
That one really threw us. It seems that my mother somehow decided that the boys being with my brother and his wife today meant that they… have moved in with them? Or she forgot that they live with their parents in a different province?
Something to bring up with the home care case coordinator, that’s for sure.
It was really good to see the boys, though. I haven’t seen the younger grandson since he was a babe in arms, still.
We also got some surprises at home today. Kitten surprises! That will get its own post, though.
When I came out this morning, I found all four of the feral kittens in the grass around the catio area, like they were coming towards the house. The little orange one does come to the kibble tray under the water bowl shelter, and I’ve even seen it a bit closer to the sun room, but the others are much shier, so it’s great to see them inching closer.
The garage kittens, I notice, have been spending more of their time hanging out outside. Still right up against the garage, where there are things they can hide behind, but they seem to prefer being outside of the garage rather than inside it, now.
While doing my morning rounds I did my usual check of the garden beds. When I got to the potato bed, I spotted something strange. I guess a cat or something had been digging in the loose soil, and uncovered something I missed!
A single potato! A pretty big one, too! I don’t know how I missed that! 😄
Today I had my eye appointment booked. I was going to be getting the dilation drops, so my daughter came along to do the driving afterwards. Plans for after my appointment included possibly going to my brother’s to pick up her computer, that was supposed to be delivered today.
It wasn’t.
As I write this, and the tracking information still says it’s “in transit” and expected to be delivered between 9:30am and 1:30pm today.
It’s just past 10pm right now.
My daughter and I left early as I wanted to stop at a gas station before my appointment. I was going to go to one in the town my eye doctor is in, but when we got close to the gas station I saw it was mostly blocked off by the truck refilling their tanks.
So we kept on going and got to the eye clinic almost an hour early.
As we drove into the parking lot, though, we noticed a new ice cream store had opened in the same building. When I checked in, and was told that not only was I very early, but the doctor as behind and hadn’t even had her lunch yet, we decided to go for ice cream.
The place was so new, they weren’t finished setting up yet. The menu boards were dark and there was no seating inside, though they did have picnic tables outside. They did, however, have many varieties of ice cream for us to check out, and we got a couple of waffle cones. The tables outside were occupies, so we cross the street to a tiny park where we could sit on some large rocks in the shade. It was very pleasent.
By the time we got back, they took me in very quickly, for the initial photographs of my eyes they needed to take, first. I have the tiniest of hemorrhages in my eyes that the doctor is monitoring. I didn’t have to wait long before the doctor called me in. We started out by looking at the images, comparing back to when I first started seeing her, in 2023. There are slightly more of these tiny hemorrhages, but nothing has gotten worse, so we are still in “monitoring” mode.
Then she tested my vision. Much to my surprise, there is almost no change in my prescription. The tiny big of change in my left eye is so minor, there’s no reason to get new glasses.
Then it was time to dilate my eyes.
Those drops really burn!
After the drops were done, I was sent to the waiting room for a while to give my eyes time to dilate before being called back in. Then I got to get that bright light flashed into my eyes while she examined inside them. Of all the tests, that’s the one that bothers me the most. Not even the puff test bothers me much. I mentioned that and she told me that with some people, it’s the field of vision test that bothers them the most, while others have issues with the puff test. I told her about my mother and her macular degeneration, and how she got the eye injection. I told her, my mother handled them like a champ, but I honestly don’t think I could get that done! She asked me who the doctor at the special eye clinic in the city was that saw my mother. I told her, and she said she had heard very good things about him. She’s read some of his papers, and was quite impressed by them. I told her, he’s really excellent – and has a great “bedside manner”. He was always very sweet with my mother. I was happy to have a chance to share how good he was; if she ever found herself with a patient with newly developed eye issues beyond what she can do in her clinic, it’s that clinic in the city she’d be referring people to, and she would know that this particular doctor is highly recommended for more than his very impressive credentials.
Those tests done, the doctor wanted me to get one of the sets of pictures taken earlier done again, while my eyes were still dilated, since they’d be able to get more detail. After that, she wanted me to book another appointment for 6 months from not. That would put us in January, though. After talking about it, and our issues with travel in winter, which I try to avoid if I can, we decided that I will come back in October for a field of vision test – but no eye dilation! – and then come back for the dilation test again in 6 months after that. This way, my appointments will be spring and fall instead of summer and winter.
While at the counter, settling my bill (a whole $5.50, after the insurance coverage was deducted), there was a guy trying to book an appointment during a certain week. The other receptionist kept telling him they were going to be up north. Somehow, he understood that to mean they were fully booked, which they are – but the staff will all literally be up north. The receptionist I was with told me, she was the one who got them doing this. She mentioned having a lot of First Nations friends up north, and I completely understood. They just don’t have these sorts of clinics up there. They’d have to go south to the city. She said, that’s exactly it. It’s easier for a few staff at the eye clinic to be flown up north and see 200 patients, then to fly 200 patients to the city! And that’s just from one place. They now go up to visit 9 different northern communities throughout the year. It’s fantastic that they can do that!
By the time I was done, we’d heard from my brother that my daughter’s computer was not delivered. She and her sister had their own shopping list, though, which meant a Walmart trip. It would have been on the way home from my brother’s, but we went straight there, instead – after getting some gas, since the station was no longer blocked by a giant tanker truck! Since we were at the Walmart anyhow, I picked up a few little things as well, to tide us over until we do our first stock up shop, next week.
By the time we got home, it was past 5pm, and we were greeted by some very hungry kitties! My daughter took care of putting everything away, then making a heat-and-eat supper, while I quickly took care of the kitties.
The next two days are supposed to get really hot, so when things started cooling down this evening, I went out to give the garden a thorough watering. I plan to water twice a day, when it gets really hope. I am still holding out home that at last some things will start growing again, instead of just stagnating. It’s starting to look like all the red noodle beans are not only stagnating, but starting to die. I did spot one new sprout – a late germinating bean – and it’s all nice and green, like all the others were when they first sprouted. Now, they seem to be getting yellower, every day.
I wish I knew why. Even the extra seeds I had that got planted in the gaps among the peas that didn’t germinate, they’re looking yellow, so it’s not something specific to the beds. I’m at a total loss about it.
The winter squash, at least, seem to be recovering, though it’s unlikely there’s enough season left for them to develop fruit, even if they had an explosive growth spurt. The melons are just… not happening.
So furstrating!
I’m still tending them, just in case they recover. Who knows what will happen in the next couple of months.
Aside from all this, I have something good to share, and that’s how good I’ve been feeling. It’s only been a couple of days on the anti-inflammatories, and I can’t believe how pain free I’ve been. I haven’t even been taking the max dose I can “take as needed”. In fact, I even reduced how many capsules I cat at a time; I can take 2 capsules up to 3 times a day. I’ve taken 2 capsules, twice a day. This evening, I took just one. We’ll see how I feel overnight before I decide if I’ll take 1 or 2 in the morning.
I still have various pains, but the last couple of days have been the closest to being completely pain free as I can remember being in a very long time. Particularly when it comes to how much my body stiffens up if I’ve been sitting for a while, such as while driving, or sitting at my computer. I’m just blown away by how much difference I’m feeling, in such a short time!
Things are now winding down and I’ll be heading to bed soon. It should be interesting to see if half the dose will still be enough for me to be able to sleep without various joints keeping me awake with pain during the night.
I am so happy I thought to ask about trying the anti-inflammatories! What a difference they are making!
Well, today went not at all as planned. I’m actually going to be able to stay home today!
I was expecting to be picked up by a friend at 8am this morning, and was starting my morning routine a bit early. Before making the kitten soup, I popped into the sun room to grab the one bowl for it that I knew was still there.
Opening the doors created a massive scramble, with all sorts of crashing and bashing.
A BIG raccoon ran out the sun room door, but her four babies all squeezed themselves into the space between the counter shelf and the window.
These are not small babies.
Well, the mom was beside herself. She wanted to run away, but her babies were stuck inside!
The growling noise she makes is so… unique. It’s almost like a deep, throaty barking noise, but it’s a growl. Once of these days, I need to try and record the sound!
Meanwhile, I could hear the babies scrambling. I tried to give them time to leave by mixing up the kitten soup and getting all the bowls and dry kibble ready.
Eventually, two did run out, but two others ran back into hiding. I decided to go ahead and start setting out the dry kibble.
I let them eat for a bit, then tried to get a broom behind their butts to push them out to the door.
They pushed back, wanting to get back behind the shelf, instead. Which was blocked by the broom.
So they just sort of stood up, squeezed between the broom and the table saw the food tray is under.
Looking at me.
With those eyes.
I gave up.
There was so much commotion, I had to let the for socialized kittens into the old kitchen so they could eat their cat soup, while I started setting the other bowls out. The little feral orange kitten has been brave enough to come to the house! Which was great, except he ended up missing out on the kitten soup, as he was eating dry kibble by the laundry platform, instead. Hopefully, he got some later.
Going back and forth, the two raccoons went back to eating. One of them moved out from under the table saw and was eating at another tray. They didn’t stop eating as I went by.
I admit it.
I couldn’t resist.
I pet the raccoon.
Just a little!
They have very course fur.
The raccoon was so focused on food, it just looked up at me, then kept eating.
After that, I did my morning rounds. While coming back from the driveway, I spotted them on the steps in front of the house. They were clearly looking for Mom!
Mom, however, had done the opposite direction.
When they spotted me, they ran up the tree in front of the kitchen window. The one that cats really like, and use to get onto the roof. Yes, there were a couple of cats in the tree, and they weren’t sure what to make of the new additions!
I continued my rounds and when I came back, I found them like this.
At some point, this tree was cut short (it should have been cut down!). Over the years, branches had grown up and around the top, but there is still a flat spot that the cats love to hang out on. I found the raccoons, snuggling each other, huddled up on the flat spot.
Checking later on, they were gone, so I’m guessing they are reunited with their mother.
The morning stuff done, I headed out to meet my friend at the gate for 8am.
She never showed up.
I didn’t want to message her, in case she was driving, but after a while I finally did.
Long story short, she thought her car drop off was on the 28th, not the 23rd. That’s what she had written in her schedule. I’d put it into my own phone calendar. So I looked up the number for her and she called the garage.
It was supposed to be today.
She ended up rescheduling to the 28th.
Okay, that meant I could stay home?
Not really. My mother needs a grocery shopping trip. My sister, however, was planning to visit today, too.
I called my mother and got her up to date on getting the blood work requisition for her, and the doctor’s appointment I made for her. As for her shopping, she will get my sister to do it.
I get to stay home!
Then I got a call from the autobody shop.
I’ve got my eye appointment tomorrow (Thursday), then I’m supposed to drop the truck off for the insurance claim on Friday. They had arranged for a courtesy car for me to use until it could be picked up on Tuesday.
The courtesy car is broken down and won’t be ready on time.
They wondered if I could bring it in on Thursday night, they’d do the repairs/painting on Friday morning, then I could take the truck back until they are ready to install the cover, and I would bring the truck back for that.
I told her about my eye appointment, and that I won’t even be able to drive myself home, because my eyes will be dilated.
As we were talking, and she asked where I lived, she even offered to drive me home after dropping off the truck! In the end, what they will do is have someone come get the truck from here, on Thursday, just before they close. They’ll do the repair work and painting on Friday morning, and will figure out how to get the truck home for me after that. Likely, a drop off. Then, I’ll get a call to bring it back to install the cover. For that, I can just stay and wait until it’s done.
They are really bending over backwards to help me out here!!! Wow!!
So that’s been my morning.
I get to stay home for day.
I’d love to be productive and all, but so much has been going on, I feel totally drained – and I’m still not completely recovered from yesterday’s… reaction… to the lunch I got from the grocery store before our doctor’s appointment. Even my arm is still giving me grief.
Oh, crap. I forgot to take my anti-inflammatories while eating my lunch. Maybe it’s not too late! I’m still full…
Done.
I did take some yesterday, then went to bed early. I did NOT take any painkillers before bed. I did have some pain during the night, but nothing like I normally do, even with painkillers. It’s too early to draw any conclusions, but for a first dose and first night, that’s very encouraging!
I didn’t take any painkillers this morning, either.
So far so good!
I think I’ll actually try lying down for a bit, then see how I feel before trying to get some work done outside. I really need to let that arm heal.
As I write this, it’s just past 4:30pm, and we’ve surpassed our predicted high of 31C/88F and reached 33C/91F.
That couple of degrees makes a huge difference!
It could be worse; some areas to the south of us reported up to 40C/104F today.
It was a relatively cool 16C/61F when I did my morning rounds at about 6am. I even spotted the two feral kittens that are starting to show up regularly. No idea what’s happened to the other one or two that I saw.
When we got home from the physio appointment, there we were immediately greeted by Sir Robin, while Havarti and Eyelet remained splatted in the shade. Eyelet got up, waiting for their special food, while Havarti just lay there, unmoving – so I got a picture! The last image above was taken after everyone had a chance to eat their fill, and the full belly babies were back in the shade. Grommet was around, too; just not where I could get him in the picture.
Before we headed out, I spotted this on my bed and had to get a picture.
It looks like we’ve got a two headed cat in there! Ghosty and Tin Whistle had merged into one. 😄
That inside cats have also been splayed all over, but it’s a whole lot better for them, that’s for sure. Thank God for the AC my brother gave us. Between that and the living room, and a fan blowing the cooler air to there rest of the house, it’s so much better than previous years – and now my daughters have their AC set up in their upstairs “apartment”. It’s the fist summer since living here that the upstairs has been at all bearable. Even with that, they had to strategically place a fan to counter the wave of hot air coming up the stairs.
My husband and I got to enjoy the truck’s AC when we headed out just before noon for his appointment at the pain clinic. This was his first appointment with their physiotherapist, which made it more of a meet and greet. We met him last week, of course – he even remembered us a bit – but this was a more dedicated meeting.
It was a combination of interesting and encouraging… and not.
The interesting thing was, after asking questions about my husband’s specific issues and past treatment (the conclusion with the doctor, last time, was basically what we expected; he’s already tried everything there is to try, and there isn’t anything more or new they can offer him), he talked a fair bit about how things have changed in physio in more recent years. He talked about all the typical recommendations given out for decades; loose weight, exercise more, focus on core exercises, etc. simply haven’t been working. They weren’t helping people get past their pain or improve healing of injuries. There have been a lot of studies trying to figure out why, and they found many factors were at play. An example would be how they’d have two groups of people doing comparable exercises. Some people would report improvement, even though there was no measurable improvement in their condition. Others would report no improvement at all. When taking blood tests before and ever activities, it was found that people all had inflammation. The group that reported feeling better has less inflamation, the other didn’t – and the only difference was that the ones that reported improvement actually enjoyed the activities they were doing. The ones with the worst outcomes did not enjoy the exercises they were doing, and they had higher inflammation after their activities. Inflammation in general, it was found, played the biggest role in how people felt. It basically came down to individual body chemistry.
There were also things like how doing small amounts of activity more often was more beneficial that doing lots in a short time. He also talked about how misleading the “in your head” idea was. When he did talk about weight, he mentioned studies that found that when people enjoyed their activities, did them regularly without overdoing it, etc. they reported improvements, both physical and mental, with no change in their weights at all. This was something I appreciated hearing, since part of why my husband’s conditions deteriorated so much was because he started seeing a nurse practitioner (the only person available after our regular doctor went on medical leave and didn’t come back), she basically ignored the reason he as there – his back injury – but focused almost entirely on his weight. His blood sugars, too, but it all came down to his weight. Of course, in being the “good” patient, he just went along with it. For some two years. It was like she believed if only he would lose the weight, all the other things would magically go away. Of course, he never lost any weight at all in that time, and we finally insisted that she start focusing on his back injury. When he saw the spine specialist, the damage was too severe, and there was really nothing that could be done but give him stronger and stronger pain killers.
So having someone who knew to focus on the actual reason my husband was there, and not pet causes, was always a relief.
That was the encouraging part.
The discouraging part was, we already knew all this. This is really old news, even though most doctors don’t seem to know anything about these studies. I’ve been reading papers on this stuff for more than a decade.
After some discussion, a plan of action was worked out. My husband will start doing tai chi again (he used to teach it at one point), starting out by finding his limit, then maintaining the activity regularly, based on those limits.
Next month, we’ll be having a phone appointment with him.
As we were leaving and talking about it, my husband said he felt like the guy was a puppy discovering a new and fabulous toy and being all excited about it. Which is only because we were already aware of the stuff he was talking about already.
We shall see how it pans out.
Once the appointment was done, with a follow up telephone appointment booked at the end of this month, we headed over to the nearby Walmart to have lunch – breakfast, for my husband. My older daughter got quite sick last night, and hadn’t even been able to eat all night, while she was working. I made sure there was something she could eat before going to bed for the day! She sent me some funds to pick up heat and eats, which I did while my husband finished his lunch. Then it was off for home, with a brief stop at the post office. My husband had ordered more Tei Fu lotion for me, since it helps so much with the Charlie horses. He ordered three tubes, so the company added a freebie. It was a bottle of cordyceps, for “… energy, stamina, endurance and strength”. That one free bottle costs more than one tube of Tei Fu lotion! That’s quite a freebie!
I’m happy to be well stocked with Tei Fu lotion, though. I was running low.
When we got back, we found my younger daughter had the gate open for us, and was out hanging laundry in this heat! She’d done all their laundry, including bedding, plus my laundry, too! What a sweetie.
I planned to head out to water the garden this evening, but I’m not so sure about that right now. We’re at 31C/88F, with the humidex putting us at 33C/91F, and apparently won’t be dropping below 30C/86F until after 9pm! Even the overnight low is expected to be 21C/70F
I think I’ll just do my evening rounds and go to bed much earlier than usual. I’ve been waking up as it starts to get light out, anyhow, so I may as well wait and do the watering in the morning. That way, I won’t be shocking the plants with cold well water. Something the winter squash and melons could certainly do with out, with how much damage they got from that one cold night a while back! We’ve definitely lost a few completely.
Not looking forward to doing my evening rounds this evening, that’s for sure! Stepping outside is like walking into a wall of heat.
I tried taking garden tour video yesterday, but wasn’t happy with the results, so I hope to be able to take new recordings later today. I should be able to walk, and my right arm is okay, but I might not be able to use my left, if I have to switch hands or something.
I’m getting ahead of myself, though.
This morning, I needed to get a few things done, and I worked on the fast things first. Protecting garden beds from cats.
The potatoes are large enough that they no longer need to be covered with netting, so I removed that and brought it to the tomatoes and beans bed in the east yard. It was just long enough for me to be able to wrap it around the tomato support structure (after folding it in half, lengthwise), and secure the bottom with ground staples. No more cats using it as a litter box.
The next image in the slideshow above is the Arikara squash and corn bed. The mosquito netting I had over it wasn’t long enough to wrap around the bed. I did have the plastic I used to solarize the bed that now has the corn and beans. They’re large, clear garbage bags that were cut on the sides to make a single longer sheet. It took three of them to go around the bed. I’m hoping it’s enough to keep the cats out, and that the wind won’t blow it away. If not, I’ll have to find more netting.
That done, it was time to gather my tools and work in the trellis bed.
The bed is 18′ long, so the first thing to do was measure and mark out where the three verticals would go, at 4.5, 9 and 13.5 feet. Then I used a hoe to scrape out the soil directly below and position the pieces of brick that will go under each vertical. This way, they won’t have direct contact with the soil and won’t get wet and rotten at their bases too quickly.
I had three posts waiting. Their bottoms had already been trimmed straight. I just cut away any sticky outy bits along their lengths, first.
I took the straightest one to set in the middle. With each post a different size, they all needed to be marked and cut individually. I used my baby chainsaw (cordless pruner) to cut away a section of the vertical, first, then double checked against the low raised bed and marked the horizontal log again, before cutting away a section there, too.
The first one I did was probably the most perfect, snug fit I’ve ever done. I was so happy!
The post was large enough that I secured it with four 3″ deck screws.
The process was repeated for the next post. By the third one, though, I’d drained both my batteries when I started to cut away the first notch, so I stopped for lunch. When I was done, it didn’t take very long at all to get that third one up. In the very last image of the above slide show, you can see them all up and done.
What they now need is a horizontal support across the top.
The verticals are all different, and one leans a fair bit.
The ground isn’t level, so we had to install them first, and now we can go along and cut the tops to all the same height, before putting on the horizontal support at the top.
The question was, did I have anything I could use for a horizontal? As in, one single long piece? Or would I have to piece together more than one piece?
I’d set aside from trees I’d cleared out of the spruce grove that were nice and straight, last year some time. I took a look and selected on of them, which you can see in the second image above. It definitely looked to be more than 18′ long.
So I dragged it over to the raised bed. The plan was to cut the wide end straight, then measure 18′ from there.
I’d just dropped the log in the path and started talking to the other end, when – I think – my toe caught on a bit of branch or something along the log.
I fell headlong, right onto the log.
I landed on my right knee on one side of the log, my left palm on the other, and my face hit the log in the middle.
It could have been so, so bad.
The first blessing is that I have glasses. They got a bit twisted, while keeping my face from smashing too hard into the log.
As I lifted my head, I saw my second blessing.
Had I fallen just a few inches forward, my face would have hit a small broken branch, about the length and thickness of a finger. I would have impaled been impaled by that. Instead, I landed on a smooth section of the log.
Thank God!
My got my glasses off, as I couldn’t see through them at the time, then started digging my phone out of my pocket.
The pocket I was lying on, of course.
I managed to tap a request for help to the family. As far as I knew, only my husband was available, and I wasn’t sure he could make it out to where I was. Thankfully, my younger daughter saw my message and headed out.
I did make sure to add that I wasn’t injured. I just couldn’t get up – and asked her to bring my husband’s walker.
I was able to at least sit up by the time my daughter reached me and helped me get to my feet. After checking me out for injuries, she helped me get to the walker, where I could wheel myself over to the shade and sit for a bit.
Obviously, I wasn’t going to get anything else done, so she put all my tools back into the wagon and took it to the garage for me, while I made my way to the house. I couldn’t use my left hand to hold the walker, though, and had to lean on my forearm, instead.
Now that I’ve had a chance to sit for a while, it seems that my left are too the brunt of the fall. My right knees is already feeling better, though I imagine I’m going to have bruising and swelling there. My daughter straightened out my glasses, and I was able to clean off my eyeball print smeared inside one lens. I’ve got some marks on my face, but no unjuries.
It seems it was my left palm, just under my thumb, that took the brunt of the fall. I’m starting to feel pain and stiffness working its way up to my shoulder. So far, it doesn’t look like I’ve broken anything, but I have to watch myself. My pain tolerance is unusually high. I’ve broken bones before and just kept on going. The most recent being a toe that I thought was merely dislocated. My husband set if for me and I didn’t realize it was broken until I happened to get it Xrays while I was accompanying my mother to a Doctor’s appointment. It had been set very well! As for other injuries… well, ignoring them is why I’m dealing with post traumatic osteoarthritis now.
Well, at least I got those vertical supports up. If necessary, we can add whatever netting is handy for the red noodle beans to climb. Depending on how my arm is, I might have to get my daughter to do it!
Little by little, it’s getting done.
I’m just so incredibly grateful I’m just dealing with a sore arm right now.
Last night, I had a voice message on my cell phone, letting my know that there was no one to do my mother’s evening med assist.
Early this morning, I got a call from the home care coordinator, and found out what happened.
My mother’s supper and evening med assists are usually done by the same person. When the home care aid came in for the suppertime visit, apparently my mother started making racist comments about “brown people” being “cockroaches”.
(in retrospect, I am second guessing this; that is not a word my mother would use. I don’t think she knows what a cockroach even is.)
The home care aid said that she found this insulting, because she is Metis, and my mother apparently responded by saying she was a cockroach.
The aid now refuses to go back to my mother, and did the paperwork for that. It went up the chain, and that’s why I got the call.
We talked about it for a while, and there is recognition that my mother’s cognitive decline is playing a part on this. The problem is that this can affect her long term care panel. My mother actually wants to be in a nursing home. A very specific one, and we’re trying to accomplish this for her. The staff at long term care and supporting living, however, are of all races, so this could be a problem.
My mother is basically self sabotaging herself.
When I was done with the call, I sent out a group message to my siblings about it. Not long after, messaged to let us know he’d phoned her from work. My mother did admit she shouldn’t have said what she said to the home care worker, and even said she was sorry. My brother told her that he wasn’t the one she should apologize to – she needs to apologize to the home care worker, but she won’t be coming back, because of how my mother treated her.
My mother was dismissive about it, saying there are lots of workers, and there’s always people looking for jobs. He told her, no, there is a shortage of workers, and you just don’t treat people like that.
She did seem to catch on that she had actually done something wrong.
The morning med assist arrived while they were talking, so they got off the phone. I later found out that my mother had told the morning person to extend her apologies.
I had my appointment in town, though, so I was going to call my mother later.
I got to my appointment early, so I popped into the Red Apple (a rural department store) for a bit. A display caught my eye and distracted me from what I planned to look at, and before long, I was walking out with a caftan and what I at first thought was a sleeveless summer dress, except it was pants, not a skirt. Something that is stepped into from the top, with no zippers or buttons. They were both “one size fits all”, but I didn’t have time to try on either of them. I figured if they didn’t fit me, they might fit my daughters. What I was really after was the caftan, though, for the upcoming summer heat.
Yes, this is relevant.
After my appointment, I remembered to pop over to the autobody shop to ask some questions. Since they were going to be working on the truck at some point, I asked about the door handle and the driver’s seatbelt. The handle broke off and I have to open the window to open it from the outside. I’d called our garage and got an estimate for it, but they don’t normally do that sort of work. The driver’s seatbelt buckle has a terrible habit of suddenly coming undone. Once it catches, it catches, but sometimes it feels like it’s buckled, but isn’t quite all the way, so it’ll suddenly come undone while I’m driving.
It turns out that yes, they could do this work for me, but it would be expensive. The door handle, which is snapped off, is expensive and would cost about the same as the garage would charge me. The garage, however, could go to a scrap yard or something, and find a second hand one. Something they can’t do. As for the seatbelt, that would also be really expensive, because they would have to replace the entire thing, not just the buckle, because that’s how it’s sold. Again, the garage could look for a second hand one for us at a better price.
Then we talked about our insurance claim.
Normally, the insurance will cover like for like and, if that can’t be found, they’ll allow an improvement, but the client pays the difference. The problem is, box covers like the one we had fit newer models, which have different sized truck boxes. The only one she could find that would fit our truck was an off market version, and the insurance company normally wouldn’t approve that. After talking to the adjuster, he said he would have to pass it up the line for approval and get back to her.
He hasn’t gotten back to her yet.
If they don’t approve the off market cover, and there are no other options, they might offer us cash, instead. We would still need a box cover, of course. As for cash, the adjuster put the value of the old box cover at a dollar, because he couldn’t find anything to tell him what it actually cost. So who knows what we would get.
The twisted frame is covered, though, as it needs to be fixed before a box cover can be installed. We’d be charged for part of the painting, because of the rust on the fender, around the wheel well. She told me she would ask the repair guys to try do it so only the top of the frame needs to be painted, not the whole panel. That would save us up to $140.
Then there was the broken tail light cover. The insurance company won’t cover that and, since I can’t prove it wasn’t broken before the box cover was ripped off by the wind, I am not going to contest it. She’s going to see if they can find an off market one for us. The entire tail light assembly gets replaced, not just the cover, and a new market value one can cost $250-$300.
So now I know the status of our insurance claim, and to contact our garage to see if they can find the parts we need from the scrap yard or something. Getting the door handle fixed before winter would be good, that’s for sure!
By the time I got home, it was about mid afternoon. I grabbed a quick lunch, then headed outside. I decided to work on the permanent trellis bed, but needed to clear around it, first. In this area, it made more sense to break out my brother’s push mower first, then go back with the weed trimmer.
Of course, since I had the mower going anyhow, I kept mowing further out. I hadn’t refilled the tank before I started, so I basically just kept going until I ran out of gas, then went to get some more.
Which is when I discovered I had a voice mail message.
From home care.
There was no one to do my mother’s suppertime or evening med assists.
Then, while I was listening to this message, a text message came in.
If was from my mother’s LifeLine provider, telling me it looked like the pendant was no longer connected to the based, and saying to test it. If a test didn’t work, it gave a number to call.
I put away the gas can, and the lawn mower.
Once back inside, I called up my mother. The first thing was to explain about the text I got, and get her to press the button on her LifeLine pendant.
There was no response.
I would have to phone the company.
I then told my mother about the call I got from home care, and that there was no one to come for her two evening med assists. She asked if I knew why, and I told her, I just had a phone message. Her response was, “oh, they’re trying to “get” me”, or something like that. My mother thinks the home care aids are deliberately not coming to give her her meds so that she’ll die. I told her, no, you did this to yourself. Because of how you treated the home care aid, they don’t want to work with you anymore.
Oh, you know about that, she said…
I told her I got a call this morning from the home care coordinator about it. My mother said she’d called her, herself, and wanted her to “visit” (have a meeting). By then, the office was closed, so I told her she wouldn’t hear back until Monday. I then told her I needed to call the LifeLine number, and would be coming over to do her med assist.
After being on hold for awhile, I got through to someone and explained the text message I got, and that I got my mother to test her pendent, with no response. He looked up her file and it seemed her pendent was no longer synced with the base. So he gave me step by step instructions on how to reset it and test it again, and told me that if it didn’t work, call back.
That done, I finally got to finish cleaning up and changing. Our predicted high of 22C/72F turned out to be 27C/81F, so I decided to wear my new caftan, which did fit (the other garment did not, so I have it to my daughters to try one). It is a very loud, mostly deep red, with bold colours in the patterns. More importantly, it’s made of a very light, breezy fabric that feels as close to being naked in the heat, without actually being naked.
So, off I went to my mother’s. When I got there, she was fussing in the kitchen and didn’t stop, so I asked for her LifeLine pendent and did the reset, as instructed, ending with a test. When it was done, what should have happened when I pressed the pendant button at the end was an almost instant human voice responding.
There was nothing.
So I called the number on the machine, using my cell phone (the machine is linked through my mother’s land line). I got the guy on speaker as we talked and he walked me through doing the reset again, then doing the test call.
Nothing.
At which point, they simply replace the machine, and he started that request going. If necessary, they know to call me on our land line first, before trying my cell phone.
That done, I went back to my mother, who was at her dining table, so update her and start getting her meds.
Which is when she noticed what I was wearing.
She commented on it and I told her I had picked it up, just today.
She started laughing at me, because of course she would, and told me it looked like something for sleeping in.
*sigh*
I told her no, not at all. It would be terrible to sleep in (it’s ankle length, I’d be tangled in it in a heartbeat!).
She still said it looked like something to sleep in, but that’s okay, she’s got something similar that she uses to sleep in, too.
…
No, she doesn’t have anything like a caftan. She has night gowns.
She was absolutely oblivious to the idea that laughing at me for what I was wearing was not a nice thing to do. It’s something I have come to expect from her, so it doesn’t really bother me, but she does this to everyone.
That did give me the segue to talk about what happened yesterday.
Long story short, it seems my mother did genuinely seem to realize she had done something wrong. She still tried to justify it. Saying things like, she gave her opinion, the home care worker gave her opinion, like it was some normal conversation. Then she started saying, she’s alone at home all day, and she wants to talk.
I told her, when they come to her place, they are there to do their job and leave. They are not there to talk about politic or religion or race or whatever. She needs to treat people nicely, and I stressed that her behaviour could keep her from getting into the nursing home she wants to be in.
As we talked, she mentioned again that she’d called the case coordinator, while bringing out the home care worker list of names and times they’d be coming. The number on there is what she called and left a message.
She called the shift scheduler.
I told her, this number was for someone else. I’d given her the number for the case coordinator, and it was with the schedule, but it was gone. Meanwhile, my mother was angry that the number she wanted wasn’t on there. I told her, this number would have different people answering, depending on the time of day and day of the week. The number she wanted is office hours only.
Meanwhile, I got her supper time meds out, and she took them a bit early. That freed up her little pill counting bowl and I set out her before bed pills, plus her inhaler, for later. I also updated the notebook I keep inside the lock box for the next home care aid to see.
Once all of that was done and everything was put away, I stayed for a while longer, and we talked some more about her behaviour. This time, my mother took out what she’d showed the home care worker. It was a photocopy from a new article, showing a grown of anti-Western, pro-terrorist demonstrators, in Canada, and she had basically asked the woman her opinion. Apparently, she said she agreed with the pro-terrorist demonstrators, which ticked my mother off. The women then told my mother that her ex-husband was black, and her kids were half black.
…
The case coordinator told me she’d said she was Metis.
So we have another discrepancy on the stories, here!
I asked my mother, why do you even have this? (She would have had to get someone to print out or make a photo copy of the image for her) And why would you show it to the home care aid?
My mother started talking about being lonely and wanting to have someone to talk to. (It sounds like her neighbours in the building are avoiding her now.) I said fine. Talk about the weather. Talk about the gardens (the building’s garden plots are visible out her window). Don’t talk about stuff like this.
I also recommended she stop watching TV news, because it’s not good for her!
My mother agreed that she would not talk about things unrelated to her med assist when the home care workers came.
Once I was sure she was set up for the evening, I headed home. By then, it was time for my own supper. My plans to work in the garden after clearing around the bed I was going to work on were out the window, but it was light enough to at least do the watering, including the new trees and bushes.
While I was watering the high raised bed, I picked a couple of things.
One is a Purple Prince turnip. I thought the yellow one should have been a Zlata radish, but it was so big, I thought maybe I somehow had some Gold Ball turnip seeds in there.
Later on, while watering the low raised bed in the east yard, which as the same mix, plus lettuce seeds, I picked a few more of the yellow ones. They really are radishes, not turnips. It just happens that this one is very large for a radish!
While I was still out there, my older daughter came out to talk about a potential visit from my son from another mother, later in the year. It has been a long time since we’ve seen him! She stayed out to help with the watering, too. The girls had already taken care of feeding the outside cats while I was done, but after I was done watering, I stayed out to play with Poirot’s kittens. They REALLY want attention, and love to get under foot!
Some of the bigger kittens have infected eyes, but I was able to wash only Sir Robin’s eye. I tried to get Havarti (the one orange tabby kitten) to wash one of his eyes, but he would not let me get him. I hope I’ll be able to wash it out, tomorrow.
Kitten therapy is good.
This has turned out to be a pretty messed up day. I really hope my mother takes our warnings to heart, and starts behaving better.
In talking about the situation, my brother had a good point, though. As people age, this sort of thing is not at all unusual. This is usually something that would play a part in getting someone IN to long term care, not out of it. My brother remembers an eye doctor we used to go to, many years ago. He was the sweetest man every, but when dementia hit, he suddenly starting saying some incredibly racist things. It was actually a big part of how he ended up in long term care. I supposed it’s different with my mother, since she has always been racist. Her cognitive decline is just bringing it out more, not creating it. The end result is the same, though, and as bad as my mother can be, others in long term care are far worse.
*sigh* again.
Well, whatever happens, happens. We do the best we can.
The first photo is the carrier she insisted in putting her babies into. As you can see, they fit, but she doesn’t really have room to stretch out.
We have a larger carrier that was sitting on the platform supported by the shelf this little carrier is on. When I had a chance this afternoon, with Poirot outside, I made the move. I prepped a puppy pad on the bottom of the big carrier, removed the loose top of the small carrier, then started moving babies.
Hastings (the almost all white one) had one eye stuck shut, so she (pretty sure they’re all female) got an eye wash, first. She wasn’t happy with it, which got Poirot’s attention from outside. I put Hastings into the big carrier, then moved of Miss Lemon (the white and grey), who did not need any eye washing, before picking up Japp (the black with white on her belly). By then, Poirot was jumping up to the small carrier and the platform and looing around, but make no move to stop me when I picked up Japp.
Instead, she went to the bigger carrier on the platform and joined her other babies!
Japp had a sticky eye that got washed before being returned to mama, who was contentedly nursing. You can see them all in the second picture.
This carrier is large enough that, when I set out her personal food bowl, there was room for it inside the carrier. She was quite happy with that!
I took the small carrier out and gave it a wash. Later on, when Poirot was once again outside, I shifted the bitter carrier to where the smaller one was, where there is a sun shield at the window side to keep them from overheating. It was warm enough that I tucked a frozen water bottle under the puppy pad near the front. The kittens were all cuddled at the far end of the carrier and barely noticed being moved.
Another good thing today is that I got the luffa transplanted, but only because I wasn’t up to doing the other stuff I’d intended to work on today. It was something I could do, just so I could get at least something productive done outside! That will get a separate post, though.
The day actually started out pretty good, in that I got sleep! I’d used the Voltaren stuff for the first time, along with my usual prescription painkillers, before going to bed. At first, I thought it wasn’t making any difference. As soon as I lie down, my hips and knees start becoming acutely painful, as did my left shoulder and elbow. My finger joints were hurting, too, as usual.
Yet, I fell asleep before midnight, and didn’t wake up until the cats woke me up at 4am. I distracted them by topping up their kibble and closed most of them out of my bedroom, so Butterscotch could use the litter box without getting bothered, and went back to bed. I fell asleep again almost immediately and slept another two hours, waking only slightly when I heard someone opening my door to let the cats in before they started scratching at it.
It was the closest thing to a pain free sleep I’ve had in …. I can’t remember.
So this stuff works better than the prescription topical painkiller the doctor tried me on, years ago – and my OA wasn’t as painful as it is now!
Just as an experiment, I applied some to my husband’s lower back, where the worst of his injury is, just a little while ago. If this stuff will help him, too, even a little bit, that would be a huge improvement for his quality of life! Lord knows, the drugs are barely keeping things bearable for him.
Then, there’s the not so good stuff.
While my daughter and I had been coming home from the city, yesterday, I’d got a call from home care letting me know they didn’t have anyone for my mother’s suppertime med assist. So we swung by on the way home and I set her meds out for her – only to have the home care person show up, anyhow!
This morning, after I’d done my morning rounds, I had just enough time to grab breakfast before I needed to go to town for the appointment with the insurance company rep about the truck. I was just sitting down with my food when the phone rang.
It was home care.
They didn’t have anyone for my mother’s morning med assist, though I was assured they had someone for supper and before bed.
My mother is supposed to get her meds between 7 and 9. It was about 8:45 when the call came in.
It takes 25-30 minutes to get to my mother’s place.
So I quickly put my food back in the kitchen and left immediately. I didn’t take the time to call my mother, nor did I try to call her using the hands free unit my brother gave me, because I knew my mother would be angry and start going off on me. I did not need the delay, and I certainly didn’t need that while driving.
It was the right decision.
When I got to my mother’s place, I knocked and went in, calling out “Hi, Mom” a few times. There was no response, but she was in the bathroom – with the door open. In her tiny apartment, that meant I had to close up the bathroom door just to get in far enough to close her entry door!
By then, she had made an acknowledging response, so I started to say that I got a call from home care, telling me there was no one for this morning, while getting her lock box and little bowl for counting out her pills ready.
Then my mother comes out of the bathroom, starting to talk, saw me and stopped in her tracks. Oh! It’s you! I thought it was home care!
…
I don’t think they normally come into her apartment calling out “hi, Mom”, so I guess that meant she didn’t hear properly.
Maybe it’s time to get her hearing tested! I don’t know that it’s ever been done for her.
I moved aside so my mother could sit in her chair at her dining table, before working on the combination lock. My mother was still standing just outside the bathroom, leaning on the other chair at her table, and half blocking my way.
She was angry, and wouldn’t move.
After it was clear she wasn’t going to sit down, I went back to opening up the lock box.
My mother was on a rant.
She is obsessed with those pills from missed days in older bubble packs. She wanted me to give them to her. I had already mentioned I didn’t have much time, because of my appointment in town (a 15-20 minute drive from our place, but a 30+ minute drive from my mother’s., which I’d told her about yesterday.
She started saying that, if it was illegal for them to take pills from different days to give to her, then it’s also illegal for them to not show up to give her her pills at all, and having me come out to do it for them.
All I could say is, Mom, I don’t have time for this.
She eventually sat down, but was now accusing me of “being on their side”. Then she started saying how we (my siblings and I) are not taking care of her and leaving her in the hands of strangers. All I could say at the time was, none of us live here. I certainly didn’t have time to go into it beyond that!
I got her pills from the correct bubble for the day out, which got her angry about the pills again. I was “on their side”. I got the pills in her little bowl and made notes about what was doing in the notebook I now keep in the lock box for the home care workers to see, and got her inhaler out.
She did take her inhaler, though that was weird. She’s supposed to take a few deep breaths first, exhale, inhale the puffer, hold for a count of ten, then rinse out her mouth. She even had a cup of water waiting for that.
She started taking the breaths, but had trouble doing the exhale before using the puffer. After a few times of not taking a puff, she started forcing herself to burp. For some time, she’s been going on about how she burps so much, and it’s such a problem, only to eventually say that she’s making herself burp because it helps her chest pains.
…
Whatever.
This was the first time I’ve seen/heard her doing it like this, though. First, I have no idea how she was doing it. Where was she getting all this abdominal air from? Second, it was really really gross – and it takes a lot to gross me out! She managed to keep it up for almost a minute, too, before finally taking her puffer.
That done, I started putting things away into the lock box, and she started railing again – but not taking her pills. She said that she was thinking of taking a hammer to the lock box. I told her, that (her attitude) is why you have a lock box! Then I told her (again) that I had to go to my appointment and was in a hurry. Oh, you’re always in a hurry.
…
So, yeah. She was nasty right from the moment she saw it was me and not the home care worker, right to the moment I left.
I did make it to the appointment location in time (it was just in a parking lot!). There was someone else being finished up, so I had time to send messages to my family about how things went with my mother. I wasn’t quite done when the other vehicle got their paperwork and left, and the insurance rep came to me.
We talked about what happened, and he took pictures.
With the box cover, he started talking about how this was the second one he had this week, and that these Velcro types have a habit of getting caught in the wind. Over time, the Velcro just doesn’t hold as well, getting full of dust or whatever. Basically, making it sound like it was more likely a product fault, which the insurance wouldn’t cover.
I showed him the bent part of the frame and the broken tail light. Under the tail light, there’s a dent from before we had the truck, and the crack in the tail light ends just above it. He tried to say that the impact from whatever caused this dent broke the tail light. I told him, the tail like was not broken before. I did mention that we’ve only had the vehicle for just over a year. While it’s certainly likely that, whatever caused that dent had broken the tail light, it had been fixed before we bought it.
One of the things that was noted and the took pictures of was a crack in the fender. The truck had rusted spots when we bought it. I don’t really care about what are essentially cosmetic issues. Along the edge of the fender, framing the wheel well, there’s a section with more rust. The crack is in that section. It actually is a new crack, but I never bothered mentioning it, since it was clearly cracked because of the older rust damage that was already there. I didn’t bother telling him that the crack was new. I just confirmed that the rust and other little dents and dings were old damage.
After he did his inspection, he went to his own vehicle to process the claim to get an estimate. That gave me time to finish updating the family.
End result with the claim.
He couldn’t even find the replacement value of the box cover, since there was nothing like it in his system. The estimated repair cost he came up with was just over $1000, and we could pay our $500 deductible. A replacement cover would be a new, improved version, so we would also have to pay 30% of the difference for “betterment”.
Once I got the estimate, I went straight to the company we’d be taking it to, which was just a block or two away. I had talked to them on the phone, previously, and our mechanic recommended them to me, as they are authorized to handle insurance claims like this.
Of course, since I literally just got the estimate, it was too early to be in the system for them to download the claim file. She did go out to look at the truck with me.
As she couldn’t look into the claim file to see the details, she couldn’t give me any hard information. She did explain to me that, with when they fix the bend in the frame, so new cover can be installed, they will have to paint the frame. That area of rust, where it was thin enough to crack, would be a problem when it comes to painting. I told her, I really don’t care about the paint, but it’s something they are required to do.
So… we might have to pay extra for rust repair, as that is not at all covered by the insurance, nor would I expect it to be.
As we were talking about the 30% betterment and so on, I told her, we might not be able to cover much. We can do the $500 deductible, but anything beyond that, well… we’re on a fixed income. She understood.
Tomorrow, she will download the file, then talk to the insurance company. When she has some hard numbers and confirmed data, she will give me a call.
I completely forgot, though. Tomorrow, I’m going to be at my mother’s. I’ve got her grocery shopping to do, plus I expect to be doing her laundry (Fridays are her scheduled turn for the shared laundry room) and whatever else she needs doing. She’ll have her Meals on Wheels for lunch, but I would want to make sure she has things she can easily put together for her meals during the weekend.
I’ll just have to make sure someone in the house has the phone with them while I’m gone!
So we may or may not be able to get the truck fixed and get a new box cover. We’ll figure that out, some time tomorrow.
By the time I got home, I was wasted. I’d spent probably less than 5 minutes at my mother’s, and she sucked all the energy out of me in that short time. When I got home, I ended up crashing for a couple of hours. While I certainly needed the rest, I woke up feeling like I’d wasted precious time in my day, plus I didn’t have the physical energy left to do most of the things on my to-do list. I won’t be able to them tomorrow, either, because I won’t be home. I’ll be at home mother’s, and I know that by the time I get home from helping her out, I’ll have zero energy to get anything done outside. Thank God I’ve got the girls taking care of things inside, so I don’t have to worry about that, too!
Then, to top things off, while I was at my computer, getting some stuff done while listening to a YouTube video, my sound suddenly disappeared.
After much checking of the system, everything was fine.
I checked the connections on the speakers, which required moving way too many things to access the back of the tower, that all checked out fine, too.
I tested it using my Bluetooth sleep headphones.
They worked fine.
I eventually gave up in frustration, then headed outside to feed the outside cats and get at least one things accomplished in potting up the luffa.
My husband, sweetheart that he is, unhooked and brought over set of speakers for me. They can be plugged into the tower, or be used with Bluetooth, so when I got back inside, I got my speakers out and hooked his up on Bluetooth.
They didn’t work.
We checked the power bar. It seemed fine. I flicked the switch back and forth, but there was no change.
Eventually, my husband was able to look and see where I’m too short to see, and discovered the power bar’s plug to the wall was half out. I keep that blocked off so that cats can’t mess with the cords, so it took some doing for him to be able to reach and plug it back in.
Still nothing.
I tried the switch on the power bar again.
It turned on.
*sigh*
My husband, meanwhile, took my speakers to test them out on his computer. It turned out that there was a loose connection, even though I’d checked them, and they seemed fine!
*sigh*
I didn’t have the energy to switch them back again, so I now have my husband’s Bluetooth speakers, and he’s got my old ones. These were speakers he kept on his headboard to play basically white noise to help him sleep.
Well, we’ll see how it works out.
My daughter just swung by a little while ago and showed me something else that I can add to the “good” list for the day. She just spent the past couple of hours in the basement, with baking soda, water and a toothbrush, cleaning the smoke damage off the book stand I salvaged form our tiny, historical burned out church after the closing services. I’m still debating going back for the benches or a pew, if someone else hasn’t already taken them. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t, but we just don’t have anywhere to store them until they can be used in the future.
I remember admiring this book stand when I was an altar server. The one that was used regularly was on the altar, and was a rather plain wooden stand. This one was sparkly “gold” with glittering “gems” in the front, and was kept in a tiny room on one side, where the priest got ready for services. Us altar servers would get ready in a tiny room on the opposite side then, just before mass started, cross over to join the priest for the procession. The room where we would get ready is where the back door was located, and that was where the person who broke in, started the fire. That room was completely burnt out, but the other room was surprisingly undamaged, other than smoke. This book stand was completely blackened with smoke, except for where there had been a crochet doily on the adjustable book rest. That left a clearer pattern in the smoke.
My daughter wasn’t able to get the black completely off; she didn’t want to damage the surface by scrubbing more. She did get it looking gold again, and while not as clear and shiny as they used to be, the glass “gems” look like gems again. She did an amazing job! I’ll have to try and get a picture of it in nice, bright light.
My mother was very happy when I told her I’d taken it home, and asked if she could see it again. I should bring it with me, tomorrow, to show it to her.
After showing me her handiwork, my daughter asked me what there was that she could do for me outside, tomorrow, while I’m gone. She’s going to try and finish the lawn mowing for me. I still have to refill the jerry can of fuel for the mowers, but haven’t been able to get done, yet, so she’ll do as much as she can before running out of gas. 😄
As for me, I should probably call my mother about tomorrow. Her evening med assist should be happening around now, so I know she’ll be up and about, at least!
Then I’ll share about how the transplanting went in my next post. 😊😊
It’s just past 5:30pm as I write this, and it’s all I can do to keep my eyes open. I am SO tired! Please forgive any odd sentence structure or typos, because I’m sure I’m going to miss many when I got over things before hitting publish!
The cats had me up at about 5am this morning. I got up and fed them – the morning feeding includes kicking all the cats out of my bedroom except Butterscotch and Freya. After the dry kibble is dispensed, I pour some cat milk into a small bowl for our elederly Freya (Butterscotch gets the rest of the little carton), and then I sit beside her on my bed, holding the bowl for her while she eats until she is done. This saves her from having to jump down from the bed to eat, and she can stay all curled up in whatever cat bed she’s in.
Yeah. I’m a suck for the cats.
After a while, I let the other cats back in, then tried going to bed for a couple more hours. I swear, the cats know exactly when I fall asleep for real, and that’s when they start getting into things they shouldn’t, and start making loud noises. Or just going crazy. Tissue got the zoomies this morning. So what sleep I did manage to get was highly interrupted. I can’t even keep the door closed, because then they start scratching at it and that keeps waking me up.
The temperature had dropped to 2C/36F at 5am. By about 8am, it had warmed up to a whole 8C/46F. Which was about when I started heading out. First, the kitties got fed, and I got a daughter to help out. Not with the feeding, though. With kitten catching! Kale and Sir Robin the Brave are incredibly fast about getting into the old kitchen, and haven’t learned to stay away from moving feet, or closing doors! After luring the adult cats away with kibble, I closed the inner door into the sun room and my daughter started handing me bowls of wet cat food to set out for the littles, plus one with both wet and dry cat food for Poirot at her cat carrier nest. Another bowl with part kibble and part wet cat food went into the cat house for Caramel and her babies.
Then I continued my rounds, leaving the sun room closed up, even though all three mamas were out. The white and grey mama has been seen nursing the creche babies more often, now that her third baby is in the sun room again.
Poirot’s grublings are getting more mobile, so I set up a a bit of a shield for them.
I’ve been saving cardboard for the garden in the old kitchen, and there just happened to be a couple of pieces of cardboard that was used as spacers inside a box that were just perfect for this. In the second picture, you can see how they’re set up to cover the gap between the shelf and the wall, and cat carrier and the wall. This should be enough of they accidentally squirm out of the carrier. As they get more mobile, we might just move the carrier to the floor, so they can go in and out as they wish.
Once done with tending the colony, the first thing I do it switch out the memory cards. As I go out to the sign cam, past where the food forest is being built up. That corner gets very sun baked and dry in the summer, but these guys don’t seem to mind at all!
They are absolutely everywhere. It’s impossible to not walk on them, but they don’t seem the least bit bothered by that. I don’t know what they are, but if I had to guess, I’d say they are some type of pansy? Whatever they are, they are pretty indestructible!
The next thing was to check on the garden beds. Especially the one where I just planted peas, yesterday. I thought they were fine until I got to the northernmost end, where I saw the cats had been digging. *sigh* Hopefully, they didn’t actually dig up any seeds, but I really couldn’t tell. I was trying to figure out some way to cover things when I remembered I still have grass clippings saved to use as mulch. There isn’t a lot left, but enough to do the job!
The soil got a gentle watering, first. After the grass was laid down, that got watered down, too. Partly so it wouldn’t blow away too easily.
The plastic covered beds all got watered, too. With the sprouting seedlings, it’s hard to tell which are what I planted and which are weeks. Some that I suspected to be weeds were starting to show their true leaves, and I was correct: they are maple seedlings. So I pulled as many of those as I could, along with identifiable stuff like dandelions – so long as pulling them wouldn’t disturb any other sprouts.
The low raised bed that no longer has plastic on it got watered. I’d tried blocking off one end of the cover and hoped that would be enough protection until I could do the other end. This morning, I discovered, I was wrong.
*sigh*
After repairing the digging damage as best I could, I got creative. This is all temporary.
In the first picture, you can see I just stuck some boards across the opening. The stick holding them in place is secured at the top through the mesh, so those could only go so high, so I used what I could find to add verticals on the inside. Hopefully, the cats won’t try to jump through the gaps.
In the next picture, you can see the twine I wove through the mesh to close up the end. Again, temporary, but this should hold for a while.
After the watering and weeding was done, I headed inside for breakfast, before going back out and continuing what I hoped to get finished today.
It was almost exactly 10am and I just sat down with my food when the phone rang.
It was my mother.
No one showed up to do her med assist this morning.
I should have gotten a call, but I got nothing. My mother had tried calling the case coordinator, but it’s Saturday; her office is closed.
So I told her, I would quickly finish eating, then head out to give her her medications. She wanted me to dispense her other two meds for the day, too, in case her med assist didn’t show up for those times, either, but I refused. Got quite a mocking for following the rules. So what will you do? she asked me. Come out two more times?
I said, yes! I will!
I told her, there’s a reason your medications are in your lock box. You were messing with your medications, forgetting if you took them, etc. Oh, I wasn’t that bad, she said. Yes, you were, Mom. That’s why you have a lock box! She actually seemed to stop and think about that!
One of the things I did was write up a note and leave it in their notebook, stating that I had dispensed that morning’s medications and at what time.
I also told her that, since I was out anyhow, I would make a trip to the nearest Walmart to do a bit of shopping. I had planned to do it later in the weeks, but I could do it now. The Walmart carries 2L plastic milk jugs, which she finds easier to handle, so I told her I was thinking of getting a plastic jug for her. I did just get her a carton, but…
She does still have milk, but it turns out she had dropped the carton while trying to open it and spilled some. So more milk, in a better container, was a big yes from her!
I ended up leaving with a small shopping list and some cash. One of the things she was running low of was the topical pain killer she’s been using on her knees. She’s now using it on her back, too, so she’s going through it faster. I had already been thinking of checking that out, too, as I figured it would be a better price.
Since it was well past 11am by the time I was going to head out, I offered to make a lunch for her, but she said she had leftovers from yesterday’s Meals on Wheels, so she was fine. Once I knew she was settled, I headed out.
My first stop was actually a Dollarama that shares a parking lot with the Walmart. There were a few small things that I wanted to pick up and, of course, I went through the garden supply section. I ended up picking up four 4′ metal posts. Not T posts, but the same idea. They have hooks in the metal to hold trellis netting. They would have been perfect for what I was doing yesterday – and easier to set into the soil! We will be trellising pole beans and more peas, though, so new posts will not go amiss. I probably should have gotten more, but I should be able to get some more next month, if I need to.
After I was done at the Dollarama, it was across the parking lot to Walmart.
They had sales on canned food for humans, too, and I got a flat of 24 cans of tomato soup for the pantry, too.
I also went through the garden centre. I picked up some replacement Yukon potatoes, since I’m sure the ones I’ve been chitting are no longer viable. Their herbs and vegetables were out, so I went hunting and found a few herbs. I got English Thyme, Golden thyme, two containers of oregano, lemon balm and basil. These will go into the tiny raised bed in the old kitchen garden, which has a cat proof cover already.
As for my mother’s list, the topical painkiller she uses was there – and cost $11 less than at her local pharmacy! That’s a huge difference!
The store was very busy, so it took a while for me to get everything I was looking for (and then some), and I was really tired and hungry by the end of it. I had some frozen stuff in my cart, so I stopped to get some take out that I could eat while driving, then headed out, making sure to update my family and let them know I was on my way to my mother’s, then home.
Which is when things went sideways.
Literally.
The last part of my route to my mother’s is a provincial trunk road, from one highway to another, that leads to my mother’s town. This is an east/west route.
The wind was coming from the south.
As I was driving towards an area of wide open fields, I saw the entire horizon was covered with what looked like black smoke. Once clear of some trees, I could see it swirling over the fields – but no flames.
It was dust.
Basically, the topsoil from the south side of the road was being blown to the north side of the road.
As I was being buffeted by the wind, driving through it.
Which is when I heard and felt something behind me and looked in my mirror just in time to see the cover over the box of our truck blow off, into the ditch and keep on going!
I pulled over, but by the time I did, there was no sign of the cover. I’m sure it was still being blown across that field for some time!
I had stuff in the box of the truck, and it was already getting scattered across the box. I gathered it all together and crammed it mostly into the back of the cab, making sure nothing went to the front that could get mixed up with my mother’s stuff.
I made sure that there was no way those metal posts would be able to slide and hit a window!
Once everything was put away, I continued to my mother’s place. Wow, what a difference in how the truck felt while driving! The wind swirling into the box of the truck was very noticeable.
When I was done at my mother’s, I was able to get for damage, which you can see in the second image in the slideshow above. There was enough flex on the box when the cover was torn off that it cracked the tail light cover.
But I didn’t get a chance to see that until later.
As soon as I entered her apartment, my mother, who was lying in bed, started saying, Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! I’m so glad to see you! while getting up to sit on the side of her bed.
I’m doing poorly, she tells me. Maybe I should go to the hospital. What do you think?
I certainly did not voice what I was actually thinking. My mother has cried wolf so many times, and uses having us take her to the hospital as a way of getting attention.
I asked her questions about what was going on. She was pretty vague about it; as if she expected me to already know. She told me she took one of the new pills (the T3s), but it didn’t seem to make a difference.
I told her, these pills aren’t magic. They are just stronger painkillers. As she kept on basically about what her expectations were (take pill: pain ends utterly and completely), I told her that her prescription for these is just a couple a day, morning and evening, as needed. I’m on the same pills, same dosage per tablet, and I can take up to 9 of them in total, per day. So it really depends on the individual.
She was pretty shocked that I could take so many per day, when she had a limit of two per day.
As I was putting things away, she lay back down in bed and suggested that maybe using the topical painkiller would help (confirming, finally, exactly what it was that was causing her problems this time). So that’s what we tried. She asked me to do, not only her hips (the pain is mostly just on one side), but her entire back as well. As I was doing that for her, she said to add lots, so I did it second time. As I was putting away the tube, she started saying she could feel a difference, already!
Hopefully, that will be enough.
My brother and I are planning to be there tomorrow for Mother’s Day, so we’ll be able to check on her more thoroughly, then.
Meanwhile, whenever I had a few moments, I kept my family and my siblings updated on things. I told my mother that I had frozen things in my vehicle and had to get them home, so I was soon back on the road. A daughter was sweet enough to have the gate open for me when I got in.
After everything was unloaded, and the new transplants and bags of seed potatoes secure in the portable greenhouse, it was time to feed the outside cats. I had another daughter on kitten duty, too! Other than doing a quick check to make sure none of the raised bed covers were blown away, I was more than happy to finally settle in at home.
So much for my garden and planting plans for the day! As I write this, we have continued to get warmer. It’s past 7pm now, and the temperature has risen to 24C/75F, though with the wind, it does feel a bit cooler. Not much, though! One of the local weather groups I follow on Facebook has been posting information and the coming heat way, with significant heat warnings to come.
We’re supposedly getting rain right now, though the current systems are skirting right past us. Later this evening, we’re supposed to be getting real rain. One of the things that the weather nerds that run the group noted is what appears to be pyrocumulous clouds forming in some areas! These are thunderstorm clouds that are created by heat; you might typically see them form over volcanoes, but can also form over forest fires, if the conditions are right. Scary stuff!
Tonight, the coolest temperatures are supposed to be at around 5 and 6am, at 14C/57F, and then start heating right up. The heat wave is supposed to hit us the hardest on Monday and Tuesday, but still be very hot on Wednesday and Thursday.
On Friday, the temperature is supposed to drop right down, with overnight lows of 0C/32F, and a mix of rain and snow. Saturday is supposed to be only slightly warmer.
Spring weather is so chaotic.
Well, if we can work around the hottest parts of the day, I should still be able to get at least some of those walnut seeds planted, get more areas prepped in the garden and, if all goes well, even do more direct sowing done. Chances are, though, that very little will get done until after the heat wave passes, and we’re back into cooler temperatures. At which point, we’ll be needing to protect some things from frost! For now, we’ve been able to leave our transplants in the portable greenhouse day and night, but we’ll have to bring them inside on those coldest nights.
As for me, it’s time to pain killer up and get to bed. If the cats are going to be waking me up at 5am anyhow, I may as well take advantage of it and get work done outside, before it gets too hot! I just have to work out what time I’ll be meeting up with my brother at my mother’s place tomorrow.
No one was available to go my mother’s med assist this morning.
Hmmm…
I was already planning to go to town today, but not for a few more hours. Instead, I arranged with the girls to take are of feeding and watering the cats outside, while I quickly took my meds, got dressed, grabbed our empty water jugs (the main reason I was going to town today) and headed out to my mothers. Since I had three water jugs to take along, my older daughter came down to help me with the doors before feeding the outside cats. She wasn’t impressed that I got another call to cover a no-show (nothing was said about why, this time, and I didn’t ask). She asked if the med assists were being done by volunteers, or if my mother was paying for the service. I told her, it’s covered by our health care system, so they are being paid. My mother has a list of names for all the home care aids she can expect to see. there are ten names on that list. It does seem odd that, with so many aids just for the scheduled route my mother is on (there would be many others), there isn’t someone who can cover when one can’t do the scheduled rounds.
Ah, well. It is what it is. At least the weather is better!
I did remember to phone my mother, first, to let her know I was on the way!
When I got there, my mother was not at all impressed. She’s angry that I have to drive aaaaall that way (it’s about 20-25 minutes of driving time, so not that bad) to do her meds. At least she didn’t start yelling about how we need to get rid of the lock box because she can do her meds herself.
She did, however, get upset over how I was taking the meds out of the bubble pack, and where the lock box was sitting, and where I put the note pad…
She began telling me how the home care aids would pop the pills out of the bubble packs “in the air” (meaning, not over the table, but right into their hands), and pills would go flying all over. Which may have happened a couple of times but, as far as I know, this was before she went to the hospital. It’s why I brought over the tiny dish so the meds could be put into it and double checked.
There was a different reason I was having issues with the bubble pack, though. I was opening the last bubble in this particular pack – and discovered it had been taped shut. I mentioned the tape and my mother said one of the aids did it because she had opened up the wrong day’s bubble.
I got the pills into the little bowl, then checked on the printout inside the cover of the bubble pack to count how many there supposed to be for her morning medications.
One was missing.
A few days ago, while digging for the lab work requisition form, I found a loose pill on the bottom of the lock box.
Now we know where it came from.
When the next aid came to do the med assist saw the pill and my note, she got a tiny envelope for it, labelled it and put it back in the lock box, so I was able to open that up and include it with the rest of the pills Mom was to take this morning.
I then made out a detailed note about when my mother got her medications, what I found and what I did, including putting a new bubble pack into the lock box.
My mother also has an inhaler to take morning and night and I asked her about it, but she said she hasn’t really been taking it. It was a test to see if it would help any with her breathing issues, and it made no difference that she could tell. So we skipped that.
Since I was there anyhow, I did some other stuff for her. The aids are supposed to have extra time booked to help my mother with things like a meal assist (she usually has food ready before they arrive). Some they ask if she needs anything done. Some of them never do. For her morning visit, this includes emptying the bucket in her commode, but they’re also supposed to be available to help her get dressed if she needs it.
I stayed with her to visit for a bit longer, basically waiting until the pharmacy in town opened at 9am, so I could phone them. When my mother started to complain again about my coming out – she is convinced the aids are cancelling simply because they don’t want to do their jobs – I told her that my being able to come out, and having a reliable vehicle to do it, is a blessing. That seemed to take her aback a bit, and I think she liked the idea of thinking of it that way.
After saying my goodbyes to my mother, I spent some time in the truck to update my family and my siblings before calling the pharmacy. With the meds my husband takes, I wasn’t sure they’d even be ready so quickly; he’d called in his refills just yesterday. As we were talking, she asked my time frame, so I told her where I was (which gave her an idea of how long it would take) and why. We deal with this particular pharmacist often enough that she remembers our names and most of my husband’s medications. When I mentioned that there was no one to do my mother’s med assist this morning, she completely understood. They had been in the same situation with her own mother – they even had a lock box. She said they often had home care cancelling visits for them, too. Being in another town, they had their own home care office and staff, but the issue was exactly the same. Last minute cancellations that the family had to cover, frequently. It seems to be a pretty universal problem, and not just in our province.
As for my husband’s refills, they wouldn’t be able to have them ready today, so that’s still scheduled for delivery in a couple of days. Which is fine. I still needed to make the drive to town. I just wasn’t going to go to the pharmacy as well.
Once in town, I got the water jugs refilled. I have a “frequent buyer” list where, after getting 10 refills, I get one free, so one of my refills was free today.
While there, I picked up a couple of things for home, as well as things for our Easter basket. I think we have everything we want to put in it, this year, except for a small ham, which we might simply skip this year.
That done, it was just a quick stop for fuel before heading home. After unloading the truck to my daughter in the house, I left her to put things away while I parked the truck and closed up the gate. I had noticed the plastic on the cover over the raised bed in the old kitchen garden had some gabs fluttering in the wind, so I got the clear duct tape to secure it more.
Before finishing up and heading inside, I spotted Brussel with her babies and decided to give her a squeeze treat. She was really nervous today, though.
I found myself wondering if other cats had been bothering her and her babies – or maybe a skunk or a raccoon! In the two videos above, you can see how agitated she was.
Once I started giving her the squeeze treat, she was right in there – still agitated and somewhat aggressive, but very quick to start eating the treat! When I had to move my hand out so I could use my other hand to squeeze out what was left in the tube, she actually snarled at me and attacked my hand, trying to pull it back! I ended up squeezing the remaining paste onto my fingers (it didn’t start out on purpose!) and let her lick the treat off. She was okay with that, even as she continued to snarl at me.
It should be interesting to see if she has calmed down any, when I do the evening feeding.
I’m glad I was able to go into town for errands today, though. As I write this, we’ve reached our expected high of 6C/43F We’re actually supposed to stay above freezing overnight, but in the wee hours, we’re supposed to start getting a combination of rain and snow, which is supposed to continue through tomorrow. Tomorrow’s high is supposed to be only 2C/36F, but if the long range forecast is at all accurate, that’s going to be the coldest high we have from now on. We’re even expected to reach 15C/59F in a few days! Things are supposed to cool down again, and we’re even supposed to get more mixed rain and snow later in the month, but daytime highs are no longer expected to dip below freezing.
Not including wind chill. That’s a whole other animal!
I will continue to monitor the temperatures inside the greenhouse. While it gets colder overnight, it still maintains at least some warmth. I might decide to try starting seeds inside there, rather than in the basement, when it’s time to start the next batch.
As it is now, I am expecting to start potting up the pre-germinated tomato seeds tomorrow. I could do some tonight, but I want to be able to do all of them at once. Maybe not all 4 varieties, but at least all the seeds in a couple of varieties, just because of space issues.
With how chilly it is in the basement, they should handle the cooler night time temperatures in the greenhouse fairly well! My younger daughter has made a point of working on things while in the basement, so that the heater can be left running. She’d been down there for a couple of hours when I joined her for a bit, and the thermometer was still at 12C/54F. Meanwhile, the thermometer in the greenhouse was reading 19C/66F!
With the combination of rain and snow we’re getting tomorrow, I’m not going to uncover the raised bed but, by the day after, it should be thawed enough that we can take the mulch off the winter sown seeds.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what manages to germinate.
While doing my morning rounds, I found that Brussel had left her babies and gone outside. This gave me a chance to take a peak at them before she returned, and I gave her her wet cat food treat.
The babies are a lot more mobile now, and their eyes are now open!
You can see the calico’s eyes in the first image, and the black and white kitten can be seen blinking in the video at the end.
I went to my mother’s today and was gone long enough that it was time to feed them again when I got home. I started that before even going inside, and asked my daughter to bring a jug of warm water for them. I was coming back into the sun room when she warned me about the stinky kitty!
This is the little one I’m not sure what to make of. He seems… lost, somehow. He’s quite a bit smaller than the couple of others that I’ve been seeing. He and the cats don’t seem to mind each other. I’ve sort of given up trying to chase him out, since he just goes under that shelf instead of out the door. The others will leave the sun room when I go to chase them out, sometimes even just by telling them to leave through the intercom on the critter cam, but not this little guy.
That crunching noise they make when they eat the kibble is very distinctive!
Anyhow…
Today has turned out to be a lovely day. Which was appreciated since my mother had to actually go with me for some of her errands. I’d made a point of eating breakfast before I left, since I wasn’t planning to eat at her place with my current Lent restrictions. I have given up sugar, but my mother gives up meat on Fridays. She did ask me to pick up some wedges for her, forgetting that she got her Meals on Wheels today. They tend to have fish on Fridays in general; today, it was a tuna sandwich for the main protein portion. She had enjoyed most of her wedges before it got delivered, so she just ate the soup and saved the rest for later.
This time, I remembered to take her blood pressure, though I had to ask her where she’d put the machine. It should be left on the table, tucked away behind her telephone’s base, next to the lock box, but she decides it takes up too much space, and hides it. This time, it was in the linen closet.
As she was eating her wedges, I went into the lock box to get her lab requisition paperwork for this month. The printouts had ended up on the bottom of her lock box and I had to really did to get them out.
Which is why I found the pill.
One of her medications – a pill she takes once in the morning, and again, just before bed – was loose on the bottom of the box. I checked her bubble packs in there to see which medication it was. There is no way to know how long it’s been in there. Even before we got the lock box, the home care aids are supposed to empty the bubble pack capsule for the time of day into a tiny bowl with a lid I’d given my mother, specifically for this. When she first started getting med assists, there were a couple of times when a pill was almost lost, just on her table, and another was found on the floor when she was sleeping. That’s why I brought the tiny bowl. It’s a sauce bowl made to look like a miniature tagine, so it has a conical lid. I ended up putting the found pill into the bowl, along with a note for the next home care aid. The pill would need to be thrown out, but they need to know that this happened, even if we have no idea when. Their job is to make sure my mother takes her meds properly. For them to start losing pills and not even notice is a problem!
My mother had other things she needed help with today, and I was able to get some things done before we left for our first stop, the lab at the nearby hospital (that doesn’t really have any doctors!). I had my own requisition forms from my doctor, which I’d left in the truck, yesterday. Which was an oops. It turns out my blook work required fasting. I was able to get my EKG done, though.
From there, we went to her bank for some cash, then to the pharmacy to get her bubble packs. They were going to be delivered later in the day, but she wasn’t sure if there would be money owing on it or not. It turned out there was; the fiscal year for her pharmacare deductible has flipped. She had stayed in the truck, so when I came back to tell her house much it would be, she was surprised and said she’d never paid that much before. Which just means she doesn’t remember, since it would have been a year since she’s had to pay. I explained it a bit, as she thought that getting charged for her meds was some random thing. She would not have understood what a deductible is, but she did understand that she’d have charges every April.
Not that she’ll remember, next April! Hopefully, by then, she’ll be in the supportive living situation she wants to be in.
After that, my mother was ready to go home. Once I got her inside and settled in, I got a couple of loads of laundry started for her, then headed to the grocery store with her shopping list. It turned out to be timed perfectly. By the time I got back, her wash was ready to be loaded into the driers.
I had to make a few substitutions on her shopping list this time, and I always go through everything with her while I put things away. I even made sure to open the milk carton for her. Her local grocery store only carries the 2L cardboard cartons now, instead of the plastic jugs. They can be difficult to open at the best of times. The last time I opened one for her, I had to use a knife to separate the carboard! This time, it opened properly, but my mother still would have had a hard time with it.
While waiting for her laundry, I had time to do some more housekeeping stuff for her.
Which is when we talked about a gift bag that was set aside when I first arrived.
From our vandal.
It turns out he had come over this morning, not long before I got there. She had told him I was coming and he apparently completely lost it and started saying some really horrible things about me. My mother didn’t want to repeat what he said, but confirmed that it was “the usual”. She said she told him that his hate is why he’s so sick now. He won’t let her talk, though. If she tries to stand her ground and respond to what he says, he just leaves.
The bag turned out to have a small head of cabbage, a couple of onions, and a jar of soup wrapped in paper towel to insulate it.
My mother has told him repeatedly, not to bring her soup. She says the terrible things he says and does makes it taste bad.
There was also an envelope, with written instructions that what was inside was only for her to read.
Which, of course, is the last thing she should actually do.
I ended up opening the envelop for her, then handed it to her to do as she wanted. There were some copies of a photo of our vandal in there, clearly taken while he was at the hospital, though not in a hospital bed. Then she started trying to read the letter, out loud.
After a while of her struggling to read it, I offered to read it to her.
Once I saw it, I could see why she was struggling! It wasn’t just because English is not her first language, or her eye sight. It wasn’t even because his writing was messy; in fact, it was somewhat more legible than usual. Just looking at the shakiness of the writing, he clearly is having a hard time controlling the mobility of his hands. No, it was the content and some of the very strange spellings of things. He had some terrible things to say about me, of course. According to him, I’m to blame for his cancer – and his doctor and counsellor agree, 100%. He also claimed I told my mother the soup from him is poison. ???!!!??? Plus a few other things that had us wondering where his mind is at, because they were complete inventions.
We talked about him for a while. Thankfully, my mother was able to handle the contents of the letter better than in the past, and she didn’t try to defend or make excuses for him.
Then I put everything back in the envelope, set it aside, and we moved on to other things.
All in all, even with the issue of our vandal, it turned out to be a really good visit. My mother was in good spirits, even if she was clearly really struggling to move around her apartment. The visit went well, the laundry and housework got done, and my mother is now well stocked with groceries and her medications.
Just before I left, my mother checked the time and realized that I was there for five hours! We got lots taken care of in that time.
It actually felt like I wasn’t gone that long, because it was still so bright out by the time I headed home. I am just loving these longer days!
It’s going to be extra nice once the snow is gone, and we can start getting work done in the garden!
The Re-Farmer 