Failures and accomplishments today.

Got up early and got dishes done and picking up feel goododay wil go to the senior center for exercise and lunch then to my craft group ten out for coffee with some of the gals then a quick supper with my honey-tonight is soup and rolls then to church a small group get together on Wed nights-I do not go from Nov until the days get longer. Once a week we have sandwiches and another night a prepared meal -just to cook then cook real food the other 4 nights. We are expecting snow and ice later tonight so may not get out tomorrow.

Here's my 2 cents. My sister came to visit for a couple of days, so I figured "wheeeeeee" .. well in the night, my 2 adorable rescued kittens got into my sister's knitting and .. 7 hours later I still haven't finished unraveling it .. oh well, I'd rather be doing that than listening to my mother criticize me !!

im taking a break from the big stones today and hauling some driveway stone. not much of a break actually..

Hmm M has hired someone to help him sort through his piles of paper and file essentails. Trouble is he treats it as a social event so I don't know if it is a failure or accomplishment. I can see the top of the coffee table though

shoveled 5 ton of # 2's today.
probly shovel 5 more tomorrow. at least i dont live with a fear of death. life is whats h*ll, death seems breezy by comparison.
ive bout done it all in my lifetime. in fact im the only mf in the whole dam world who could make linda lovelace gag.
* sigh * , yup, been listening to david allen coe again..
i particularily like the panhead song by david. very pretty ballad about the love of his life. lol, his panhead motorcycle..

Captain, IF Linda Lovelace was still alive, she would be 65. That visual ought to make YOU gag. "Panheads Forever" (1982 DAC) haha yes ! I spilled a Sportster while learning to ride in '93. The owner rushed over, righted the bike, looked her over front and back for scratches, breathed a sigh of relief and then said to me "Oh. Are you OK?" when I got up.

Slept like a log last night. First time I slept well since my little beast buddy went over the rainbow bridge. Decided to think of done chores rather than my to do list which seems endless,

I connected with mother's hearing aid people and got things set up for them to invoice me when she goes for her new set, and also with the social worker and got a few things sorted out re the earing aids, mother's keys and her "in trust" account at the facility.

Working on what to pack for our trip (coming up sometime) which is causing me to do a quick sort and discard of clothing I am not using.

Made turkey necks and sauerkraut for tomorrow and hot italian sausage/tomato/pasta dish for G who will be home late.



It smells like spring outside though it is still pretty cool.

Took mom for testing at urogynecologist. She did great but, naturally uncomfortable as there was a series of four catheter inserted to look at bladder. It was stressful for me too, until I told mom I hadn't had that view of her since the day I was born. She thought that hysterical, it sure lightened the mood and gave all of us something to laugh at.

not trying to take away from your fun story stegman but i actually pulled a worse one many years ago. our family of 4 were riding thru a small town on the big trike on parade day no less. the ex was driving and the right carb was pizzin down her pantleg. whoof.. up in flames on the main street of monrovia with a million bystanders. i thought the wife had a little pantleg fire that would run out of fuel pretty quickly so i expended my efforts on beating the engine flames out with my jacket. a bystander tore off his own jacket and put my wifes fire out. she had a rather small but 2nd degree burn on her leg. i still have no qualms about putting out the bike fire. ike hauls over 8 gallon of fuel and many people were in potential danger if the bike had blown -- which wasnt going to happen.
i was married for 16 years but have been riding the same bike for 30 years. the bike was the better investment as hes still here and shes not.
my latest trike ( the short bus ) hauls 11 gallon of fuel. im taking that sucker straight over the bering straights someday and probably go punch putin in the face. i like him ok, he just talks too much s**t and needs a reality check..

Got most of my kitchen washed down...prepping for fresh paint. Still have the ceiling to do and one wall of wallpaper to remove. So tired of wallpaper, I want walls without wallpaper.

well, back to the massive stone landscape bars today.
gonna stone a house for this doc this or next year. ive located some 3 " thick granite stones the size of an automobile hood or bigger and im determined to use 3-4 of those on each side of a house. the normal sized stones become subservient to the monsters.
i like to make my own rules for the thrill of later breaking them..

cap't I know you make your own rules-your neighbors must never be bored. Since our last storm never materialized we are promised one for Monday when our Senior Cent party is planned

accomplishments - up to walking a good 30 minutes now and found one pair of shoes I will not bring with me on holiday.
failures - an infection and now a cold, I think. Better get over them by next Thursday when we leave for warm places!!!
watching Gypsy with Ros Russell. Love those old shows.

Sorry you were not well. Glad to see you back

id just like to share that when caregiving has ended you get your own self determination back and life begins again with a renewed vigor. i knock down so many things on a well planned daily circuit sometimes that id sound like a boastful teen if i listed them all. during caregiving there seems to be no future -- but there is.
today im going after an ongoing " running rich " situation on my smaller truck. ill end up at ednas apartment later and we'll test drive it a bit.

thx veronica,
got all my bathroom floors done finally, got bedding etc. together for the young men who will be renting, packing almost done -have to switch purses and you ladies know what a chore that is, but other than that, packing up the laptop and cleaning up a bit more in the kitchen I am ready to roll
cap I am not over and done with the caregiving, but the pressure has decreased considerably since mother is in the psychiatric hospital and I am feeling some renewed energy
hope everyone is doing well

after the scene that went down between cuz sharon and her son " big dumb " ive been asked to take edna to her doc appointment today. theres a lot to be said for remaining calm in the face of controversy.
i helped my masonry helper replace the mangled dipstick tube in his blazer transmission yesterday. it was childsplay to me but a life crisis to him.. hes worth investing in. hes the type who will return favors. i rumbled with his barking doberman a week ago. dog phsycology. i locked eyes with him, stated my intentions and walked up on the patio with a hollow steel broom handle and made a murderous scene yet the stick only made contact with his nose one time. the porch spindles provided the bulk of the ruckus. im now the alpha male who is too crazy to screw with and he not only dont bark at me but were pretty good friends and i congratulate him for being such a good boy. dogs are so easy to train that it makes ya want to bi**hslap the owners sometimes.

Now that spring is in sight things look better. My honey had his surgery and is doing well a piece of cake after taking care of the husband all those years and so many surgeries -this hospital had a tracking screen you just checked the pt's number and it would tell you what stag they were in-it was neat and helped avoid the worry of when the surgery ended.

Cap'n your either the alpha dog or he sees you as a rabid raccoon.

either way, its working stegman. lol

took edna to lunch, doc, follow up with pharm, took her to see a 200 year old cabin that ive fired up with stone. bought a cord and moved her phone base over next to her recliner so she can hear it ringing. reported back to cuz sharon as i should and let me brag just one time and rather blatantly. cuz sharon who viewed me as an irritant 6 weeks ago complimented me today as being a kickass m - f where elder care is concerned. lol. compete b**ch. thats the way that works..

he he he. with ednas dementia we can go see the same stone job everyday and its always a new visual treat.

lol. doc sez i can stay with edna when she gets a little worse and he'll slap kenmar living center into submission from the top down in alphabetical order.
history shows that he'll do it too..

Made improvised songs to sing with my husband as he started saying “I can’t sing”, and made chocolate pancake with home made Azuki with marmalade and apple preserve for supper. It’s good to see his smile. I did not do anything I planned. Oh well, one of these days.

What is Azuki?

Appricot we only have a numbered days here and this is one day you will both remember for a long time

today doesnt look very promising yet. im waiting on a reply from a customer to get a pretty neat limestone porch project fired up. may end up working on my new steel truck bed. ive destroyed the factory bed in the small truck in only 6 months. it wont take my kind of stone- hurlery..

Norestforweary, Azuki beans are small nutty uniformly red-brown colored legumes. They often used in Japanese deserts (Azuki sometimes spells Adzuki). Some red beans are also claimed Azuki/Adzuki beans, but I found there are some differences. The other day, I bought made in China Aduzki beans. They were inexpensive, and the package also showed in Japanese. Japanese Azuki beans maintain red-brown color even after soaking them, but other ones faded their color away. My home remedy book says one of the effects of Japanese Azuki beans is to help reduce edema when cooked with only a little salt. Many people like to eat them sweet, but I do not add any sugar because my husband is diabetic and has kidney problem. Rather, I add like home made apple preserve which contains no sugar. I do not know the real effect, but at least it’s good for my soul just thinking my husband and I are eating healthy food.

My mother has mild memory loss, to start with. My mother complained that she "feels like a hobo" travelling around with all her things in bags and travelling all over the place. She complained that she doesn't have her things with her. She has been staying in a spare room and we're not finished with her permanent room so this is true -- her things are in bags and she's living in a temporary mode.

Today's failure is that I thought she was complaining that we're not working fast-enough on the room nor doing enough for her. I lost my temper and kind of told her off. I felt unappreciated. However, she didn't even understand why I was upset. She looked even smaller than usual. She didn't say anything. She seemed bewildered, confused and hurt. I felt like such a big creep.

This leads to today's accomplishment, which is that I realized that she doesn't realize that we do have her things here in the house but still packed away. I realized that I have to remind her every day until we get her room done and her things unpacked where she can see them that she didn't leave her things behind. Also, I have to be more forceful about getting her to put things out on the desk she has in her spare room so that she can see them so that she's not carrying bags around. She's agreed to let me help her with that, today.

I'm not perfect and not guaranteeing I won't yet again lose my temper but now understand her a little better and now figured out a couple more things I need to do to make her feel welcome in my home.

Geo, my MIL complained about leaving her house, until I reminded her that when she was 60, she hauled all her stuff to FLA every December, then back in April, then hauled it to Canada in June and back in October and repeated that cycle for ten years. It's not like she stayed in one place for long.