One of THOSE days again...

I got stuck on the $3800 owed on top of property taxes and the rest faded to blank.

Fight the ambulance bill. Sorry it's been one of those days. Venting is required in this profession, sweetie. Welcome to the new normal. Line up some respite.

I was wondering how things were going for you. Sorry today's been a bad day, but can I assume that the other days up to today have been better? Sure hope so.

Leaf blowers in the early morning hours - check out our comments on these and other noisy gas powered devices on the Pet Peeve thread - you'll find that you're not alone.

Start here on page 34, with WindyRidge's comment on leaf blowers. We had a nice time complaining about the noise created by neighbors.

https://www.agingcare.com/discussions/what-are-your-pet-peeves-186528.htm?cpage=34

I think some people have no concept of huge bills - expecting a $3K bill to be paid in 2 weeks is ridiculous.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when you ask for change for a $1M bill!

Re the property taxes, I take it that NJ doesn't have a deferment option for seniors? In Michigan we have the option to defer payment until Feb. 14, if we meet certain income or other criteria.

Sometimes it all comes at once, doesn't it? Hopefully the rest of the month will be less unsettling.

BTW, how is your mother's rehab coming along?

dmanbro, thanks for the update, good to hear from you again. Don't you love it when our Moms say "this taste funny" or "this don't taste right" for something they have been using for decades.... "but the packaging looks different", and you cannot convince Mom the items inside ARE THE SAME.

And thanks for the comic relief, we do need to laugh at what is going on :)

Thanks for the replies everyone! Mom is doing pretty well. Trying to get her to do any meaningful PT is still a challenge but health-wise she's doing as well as she has since this whole thing took a turn for the worst back in June. While caring for her at home has been challenging at times it still beats hospitals and rehab by a country mile. We try to stick to a more or less regular routine and so far it's been working, knock on wood. The visiting nurse service has ended, however we still have regular visits from the visiting physician service and the blood tech. The visiting doctor has to be paid out-of-pocket but at least it's reasonable.

Oh, that $3800 is just the top of the pile, there's another few thousand dollars worth of random hospital bills on top of that. In fact, just this morning I got a bill from the hospital bed place asking for another $25, even though a) I was told it was 100% covered and b) they delivered that bed back in August. While I obviously don't want to be a deadbeat about it, there's a priority list here: home, utilities, food & sundries, medical, car....THEN everything else. I try to establish "payment plans" whenever possible but usually they balk but hey, you can't get blood from a turnip. "Get in line" is the new family motto around here. Because she collects a state pension from my dad's old job, Mom falls in that zone where she makes "too much" to qualify for a lot of programs. And of course, "too much" is relative.

Re: the neighbor, he really is a great neighbor and a really handy and helpful guy to know but yeah, he's one of those guys who just enjoys noisy things. He owns a Harley too BTW, the leaf blower is whisper quiet next to that thing.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm holding up OK. I make sure to get out at least once a week even if it's just for a few hours, the granddaughters don't really do a whole lot when they're here but they are at least keeping an eye on Mom when I leave for a while. I'm aiming for some real quality time sometime in December, maybe a weekend or something just to get a chance to regroup.

One thing that never fails to drive me insane...for whatever reason, whenever we get a nurse visit or a blood draw or whatever we're always first on the list for the day. Like tomorrow for example, it's time for a blood monitoring visit and of course it's going to be between 8:30 and 10, which means I'll be up at the crack of dawn with the changing and the sheets and yet another load of laundry to do so everything's ready when the technician arrives. My mother will ordinarily sleep until around 9-ish is left to her own devices, which means she'll be more tired and cranky than usual tomorrow which means I will be too. What the h*ll is wrong with noon? It's a small complaint but annoying nonetheless.

We've just gone through home care staffed by people who are also early risers. That was one of the issues I was thinking of when I posted about the difference between home care staff who are more accustomed to working with older people.

Getting an older person up early means someone's going to be tired or grouchy, and that can include the caregiver. Actually, I was glad when this last group of home care staff finished. At least now Dad can sleep in - I mean, after all, when you're retired, and when you're in your 90's, shouldn't you be allowed to sleep in? I say, a hearty yes!

Sleep in? My Dad [94] is up with the chickens, every day at 6 a.m. even 25 years after he had retired from work. Come on, sleep in will ya? The caregiving agency finally found someone willing to be at the house by 6 a.m. which meant they were out of their house and on the road by 5:30 a.m. Good grief. One young guy that Dad really liked couldn't handle that early of a start.

Mom used to be an "early bird" but not so much anymore. Now me, I hate the morning, years of having to be at work by 6:30am will do that to you. The way I see it, Mom's earned the right to sleep until whenever she d*mn well pleases, so I let her within reason of course.