Mom the cat

Mom gets into bed. I move all of her stuff (water, food bits, tissues) to beside her bed and turn on her electric blanket. Ten minutes later, mom gets up and sits in her chair. I move all the stuff back, turn off her electric blanket. Ten minutes later she goes to the bathroom. (One good thing - she doesn't seem to just sit in the toilet for hours - yay! Or fall asleep in there - something I have done once or twice) Then back to her room to being the cycle again. At 6 in the morning. Yay.

Trying to play catch up a little. Just spent a few minutes cleaning off my computer's desktop. That was fun. I need to pay bills, but I think I will do that tomorrow - once Mary Chapin Carpenter is behind me. That brewhahaha starts at 12:30. But knowing them, they will probably just do whatever they want without regard to the schedule that they set up. We shall, of course, see. 

Ok, exhaustimicated. It was a long day flitting between the Smith and home. And I am fairly tired. So, more anon.

Simply Sunday

Off to a good start. I got  great amount of sleep after the past two days of having to get up at an hour to which I am not accustomed. Huzzuh! And mom did a decent job of getting herself to and fro from the bathroom. Without calling for me. Double huzzuh!

Mom's tummy is upset. That isn't fun for anyone. Poo, even. :)

We have had lunch and mom ate everything without complaint. Yippee, even. 

No exciting plans for the day. Some Smith work is all I really have on my plate.

I really need to start working on getting mom either more care here or get her to a nunnery, er nursing home. I can feel that those next steps are imminent. I thought it would be in January, but we have managed to Mid April. Go us.

Spring is spronged! Yay! We have bluets in our yard. And next door some daffodils. And our lilac bushes are starting to leaf and bud. How exciting is that?

Went shopping at the grocery store and bought some hamburger so that I can make meatballs for dinner. Yum. 

I also bought mom a red heart ballon and bought myself a whole pile of boxer shorts. I am so excited to change my underwear now. But I am holding on - anticipating the excitement tomorrow. So excited!!

Ok, definitely not playing Dark Souls or any of its variants anymore. When the first boss you play is 3 times as strong and the first thing that happens is that you are stunned without recourse - that just isn't fun. On to the next game.

Ahhhh

It is nice not to be running around. Yesterday I did a good bunch of Smith stuff and some errand running (meaning mostly that I sat in bed and paid bills). But then I did go to the Post Office, City Hall and the Bank. Mom got her tax refund from the IRS. Huzzuh! We are solvent again! (Just joking, we are doing ok for now). And I deposited a lovely surprise from Ernst and Betty! (Thank you both so much!) I also got to visit Lake Drum for a beer - and tried to watch the Space-X launch which was, sadly, scrubbed because there was a thunderstorm 10 miles away. Really? Big tough rocket is scared of a wee, itty bitty storm? Waaaaah! :) They are trying again today, but I am not holding out a lot of hope for it since the weather is supposed to be worse today. I think I got a couple of people excited about Elon Musk and Space-X attempting to land their first stage. I know I am excited...

Today, I got up really early, well, early for me, and did a bunch of Smith Stuff (worked on two email campaigns, set up HVAC for the week, worked on the slide show and added a movie to the Smith Website. (Only one more to go and we will be all confirmed for May already! Yippee!) I am planning on heading out to do some laundry this afternoon while also doing some stuff at the Smith. Multitasking. And I might head to Lake Drum again. I do need to go to the grocery store for veggies. I might actually go back to my Apple Beet Carrot juicing. We shall see. I can't wait for my CSA to start. That will be interesting and hopefully nifty.

Well, poo. The first stage of the Falcon 9 Space-x launch vehicle landed too hard again. I will wait patiently for the reason, if we ever hear it. Double poo.

Trying to get through Tomb Raider. Generally I like it. I don't like the cut scenes and the quicktime events. Both of those are "not like the other (the rest of the game)" and thus aren't as enjoyable to me. Just sayin'. Hey, where does that phrase come from?

Zip, zoom, zowie

Here we are, almost to mid April. I think the time goes weirdly when the weather is weird. Then again, maybe I am just weird. Weird is a weird word.

I just paid a couple of bills. It is that sort of day. Time to get some stuff accomplished that has been accumulating. Mom gets her STAR exemption, I mail the taxes (I still don't understand how I, who earns so little owe state taxes - seriously it is mind boggling - but then again, I do live in NYS and we are one of the more heavily taxed states), Netflix gets its latest movie back, and my retirement gets another bit of funding (yes, mom's Publisher's Clearing House entries are waiting to be put together). And I am sleepy. I am looking forward to the day when I can sleep and wake when I want to, not with the Mom Clock waking me at hours that make sense to her. Sigh. Snore.

My plan is to crank through the stuff that I have piled on my bed, and then start to think about Smith stuff. I know that I want to go in and work on the copier issues - get scanning and emailing up and working, get the PS (post script) printer drivers up and running on the two office computers and maybe some of the laptops, keep working on Theatre Manager (trying to learn how to design tickets to be scanned and how to scan them to show them as used)(and other stuff).

Honesty is a rare thing, I find. A checker at Wegman's gave me $.75 because she took my bottle return coupons one day six months ago and forgot to take them off my receipt. How great is that?!

So many great lines in The Big Bang Theory. Just saying.

Great Friday!

It is going to be a great day. I can just feel it! (Ok, no, I can't, not really. I woke up feeling a little worse for wear for some reason.) The reason I wrote what I wrote is because today is "Good" Friday. See what I did there? 

I got a lot done yesterday for the Smith. I am about a third of the way through my instructions on how to use Theatre Manager for selling Movie Tickets. I don't know that I will finish it in time for Saturday, but that doesn't really matter as I plan to go and be there for whoever is doing the box office for the next few showings. 

Just paid all the bills that were lying around. Now if only I could start sorting papers...

Why does it feel like Saturday to me? Weird. 

Lunch is done - time for a little nap and then off to the Smith to help out there for a bit. Sigh.

No nap, though I did sit quietly for most of fifteen minutes.

Stuff and nonsense. Watched a movie. More tomorrow. 

Did we have dinner?

This was the question I woke up to this morning at 7:30 am. Mom was concerned that we hadn't had dinner. Had we? What did we have? (We had chicken with sauce and cheese - sort of chicken parmesan like except we didn't actually have any parmesan cheese - asparagus and mashed potatoes.) This was all really a way for mom to tell me that she was hungry. Which is a good thing. So I got her a yogurt which seemed to mollify her. Yay.

The one hour copier set-up visit ended up taking 2.5 hours - not because of the copier set-up, but I got caught up in a lot of other things. Yay?

It has been a much busier Smith day than I had anticipated. I still have things to do - I did just add another movie to the month's list. And I need to add it to the Slide Show - which I will do tomorrow morning at some point. I am still fighting spam and junk on one of the computers I bought for the Smith. If I can't solve the problems, I will take it to Damian and see if he wants to take a crack at it. It is just way too frustrating to work with at this point. Grrrr. I hate, hate, hate windows machines. Greedy companies agree to put crap on their machines so they are guaranteed some money. Poo on them. 

I did look at the bills I had to pay and they can all wait until after April 1st when mom's bank account will be a teeny bit replenished. Sigh. 

Tomorrow is April 1st! How cool is that? I really need to dig through my papers and see if I can find any of the 1099c's that Karl thinks I have. Grr and poo. IRS is for ninnies. Will I remember to rabbit?

I am so far behind in my correspondence. Sigh.

What? Still March?

How did that happen? I thought it was April. Sigh...

I really need to make up a quick to do list for today. I don't have a lot of stuff scheduled which is good. That means I have a lot of time to do stuff. I know I have a couple of calls to make to the Alzheimer's association. I would like to see about getting a respite person in. Mom doesn't take well to strangers generally, but we can hope. I also need to look for those papers Karl seems to think I have. I probably did get them, but I am afraid I might have tossed them since they came from creditors that I no longer cared about. I am tempted to just let Karl file and then worry about it afterwards. It isn't like I was counting on a refund from the blinkety-blank IRS anyway. Why does anyone who earns less than $50k pay anything in US taxes anyway? Every penny of that money that we do get to keep is used anyway, just to keep our heads about water - or a roof over our heads, food in our belly's and electricity for our lives. Sigh. I would like to send back the camera I got that was, once again, the wrong sort. How on earth am I supposed to get the right one? Grrrr. I would like to do some Smith stuff - take in the laptop that I have here at home, set up the Movies for April in Theatre Manager (we really need a third permanent log on), and all that sort of thing. Some of it I can do from home. Much of it, actually, if I can be sure that I can have one of the Theatre Manager spots available to me. I would also like to call Rosanne at some point and thank her for the early tremendously generous Birthday present she sent me. I think that is my to do list.

Oh, get the Dave Crosby ticket selling announcement out ought to be on the list. And send out work requests for SPA. I don't know that I can get three people to help them. We shall, of course, see.

Tonight will be chicken for dinner. Yum. And what else? Some sort of vegetable. I believe I still have potato in the fridge - if it isn't bad. Gotta check that. Speaking of which, mom has gotten some of her appetite back. Yippee and huzzuh! I fed her almost as much as I was used to feeding her before and she ate almost all of it! Phew!

Talk about a shit storm! Eeek! (My browser keeps changing that to Week!) We had a murder (or two or three) of crows in our trees the last few days. And they decided that they wanted to help fertilize my lawn. And my sidewalk. And my car. Ew! I went and got it all washed off the car at the car wash. Yay!

I started playing a game, Red Faction: Guerrilla, which is ok at best. I got it free, so I am not too distressed over its lack of quality. I think I will put off playing it for now and play one of my good games that I have lying around. Which game to play, though, is the question. And when.

Blocked!

Mom realized why the gate was there and was unamused. Sorry/not sorry. I tried to explain to her that it is really for her own safety, but she feels she is being imprisoned. Not much I can do about that. But I can sleep soundly at night not worrying that she will pitch headfirst down the stairs trying to get herself some food. Yippee!!

We are going to the doctor's today to get her looked at and then going to the lawyer's office. Fun day. Good thing I have gotten all of my Smith work (movie playlists, movie sound playlists, HVAC, mail blast, etc.) done already. And tonight, conference call with the family. To whom I emailed the list of records I need to have on hand for eventual medicaid approval. It is a slightly daunting list.

Wow, what a day so far! Mom has forgotten how to stand up apparently. There's some fun stuff. I mean, I remember when she complained about climbing in and out of tombs in Egypt. And grumbling about not getting up all the time. But now she seems to think she has forgotten how to stand up by herself. Yippee. The aide got mom dressed, I gave her lunch and then we had a "talk" about her lack of exercise. Her great response - "What have you done for me lately?" Seriously? Anyway, we shall see if I can get her to do some exercise.

We got to the doctor's on time, huzzuh, and had the wonderful PA we have had before. Mom does indeed have shingles. And she prescribed an anti-viral - as Paul suggested. No one told me that 21 pills was going to cost $65. How much help will it be? That is anyone's guess. I guess we will see.

Then off to the lawyers to see about a couple of things. He didn't think he had any of the originals of some of the documents on my medicaid preparedness list. Oh well. He does have an original will, but the copy is good enough for now.

We were going to go get mom some ice cream, but she wanted to come home and go to the bathroom instead. Weird, but whatever.

I need to go to the pharmacy and get her prescription, pick up some stuff. I might also go and set up an appointment for a massage. I could really use one. Or two. One a week is about right, I think. Sigh.

Got the prescription and cooked leftovers for dinner. Time to do some hard core relaxing.

What the Pluck?!

So many problems at the Smith - the lamps I bought for the projector don't seem to be working - that sucks. Then the lights in the cartouches and the sunrises stopped working. And the smallest thing - the monitor for the DVD player seems to have stopped working. And I had my A-Team on duty - so there was no panic which is good. I hope I can get some of this resolved by time for the movie tonight. We have movie, movie and then four hours or more of TV rebroadcasting - all on a weekend - though I do have all day today to resolve the issues. Ha.

Well, they were pretty easily resolved. The lamp I just kept shoving in until it worked. I was tempted to find a rubber mallet but I didn't need to in the end. Yay! I ordered another new bulb just in case. I like to have two on hand whenever possible.

The lights in the cartouches was, luckily, bonehead user error. Yesterday, while setting up the wifi extenders, I unplugged what I thought was the refrigerator. Turns out that the power packs for the lights are plugged into the wall. Who knew? I certainly didn't. Anyway, all plugged in and happy now!

Lastly, the HDMI splitter thing. Not sure what is going on there, but ordered a new one, just in case. And the tech support people got back to me, but I haven't gotten up the energy to get back with them.

Oh, I did actually start the puzzle and the movie. Though for a bit today the camera was not functioning (I apparently don't know how to make it record...).

More Smith problems. The proprietary application that Emerging Pictures makes us use stopped working - we could get sound and image from a dvd and from the laptop. Ok, sound from the laptop, I didn't try image. I will try that tomorrow, when I go in bright and early and see if I can get the whole thing resolved. That would be nifty. I don't want to have to stress too much.

What I really need is a massage and a few good hugs. The former is more likely.

Time to chill.

Windows Operating System No Bueno

Sue me, I would rather pay more and work less than pay less and work more. I am setting up the second PC Laptop for the Smith and I couldn't be having much less fun. The whole start thing with different boxes of different sizes and sometimes obscure or arcane icons - ewww. And IE (Internet Explorer) just sucks. The interface is boxy and ugly and I have no idea what the hell is going on. Poo even. Macs just work. Did you notice the period? Sure, anyone can fuck up anything. So if you really want to do stuff way outside the huge box that Apple provides - sure, you might run into problems. And lots of them. Because, guess what - that isn't what an Apple device is designed to do. It is designed to let people do lots of stuff that most people want to do. And it lets them do it easily. True, I have been using Apple devices since 1985 so I am used to them - though they have gone through a lot of changes during that time.

Meanwhile, the first (second) camera miraculously appeared in my iPhone app! How cool is that?! I have it in the living room right now. I wish there were one I could make mom wear...

I am doing home stuff today - I might actually get through my teeny list. If I do, I might also go into the Smith later today and see if I can get the two wifi extenders up and working. We shall see. I would really rather do nothing Smith-y today if possible. And I think I am going to do laundry tomorrow afternoon. I think we are in dire need.

Maybe the mattress pad I bought for mom will have to go. Shame because she asked for a foam mattress for so long. It has made the bed really high and mom seems to be scared of it. I will talk it over with Jennie when she comes in today. (I forgot...)

Scary

Last night, I was feeling a bit exhausted for some reason or other. So I got mom upstairs and put Sound of Music on the tv for her. Earlier I had gone to Walmart (ewww) to look for pull up diaper type undies for her - they didn't have a great selection so I will have to try Rite Aid and see what they have - though they are considerably more expensive - and while there, I decided to look at Blu-ray players for mom's room. Found them, eventually, picked one and set it up when I came home. Anyway, I then went to bed and to sleep - figuring that I would wake up (or be woken up) at some point by mom and would turn off the player and the tv at that point. Sure enough, mom woke me up and wanted to go downstairs - at 2 in the morning. I was not amused. And that scared me. Just how unamused I was. I know I could have answered in more loving and reasonable terms - or just let her go down stairs - there are boodles of reasons why her going downstairs at 2 in the morning was not a good option for anyone concerned - but I didn't. Eventually I got the real reason out of her for why she wanted to go downstairs - she wanted more food. Not a big surprise. Got her to agree not to go downstairs and to go to bed. Got her cold water and some fiber bars and tried to go to sleep myself, which I eventually did, I guess. Since I eventually woke up again (to find her "reading" in the orange room/room at the head of the stairs). Sigh.

That was part of my exciting weekend. Woo hoo! The good thing is, I didn't have to go into the Smith  on Sunday (though I did help one of my projectionists with an issue over the phone). Not quite a day off - but less time spent Smithing than I did most days last week.

I love that I live in the "snow belt" and we are getting maybe 3 inches of snow in the next big storm, while people south of us are getting feet of snow! Yay! Then again, boo. I haven't gotten to use my snowblower too much this year. But I will probably go out and use it at some point tonight.

My hair has been shedding in the shower a lot - no, not getting bald, thank you very much mom - which is normal. Sadly, the drain had gotten very clogged. I tried to plunge it, to no avail. I tried using a little cheap snake I had gotten (it actually wasn't all that cheap) which didn't work effectively (probably user error) and thought a lot of "free flowing drain" thoughts - which also didn't miraculously clear up the clog. So, at Walmart (ick) I went to the plumbing area and looked for a more professional snake - found one but it was designed for toilets and I wasn't sure if it would fit through the metal thingies (technical term) in the drain so I opted not to purchase it. There was, though, in a big red bottle, a drain cleaning product called "Hair Clog Remover." Hmm, I wonder what it does...so I bought it and brought it home and followed the instructions and just now ran some water in the tub and it drained immediately! Huzzuh!! Hairless! (The drain, I mean)

TIAA - mom's retirement company - just sent her a note saying, amongst other things, that they think her life expectancy is 99 years old! Eeek! I should live so long.

It just might work...

Last night I wrote down all the things that I would like to accomplish before heading to Maine a week from Tuesday. The list is not all inclusive - I am not putting down daily tasks like cooking and shopping and working at the Smith. And there might be a couple of things that I have forgotten to put on it - hopefully they will come to me before too long - anyway - here is the list:

Pills for mom
Car Looked at/Oil Change
Bike Rack
Bike Helmet
Laundry
Empty Out Orange Room
Clean Little Bathroom
Pay for laptop fixage
Give Card Back to Kelly
Pay Bills
Pack mom and me
Call Time Warner (ick) about speed boost
Vacuum my room
Look in dance studio and third floor for good chair

Most of these are easily doable with a little planning. Monday will be the day when I get the ball rolling on most of these. And here is where the little epiphany thing happened. Used to be, when I took my car to Dave's Garage to have it looked at, I would walk back to the house. And when I was called and told that the car was ready, I would walk back down. Not a big deal - maybe half an hour each way. Then I had my little aha moment. If I bought the car/bike rack before getting the car looked at, I could take the bike down to the car place on the bike rack - ride home and then ride back to the car place then carry the bike home on the rack. Win, win, win! Love those triple win things (which makes me think of horse racing and taking mom to the track again this summer - at least once - hopefully more frequently than that...) Anyway, that will knock three things off my list. Yay! And, while I am out and about, I will try to do some of the other errands on my list - get as many accomplished on Monday as I can. Yay!

Today, I plan to do some of the things around the house - oh, one I don't know if I want to add to the list or not - put the porch back together. It is a good day to do it - not much wind, pretty warm - that way, when I rinse the floor, it ought to dry quickly. Maybe I will wash the floor today and put the porch together tomorrow. One little problem is that mom's port-o-potty is in the doorway to the porch. Hmm. I will have to think on that one...

Ok, time to get started - I have been toiling away on this and a relationship post about what exactly I mean when I talk about relationships. But I gotta eat!

Very Productive morning so far

Good morning! It is not even 9:30 am and I have already had a banner day. Two women I wrote to after they liked my naked face pictures rejected me! Woo hoo! I also completed three entries to my retirement plan (Publisher's Clearing house sweepstakes). I get such a sense of accomplishment from jumping through the hoops and licking the icky tasting glue - and peeling the presticky-ed ones off my tongue - and putting them sort of where they belong on the entry forms. Yay! And lastly, I finished a post about a "relationship" that has ended. (Go read it!) And I haven't even had breakfast! Go me.

Busy Day on Thursday

Not really super busy, but we did a few errands. Mom actually got up and got dressed (with some help from Jenny) before lunch. In fact we did not eat lunch until midway through our appointments. First off, blood sucking phlebotomy! We have a doctor's appointment on Monday. That will be a joyous occasion for sure. In preparation for that, mom needed to get a blood test. So that's what we did. Sadly, over the course of six months, I misplaced the paper that requested the blood test, so had to make a quick run up to the Doctor's office to get a new one - which happened without much time or hassle. Like that! The phlebotomist was a bit curmudgeonly when we first arrived but by the time we left she actually had a little smile. Mom can have that effect on people. Sometimes.

Next stop, Friendly's for lunch. Mom does like Friendly's and feels comfortable there. We had a very nice server who told me that I reminded her of her brother who was taking care of their parents. Mom had a fish sandwich and some coleslaw. I had a Reuben with french fries. Mom spent much of the time "complaining" that she didn't get a Reuben. This was mom's complaining "Don't I like Reubens?" "This isn't like any fish sandwich I have ever had before." Etc. Fun stuff.

Next stop was Rite Aid. I had to pick up some pills for mom. And I wanted her to talk the pharmacist about her flu shot. It was a new-to-me pharmacist named after a hurricane. Ok, not really. But she did say that the hurricane touched down on her birthday, which was sort of odd. Again, she started curmudgeonly, but ended up smiling. Yay!

I offered mom the opportunity (ha) to go to the laundromat with me. She couldn't make a decision. So, rather than drag her there, I left her at home. Laundry went pretty smoothly, had a nice chat with a funny woman from Brooklyn who moved up here for a guy. Brought it home and mom folded about a third of it before giving up.

Next, leftovers for dinner! Yum! And quick and easy. I like meals like that. We had to eat early-ish, so that we could get to the Smith for me to show the movie.

Oscar Shorts 2014 - Animations - five are nominated but they gave us seven to watch. I liked most of them. My favorite was Mr. Hurlbot. I also liked one of the non-nominated films - The Blue Umbrella. I think Is there Room on the Broom is going to win. I liked it but didn't think it was great. It was decently attended. I think mom liked most of the films, which is always a good thing.

So, long day. Yay!

Zoom, zip, pow!

I did in fact get the papers on my desklet sorted and the major bills paid. Yay! I count yesterday as a success. Well, most days I count as successes as I have survived them. That is a good thing, right? Other than that, not a lot of note occurred.

Dinner was totally left overs. And a salad. Does salad count as a leftover? Or does only leftover salad count as a salad? I mean the lettuce and the ingredients have all been in the fridge for a while. The carrots and celery last a long time bathing in water as they do. The mushrooms last longer in the fridge in a bag than they were lasting out of the fridge. Anyway, mom had left over taco stuff, I had left over fajita stuff. Everyone seemed happy.

Since it is so late in the day, I am going to touch on what is happening. I am at the Smith and work is progressing on many fronts. I am getting thing accomplished. Our volunteer is nearing completion of his first major project - getting some lighting storage built. The riggers are doing their fire curtain thing. All is swell with the Smith world. Yay!

Sorry for the thin and boring post. Maybe life will become more exciting later in the week. Here's hoping!

Blogger McBloggerson

That name just kept running through my mind, for some reason...

Watched Despicable Me last night. I had gotten it from Netflix in the hopes that mom would enjoy it. She didn't. Well, poo. So much for being able to figure out what mom likes. I decided to watch it myself. I know that we saw it in the movie theatre. Or that I saw it in the movie theatre. (Having to keep memories for two people in my head isn't always easy...) I know I enjoyed it when I saw it. But I remembered almost none of the movie when I watched it last night. A few things here and there, but mostly it was new again. And not as good as I had believed. Enjoyable and fun, but not great.

Yesterday was kinda tough at the Smith. Kate and I cleaned out all the areas I wanted to clean. I don't think we let go of much, but we did neaten at least four areas. Yay us. We lugged a lot! I think there is only one more area that is high on my list for going through. Next up - actually working on the light plot. I would like to free up some circuits and hopefully will get that settled to my satisfaction.

Ok, off to do laundry! And the library! Yay!

Underwhelmed

I was excited to hear what Apple was going to announce and underwhelmed when I read about what will be coming out. Hopefully they will do better soon. Anything is possible and hope springs eternal.

Speaking of underwhelmed, my home work ethic is underwhelming me just now. My room is habitable - just. No sorting is getting done. In fact, nothing much is getting done. Bills are being paid, mostly on time, dishes are getting washed and food is being prepared. Mom is being taken care of, for the most part. Just nothing above and beyond that is being accomplished. Yes, I am doing more work at the Smith and that is taking some mental and emotional time and energy. Still, I feel like I am slacking! Yay!

I think I need to make a list:
Establish World Peace
Create limitless free energy source available to all
Save the Environment
Eradicate Hunger
Eliminate Disease

That should about do it. I think that is all in a day's work.

Actually my list looks more like:
Clean Room
Sort one box
Pay Bills
Do Laundry
Do paperwork

Oh, I might add do daily blog to that second list. Or the first.

Last night I watched Your Highness. The vulgar humor was not my cup of tea, but despite that, I enjoyed the movie a lot. I like fantasy. I like satire. I love Natalie Portman. Win, win, win!

There was a time

When I was younger, I was happy to fill a day full of activities. And when I am traveling, I generally do a good bit in a day. Just now, though, I in am a one-a-day sort of frame of mind. If I have one thing to do, that is plenty. One major thing, that is. Not a small thing like normal daily activities - I am not all done after brushing my teeth. That would be sad. For instance, Monday, I had the stuff at the Smith to attend to. It didn't take all day - but it did take a good chunk out of it. I could have, though, if I really, really wanted to, worked in all sorts of other non-daily activities in - like laundry or cleaning my room or some such nonsense. Instead, I didn't. Yesterday, I had no non-daily, non-maintenance sort of activities to do. So I played. Today, I had my one activity and am now over it for the day. The rest will be daily stuff - lunch and dinner and things of that ilk.

But back to yesterday, I played a lot of Mass Effect 3. I teared up a few times and eventually got to the end of the game. It took a while and had a lot of cut scenes. There was a big hubbub in the gaming community about the ending - that was all I read about it until after I had finished the game. I didn't mind the ending. And I enjoyed the series overall. Yay games!

Mom had another memory flash - and I think they might hurt her a little bit - they just keep going round and round. This time it was a song from South Pacific.

Time to start thinking about dinner!

Internet Fail!

No Post yesterday, not exactly sure why. I just didn't manage to get it done. Sigh. I did, though, do other stuff. And I did stuff on Friday too. Weird, right?

One of the exciting things that happened recently, was a second round of dimmer vacuuming. This fun filled process is not doen frequently, but seems to do the trick in preventing the dimmers from occasionally failing. Not failing catastrophically, just failing enough to make it annoying for the audience. Since I haven't heard anything from The Smith, I am guessing it did the trick. Yay!

On Friday, mom had a doctor appointment. It was zippy and easy. Sadly, they have gone to an electronic check in system. I guess they are trying to save money by having fewer reception people. Sigh. Why is it all about money? The scanner that is attached to the system had fallen from its velcroed position, so I thought it had eaten my mom's health insurance card. But it hadn't! Phew and yippee! Mom got weighed, not measured, blood pressured, temperatured and blood oxygen leveled by a nurse. Then, almost immediately, Dr. Ryan appeared. He didn't have much to say since mom didn't have much to say. Besides her Alzheimer's and some of her other issues, she is healthy. I am happy about that. Mom thinks these 6 month check-ups are a waste of time and money. Speaking of which, I was surprised that the visit was only $15. Huzzuh!

So much for Friday. Saturday, Daily Challenge wanted me to do a chore I had been putting off. I was going to, but then decided that I was going to take Saturday and Sunday off from chores. But the universe wasn't letting me off the hook that easily. A little before five, Justin came over and took a look at the leaky faucet. Turns out that the internet was wrong about what needed to be fixed in the faucet. They had said replacing the little cylinder thing would do the trick. When I couldn't find a replacement cylinder, I figured I would need to replace the whole faucet assembly. Justin stuck a screwdriver down into the bottom of the faucet housing and pulled out a little washer/gasket and spring pair. Who knew they were there? The internet videos I watched hadn't mentioned these. Apparently, they get tired eventually and need to be replaced. $5 at Value Hardware. Desiree didn't know where they were, so she got me another associate who helped me locate the right ones. Back at the homestead, I replaced one of them, and the leak continued. So I replaced the other one and, voila, leak no more! Yippee! Cheers from the masses! A chore was accomplished despite my wanting to not do anything of significance on Saturday. Silly Universe.

Saturday night, I went to Leaf Kitchen to help them try to get rid of some of their bottled beer. I did a good job. I think they appreciate my efforts. Saw people I knew and chatted with them a bit before eventually toddling home. It was a fairly early evening for me as I popped into bed almost immediately on my return. I guess I was tired or something.

Drip, drip, drip

I have a leaky faucet. That is not a euphemism. It is a fact. Actually, I think there are two in the house, though one isn't actually a faucet, it is the sink itself, I believe. Anyway, I took it apart hoping to fix it and failed. Then I decided to replace the unit - and failed. And the drip changed locations - from being down the drain to down into the innards of the house and into the kitchen. Slow, but steady. Sigh. Last night, as I was going to sleep, I had an epiphany-let. Sometimes they come fast and furious, other times, well, this one was a long time coming. I replaced the pieces to the faucet and now the drip is back in the drain. Yay! If only I can find someone to come and replace the faucet for me. Any takers?

Many accomplishments yesterday, not the least of which was getting mom dressed. Luckily, she can still put clothes on by herself. So far. Yay! We did have one mission for which she was required - a visit to the phlebotomist. She has a 6 month check-up on Friday and we were supposed to get a blood test done before the visit. So we went yesterday. Mom still has her humorous moments, asking me if she could stay home and give blood from the house. Tee hee. I do realize that I get the urge to amuse people (especially people in their work spaces) from both sides of my parentage. I didn't get to see my father in action - well, I might have seen him, but not that I remember (since he died when I was 6)(not when he was six, because that would have made me impossible)(or at least very unlikely) but I heard that he enjoyed making people amused. Mom, when she is in a decent mood, also does her best to be charming and amusing when out and about. And yesterday was a good day. The phlebotomist said my mom was lovely and very pleasant. Huzzuh!

I had two more errands and I dragged mom along on those - though she actually walked around without much dragging. Thank goodness for the handicapped parking tag! The first of the two errands was to get my NYS driver's license. Finally! After just over two years of being here, I have finally gotten around to doing it. A year ago at this time, I almost got one. But I needed a social security card, which I couldn't easily put my fingers on. So I got a new one. And then didn't follow through and get the license. But now I am all set! Temporary license is in my wallet - permanent is on its way. Two weeks the guy said. Yippee!

Next stop, Rite-Aid to get some pills for mom. I discovered that my Favorite Pharmacist got the transfer she desired up to Rochester - where she owns a home and lives. Good for her. A little sad for me. Not that I have been going in much in any case. Just a little sigh.

Because mom was along, I decided that we would go for ice cream, despite it being a relatively cool day (high of 67 degrees Fahrenheit). We went to Mr. Twisty's. Mom loves the cappuccino crunch and I got some blue colored raspberry Italian ice. Mine was good, but I could also have not gotten any. In order to avoid the questions from mom, I just got myself some.

And yes, I did get the recycling out. Mom seems unaware of the dwindling pile of New York Review of Books in the dining room. Yippee on both counts!

Selfishly, I wonder, should I live so long, and the disease not be conquered, who will take care of me as I am taking care of mom? And will they be nicer to me than I am to mom? Or will I end up in a refrigerator box (living, sort of, I guess) in some sort of hobo town for poor, old people? Maybe the world (as we know it) will come to an end before then...happy thoughts!