Taking care of business Thursday PWYC

[lucylee]

So glad you're home, Twins!!! You've earned your nap!

I'm wondering how Harriet is doing -- is the storm hitting close by? Praying for all in the storm path, and hoping Harriet will pop in later to let us know if they are having any damage. I think in Harmony's case, it was mostly rain. My brother lives in that general area of FL, and he said he was in "no danger of getting blown away, but we may FLOAT away."

Cathy -- and others that confirmed that my late night posts are not being ignored -- thank you! And thank you for confirmation that I'm managing okay.
Thanks, Nancy, for reassurance on the "transformation" course.

You know, I sorta just feel numb. I mean, I have fun and I laugh and enjoy time with ds, ddil, and the dgrands... I'm excited about seeing how dgs does with his first year of football, and I enjoy being with my Sunday School friends at church, and I'm looking forward to our Wed. night Bible study re-starting...
but then when I have time to myself... I just kinda go through the motions of what has to be done (laundry, yes... vacuuming, no) or sleep or watch tv -- and don't really allow myself to think about dh. If I DO start thinking about him, I start crying. But I sorta feel like I'm not grieving "enough," because I can just keep my mind pretty much empty, I guess for the most part of the day. I've never been able to do this -- y'all know, probably better than anyone -- how I normally just obsess about whatever is bothering me... but with this... most of the time I'm just on auto-pilot. Of course, I'm crying while I'm typing this.
I realized yesterday that the reason I am now sitting on the couch all the time is yes, it is a better viewing angle to the tv, but also -- if I sit in the recliner like I always did, I'm aware of the empty spot on the couch. I think I will start a MO thread to keep up with how my thought process is going through this first year. I know it will be hard, as Cathy said. Sooo many "firsts." I know it will eventually get better.
And sometimes I feel my tears are so SELFISH. I am so SCARED of all the things I am now "in charge" of -- College Town trips, household and car repairs, keeping up with finances -- with dh, we didn't have a LOT of money, not at all... but dh always told me to go ahead and buy it, whenever something came up that I wanted, and he always just sorta knew what we could afford... now it's all on me and I feel very unsure of myself.
And I miss having him to talk to sooo much. We talked about EVERYTHING.
Yeah, I guess I am grieving "enough." I'm sitting here squalling right now. But I do feel selfish.

LADYM -- you are NOT a homeschool failure!!! NO NO NO!!!
I saw something for teachers on FB last night that said, "You only have to be first day ready." That is YOU, LadyM. You KNOW that all those public school teachers do not have ALL their lesson plans laid out on Day One. Oh my goodness. Sometimes I will admit, I just went in my classroom and prayed that God would get us through the day.
FB is full of all these (probably elementary) teachers who have their rooms decorated like an interior designer came in and did it all, and I love looking at them, but I know if I were teaching still, and the teacher across the hall had a room like that, I'd feel sooo intimidated. And some of them are really overdone, too much stimuli for little kids, but they are beautiful.
I doubt you are worried about decorating your home space for ds, but that's just an example of how some people can make it look like they have everything together, but you don't know what is going on in their heads.

Also sending (((BIG HUGS))) and lots of prayers re: LordM...

Oh, and to say dmil was a "strong woman that walked her own path" is a putting it mildly, and VERY tactfully. Oh my.
DGD is so strong-willed that ddil says she should have named her for dmil. I do hope she will continue to be strong willed as she grows up though, because I would bet peer pressure never bothered dmil one second. DGD is much more social than DGS, and therefore, I fear, will be more susceptible to fitting in with the crowd.

My sister is rambling on a call with me right now.

Sounds like some of my calls with dmom, Kathryn.

I have to go get my hair trimmed, and go by the drug store, and the post office.
DDIL said I should really consider going back to a mailbox here at home, but (1) I don't like the way the mail here is delivered late in the day (SOMETIMES I am actually up long before it is delivered, and I want to read the paper before supper time!) and (2) as long as I have a post office box, I have a real reason to get d2s and get out of the house.

[Harriet]

We are occupying the "eye" at the moment. Electricity has been restored right now so I can say "hi". Winds on the back end are expected to be worse. Dstepson, with hard hat, chain saw, tractor and several monitors' eyes on him including dd44, has finally removed a very difficult tree from her driveway. We fully expect that we are just cleaning up and regrouping before what's coming next.

Ds expects a tough day at work with power outages to folks who have medical need for transport, then, also flooding, etc.

High hopes for Twins' Mom's final surgery today - thinking of you! Rah, rah, rah!

It is International Cat Day so HRH is getting funny memes and videos from friends, or, just because the internet is so full of others' ideas that they are being passed on by folks who don't even know it's a particular day. He keeps calling to me and says, "look at this". Behaviors that we haven't seen, like limping when the owner has new crutches or boot, and starts to limp.

Btw, dd44 has a backup power supply on her modem and was able to wow her coworkers today. She says she highly recommends. She estimates 2 more hours of use, so that she can hold earlier meetings, give "heads up" regarding the rest of the day, etc. But for anyone, a way to give info that you will be offline, possibly, and why, plus organizing your day to get internet things done by priority.

Will post this with more to say, to "bank" it.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

My day was blown away by the call from my sister.

Her cell phone is missing and she doesn't know when she had it last for sure except Tuesday afternoon when she went to the store. She doesn't know if she's had it since then. She talked with me for 90 minutes on Tuesday night and recalls carrying both her tablet and cell phone with her when she went to bed but isn't sure that isn't a manufactured memory. The call with me could have been from either of her tablets and there's no way Messenger can tell us if that is the case.

I called her cell from here multiple times and it is ringing 3 times and then going to voice mail. She has heard tones, sometimes 3 of them, but thinks it is either her landline handset saying put me on the charger or the neighbour next door coming and going from their cars which beep. I heard the phone ring while on the call with her but she maintains it wasn't her cell phone. On the other hand, when I immediately called it after she hung up with me to investigate the ringing, my call went straight to voicemail without ringing at my end so I thought she'd found her phone. She claims she didn't and I don't know what I'm talking about as far as it going to voicemail instantly.

All this to say she won't be meeting up with us on Sunday because she can't find her phone.

I told her to try using the "find my device" which she has used in the past (her phone was lost and then stolen by whoever found it because it showed up at a basketball court in a neighbouring city but that time she also had a heads up someone was trying to sign into her accounts.) I'm convinced the phone is in the house and still has power because it will go to voicemail immediately when her phone shuts down but it isn't doing that at the moment.

She finally released me at 11:00 and I got dressed for the day and made a big breakfast for myself. I then rearranged the freezer drawer yet again and put a label on it to give dh a fighting chance. Lots of water bottles are freezing so I'll have ice for our weekend trip.

We drove into town and got milk, cheese, and relish from the local store. Then straight home again. Dh says this is like being on a cruise because he only puts his pocket contents in his pockets once every few days. The rest of the time we just walk around without id and don't bother closing, let alone locking, the front door.

The weather is unsettled today and supposed to be rain tomorrow. I should get out for a walk, at least around the property. We moved the car more into the open in case the wind gets high tomorrow. As well, in the open it might get cleaned off by the rain, there are lots of leaf stains and bits of cedar on it right now.

Glad Harriet could check in.

Glad Twins checked in (but I'm saying that quietly so as to not disturb her nap.)

Dinner tonight is grilled cheese, bacon, tomoto, and onion on fancy buns in order to get two fancy buns out of the freezer. Plus chips and dip and salad.

Edit: I just checked the weather map. We won't get any storm remnants at all and there's no rain in our forecast for at least 2 hours so no excuse for me not to go for a walk! (Dh was listening to the Ottawa weather which has rainfall warnings and blaming Debbie even though the rain will hit long before the storm gets anywhere near Ottawa (and it isn't actually going to get there.)

BTW: we caught a second mouse today. Mouse is tossed into the bush and the trap reset. (I'm hearing squirrels in the soffits right now which is what reminded me about the mouse.)

[Lady Maverick]

Good to see Twins is home and Harriet is doing okay in the storm.

I am probably having a difficult day. However I am aware of the many blessings so the difficulties seem to be easier to deal with.

Difficulty #1 - First day of public school and homeschool. I didn't have lesson plans ready.
Solution - I declared today to be parent/teacher conference for the homeschooler. I am in the process of developing lesson plans and have some of the daily assignments done for next week.

Difficulty #2 - I found one of our three rabbits dead. No visual trauma that I can see. I tried to dig a grave for it but the extreme heat & no rain has mande the ground hard as a rock which made digging near impossible. DH wanted to help me dig but that set all kinds of mental alarms off in my head because I wanted to get DH out of the heat ASAP.
Solution - I went to plan B and the rabbit is respectfully taken care of.

Difficulty #3 - I made a blunder. I put DH in a public situation where his loss of memory caused a situation. DH experienced grief that he wouldn't have if I hadn't put him in this situation
Solution - DFriends understood what happened and why. They were supportive. DH hasn't mentioned it so I think it has disappeared from his memory again.

Difficulty #4 - Our new a/c unit isn't keeping up. It is 105 outside and almost 90 inside the house (the part where the 2-month-old a/c unit cools). I called hvac fellas but they are slammed. They can't get here until Monday. We need to abandon that part of the house.
Solution - I asked DS16 to help me move furniture. He moved DH chair & TV to the living room which is cooled by a different (and working) A/C unit. He also moved my chair to the living room. The temporary solution took less than 5 minutes to accomplish.


Difficulty #5 - I had to tell the teens about their rabbit. DD13 cried. We talked about the rabbit life and the kids' experiences with raising and loving it.

Is today over yet?

[Nancy]

I had to take a self care day.
Showered hair is clean and mostly dry just a bit damp-ish.
Soup I Made just hit the spot.
I rested did not nap but I started to feel better after my early dinner.
I guess the yogurt ran out.

Put on some comfy clothes after my shower.
Walked around the back yard a few times to dry my hair a bit more.
Took some seeds and put em in the area that I wanted them.
Soup is in jars and I washed up stove and pan after cooking it.
Feeling better after the soup my ear drained out. Yea!

I put a link in my journey thread of a journal I found that had great questions for self care & other topics.
I'd get it except it's wire bound. So I just took inspiration from the pic. of it on Amz. and had one here wrote
those prompts in it.

[Harriet]

Glad Kathryn is back posting and keeping us straight. Wow, hoping your sister lifts something in her house and realizes the phone is there after all.

Ramblin', I hope you are feeling more chipper than you were Tuesday!

LadyM, yes, that is a tough day. All best wishes to you in your AC difficulties. I wish fans could be help to you, although I realize it would have to be interior-only. I had two hours when outdoor temp was supposedly lower than interior, but that is unlikely for you. I won't put my fans away because I don't know when electricity might fail, either. Rabbit lifespans are sometimes unpredictable, and I would guess that August is more likely than other months to bring on new problems or make matters worse for something already existing. ((Hugs)).

Two potential routes lead from our small area to town, although you can go around farther and just go to other towns. Both these travel over bridges and both are flooded. The photographs from one are astounding. Can't see bridge, signage, or figure out the tree landmarks, and what looks like a tractor trailer is not - it is a floating train shipping container, that might be turned in any direction. The only visual clue is that the photographer must be taking the photo from a known spot, but which?

Almost to the end of my steroid. Don't know how I feel about it - I have this feeling it would help me a lot to perk up, you know? But I think it also has made me antsy. Anti-viral has several more days.

Talks with pharmacist have reassured me and I have been working on bibs, just in case I could finish one and stick it in the gift. Pharmacist says she is convinced that nothing I have touched could possibly affect anyone - it's not a surface virus or even a respiratory one. Agrees with the no-personal-contact rules, of course. So, I am here until Monday p.m. Couldn't do anything in this water world, anyway.

Working on the bibs (one more difficult which I abandoned temporarily because I haven't made anything so nice for others who will be present: sister or cousins of the pregnant woman, etc. lucylee will understand.) I am such a perfectionist and even the simpler one is actually making me a little crazy to work on a bitty project as opposed to larger now. Or is it steroid? Or is it fatigue? Sigh.

[lucylee]

(((Harriet))) Yes... why does gift-giving have to be such an emotional thing? And I am sure the steroid and general yucky feeling that goes along with all this is affecting how you feel about the whole project.
I am so sorry you are still having such trouble with the shingles. My dmom HATES to take steroids for the reason you stated -- they always make her so jittery. I have always been able to manage okay when taking them, but I have had some when I lay awake all night and couldn't even shut my eyes when I tried. I just played on my phone all night that night, but now that I'm on my own, I'd probably turn on the tv or enough light to read or something like that.
My goodness, the flooding!

Nancy, as you can easily see from my posts, I am all in favor of a self care day! It sounds you had a really good day.

(((LadyM))) -- you obviously have NOT had a great day. (((HUGS))) for you, LordM, and the kids with the news about the rabbit. And ALL of you with the AC problems. This is just not the time to have problems with AC! You've handled all the difficulties very well, I would say, and as you said, the memory problem helps in that maybe the renewed grief will not occur to LordM again now that the moment has passed.
I do think you made an excellent use of the day to have parent/teacher conference in homeschool.

Kathryn, I sympathize with your sister. One of the best things about my watch is that I can search for my phone with it! If I did not have that, there's no telling how much time I would spend looking for my phone. I bought one of the little remote units with tags, and I have a tag on my keychain so I can locate my keys. I wish I could put one on each pair of my reading glasses! I spend a lot of time looking for my glasses. I have three pairs, and try to keep them in designated spots, but somehow, they all end up together somewhere -- in the kitchen, in the bathroom, somewhere. They must get lonely for each other.

Something to be thankful for -- I am not having to deal with mice on my own. Oh me... I'd probably have to go stay with my mom or ds/ddil...
I did have to kill a strange looking bug in the bathroom tonight. It was about the size of a wasp, but it didn't try to fly, and was black with some bright (orange/red?) color on it, and it actually crawled TOWARDS me while I was sitting on the toilet! I grabbed some tissue and squashed it! It was really unusual, because the bug lady was just here not too long ago, and we usually do not have any bug problems after she sprays.

I notice I still say "we" a LOT...

International Cat Day. I wish I could find the cat video I saw earlier today on FB. A little boy, no more than 2 or 3, is reaching up to an open window, and the cat is sitting on the window sill. The window is obviously in a high level apartment, and every time the boy reaches up, the cat swats his hand down. Finally the cat jumps over and stands in front of him. He is acting just like a guard dog, only he's a cat! The window looks a little dangerous, but the video is great!

Summing up my day, I have watched my 4th video -- "How to Push Through Hardship."
You'd think it would be right down my alley right now, but it's more like dealing with conflict or anxieties (which of course IS right down my alley.)
The main thing today is that, yes, bad things happened, people mistreated us, but we should not blame our actions TODAY on something that happened long ago. TODAY we can choose how we act, we are the captains of our own ships, and we have freedom to choose how we act.
It is really just going in one ear and out the other right now, because I can't really process any big thoughts. But I am taking notes and I have strong intentions to re-visit this later.

I also got my haircut, went to the drug store, post office, ate left over pizza for supper because I totally missed my favorite food truck RIGHT ACROSS THE ROAD FROM THE BBQ RESTAURANT where I stopped for cheese sticks. And yes... took a nap...
Talked to both dgrands -- both reported having a great first day of school, they like all their teachers, football practice was good, yes he is eating enough and staying hydrated, it wasn't THAT hot... (oh to be a kid again.)
The heat bothers me a lot more now than it did when I was dgs' age, but honestly, I don't think I could take it as well as he does when I was his age. I remember an extremely awful week of band camp, the summer before 8th grade.