February may be the shortest month - but this year it seems to be cruelest month as well. Not just for my husband and myself either. At a club meeting today I heard that a friend found out that in her second home, which she rents out, the toilet kept running when no one was around - she had to deal not only with the flood resulting from same but mold and a time limit to get it done as her new tenant was waiting to get in. Another friend found out her significant other has a serious medical condition. Our problems were just annoying - individually they would be an amusing story, but when the small problems keep coming - they add up.
We were eating lunch last Thursday - luckily at home - and husband let out a scream - and mumbled something about his teeth. I thought he broke a tooth or one came out or one moved out of place and he bit it and hurt his other teeth. No, his upper partial plate broke in half - he now had a left side and a right side. He was eating a very dangerous meal - cream cheese and jelly sandwich! He managed to glue the two pieces into his mouth adjacent to each other for a temporary fix. I called our dentist, but he only had morning hours on Thursday. I left a message explaining and asking him to call back - which he did almost immediately.
Now, we were planning, again, to go to Lancaster, PA for the day on Friday. It was our third attempt this year. Luckily the dentist could see us first thing in the morning so the trip to Lancaster started to fade away again. I had an idea. How long could it take for the dentist to repair the partial or take a mold for a new one? We would probably not get out until after 9:30 anyway. So we went ahead and put together everything we needed for the day trip. When we went to the dentist the next morning we put it all in the car. Dentist fixed the partial as a temporary thing - husband says the stuff used to fix it tasted vile. He also took a mold to make a new partial - we are going in tomorrow for a fitting for the new partial. Breathe a sign of relief that this was done.
We finished up in about 45 minutes - 15 minutes behind when we would have gotten out of the house to go on the trip and the dentist is closer to where we are going than our home. Had a nice day finally in PA. Managed the trip home using the detour to the Delaware River Bridge alright.
Monday we were out running errands in the car and we heard an odd noise. Not sure if it was just something in the car knocking around we bagged up everything in the arm rest, the glove compartment, and spare eye and sunglasses. The noise continued than stopped. Tuesday we went out and the noise was there again. Since we were planning a day trip to a quilt show out of state - originally tomorrow, Thursday, now due to the dentist on Friday - if it doesn’t snow - we wanted to make sure the car was okay and stopped at our mechanic. He checked the car and it was almost out of oil - and no, we are not the sort of people who don’t check same. He refilled the oil and put it up in his shop overnight to see if there was a leak. In the meanwhile husband went looking and found out that there is a problem with our year and make of car (as well as others) in which the oil is too hot and is used up. We will have to take the car to the dealer to have it checked for this - luckily covered by the manufacturer - it could result in needing the pistons replaced. Somehow I know this will take more time than we can easily spare the car for.
Today I had my embroidery chapter meeting and what was suppose to be my day out. I drove our van and came home quickly after the meeting to run errands with husband and go out to lunch with him (Ash Wednesday so he was looking forward to a fish sandwich out) as we had just our van to use. We picked up the car when it was ready and drove it a bit to see if we heard the noise - we did not.
I went to pay bills tonight and figure out how much money we need in the checking account for the coming week - and got stuck as I had not matched slips to credit card statements when they came in earlier this week - husband had to take a test online to renew a professional license and the credit card slips and other papers made too much noise, so I set them aside - and forgot about them until I needed to make sure I had enough in the account to pay one of them.
I also had bill for a party room I had to pay for a club we are in (from the club’s money). The venue mailed the bill to the wrong address. A copy was sent and arrived yesterday - picked late in the day. They had not only the wrong date on the bill, but also the wrong day of the week! I left a voice message last night - they had closed for the day - and left both our house and my cell phone numbers. If they called the house husband knew what to ask and how to deal with the problem. No call back - I called them and they have the right day marked on the calendar for the party - not sure where the wrong one came from. Check went out when I came home after my meeting today.
So in the past month - we almost had a fire resulting in needing a new all in one printer, which did not work with all of my software (and I have not finished installing on this laptop), my eyeglasses had to be replaced, husband broke his upper partial, and the car has a major problem. In addition to the loss of time which needed to be devoted to all of this, we have credit card bills triple what we normally have for a month as a result of all this - and the car still needs to be looked at by the dealer.
Now in addition to all of this - I am working on business tax returns for clients and we are coming up against a deadline for husband to pick Medicare part D and Supplemental Medicare policies. I had done all the research and presented it to him - but he questioned everything and I had to research it all again. Finally he believes me the choices I picked are the best ones and now we have to find the time to register him.
February is over. Hopefully March will be better. The realization that much worse could have happened instead goes far.
I did manage to store all of the rest of the Christmas decorations except the teddy bear village which needs to packed away and since it is all that is left - it is time.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
How long has it taken for the stuff in your house to get to where it is? Our stuff has piled up in this house for almost 30 years and a lot of stuff came here from 9 years in our apartment, plus what came from decades living at home with our parents.
Stuff that has taken decades to accumulate is not going to be dealt with in a week. One has to be patient and do what one can. Some items we know when we see them should go - whether to the garbage, for donation, back to who we borrowed it from, or even that it is something which someone we know would appreciate much more than us. If we get as much of this “definite to get rid of stuff” as we can - and try not to add any more of it (if Aunt Susie brought a cake on her plat and left it with the cake, hopefully the cake gets finished and the plate washed - make a point of getting the plate back to Aunt Susie - she will have it to reuse and you won’t have it taking up space. Next time transfer it to a paper plate - or one of your plates after it finished being served, wash her plate and give it back to her when she leaves - no matter how much she protests your doing so.
Take a carton (or more than one) - you probably have one around - and fill it with items to donate. Then set a date - soon - to take it for donation or call for someone come and pick it up at your door. I try to gather items and take them for donation when I have my day out after my meeting (the day I missed today).
Toss out what you can - there are items that as much as it seems a waste to toss them out - no one will take them or want them. One cannot even donate TVs which are not flat screen to the Salvation Army. I know around here if we leave some items out when the garbage will be picked up with a note “free, please take” (and sometimes even without the note) people go around during the night and take things. We got rid of a lawn mower that way. It had gas in it. We would have to drain the gas for the garbage department to take it and did not want to deal with same and it would have to start - which it did not - for it to be donated. We left it out with a note attached and by the next morning it was gone.
Whatever you get out of the house leaves that much less to deal with - especially if you don’t add to what you have. Don’t be upset that it does not all instantly disappear. A little at a time is a step forward. After we had the bedbugs I had to put away 3 dressers worth of fabric pieces which had been removed, heated and bagged (which in itself was a project done 2 bags a night until over 60 bags were done - this included our household fabric items also - clothes, towels, bed linens, etc). This was an overwhelming daunting task. I finally decided that I would put away 10 pieces of fabric a night. I was also making a small swatch card for each piece of fabric - something I always wanted to do and while I had to put the fabric away it seemed a good time. My husband said to me that 10 pieces was nothing - but I pointed out - it would be 10 pieces more put away than was put away before. Some nights I felt like dealing with more than 10 pieces, some nights circumstances did not allow me to do 10 pieces and some nights I could do no pieces out all. Within a month and half the fabric was all away and I had the fabric swatch book I always wanted. By doing it in small amounts it was not tedious and I was able to keep at it.
So, if you can’t deal with the big problem - deal with a small part of it and then do so again.
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