Another week, another post. Mom had 2 surgeries within a week and is now back in her apartment at the assisted living facility. We will taking her Friday back to the doctor who changed her pacemaker for a checkup and I have to make an appointment for same with the doctor who did her cancer surgery as well as with the one involved with her leg scan as it still has not has been discussed with her. We did squeeze in appointments with our doctor for us last week – dealing with mom, we had forgotten to make same until the doctor refused to renew our prescriptions because we were so late in doing so.
Friday we drove to Pennsylvania and picked up our RV – the batteries are working and the entire electrical system was checked and was fine. Husband is concerned about driving such a distance alone (as I probably mentioned when we had to drive it there) and also concerned about driving alone in the dark – the combination of the two, even more so. We kept calculating when to go and what to do coming home. We figured out that we had two choices – both involved trying to get the dealer as early as possible, having lunch at Wendys very quickly and starting home. In one version we would immediately drive home, this way we would miss Philadelphia rush hour and hoping to avoid rush hour from NYC headed towards our home. The other version involved again leaving immediately after lunch to avoid the Philadelphia rush hour and driving to near the Golden Corral in New Jersey that I am sure I have mentioned before. We would then go to some stores in that area to spend some time, then have dinner at the Golden Corral and then head home. With this version we should avoid the rush hour from NYC to home, but would be driving in the dark home from Golden Corral. We figured we would decide after we picked the RV and while eating lunch. The golden morning time to leave home and head off Long Island for us seems to be 8:30 am – we are following at the end of rush hour and are before the construction work on two of the major roads starts. We we were out at 8:20 -since we were driving only our van, we did not have to waste time backing the RV out of the driveway (a process that involves walkie talkies and me standing in the middle of a 4 lane road road that has traffic that all speeds – which is why it a problem to begin with.) We had figured we would get to the dealer between noon and 1 pm. We got there just after 11 am. We picked up the RV - “schmoozed” a bit, gassed up the RV and the van for the trip back, spent about 15 minutes having lunch and started home – confident that we would miss the rush hour traffic at both cities. We did fine in PA – no traffic, NJ not bad almost no traffic. One very quick stop at a rest area for me to use the facilities – so fast, I left my cell phone in the RV and husband waited out there so we did not have to shut everything did – I ran literally both ways and we were off again. Then we hit Staten Island (NYC) and there was traffic, but it was not bad – 15 minute part of the trip maybe was 25 minutes. We then crossed the bridge to Long Island. The limited access roadway we have to taken home was BAD. How bad? The signs on the bridge said not to exit to it, to exit to a local street that allows later connection to the roadway – which we take anyway. It took us 2.5 hours to the dealer – it took us 5 hours home – and that was with arriving in NYC at 3 pm. Another day of our lives – gone.
But the RV is home and working properly again – so all is well – right? Driving home husband found that the brakes were squealing so today they were at our mechanic again. He said they were okay to use – a problem sometime down the road as there is rust.
Wait a second, have to run to the basement to switch laundry loads and check the heat in the PackTite.
Back. Normally I have a load of clothes, a load of towels, and a load of bed linens each week with a load of jeans every few weeks. With all this going on, I have not changed the bedding in a couple of weeks – no time to do so and saves a wash load (yes, I think ewwww also, but it will done soon). This week I have a load clothes, a load of sweatshirts and nightgown – I bought 3 new ones and have worn a few of them and they don't fit in the general clothes load, a load of towels, and a load of jeans. I also have a load of white reenactment clothing (much “small clothes” - undergarments, all of which are white) from our last couple of events and a second load of the rest of our outfits – next time we will need them is December and I want them clean so I don't have to run at the minute to wash them – some of the pieces need ironing also. Just put the general clothes load into the dryer and the sweatshirt load into the washer.
At the same time I have been going through the bags of stuff from the family home. Being a crazy person who had bed bugs. I fill (lightly) our PackTite heater with some of the stuff and heat at it night – mixed with whatever fabric or paper items we have in addition to be heated. Then the next afternoon I go through the stuff from the house after putting away the stuff from our house that was added in. Today I went through the papers from our wedding – 40 years ago. All of the response cards & envelopes – shredded, set up invitation with all the papers which were included and put it in the shoebox that I have as a “memory box” of the stuff I am finding and want to keep from all this, shredded the other invitations, tossed out the other response cards (no names, etc. on them), I kept the blank envelopes for the invitations – can always use larger envelopes, have set aside the unused response envelopes they do have my parents and name and address, but I will see if labels will cover same and decide if we are keeping them or they are being shred, shredded the receipt for the wedding (what a waste of $8,000 – I was right, we should have just gotten married & not bothered with a wedding), and shredded the seating charts and other papers. I kept the box that it was all in. Good box. Apparently there is much more than my stuff in what my sister set aside for me – work papers of my dad's and other financial stuff. I have a found a certificate given to my other sister when she graduated from high school (she is 55 now). I scanned it, emailed it to her and asked if she wanted the certificate or what. I found old bank statements and similar of mom's and even some of dad's (he died in the mid 1990's). I found a dividend check for $4.50 that was never cashed – I will see if it can cheaply somehow be replaced – but 1994 was a long time ago. More to do tomorrow after the current load is heated – this load also has some yarn husband bought for weaving project to sell and a new sweatshirt that I bought - both today.
At least every year I go through the papers from 10 years before and get rid of almost all of them – 25 years is a long time to keep bank statements and a check.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
So progress is being made on the stuff from mom's house. I am trying to keep up on household chores – dishes washed after dinner and after night snack (only meals we eat home). Obviously laundry being done. Towels changed and into the laundry. (If only I did not hate changing the bedding and folding same after it is washed even more than more than cleaning toilet bowls – I figured it out – my arms are too short to deal with sheets easily.)
Any suggestions for my family and me about dealing with all of the stuff from the house?
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