THIS DOCTOR'S OFFICE IS NEVER ORGANIZED

 Sorry to post late again.  Yesterday was a short day as we had to get ready to take my 93 yo mom to a doctor today.  

Before the pandemic my husband and I had been “the schleppers”.  Since both of my sisters and their husbands work full time and we are mostly retired and both self-employed, we can better spend time, normally, to take mom to assorted doctors and similar.

During the pandemic it has been tried as hard as possible for mom not to leave her assisted living residence to decrease her contacts with people and her chances of getting Covid.  (Her residence has done what we think is an excellent job of keeping the residents safe and well from the pandemic.)

Since my husband and I are also “seniors” and both have medical conditions which further make us high risk for Covid, my middle sister, who handles most of things involving my mom, had to take over as schlepper also for some medical emergencies which arose.  

But schlepping mom in addition to sister's needing to deal with her husband's medical conditions and her own, meant that she used up all of her allowed time off from work.  So we had to step up and take mom today to one of her doctors.  

We don't mind taking mom – my husband says he even enjoys it somewhat as it is something different for us to do – but we REALLY don't like take her to one doctor's office.  Doctor is a good doctor – that my brother-in-law is alive is proof of that as brother-in-law has heart trouble and very nice - but his office is in a building which houses doctors who are part of a network.  It is dealing with the network that drives husband and me crazy.  

Our first dealings with this doctor and this setup was a nightmare – in organization and it this continues to be true.  We took mom there after she had been in the hospital and had to go for followup (he had not seen her in the hospital).  The followup was the day after she had been to the hospital and my sister had made the arrangements.  We arrived for her appointment and the appointment had been made with a different doctor.  After a telephone conversation with my sister – it was to be Dr. Q or no one.  With my sister, my husband and I all complaining the office staff setup an appointment with Dr. Q for mom – some hours later in the day.  We had lunch.  We ended up spending the time between in Barnes and Nobles – husband walked around looking at what he wanted to and I pushed mom in her wheelchair aisle by aisle through the store.  When we saw the doctor basically he said nothing needed to be done – and mom should be retested at a (fixed) future date.  

When I try to make appointments for mom they cannot be made with the doctors' office, but need to be made though the hospital system's setup – for a doctor appointment in New York State I have to telephone to Florida!

No appointment up to now has gone well and all involved sitting in the waiting room for this group of doctors for hours.  Nothing is done at the appointments – each time they take mom's information again and try to weigh her (she can barely stand – how can she stand on a scale and not hold on – I have learned to get the wellness office at her residence give me in writing her last weight taken there, as well as copy of her meds).

Mom had a problem two weeks ago and was taken to a local hospital as an outpatient – and was referred back to her doctor.  Since, my sister could not take her – it was up to us.  I told mom about the appointment during our weekly telephone call last week and again by telephone, reminded her the yesterday.   We over allowed time to get to her and get her to the doctor as we never know what the traffic will be driving out there (about 45 minutes away from us) or how long it will take us to get her ready and out to our car.  

Everything went fine picking her up and getting her into the car (not an easy thing to do).  Drive to the doctor went fine – but all this is the easy part.  When we arrived at the building his office is in (again, a building offices of doctors all associated with this hospital group – a one story building) there was havoc in the parking lot.  The lot was completely filled and they were parking one's car for one so they could move it as needed.  This has happened before, but never saw so busy as today.  Husband dropped mom, in her wheelchair, and me off at the door to doctor's office – we had figured on this problem and he had planned to stay in the car if he could not park, though he likes to come in with us as he worked in a medical related field and talks “doctor”, as well as it is good to have two people listening (mom's hearing is not good).

When I mom and I entered the waiting room of doctor's office I was shocked at how empty it was.  I had to sign her in on a tablet (theirs) based system – I remembered to bring my soft tip stylus to use on the tablet as I don't show up on it when I use my finger, let alone I did not want to touch a touch pad that other people have touching.  One problem is always asks for one to put their hand on it for sign in – not sure why and while my hand does not, of course, work for this – neither did mom's when she tried it our first trip there.  I made sure to wipe my hand down well with hand sanitizer after wards – is this the best idea, for everyone to touching their hands to these pads during the pandemic?  Husband came in rather quickly – he had been lucky a car pulled out and he pulled in.  

We were shocked when we were actually called into to see the nurse practitioner a bit early.  I had taken an appointment with her as the doctor did not have any open appointments until December.  Hmm, maybe things were not as bad as they had been?  

Nurse who took us in started taking doing a test on mom.  She talked with us about why we were there and then left room.  Yeah, there had to be a problem.  The nurse practitioner we had the appointment with was not associated with mom's doctor and did not work in the same medical field as we were there for!  As I was getting ready to scream and yell – “not easy to take mom out, not good for her to be out at all...” they said that they were making arrangements for a correct person to see her.  So we did get to deal with the exam today.  Told that what she came there about – she was okay, changed a medication to help with the problem – BUT – she has an entirely different problem!!!

So we now have 3 more appointments for mom – two for testing (3 tests – 2 given together) and one to see the doctor – himself.  

Not the most organize place to go and I am not sure if they had not made the mistake they would have done the EKG at all – and her medical tests at her residence's doctor have not shown any of the problems they say exist!

On the other hand – it was good to see her.  

Tomorrow it is suppose to rain, first day it does not, we have to put our car back together as it normally is and I have to move things I keep in the front for mom to sit in the front passenger seat as that is hard enough for her to get into, the back seat would be impossible.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Sometimes things go well, sometimes we have to deal with stupidity and there is nothing we can do about it.  As husband once said to me when I was upset when he was in medical office with similar problems - “stop getting them upset – they are going to be giving me shots!!”

CHANGES IN PLANS OCCUR AND ONE HAS TO DEAL WITH THEM

I had plans for tonight's post – but things come up and I almost forgot what I had planned to write about. 

We were suppose to take mom back to her cancer surgeon today for a second follow up visit.  I have spent part of the last two weeks getting the wellness center at mom's assisted living residence to do the blood tests requested by this and also by mom's oncologist and send the results to them.  My sister who sees mom a lot more than we do as mom lives near her, had to go in and talk to the staff to get the results sent.  I checked with this doctor and the blood work results were finally there – great, we could take her there today.  Oh heck, I had not realized that today was Ash Wednesday when I made the appointment.  Why does that matter?  Well husband is Catholic and cannot eat meat today – so for lunch he had to have Wendys fish instead of his usual lunch.  So?  Well, often eating fried foods makes his stomach ill and we were concerned about eating lunch, then having to drive out, pick up mom, take her to the doctor, take her back to her residence and then drive home if his stomach was bad.  But he figured he would be okay, but was not happy about taking mom to the doctor today.

Yesterday, the day before the appointment, I was called by the doctor's office - though they thought they were calling mom as we gave them my phone number instead – why? - you will see in a later  paragraph.  They wanted to move her appointment an hour earlier.  Big problem.  It takes, from the time we arrive at mom's residence, an hour and a half to get her to an appointment 15-30 minutes from there.  We have to go up to up to her room, take the big wheels off her wheel chair (or it is terribly heavy and does not fit in the back of our car and she cannot deal with getting in out van). Stop at the wellness office for a list of her meds for the doctor (easier than trying to remember).  Get her through the building to the front (only) entrance.  (Mom's apartment is literally the furthest in the building – top floor, end of the hall.) We then have to sign her out of the building – and we have to sign in as we run through the lobby coming in and then again when we leave.  We have found it easier to take mom to our parked car than try to get her in or out of the car in front of the building – curbs and sidewalk cuts are problems.  So we have to push her – uphill – to the parking area – either together or me as too hard for husband to do.  Then we have to get her into the car and stow her wheelchair.  Then the drive.  Then on the other end we have to park – where there is room for mom to get out into her wheelchair (we have to get her a handicapped permit so we can park in those spaces with her) and then get her into the building.  This last can be very easy to do – or hard – one building was on a hill with the building at the bottom of the hill and we had trouble finding the doctor's office – out and down hill, then back up hill – with both of us pushing.  Most of the doctors offices require one to sign in 15 minutes or 30 minutes before the appointment time or they cancel it.  Mom's lunch is at 11:45 am. Her dinner at 4:45 pm. If I make the appointment for 2:30  - it allows us to each lunch, drive out there, pick her at 1 pm and get her to the doctor – after she has eaten lunch.  Other than the “doctor with the office from h*ell”  she will be back at her residence, with the big wheels back on her wheelchair and settled in, in time for her dinner.  So 1:30 pm was a big problem.  We compromised on 2 pm.  

So now mom was going to have a problem with her lunch, husband was going to have a problem with his lunch – so I had a problem in general.  Then I had a thought.  I telephoned the doctor's office back and asked about moving the appointment to a different day.  Doctor would have plenty of time to her surgery and not rush us, husband did not have to worry about his stomach after lunch, and mom would not miss lunch.  First date offered was next Wednesday – my embroidery meeting and my only day out – no way.  We settled on a date in mid March.  Doctor's office happy.  Husband happy.  I had to call mom and let her know of the change.  I had been texting my sister as I went along in case she spoke to mom before I did, she could let mom know.  Mom is hard to reach, at least for me, by telephone.  By the time that generally I can call her in the afternoon – she is at dinner.  I figured that the best time to call was around 7:30 pm as that is when she calls me.  First time I left a message – but knew she would never get it.  I called another 4 times as time passed.  I went down to cook dinner.  Mom called,  “Did you call me?”  I explained.  “No, I never hear that there are messages.”  Huh, hear that there is a message, she has to look at the machine – and has being doing so for over 40 years.  Okay, go on there from there.  She remembered we suppose to go the next day and I explained about the change.  Fine with her.  We discussed it four times.  I also told her that if my sister called and said it was to be earlier tomorrow – that was old news and changed.  We did not get a call from her today asking where we were so apparently all went well with the change.  Mom is 90 and a year ago I would not question that she understood and would remember the appointment and the change,  but a year can make a big difference.

Next wonderfulness was our basement freezer.  We have a small freezer that we bought probably 30 years ago or more (it has out lived at least 2 refrigerators, probably 3).  We used to grow vegetables in our back yard in summer and would freeze the excess in this freezer.  Have not done so in at least a decade and it was being used for backup frozen vegetables and meat since, until about 3 years ago when we somehow switched to buy the food for dinner that day.  So it has mostly sat in the basement with some commercial frozen vegetables in it and a few other items.  Last year we used it when our refrigerator died and we had some items in its freezer.  It had about 4-5 inches of ice on the top coils.  Husband will not let me put frozen items at the back of the freezer in the new refrigerator – he read an article that the back needs lots of space for air to circulate – so I have (somehow) a smaller freezer in this refrigerator than our old and I cannot use about 1/6-1/4 of the space in it.  I figured I would melt the ice in the basement freezer so it could go back to being used – and since there was nothing in it as we used the last item stored in it about a month ago – this was the time to do it. 

I knew it would take a long time and would be messy. I had a plan.  I needed to remember to do this when we come home fairly early from running errands.  Today was the day.  We were home early and I would be making many trips to the basement at night to do laundry and could combine the trips down for both purposes.  When we came home I went to the basement and shut off the freezer.  I put in two large, deep baking pans – one on the right of one shelf and one on the left of the other shelf to catch the dripping water as I knew the bottom drip pan would not hold anywhere near enough and would be a mess to empty.  I grabbed lots of old used for junk purposes towels and spread them in front of the freezer.  I propped the door open, set an alarm for an hour and went upstairs to work.  An hour later – nothing had started – reset the alarm and back upstairs.  An hour later – still no melting, reset again and started to cook dinner.  After dinner while watching TV in the kitchen the alarm went off again. I went back down – goody!!  Two small puddles (dots) of water in one of the baking pans – it was working.  I went back to the kitchen – husband asked what I was doing.  I told him.  He had to inspect the situation.  He decided that what I was doing would never work.  He was going to use his heat gun.  Luckily he decided that was too hot.  We sat there for a couple of hours as he melted the ice with his hairdryer.  Dumping the baking pans and a couple of times the bottom drip pan into a bucket.  (I have done this before – just with a lot less ice – and knew that I would not be able to carry the baking pans or the drip pan to the sink without spilling.  Finally the last big piece of ice was loose and fell free.  After dumping the last of the water and ice into the basement sink he went upstairs and I dried the inside of the freezer. It is sitting with the door ajar to dry out before being plugged back in. 

Sooo, my post on doing your income taxes will be delayed until at least next week. 

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Plans are plans  - until they go awry.  Whether the appointment has to be changed for someone else's convenience or needs or what you plan to do in the house needs to be done differently than you think it will  - and takes more of your time as a result, or have you plans to write something and other items come up which need to be written about first  - they go awry. 

One has to deal with the changes and see what can be done.  If nothing else – the appointment change and the change in how we had to defrost the freezer gave me something to write about and you get out of hearing about income taxes for at least a week!

RV, VAN AND OLD PAPERS

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?

CLEARING OUT THE FAMILY HOME.

I have several large plastic bags with stuff that we took from my family home.

I am not calling it mom's house as my sisters and I do as it is really the family home. My family moved there when I was 5. My (now) middle sister was 6 months old and “baby” sister was 7 years in the future. While I remember the apartment that my parents and I – and middle sister briefly – lived in before the house, my sisters have no memories of any other home growing up. It was a huge house to me coming from the 3 room apartment we lived in before. When middle sister was born I was moved from sleeping on the opposite side of my parents bedroom from where they slept (I often wonder how they managed to create my sister with me sleeping in their bedroom) to a cot in the living room. Since the only TV (a large 1950s console set) was in the living room I got to watch such late night shows as “the Late Show” (old movies) and the early versions of “the Tonight Show – back when Johnny Carson was just a page at NBC, California with my parents – or they could not watch them. I have been thinking a lot about those early days of our family lately – both as my mother is 90 and with the clearing out of our house for the sale of it. I have not taken a lot of family stuff as I am in my mid 60s and have no children to inherit any of the family house – it will eventually reside with my niece or nephew any way.

Since we had the bed bugs here in our home I am always concerned about getting them again. We have a device called a Packtite. It is the size of a very large softsided suitcase with a rack and a heater in it. It is intended to place suitcases in after one has been on a trip to heat the suitcases and what is in them to kill any bed bugs that might have come home with one. Because I am a crazy person, we have it set up with a laundry basket – that we drilled in holes in the bottom of to allow for air flow – in it and we heat any soft items – paper, fabric and the like that we bring into the house – that we are concerned might have bed bugs in them. So the items from my family home - mostly papers and needlework of mine from when I was much younger – all has to be heated.

I am doing so in small batches and have finished two large bags so far. I am going through these items I took when there or my sister set aside for me. (She said she had a box for me – I expected an office files sized box- there were two of them plus other stuff in the box she left.) It is a trip down memory lane and a record of what I considered important enough to keep at one or another point in time. I have found work appointment books from my early days in accounting (could have used one of them when I was positive that I knew a building in a scene on “Blue Bloods” and went crazy to find it and then figure out how I knew it – it was where a client had his factory – the work appointment books also have clients contact info). School grades – I did as badly as I remember. Lots of occasion cards – birthdays, engagement – ours and friends, anniversaries, Valentines (old boyfriends same went straight to the paper shredder), and so on. I have been weeding through – baby age birthday cards, one copy of wedding related paper items, cards from certain people – parents, sisters, husband, a few very good friends, a special aunt &uncle, my grandparents were kept – others were shredded. I found some remembrances of things such as graduation or awards programs – kept, articles I had published in the college newspaper – kept, personal diaries – kept.

Of course I am keeping my needlework – finished or not. I did leave behind two latch hooked throw rugs that were finished except for the edging as I figured they might sell and make a couple of buck for mom, plus husband said to me as I looked at them “Where would we put them?”. I did decide after leaving them if when we went back they were still there I would take them – but we did not get back while they were still in sight.

So I am trying to figure out what to add to the mess of stuff here in husband and my home, without going overboard. I was a bit “lucky”. My toys would have been the hardest to deal with and decide who “lived” and who “died” but the house was hit by Hurricane Sandy and the basement where most of the toys were flooded and they had to be tossed out then by the crew that came in and worked on the basement. Not only were they not there for me to deal with, I had already “mourned their loss”.

There were 5 items in particular that I was looking for. My Girl Scout sash -with my few badges and my annual star pins on it. I had put together a loose leaf book with hand copied lyrics to old folk songs. My dad had given me one of his army shirts from when he was in same during World War II during the late 1960s/early 1970s when wearing army shirts was popular. There is a stapled binding, thin, soft-covered book about our family in “the old country”. Lastly, when I was in high school I embroidered a table cloth. When I got married we could not find it, I figured if any of it ever would turn up – it would be as the house was emptied. I have the army shirt and the loose leaf book of song lyrics. The other items did not show up.

There has been a tag sale by a company that my sister found and much of the contents of the house are gone. We have to go in and clean and fix it up a bit before we sell it. The next day neighbor already is telling us about someone she knows who is interested in the house.

Just in case anyone is interested – mom has had her pacemaker (or its battery – story of what is to be done was different to my sister and me) replaced, so we won't have to figure out how to plug into a wall outlet if it dies. :-) She has also had (within the same week) surgery to remove a lesion that was causing her anemia. As of tonight she is back in her apartment at her assisted living facility – pretty good for a 90 year old woman I think.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - If you were getting ready of your family home – or your own home – what would you be looking for as you would want to make sure that you kept them?

MOM AND MY FAMILY HOME

We are currently dealing with mom and two cardiologists. For those of you who joined since or have forgotten, mom is 90. Shortly after her 90^th birthday she started having problems (http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/05/sometimes-fate-is-having-fun-with-one.html) and can no longer live at home alone. She went through short term physical rehab at a very nice local facility and since then has moved into their assisted living facility. While they do a great job of helping her and taking care of her – mostly she gets around by herself - they have been doing physical therapy and she can walk with a walker better than she has done in years - and she is back in her full mind again from just the fact of having people around her and things to keep her mind active.

Back in August it was found that she blood clots in her legs and she was given medication. She was also referred to my brother-on-law's cardiologist who is also a vein doctor for followup scan about a week after the clots were discovered. I posted the story of that nightmare - wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/08/29 Her leg was not scanned. We ended up going back not the 3 weeks later that this doctor wanted, but instead on October 7 as it took until then to get an appointment. The scan was not done then either as the appointment was made by a third party appointment service for someone who does not do scans – understand we drove out to where mom is, got her into the car, took her to the doctor's office and had her medical history taken – and nothing else – TWICE (and of course her medical insurance was billed for 2 office visits). When we left the second time we made an appointment for the scan – for this coming Saturday (remember this is about 2 months after we were told that she needed to have her legs scanned right away and then a week later when her leg was not scanned - we were told it needed to be done in 3 weeks). Despite everything we had been told, the doctor does not do the scan, so after it is done we will first have to return on November for the doctor to interpret the scan.

Next problem – mom has a pacemaker. It was put in 10 years ago. The battery in it is tested every few months and the last test was at the start of October and we were told that the battery had less than 2 months left on it. Soooo, the replacement of the pacemaker was moved into priority. This came up shortly before the second time mom did not have the leg scan and we asked that cardiologist's office (per the doctor – they only do heart “plumbing” and we need someone who does heart “electricity” for this) for a cardiologist who would do this procedure as mom's doctor for same is an hour away where our family home is. We were upset that this doctor would have the same sort of circus for an office as the other, but it is quite the opposite. Mom was seen by this doctor (M) a week after she had been in the other doctor (B)'s office. Yes, she needs to have her pacemaker replaced. I was telephoned the next morning with two appointments – a week later (yesterday) for presurgery exam at hospital and next week she will have the procedure. 2½ weeks and this will be done – the other doctor 21/2 months and still nothing has been done!

In the middle of running with mom (plus all the car problems) I realized that I had to renew one of husband's medications and called the pharmacy. The doctor refused to renew it without an exam. We really cannot fit in a doctor visit for us right now – mom's pacemaker does take precedence, so I telephoned and explained and made appointments for us the first week in November. Ummm, I missed that we are going for blood work in the morning of the day mom is scheduled to have her scans read – and it is election day! Well, we work it out somehow. Doctor renewed prescription for 10 days – when we were not due in for 3 weeks – but we had enough left to work it out.

Then it occurred to me that the scan of her legs would be done between the presurgery testing and the surgery – telephoned the doctor doing the surgery to make sure that this would not be a problem – we did not want to give up the appointment that would, hopefully, finally resolve her leg scans, but the pacemaker is more of an emergency. It is not a problem.

My sister will get mom to the hospital for the pacemaker surgery as it is 9 am. We figured out that between allowing for rush hour traffic (as we do not live near where mom is) and then the hour and a half we need to pick her up, get her in the car, drive her the 20 minute trip (and again – it is rush hour, so need more time) and then get her into the hospital – at 8:30 – would mean that we would have to leave home at 5:30 am. My sister lives near mom and the hospital.

Okay, so 4 doctor appointments for mom, 2 doctor appointments for each of us, I have to go to a client tomorrow, my birthday falls in the middle of all this which is all within a month – and at some point we will be called to go pick up our RV out of state. We also had reenactment event, board meeting, and general meeting – which husband as VP had to run and we had signed up to do a presentation for the meeting – over the past weekend. And on the day between our blood work appointments and our doctor appointments I have my embroidery guild meeting.

That's a lot of stuff – well, we can go for weeks with nothing to do, so it is a lot of stuff for us to do. But that it is not all. We - mostly my sisters - have been working on getting stuff out of the family home so it can be sold. http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2019/08/clearing-out-my-old-closet-at-family.html A tag sale company is will hold a sale in the house this coming weekend. My sister had set aside of box of stuff she came across of my stuff. Since the sale starts Friday and I have to work tomorrow – we had to go today and get the stuff. I had hoped it was one or more of the items I told her I wanted – a tablecloth I embroidered in high school which has disappeared and a small book about our family in the old country. I expected a small, office size file box. There was a huge box waiting for me. Some was not mine and I left them for the sale, some we tossed out, most of it I don't really want, but much of it had my name or other info on it and I took it home to shred it. I also now have an embroidery that I made for one of my parents special anniversaries for them.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

I was about to write the thought of the week I was going to write about with all this going on I have kept up – I am doing the laundry, the vehicles are taken of…

Then I remembered – we checked the oil in the car today (it has a problem, there is a class action suit, and we hope it will recalled and fixed) and it was down ½ quart – and we forgot to add oil. Normally it would not matter and I make note to add the oil tomorrow, but tomorrow I am driving to almost Manhattan for work and will be driving in stop and go traffic, at least one way. So I texted husband upstairs (yes, I am that lazy) and he came down and we added the oil – in the dark.

Then I remembered – that it had been raining Sunday when we arrived home from the reenactment event and we had not unpacked the van – we had brought 2 folding reproduction stools, only one of our box benches, a flat table top, the legs to the table and a twin sized blanket (it was cold I used it to keep warm until the sun warmed up the air a bit – and then when it rained, it kept me dry.) Husband will be driving the van tomorrow as I will have the car – so we had to unpack the van.

What more can I say for the thought of the week than – it is life, it goes on, one has to do what one can do, when one can do it.

CAR - VAN - RV

Well we made it last Thursday to the RV dealer in PA – left at 8:30 am, arrived at noon – should have been 2 ½ hours was 3 ½.  We were able to keep in sight of each other almost the entire trip – which kept husband happy.  He was worried about traveling alone and we could not find anyone to go with him – the night before I had an idea (after he went to bed).  I took 2 of the smaller stuffed teddy bears I have (under 6 inches tall), put them in a small box and sat the box on the passenger seat of our van which he was driving to the dealer (so we could come home after we left the RV) and seat belted the box in place – if he felt alone he could just glance down at them – don't laugh, it worked.  We did have walkie talkies with us – which worked except for one spot that had static – so we could talk enroute.  I was in front in our RV so he could see me ahead of him and I could also let him know what was happening on the road ahead.  When we did this before (we had to drive the car and the RV both home from buying the RV)  we would meet up at each rest area on the 2 turnpikes we drove on.  This time there was only one of them available to us due to construction and closing of a rest area.  As we approached it – he was maybe 2 -3 cars behind me – I told him that while we did not meet up, I did need to make a stop.  No problem finding the RV dealer for either of us, which was good as they just got a new location for their service center.  We left the RV and left in the van. 

The RV dealer sales office was on one side of a road and the service center on the other.  There is a shopping center a block from the dealer where we have spent many a day while having work done on the RV and were worried that with the new location we would not be able to do so.  (Normally we just go in the RV and walk around the stores while they work on it, get the RV back and drive home or to Lancaster for a trip.)  As we drove to the shopping center, we looked – it is less than half a mile further away and there is a safe place to walk the entire distance – sigh of relief.  We went to the stores for lunch before starting home.  Since it was only around 12:30 it was a bit early for us – who normally eat lunch at 2 pm, so we went to a small dollar store located in the shopping center.  For some reason this dollar store always seems to have different things than other ones – found a small toy bear for the village.  Lunch at Wendys.  We then decided to visit a supermarket that was “sort of” on the way back to the turnpike.  Then we started home.  Boy, the rush hour traffic near Philadelphia is worse than that at home.  We got home around 6:30 pm – ordered a pizza for dinner – something we rarely do as it is too high in carbs for our Diabetes.  Husband went to bed right after dinner.

We had the weekend to recover.

Over the weekend we drove our van as we were concerned about the car and NEEDED IT to take mom to the doctor – she has trouble in getting into the car – the van would be impossible.  Saturday night husband noticed the van was leaking “something”.  Sunday we figured it was antifreeze. 

Uh oh!! We needed the van to drop the car at the transmission shop Tuesday morning.  We could not cancel taking mom to the doctor – her battery is running out – what could we do.  Luckily our mechanic is 4 blocks from us and he – and his guys – are very nice and understanding.  Husband was up first thing Monday morning, called him and we left the van with him right away, luckily mom was a 4 pm doctor's appointment.  While at the doctor's office I called and the van was fixed, needed a new water pump, well $500 isn't $1,000 at least - we picked it up after we went home from mom's appointment and stopped in Tuesday to pay for it.

Monday we took mom to the doctor – this one is to change out her pacemaker for a new one – the battery had less than 2 months left on it when it was tested a week ago – and unlike cell phones and many other devices, there is no way to plug it in and recharge it.  This doctor is from the hospital system with an office at the hospital itself, and we anticipated the same mess and confusion.  We were happily surprised that it was not so.  Mom was in the exam room just about the time of her appointment.  They scanned into their computer the papers my mom and sister had filled in, which had been mailed to her in advance and handed the originals back to me.  Doctor came in promptly – had a good, gentle personality.  He agreed that she needed a new pacemaker (they do not change out the batteries).  He also knew the doctor who had done the original procedure on mom 10 years ago.  We were called the next morning as we had been told we would be to set up the appointments for the procedure (exam and surgery).  We will take her for the exam – between driving out there in rush hour and needing about an hour and a half to get mom out and to a place 20 minutes from her we cannot get up early enough to get there for the surgery and my sister who lives near her will take her and we will meet her.  Drove mom back – I had arranged for her to sandwich in room as she missed dinner (does anyone eat dinner at 4:45pm?) and we settled her back into room after going to the wellness office to let them what we did and what they should expect to be asked for from the doctor's office.

Dropped the car at the transmission place Tuesday morning.  They could not find anything wrong – it is a little off, but not such that it can be fixed as it does not have “a code” yet.  So we have it back, but are concerned about driving it. 

So now it is Wednesday again.  I did manage to scan some magazine articles I pulled out years to keep.  I have not left anything undone that should have been done this past week.  Laundry is in washing – the timer is about to go off for me to switch loads… there it goes, be right back.

Back again.  I back up my computer each time I have a work session on same and then once a week I back it up onto another flash drive – monthly and quarterly on or about 15th of the following month I back up the computer again. I went to back it yesterday on the regular daily drive backup (alternate between two drives).  It would not do so.  I ended up copying my data drive over again new.  I tried to delete the old backup which would not update – but could not.  So I ended up copying everything else off that drive (flash/stick drive) to an external hard drive, then formatting the stick drive and then copying the data back to the stick drive – and we had terrible storms here that ended up with us losing our electricity mid copying back to the stick drive!  I had managed to back up the computer, data, calendar, and client data for last month and last quarter before I went back to getting the daily (B) drive back for use.  2 posts about how, why and when I back up my computer - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/05/organizing-your-computer-data-to.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/06/organizing-computer-files.html

I think I also posted that husband is not as regular in backing up and this has led to problems – most recently when his hard drive died and then the new one did also.  (He has had a lot of problems with his computer lately – all involved with electricity, so we just bought and installed a new surge protector for his computer – hope that resolves it all. 

Oh, we were called by the nice lady in our RV service department – the new batteries we bought (elsewhere, our mistake, trying to travel not as far) for the RV are no good.  Having read about the scam artists that the place we had them installed in is – we are not sure if there was a problem with the batteries or we were given bad batteries on purpose so that we would come back and give them more money.   Our RV service department is seeing what they can do with the warranty on the batteries before we lay out another $1000 for new batteries again.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

As crazy as we both get – luckily generally not at the same time – everything works out somehow.  One or the other of us will keep our head and get the other one/both of us through the problem.  Husband figured out to drive mom to the doctor and take the car to have the transmission looked at the day after same instead of trying to squeeze it into last week and having the transmission place not getting it back to us in time.  I figured out to put the little bears in the car to keep him company. 

Let those around you help you when they can.  Don't go crazy – look for alternative ways to solve a problem that seems too big to deal with.

Back up your computer – soon!

GOOD GOD ANOTHER WEEK GONE ALREADY!

So, we took mom to the doctor again.  I called and made an appointment.  When asked what the appointment was for I told them Dr B told us mom had to have another scan of her leg and we needed for the scan to be done.  Dr B again not available for a month and I accepted an appointment with a nurse practitioner “W”.  I asked if Dr B would read the test and was told that W would do so.  Well, it has to be done so, okay.  The morning of the appointment I called the “wellness office” at the facility that mom is living at to see if what info they would need from or have for the doctor and got their direct line/fax number.  The woman was surprised that we were taking mom for the scan – they can do at it the facility.  I explained that we did not know that. 

Picked up mom to go to the doctor.  Drove there – we allowed an hour to pick her up and have a 15 minute drive.  I was prepared with a touch screen stylus this time so I could check mom in (I don't show up well on tablets or cell phones) – still had to do it all twice.  The place was quiet and not a madhouse as it had been last time and I started thinking that maybe we just picked up a bad impression based on the one visit.  We were called about 15 minutes after mom's appointment time – I consider that normal and much better than the hours late last time.  W (a nurse practitioner) came in.  She had mom's file on the computer in front of her – she asked the same questions as last time – back to the start of mom's life.  She tried to weigh mom – ummm, woman in wheelchair who can barely stand with walker – and she wanted mom to stand on scale which had nothing to hold onto.  Did not work.  Then she asked why we were there!!!  Huh, this was set up on the phone call and the purpose of our driving 45 minutes to get mom and bring her there…  I explained again about the scan.  “There is no request for a scan on her record.”  I told the entire story a second time.  “No, no scan requested and I don't do scans only X does and she is only in on Wednesdays and sometimes Saturday.”  My BP was rapidly rising.  Apparently Dr B had not many notes on our appointment – then again he had take a call and left us to leave on our own so maybe he never got back to same.  She entered into the computer that mom needs a scan and told us to make an appointment at the desk before we left.  Well, that was an improvement, last time no one told us to do that and made a mess of trying to make an appointment for her.  I stopped at the desk.  We explained and also explained that we needed a different type of cardiologist (yes, cardiologist for her legs) as her pacemaker was checked at her facility and needs to be replaced within 2 months.  They made an appointment for us with a different doctor whose office is at a local hospital.  (And with the craziness in this office I have called the office to make sure that they do the procedure needed and to confirm the appointment.)  We also made an appointment for mom to come back and have her legs scanned and then a separate appointment to have the doctor go over the test with us.  My sister and I agree that mom's scan should be done at the facility she lives at and sister will discuss with mom and set it up as Dr B is BIL's doctor and mom has decided that he is god and she has to have test with him.  At the end of the visit we got a print out with what had been done (nothing, but it does not say that), a list of her meds – that we gave them – and the upcoming appointments.  After we walked out I realized that we had not received any papers like this last time – probably because the doctor never did the paperwork so no scan, and no request for us to make an appointment.  Oh and the appointment with Dr B that would be a month wait when I called for same  - 2 weeks.  When I asked why the appointment was made with Wendy if she could not do the needed test and why same was not scheduled I was told that when one calls one gets a central booking office in Florida (about 8 or 9 states away from here) and they have no idea what they doing – great setup!  We are not sure if this setup is a Medicare scam or just the worst organized doctor's office we have seen.  Another day wasted.

We are to go tomorrow (Thursday) to take the RV to our dealer two states away about the battery problem – but more about this later.

Yesterday we had our car at the mechanic for an oil change and husband mentioned a funny feel when he brakes.  Car needs transmission work.  Husband was suppose to drive the car while I drive our RV so that after we dropped the RV off we could get home.  Now it cannot be driven that far.  Panic set in trying to figure out what to do.  Then I remembered – we have the van also.  The van has not been driven out of state at least since we have the RV if not before.  I asked the mechanics and they say that should be fine to drive the van that far. 

Today is the last day of the Jewish New Years holiday and the most significant/solemn holiday of the Jewish calendar.  We need the car Monday to take mom to the other doctor – she could not climb into the van.  What to do?  We had planned on husband calling today (as I am not suppose to be doing everyday things today) and making an appointment for the transmission work.   Our heads have been swimming and we have been going crazy for a week.  If we don't have the car Monday either someone else has to take mom or we have to change the appointment.  While we tried decide about making the appointment for the transmission work – husband had an idea that relaxed it all a bit.  We would call Friday for the transmission appointment on Friday, take mom to her doctor on Monday and then have the appointment after same so all would get done – hopefully. 

So this week – Monday was doctor for mom, Tuesday car was at mechanic, Wednesday was my holiday, and Thursday we are going out of state to drop off the RV.  Another week gone. 

When I got home after religious services tonight set up everything up in the van and the RV for the trip.  Two sets of directions (I REALLY don't need same, but he insisted), spare shoes – it is suppose to rain tomorrow and we hope we get ahead of the rain and miss it, but in case,  spare eyeglasses for me, walkie talkies (hopefully we will stay close enough together to talk back and forth – when we bought the RV and drove it home separately we were able to do so), emergency snacks for husband in case his blood sugar drops low, and so on and emergency stuff for him - like the snacks – have to be where he can grab them easily while driving.

Friday I will get to do everything I have not done all week (I hope). 

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

It is the start of a new year.  It may not be a new year for you, but as I have mentioned in the past, every day is the start of a new year.  Please feel free to use this ancient start of year to start working on your organizing and decluttering – even cleaning. 

The craziness we have been going through started last year shortly after the Jewish New Year with husband's shoulder and arm going into terrible pain, luckily not the heart attack we feared – for what happened then -  http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/10/i-was-finally-catching-up-bit-and.html

We are hoping for a good new year and a change in how life is going for us.  I hope others have a good year ahead.

LIFE LAUGHS AT US

Good thing we did a craft event last week and husband sold weaving. I was short $220 (rounded up a few dollars and sense) to pay the last of our bills for September. Between $80 in cash we had sitting around to take on trips or use if cash needed beyond what we have in our wallets, $40 of the cash I had in my wallet, $60 from cash sales, and $40 from our change box for when we do events I managed to find the $220 and cover the bills. And that was after my Social Security for the month, $400 from a client for her taxes, and money still in the accounts from husband's Social Security for the month. Next week hewill get his Social Security payments and be solvent again. Ouch. But as Mama would say in “Mama's Bank Account” (movie – “I Remember Mama”) we did not have go to the bank, well we did have to go and deposit the cash, but did not have to take additional money out of savings.

I was to be short on time this past week – the Jewish New Year started and it is an evening plus 2 day holiday. (Remember from past years - feel free to use this New Year to start anew in your organizing if you need a reason to start now.) We were to drive our RV back to the place that installed our new RV batteries at the end of July as they still do not work properly to have them look at it. We were told that we had to leave it for 2 weeks – makes sense as the problem is that they are not holding the charge – worse the old batteries we got rid of. Husband was in a panic - we would have to bring our car and the RV to the battery place. I would be driving the RV and he the car, but we have only been there once before and got lost at the end. He was so upset that I was very worried about him. We could not figure out who to bring with us that could ride with him and help him the find the way. Basically no one. I was awake at night even after he fell asleep trying to figure out what to do and I was starting to have panic attacks worrying about him.

Then I had an idea, one I was sure he would refuse as waste of money. If he was upset because he did not know where to turn etc. (even with GPS he was upset), why not take a trip down to the place in advance? He would be able to see the route, see where turns would be, we could figure out where to meet up before we left the Garden State Parkway, and in general reassure him. It costs us around $40 in tolls per vehicle to make the trip plus gas and I figured he would argue with me about spending same. When to go? This was Friday overnight. Well, the holiday was to start Sunday night and end Tuesday night, my embroidery meeting was Wednesday and we had made arrangements to go the next day – Thursday to the RV place. Only day to go was Sunday. Our holidays basically are suppose to be days of prayer and I try to keep away from things like trips, TVs, computer, cell phone and such. But I also know that health is more important than anything else. If husband was ill or injured and needed something there would be no question that I would take care of him – holiday or not. And basically he was ill, just not physically. I proposed the plan to him – drive down leisurely later in the day, see the route, and then have holiday dinner at Golden Corral (normally one does not eat out on our holidays). I was ready to point out that money was minor compared to how he was and that if he had to go somewhere locally and was this upset we would go in advance just like this.

He thought about the plan and did object and thought it a good idea. We started out after lunch on Sunday. I let him do the driving guided only by the GPS and kept my mouth closed other than to point out landmarks when he was already making turns. We were riding on a main (limited access 3 or 4 lane) road in NJ and had to get off of it to get onto the Garden State Parkway. As he was about to exit we saw that the exit was blocked off and closed. I had to get involved as he started to panic- what do we do? I told him to keep going and get off at the next exit. The GPS kicked in and sent off at same and had him turn around and head back to the road we had been on – in the opposite direction of course. Why I hate and don't trust GPS – the road it told him to turn onto to reverse direction back to the main road was one way – the opposite way – panic again – I told him take the next road – we did and were turned around and back to the main road – the exit to the Garden State Parkway was open in this direction. (The GPS also had no record that the exit between these two major roads was closed and it had been closed for over a week and will remain so until November!)

We drove on. The Garden State Parkway has rest areas and there were two of them before we would get off of it. I had figured we that we would meet up at the second one which was about 10-15 minutes from where we were going. We got off there (and having been on the road for 4 hours for a trip that should take 2 hours) used the rest room. We realized that this rest area was too close to where we would get off the road – the rest area is to the left of the multi-lane road and the exit to the right, traffic might well stop us from being able to get across the exit – so we figured we would meet at the first rest area when we actually go. We found the RV place easily and then rerouted the GPS to take us to the restaurant for dinner, even though it was two hours too early to eat, so we went to a Costco (where we bought gasoline) and a Walmart we know in the area to spend the time. Coming home after one of the GPS devices refused to route us the way we wanted to go as a major bridge was closed – it was not and we ignored the GPS.

Husband was calmer as he was more comfortable driving there on his own. Then a problem popped up so that we had to push the trip off to Friday and he sent an email letting them know. Monday I prayed, I read, I kept the holiday as well as I could. I also made and served the dinner I had planned to serve Sunday night and which had been partially cooked before the idea for the trip came up. The second day of the holiday (Tuesday) I am normally a bit looser in what I will do.

Monday night husband was on the computer and suddenly found post after post about the place we were going – almost everyone calling them a scammer – things they put in don't work, they break things and say they need to be fixed, they over charge by thousands of dollars, etc. Husband went back into panic mode. Tuesday I called the woman at our RV dealer and left a message (okay two messages) asking her to call us back. Overnight since we had not heard back, I called again and left a message explaining the situation in the short version. We missed picking up her call – her message was to call the new general appointment number and they would make an appointment. I had to go to my embroidery meeting – did not go out for other errands - and then I called her and left a message again. Husband went out and bought our usual lunch at Wendys and brought it home. I eventually called the appointment number and the very nice fellow said that he had been told I would call and that we needed to make a 4 hour appointment – I explained that 4 hours would not be enough and needed to speak with her. When time passed and we still did not hear from her, we decided that appointment could always be changed – I called and made the appointment for next week. We decided that husband would send her an email with all of the details. She called back later in the afternoon and husband was calm enough to talk to her. We are bringing the RV next week – with the car also – and we leave with them to find out if the batteries are good and if so why they are not holding a charge and if they are no good to see about the warranty or if that falls through – put in new batteries. Another thousand dollars plus is not easy for us to deal with, but it is that or never be able to use the RV again.

Now, at the same time I still had to make an appointments for mom at doctors. I managed to call and make one at the cardiologist's office that is to take an image of her leg to make sure her blood clot has not moved – and it will be done by a nurse practitioner as he needs to be booked over a month in advance (strange he could see her the first time in less than a week and when the appointment was wrong – there was an open appointment with him later the same day). I was also suppose to get the name of one of the other type of cardiologist who can test her pacemaker and asked for same – we have to come in to get that info? This is a big deal practice that is in a center from a local hospital chain - suppose to be the newest and best thing. Husband in his former job used to sometimes go with children in the program to Medicaid clinics – they did not treat their patients this poorly.

I am doing the laundry. I sent out info promised today to the members of my embroidery group as to how to sign into our National group's website to download embroidery designs/instructions that we are going to use at meetings. I have written this post. I did not make dinner – we took in Chinese food. So much has been left undone again - Oh, I forgot to mention that I had to call one of our credit card companies as we suddenly got – unrequested by us and with no prior info from them – a new type of credit card from them. I had to call them – first to make sure it was legitimate and not a scam, and then to change it back to what we had (miles card? We don't fly or even take a train or bus and don't stay in hotels) but they cannot change it back yet – husband's card is being mailed tomorrow so I have to call again in two days or later to get it changed back!!!!! There was much yelling by me. Another time waster.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

The world lately seems to be trying to waste time and have everything go awry. I can get myself sick dealing with it or try to take it as comes and try to keep husband from getting sick from it. One has to try to go with the flow even when it is driving one crazy and keeping one from doing anything that they need to do.

DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOU DO?

Do you record what you do?

A number of organizing books I have read over the years suggest that one write down everything that one does. The idea is that you will see two things – how much you are getting accomplished and also how long various tasks take you to do.

Even before I started trying to get organized I kept an annual appointment book with short notations of work items completed (and appointments of course). As a matter of fact, the appointment book would be my annual Christmas gift from my husband (bought by me, of course) and in many years it would be only gift. (Suggestion if you use a paper appointment book, which is good for many things – if you have a black covered appointment book it can easily disappear from view in a stack of something or a mess. I used to have gray appointment books – still professional and more visible (my gloves are also gray for the same reason).

Sometime in the late 1990s I got a computer appointment book – I used it to keep track of what I did for work plus more and more personal items also. Unfortunately it did not work with Windows XP and when I got a computer that worked with same, I could no longer use it. Before I stopped using the old computer I printed out as pdf files all of the entries from that program so I still have the records from it available to me. The problem I had with the computer appointment book was that I could only use it on the computer – it could not be carried with me, so while using that program I also kept a paper appointment book to carry with me.

I had to find something else to use. I got a wonderful program called Lotus Organizer it was even better than what I had before. It had an appointment book, todo list (completed tasks remain on the date they are finished – most such software moves them to a list when completed – this way I can page through the book and see what was done), address/telephone book, and also allowed me to have memos. Even better, it sync with (among other devices) Palm Pilot. Husband had a Palm Pilot and gave it to me as he did not use it. Now what was in the program on my computer was also in my hand.

I started making more and more notes in the todo section as completed todos. Short notes on conversations with clients (or others) – where we went for meals – where we went on trips – what stores we went to with reason if there was one – and so on. I worked out a sort of shorthand to use to save time and computer/Palm memory. Husband was delighted as there is rarely anything I like.

We were offered new cell phones to renew and the hottest thing out was a smart phone – the Palm Centro and it was tiny – just over 4 by 2 inches. No wifi – it did not exist (or at least did not commonly exist) then, Internet was by cell phone service only, real buttons, no guessing where the buttons were and mistyping everything (as smart phones no longer have now) This was a major wow to me.

I refuse to give up the Lotus Organizer and so husband finds ways to allow me to keep using it. He has made virtual Windows XP machines in my Windows 7 desktop and my Windows 10 desktop (this one) so I can keep the Organizer on the computers. (I told you, he loves solving my problems as there is so little I want.) When I had to switch to Blackberry, he found that old Blackberry software would work with Organizer, mostly. The biggest problem – which I to solve myself – was when the Blackberry no longer worked as a telephone or Internet. I had to get - boo hoo, I was so upset – an Android phone. I basically “keep 2 sets of books” now. Certain things are on both the Android and the Centro, others are on one or the other. I use the Centro in the house and take it on trips, and make notes in the Android when I am out and copy them to the Organizer. Not ecstatic, but it works for me.

So what do I do with what I record in the Organizer?

I have more contact info in the Organizer/Palm than I do in the Android - I won't need my Congressman's info while out, so it is not in the Android.

I have my calendar in both setups.

I have some memos in the Palm/Organizer setup only such as list of where and when we have gone through automatic payment tolls so I can check against the bill. (Which is why I bring it on trips.)

Others are in both the memos in the Palm/Organizer setup and the Android. Included here are lists of embroidery/needlework books I have so I don't buy duplicates, specifications of items we have that we might find items to go with (sewing machine feet, post size for lathe and items needed to make reenacting clothing. Since we tend to go to the same places on trips, I also started a list of fast food and casual food restaurants along the roads we commonly travel on. We know what food they have and that we can find what we can eat, as well as that we can afford them. Passwords in a code that I understand. In the Android only I have my shopping list – for groceries as well as items we are looking for from other sources.

I also keep tasks (todos) both to be done and finished. This way if I do something I have a record of having done it. (No, I don't record when I go to the toilet or when I sleep.) I do keep track of phone calls/emails/in very rare cases texts made/sent or received, letters written, where we went – including for errands, chores around the house, and so on. If I need to contact a business that has not replied to me or done what it said it would do – I have a record of when I contacted them, who I spoke to and what was discussed – also of letters written. I have a record of when items were mailed out and to who (we go the Post office to check for mail in our box there and also send out any mail we have to go out).

I use codes when I do this.

T: is a telephone call, it will have who it was made to or received from quick what was talked about, the time it was made/received, and if it was an incoming call it will say “in” if I spoke to a computer “CP”, and if it was a return call to someone who called me “RC”. Details as needed - can be long or short – just “RC “or “chat” is just conversation.

E: is email – I use “AE” instead of “RC” for this and time is not recorded.

X: is something I just added and it means text – used for those texts which are other than from husband as our texts between us are basically “dinner is ready”, “where are you in the store”, “starting home from work” and similar. Other text messages – such as from my sister about my mom I want a record of what was said.

I also use letter for what the call, email, etc. is for – personal ones have no code, “A” is something done for accounting, “C” is for crafts business related, “U” is for our reenactment unit and so on for about 6 or 7 different things.

To make sense of this - T:A:Jones: appointment >3:30pm - means that I telephoned at 3:30 my accounting client, Mrs. Jones and made an appointment to go into her business to do her books. (The appointment is separately recorded in the calendar at the day and time I need to be there.)

Now you might say what the heck is the reason for all this? I can search for when I did something to check on when it was or what was discussed. I used the Organizer for this yesterday. I was about to pay a credit card bill and I thought that I had called the company and had the “rewards amount” applied to the bill so I could pay less by that amount, but I had no notes of the call on the bill. I searched in the Organizer and was reminded that I went to make the call the phone was not working. I immediately called up and had the credit put to the payment of the account. If I had just gone by memory I would have underpaid the (full) balance due and would have been hit by finance charges.

Another use is sometimes I get a credit card statement and there is a charge on it which I have no slip for. (Yes, happens to me too.) I can go back and see if I was at that store or restaurant that day. If I was, I have to presume the amount was okay, if not then I will contact the credit card company for proof of the purchase. (If I have no slip for, say, FG Asian buffet, and we ate dinner there – well, we owe the money.

Husband and I are getting older. We can end up in a “disagreement” about what and when something was done “No, we went to your mother's house on the 4^th so we did not do X that day and still have to do so.” Look it up and we either did go there on the 4^th or we did what needed to be done.

I also put into the tasks as repeating tasks, items I need to do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. and add reminders of them. This blog is two tasks a week – one is to write it on Tuesday nights and the other is to post it on Wednesday nights. Okay, I don't think I have ever actually written it on Tuesday – like Charlie Brown, I work best under pressure. I do have reminders the same way to write the newsletter for my embroidery chapter monthly, do the laundry, take out the garbage, take out the recycling, rotating over the month – clean the house, and so on, as well having the record of having done so.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

It helps to stay organized by keeping track in your cell phone of what you need to do and your appointments. You can have all the contacts you need in it also. And after you have done things you can keep a record of what you have done even if it was not listed in it to do.

EVERYONE ELSE'S DISORGANIZATION PREVENTS ME FROM BEING ORGANIZED

Wednesday already? 

I have been a whirlwind of not getting things done. Amazing - really - entire days have disappeared since last Wednesday with nothing to little accomplished.  I am starting this post about 3 hours later than normal - Once a month I have to write and send out the newsletter for my embroidery chapter - and I barely started it before dinner and had to write it after dinner - through my “reading the newspaper” time, my “doing the laundry” time and my “writing my post” time.  (The last two items are normally done at the same time.

Worst of the week was our lost Friday.  I think I have mentioned my mom has not been doing well - she is 90 and now in an assisted living facility.  Since I was not able help to much at going through the family home and husband and I do not work full time (more like hardly at all) I was asked by sister to deal with taking mom to several doctors - she gave me a list of them.  Last week mom was unwell and ended up at the hospital overnight.  She had a blood clot in her leg.  After she was back “home” (in the assisted living) my sister wrote that mom had an appointment to go to the cardiologist on (now - last) Friday at 10 am with a certain doctor - Dr B.  We had been planning - again - to take a trip to Pennsylvania, but were not sure due to weather if we would go - decided Thursday not to and I texted my sister that I could take mom.  Mom called me before I could call her to make the arrangements to pick her up.  The appointment was at 10 am - none of the three of us - mom, husband, me - are normally up and out that early.  Thursday night there was a huge storm in the general two county area.  (Mom and sister are in the next county.)  The storm was so bad that the front was blown off of a warehouse on the county line. 

Husband and I woke up at 8 am to take mom (this is about 4-5 hours earlier than usual as wake up late and go to bed late (it is 2 am as I write this and husband has not come down yet for snack before bed and we will get to bed between 3 and 4 am).  I had estimated a lot of extra time for rush hour traffic, getting mom into her wheelchair - then our car - and then dealing with her wheelchair for our first time.  As we drove to mom there were lots of slow downs as huge trees had fallen along the parkway and the crews were working on them.  We got to mom just at the time we needed to be there - so my extra time was a good thing.  I went up and got mom, we got her into the car and figured out the chair fairly quickly (I had thought to look up online the night before how to take it apart to fit in the car) and we were off.  The doctor’s office was fairly close to mom’s place. 

I expected a doctor’s office as I am used to - an outer office with staff, then several exam rooms in the back.  If it was in an multiple office building I expected to see doors along the halls with the names of doctors on them.  The place had open offices along the hall - no doctor’s names - just the specialty that was in that space.  We came to the end of the hall we had been sent down and had not seen a sign for cardiology.  I asked an employee and we walked into a nearby office area.  I asked someone about signing in (at our doctors one signs a sheet with name & time) there was acomputer tablets - oh boy!  It asked if I was the person or signing in for them - I selected the latter - it wanted me to put my hand on the screen - I did, several times.  It gave up and asked for mom’s name and date of birth - rejected that.  I went to someone at the desk and explained - I should not have been sent there - mom was not registered.  I was handed another computer tablet to fill in info on.  Mom was confused by this (although she does use a computer since she worked with one at her job).  I started trying to fill in the form - I have trouble using my Android phone as I do not always show up on touch screens (if I knew we would be using one I would have brought a toucher thingee to use).  Husband had to take over and fill in info.  I gave the woman mom’s two insurance cards while we did all this.  Mom had to sign the tablet - multiple times - she was very frustrated doing so.  Then there was a problem with one of her insurance cards - there was an extra digit in the account number (I have to wonder if it is because she has had it soooo long).  The woman called it in and found out how to enter the number.  We were told to sit down and wait.

We were called much quicker than I thought we would be.  We followed an employee into a room.  She was checking and taking information - we were there to see Dr. Z per her - I told her that we were suppose to see Dr. B (my BIL’s doctor).  No, Dr. B is at the hospital doing procedures mornings - he only has afternoon appointments.  I started texting my sister.  All three of us thought mom was there to have her pacemaker checked  - employee said mom was there to have her leg tested related to her blood clot, and they don’t do pacemaker testing - that is done at the hospital.  (Her old doctor did same in his office.)  I called my sister - yes, she was there for her leg (did not say to her - but if she was not there related to heart -why say she is going to the cardiologist?)  and yes, she was suppose to see Dr B - sister had a card from the hospital which made the appointment with the doctor’s name and time.    Our choice was to see Dr Z instead, come back another day or they had an open appointment for Dr B at 2 pm - we could come back.  We chose the last.  As we walked out it was corrected to a 2:30 appointment

We now had close over 3 hours to spend.  We got in the car and started to drive and figure out where to go - lunch would be part of it, but not long enough.  We came to a Barnes and Nobles and parked and went in - I figured we could always sit and look at magazines.  We managed to easily spend over 2 hours there.  Then we went to a Wendys we knew for lunch.  Then back to the doctor’s office.

I had asked if we had to check in again and had been told to speak to the woman who had helped us.  Again we were told to take and seat and we would be called.  At 3:30 we still had not been called and I went back to the woman - I told her that it was an hour past the appointment and mom had to be back for dinner at 4:30 or she would miss same.  She apologized and said it would be “soon”.  Mom went in just after 4 pm - us with her.  Nurse took vitals and asked for info - her assisted living should have sent info with her, including a list of her meds (next time I will check with the office which handles this, in advance) - we gave the list of meds as we could.  We then went to another room where they had the machine that doctor needed to do the test.  We waited.  The doctor came in - he was extremely nice and took time to explain everything to mom and us very simply and without large medical terms unless he explained them.  (Husband and I had already the report on the counter from mom’s hospital visit.)  He said that she did not need the test yet - she should come back in 3 weeks.  He gave us a list of things to be done in the interim for mom’s facility - I had one of the employees make a copy for us.  We left.  So basically we had spent, just since picking up mom 8 hours - and nothing had been done.  We were concerned about mom not having dinner, but she said they would bring her a tray and when we got to her room, we had to insist that she throw out the tray left for her for lunch as it had been sitting out. 

On the way home we stopped at the bank as we had planned to do in the mid afternoon on our way home and the at the post office to pick up mail at our box - ditto.  Friday gone and wasted.

Then we found out that our kitchen telephone/answering machine was dead.  It is on the wall across from the basement door.  We bought a new one - per the online info it should have fit - the door passes close to the wall across from it - but apparently they had not included the handset in the measurements.  So we have now bought and returned 4 telephones - the others were too cheaply made and at least one of them hardwired so the wire could not be removed for wall use.

In the meantime I am trying to get a copy of the changes to my reenactment unit’s insurance that we did - back in April. The woman I have worked with for years at the agency retired and I figured the new one was stupid and did not understand what I wanted.  Then another thought hit me - perhaps the changes were not properly made - seems like that it the story - and she is checking what went on.

I have a client who files his income taxes on extension as he is away when it is due.  I just picked up the info from him a week or so ago.  He sent me an email that he needed to talk to me.  There is a situation with his income for 2019 and I need to call one of his financial advisors - so that is another call I have to deal with.

We need to have a printout of what we paid for medical insurance last year for a senior tax exemption.  We have 3 medical polices between the two of us.  One company has now sent us the wrong info - not a listing of what we paid - twice now, and I have to call them AGAIN! 



So when the heck am I suppose to get anything done?!!!

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes the stupidity of ours takes up more time than thinks one can deal with.  One just has to deal with it and do one’s best.  When others are not organized - they take our from our ability to be organized.

WORK, FAMILY, CLUBS - ALL ARE TAKING UP MY ATTENTION

Okay, so now I have to work on getting things done - not all house things - mostly work, family,  financial, and club things. I got a fortune cookie today that said that my problems are behind me - if only I believe it.

Work - I went to the client that I go to monthly.  She was charged a large amount for fees by her credit card processor and she had no sales.  I telephoned her processing company and they gave me a breakdown that sort of made sense, but did not.  What I was told the fees were for do not match what I have been told in the past about the annual fee she has to pay (due to low sales and this being a crooked company that she says she will switch from, but does not).  A friend of hers (she is in an indoor, open market area and this is one of the other vendors) came by and said that she has to fill in a form with the processing company (and Mr. Expert does not use the same company) and then they will get rid of one the larger fee.  I called the company again and they  then said that I had to call the sales office for more info.  Her salesman who should be who she talks to about questions disappeared in 2016 about two months after she signed up this company.  So I am trying to reach their sales office - either no answer at the extension I need or it keeps ringing.  I looked up the company name on line that answered and not only is not the company she signed up - it seems to be a “use an electronic device for card processing” company not one that uses the card reader she has.  I will keep trying.

Mom - since I have been less helpful with going through mom’s house, I have been put in charge of taking her to 4 doctors she has to go to.  Husband insisted her wheelchair will not fit in our car (and she cannot climb into the van).  I pointed out to him that if I went without him, it would fit as I could drop the back seat down for more room behind it.  In the meanwhile, my sister explained that the wheelchair comes apart to fit in a car.  I have been waiting for husband to set on when we are going on a trip - still a short one and probably to PA again - so I can make appointments for mom.  Today my sister called - mom had to go to the emergency room due to leg muscle spasms.  Now she will have an aide 24/7 for 3 days due to the medication - so I am putting off calling about the appointments until next week (or the week after if we go away next week) so I know where we are with her going out. I called her Medicare supplement plan to see if they would cover the aide, only if Medicare does - so, no, they don’t

Work, again - I have a tax client who has me put his tax return on extension as he goes south for the winter.  Normally he will contact me the start of September to set up an appointment to do his return.  He sent an email  - can we meet Monday?  Have to find out from husband if we are going away next week or not - he seems to be leaning towards not as it is suppose to, yes, rain.

Family, again - husband this time - husband has been having problems for several years finding the clothes he likes.  As a result he is low on presentable clothing.  Now that RV is finally working correctly, he needed something else to obsess about.  Underwear - it seems that it cut with a lower waistband and is too low for his to be comfortable in and falls down.  Then again, his old underwear falls down also - I am going to have start sewing new elastic in the waists.  Some of his shirts are so worn out that he can be seen through them.  When he complained a week or so ago, I made him go to the outlet of the company whose shirts he likes - they are short sleeved which I figured would make it easy - but he found most of them to be “too heavy”.  He got 3 shirts - which have to be washed so he can wear them.  We also have been going to various Walmarts as he found shirts in another fabric he liked, looking for what colors it comes in.  He also bought some tee shirts to try - only $2 each at Walmart closeout.  He didn’t like them, but they are fine are spares for me - especially at that price.  Jeans - he had 2 spare pairs that he bought when the ones he likes was discontinued.  I washed them.  I went to pin them to shorten - but the waists are so tight that he would pass out if he wore them. (They were 2 of 3 identical pairs he bought together - the other is tight, but not like this and the next size up falls off him.) We went out looking for jeans.  He found 3 pairs - all going back are they are not right.  I did convince to buy a waistband extender which moves the button/button hole 1 or 2 inches apart and he is using same.  More jeans shopping to come.  (Okay, I can be as bad, just have been lucky - my only problem is socks and I have taught myself to darn so I can fix them when they get holes.)

Clubs - I have to get paperwork out to an upcoming event for our reenactment unit.  We raised the unit’s insurance coverage and I have been trying - by telephone and mail - to get a copy of the increased coverages from them since May!

Clubs - I managed out to get out the summer newsletter for my embroidery chapter.  Now I have to get the year book (upcoming year’s meeting programs) out.  The newsletter is email; the yearbook has to be printed and mailed - and husband is planning a trip - sometime.

Financial - I have to print out, sign, and mail by certified mail two letters for credit cards that we have to “opt out” of changes they are making.  I paid all our bills today until the end of next week in case he decides that we are going away same. 


THOUGHTs OF THE WEEK -           

First thought is - I don’t have time to write and post this!

When one does not know when one will do something - one cannot plan when one will do something else and has to juggle to deal with it all.  It will all work out in the end - either work out well or badly, but it will work out and new problems will come along to be solved.