MOTHER NATURE DOES NOT HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR

 Well, that relatively small snow storm that was headed our way changed from under 6 inches to 6 to 12 inches and came in at more than that.  Around here generally the largest amount of snow falls “to the north and west” - ie.  inland.  A big deal was made that this storm was to have the heaviest snow to the south and east – ie. closest to the ocean.  

The storm started overnight Saturday to Sunday (late enough that we were able to go out to pick up Chinese food for dinner as we have been doing on Saturday nights.  When I put the kitchen garbage in the outside pail around 10 pm light snow was starting to fall.  It snowed steadily on Sunday.  It snowed heavily on Monday.  It snowed lightly on Tuesday.  After putting that garbage in the pail Saturday night we stayed in the house until yesterday (Tuesday) when we started to clear the snow.  We managed to move the thigh high snow in the original driveway cut by chopping it down with the shovel and blowing it to the side of the driveway and move the snow between the car and the sidewalk with the blower.  Our neighbor on that side of our house had cleared the sidewalk across that part of our driveway (on his side) with his heavier duty snow blower for us – how nice of him (yes, I sent an email thanking him) – this being an oddity as normally no one helps us.  We were working on clearing the driveway as very light snow fell.  

How much snow did we get here (as opposed to any point on Long Island, NYC, upstate NYS, NJ or CT or anywhere else this storm hit?  Hard to say.  When we went out today (Wednesday) the snow between our house and the circular part of our driveway was maybe 4 inches.  The snow across the circular part – next to the (more or less) center semi circle of the driveway (and where we park our van) was around 18 inches high.  The snow had been blowing so if take an average it was around 11 inches – the storm dropped 30 inches in at least one community.  The snow in the two driveway cuts was close to 3 feet high.  Even after the snow had stopped and the road was clear – the snow plows, sand trucks, and salt trucks kept coming.  At 11 am this morning the road was again plowed.

So, today when we went out to clear the other (about) 2/3 of the driveway – including the second cut – the first cut into the street had been partially refilled and we had to clear out that side again.  With no more snow falling it seemed easier to blow the snow – then again, I was not the one pushing it most of the time – when it was hard to push into the packed snow we each took a side and both pushed.  We started probably around 12:30 after eating an early lunch and finished close to 5 pm.  

The news reports had been saying to expect 2 more snow storms – one at the end of this week and another on Monday.  Luckily they have changed to a light storm at the end of the week and maybe rain on Monday.  

We are also dealing with a second situation. When we went to the doctor in November he changed the dosage of one of my husband's medications – no refills, husband is suppose to come back after 90 days to have more blood taken to see if the new dosage is correct.  I was very careful to count when he had to go back – next Monday or Tuesday - for the blood test.  As husband has been sitting here in a panic over all the snow for the past 2 weeks he is also in a panic as to when we will get to the doctor for the test between all the storms (and he does not like to drive in snow) and then go a few days later when the doctor gets the results to pick up his prescription (as well as some other prescriptions we need to renew).  Since we can now get the car out of the driveway (unless they plow yet again) I will get up early tomorrow (for us) and call to see if he can go for the blood test tomorrow.  

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

An old adage is “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”  I have changed it to “Never put off until tomorrow what needs to be done and cannot be if it snows tomorrow.”  If we had gone last week to the doctor the blood test would be done with and the prescriptions renewed and we would not have to worry about weather permitting us to do both. 

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.