Wacky Wednesday
Wednesday, January 11th, 2023 03:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudioForced myself up to sit on the side of the bed at 10AM, despite six hours of sleep, and opened the blinds to see the garbage truck dumping our bin into it's maw, with the robot arm... all those hobby train magazines I'd bagged up last week, plus another crap ton of regular trash.
It was a partly sunny, unseasonably warm Wednesday morning, at 45F, heading up to 52F! STUPIDLY warm for January 11th!
I'd just gotten the coffee brewing, and wasn't yet sitting down on the toilet, when the doorbell rang!
I had to run down in my underwear to answer, and it was a guy from the hospice home maker service, arriving by an appointment made Waaaaaaaaay last week, to set up house cleaning services.
I just told him flatly, "My coffee is brewing and I haven't taken a shit! You have to come back another day! I'm sorry!" I had to shout it through the plexiglass pane of the storm door, but he got the message.
Last week, when this appointment was made... was another century!
I was living a different life.
But Kyangela called while I was standing there yelling thorugh the plexiglass to him in my underwear, to say she was on her way, and would be here to bathe Dad soon!
--<>--
Tim was stirring when I got downstairs at 10:20. After a quick, good morning, to Dad, I explained to Tim that Kyangela was on the way, and then took Yvette for her morning walk, which lasted a good 25 minutes.
The garbage trucks were out and about, as were the tree trimming trucks, to get the branches away from the power lines.
And while Yvette normally would not prefer to be out long, with so much commotion going on, she did manage to ignore it this morning... probably because this walk of ours is the only thing left, lately, of the old routines from before Dad took his fall!
--<>--
Our walk ended in the back yard, and, after a spell there, I saw Tim outside using the sockets I'd bought last night to try and remove the lugs from the passenger front wheel of Dad's car, so I brought Yvette up to join him in the driveway.
It wasn't going well.
Tim had found the original security socket in Dad's trunk, meant for the security lug, but the security lug was frozen by rust and would not budge. Meanwhile the sockets I'd bought to remove the stripped lug did not fit over the bolt!
But we didn't have much time to fuss over it, because Kyangela had finished up with Dad's bath, so we brought Yvette inside, wished her a good day, and I put the dirty bedding into the washer.
------------{=0=}------------
Inside, Tim told me that the homemaker guy had called the land line downstairs before his arrival, this morning, and that Dad had answered the phone from his room... in a state where he wasn't able to speak intelligibly, or understand what the caller was saying.
Tim heard this from afar, in the back room, and was horrified that he could not get to the distant phone in the kitchen to save that situation, before Dad hung up!
This has been a problem with the hospice visitors, that they have all these defunct old phone numbers on file, and Dad's land line... and no matter how many people I tell... and how many times... that the only number to call should be my cell phone, they just can't get it into their system!
--<>--
So, we immediately began to work on moving the kitchen wall phone into Tim's room, because I knew there was a working phone jack in his room.
So I looked in a kitchen cabinet, where Dad had stashed a ton of old phone cords and shit, looking for an extra long phone cord to get from the jack in Tim's room, over to his bedside nightstand.
But in a plastic bag, I found an ENTIRE CORDLESS PHONE from the 1990s, with the charger base and everything!
So we hooked that up instead, on Tim's nightstand, and it WORKED!
So, from now on, Tim will be able to field any errant calls coming to the land line, before Dad can answer them himself.
--<>--
The other issue we've been having is that these random hospice workers always gravitate to the front door, instead of the side porch door off the kitchen.
And I'd drunk ordered a wireless doorbell for the side door a few nights ago, that will arrive tomorrow!
SO!... we're gonna have a doorbell at the correct door, that Tim can hear and answer if I'm not downstairs yet... and I'm gonna print up a sign for the front door that directs all of them to the side doorbell!
------------{=0=}------------
Kevin arrived, while I was setting up the cordless 1990s phone in Tim's room... having walked from his Air B&B on Lasalle Street... in the ridiculously mild 50F temps of our partly sunny morning.
We told him about how we'd met defeat trying to remove the stubborn lugs off Dad's wheel, and he thought... well, doesn't he have roadside assistance on his car insurance?
So we dug through Dad's wallet and found a car insurance card with his policy number, and Kevin called All State to get a guy out to remove the goddam wheel, so we could put on the temporary spare.
--<>--
The washer, then stopped, mid fill cycle, and I couldn't restart it... because the old timing mechanism is going bad!
I fiddled with it for a few minutes and got it to skip to the spin cycle.
Everything in Dad's world is falling apart!
--<>--
With help on the way for Dad's car, Tim stayed home to wait for the tech, and I drove Kevin to the weed dispensery so he could buy himself some gummies!
The dispensery is not like I remembered it from a year ago! They renovated the whole building, and streamlined the process, so... they must be turning quite a nice profit!
--<>--
By the time we got back home, the roadside assistance truck was just pulling out of the driveway and driving off.
But Dad's bad wheel and flat tire were still on the car!
In the kitchen, Tim explained that, even though he came with a truck and a bunch of tools.. he absolutely failed to removed the stubborn lug nuts and GAVE UP!
--<>--
At this point, all eyes turned to Adrian's Automotive... the little Mexican auto shop on the corner of our block... just five houses down!
Could they handle this problem? Could we limp Dad's car down there?
The three of us walked there and went in together to talk to Adrian. Kevin happens to speak fluent Spanish, so, was able to add nuance to the problem when English wasn't cutting it, and he did so, as Tim showed Adrian photos of the lugs in question.
Adrian told us that yes, he could get that wheel off, but... he did not fix tires... and we had to get the car to his shop.
OKAY!..
Tim insisted we go get a can of, Fix-a-Flat, because it had worked miracles for him in the past, so Kevin and I did run down to a nearby auto store to grab a can, and came straight back.
Tim pumped it into Dad's bum tire, but... it wasn't doing much.
He said, "Do you have ANY kind of air pump?"
I said, "I have a bicycle tire pump in the shed."
"Get it!"
Next thing you know, Tim, Kevin, and I, were taking turns with the bicycle pump, slowly inflating the bum tire... but it WORKED!
The Fix-a-Flat had sealed the leak well enough, that our bicycle pump could inflate the tire... JUST ENOUGH... to limp Dad's car down to Adrian's on the corner!
------------{=0=}------------
Back in the kitchen, we had a little time to chat before I had to leave for work, and the mouse problem came up!
I had forgotten to set any new traps last night, but Tim said he'd definitely heard one snap in the middle of the night, and I remembered that I had set one behind the kitchen garbage can.
So we checked, and to our horror, we found a triggered trap, with no dead mouse... but this was one of the ones where I had jammed a peanut into the bait tray, rather than just using peanut butter!
And that jammed peanut was GONE!
HOW!
Kevin suggested the mice must have advanced to the level that... they figured out how to trigger the trap first... from the safe side of the spring... and then ate the bait afterward!
If this was true... and it OBVIOUSLY WAS!... there was no choice left, but to introduce Snoop and Prowly into the equation! The cats were our only hope!
We left it there and it was time for me to go to work. Kevin walked back to his Air B&B for an afternoon nap, and Tim settled in to look after Dad, and await an old friend of his, who would come to bring some food and visit.
------------{=0=}------------
My workday was routine, and I came straight home tonight, without stopping for anything along the way.
I was surprised to see Dad's car back in the driveway when I got home, and happy to discover that the temporary spare was FINALLY on the front passenger wheel!
I went in the front door and straight upstairs to greet Snoop and Prowly, and, grabbing a beer from my mini-fridge, lead them down and let them loose once more on the main deck... for the first time in a couple weeks.
Tim and Kevin explained that Adrian had managed to not only remove the two stuck lugs of the bad wheel, but he also removed the security lugs from the other three wheels, so that they would not be a problem in the future. And he did so, for $60.00!
After saying hello to Dad, I took Yvette for a quick walk, allowing Jet and Mauli the chance to infiltrate the downstairs without her trying to block them.
Kevin joined me on the walk.
--<>--
Back inside, the three of us sons, joined Dad in his bedroom for beers and smokes, and Yvette stayed near us, which allowed the cats to roam around and explore.
Dad... is continuing to fade fast.
He's back to having difficulty speaking clearly. He's still engaged and has relevant things to add, but, it's hard for him to be understood.
He's also having a harder time staying upright in bed... always hopelessly listing to the left, no matter how much we readjust him or prop him up.
And it's getting more difficult for him to bring straws to his mouth, or hold the cigarette.
But... he still valliantly drank his Guinness, and smoked two Newports... while staying engaged with us for a good 45 minutes.
--<>--
Finally he said he was ready for bed, so we took it into the back room, and kind of monitored the situation with the cats and Yvette out in the kitchen and beyond.
Yvette got into a couple scuffles with Snoop & Prowly, but they were largely able to patrol every nook and cranny of the downstairs unencumbered.
It was a bit more relaxed tonight... yet, at the same time, not so relaxed... because Tim had been on the phone with Veda, his second oldest daughter, and also Kate, his ex wife, and both were reacting to the situation with Dad differently.
Veda wasn't ready to hear that Dad's devolving so quickly. She's pregnant with her second kid right now, and it's difficult to come visit on short notice... but she loves her Grampa and wants to see him one last time.
Kate, meanwhile, wants to visit as well... which doesn't make much sense, because... who then will look after the younger kids in Las Vegas?.. It's a whole can of worms.
--<>--
After a bit of this and that, we got down to what the plan for the next few days should be, and all agreed that tomorrow, the number one priority is to get the Transfer Upon Death Instrument out to the Kane County Recorder in Geneva, and filed!
Kevin said he'll take Dad's car on Friday to get the main tire fixed, and pay for it himself, because he plans to drive it to DeKalb to see Brian over the weekend.
Brian may also show up here at home tomorrow, if he's to be believed. But... you know, his new break calipers may just disintigrate at the last minute.
------------{=0=}------------
As I write the end of this entry... at 2:55AM on Thursday, the cats are back upstairs with me... because we still need to work out some ways for them to get around Yvette when all the humans are asleep.
But they did get to spend a ton of time downstairs with us tonight, from the moment I got home, and they are very content and sleepy up here now, rather than restless and aggitated, which is a good development!
They definitely need to be incorporated into the action every day, from here on out, as much as possible.
The mice definitely went into hiding tonight, but they're not gone!
All of that said, tomorrow is another day, and Kevin and I have a date with the County Recorder of Deeds, in Geneva!
°¦}
https://soundcloud.com/snoozefestaudio
It was a partly sunny, unseasonably warm Wednesday morning, at 45F, heading up to 52F! STUPIDLY warm for January 11th!
I'd just gotten the coffee brewing, and wasn't yet sitting down on the toilet, when the doorbell rang!
I had to run down in my underwear to answer, and it was a guy from the hospice home maker service, arriving by an appointment made Waaaaaaaaay last week, to set up house cleaning services.
I just told him flatly, "My coffee is brewing and I haven't taken a shit! You have to come back another day! I'm sorry!" I had to shout it through the plexiglass pane of the storm door, but he got the message.
Last week, when this appointment was made... was another century!
I was living a different life.
But Kyangela called while I was standing there yelling thorugh the plexiglass to him in my underwear, to say she was on her way, and would be here to bathe Dad soon!
Tim was stirring when I got downstairs at 10:20. After a quick, good morning, to Dad, I explained to Tim that Kyangela was on the way, and then took Yvette for her morning walk, which lasted a good 25 minutes.
The garbage trucks were out and about, as were the tree trimming trucks, to get the branches away from the power lines.
And while Yvette normally would not prefer to be out long, with so much commotion going on, she did manage to ignore it this morning... probably because this walk of ours is the only thing left, lately, of the old routines from before Dad took his fall!
Our walk ended in the back yard, and, after a spell there, I saw Tim outside using the sockets I'd bought last night to try and remove the lugs from the passenger front wheel of Dad's car, so I brought Yvette up to join him in the driveway.
It wasn't going well.
Tim had found the original security socket in Dad's trunk, meant for the security lug, but the security lug was frozen by rust and would not budge. Meanwhile the sockets I'd bought to remove the stripped lug did not fit over the bolt!
But we didn't have much time to fuss over it, because Kyangela had finished up with Dad's bath, so we brought Yvette inside, wished her a good day, and I put the dirty bedding into the washer.
Inside, Tim told me that the homemaker guy had called the land line downstairs before his arrival, this morning, and that Dad had answered the phone from his room... in a state where he wasn't able to speak intelligibly, or understand what the caller was saying.
Tim heard this from afar, in the back room, and was horrified that he could not get to the distant phone in the kitchen to save that situation, before Dad hung up!
This has been a problem with the hospice visitors, that they have all these defunct old phone numbers on file, and Dad's land line... and no matter how many people I tell... and how many times... that the only number to call should be my cell phone, they just can't get it into their system!
So, we immediately began to work on moving the kitchen wall phone into Tim's room, because I knew there was a working phone jack in his room.
So I looked in a kitchen cabinet, where Dad had stashed a ton of old phone cords and shit, looking for an extra long phone cord to get from the jack in Tim's room, over to his bedside nightstand.
But in a plastic bag, I found an ENTIRE CORDLESS PHONE from the 1990s, with the charger base and everything!
So we hooked that up instead, on Tim's nightstand, and it WORKED!
So, from now on, Tim will be able to field any errant calls coming to the land line, before Dad can answer them himself.
The other issue we've been having is that these random hospice workers always gravitate to the front door, instead of the side porch door off the kitchen.
And I'd drunk ordered a wireless doorbell for the side door a few nights ago, that will arrive tomorrow!
SO!... we're gonna have a doorbell at the correct door, that Tim can hear and answer if I'm not downstairs yet... and I'm gonna print up a sign for the front door that directs all of them to the side doorbell!
Kevin arrived, while I was setting up the cordless 1990s phone in Tim's room... having walked from his Air B&B on Lasalle Street... in the ridiculously mild 50F temps of our partly sunny morning.
We told him about how we'd met defeat trying to remove the stubborn lugs off Dad's wheel, and he thought... well, doesn't he have roadside assistance on his car insurance?
So we dug through Dad's wallet and found a car insurance card with his policy number, and Kevin called All State to get a guy out to remove the goddam wheel, so we could put on the temporary spare.
The washer, then stopped, mid fill cycle, and I couldn't restart it... because the old timing mechanism is going bad!
I fiddled with it for a few minutes and got it to skip to the spin cycle.
Everything in Dad's world is falling apart!
With help on the way for Dad's car, Tim stayed home to wait for the tech, and I drove Kevin to the weed dispensery so he could buy himself some gummies!
The dispensery is not like I remembered it from a year ago! They renovated the whole building, and streamlined the process, so... they must be turning quite a nice profit!
By the time we got back home, the roadside assistance truck was just pulling out of the driveway and driving off.
But Dad's bad wheel and flat tire were still on the car!
In the kitchen, Tim explained that, even though he came with a truck and a bunch of tools.. he absolutely failed to removed the stubborn lug nuts and GAVE UP!
At this point, all eyes turned to Adrian's Automotive... the little Mexican auto shop on the corner of our block... just five houses down!
Could they handle this problem? Could we limp Dad's car down there?
The three of us walked there and went in together to talk to Adrian. Kevin happens to speak fluent Spanish, so, was able to add nuance to the problem when English wasn't cutting it, and he did so, as Tim showed Adrian photos of the lugs in question.
Adrian told us that yes, he could get that wheel off, but... he did not fix tires... and we had to get the car to his shop.
OKAY!..
Tim insisted we go get a can of, Fix-a-Flat, because it had worked miracles for him in the past, so Kevin and I did run down to a nearby auto store to grab a can, and came straight back.
Tim pumped it into Dad's bum tire, but... it wasn't doing much.
He said, "Do you have ANY kind of air pump?"
I said, "I have a bicycle tire pump in the shed."
"Get it!"
Next thing you know, Tim, Kevin, and I, were taking turns with the bicycle pump, slowly inflating the bum tire... but it WORKED!
The Fix-a-Flat had sealed the leak well enough, that our bicycle pump could inflate the tire... JUST ENOUGH... to limp Dad's car down to Adrian's on the corner!
Back in the kitchen, we had a little time to chat before I had to leave for work, and the mouse problem came up!
I had forgotten to set any new traps last night, but Tim said he'd definitely heard one snap in the middle of the night, and I remembered that I had set one behind the kitchen garbage can.
So we checked, and to our horror, we found a triggered trap, with no dead mouse... but this was one of the ones where I had jammed a peanut into the bait tray, rather than just using peanut butter!
And that jammed peanut was GONE!
HOW!
Kevin suggested the mice must have advanced to the level that... they figured out how to trigger the trap first... from the safe side of the spring... and then ate the bait afterward!
If this was true... and it OBVIOUSLY WAS!... there was no choice left, but to introduce Snoop and Prowly into the equation! The cats were our only hope!
We left it there and it was time for me to go to work. Kevin walked back to his Air B&B for an afternoon nap, and Tim settled in to look after Dad, and await an old friend of his, who would come to bring some food and visit.
My workday was routine, and I came straight home tonight, without stopping for anything along the way.
I was surprised to see Dad's car back in the driveway when I got home, and happy to discover that the temporary spare was FINALLY on the front passenger wheel!
I went in the front door and straight upstairs to greet Snoop and Prowly, and, grabbing a beer from my mini-fridge, lead them down and let them loose once more on the main deck... for the first time in a couple weeks.
Tim and Kevin explained that Adrian had managed to not only remove the two stuck lugs of the bad wheel, but he also removed the security lugs from the other three wheels, so that they would not be a problem in the future. And he did so, for $60.00!
After saying hello to Dad, I took Yvette for a quick walk, allowing Jet and Mauli the chance to infiltrate the downstairs without her trying to block them.
Kevin joined me on the walk.
Back inside, the three of us sons, joined Dad in his bedroom for beers and smokes, and Yvette stayed near us, which allowed the cats to roam around and explore.
Dad... is continuing to fade fast.
He's back to having difficulty speaking clearly. He's still engaged and has relevant things to add, but, it's hard for him to be understood.
He's also having a harder time staying upright in bed... always hopelessly listing to the left, no matter how much we readjust him or prop him up.
And it's getting more difficult for him to bring straws to his mouth, or hold the cigarette.
But... he still valliantly drank his Guinness, and smoked two Newports... while staying engaged with us for a good 45 minutes.
Finally he said he was ready for bed, so we took it into the back room, and kind of monitored the situation with the cats and Yvette out in the kitchen and beyond.
Yvette got into a couple scuffles with Snoop & Prowly, but they were largely able to patrol every nook and cranny of the downstairs unencumbered.
It was a bit more relaxed tonight... yet, at the same time, not so relaxed... because Tim had been on the phone with Veda, his second oldest daughter, and also Kate, his ex wife, and both were reacting to the situation with Dad differently.
Veda wasn't ready to hear that Dad's devolving so quickly. She's pregnant with her second kid right now, and it's difficult to come visit on short notice... but she loves her Grampa and wants to see him one last time.
Kate, meanwhile, wants to visit as well... which doesn't make much sense, because... who then will look after the younger kids in Las Vegas?.. It's a whole can of worms.
After a bit of this and that, we got down to what the plan for the next few days should be, and all agreed that tomorrow, the number one priority is to get the Transfer Upon Death Instrument out to the Kane County Recorder in Geneva, and filed!
Kevin said he'll take Dad's car on Friday to get the main tire fixed, and pay for it himself, because he plans to drive it to DeKalb to see Brian over the weekend.
Brian may also show up here at home tomorrow, if he's to be believed. But... you know, his new break calipers may just disintigrate at the last minute.
As I write the end of this entry... at 2:55AM on Thursday, the cats are back upstairs with me... because we still need to work out some ways for them to get around Yvette when all the humans are asleep.
But they did get to spend a ton of time downstairs with us tonight, from the moment I got home, and they are very content and sleepy up here now, rather than restless and aggitated, which is a good development!
They definitely need to be incorporated into the action every day, from here on out, as much as possible.
The mice definitely went into hiding tonight, but they're not gone!
All of that said, tomorrow is another day, and Kevin and I have a date with the County Recorder of Deeds, in Geneva!
°¦}
