Day 160 of Sheltering In

Thursday. My daughter is still talking about a home visit and wants it less than 2 weeks. Like maybe a long weekend. I think that would be better than 2 weeks. (Protocol is 2 weeks and a negative coronavirus test.) She hasn’t been on a home visit in 160 days. I don’t think she can just check out for 2 weeks. She’s learned how to get along with her housemates, even Nutjob...mostly. But she hasn’t been around us for 160 days. With her illness and her brothers I don’t think 2 weeks would be a good idea.

My son and I wanted to grocery shop Friday. My wife has to shop and deliver to her Mom’s friend. (No car, living in a Motel 6 because she got kicked out of the 3rd nursing home/rehab facility. This has been going on for several months.) So my wife pretty much assumed she was taking the Buick. She’s done none of the things I’ve asked her to do with the Pilot because of the hesitation when accelerating. Check the fluids, check for debris under the car, go to an auto parts store and get the codes read. You don’t just park it and hold out your hand for the keys to the Buick. I’m not paying for insurance on 2 cars so she can take the car I drive and inconvenience me. 

She tells me her timeline. She has to feed, walk, and play with her friend’s dog, while her friend is out of town again! She does that around 11am, gone about an hour to an hour and a half. That’s 12:30pm, then she has to grocery shop. Shopping, travel time, unpacking the groceries, waiting for her personal assistant assignments. Will it be a run to the post office, the bank, both, or something new? This would bring my wife home about 4pm at the earliest. That would leave me trapped at home all day when I had planned on grocery shopping. I abhor grocery shopping on the weekend. Did I mention I was at home ALL DAY Thursday? Except for running to McD’s to pick up breakfast for the 3 of us, I was home all day. The breakfast thing was a one time deal, I don’t think I’ve ever done it before. I wanted to start the weekend off early on a good note. So much for that. She left it at that she would take the Pilot, but do we have towing just in case? Seriously? We have it for the Pilot with the insurance, but I don’t know if there is a limited number of times it can be used in a policy period.

Basically, I don’t know how the car situation is going to work out. If I am trapped at home, then I’m not grocery shopping until Monday.

Did I mention I was all kinds of hurting from PT? I still am. Sciatica is acting up and something new. The tibularis longus tendon on my R leg is strained. It feels like it’s constantly pulled too taunt. Medical jargon courtesy of Dr Google. This better clear up by Monday. If it doesn’t I will have to go see my doctor, the 2nd visit in less than a week, and he will make me stop PT until it’s healed. Time is ticking. I’m approved for PT until October. Beyond that it will be a fight with my insurance. Good times.

We went online to request mail in ballots for the family. I will be dropping off the voted ballots to the county clerk’s office some time during the vote by mail period. That avoids the mess that is our current mail delivery, and insures the ballots are delivered. When the drop box is emptied, the procedure will most likely be done by a Democrat and a Republican together. When I was an Election Judge we had to have a Democrat and a Republican ride in the SAME vehicle to drop off the ballots. At the clerk’s office, a Democrat and a Republican, together, unloaded each vehicle. 

If you haven’t already requested your mail in ballot, go online to your county clerk’s website. First check to make sure you are registered. (I had to do that 3 times because of the way my name is slightly different on all my ID, DL, cards. I just had to enter every  combination until I hit the one the clerk’s office uses.) Then you fill out the form online, check the box to sign it and submit. You can revisit the site to check the status of your ballot...when you requested the ballot, when it was mailed to you, when they received it.

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Day 158, 159 of Sheltering In

Tuesday, Wednesday. Tuesday was research day for a specialist for my overdue colonoscopy. So far no luck finding any good docs. I still have more to look up, but you’d think I would have found at least 1 candidate. 

Wednesday PT day and lucky me, I got M again. Her deep tissue massages are just evil! It’s just before midnight as I type this and I am still hurting. We started on my R knee today too. That wasn’t bad. My R shoulder actually feels very bruised, but nothing visible. It must be a real hot mess on the inside for my bicep, tricep, and top of my shoulder to be so painful.

Glad I had PT today and was away from the house for a couple of hours. Somehow my house became the drop off and b**ch point, then pick up and b**ch point for my father in law’s truck. My wife’s younger sister had been borrowing it for the last several years and trashing it inside and out. She’s angry because now she doesn’t have a vehicle to drive to work. (Her fiancé has a car, doesn’t work, and I don’t think has ever let her drive it.) They left after much b**ching and yelling, then her dad and brother came to pick up the truck. More b**ching and yelling about the condition. We have absolutely nothing to do with this entire fiasco, but it has to happen at my house? Even if I didn’t have PT I would have left for several hours. I have enough stress, I don’t need their stress on top of mine. I have nothing to do with this. 

Nutjob tested negative for the coronavirus, so protocol was thrown out the window and she went to day program Wednesday. At least she’s not up in my daughter’s grill.

I was informed today that my wife’s brother is backpedaling on giving her his SUV. Perfect timing because the Pilot is acting up. My wife says it’s hesitating on acceleration at 20-25mph. Not happy!!! I’m going to have to take it for a spin, and I’m sure I’ll have to take it to the auto parts store to check if there are any codes. I’ve told her to do this, but...not gonna go there.

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Day 157 of Sheltering In

Monday. Regarding where my daughter lives...there is oversight..OIG (Office of the Inspector General.) My daughter has seen 3 housemates file complaints and it appears nothing happened after OIG staff met with them. My daughter is all set to move into the new apartment complex about 2 miles from my home, we are just awaiting the final work to be done and the building inspector to approve the complex for habitation. I can’t have that screwed with. That is something that takes a long time to earn and a long time to actually get into an apartment. There are waitlists and my daughter is at the top of the list and has been assured multiple times that she will get one of the new apartments. She actually reached the top of the list last year, but had she taken a different apartment she could not transfer to one of the newly built apartments. As was recommended to her by the Director and Asst Director, she should wait for the new apartments to be built and finished, and she will get one.

I have and will continue to advocate for my daughter with the Director and Asst Director when my daughter’s attempts to advocate for herself don’t work out as they should. When my daughter recently had a medical issue, she called me from the back of a paramedic vehicle moments before I was going to call. Staff jerked her around even though she had called her insurance 24 hour nurse hotline who told her she needed to go to the ER. I also won’t hesitate to call the police if any member of my family is attacked by Nutjob.

In 💩 news, Nutjob has to stay at the group home during the day because she may have the coronavirus. She was tested today. She’s coughing. That doesn’t mean she has it. I cough all the time because I have allergies and post nasal drip. I doubt she has it, but I told my daughter any time she leaves her bedroom she has to wear a mask. 

I took my car to the body shop recommended by my insurance. I don’t like them. I took my Pilot there for a 2nd opinion after repairs were supposedly done and they told me I needed a new tailgate, even though the tailgate had already been replaced. So you can understand my trepidation at having them repair the paint on my Buick. I got the emailed estimate and I don’t for a minute believe it. First of all, it appears many of the scratches from the keying Friday were not listed on the estimate. Second of all, the estimate is for $130.00 (2.6 hours labor to buff out the scratches). The guy told me if they buff it out and accidentally go through the clear coat it will be more money. Ummm, you make a mistake you pay for it, not me. Also, we pointed out other scratches not from Friday’s incident, like my stupid side swiping the cement posts at a gas station less than a month after I bought it. (I thought I had taken care of that but they have reappeared. Obviously I don’t know what I’m doing.) And there were other scratches. If it’s under the $500 deductible and we told you about those scratches and you took photos of those scratches, then include them in the darn estimate! If I have to pay for this and it’s all just buffing and polishing, then do every darn scratch on the Buick. Just take care of them all! It’s on me anyway. Call it punishment for being a dumbash for not just leaving Walmart, leaving J Town and shopping somewhere somewhat safer. I got some payments refunded because I qualify for a special program, so I can just throw that money at it. I plan on keeping the Buick at least as long as the Pilot (15 years and counting), so I want to take good care of it. Until I win the lottery, that’s my plan.😉

PT was today. M was my physical therapist. She is just always brutal! A bunch of new exercises. Some pretty heavy strength building. Which is good for my L shoulder, but I’m not anywhere near ready for the R shoulder. I can feel the burn in my forearms. M told me next visit they will add working on my R knee again. I can’t wait! 

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Day 156 of Sheltering In

Sunday. Since I’m going to complain about my daughter’s group home, I noticed I left something out of day 155. They got no morning medications at all. NONE. That is the second time this month that Saturday morning medications were not given to the clients. Tonight Nutjob reported to my daughter that she didn’t feel right and wanted to walk to the hospital. Not really walking distance and staff ignored her distress, so my daughter got her to calm down, they got their night medications 1/2 hour early, and Nutjob went to bed. It’s no wonder her housemate wasn’t feeling right. A person cannot skip their psychiatric medications. This is not good. I’m so glad my daughter had a lock put on her bedroom door. (She requested it from the Director close to a year ago.) That doesn’t stop the screaming, but headphones help with that.

Today the staff person sat in her car from 10am until a short time before we arrived at 1pm. So that would be 2-3 hours in her car not doing her job. We hadn’t planned the visit, but since there was no one answering at on call or the supervisor over team leads and house staff, we decided to pay a surprise visit, hoping to catch the staff person still in the car so we could snap a photo, and hoping that our mere presence would get her out of her car and into the house to do the job she is paid for. We ended up having a short visit with my daughter. It was just too hot out to stay very long. (We are required to have masked, socially distanced visits outside only.) I also dropped off the worksheets my daughter had me print for her.

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