Day 403 of Sheltering In-Waiting

Thursday. I finally did something I’ve been putting off for almost 2 years. What might that be Lola? Well let me tell you. I bought the Buick 2 years ago May 8th. Almost immediately people had been telling me the tires were dry rotted. Not surprising because the Buick came from New York. With the low miles it wasn’t hard to figure out it was probably not driven every day, or very far. I’d been putting it off far too long and I just got lucky never having a flat or a blowout. I’d prefer that my luck had been winning a 6 figure lottery, but I’ll take the luck getting by this long without a tire emergency. I once had a blowout on I88 in the left lane with my Cutlass Ciera. This was before I moved to the burbs. I safely got to the right shoulder and 3 of us changed the tire in a torrential rain storm. Anyway…lucky. So yes, I bought 4 shiny new tires. I went with Michelin. It used to be my go to brand before I got the Pilot. Nice, smooth ride. Luxury, not rough SUV ride. I wouldn’t have saved money on the other tires anyway. I’m pleased with my purchase. 

After 3 hours at Discount Tire we went to Sam’s Club and then snuck a short visit to my daughter’s group home. It was 3 hours because they had no appointments, so I was a walk-in. I had time to leave, run to the new Starbucks, then head back and have a nice leisurely read on my phone while I enjoyed my latte, which in itself is a rare treat. I was flying solo, which is even more rare.

My daughter is anxious over her move being delayed. I get it, but it’s gonna take as long as it takes and no way to speed it up. We continue to be completely up in the air about furnishings. We don’t know if she can take her bedroom set from the group home. We’re think it was paid for out of my daughter’s funds, but don’t know. So we wait. I have air mattresses from camping, so if we have to get bedroom furniture she can sleep on one of those until the Monday or Tuesday  following her move. We’ve been led to believe move-in is on the weekend. I think the mattress store we use is closed on Mondays, but that’s easily checked.

While we were at Sam’s Club we checked prices on towels and kitchenware. Most of the store is all switched up anyway, so we were going all over the place looking for the items we went for.

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2021

Day 400-402 of Sheltering In-Waiting

My wife and son got their 2nd doses of the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday. So 2 weeks from yesterday I can stop this stupid countdown.

Monday-Wednesday. Monday was PT. I got the same guy I don’t like for the 3rd time in a row. I canceled the other 2 appointments this week. I need to take the Buick for new tires, hopefully this week, then to the dealer Monday for a multi-point inspection because my Certified Pre-Owned warranty expires on the 8th. Might as well get it checked over for free. I still have the Extended Warranty, but there’s a $100 deductible on that. And I need to schedule an oil change with our mechanic. I would have it done at the dealer, but it’s almost $30 more at the dealer for the synthetic oil. I don’t mind going to our mechanic. He’s honest and treats us well. He probably misses us too!

No move this weekend for my daughter. They village, or county, or whatever has not inspected the complex yet, so no occupancy until they do, and it passes inspection. My daughter is upset. She got herself all excited, and now she’s all down in the dumps. She was so excited and talking so fast the last week I had to constantly ask her to slow down and repeat what she was saying because I couldn’t understand her. I’ve been wanting to pop over to the group home to pick up her clean clothes (minus 7 days worth), but other housemates have been monopolizing the washing machines. This sounds lame and definitely paranoid, but we are doing this because she had so much disappear during the bed bug episode (no bed bugs in her room, but the staff packed her stuff up and a lot of it went missing). I just want to do what I can to lessen the opportunity for stuff to go missing. If she hasn’t gotten the laundry done by Thursday night, I will pick it up Friday and go to a laundromat. I need to go anyway because I have some blankets and comforters to wash and my father-in-law’s wife had the smallest dryer on the planet. No way would they dry. 

My brother-in-law had been in Miami for about a month driving school buses. Now he is in Indianapolis doing it. Apparently the owner of the school bus company he works for has businesses in several states. Due to lack of drivers he flew about 10 employees to Miami, set them up in a Holiday Inn Express, and paid for a few rental cars. He’s doing the same in Indianapolis. Since he is gone the lawn isn’t getting mowed, so I will be trying again to teach my son to mow the lawn. Both riding mowers are dead. The newest one I blew the transmission on it before my car accident. The other, my wife was using to mow and it died and we don’t know why. My next door neighbor repairs mowers, but I can’t get him to work on them. He avoids me. The times I have talked to him I’ve told him I have the cash for repairs, but either he’s too busy, or he doesn’t like me. It’s one of the two, or both. I dunno. The guy who fixed my snowblower has dropped out of Facebook, so I can’t contact him. Oh well, the boy has got to learn to mow the lawn. I’ve got 2 walk behind gas mowers, 1 is self propelled. I’ve kept them as backups and to do the ditch because the riding mower can’t mow the ditch completely. My wife and I can’t do the walk behind mowers because of my back and knee, and both her new knees and back.

Tomorrow is a Sam’s Club trip. Maybe check their tire prices while we are there. I’ve already got the price from my usual, Discount Tire.

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2021

Day 397-399 of Sheltering In-Waiting

Friday-Sunday. Friday was grocery shopping. Saturday was hanging at my house with my family and having a nice dinner together. I drove my daughter back to her group home after dinner. Sunday was bbq at my father-in-law’s with “surprise”, my wife’s youngest sister and her fiancée (my ex friend).

So Sunday the surprise was on my father-in-law. He did not know they were coming. They had been feuding for months having to do with her borrowing of his truck and her trashing it. By trashing it, I literally mean using the cab area (which has 1 bench seat and no rear seat) as if it were a trash dumpster. Bags,  countless bags of fast food garbage. Basically only room for the driver. Hence the feud. It’s not all that comfortable being here. Yes, I’m typing  this while I am here because they are hanging out at the picnic table outside. I can’t sit there because of my knee. I can’t swing my leg over to sit, nor can I stand on that leg to swing the good one over to sit. I ate at the kitchen table. My wife joined me, and that was it. They haven’t even asked about my knee, which it’s really obvious because I have my knee brace on and I’m wearing cargo shorts. The brace is very visible. Other than those niceties, my wife’s sister is constantly putting her down (my wife is older) and making fun of her. And it’s not in a “fun” way. I may need bail money cuz my wife won’t put up with it much longer and I’m really tired of it. Of course my wife has to do all the cleanup and my sister-in-law and ex friend just sit, not even offering to help. Both have invaded the living room and are bickering at each other, as per usual. Now I get to hear and see all of it in my face. Can I say how much fun I’m not having? Grrrr.

UPDATE:

So, compared notes with my wife in the car ride home. Apparently her sister and fiancée were bent out shape because my wife joined me for lunch in the kitchen. As my wife said to them ‘I’m not going to let my wife eat lunch by herself because she can’t sit at the picnic table’. I’m not sorry!!! I’m not going to risk further injury to my knee, or other parts because I would be stupid enough to attempt to sit at a picnic table when I have a large knee brace on my knee. Also, I have no sense of balance! Their opinion means nothing to me.  I will not entertain a conversation about where they think I should be sitting. Those $&@ches can kiss my ash! Not only were they giving my wife crap about eating lunch with me, they were giving my son a hard time about his beard and pulling on it! Had I known about either situation, I definitely would have at the very least had words with them. Who the hell do they think they are pulling on my son’s beard? And who the hell do they think they are berating my wife for not wanting me to eat lunch alone in the house, and further, for questioning my decision to be smart and safe with my knee injury? I’m going to be 60 in July. I don’t give a flying f what they think. I need to do what I feel is smart to do to be safe.  

My father-in-law wants to do dinner next Sunday again with them. I won’t be there. My daughter is supposed to be moving next weekend. Even if she wasn’t moving, there is not a chance I will be going! Oh, and my sister-in-law said she won’t be going if her brother is there. You know what? If he’s back in town I will ask him out to lunch.

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2021

Day 396 of Sheltering In-Waiting

Thursday. I have to say that I do not like this new guy I’ve had today and yesterday for PT. He cut a lot of table exercises, cutting about 40 minutes from my usual hour and 20 minutes, which by the way, I’m mostly on my own because I know the exercises and the number of reps. I want to do as much as I possibly can at these PT visits because I do not want to have surgery to repair the torn meniscus. The LCL sprain will just not loosen up. It’s like a rubber band stretched as far as it will go and it’s like that all the time. I hope I don’t have him again tomorrow. I certainly hope I don’t have him at all next week. This guy is one of those super fit tools who you could bounce a quarter off his tight butt. Ick.

After PT I went for a haircut. I feel 10 pounds lighter. My hair was the longest it’s ever been, 5” bangs and I had enough hair for a 4” ponytail. I meant to look at the floor before it was swept, but I was so excited to get rid of it I just went to the counter to pay. Usually I comment about how when I get a haircut most of the gray gets cut off. No more. Most of the brown was cut off and I’d say I’m mostly gray now. If I remember for Friday’s post I will take a snapshot and post it after I’ve put in product and messed it up. Lol!

So, back to yesterday’s stalker talk...I snail mailed a letter to the address I found that appears to be the most current. I say most current because I looked myself up and found that I’ve been at this address until 2020, so that just means they don’t update until after the year ends. So we shall see what happens. ‘Stalker Talk’...that sounds like it should be a weekly blog meme. 😂

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2021

Day 391-395 of Sheltering In-Waiting

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Saturday I stayed home with my daughter while the rest of the family went to my father-in-law’s. I put her to work organizing a shelving unit. It was a lot and none of it that I could have moved.

The rest of the week has been an ugly mess of calling to follow-up on medical bills and family discord. I hear some people actually take it seriously when their voicemail says they will call you back within 24 hours. Not any place I’ve been calling. Grrr!

For some reason I’ve been trying to look up an old friend. None of their contact information has worked so far. One was a house phone with voicemail, so I left a message. Who has a house phone anymore? I did a drive by (I feel like a stalker), but I found the house empty and remodeled. Can’t find them on any social media. Last name is common, so it’s been quite a search. I did find information about the family they lived with, some phone numbers. Yes, I did Google searches. I refuse to pay a monthly subscription to search for people. Not only is it creepy (I don’t want to know their arrest history, if they have one!) it’s also expensive. I sent a text message yesterday. I figure, try a different phone number every couple days. If it’s a good number, that gives the family time to contact them and give them my phone number. I don’t know why, but I have this bad feeling they passed away. The last time I tried to look up an old friend, a co-worker from my 2nd job in Chi-town, I found out they actually had passed away. 

Speaking of trying to look someone up...you would be amazed at what information you can find out about someone online. (In the case of my old friend...not so much.) I’m afraid to Google myself. Awhile back I went down a rabbit hole, so to speak, when I was looking up my parent’s gravesite location in the cemetery they are buried at. I was really after their dates of birth. In that search I initially looked up my Dad. I found relatives, including myself, and every address and phone number I’ve ever had. I started at the cemetery and then was sent off to a few other sites and found all this stuff. 

I thought maybe it might be easier looking up an old friend, than trying to make a new friend during this pandemic.

Went grocery shopping today. Spent 15 minutes in the wet cat food aisle talking with a woman who started chatting me up when she saw me just about dive for the last 2 boxes of wet food for my wife’s cat. The shelves were bare. The woman was picking out single cans of a different brand and complaining about her son’s finicky cat. I complained about my wife’s finicky cat. Yeah, pretty sure I’ve become my Mother. People would stop and chat her up all the time.

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2021

Sunday Stealing-From Facebook

 

Hi! Your host is Bev Funny the World". . Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This feature originated and published on WTIT: The Blog. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

 

From Facebook

 

 

 

 

 

1. The best story your parents or grandparents tell about the good ole days. 

The only thing I can think of is ‘you kids have it too good with your bus rides to/from school. When I was a kid we had to walk 5 miles in the snow, freezing, uphill.’  My parents really didn’t tell stories about the good ole days. I think the school thing was true for them. They both came from large families, lots of kids, lots of mouths to feed. My Mom was fortunate to have been adopted, while her 3 biological siblings were sent to orphanages because their dad remarried and his new wife couldn’t be bothered with them. That new wife was known to me as grandmother. I didn’t find out until my teens about that situation. Not only could she not be bothered with her new husband’s instant family, she couldn’t be bothered to learn to speak English. She spoke broken English, mostly Italian, with a little English. When she spoke to me I couldn’t understand her. My Mom’s 3 step siblings spoke fluent Italian and just yelled at her to talk to my sister and I in English. So, no stories.

2. The best things in life are...

FREE! Coco Chanel said it and The Beatles sang it, so it’s fine by me.

3. Things that drive me batty

...drivers who tailgate you because you have the audacity to drive the speed limit, or only a couple mph above it and they’re in a damn hurry to get to Starbucks or wherever.

...drivers at a 3way or 4way intersection who think that a full stop doesn’t apply to them and then honk, scream and make gestures because you attempted to cross the intersection after a complete stop, like you were the one who did something wrong.

4. A place I'd like to live and why

In a big single level house with at least 3 garages, a huge deck with comfortable patio furniture overlooking a beautiful backyard with fragrant flowers and a manicured lawn. A place where I could have my morning coffee and enjoy the scent of those fragrant flowers. Sometimes I think I would like it to be where I grew up, because so many of the kids from my neighborhood bought the house they grew up in. Other times I think I would like it to be in a more rural area. 

5. The best thing I've ever found

My wife. 😉 

6. The best thing that happened recently is.

Can’t think of anything.

7. I admire people who...

Take the time to spend their time with others.

8. What makes me special

You tell me. Or ask my wife because I don’t have a clue.

9. I am looking forward to...

Getting things back on track.

Being able to have people over. Even if they aren’t ‘my people’.

10. Things that scare me

My daughter being off her most important medication for almost 2 weeks. She CANNOT have another break, she’s lost so much from the previous ones.

My daughter moving into the new apartment complex 2 miles from my house. She is not prepared to make a budget, or even list of things she will be responsible for, like meal planning and shopping. She’s got champagne taste and won’t have the luxury of buying the foods that she’s been getting at the group home. I can’t believe the group home agency hasn’t prepared her for budgeting and meal planning. She’s been told move-in day is May 1st. The last we heard was the apartment is not furnished. When I first heard she was on the list before they were built I started collecting things. Loveseat, coffee tables, my old dining room set, Corningware baking dishes (from thrift stores). She still needs a bedroom set, a set of dishes and glasses, flatware, cookware, bakeware, utensils, microwave oven, kitchen towels, bathroom towels. It’s still a lot and friends of my wife’s had promised some things and now that move-in day is 2 weeks away...crickets.

11. Complaints I have

There are just too many right now. I’m overwhelmed because every obstacle I come across I have to deal with rude, lazy, incompetent people.

12. I could never live without...

My 2 kids and my wife.

13. Things that make me laugh 

Used to be a lot. I used to be funny, but this pandemic, the restrictions, all the health things, the pain, the car accident, tearing up my knee getting off an MRI table and 4 months later I’m still going to PT.

14. What is a new skill that you would like to learn?

I’ve always wanted to learn to paint.

15. What brightened your day today?  

My kids. Mostly my son lately. My daughter isn’t doing well because she skipped her most important medication for almost 2 weeks before telling me, and I can tell she’s “off”. Way off, and it’s scaring me, I thought all that was behind us. The bad symptoms, the hospitalizations. My son knows when I need a hug.

 

Lola’s Diner cc   2008-2021

Day 389-390 of Sheltering In-Waiting

Thursday-Friday. Thursday and Friday were PT. Thursday my right arm that I got the shot in was swollen and hurt just to move it, so the only PT thing that was a problem was the step bike. I just kept my right hand in my lap and let my left arm and legs do all the work. I had a headache and really wanted a nap, but that never happened. After PT I went to pick up my daughter’s medication. Of course it didn’t go smoothly. I was assured on Wednesday night that the insurance rep called the pharmacy to confirm it went through. It didn’t, so I had to get out of the drive thru line, park, and spend an hour on the phone with a jerk from the insurance company. My daughter wasn’t with me so I added her to the call, he told me to take her off the call. Then he had a hissy fit because I was using the speaker through the radio. (Wednesday night the entire call was on speakerphone...wtf?) After putting me on hold 5 times, he finally told me it now went through and I got off the phone and got back in line. I eventually got the medication.

Friday was PT again, but the arm pain was gone so I could do the step bike and the other stuff. Afterwards I went to Meijer to get the stuff no one told me we needed, but there were no electric carts, not even the wheelchair. So no shopping. No way I could walk the entire store after PT.

I haven’t heard from my sister in over a month, but my daughter talked to her today. Isn’t that nice? You’re saying, ‘Lola, why don’t you call her?’ Nope. Not gonna happen because I don’t know when it’s ok to call. If my daughter calls and it’s not ok, everything is cool because she’s the niece. I’m just her sister and I’ve called at the wrong time and have gotten yelled at more times than I can count. I’m not in the mood to get yelled at. Therefore I’m not calling her. 

Lola’s Diner cc.  2008-2021