My "whine moment today." What's yours?

Susan, I have extensive food allergies and the melon group is one of them. I just wanted a few bites and I know my stomach was going to swell up but was cutting it up for my mother and I like it so was going to eat a piece or two. I already have antihistamine in my system so what could a few pieces hurt. That is what I get for trying to eat something I shouldn't but I was try to be healthy. I am not that allergic that I breakout on my skin. Any kind of grass, weeds, trees and such will do that for me. Good luck with your cleaning.

(shudder) Shilo, you can have all that watermelon to yourself. I'm allergic - even getting the juice on my skin makes me break out in hives and eating it is a recipe for disaster for me. I used to love the stuff.

I don't envy you the cleaning you have to do now! Yikes. I dropped an entire container of blueberries the other day and they rolled hither and yon all over the kitchen. Still don't think I found them all.

Veronica, I can definitely commiserate with the loss of electricity! I was going batty this morning with the loss of my internet. It wouldn't be such a hardship if I didn't have my business to run from home.

One time my mother was in the hospital one of the CNA's was leaving for the evening and commented she had to stop on her way home and pick up a lottery ticket. She was going to need that big winner lotto to pay me to take care of her when she got sick and needed a nurse. I smiled without a reply only thinking what are you going to do sign the lotto check over to me? hahaha

I have most of my mother's clothes and mine in plastic storage containers stacked in the dining room. I am tired of dragging them up and down the crawl space stairs. So now my dining room is my storage room.

Jeanette, thanks for clearing that up. In this case I will pray she is not pregnant for everyone's 'sanity'.

I don't know if this is the end of a bad week or the start of another. I just cut up a bowl of watermelon and as I was putting the stuff away I knocked the bowl on the floor with the juice all over the cabinets, stove, refig. and dishwasher. So much for a cool bowl of watermelon. Did I say there was going to be cleaning on Sunday?

FB sucks. That's all I have to say about that. (at least for now.)
Well, one more thing, I guess. The only thing it's good for (for me, anyway) right now is keeping in touch with my siblings and selling excess crap from the house. I found someone in a yard sale group on there that is interested in purchasing DVDs. I have TOTES full of VHS tapes and DVDs that haven't been used in over 2 years now. Not like we're going to use them at this point. I will save those that Mom really likes and ones that I don't want to get rid of myself, but all the excess is being sold or given away. Feels good to do something to bring in a little extra money (sorely needed right now) and shed the excess stuff taking up space in the house. Need to do the same in my storage unit, but that's a project for another day - when I have someone that can watch Mom.

Jeanette, maybe you can throw yourself into something today that you've been wanting to do for a while and chase the doldrums away. :-)

Still on a cleaning tear here and making progress. The black hole I call a desk is starting to actually resemble a reasonable workspace again. Since Mom fell a month and a half ago, I've had no time to do anything but care for Mom, make phone calls, arrange dr. visits, deal with the homecare nurses, therapists, social workers and my precious 3 hours off per week. Now I'm actually able to start focusing on cleaning things up that I have been wanting to do for months now. Feels good. I think part of my irritation lately is that I haven't been able to keep up with these small things - giving the house a good cleaning, going through paperwork and filing, etc.

Good luck Glad!!

No worries about being a carer for me... am not even looking for another few months. When I do begin, trust me, it will be a sweet li'l ole lady or man. I can handle a few comments and stuff... this is more so the full time person can get the hell out of the house for awhile!! LOL Plus I can choose my hours and get this, they offer fully paid health insurance and you only need to work 20 hours. Heck, that alone will save me the $500.00 I currently pay for health insurance.

Not me! A carer?! I want as far away from the last four years as possible. And I saw mom's behaviors sometimes with paid caregivers. Not for me, that is for sure. I was told by mom's gcm that I was the best family caregiver she had ever seen and in a very dysfunctional family. She suggested caregiver training for me. Hey maybe Teepa would take me on. No, right now I just need away from it all,and it probably the stress caused by twisted sisters that got me here more than anything else.

Have five positions to submit my resume to this week. All I am well qualified for in my previous life. Will find out how four years of caregiving has harmed my career of choice.

Oh...Jeanette. .i think that would be awesome ...being a career. .knowing how hard it is to find good folks to help those in our shoes, that would be great. ..and very rewarding emotionally. ..just be sure and take care of YOU for a while. ..you definitely need time to decompress...imo

Jeanette, i have gotten myself in so much hot water on FB...most of mine ends up being people i don't really know though but i have had some comments that i swear were made without any underlying motive and gotten blown away and i know how the buttons can get pushed on there. .sounds like she's on a mission. ..but why do kids in law think alienating their significant other from their loved ones will eventually just lead to discord. ..i don't understand it. All the guys whom i dated Moms loved me. .i think the problem was for some reason i guess they thought if their Mom was that for me i must be boring. That was extreme immaturity on their part and now they wish they'd listened. .but now too late. . Lol....i don't get it.

That sure is true Hope, when it rains it really pours.... hang in there Susan, rub hot sauce down mom's 02 hose;) Still no kitty, hope??? Time to start checking neighbors sheds. Do you have a Lost n Found FB for your city/town? We do here and it works wonderful!!

VERONICA!!!! Same son, same psycho cow that wanted to get married in my back yard. She just bugs the HELL out of me. I'm afraid to admit, she pushed a button on FB that I just HAD to reply to. It was a picture of Josh and his dog, Lilly. Lilly is also a Staffie mix, she is a beautiful reddish brown color. If she were black she would resemble my Sydney A LOT. Lilly is a tad smaller tho.... ok, I digressed, LOL So she made this comment that pissed me off... she said, wait, the nerve of her wrote "My babes and my daughter, love them". Well now. It seems harmful enough right? Not to me. I raised that dog for 2 years from a chewing everything in sight up puppy, walked it, vet trips... she was basically MY GIRL. I replied back at what she said "Lilly is not and never will be your daughter, you've never met her and I bet you don't even know her middle name"!! (It's Lickums, Lilly Lickums) she slurp you to death!! So she made a snarky reply in which I replied ( yes I regressed to childish activities) "Why don't you stop trying to push/shove yourself in peoples lives and properly get to know Josh and get your own life together, oh, and stop calling me a million times during the middle of the night you whackadoodle" hehehe...
BAD MOM!! sigh, then Josh got upset so I quit telling her the truth. He has probably unfriended me again.

Met a lovely elderly frail lady in the check out at Wal Mart. She had left her glasses at home and couldn't see those tiny numbers on the key pad. After 2 attempts I politely asked her to trust me and give me her 4 digit pin code, she did, bless her heart, so I punched everything in and all was good in the world. She grabbed my hand and thanked me profusely.. I promised her I would forget her pin number within a few minutes..LOL, I DID. She tottered off with her purchase and you know what I did... I burst into tears thinking of my own dear mother.

CM, I too will have to look for employment soon. Thankfully my brothers didn't want much of what was left of moms money. I told them it wasn't much and to please let me keep enough to last 3 months so I can try to decompress the last 3 years of pain and sorrow. They did. SO, tomorrow I am going to DHS and get my application started to become a CAREGIVER yep I am. Lisa, my moms carer is helping me get in the door. Normally it takes quite some time to get on the list and find an employer but Lisa is already working for several people now that she no longer is here with mom and she needs someone to fill in for her or take over some clients. That means I am in and ready as soon as I get my #. I can work my own hours and I do have experience. I don't need a fortune, just enough to supplement the income I have coming in now.

sigh.... what to do again today? Perhaps I will be proactive like Susan? Clothes strewn from chair to chair...bleh, If I put them all on my bed thinking I will be forced to put them up so I can sleep, I will just dump them on my desk. LOL, I do know me well. So perhaps I will just put the annoying things up and give this place a good cleaning so Monday will start fresh and clean clean :)

Im sorry Susan. .when it rains it pours..literally...why is it when one thing starts that way it just builds and builds. So far veer good here. .one very good thing that did come from having company for three days...i am finding i am not nearly as lonely as i thought. ...loving the peace and quiet

Today has been a banner day already.

It's pouring down rain out there. It lets up briefly, only to downpour again. I was supposed to have some teenagers come do yard work to get things ready for Mom's big birthday party next month, but that's out since it's raining.

Woke up late this morning, so already a bad start to the day there. Came out to the living room to find Mom without her O2 on her face, and asked why. She said, "You might as well turn that thing off, it's not working anyway." So I start running the length of the O2 hose to see what might be the problem, and - aha! - it comes up cut in half! WTH?!? Upon closer inspection, I see....teeth marks. The &%&$^ cat *chewed* through Mom's O2 hose! Checked Mom's O2 sats - 83 - not good - hose replaced, O2 back on. Will call med. supply company tomorrow for more hoses.

Then, to top everything off, I'm just getting started working, having a full schedule of items to take care of for clients today, feeling productive and looking forward to marking these things completed....and my internet goes down. Another couple of hours lost before it comes back up, and I find out I need to purchase a new router.

So the new plan for today is:
-get as much client work done as possible, having lost several hours due to oversleeping and internet trouble.
-get the only spare room in the house (the "junk room") cleaned out and straightened so that the cat can start spending his nights in there - I'm not going to have him chewing through Mom's O2 hoses on a nightly basis! During the day, I can watch him - at night, he does as he pleases, so from now on, he'll do as he pleases in a closed room. It's either that, or he finds a new home. Since Mom loves the cat, that's not an option.
-try to get housework caught up. I *did* manage to get the laundry caught up yesterday, miracle of miracles.

Yes, Veronica, this is the same one. I am going it is the same reason. .there is an errant unneutered kitty, quite pretty, but he loves to come here and jump on my cats. He is very sneaky about it and lay time he jumped poor Eli he ran him into the woods. I feared the coyotes had gotten him then. ..but he did return...i am praying he will again.

JJude, i hear ya on the clothes. Mama has three huge closets, all full of beautiful clothes, even many still with tags because i had just gone shopping and found her some really pretty things just weeks before her fall. She only wears the little cotton hospital gowns now. Thank God for those. .i found some very pretty ones online that were reasonable and very easy care and pretty prints. .she looks so pretty. Anywhooo, i still have boxes and boxes of my clothes with no where to put them. I feel guilty moving Hers out to put mine in .

Well, new topic, and not a whine so much as a yahoo. I never thought I'd be so happy to see poo in my life. Mama has been having that issue and the senna and other stuff makes her feel so bad i try to go the route of a glycerin suppository instead. I decide to take one of the beautiful red delicious apples i bought and blend it into two of her ensures, with the peel no less. I added a tad of vanilla and a tad of cinnamon and blended it totally and she drank it all and TADA!!! Houston we have poo....thank goodness...

Sorry yall. ...i never thought I'd see the day i could write a whole paragraph about that.

Hi all my whine moment today is clothes ...not my clothes but Mums clothes. now she hasnt worn a skirt for 5 years. Yesterday she said I am going to have a turf out of all my clothes that I dont wear any more ( Excellent I thought - so so wrong)

After about 15 minutes she eventually sat on the bed and I got each hanger out and said I want one one of two words from you keep or charity. now this isnt difficult (Oh yes it is)

1st hanger keep 2nd hanger keep you know where this is going dont you. 40th hanger keep. In the end I said to her you dont know how to play this game do you. her reply - I dont know why you want to throw my clothes away...............I didnt Mum you did....dont be silly you are stupid just wait till my daughter gets home Im going to tell her all about you.. Yes well OK then!!! what is it the youth of today say? WHATEVVA!

I hear ya FF but who pays for the torn screen from the cat that attacked it when I turned the kitchen light on at 1am last week to get something for my mother. Not to mention when the cat attacked the screen it startled the life out of me, I thought I was having a heart attack with pain in my chest and down my arm. That is probably why the cat issue even came to mind, still thinking about it. Several nights now I have heard the hissing sound out back but can't do anything about it, disturbing what little broken sleep we get. Oh well, just one more thing to complain about that I can't do anything about. Hey, I had a dog once that killed one of those rodents in the house. So cats aren't the only animal that can keep the rodent population at bay!

Hope, still praying for yours to return safe and sound!

My whine moment today is or at least yesterdays whine is that we were without electricity for 24 hours. Not a huge hardship as we have a generator but no cable phone or internet. i guess i just sat and knitted before we had any of those things

Jeanette do you have more than one son or is this the same one that was trying to get married to the psycho girl in your back yard a few months ago?

FF maybe Charlie just wants a pet of his own and you are not getting the hint!

Jessie, if you aren't seeing mice, then the outdoor cats are doing their job :)
As for the birds, for some reason we are seeing a lot of hawks, and they prey on the smaller birds. My cats haven't brought home a bird to me in a couple of years now.... thank goodness.

My male cat will bring home a chipmunk and let it loose in the house... oh, thanks, Charlie... it's never physically injured and usually knows its way back out the door until Charlie brings him home again.

Hope I hope the errant kitty soon comes home. they are such a worry when you don't know where they have gone. is this the one that disappeared before?
Glad you put your foot down with a firm hand re your cousin. You don't need to be taking that one. does she have a definite diagnosis of ALS? Lots of the things you describe sound like MS. If it is ALS I think it is about 2 years from diagnosis to death except if you are Stephen Hawkin and I certainly would not want to be out and about in his state but he has a brilliant mind and much to still contribute. Ms is extremely difficult to diagnose and many people have it for 10 years or more before they get a definite diagnosis. But I totally support you being unwilling to care for her

You know what CM why don't you just clean houses? No I am serious, My cleaner charge $70 a visit and say they can do five houses a day and they work 7 days a week that $2,400 a week or $1200 each well you can probably do the math better than me and I don't know what cleaners make in the UK but it was more than my last job paid. I also watched my daughters cleaner in the DC area and I do not know what she pays but i bet it is a lot more than I do. She has hardwood floors thoughout and tile so all this woman does is dry mop the floors,dust and do the bathrooms for 2 hours. it's not a hands and knees job with a bucket and scrubbing brush these days. My cleaners bring their own vac and mop and bucket and I have to provide the cleaners and they don't use the cheap stuff either.
Another thought is why move anyway, you certainly don't want to and ex does not seem in any kind of rush, so why not just become room mates? you are always free to move on and if he had had someone waiting in the wings he would have been long since gone even if he still had to pay house expenses from afar. Think up some fancy title like executive home consultant. You are a writer you should have enough imagination for that.
Go girl, it's not the work it's the house that's holding you back and it really is too soon after Mum's death to make such a big move. Hugs

Mama is sleeping up a storm and it is so quiet and peaceful. My favorite time of day. Glad the visit is behind me. While here she did try to re enlist me to be the designated driver for her next doctors appts and while i had the chance i just told her "im so sorry i just cannot do it in my current situation" my other cousin who finally picked up the gauntlet on that one, sits on his fanny all day drawing disability...unless he's on his tractor planting a five acre patch of sunflowers or merrily four wheeling through the woods...yeah.....so no i think I'll let him keep driving you. Amazing that she is still asking. ..please god help me remember the past three days and never have overnight guests again. ..

Ff...amen re the cats...they get all kinds of vermin, snakes included. The key to it is everyone needs to have them all spayed and neutered. ..and once again, that's PEOPLE who ate to blame. My cats aka kids stay in my yard, moody of the time on the back deck and i bring them in at night. The neighbors cats on the other hand come down here daily to eat, get fresh water and a little petting. .i am happy to oblige and would never complain. It's not their fault. I try to follow Mama's life long mantra. .to have good neighbors i need to be a good neighbor. ..

Cats around here don't have any mice that I've seen, but they do a number on the baby birds and chipmunks. I'm surprised there are any robins and mockingbirds left. We used to have a lot of mockingbirds here when I was a kid. Now there are few... but there are a lot of cats. Wonder if there's a link. Mockingbird and robin babies spend a few days on the ground, so it is easy for cats to get them.

Thats what i thought he meant. ..those. .and weve all seen em. ..who NEVER come to see our loved ones when it MN atters and then when it's too late for them to even know they're there. .or at the funeral. .they are there, dressed in the finest, boohooing and wailing to beat the band. Those are the ones i despise..and the ones who i am seriously going to have a hard time not flattening when they do it.

Shilo8, regarding cats... think of it this way, without cats being outside, we would be ankle deep in rodents :P

As for the nighttime chorus outside your window, that would drive me bonkers, too. One reason I get my felines inside before dark.

CM you are still grieving and sib sighing. Breathe a bit. I wrote one after a former boss lied so I would not get unemployment. I said I had trained as contortionist assistant as I worked for women with head up ...then tore it up.
Jude the guy went to jail last night. Cops came to do report. He ran his mouth then told my husband he was gonna beat his a** and cussed him out. Robert told cop that he wanted to get him out of here. Cop called later alcohol PCP and prescription meds for a back condition. Oh and did I mention folks with cellphones to cover black teenager arrested by white cop? Hope we don't have protest here grrrr

My whine moment today: I have to do my CV. Ugh. It puts me straight into a steep negative tailspin. No I don't have a degree in Marketing (or "merketing" - sic - as it says in the job ad.) but based on my fourteen years' experience in your sector I can say with some authority that this role doesn't require one. I could do your stupid job standing on my head with both hands tied behind my back and still not allow typos to creep into your advertising. There now - I've already talked myself out of even wanting to apply. But this is NOT the attitude! Please somebody tell me that I do, honest, want to spend two hours dusting the cobwebs off my portfolio and making some kind of effort in the cause of gainful employment. No, really, I do. So why can't I face it?

Wry smile, Susan - I do that too, put the laundry that's waiting to be folded on my bed so that I won't, er, forget to do it. I have to admit that I am not always above thinking "oh bollocks to it" and shoving it back in the basket onto the floor, though...

guestshopadmin I hope he's insured and dont forget the medical bills for your fist because you should have used them to punch his lights out 20 mph indeed - he's havin a laugh (all said tongue in cheek) then don't forget you will need to have your drive redone to clear the blood (where you punched him oh and claim for shock, loss of work because you can't get there, ditto husband while repairs are ongoing, front yard needs attention oh and ...and...and... don't you just hate people who lie instead of saying yeah I was drunk and I thought it would be fun and Im sorry and what can I do to make this right between us?

Oh wait that only happens in Utopia