Any Peeps there? Hellooo???

Do you wonder what I’m doing with myself these days? I feel like I’m so out of touch with my peeps.  Anybody care?

I’ll just pretend like you do, cause that’s what I’m good at; living in my head.  Punctuation, probably not so good at.  Living in my head is where I thrive.

So let’s so, ummmm…oh yea, well it’s not that much different here than my Florida life of the caretaker.  Let’s take a look at a couple of days shall we?  Mom’s friend called that she was coming to stay the night so I made a pumpkin roll for her (did you see the picture on Facebook?) – she was having a bad day as she had to put her cat down.  Us pet owners know how difficult that is, and she loves my pumpkin roll, so I did that.  But wait why am I telling you this? I can’t remember the rest of that day.  Let’s move to Sunday.

My sister sent me a text saying she was sitting in front of the TV not feeling so good with a baby on her lap.  I said it sounds like heaven because this is what I was doing:

• Made breakfast
• Went on a wood run – loaded the wood – unloaded the wood
• Collected more kindling from the carport (where I wisely stocked up on the last 70° day)
• Vacuumed out my car
• Cleaned/washed out the shop vac
• Scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees
• Set the fire for the night
• Made fish over spinach with mushrooms and baked potato for dinner
• Lost sleep over the check engine light coming on

Yesterday – a day out of the house was:

• Go to the EZ Ship place to fax the stupid Florida Department of Transportation because they were going to suspend my Florida license for cancelling my car insurance. MEANWHILE, could they not take it a step further and look up the car to see that it’s not registered in Florida any longer?  I mean if they have insurance records shouldn’t they also have car registration records?  And shouldn’t they know that I don’t even have a Florida license to suspend now? So of course because I didn’t get the notice timely due to my Florida mail being forwarded – well anyway, I ended up faxing the info yesterday.
• Then onto the Chiropractor. Why do most chiropractor’s sound like used car salesmen?  They talk so fast.  That said, I like this guy.  He thinks he can fix me.  I’m very excited about that.
• Then onto Aldis to do some grocery shopping
• Then onto Wegmans (they’re close together) to get what I couldn’t get at Aldi’s – treated myself to yet another small Chi Latte. They are so good.
• Then onto the mechanics to check the “check engine” light. Sat there about an hour texting with my friend solving the problems of the world in our texts.  Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, we actually talked about how bi-polar we feel at times with these up and down moods.  Of course no one knows that better than me who will post one day about how my life sucks and the very next about how I am so blessed.  But the good days are winning.  That’s a good sign.

The car business is still uncertain.  They think it’s an ignition coil or something or other.  Also my windshield washer fluid is not coming out – apparently the motor is broken for the washing fluid.  I left the garage when he said he wouldn’t take the warranty, only to call him back when I found out the parts aren’t covered anyway.  I love this garage.  Robert sits at the desk.  Robert cut the grass here at this house for my grandparents.  He also worked on their cars.  He has yet to charge me for any service.  Even yesterday after an hour with the guy taking the car apart he did not charge me.  Do you see why I want to take my car to him?  I owe him.  So anyway, I await his return call on the price of the parts.

Then home to make dinner – last night was rotisserie chicken (I needed it to make more broth)– rice – green beans with mushrooms and walnuts and a sort of waldorf salad.  Mom made the salad AND snipped the green beans.  I had her working.  She did need to lay down after that and I did offer to do the dishes to reward her hard work.  Normally she does the dishes every time. She wants to do them and considers that her contribution.  She also takes out the garbage, runs the shop vac in the kitchen and does her own laundry.  That’s more than some people I’ve helped before.

So today, I made breakfast for us, started the broth, brought the computer downstairs because mom doesn’t want me leaving the kitchen if the stove is on, started this blog, then read her lots of news off my phone – love the Skimm (there’s a lot of that reading kind of stuff), then Mel the exterminator came and we listened to him for quite a while. Mom needed a break after he left, he does talk alot.  She’s up sitting on the porch in the quiet.  After I post this update (which I started at 11 am and it’s now after 3)  I will make biscuits and then I’m going to try to replicate her Aunt Margaruete’s Potato Salad as a surprise for her.  Then I’ll set the fire for tonight.  Then I’ll make dinner. Then as she does the dishes I will light the fire and we will settle in which is usually about 8:30 or 9:00 pm, I will make us tea, and then we will listen to our audio book.

Well anyway, those are my typical days.  When I’m home here I’m working on stuff. Cleaning out drawers, closets, basements or getting wood in the woods and cooking.  When I’m out I’m running errands and catching up on doctor’s appointments or going to the library to “plug-in” and sometimes I’ll meet Lori and have a friend day.  I don’t know why in Florida I was more apt to detail all of my mundane adventures but here in the woods it feels routine.  Guess cause mom has been in my life all of my life while with the Bakers and the new geography, well it was just all so new. Also since this house has been in my life all my life it just doesn’t seem new or newsworthy.  And really oddly I don’t feel like I have a lot of time these days.  One day (I think it was Saturday) I told her I was going to go watch a movie on my computer (I got one from the library) and well I never got back upstairs to watch it.  It seems like me escaping is her cue to ask me to do something and well I just do whatever she says. That happens A LOT. She’s old.  It’s not about me now.  It’s okay.  It won’t last forever.

But I assure you my life is anything but dull.  It’s very different.  Very different from anything I’ve ever lived so far.  I have never been so secluded.  I have never lived with my blind mother.  I’ve lived with a vital young energetic very different mother, but not for the last 40 years and I was never her caretaker. Forty years – that’s a long time. I am almost totally unplugged and I have one friend.  And I really am good with it all.  Everyday is better.  So at least you can expect a great deal “less” of the poor me posts as I really have acclimated to this environment and lifestyle.  My cousin Ira has suggested ways to fix the TV and we all know how often I’ve complained about it, especially during the Steeler’s playoffs, but really it would change the vibe and our routine and well I’m kinda digging the new routine. (although….I mean really I would love to see the games) Right now mom and I are listening to A Prayer for Owen Meany. For any of you Finally Florida followers I believe I posted that it took me forever to get through that book and then ended up loving it. So I listen to it now with Mom.  She has become quite attached to Owen.  We only have 3 more discs left to listen.  We will miss him.

Obviously I am still not published or that would be the first thing I would have said, but I’m sending out my queries. And I’ve started book two!!  I think I’m up to 14 queries. 3 rejects. I need to get on that more.  It’s just I do so much research on the agents before I send them out that by the time I’ve done my research and sent one out it’s time to make dinner.  Last night I was working on one, then Jimmy called and I was half editing while talking, then I accidentally deleted the whole effing thing, and then I had to redo it because I had deleted it and couldn’t get it back, and then I was 45 minutes late getting dinner started (which is why mom made the salad and beans and then subsequently needed a nap) so you see, pressure everywhere…But I sent that one query out – probably full of errors because in the end I was rushing. And that was only one. 186 to go before I start giving up.  It would be nice to have a sign that I’m on the right track…except that I don’t believe in signs…which I always say when I don’t have one.  But if I had a sign maybe I would believe in it.

Peace and love and prayers for cheap (but quality) car repairs,

Xoxoxo