Today is the kind of day that I know I am putting the yard to sleep for the long winter ahead. For me it is the worst time of year, November is generally cold and wet here in the foothills of the Adirondacks. I spent most of the morning sitting around doing nothing, just waiting for the earth to warm up. Once it did get warm it was a beautiful day. Tom and I weed whacked, mowed, raked the gardens and yard. I even power washed the black top. I was sick of all the little specs of dry grass and leaves finding there way in the house. When I was all done our house and yard almost looked like yuppies live here.
While we were doing all this Laura was busy having a melt down, because I made her come outside with her walker. She thought she was going to spend the entire weekend in her wheelchair, wrong! I was tested to the end, she tried so hard to get me to feel sorry for her, in the end she finally walked down the ramp to her wheelchair but she was totally terrorized. The past few weeks she has been allowed to come out of the house in her chair because the mornings have started with frost on the deck. We aren't even in December yet and she is already starting to show her biggest anxiety. During the winter months she is very afraid of the ice and the dark, every step she takes outside is a struggle. She really can't seem to see the ground, today all the grass and leaves on the pavement freaked her out because she did not know that it was smooth. I can't even imagine that kind of fear every day of my life.I am afraid of walking on ice and I have to make point of acting as if I have no fear just to keep her from realizing there is ice. I really can't wait til we have the ability to winter in the south away from the ice and snow. 4 years 8 months to go, yes I am looking forward to retirement.
The day started with the usual chores for Laura, take her blood sugar, get her medicine, help her in the bathroom, get her ice tea, then I can have coffee. Tom and I often say this is the house of just one more thing. The one thing I miss about being single, is a cup of coffee first. I always have a list of chores to do before I get to sit down with a cup of coffee. The whole point of coffee is to help you wake up isn't it, I'm just saying.
ReplyDeleteWell then Laura and I got to sit down and do one of her favorite jobs,. Cut the coupons, today we hit pay dirt and there was actually 4 sections of coupons, she loves just passing the pages to me. I am sure I would not be coupon cutting without Laura. She asks about the paper every Saturday in preparation of the Sunday paper. We even try to do the coupons when were away. Routine is very important to Laura, me it is the one thing I could live without like, like the morning chores I was complaining about, ugh!
Tom made us some super bagel breakfast sandwiches, we finished the paper and then went into the kitchen to make cookies. another favorite job of Laura's. We made some jumbles and black eyed susan's. I cleaned the mess, Tom dressed Laura while I took a shower and we were off to Ocean State Job Lot to get some new Christmas lights. This weekend is so nice, I thought it would be great to get the lights up erly before it gets cold. We stopped for a quick bite to eat which ended up not being very quick, semmed like we were at the restaurant forever. When we got home putting up the lights didn't go so quick either. What the, they were supposed to be end to end but neither Tom or I had clue how to plug them into each other and there were no directions, just some more crap we bought from China. We ended up needing to plug them all into there own lead cord. The only good thing was that we could choose the color, so I could put them on amber til Thanksgiving is over and then choose a Christmas color or all the colors.
During all this Laura had another melt down because I asked her to push her own wheelchair. Seems to me she thinks she is the Queen and we are her slaves. It doesn't matter what I ask her to do she digs in and trys to get us to do it for her. It used to be when she was using the walker we thought it was she didn't want to walk, now she doesn't want to push her chair. After the struggle outside we came in, and had the usual get ready for bed routine, she was asked to wash her face and hands, again she refused to do it. With yet another struggle she did it. While I did a long list of chores, empty the diswasher, laundry, change her insulin pod, check her blood sugar, get out clothes for tommorow, yatta, yatta, yatta. Finally we got to sit down for a movie and time to write my notes for the day.
The weekend has come to an end. The week ahead is going to be a very busy one. It the annual Harvest Dinner at my job and I will be busy making dinner for about 75 people. Soo bring it on!