I can’t decide which is foremost - I called my mom “as always” yesterday morning to check on her (Sat afternoon I heard her forlorn report that she couldn’t get either TV to work for her, this has also been an ongoing problem - again, I don’t know if she truly can’t understand which buttons to push, or she’s putting this on as another example of How Much She Hates Assisted Living?) I did not drop everything & rush over there since I was helping Z install insulation in his storage shed - we can put in a window unit & move the rodents out there. This was hot, miserable work - poor Z got overheated & we had to quit when he started vomiting, Mommy made an emergency run for Gatorade!
But I told her Sunday morning I was going to the gym, I’d be by afterwards. I did not specifically say “Let’s go to brunch” but that is what I had planned…
I arrived to find her slumped in her housecoat, “not hungry” bcz she had eaten one of those crappy WalMart mini pies. I once again demonstrated how to turn the living room TV on (“Input” must be selected to get channels via the antenna; it’s been WAY too complicated to teach her to use the Spectrum service!) & I found the broadcast of church services that she likes. Mom enjoys seeing the different churches (each week the Diocese of Dallas broadcasts from a different church) as she reminisces about clergy & staff she has known. Both my cousin & I have offered to take her to church which she refuses.
After a while, I was getting hungrier (Gym time, remember? Go me!), and while Mom still declined going to the cafe, she rode with me to go through fast-food drive-thru & get BF sandwiches (our secondary routine). Whaddaya know, when we got home she sat down & ate almost every single bite! (She sneaks a few tidbits to her little dog despite my pleas not to upset Abby’s stomach) Go figure 🤦♀️
It’s enough to drive one to drink!
It's hard getting old-er, and I don't think we "get it" until it starts happening to us! I remember pooh-poohing when my dad said he was forgetting how to use the computer, and needed to be shown again... but now that I "lose" the ability to do something / learn something quickly... I know it was real for him, too.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, hang in there! Your mom is lucky to have you, and you're being a good daughter!
Seriously, Val, your family are wimps. LOL. Can't believe that you are kin to them.
ReplyDeleteI struggle with electronic stuff as I don't find the operation of most of it to make sense. So I have people write down how to do things with them and it does help. Is your mom alert enough to follow directions? Can you call the assisted living place and ask them to please help you mom with the T.V.? That doesn't seem like a bad request to me.
Getting old is a "B". But I can guarantee that your mom not being in assisted living would not make her T.V.s work any better. LOL. What most women like your mom needs is a full time slave. That us what my mom needed and you can't find a single soul to take on this job. No one. (Crickets) . Dad also needed a full time slave but didn't want a professional one. He wanted a 25 year old bleached blonde in a Catholic School girl outfit. I have the picture of the girl in the outfit to prove it. I have a theory about relatives that a woman I worked with gave to me. It is that you should never live closer than 50 miles from any relative. Dad lived over 50 miles away so I didn't have to see the "sitter", actually she was a "recliner", in dad's driveway passed out drunk with a fifth of his booze lying beside her. My uncle told me about her though when he found her. If I had lived closer I would have hopped on my broomstick and shoveled up this bag of s--- and threw her into the lake. As it was, she later beat dad up and ended up in jail. He bailed her out according to my half-brother. Relatives are mostly annoying. Taken in very small doses when feeling overly empathetic.
Z is like most men and has an intolerance for things like 18 hours of physical labor to deliver a screeching bag of id/ aka baby. That is why God didn't have men deliver babies. He probably would have chosen women to insulate sheds too. I worked with women who toiled like dogs and never broke a sweat. I worked with men who struggled to lift a bowling ball.
Speaking of drinking, the 2 drinking girls look fun. I would spend most of my time with them.
I almost called the desk Saturday night to ask them to send someone over to turn on mom's TV, but in the end I made a judgment call that it's the weekend, they're probably short-staffed & have better things to do with their time. I need to save that goodwill for something that's of more importance, like delivering mom a meal or some such...
DeleteThose are 2 of my riding buddies who were at the trail ride 8/06 - that was Carla's first frozen marg, she really liked it! ("It's like juice!")
I can completely understand. At some point our relatives are past the point of assisted living and belong in long term care and it's nice to put that off as long as possible. Dad and Mom were a mess but I never had to put them in a nursing home. They intended to die before that happened and they did. You are very considerate of the staff. So let's always be as kind to yourself.
DeleteI think I tried a margarita years ago but I didn't like any drinks other than beer. Some of my dates who thought women drinking beer was very unladylike were very upset by my crudeness but it was part of my "inheritance". My family, and I, were all beer guzzlers at one time. Dad always was. He made sure he had "2 beers" (joke) and 2 Oxycontin every day. His "limit". My limit, real limit, was 8 beers when I was at the peak of my tolerance. I only weighed 115 pounds. I usually stopped before 8 though. The lady in me. LOL.
I didn't develop a taste for beer until I went to college (when I was in HS we snuck around & nipped our parents' hard liquor ;-)
DeleteVery low tolerance these days - 1 beer will usually do me just fine!