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1. Seasonal depression may be finally starting to lift a bit.
2. I'm watching a livestream of the Springsteen concert happening rn in Orlando. I am super, super excited that I am going to get to see them in PHilly in 6 weeks!
3. I miss y'all and hope you're well! A periodic reminder that things are pretty social over on PoFi and I'd be happy to invite you. It's not the same format as here but people are very nice.
1. I am very overworked and would like to retire but cannot afford it just yet.
2. When I am at home I spending a lot of time watching livestreams. This one is especially soothing (when it's daytime in Japan, anyway).
3. I have no idea what PoFi is.
1. Slowly working through legal and tax issues.
2. Not doing anything else beyond the basics of living.
3. Ginger is making himself domesticated. He spends a lot of time talking to Caspar and sometimes Possum through windows (Nora does not care). He wants scratchins pretty much every time I go out the door. He has darted into the porch for a minute or two on a few occasions. I will have four indoor cats a some point.
1. Still down here in the land of Disney. My vices have been stripped down to coffee, candy and ovaltine (Original malt flavor), which I can only get and the Brazillian supermarket around the block.
2. My heart function is more or less back to normal, and in a few months my dental work will be completed and I'll be able to eat potato chips again (long story).
1. Working our way through all Mum's junk, now that the funeral etc is behind us. So. Much. Junk. Do your kids a favour - sort your shit out!
2. Welcomed a new family member this weekend, of the canine variety. Luna is a ~4 year-old Kelpie cross with something else? and we got her from the local shelter. So far, she's been mostly very quiet and well-behaved. She did figure out how to slide the 3-metre-wide gate open while we were at church on Sunday, but she won't get out there again! She follows me around like a shadow and, to start with, was terrified of everything and constantly shaking. She's settled down a lot and seems much happier. Seems to be well-trained - if you ask her does she want to go for a walk, she goes and sits next to where her lead is kept!
3. Work is, well, worky :-(
Ah yes, I now recall that I did join PoFi but found it difficult to navigate, in the same way that makes Twitter unusable for me, with lots of threads, rather than the more linear format of MeFi and MeCha. It was impossible for me to follow a conversation.
dg I can relate to your mother passing away. And all the stuff you now need to deal with.
We do need to sort out our belongings before we die.
My mother will receive euthanasia today. And she's been throwing stuff out for years. She sorted out her papers this week. Hardly able to walk, sifting through them with her shaking parkinson hands.
Such a loving thing to do.
I'm not interested in US politics. But apparently PoFi is more than politics. Some general sociable chat sounds gezellig. So I've asked for an invitation.
Thank you terrapin.
Having seen it first hand I can say that here in the NL it really is a very careful proces. With repeated conversations over weeks. The GP really taking time. Keeping until the end the option open to change ones mind.
And checks & balances in the form of an independent physician verifying. And after it happened another independent physician verifies and informs the procureur generaal. Who signs off on the legal aspect.
Also it's a very swift and painless end. At least it was for my mother.
So sorry for your loss, jouke. Even when you know it's coming it's hard. Glad your mom's ending was peaceful. I would want that option for myself, in certain circumstances.
Huh. Could have sworn I chimed in in this thread. I know I made a joke about having five indoor cats, relating so what arse_hat said above. I know I mentioned working six days a week..maybe I'm so out of sorts from that that I forgot to hit post!
Jouke, I am so very sorry for your loss. I do admire that she went on her own terms.
It's been 10? days since I put mom into a memory care facility. She's doing fine there.
Meanwhile, the reams of paperwork are unending. And her home must be sold asap to pay for her upkeep.
My brother came the week after I achieved her transfer. Some stuff is going back with him for the grandchildren.
The rest of everything? That's my responsibility. Edict is that the house must be emptied in 8 days, then cleaned and put on the market by mid March.
I was already exhausted. I'm more so now. I've leaned on friends to help get her stuff moved into the facility. I am trying to do as much as possible solo so I don't burn out my friends, but moving furniture without help is hard! Plus there's soooo much stuff.
I know this will end and I'll get back to the disaster that I left of my neglected home. But, damn, this is hard.
Fortunately, she's doing fine and getting better care than I could achieve alone.
mightshould, I am happy to hear your mom is someplace that can take care of her and you have less of that responsibility. Hopefully you get your down time to do whatever you want too.
My Sunday was an EXERIENCE. I went for a walk after dinner and came back to the area and there were cops everywhere around my block. About 8 SUVs. Not something common here and they all seemed to be moving not centered on any place.
I got to my house and there was a mountain bike laying in my driveway. The metal gecko on my back gate was bent. My back door was open.
I came in and all the contents of my upstairs were shoved into the stairwell and all the contents of my living room were barricading the front door.
I heard something above and I started pulling things from the stairwell to make my way up. Had my exercise bike fall on me. I got up the stairs and all the windows were open with the screens ripped out. He had jumped out a window. I went back down and outside and pulled my flashlight out and flagged one of the cop cars.
Four cops cleared my house and I talked to the lieutenant on scene. They were in the area because dozens of people were calling about a man yelling "they are going to kill me!" and trying to get into people's houses.
Just as they had cleared my house there was a call about a guy breaking in to a house a few blocks away. The lieutenant gave me a case number and asked if he could come back later for a statement and they all went off to the new location.
I went in and started looking around. No cats and it appeared that nothing was taken. Just destruction. Then in the kitchen I found that my 12 inch chef's knife and long pointy scissors were gone so I immediately called it in. Shortly after I got off the phone I found a plastic bag in my dining room with a bunch of papers in it.
The papers told a story. My dude had been released from jail at 1230 with 4 undertakings. He was to avoid contact with 2 named persons and avoid attending 2 addresses. One on the next street over and one a couple of streets over. I called that in and the dispatcher said they had just taken that man into custody.
The lieutenant returned and took my statement and and took possession of the bag of papers. He also asked for a description of all the cats in case they were picked up by animal control. I called again at 0200 to let him know they were all back. Jumpy, but home.
I am guessing he is mentally ill and I would bet he was jacked on meth or crack. That has left me with a load of things to think about.
The day after, I was calm and wished him no ill will. When I was making my way up the stairs I was homicidal. I do not deal well with threats to the people and animals I hold dear. A year ago my wife would have been home and being late on a Sunday evening asleep. Whoever was upstairs was a threat that needed to be stopped.
Someone asked today if I was traumatized by it all, and I am not feeling traumatized or stressed by the home invasion. I am a bit upset at how focused and violent I was in the heat of the moment.
We need better care for people on the fringes and we also need to not have them putting others at risk. From jail and back again in about 8 hours is not a good thing.
Side note. On my walk Sunday I stopped for a couple minutes to talk with the people smoking outside a nearby bar. If I go down that street I often stop to chat there. They are an OK crew.
Tonight I stopped again and someone said "OMG a bit after you left the other night a cop car pulled up and said to watch out as there was a guy in the area who was running around with a very big knife!" I said "I know! It was my good kitchen knife!"
I took pictures of the papers and I was looking at them today. Guy was charged with Mischief over $5000 on Sunday morning. It seems he went out Saturday night trashed some things, hence the properties he was not to return to, spent a few hours in jail was charged and released then back at it again all in less than 24 hours.
The thing I am most bothered by is the total destruction of my wife's vanity table. It was rather a crude thing. Her dad built that for his only daughter when she was a child. He was good with his hands in the sense he was a concert pianist but he had little in the way of carpentry skills.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
