Happy Birthday, Paige! (yesterday) Last night we all went to Joe's to celebrate with sushi. It was pretty wild in there! The chefs were drinking sake and everybody was just plain loud. They gave Paige a bowl of birthday ice cream. They turned out the lights, lit the candle and made her stand on a chair while everyone sang to her. We all had a great time and left there completely stuffed.
Moqui just left this morning. It was just plain lovely to spend the week with her. She'd like to come back sometime and bring her son along. I've got a standing invitation to visit her in Colorado. (Hey, Chris! Thanks for sending her!)
Yesterday we got started on the barns. So far I've managed to dodge 3 days of jury duty which means I'm available to slave away in a hot, dirty barn. Funny how compared to that jury duty can seem like the more desirable activity. We got a great start yesterday. Drew and Dede and I worked on carting things out. We parked Dad outside the barn and had him look through old files. It was the perfect activity to distract him from the huge pile of crapola that's destined for the dumpster. Every once in a while he'd look up and see some object he thought was valuable. We'd just say ok and set aside (we'll throw it away later). Better to avoid a fight. Today we're going to rent a big dumpster.
I hope I can take some time to do a little cleaning around here. Jeff Wirth is coming over tonight. The house isn't too bad. The floors need some attention. It's going to be so great seeing Jeff. It's been more than 20 years! Wow.
Ok, breakfast. Then, back to the barns!
7 comments:
Billyc wants me to tell you that he noticed your last post was titled Barns and the post before that was Normal. Say them together. Barns and Normal.
Then I mentioned how odd it was that NuffyBabor posted about Barnes and Noble.
Kinda funny eh?
Barnes and Normal! Out bored Motor! Now you're going to have to tell that one, Donita.
HEY! I have my computer back! Yeeha! I'm hooked up to the Internets. I'M BACK BABY! I tell you this on your blog because the Hotmail portion of the Internets is not working well today. So, much as I'd love to write you a loooooong catch-up e-mail, I CAIN'T YET. But keep your eye peeled!
Hoo boy--those barns. I envy you... NOT! (I'm a little giddy today; appliance, gas, and cable guys all showed up ON TIME yesterday and everything fits and everything works.)
--Dean
Barns and Normal! That is pretty funny. Nuffy Babor sounds like the name of cowboy stripper.
Dean- Horray for having your computer back! Having our main Mac in the shop has been a huge drag. Horray for having the cable/appliance/gas guys show up!
We had serendipidous circumstances here yesterday too. David The Junk Guy just happened to show up. He hasn't been here in months. He didn't know about Jim (he really liked Jim). It was perfect tat he showed up yesterday because we wanted to work on the barnyard and there's tons of metal out there, including a large, dead van. We also had that dead Grand Am sitting in our parking area. Now BOTH are gone! He got right to work removing old washers, refrigerators and filing cabinets. Heavy stuff.
We've been looking through old files, TONS of old files. Dede found a non-descript envelope that could have easily been thrown away. It had $800 in it! So, now we have money to pay for the big dumpster ($430) and to hire some help.
I didn't have to go to jury duty at all this week. There was one more lucky thing like that but I can't think of it right now. We were all just kind of marvelling at the little occurrances. Last night Dede said, "I'm sorry, but that's God". I thought that was pretty funny. Like, jeez Dede, you don't have to apologize. After working our butts off all day we went to the Brown's to swim and have dinner. My body said thank you.
Dad was a friggin' BEAST yesterday. We knew he was going to be difficult but, man, it got to be tedious after a while. We had some pretty big fights. Even Dede got pretty mad at him and it takes a lot to ruffle her feathers. Dad would fixate on the stupidest stuff. He wants to keep crappy bits of crap that's been rotting out in those barns. He really is like a two-year-old. During one of the fights I told him that the only thing he really should be saying to us is thank you. That bounced off, of course. We all took turns being the target. I wish there was a way to get a sitter for him. He shouldn't be here for this.
Oh well, here we go again. Today is another clean up day. We made sooooo much progress yesterday and Wednesday. That huge dumpster is more than halfway full.
Gotta get dressed and have a big breakfast.
Oh! I forgot to talk about Jeff's visit. Next post.
Today Dad had a violent outburst. That's the worst I've seen so far. He actually hit Drew. So, ok, we're there. We've moved into the violent phase of Alzheimer's.
There were several times yesterday where I thought he might smack any one of us, but he didn't follow through. Today he and Drew got into it over a piece of pvc pipe that Drew was trying to throw away. Dad will fixate on something and you just can't get him to move on. So, we've all decided to let it go and keep moving. Once Dad is out of the scene we just pick it up and throw it away. But he's been taking things up to the house. After lunch when we were going back outside Stacey found and old, rotten volley ball net that he had dragged up there. She grabbed it and took it out to the dumpster. There's no way he'll remember that he rescued that net. We are dealing with a crazy person right now.
The enormous dumpster is full. I'll call next week and have them pick it up. We'll get another one for the next work weekend. I'm very pleased with the progress we've made. Next time we're going to hire some help and rent a forklift.
Anybody want some tile? We've got lots of it and it's all good stuff.
Yes, on the tile. Want the tile, need the tile!
Ah, that's two people now who want tile. I'm pretty sure there's enough to go around.
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