Settling in for the Holidays
The house is mostly decorated for Xmas now, though boxes upon boxes of decorations are still laying around in various places and the tree is only about half done. We really need to have it ready by this weekend for the party, but various things keep interrupting. Chisa is insistent that her mom wants to help with the tree, though the only thing I've heard from Mary about it is that she won't decorate the tree for us. To me, that sounds like an endorsement to do it without her, but that also might be my general fatigue at dealing with Mary talking.
We're all getting used to the new living arrangements, particularly that Chi and I haven't had a roommate in eight years, and Mary's only previous experience with living with other people was living with her kids back when she could tell them what to do. Personalities are clashing, but I have high hopes that things will work out. Chisa's dad has actually been a blessing in all this; though he's in Maine, he's been incredibly supportive and his generosity all these last two months has taken a huge amount of pressure off of both Chisa and myself.
There are problems with the house, of course; there always are. Some of them we knew about when we moved in (like the kitchen sink having diminished flow), some of them were surprises (like how loud the refrigerator is or the fact that the clothes dryer keeps blowing the cicuit breaker), and some of them are brand-new (like the last U-haul of Mary's stuff damn near taking out the corner of the deck when JD cut it a little too close for comfort). Still, we're getting those things taken care of. We have a a veritable army of contractors, plumbers, and electricians coming through here in the next week, and hopefully that will take care of all the salient points.
The worst thing about the U-haul damage is that it wouldn't have been necessary to have a third U-haul come up at all if Mary had been willing to abandon any of her crap. The garage is totally full of her stuff, and her living area is like a shrine to Christmas from all of the decorations she has. (And she keeps buying more! >_<) I wanted to try out our central-vac today so that I could clean up the living room before the game, but I couldn't even get to any of the hoses or attachments because of all of the junk in the way. More than half of the stuff down there doesn't even work; case in point: she owns two vacuum cleaners that she brought along, but neither of them have a working fan belt, and the motor might be blown in one of them. Mary says she wants to have a yard sale in the spring, but she'll be lucky if she doesn't have to pay to have all of that junk hauled away.
Honestly, with Mary's health as it is, she'll be pretty lucky to live long enough to have a yard sale. She's going on dialysis after Xmas, and that sort of thing doesn't do well for people with degenerative liver and heart disease. Part of the reason I'm being so patient with her (and Chisa is being so tolerant of her) is that we know she doesn't have a lot of time left. Arguing with her might even make that time shorter. I think she understands that we're serious about our limits, though, after Chi had a talk with her the other day. Mary may be dying, but we aren't--and we have to live with whatever she winds up doing to the house. It sounds callous, I admit, but we have to stay practical right now to keep on top of things and avoid worrying too much about the long term.
In happier news, the Xmas party at our place is on for this weekend: Saturday, December 19, starting at 6pm and running until people get tired and go home. We'll be providing food and drink, but we welcome it if anyone wants to bring a special Xmas treat with them to share. We look forward to seeing our friends for the holidays, so come by if you're in town and free!
We're all getting used to the new living arrangements, particularly that Chi and I haven't had a roommate in eight years, and Mary's only previous experience with living with other people was living with her kids back when she could tell them what to do. Personalities are clashing, but I have high hopes that things will work out. Chisa's dad has actually been a blessing in all this; though he's in Maine, he's been incredibly supportive and his generosity all these last two months has taken a huge amount of pressure off of both Chisa and myself.
There are problems with the house, of course; there always are. Some of them we knew about when we moved in (like the kitchen sink having diminished flow), some of them were surprises (like how loud the refrigerator is or the fact that the clothes dryer keeps blowing the cicuit breaker), and some of them are brand-new (like the last U-haul of Mary's stuff damn near taking out the corner of the deck when JD cut it a little too close for comfort). Still, we're getting those things taken care of. We have a a veritable army of contractors, plumbers, and electricians coming through here in the next week, and hopefully that will take care of all the salient points.
The worst thing about the U-haul damage is that it wouldn't have been necessary to have a third U-haul come up at all if Mary had been willing to abandon any of her crap. The garage is totally full of her stuff, and her living area is like a shrine to Christmas from all of the decorations she has. (And she keeps buying more! >_<) I wanted to try out our central-vac today so that I could clean up the living room before the game, but I couldn't even get to any of the hoses or attachments because of all of the junk in the way. More than half of the stuff down there doesn't even work; case in point: she owns two vacuum cleaners that she brought along, but neither of them have a working fan belt, and the motor might be blown in one of them. Mary says she wants to have a yard sale in the spring, but she'll be lucky if she doesn't have to pay to have all of that junk hauled away.
Honestly, with Mary's health as it is, she'll be pretty lucky to live long enough to have a yard sale. She's going on dialysis after Xmas, and that sort of thing doesn't do well for people with degenerative liver and heart disease. Part of the reason I'm being so patient with her (and Chisa is being so tolerant of her) is that we know she doesn't have a lot of time left. Arguing with her might even make that time shorter. I think she understands that we're serious about our limits, though, after Chi had a talk with her the other day. Mary may be dying, but we aren't--and we have to live with whatever she winds up doing to the house. It sounds callous, I admit, but we have to stay practical right now to keep on top of things and avoid worrying too much about the long term.
In happier news, the Xmas party at our place is on for this weekend: Saturday, December 19, starting at 6pm and running until people get tired and go home. We'll be providing food and drink, but we welcome it if anyone wants to bring a special Xmas treat with them to share. We look forward to seeing our friends for the holidays, so come by if you're in town and free!