So many things...
So, Friday, shortly after hanging up from talking to my mother, my grandmother slipped and fell in her kitchen. She broke her hip and couldn't move. Now, my mother (her daughter-in-law) calls her daily, but since they'd just spoken, it was over 24 hours before my parents called my aunt and asked her to run over and check on her. By then she'd be in pain and without food or water for over a day. She's still confused (some of which is undoubtedly due to dehydration, but some of which is due to dementia), but went through surgery for her hip yesterday morning and is doing well. You hear about this kind of thing on the news with some regularity and it's always sad, but it's not the kind of thing you really think will happen to someone you care about. She's looking at six weeks of rehab, cancelling/postponing her trip out here for Ava's birthday, and probably all three of her kids taking turns helping her out for the duration of rehab (if not longer). I'm hoping this serves as the kick in the pants my family clearly needs to insist she can't live alone anymore, but we'll see.
In happier news, we've mostly settled in to our new place. It's pretty great, really. Right now I'm sitting out on my deck with the laptop while the kids pick weeds (so... so many weeds oh my God). Some of the kitchen stuff still has to be moved over and there are three or four boxes that need to be unpacked and I have yet to *clean* the old apartment, but it's a lot more put together than I'd anticipated for this point. There's been a lot of little things we've had to fix - things too small to bother the landlord with mostly - but they've really added up in terms of both time and money. On the bigger side of things we had to buy a new washer and dryer. The old tenants had told the landlord they wanted to leave their washer and dryer and that both worked. They lied. The washer made a noise but did nothing. Unfortunately it was always part of the understanding that the washer/dryer were not included in the rental... it was just good luck to have the old tenants' until they gave out. We went with a new washer/dryer rather than buy something used on CraigsList that might or might not last more than a few loads of laundry. So... that was $1800 we hadn't really anticipated spending yet. On the upside, it should last a long time and its a *really* good washer and dryer. There are some areas I really want to paint still but the only bigger thing left I feel like I need to mess with is the yard. I want to add some lattices to the bottom of the deck so the kids can't get under it (and their toys can't... I'm already tired of crawling under there to get their ball) and getting rid of the weeds/adding grass. Bough a bag of weed-and-feed, which hopefully will go a long ways.
Writing... hasn't happened yet. I've been rather ridiculously occupied with unpacking and organizing the house. But I want to get to it today. I also really want to rewatch an episode or two from seasons one or two as a refresher... maybe The Key and Chicago? There's an element to each of those episodes, a tension, that I definitely want to be channeling in this next chapter. They've been apart for so long - much longer than they were together - that there's some measure of relearning each other (her more than him because he's kind of been stuck in his life in some ways) and redefining their relationship. I've been looking forward to this chapter since I started writing these stories. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little anxious about doing it justice, because it will *never* turn out like it is in my head. It never does.
In happier news, we've mostly settled in to our new place. It's pretty great, really. Right now I'm sitting out on my deck with the laptop while the kids pick weeds (so... so many weeds oh my God). Some of the kitchen stuff still has to be moved over and there are three or four boxes that need to be unpacked and I have yet to *clean* the old apartment, but it's a lot more put together than I'd anticipated for this point. There's been a lot of little things we've had to fix - things too small to bother the landlord with mostly - but they've really added up in terms of both time and money. On the bigger side of things we had to buy a new washer and dryer. The old tenants had told the landlord they wanted to leave their washer and dryer and that both worked. They lied. The washer made a noise but did nothing. Unfortunately it was always part of the understanding that the washer/dryer were not included in the rental... it was just good luck to have the old tenants' until they gave out. We went with a new washer/dryer rather than buy something used on CraigsList that might or might not last more than a few loads of laundry. So... that was $1800 we hadn't really anticipated spending yet. On the upside, it should last a long time and its a *really* good washer and dryer. There are some areas I really want to paint still but the only bigger thing left I feel like I need to mess with is the yard. I want to add some lattices to the bottom of the deck so the kids can't get under it (and their toys can't... I'm already tired of crawling under there to get their ball) and getting rid of the weeds/adding grass. Bough a bag of weed-and-feed, which hopefully will go a long ways.
Writing... hasn't happened yet. I've been rather ridiculously occupied with unpacking and organizing the house. But I want to get to it today. I also really want to rewatch an episode or two from seasons one or two as a refresher... maybe The Key and Chicago? There's an element to each of those episodes, a tension, that I definitely want to be channeling in this next chapter. They've been apart for so long - much longer than they were together - that there's some measure of relearning each other (her more than him because he's kind of been stuck in his life in some ways) and redefining their relationship. I've been looking forward to this chapter since I started writing these stories. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little anxious about doing it justice, because it will *never* turn out like it is in my head. It never does.