Thursday, December 23, 2010

Mom Watch, Solstice Edition

Mom apparently fell.  She doesn't remember falling, but after being okay last Friday, by Saturday she was disoriented and complained of neck pain, and her usually neat apartment was a mess.  Monday (!) a cousin took her to the ER, and she has two broken bones in her neck.  They tried a halo brace, but that increased her anxiety and blood pressure, they had to remove it.  She's now back in her apt, with a 24/7 companion and a stiff neck brace.  They will do another MRI in 3 weeks.

Why no family who saw her stepped in before Monday is not clear.  Why the staff, who help her with her meds daily, didn't notice there was a problem is not clear.

I'm not happy, but have no money to go back and work on things.  She can't handle the stairs living here, even if she and I could survive living in the same place.  Which we can't.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Moving On

Blessings, Darlings!

So, we've been in the new place, and out of the old place, for about 6 weeks now.  I'm still unpacking boxes.  So far this morning it was "okay, found the tortilla press, but what I'm actually looking for is the pasta maker....".

It cost more to move than we had figured, due to our not figuring out how to streamline that till the very end.  And it took longer to move and get the lab set up than we had planned, so income was interrupted longer.  Nothing really surprising there.

And the expenses of registering cars in the new state (and getting them fixed up to get past inspection), getting the business registered in the new state, getting new drivers licenses, etc.  At least the cost of car insurance dropped!  But, boy, first estimates on health insurance are staggering.

Thus it's another lean Yule for us.  We bought a 12 inch tree at Goodwill for $1.59, a bunch of used books for gifts, some chocolate.  Food budget is at $80 a week.  We're fine tuning the heating in the house - which vents to leave open, which closed, what hours to have the heat up to 66 vs 60 or 55 degrees.

Nothing really unusual there, either.

But every morning we watch the sun rise over the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is a wonderful thing.  I can watch the cows on a nearby farm.  The deer that will be eating my garden in the summer wander across the yard now.


It's all good.  Okay, it's mostly good, except that the Chubby Hubby isn't sleeping because he's worried about all the financial stuff again.

Frondly, Fern