Of Procrastination and Deadlines by Konnie Enos

Last night, after our lights were all out when I was as comfortable as possible and about ready to fall asleep, my husband asked me what I had to do today. As I was almost asleep, my first thought was nothing.

It’s usually nothing. At least nothing much. I’m introverted enough that I much prefer to stay in the comfort of my own home. I also prefer to stay in the comfort of my nightgowns mostly because it means I don’t have to wear a torture device better known as a bra.

While I’m sitting around at home, I don’t do very much beyond some chores.

Every day we sweep, vacuum, and occasionally mop all the floors. At least once a day we run the dishwasher and later we put away the clean dishes. Twice every day we provide medicine to two dogs and fill puzzle toys with food/treats to engage two of our dogs while also feeding all four of them and keeping them separate while doing so.

There is also bringing in the mail, taking out the garbage, and making sure the bins get to and from the curb once a week. Not to mention regularly going to the store for groceries, and we wash the towels at least once a week. There is also regularly scrubbing bathrooms and grooming dogs, which sometimes requires bathing dogs.

My point is that we do plenty every day around here, but I don’t do any of those chores. I have lots of reasons for this, but they all boil down to the fact that I’m a short overweight senior citizen with arthritis from my waist down. Every one of these chores requires standing, walking, bending, stretching, or just plain reaching things I can’t reach because of my height. So, my family does all these chores. (My daughter does most of them except when she forces her brother to help her or my husband helps.)

My chores consist of cleaning the things I can reach (tables, countertops) and cooking or at least assisting in cooking. I generally do the peeling and chopping. I also manage the finances and pay the bills. Most of which I can do sitting down.

So, when Jerry asked me what I was doing today my first thoughts were that I didn’t have any appointments nor were there any pressing bills to deal with. Beyond my regular cleaning and cooking chores, I had nothing on my schedule for today. My first response was to tell him, nothing.

Then it occurred to me that I did have something to do today.

It was at that moment that I realized my son had gathered and taken out the garbage, including taking the bins to the curb. It was Tuesday night, meaning today was Wednesday. I had something that I needed to do before 8 a.m.

Something that involved sitting, but also time and thought. All of which I wasn’t up to at 11 p.m. when I was already lying down and half asleep. It was also something that I’d completely spaced all day. I’d given it no thought and had no idea how to proceed.

My only conclusion was that I had to get up early this morning and hope that I was able to get enough sleep so that I’d be refreshed and ready for the task.

After three middle-of-the-night trips to the bathroom, my alarm went off. I was not ready for the morning, let alone thought, but I still needed to get things done. I dragged myself out of bed and pulled out my laptop.

I also, very dutifully did not get on the internet or start browsing that rabbit hole known as Facebook. I opened up a blank Word document.

Then I did look at some news headlines because I still didn’t know what to write but I forced myself to get back to writing without delving into any stories and wasting time.

In case you haven’t figured it out, what I forgot about until late last night was that today was my day to post. I had to get up, come up with a topic, and write something that made sense at a time that is earlier than I normally get up.

I also don’t know why I felt it was such a huge deal that I forgot about it until that late. As a rule, I often forget about it until the last minute. Often not realizing it’s Wednesday, or my turn to post, until my alarm goes off Wednesday morning. It’s the only day I have an alarm set to wake me up. It’s also set so I’ll have time to write a post if it’s my turn, which I usually manage, barely in time.

Apparently, I’m good at procrastinating.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Appologies by Konnie Enos

 Bonnie is having technical issues and is unable to get her blog post up or send it to me so I can get it up. Her tech issues include that she was unable to text, or email me to warn me about the issues in time for me to get something up. I assume she didn't call me because she was dealing with this in the middle of the night. 

Hopefully, she'll have her technical issues fixed before our next post needs to go up.

Enjoy the holiday (July 4th) and check back next week.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

Of Stress and Major Catastrophes by Konnie Enos

When it rains, it pours. Lately, it seems like everything that can go wrong, will. In the last few years, we’ve had several furry family members, other family members, and even some friends die. We’ve had multiple appliances break down and need repairing or replacing. We’ve had car accidents resulting in needing a new car. We’ve also had expensive maintenance on our house.

And if that isn’t bad enough, at least Melinda and I are having health issues. Melinda’s fibromyalgia and my arthritis are making it difficult for us to keep up with our chores. The gentlemen in our household aren’t going to pick up the slack so some things just aren’t getting done as often as they should.

 It also doesn’t look like things are going to settle down anytime soon.

A few weeks ago, Jerry asked a mechanic how much it would cost for some regular maintenance on our car. I was hoping it would be just a lube, oil, and filter.

Nope.

The transmission and brakes are due for service. It’ll be over a thousand dollars. The only bright spot is that we have some leeway to save for it.

I’m to the point of thinking we have this under control when Jerry decides he has to take his dog to the vet. The issue? He thinks the dog has an ear infection. What does he come home with? Stuff to clean dogs’ ears. Something that we already have in the house and Melinda has told him that. Over a hundred dollars we didn’t have to have a vet tell him exactly what our resident vet tech already had. (Part of that was just the fee to see the vet. The other part was the bottle of medicine we did not need.)

But the most stressful day recently was last Thursday.

Sometime in the middle of the night, early last Thursday, Royce and I heard a loud crashing noise. I was too tired to investigate it (already asleep in bed). Royce wasn’t asleep and did look around but couldn’t figure out where it came from.

Then around ten or eleven in the morning, Jerry left the house to go somewhere and noticed water flowing out of our garage.

Clearly, there was a problem somewhere.

We stepped into the garage to find water everywhere and a gaping hole in the ceiling in the corner near our hot water heater. Water soaked most of the garage, including many of the boxes we had stored out there. The smell from all those musty boxes was so overpowering that all four of us had issues with our asthma.

With water still dripping from somewhere, the first step was to shut off our water supply. The second was to call the plumber. Jerry dealt with the first while I dealt with the second.

The first issue was without water we couldn’t flush. Well, okay we could flush once for each toilet. With everyone being adults, we were sensible enough to know that we didn’t have to flush every single time. (You know only flush if it is brown, or red.) I used both flushes within an hour.

The second issue was the heat. Being over a hundred degrees out meant family members, especially those with fur, or in my case, diabetes, would need plenty of water. Fortunately, I have a twenty-litter jug which I had recently filled. Also, the plumber came fairly quickly and was able to figure out where the water was coming from and get our water back on.

He also told us to call our homeowners insurance. But then so did my friend from church whom I’d contacted to see if we could get help with the clean-up, which was clearly going to be a major undertaking considering how full the garage was. And that was just considering everything stored there. I still do not know how much sheetrock or insulation or anything else will need replacing.

Anyway, within a few hours, we had two guys here. One was the plumber. One was a guy from a company that cleans up water damage like this. Not repairs, just clean it up so someone else can repair it. One of their jobs is to make sure any mold is dealt with.

This is a good thing. Melinda is highly allergic to mold and before the day was over she was having a major reaction bad enough to consider using her EpiPen. Thankfully, Benadryl worked.

And our insurance said they are sending out their investigator this morning to assess the damage. Though everyone, even the people we’ve talked to from our insurance, are assuming this is covered. Hopefully, because we certainly couldn’t repair all that damage on our own.

Smile. Make the day a brighter day.

 

The Passage of Time by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

Last week Konnie talked about her menagerie of pets, and mostly about how most of them are senior pets. Lakota being the exception. Around here, I have one pet. And Patches isn’t quite a senior, yet; he turned five this last weekend. I can’t believe it’s been nearly five years since I got him, but it is.

I also can’t believe it’s been over ten years since Tom died and I moved in here, but it has.

And my next post will come just two days before Konnie, and I turn sixty-two. Yeah, I can’t believe that either. Though it is pretty hard to think of Konnie and me as seniors when we don’t look our age. People still get shocked over how old I am, and who can blame them when I still have a mass of brown hair?

Yes, I do have some white hair, as I have mentioned before, but it is still just one streak down the back. A streak I can easily hide by putting my hair in a ponytail, which I usually do to keep my hair out of my eyes while I work.

I think I mentioned not too long ago when a coworker expressed shock that I was older than her.

Then there is the post I saw on Facebook where the person posting asked, “Have you ever gotten up in the morning, looked in the mirror, and thought that can’t be right?”

I didn’t respond on Facebook but my initial response to the question was, “Every frickin time!”

Though I have to admit it isn’t because of my age, which I’m sure is what the poster was talking about. No, I have been feeling the image in my mirror is incorrect for my entire life.

This is something I’ve mentioned before, because I can’t stand looking in mirrors for that very reason. I never see myself, I see Konnie.

I also have a whopping two mirrors in my house. A mirrored curio shelf in my spare room, which I avoid looking at (it was a gift), and the bathroom mirror that came with the place. I avoid looking in it too, as much as I can.

So back to the original question. Does my mirror image make me think, “That can’t be right?” Yes. Is it because of how old I appear in the mirror? Absolutely not!

Which is why I did not respond to that post.

A post I did respond to was about Harry Potter. The poster pointed out that Harry was born in 1980 and started at Hogwarts in 1991, and asked the readers to post about what they were doing, or what significant things happened in their real lives at key points in the Harry Potter universe.

Well, right off the bat, Konnie and I turned 18 in 1980. So, I wrote that down then I considered the year 1991. Well, the First Gulf War was going on then, that’s for sure. How do I know this? Simple, my second born came along in June of ’92, nine months after Tom came back from that little skirmish.

Tom participated in Operation Desert Storm and Brandon was part of Operation Desert Stork.

In another comment on that thread, a lady mentioned she was born in 1960, the same year as James and Lily. I responded that puts me two years younger than James and Lily, which means they were twenty when Harry was born.

At 20, Konnie and I had barely finished high school.

Another date in Harry Potter lore is May 2, 1998, the Battle of Hogwarts. That would mean during the battle I was preparing for the sixth birthday of my second born, which would have been in June, and the first birthday of my twins in July. My final baby came into the world on Halloween of ’99, can it really be that long ago?

But it has.

Like when I talked to a lady the other day, the subject came to the bad weather we’ve endured. I mentioned living through a couple of big ones that hit mostly Florida back in the day and she tried to think of a couple more recent hurricanes it might have been.

She was way off, mentioning some big ones that happened in this century. Yeah, try Andrew and Hugo. Those were the two that happened when I lived in Virginia from ’87 – ‘96. You know when Tom was in the Navy. Way back in the last century.

Man, that makes me feel old. Most of my life happened in the last century. But it wasn’t like the lady I was talking to was born in this century, she wasn’t. She’s in her late 40’s early 50’s.

Anyway, happy writing everyone!

Of Loss and Love by Konnie Enos

Sometime in 2016, Jerry decided to co-own an Akita with his friend Jimmy. In the beginning, Hmwun spent time living with Jimmy and here with us but then Jimmy’s housing situation made it impossible for Hmwun to stay with him. So, Jimmy would just visit him here. I believe I wrote about the time Mabel kicked up a huge fuss because Jimmy let himself into Hmwun’s dog run.

Anyway, because of his size (Akita’s are large dogs) and their natural tendency to be aggressive with other dogs, we kept Hmwun in his dog run. (Don’t worry. He had shelter and water. Jerry also spent a great deal of time out there with him.) We had talked about allowing Hmwun in the house, but he didn’t get along with Reeses or Mabel, and we weren’t sure how he and Xavier would get along. We were also positive Tiger wouldn’t like him in the house.

Well, last year after we lost Reeses, Tiger, and then Mabel, we decided to let him come in at least once in a while. We did, but he seemed to much prefer his dog run.

It was about this time that Jimmy’s housing situation calmed down and Jerry decided Hmwun should stay with him again. Jerry would regularly (mostly on Sunday afternoons) head over to Jimmy’s to visit them. Since Hmwun absolutely adored Jimmy, he was in heaven living with his favorite person. It should be noted that Jimmy, a man somewhere around 80 years old, wasn’t in the best of health, but he loved having Hmwun around to keep him company.

About a month ago, Jerry started bringing Hmwun over here for short visits. With the absence of our fur family members whom we knew he didn’t get along with, we tried letting him come inside. Our main concerns were Xavier and our newest dog, Lakota.

At first, both found Hmwun as someone new to play with but being a senior dog, Xavier quickly tired of attempting to play with Hmwun (a senior himself). Being still quite young, and full of youthful exuberance, Lakota was more energetic but eventfully gave up when Hmwun showed no interest in dealing with her.

Though we assured him all the dogs were fine, Jerry was concerned about possible fights, so Hmwun only visited for a few days before returning to Jimmy’s.

Then early last Thursday, I’m talking before the sun was even up, Jerry’s phone rang. He answered it on speakerphone, so we were both able to hear a woman bawling into the phone and saying something so garbled by her tears that it took us a few minutes to understand her.

Finally, she managed to make herself understood. “My dad’s dead.”

I’m lying in bed thinking this woman must have the wrong number because I couldn’t think of a soul who’d call us because their dad died. Jerry tried a couple of times to get her attention and ask who she was, and she finally explained she was Jimmy’s daughter. Someone Jerry had met before. She told him to go get Hmwun.

So, Jerry jumped into his clothes and hurried over to Jimmy’s. By that time, Jimmy’s body had been removed and Hmwun was there by himself in Jimmy’s backyard.

Now Hmwun was outside when Jimmy passed away but being so close to him, Hmwun still seems to understand that something happened to Jimmy. He is a bit mopey, so we all love on him and let him know he still has family.

Jerry is also a bit mopey. He misses visiting his friend. Sunday he expressed the desire to make his regular Sunday afternoon visit to Jimmy’s. It may take a while for both of them to come to terms with not seeing Jimmy.

Anyway, when Hmwun came to visit us Jerry began to notice some behavior changes in Hmwun. The main one being he was looking down at the ground a great deal while moving around and he’d stumbled a few times in situations that had never bothered him before. When we brought him back permanently, Jerry decided Hmwun was blind or at least going blind.

Melinda, our resident vet tech, checked him out and found indications that he was clearly losing his sight, a common issue with Akitas, especially male Akitas.

So, now we have a large dog somewhat terrified of change because he can’t see well and also missing the man he loved the most in this world.  Poor Hmwun.

He is, however, getting used to being here with us. He comes inside whenever he wants to but can still spend the night sleeping in his dog run, which he seems to prefer. I’m sure he understands that we all love him too.

Smile. Make the world a better place.