First off, I’m absolutely exhausted. It has been a really long week. Too many very early days. So I’m tired and cranky. I’m sure I will be fine tomorrow (especially if I can sleep in a bit). But for now, it is really best to just let me be alone.
Morning started at 5 am when my alarm went off, just four and a half hours after turning off my light last night. Today was the local health fair. I had to get there early to set up our booth. Then stay and work it too. Then back to the office to unload stuff. Then home. Got home a little after noon. Of course, no electricity. This didn’t surprise me since it was a planned outage…but it did annoy me. No problem, good time to visit my uncle. He told me they were moving into the town home affiliated with the retirement center.
Back home. Still no power. Amazing how many times I looked over at the clock on the stove, only to be dismayed I couldn’t see the time. Okay, good time to visit my dad. So I spent some time with him explaining why we needed to get him on Medicaid soon so we could access home health and be ready if/when he needed to move. He was complaining about Erv (his caregiver). Now, this is the same guy my dad said should be a part of family meetings because he thought of him as family. But dad is so frustrated. Erv is off the charts OCD I think. He complains if something gets moved in the house. Everything has to be perfect. And it is my sister and I that Erv complains about! Plus my dad can’t have a private phone conversation because Erv stands right there and listens to every word. I don’t see bringing home health in will make that better. It will only get worse. I doubt my dad will kick him out of the house ever. So, I think we have a difficult situation. I can’t say anything and dad won’t say anything. Yet my dad feels like he has no privacy. My dad is an introvert so this is really hard. We will deal with it. Right now I just need him to work with his elder care attorney to get on Medicaid.
Anyway, time to head home again. Yay! We had electricity!!!! We take that so much for granted. We flip a switch and expect lights. We know our food will be cold. I know that my well will work so I can use the water. I expect I can charge my power hungry tech devices. And the heat. It only got down to 63 degrees in the house, but we expect it to be comfortable (and that wasn’t comfortable for me!).
Today I’m especially thankful for electricity. Okay, now I’m off to charge my phone and iPad, turn on the light and read.
Year 'Round Thanksgiving Project 
Comments on: "Thanksgiving Project – Let There Be Light!" (8)
Electricity! woot woot! I hope things get more calm for you! 🙂
Thanks. Me too.
Yay…Power 🙂 I have had to deal with a few Ervs in my day and I don’t envy you.
We really do take power for granted. Especially when you’re hungry and know that every time you open the fridge is one more step toward it warming up. So, you try to plan what you want and get it quick. I’m having flashbacks to last year. Good to hear you didn’t have to go without power for too long and that you weren’t around for a lot. Hope you get to relax tomorrow.
Glad your all charged up! Toilet water!!
Sleep well!
Ellespeth
You have become quite the expert in elder affairs and care. Something we all have to deal with at some point. I am trying to get my in-laws meals delivered. Do you know anything about meals on wheels? I hope the rest of your weekend improved.
As a matter of fact I do know about meals on wheels! We discontinued it pretty quickly here. I’m sure it is different in every area but here we were not impressed. Some days they didn’t have the right number of meals. Some days they were still frozen. And they really weren’t healthy meals. I hope you have better luck. Do you live in an area that has 211? They should be able to give you the referrals for all the programs that can help. Good luck.
Isn’t it fun being a parent to older people?!?!?!?