Been Busy

“So how old are you, now?”

I have missed two weeks of posting and I have a darn good excuse: been busy.

As noted previously, it’s been a difficult year so far for my wife and me. A good friend died in late January; Ellie’s sister-in-law died suddenly in early January.

Ellie’s brother, Jim, the new widower, is battling severe dementia. After realizing his move to California to be near his sister and her family was bad for him, they returned him here. He is living in a local memory-care facility, and will never go home again. His two daughters, who live here, and that sister in California are tasked with liquidating the estate, as though, but only as though, he had died.

To make a long story short, Jim’s California sister and her husband, the same couple that stayed with us for Jim’s wife’s funeral in January, came to help ready the house for sale and perform some administrative work. We offered to both put them up and loan them one of our cars during their stay. That stay turned into two weeks and it just ended.

Although we put them up, in no way did we have to put up with them. They are fun, easy to have around, independent, and make no demands and virtually no requests as guests. Nonetheless, their time here coincides with the time that I have failed to post, and it is not a coincidence that it coincides. I have been busy supporting the activity.

We took Terry and Betty to see Jim. We celebrated Father’s Day together. Contrary to expectations, they found the house was not close to ready for the estate sale, to be run by the family, scheduled for three days hence. They asked us to make the thirty-mile trip to help evaluate the situation. We agreed that making the house ready in time would need either a miracle or professional help. Fortunately, on this very short notice, the family found a professional who did get it ready and conducted the sale as scheduled. Ellie and I made the trip to the more frequently than anticipated. We rented a truck and hauled home a high-end recumbent exercise bike that inadvertently was left out of the sale. We discussed where the bike would go, and spent time getting the room ready for it. We spent some leisure time with Betty and Terry; we spent time with Jim’s daughters, including a meal with one of them and her family in a belated birthday celebration ( “So how old are you, now?” ); we had a mini-family reunion at our house, eating pizza, drinking beer, and playing dice ( a new game for us and it was great fun ). We generally stayed up late with Betty and Terry, philosophizing to unwind and digest the events of the day/week/period.

Also, early in their stay, Ellie took a tumble on our back deck, necessitating a trip to Urgent Care. Her left arm ( her predominant side ) wound up in a sling. Fortunately, she didn’t break anything but she was unable to use her left arm for much and sleeping was uneven in the extreme.

By the time Betty and Terry left for California, all of us were exhausted, needing time to regroup and re energize. I am nearly both, and here’s a post.

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