12 lords a leaping . . . 16 screws a screwing and 1 steel plate . . .

 I know it has been ages. Life had been fairly boring and routine (a good thing!). Since last post I got my car back from the body shop, it was not unscathed by the storm after all ($5,000); mom went to her "vacation" at hospice and hated it; Mom turned 86; and, John slipped on Mom's wheelchair ramp leaving from Christmas, landed hard on his right knee, and did a number on his femur! It was raining and wow it was bad. The ER sent him home recommending an ortho consult after patching him up and giving him pain meds. He was in tremendous pain. Got into ortho on Thursday. Doc immediately contacted a trauma surgeon at Good Samaritan (Dr. Dougherty - awesome!) and the surgery happened on Friday. It was long and complicated but John is put back together now. Now on to recuperation and therapy! It has been a whirlwind for sure. Thankful for an excellent surgeon and I'll keep you posted!

Kay, looking forward to boring times again!

July

I know. It has been ages. Here is what is happening around the ranch . . . 

John had a birthday in July. For his treat he chose a lime cake . . .? Interesting. No german chocolate to be found, no carrots, something different. Well, it was delicious.  How bad can something with cream cheese frosting be? He came home for a nice meal (Naf Naf Grill, yum!) and cake, and a good time was had by all. 

I had a birthday in June and received this from my lovely coworkers. 

Poor Misty had a lump removed under her front leg. It cost $900. She just got her stitches out and the lump was benign, yay! That is her, taking it easy. Misty likes to get high. She is always looking up at the top of the fridge, or high shelves, anywhere she can get high and look down upon us lol. 

I got a new car in May. I really wasn't in the mood, but the plan was when mom's car bit the dust Joe would drive my 2010 red Rav and I'd get a new car. I'm 61 now, and gosh I thought it would be nice to have a newer car when I retire, all paid off, as opposed to a 20 year old car. Well it happened, mom's car bit the dust. Here is to 0% financing on Hyundai Tucsons. John has had  a Hyundai forever and had great luck with it, and 2 of my sort of OCD friends bought Tucsons, so I have to figure they did some research and stuff, so what the heck. I just make that assumption because I do not want to call them and hear about the decision.  The very fact they purchased the vehicle is enough for me.  Despite my protestations about buying a gray car I did, indeed, buy a gray car. Amazon Gray. I don't know what it means. Getting a colored car is harder than it should be. Everything is white, black, gray or silver.  Fine to look at but I do not want to own those colors. The only other color the salesman had at the Hyundai dealership was red, which I do not object to, but a little change sometimes is nice. We were walking to the red car and I saw this one. I said what is that weird color. He told me it was Amazon Gray, and that it was unusual in that in certain light it had a greenish tinge. I said, "Wow, kind of grayish green, like a zombie!" To his credit, he didn't seem too alarmed by that observation. I like the car, though it is a trifle fancy pants for me. I'm still getting used to all the buttons and features and it really wants me to keep my hands on the wheel. Last week I realized there is indeed a gas gauge, and I don't just have to use the "120 miles to empty" words. Whew. 

Yesterday, after Friday night's storms, I woke up to this:

Somehow the car appears unscathed by the heavy falling branches. How that fell between the car and the fence and didn't ding up my new wheels I do not know! That sucker was heavy! Joe and I were dragging it to the curb, ugh it was hard. Esp when you are lazy and way out of shape. This man and his son driving by saw us struggling. Hopefully he didn't hear me cursing. He stopped his truck and he and his son popped out and  picked that thing up and carried it to the curb. Bless them! Good people. 

John went off on another his adventure in July, so I checked up on his kitties while at the same time keeping an eye on my good friend's cat over by Coal City. I was a multi-county cat sitter there for a while. Anyway, it was nice for John to have an adventure not marred by some unfortunate event, like a drunk roomie or food poisoning, or altitude sickness, any of that stuff. Until it was time for him to come home, and it was stormy weather here and his flight got canceled and he had to stay overnight in NY on his own dime.  Could have been worse, but still. So close to a troublefree adventure. Maybe next time. LOL He did get to fly home first class from Washington though. John's cats pretty much ignored me the whole time I was at his house, but they are cats and I totally understand. I know they were happy to have me there tending to them, fluffing their blankets and important stuff like that. 

Mom is holding steady. Love the nurse and bath aide from hospice. I found out the other day about respite care.  It hasn't happened yet, because there is no space at the hospice in Joliet, but mom can spend 5 days, and get all her meals and stuff.  All we send with her is her clothes and meds. She could do the respite care at one of the nursing homes here in Morris, but the hospice in Joliet is very nice, according to everybody, so we are waiting until she can get in there.  Mom is looking forward to a change of scene too, and will be a nice break for Joe and me. Joe especially, since he gets up in the night with her since I need sleep for work. So mom's "vacation" as we are calling it hasn't happened yet, but hopefully will be soon. This all came about because I was asking the bath aide about extra care in case I take a vacation. My friends are renting a house in Florida in February, so we shall see. 

Joe has cataracts and needs to have those taken care of. He had a birthday in March. But I think that was on the last blog post? God forbid I should repeat my exciting news  . . . lol. 

The historical society came to take some old school records off our hands, and I found Uncle Jim's high school scores.  Kind of hard to read, but in case anybody needs more confirmation, the Mallaneys are not only good looking but intelligent as well. 

Best to all.

Kay ☘

February - March

Started this in February . . . but it was so boring . . . 

Here is the February:

I went out Saturday night! Walmart and St. Vincent DePaul were pretty much deserted. 

Aunt Becky, from mom's side, passed away. It was so nice to see my ageless cousins, even at such a sad event. Lots of childhood memories. In my mind Aunt Becky and Uncle Jack had "The Party House" when I was a kid. We loved going to their house in town, a block from the park, best friends just a stone's throw away, an interesting upstairs! Of course they loved coming to the farm! LOL  Nice memories. Both houses had a good picnic table under a tree and beer and were very kid friendly. 

Mom had a catheter put in. Nurse suggested it, mom was tired of being wet all the time. Wow, what a difference. Mom started sleeping better, she was much more comfortable, everything seemed so much easier. Until it went on the fritz. Nurse comes once a week right now, we'll get it ironed out. 

Cats are good. Much amusement. Much pickiness when it comes to food. Maybe John has the right idea. He gives his cats one flavor cat food, a can at a time, and they don't get another until the bowl is empty. I'm not that strict . . . it is like a buffet in there lol. I'll get it figured out. Happy kitties are very important. Just so they don't get big boned (fat) like Finnegan. 

Looking forward to long weekends the next two weekends. I love long weekends. 

Now back to real time in March:

Mom got the catheter taken out. It was leaking and she said it was uncomfortable. Oh well. At first she loved it. Other than that she is doing pretty well. Appetite is good. Joe said Mom is gaining weight. I don't know about that, but good. She was getting too bony. I'm not even sure I have bones. The hospice nurse and bath aide are lovely. Finding a cat on mom's bed more and more often, which tickles me.

She did have a bit of a bug for a few days, right around St. Pat's, so I missed my party. She had it coming out of both ends and she was pretty miserable. I had a DUI dream the week before the party, so maybe it was just as well. I mean a naked sobriety test on the main Street in Morris, what a nightmare. What would Freud say about that? I don't think I want to know. 

Not much else new. I had my first taste of Lou Malnati's pizza and Lou's salad. Good eats. That salad . . . wow. How did I get so old without eating Lou Malnati's I wonder . . . ? My coworkers were stunned by that fact. Also that I haven't seen Star Wars, or read Harry Potter. Stuns me that The Birds isn't their favorite movie, and they weren't allowed to watch the Twilight Zone or Dark Shadows as children. Or Creature Features! One is a couple years older than me, one is 9 years younger. And in the other room are a 24 year old and a 39 year old. The 24 year old is coming out of her shell. I pretty much made her talk to me, she was a trifle shy. The other day I had a slow time, so I was taking a quiz on Facebook. One of the questions was "Do you like change?" She asked me what question I was on, and I told her. She then inquired "Do you like change?" and I said "No! I do not!." Then she said . . . oh my gosh cracked me up "I don't either! Once I threw it away." Oh dear. How funny. Then, another day, I made a comment about someone being "harried and harassed" and she asked me what that meant. It did not occur to me until later that I could have told her anything I wanted and had a bit of fun. I'm slipping I guess. And when I asked her what the young people were going to be doing this weekend and she mentioned the bar, I was horrified by the price of beer these days, just like Bernie used to be on the non .50 beer days. It is nice to be amused at work lol. I used to be the oldest, but now I'm the junior senior. 

I was also John's guest at the Sunday Brunch over at Gaetano's Vault in Streator. It was outstanding. Breakfast food, dinner food, desserts, drinks. Wow. I had this St. Paddy's Punch, vodka, OJ and Blue Curacao . . . with sprinkles. Then I had some boozey coffee with my dessert. With whipped cream. I should have camping coffee every day. And bananas foster french toast. I didn't get a pic of the lunch type food. There was an omelet station too, but I can't eat everything. It was fun to see some of my favorite co-workers of John's too. We got to sit together. Good fun. That pistachio cake too, wow. 

Speaking of cake I'm about to go frost Joe's birthday cake, he is 62 today. Crazy. How did we get so old? We will have his favorite pizza tonight, we all love it, and Mom is looking forward to it.

My car acted up for a while, the back door wouldn't open. I was just dealing with it and then, one day, when I unlocked the car it sounded different somehow, and boom, the backdoor would open again. I had inquired at the garage about getting it fixed, but it was an ungodly amount. Recently I looked at the new car inventory in Ottawa and, while I thought I was discreet, somehow my car found out. Now the back door and the rear passenger door won't open. Ugh. We'll see how long this little snit lasts.  

And Happy New Year! I see I totally missed January, probably no news to report. And that is fine, around here no news is good news!

Kay ☘