mereilin

Parenting is hard. 

I hate my life
I hate my kids
I hate my house
I hate myself

Waiting for the Ativan to kick in

Today was my father-in-law's funeral. We were supposed to pick up my mother-in-law and drive her to the funeral home before the service. We had just turned off the highway into her neighborhood when the tachometer shot up to its max setting. The engine revved furiously and the van went... nowhere. Literally a thousand feet from my mother-in-law's door, the transmission completely broke.

She came out with her car and took Jon and the kids to the funeral. I sat with the van and waited for AAA to send a tow truck. The driver arrived within half an hour of my call, loaded the van onto his flatbed and drove me to the funeral home. I missed most of the service, but at least Jon and the kids were there. Thank goodness I have AAA Plus because we were about 70 miles from home. My mechanic happened to be at the garage this morning (usually he doesn't work Saturdays) and he said he would check to see if the transmission is still under warranty.

Because I already put a new transmission into this van once.

Knowing my luck with cars, I'm sure the warranty has expired. But. We were able to borrow Jon's mother's car to get home today, and she said we can use it tomorrow and bring it back to her on Monday. With Jon not working, we probably don't even really need two cars. Best of all, there was about 60 miles of highway that we could have broken down on, and didn't. So one way or another it will work out.

 

My father-in-law passed away last night. No one is shocked; he was very elderly and his health had been failing for some time. We are still sad, though.

My father-in-law is dying.

Of course, we're all dying. Most of us have no idea what our expiration date is, though, and of course we all hope it's so far in the future as to be practically irrelevant. When you get to be 90 with a temperamental heart, and you check into the hospital with a DNR order... well, then it's time to explain things to the kids.

Sadie, bless her, hopes she'll inherit some of his artwork.

He was supposed to go back to the nursing home today, but he's going to be spending an extra day in the hospital instead.

Pandora, why do you know my life? 

So we got some snow. 



I'd write more, but I should probably help my husband finish shoveling the driveway, first.

The fever I didn't have came during the night. I knew it was coming when I couldn't get warm enough in bed. I feel okay this morning, though, which is good because I accepted a work order yesterday that's due this afternoon. Dan made it to school almost on time; Sadie is home again with her cough and cheerful (not) disposition. 

Hubby is watching some Japanese movie on Netflix, which of course is exactly how I hoped he'd spend his unemployed period.

Again, NOT.

Edited to add: my desk is not at a hotel in Worcester, and the TV three feet away is not in Boston; thanks Google Maps. WTF?

We returned last night from our annual holiday drive to see the family. The weather was most uncooperative, allowing us two very specific windows of safe highway travel -- Friday and Monday. We had clear roads, little traffic, great visibility, and two of the quickest trips we've ever made -- eight and a half hours out and nine hours home. My brother and his wife made the trip from Philly with their two boys, and we finally got to meet the baby 9 months later. I can't remember why they didn't make the summer trip, but we hadn't seen them since last Christmas.

Mom and dad are doing well, with a whole new staff at their restaurant that seems to be working out reasonably well. Dad's knees are bothering him, but they seemed to be in pretty good health and spirits. 

Another snowstorm on Saturday -- the one day we thought we could all be together -- kept my sister and her family from making the two hour drive up from the city. My other sister from the city had come up Friday night with two of her three kids; her husband and middle daughter were supposed to make the trip up Saturday and couldn't. My closest sister only had to come 11 miles through the woods with her four-wheel drive, but only one of her three adult children was there. 

My husband spent all of Saturday in bed with flu symptoms he'd brought from home. My brother slogged through the day with flu symptoms he'd brought from Philly.

We didn't have a formal dinner, but exchanged gifts in the private upstairs dining room. My kids had spent the morning playing in the snow at the municipal park nearby, and Sadie spent the whole afternoon and evening playing with her favorite cousin.

Late Saturday afternoon my brother and his family packed up their new minivan and started home. It had been snowing all day and was still flurrying, but they were confident the highways would be clear. 

Saturday night Sadie came to me and said, "I'm hot and I'm cold and my head hurts and my throat hurts." Poor kid had a temp over 103; I gave her some tylenol and lots of water to drink and spent hours mopping her forehead with a cool washcloth before she finally fell asleep a lot closer to 101.

Around 4:45 a.m. I realized no one had heard from my brother that he'd got home safely, but 4:45 a.m. is no kind of time to make a phone call. After the sun came up I came downstairs to the restaurant to find my brother had left a voice mail sometime after 11:30 Saturday night that they were stopping at a hotel. Conditions had been worse than expected and the baby was coughing and crying, and they were still 100 miles from home six hours into what should have been a six-hour drive. They made it home late Sunday morning, but everyone was sick.

Sadie spent all of Sunday sick, and by Monday she didn't even feel like bacon for breakfast -- her favorite. She spent most of the car ride sleeping, and didn't eat anything at all until we were about 2 hours from home. By then she sounded and felt almost normal, but this morning she was running a fever again.

Her dad is beginning to feel better, and I am beginning to feel sick. I can't figure out if I have muscle aches from flu, or from shoveling and driving 17 and a half hours in four days, but since I don't have a fever at the moment I'm hoping I might still dodge that bullet. Dan meanwhile was completely unaffected. I'm guessing it's because his annual checkup was in October when they were just starting to do the flu shots, and he got one. 

Still nothing from unemployment but apparently hubby has a job interview tomorrow. It's not clear whether the job is full time or part time, but I guess he'll find out. 

So that's what's new. We're all still here. Dan's going back to school tomorrow; Sadie gets another day to recover. I'll probably bring the kids back to visit in April when the weather is better.

Feeling thankful for what we have when other people have lost so much more. 

Tuesday: It hasn't been 7 days yet. Call back tomorrow.
Wednesday: Your social security number ends in 8. You have to call on Thursday or Friday.
Thursday: Due to high volume, all agents are busy.
Friday: Due to high volume, all agents are busy.
Monday: Your social security number ends in 8. Call back Thursday or Friday.
*drives three towns to the nearest office*
This office is only physically staffed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesday will be 2 weeks since his last day. Because his boss claims to have fired him with cause (although it's the lamest "cause" ever) his claim is likely to be further delayed.

No nibbles on any of the applications yet.