Just a quick note to thank you guys for your comments... besides the people I know by name, there's my loyal follower "Anonymous," and I don't know if there's one Anonymous or multiple Anonymi (I know that... oh, wow, I was going to say "I just made that up and I know it's not a word but I like it," but lo and behold, it's already on Urban Dictionary!), but I appreciate everyone's comments and support.
Going back to work has been okay... sort of! Monday I went back, wore myself out, came home, had some, um, intestinal drawbacks, and woke up Tuesday with bleeding that I was pretty sure was normal, but I wasn't 100% sure so I stayed home and called the surgeon's office and got the nurse's confirmation that it was. So today it was back to work again, and my abdomen is still not entirely thrilled with sitting upright so long... but reclining hurts my back. Catch 22ish.
Waiting for a furnace repairman to come listen to the odd noises the furnace has been making since he repaired it in April. Getting close to wit's end from the apparent infestation of mice in the house - maybe it's my imagination, but it feels like there are more this year than before. Jerry and I tried to do the humane catch-and-release thing for years, but they always came back (I suppose if Jerry'd driven across the river and left them there, that might have done it), so then we resorted to a rat zapper, which worked, even though I hated doing it. Now I'm using rat poison, and I hate that too, but I just don't know what else to do other than call an exterminator, which I assume would do the same thing. Occasionally I find a poor little mouse corpse in the basement, but I think mostly they are expiring in the walls, and sometimes that means a really bad smell for a while. Latest is somewhere in/near the bedroom, but I can't find it, and I certainly can't move the bed to look in the closet/crawlspace under the stairs - difficult at the best of times, impossible (and prohibited for me) right now post-surgery. So I've been sleeping on the futon upstairs in Jerry's Buddha bedroom, which is what we called the bedroom he adorned with thangkas and Buddha statues and a framed parchment with Tibetan writing on it, even a long Tibetan trumpet. Emotionally difficult, being in the room that was his retreat, but I suppose it should be no different than sleeping in our bedroom without him.
And of course, my first night up there, I got up to go to the bathroom at 3:30 a.m. and the flush on the toilet broke: the arm was so corroded that it disintegrated into about three pieces. I need to go to a home store and get a replacement and cross every digit that installing it works (which seems unlikely - it's like a toilet repair just cannot possibly work on the first go, ever), but I haven't got the energy yet. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow night: I have a very late therapy appointment, so I'll have to leave the house in the evening anyway.
Anyone wanna buy a house? It's beautiful, really. It's just... it's a house, and it's too much for me. I need to be in an apartment, preferably with an on-call maintenance person.
ETA: $99 later, a strip of paper was removed from a wheel or a fan or something that spins, and the furnace won't make the weird noises anymore. I hope.
Another ETA: I'm getting all but the good parts of Truly, Madly, Deeply in my life: bereaved translator with rodent infestation in her house that keeps needing all sorts of repairs done. All I'm missing is Jerry's ghost coming back to comfort me and then push me onwards in life... and a Mark Damien de Grunwald.
Oh man, I so hear you! Everything breaking down around you and all you can really wish for is a visitation by your dead husband, even for a moment, coming back to say, "It will be okay!" Cheers!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful your recovery is progressing. I hope you continue to do well.
ReplyDeleteHow well your frustration with your house is understood! Playing "catch-up" after house maintenance took a back seat to illness isn't easy. Another reminder someone we loved isn't here. And there were laughs in the past in fixing up the place....I miss those times.
Choosing what to address and also what can be afforded has been made easier by those who do the repairs--I am grateful for their help and guidance. So far so good....
But mice? Dealing with mice is a whole different world! Years ago cats did the work for us. Now without a spouse and cats I did what you did with humane catching, taking the mice far away for release--when I could catch them. But when weather turned cold and brutal last year it seemed more mice gravitated here. This happened as an exterminating contract used for other pests was ending. So the exterminator set multiple old fashioned traps (not glue or poison) and it worked. So if I think there is a mouse (and is there ever just one mouse?) I now place multiple traps out and keep a diagram outlining location of traps, for checking, disposal, etc. This has worked well. Also helpful has been plugging sources of possible entry.
Who knows? Maybe later there will be another cat in my future but right now I don't want the responsibility.
Life also would be easier if the deer didn't the plants!
Virtual hugs come your way.