I convinced M that, since our dogs have the run of the back yard and they like to dig, we probably shouldn’t spend a lot of time, money or effort trying to make the back yard look like a show place. Why continue to beat our heads against that wall? Let’s spend any time and effort (we have no money) concentrating on the front yard. The one other people actually SEE.
Toward that end, we purchased 40 bales of pine straw and I found a couple of young people on the Next Door app willing to spread it in our flower beds and natural areas. From their ad, I thought I was hiring teenagers . . . maybe 15 or 16 years old. When I got home from work Friday, it turns out they are middle-schoolers . . . maybe 12 or 13. I admire their entrepreneurial spirit!
Saturday, I was looking for some financial papers and started cleaning out a cabinet. Then I cleaned out another one. Before I knew it, I was on a roll. I think M and younger son got scared. I was even up in the attic and pulled down toys from when the kids were little.
In the attic, there were also training manuals from when M was in the Air Force 30 YEARS AGO. Why were we saving them? I also found an entire box of trophies – any idea what I can do with them?
I found some little stuffed animals – think Beanie babies – and wanted to wash them before I either donated them or gave them to the grandkids. Of course, one of them had a TINY hole in it and all the little plastic beads spilled into my washing machine. I threw the toy away and vacuumed out my washer – and thought that was the end of it.
M came in the laundry room and saw the stuffed penguin in the trash. “But, it’s so cute!” was his comment. So, the little penguin was saved from the trash. Now it’s on my sewing machine and I’ll either throw it away when he’s not looking or find a way to repair it.
Sunday was the day – time for younger son to leave for his next duty station. He wanted to be on the road by 8 am, and he was underway before 9 (not too bad.) He said it would take about eight hours to get there, so I calculated that I would hear from him around 5 pm.
At 4 pm, he texted to tell me he was in Atlanta (half-way along his trip), having a late lunch with a friend. What?!?! I asked him if he was on a slow boat to China – shouldn’t he almost be there?
Turns out, he had stopped in Charlotte, to visit with friends. Now, stopped in Atlanta to visit with friends. It was his farewell tour. He was in no hurry.
He got there safely and gained an hour (Central Time Zone) so now he gets to search for his first apartment on his own.
M surprised me, after our son left. He got VERY emotional and suggested that one of us should have ridden with him on this trip and then flown back. I understand the sentiment – it’s hard to see your kid drive away for a long trip, no matter how old they are – but he’s 27 years old! I had to remind M, before he and I got married, he drove from Tampa, FL to New Jersey by himself and didn’t think a thing about it.
M has become very sentimental and emotional lately, but after reading some of the posts on the Early-onset Dementia Caregivers Facebook page, where women have written about men becoming mean, aggressive and violent – I’ll take sentimental any day. Some of those women have had to call the police and have their husbands committed to psychiatric facilities – all because of dementia! I pray that’s never an issue for us.
I donated all my kid’s old trophies to goodwill. Lord, I hope he doesn’t turn mean.
I was going to call some trophy shops to see if they recycle trophies. I hadn’t thought about Goodwill.
I hope he doesn’t turn mean, too. I’ll find a way to make pot brownies so fast . . .