mom in the hospital, the rental and the party...

When Dad is in the hospital, the only “inconvenience” is that you have to take time to go visit him regularly. When Mom is in the hospital, it’s a TOTALLY different story. Mom already had in place the aides to take care of the majority of Dad’s needs like washing, getting out of bed, breakfast, toilet, lunch and putting to bed. It was just the other things that needed to be taken care of like dinner and someone to spend the night. It’s not like he needs 24 hour supervision, but you do need to check in on him from time to time. Not to mention that it would be nice if you went to visit Mom in the hospital too.

**disclaimer** What I am about to say in the rest of this post sounds selfish and self centered. That being said...

Not to diminish anyone else’s busy life, but for me, this was not the best time for my mother to get sick. There was just too much going on this week. Some of the big things from this past week were my 5th wedding anniversary, our new renter was moving in and we were trying to get ready for our party.

Well, to make matters worse, issues arose to make the week even longer…and more expensive.

Mom went into the hospital on Tuesday. Prior to, she called me and my siblings in order to get everyone properly riled up. She makes unnecessary drama when all she really ever needs to do is just tell us what is needed and when it’s needed. We will take care of the rest…we always do. My sisters live out of state (one lives out of the country…but just so happened to be on this side of the ocean at this time dropping off her kids to their colleges in New England), and one of my brothers was going on vacation – it was Labor Day weekend and the last time that you can go on a four day vacation with the kids before they start school for the year. This left me and my brother Ray.

My brother Ray really stepped up on this one – he stayed at the house 3 out of the 4 nights – no problem. This was totally awesome for me, since I had so much on my plate. I only needed to make Dad dinner, put him to bed and spend the night one night.

So, to continue with MY busy life :)...
I had an appointment to get my hair cut on Tuesday evening – after a lot of stress and not knowing if Ray would be available – all went my way and I was able to keep my appointment.

Wednesday was my 5th wedding anniversary, and this was my day to spend the night at Dad’s. Jerome and I drove from work and stopped at Olive Garden, bought a couple of dinners to go and went to Dad’s and had dinner with him. We had a few things to take care of at the “rental” house and then I came back to put Dad to bed…and then went back to the rental to pick up Jerome. Spent the night that night and Jerome borrowed Mom’s car to go to work and I went to the “rental”. I had taken the day off so that I could be there when the Clinton Township inspector came, the Cort Furniture delivery guys came to pick up the rental “staging” furniture and when the guy came to do the tree removal estimate ($1200 to remove two dead Ash trees + stumps).

I was concerned about the inspector since we had done all the work ourselves but it turned out to be just fine. Some back story on that…in February I received a letter from Clinton Township stating that they had just passed a new ordinance (357), that all probable rental properties in Clinton Township needed to be inspected in order to get a license to rent. This is for the sake of bringing in some revenue to the township since there isn’t much building going on (just my opinion). I had sent them a letter at that time letting them know that I was not renting and that I hadn’t been renting for over a year.

Last week I sent in my $100 and asked them if they could come out to inspect on Thursday and they could – all set!

Anyway, all went as smoothly as it could. Then afterward I was going to go see my dad and then visit my mom. As I was driving near the entrance of their condo complex, I noticed a crane in the entry - so there was no way I could get in the complex to see my Dad. They are working on Cass Ave. in Clinton Township and just so happened to be working right at my parents as I was going by. So, I went to visit with my mom and then later went back to check up on my dad.

Got home and continued with the preparations for the party…oh, and the Road Rally that is happening in a couple of weeks. Jerome had purchased some boneless pork loins from Kroger (20 lbs.) and started preparing it for the party. When he opened the first package, the smell filled the house. It was really bad! He washed it and continued to prepare it and cook it.

It looked like Friday was going to be my day to spend the night again – so, in order to finish the prep-work for the party, I took the day off from work on Friday too. I worked all day getting the house together…but the thought of that pork was nagging at me. I googled “raw pork smell” and everything I read told me that the pork was bad; don’t eat it. So, I googled USDA hotline and gave them a call. The lady that answered my call told me that I should file a report. So, I called my husband and told him that I was going to return the pork and buy some fresh. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until I was headed home that he had purchased the pork when it was on sale and when I returned it, they gave me the sale price and then when I purchased the new pork, it was at the full price…well, Jerome had to take care of that later – and was able to get the sale price for the pork – YIPPEE!

So, Friday meant that he was cooking again…but we avoided a possible disaster! The pork he made was awesome!!! Very tasty and didn’t kill anyone!

Ray stayed with Dad on Friday night too, so that was great – I could continue working toward the party goal.

Later that evening we get a phone call from our renter saying that when she tried to put a load of bleach water through the washing machine, the water was coming up the pipe in the floor!!! OMG! EGADS! Not MORE water issues!!!!

She said she would wait until the next day and try again…she called back on Saturday and now she couldn’t flush the toilet, the water was coming up into the bathtub, etc. DOOM!

I called Don, my plumber (Don's Plumbing). He had just been out to the house on June 14 to snake the pipes because the same thing had happened after we had a little party at the house. After he was done snaking; from the roof to the ejector pump, EVERYTHING was working so much better – better than it had ever worked.

Well, Don went out to the house and I called my brother Ray to see if he would be willing to go over there and help Don out. He did! I remembered that back in June, Jerome helped Don a lot, so I figured he could use the help. Ray also picked up mom today from the hospital and brought folding chairs for the party!!! Sometimes it's good to have bros!

Don ran a snake and then a scope. The prognosis: there is a 4 foot piece of pipe between the house and the ejector pump that has roots growing into it and there is a hole in the top of the pipe. It will need to be dug up (with a bobcat) and replaced…$1800! He needs to call Ms. Dig and then afterward he can start working. We will also have to reimburse our renter the rent that she already paid for the week that she will be out of the house in order for this problem to be taken care of…and her kids start school TODAY!!! What a pain!

The party went awesomely! We had 77 people show up. The weather was perfect. The food was terrific. It was really great to see everyone, although it is hard to have so many and spend enough time with each. But I have a theory as to why we have this large party every year; we are too busy all year to be able to see everyone individually, so in order to keep up with everyone and make sure they know we’re thinking of them, we throw this party. It’s a celebration of friendships, new and old.

Seemed like everyone had a good time, especially the kids who had a water balloon fight that turned into a water bottle fight!!!

Anyway, clean up is done and in the meantime, we’ve been back to the rental house 2 times over the weekend to take care of the wet carpet in the closet of the purple room.

I swear…we should just sell it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Wow. What a mess. Not more water problems in the little house; well at least any money you put into it as a rental is tax deductible.

Yeah, I can't say that Mom created alot of drama with me, but it is stressful when she gets sick and I live so far away. And, I do know that she has difficulty asking for her needs to be met. Maybe it just takes her time to figure out what her needs are. Unfortunately, illness does not always happen in any kind of convenient way for anyone. But, I'm glad Ray could help. I'll be there soon. And I can hang out at your house so that the ac/gas guy can fix the whatever it is.

Glad you had a great party.

Say with all this blogging we'll never have to talk to each other again. I'll just check in on your blog!
baby sister said…
Yep, that's the point! No talking, only blogging!

See you on Thursday and BTW, Happy Birthday today!!!

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