August Word of the Month

 I decided to pick a word of the month for August.  My word is overwhelmed! 

Where did the summer go? For two oldies who really don't go anywhere or do anything, Summer 2021 went by like a flash.  My daughter and daughter in law who teach elementary school are both back in the classroom so we have a house full of grandchildren everyday. This Friday we will have all seven of the youngest. My three oldest out-of-town grandchildren go back to school on Monday.  My grand niece returned to fourth grade in Mississippi two weeks ago and almost half of her school is in quarantine. My niece who is an registered nurse/case worker with an office job has been mandated to work in an infusion clinic with severe covid patients. She is terrified she might bring the disease home to her daughter. 

My neighbors behind me, who refused to get vaccines, both came down with severe covid. He is a correction officer and there was a big outbreak among employees at the county jail. They are both in their 60's and she is not in good health. They were sent to our hospital for infusion therapy about 10 days ago and they are still very weak and have horrible coughs (or so she said in a message, I am not going over there).  Our small rural county went from 0-3 new cases daily to 100 cases in the last seven days. 

We took our three grandsons home the other day and the Netflix town is completely restored back to ordinary.  The local paper said the businesses had the option of keeping the paint, etc. but I think that was untrue. Otherwise you would think there would be at least one colorful building, nifty awning, amazing mural or something.  Very disappointing. 

A longtime friend had an issue with a water heater in her apartment and got a letter from her landlord. To make a long story shorter, she is a hoarder.  I knew her house was messy, but I never dreamed of her living conditions.  I did volunteer to go over one day when we were child-free to assist in cleaning her bedroom.  I cannot even speak to what was behind that door. I worked for a total of eight hours and filled 40 garbage bags.  I am not even half done with that room. I did contact another mutual friend who went over one morning, but I cannot go back until after we get another 5 kids in school. Mr. Merry can only handle so many children at one time.  This something that is preying on me and is very upsetting to me.  It was very hard mentally and even physically for me to do the first part of the clean up and I am praying for strength with this. 

I will say I am a pretty "messy" person myself.  There is a difference between my piles and total trash and filth. I wore a mask, long pants, socks and shoes and wore gloves. I am plotting how to attack it further. It is just a sad, sad situation. 

I have not been to church since March 2020. I see what the people from my church post on Facebook and have not felt safe attending anything at church. Someone called me and said there is a small group of women who are sitting in the coat room, distanced with masks, watching the service on a small screen. So I might try to join them next Sunday.  Or not. 

When I was cleaning at my friends, we left to pick up salads (my treat). The windows in my 12 year old car (which the dealer later told me was in remarkable condition) quit working and I had to go inside the fast food restaurant in my cleaning clothes. I was so angry at that stinking car that I went on a mission to buy the new car I had been waiting for since before the pandemic.  I am the proud owner of a 2022 small suv that looks like every  other car in a parking lot. And now, two weeks later, my husband's 17 year old truck decided to crumble on his weekly trek to the compost pile. The costs to repair it were about three times the value and there was some underneath damage that was worse than we thought so we sold it to a scrap yard and tomorrow sign the papers on a new truck for him.

In 1988 my husband and I were both working two full-time jobs. We had five young children at home. And both of our used cars broke down the same month. My husband would walk about a mile to the highway and a co-worker would pick him up for work and then drop him off there on the way home. My mother would give me a ride to work at the library and then I would either walk the 2 miles home or find a ride with a co-worker. We eventually were able to fix his car and buy a new vehicle for me.  I told Mr. Merry that we are very blessed that we are able to purchase these cars. I am hoping to pay my car off in two years (which is when we were going to replace the truck, darn it) and will just make regular payments on the truck until then. But I am not going to lie, if the truck had gone first, I would have held on to my  car with nonfunctioning windows. And if I knew I was spending all this money, I would have put in a pool instead LOL.  So I really am grateful to be in the situation that we are in, but I hate being in debt. 

I have been working on a huge Shutterfly photobook project. Shutterfly has completely revamped their photo book procedure and it took me 3 days to complete three pages, not counting the morning I spend on line with customer service. If anyone has found a good alternative for photobooks, please let me know. 

We are enjoying a rare evening all by ourselves. The next two weeks are crazy busy with grandkids and meetings.  I am still fighting City Hall with my neighbors.  The newspaper keeps taking pictures of the audience and keeps capturing me in the center of the shot.  I did go and have about 12 inches of hair chopped off so maybe they won't recognize me this Tuesday. And since I am back to mask wearing, maybe no one will recognize me with the mask either.  

So. Overwhelmed.