Hemlock B Bootsalotta

Today's checklist:

Plumber came today to check out the sump pump that the contractor installed. His reaction was a very polite version of "what the actual fuck?" so that confirms my suspicion that the whole thing is extremely jury-rigged. I also showed him where it empties into the backyard and he agreed that it's undermining my neighbour's fence, so he's going to have to redo the entire thing. Now I wait for his quote. I think the city will chuck me a small amount of money for the work if I get a proper receipt for it.

Filing the Old Man's taxes is the last piece of paperwork I have to do before I can close his estate account. I went through the paperwork and discovered that I never received the forms for his pension. Today I called them and they had sent it to his old retirement residence. Which is annoying because I know they have my address, they sent me the notice of overpayment the month he died. And the residence would have sent anything addressed to him return to sender - which is also annoying, because the post office won't let me request a mail forwarding from that address. So if they're sending stuff back from a company that I don't already know about there is literally no way for me to find out.

Boxed up the housemate's things. Dug through more of the basement and found some of my painting supplies, although not the main box. Organized another small box to leave the house. Put in a service request to have somebody inspect my roof. Updated the house grant info so the energy auditor can file her assessment.

It's flipping back and forth between sunny and cold sleet and the pressure fluctuations are giving me a headache. I took some drugs and I'm about to head out to the gf's so hopefully some fresh air will sort my bucket out.

Welp, for better or for worse the energy audit got done today. Hopefully everything passes. The auditor wants some receipts, so next I have to see if I can pry them out of the contractor. (Who is apparently not talking to me now, or at least not responding to any of my texts. Think he knows I'm pissed?)

Only an alibi sentence last night. I was just tapped out.

Day 20 Tally:
china_shop ysilme

Day 19 Tally:
china_shop trobadora badly_knitted shadaras sylvanwitch nafs chanter1944 cornerofmadness luzula carenejeans ysilme the_siobhan

( previous days )

Let me know if I missed you and you can jump in any time.

My fucking contractor.

( rant below the cut )

--

Got about 200+ words into the next chapter

Day 14 Tally:


Day 13 Tally:
sylvanwitch trobadora badly_knitted nafs cornerofmadness yasaman luzula carenejeans the_siobhan

( previous days )

Let me know if I missed you and you can jump in any time.

Yesterday went well. Housemate packed up all their stuff in the main floor and took a huge chunk out of the stuff stored upstairs. Most of my contribution was negotiations around, "If I can take X, I'll let you have Y & Z". River's new poop stash was located and cleaned up. There are Even More piles of boxes everywhere, but now the boxes are sorted into my stuff in the kitchen, theirs in the front room.

Still to do: cold room under the porch, backyard shed, storage unit. All much smaller so that should be fast. I have every expectation I will be putting odds and ends into boxes for them the entire time I am cleaning and re-organizing.

***

About two weeks ago I started gently poking at my lawyer. Everything on track? Not that I'm expecting you all aren't entirely competent, but you see I have trust issues. We good? Yes? Yes?

So I cannot say I was shocked that I got up this morning to a message from my lawyers office about they haven't heard from the bank about my re-fi. Reached out to the bank and they said they're waiting on a title change. Lawyers says we can't do that, old mortgage isn't paid out yet. Me: Look, can you people TALK TO EACH OTHER, because I have no idea what's required or in what order, that's supposed to be your jobs. Figure it out and then tell me what you need from me.

We have six more days.

Then I had to go to my doctor to get my scrips renewed and she's like, your blood pressure is higher and this is cause for concern. Ha, ha, let me tell you a story doc. So she signed off on the meds and when she gave me the requisition for all my bloodwork said to get the tests done in a couple of months instead of right away. I expect I'll be fine by then. Today my blood is probably toxic to pets and small children.

When I got home the contractor was in my basement dealing with the flood. Did I mention my basement flooded? We've had thunderstorms last couple of nights with the heat and my basement flooded. So we talked and he apparently has been consulting with a guy who specializes in wells for rural properties and so we discussed what he's going to do next. It sounded good from a layman's perspective so have at, go crazy.

And then I wandered from room to room and looked at all the piles of boxes and all the stuff that still has to be sorted out and my brain went nope not today and I just wandered right back on out again.

So I guess I'll pick it back up tomorrow.

( to-do list cut to save your dashboard )

Still alive over here. I am trying to get caught up with reading all your posts, which mostly leads to me opening tabs to respond and then... not responding. Sorry about that.

***

My to-do list is starting to approach manageable. I spent two solid weeks digging through household accounts and putting numbers into a spreadsheet and I can now say I know why forensic accountants make so much money. But it resulted in having some solid numbers to put in an offer letter so that is crossed off my list. Meeting with lawyer was yesterday, meeting with mortgage agent is tomorrow, and Things Are Finally Moving.

Meanwhile since I am no longer looking at spreadsheets all day I've pivoted into opening up boxes and trying to reorganize things. I think there will have to be a trip to the storage unit soon because there is a lot of stuff I just can't find. On the plus side one of the things I was able to do was move a bunch of plants into the (very sunny) kitchen so I was finally able clear out the space in front of my office window and trim and re-pot all my overgrown plants. I can see out that window now. And I'll be able to easily move things out of the way for installing the door to the deck when the construction finally gets to that point.

ALSO, remember during the winter I was complaining about the shower drain that was backing up and making it rain in the living room below? I finally managed to carve away the grout that was holding the cover in place and popped it open. AND did it without breaking any of the surrounding tiles, so go me. It was... yeah. So a lot goin' on in there. Smelly and gross and definitely needed fixing. Now works perfectly. That feels like an accomplishment.

***

Old Man is currently in a transitional ward, which is where they put elderly patients when they need to be assessed to figure out if they are able to go home or if they need to move into long term care. It's kind of an awful place physically, loud and crowded and with over-bright lights. You can always tell if a building is private health care because it's carpeted and colour-coordinated and smells nice. Public healthcare has equipment stored in the hallways and the paint is peeling and the staff wear scrubs with worn threads trailing off the cuffs. But every single person I have dealt with there so far has been great, very caring and attentive. And it means he's not using up a hospital spot so they won't hustle him out of there before he's actually ready.

***

( new to-do list )

***

Contractor hasn't been around for over a month because his entire crew came down with covid. He texted to say he'd be back tomorrow.

So we are shortly entering month... 17? I think? Of my 4-month renovation project.

Ya gotta laugh, man.

End result: Still testing negative. THANK YOU for all the suggestions and advice, I will keep them in my pocket for next time.

***

You would think that having a week off work would give me time to finally get caught up on all the things. You would be entirely incorrect in that assumption.

This is probably because I hit a pretty solid wall on Friday night and just went, welp no more work for me. Take-away roti and beer and video games was how I spent the last two days of my week off work.

Maybe this weekend.

***

Housemate is still in the hospital. They are now testing negative for covid but the doctors are trying to chase down the reason for all the other health problems they've been dealing with. This is a good thing, their doctor has been trying to get a specialist referral for eight months so they are finally getting some traction on that.

This is what it takes now I guess. Same thing happened with the Old Man was referred to a specialist with a two-year waiting list. He finally got the tests he needed done when the issue landed him in Emergency.

***

As for me, I think I might have actually done something to my knee - either the gout actually damaged something or I also managed to twist it maybe when it was already hurting so much I didn't notice. I can bend it fine now, but it seems like it doesn't want to completely unbend all the way? Like if I straighten it fully it legit feels like there is a twig lodged under one side of my kneecap.

It doesn't hurt and I've been walking around on it for the past couple of days - yesterday to my gf's place and today to the hospital to drop off some clean laundry - both places about a half hour walk each way. But every once in a while one of the muscles to the side or back will spasm, and that does hurt.

Very weird.

***

Builder didn't come around all last week. I told him we were plague house so he scheduled his crew to work on other sites. In theory he's back tomorrow.

This is the sooong that neeeveer ends...

So I'm the one who's not contagious right? And I'm quarantining anyway, because virus in the house and the not-zero risk of being asymptomatic and still infectious.

So guess who's not here?

Housemate announced they had to send some mail out, so off they went. I did offer to do it for them. That was three-four hours ago, and they haven't returned yet.

Oh wait, maybe they went to the hospital. They did say they wanted to. If that's the case I probably won't see them until tomorrow.

---

Kitchen boxes are unpacked. Some stuff I just said fuck it and threw it back into a box because what am I going to do with two coffee makers or six corkscrews? I'll let the housemate go through it and see if they need to take any of it with them, and then maybe whoever moves into the basement can probably use some of it. Whatever is left will go to my sister's shelter. They take donations of household items for their clients when they manage to get them permanent housing.

For my next trick, watching youtube videos about how to change the bulbs on potlights until I find somebody who is showing my specific model. It could be that the person who installed it just screwed it too tight to loosen - we had one light where we finally just had to smash the cover to get into it. But I want to be a lot more confident that's the actual problem before I take a pair of pliers to it.

Said pot-light is in my toilet and it's the only light in there so it's peeing in the dark until I figure it out. The bulb did last over 10 years in the first place.

---

[ETA] They did in fact go to the hospital. Kinda surprised they were able to get admitted, but maybe the doctors want to keep them for observation for a while.

November 2023
1 – Extra Mile Day: When was the last time you went the extra mile for someone, or someone went the extra mile for you? Tell us about it.

That's one of those questions that's hard to answer because it's just part of normal life. I stayed late at work to help somebody out? I do as much stuff as I can for the Old Man? People will go out of their way to help me if I'm stuck on something. That's just normal life, isn't it?

2 – Stress Awareness Day: How stressful is your everyday life? How well do you deal with stress? Do you have any tried-and-true strategies for handling stress?

HAHAHAHA O my fucking God.

I CAN TELL YOU that right now I am drinking too much and sleeping too little. I'm still working out every day, and that keeps me mostly sane, but also that's... really not keeping up right now.

Money has become A Fucking Problem. I just need to keep it together for another six months. Tomorrow before I go for my weekly Old Man visit I have to swing by the bank FOR THE THIRD FUCKING TIME and ask them AGAIN for the cheques on the credit line that opened THREE FUCKING MONTHS AGO and have not been able to use because I don't have any way to get the money out. And then maybe Monday I'll try to get the phones sorted out so we're being billed separately.

Yeah. So. sTreSS. I am aware of it. Thanks.

I had an interesting conversation with my girlfriend this week about how I appear much more stressed in my DW entries than I do when she talks to me in person. That seems really weird to me, because I have been venting about this non-stop for months. Like really I'm not sure why she hasn't told me to shut up yet.

And it's been sticking in my mind because that appears to be a life-long thing for me, and I have no idea why. I tell people something Is A Problem and Holy Shit Does This Need To Be Fixed and Here It Comes: The Consequences and I use my words and explain what I mean in as much detail as I can and I ask them if they understand and they say yes. And then when the dust settles they say, "Oh I didn't know you meant it."

And I'm kinda like... Why not? What is it about my body language or my words that makes me sound like I don't mean it? I genuinely have no idea.

I just went to water my plants and um, what?



Anybody know anything about mushrooms?