Sunday ...

So I finally made it to my parents house after a few days of either mom or I cancelling for whatever reason. Did a few chores for Mom (yes, I clipped her toenails, yuck) and helped Dad figure out an problem he had been having with his email account.

Mom wanted me to fix a shelf in her display cabinet, but had bought the wrong size shelf clips so that was put off until she can get the right size clips. She decided that we'd sort through some boxes in the storage room in the basement instead.

Mom's also on a big purge kick right now. They have a finished walk-out basement that contains all the spare furniture they really haven't used since they moved into the condo. Mom's been talking to an antiques dealer and he's tickled at the chance to get some of the antiques. Mom figures since she is pretty sure Brother Deere will sell everything after they pass she's going to sell most of it now and enjoy the profits! I can't blame her, I would too!!

The boxes she chose today were the family records boxes. You know those boxes, ancient receipts from the Depression era, birth announcements, newspaper clippings, graduation programs, death certificates ... the entire paper trail from your ancestors starting the day they first arrived at Ellis Island (or in my families case, Philadelphia).

Mom stumbled on a card my deceased brother had written to our grandmother almost a year to the day before she passed away. That got me started with the tears ... the envelope containing the clippings from his first hair cut did both Mom and me in.

After we had a good cry over my brother, Mom gave me some of his things to sell online. Some rock and roll buttons from the 80s, some college hockey felt pennants, some still in the box Hallmark ornaments from the 70s, and an autographed baseball, obviously a Detroit Tigers baseball. It took some research once I got home to determine it's from 1984. It's a machine autographed ball, so not as valuable as a hand signed ball would be, but I did promise her I'd sell it and not keep it for myself. She knows how sentimental I can be, especially when it comes to this particular brother. Good thing I really can't stand baseball, or it'd be a hard promise for me to keep.

The rock and roll buttons I gave to DIL ... she collects buttons and it just so happens she loves a few of the bands on the buttons ... J. Geils Band, Aerosmith, Rolling Stones and ... and ... geesh ... ummm ... oh yeah ... Led Zeppelin and Van Halen. She's already put them on her black vest with her other "antique" rock and roll buttons.

Wish I could say the same about the hockey pennants. I'm a hockey lover from way back, and a few of these pennants actually have a lot of sentimental value to me. I may keep one or two, but the other dozen or so I'll have to keep reminding myself that you'd not find felt hockey pennants in the pages of Better Homes And Gardens - unless it's in a boy's sports themed room, and since I'm not gonna decorate for little boys any more I don't need to keep them. Oy, I just had a thought ... I DO have two (and a half) grandsons who will have their own rooms to decorate. I wonder if they'd appreciate them, or destroy them ...

Getting ready to leave, Mom asked if I could unload the groceries from her van. Sure ... no problem. I wish she'd warned me about the full garbage bag of empty pop cans that were in there! I knocked them over and (no kidding) about fifty cans ended up all over the place. Mom laughed and told me she wasn't going to help me clean up my mess! After I got the groceries unloaded, and the cans cleaned up I was told that I could take the cans back to the store and keep the money from them ... they'd been in her van two weeks and she kept forgetting to take them in for refunding! In Michigan cans and bottles have a ten cent deposit ... I "earned" over $10 by taking them back to the store.

Not bad for a half day's work. Some small things to sell online (more to come as the storage area cleaning progresses), some laughs with Mom and Dad ... and even some tears ...

Fourth of July

Yesterday was the big annual Lake Orion (pronounced OR-ee-un) fireworks. No street fair as in past years, but we had fun all the same.

The evening started with the Chief's picnic. Lots of good food, great conversation with cops and their family and plenty of activities for the kiddies.

Single Son had to work the event. Married Son and Grandson and I got to hang out for the day. DIL met up with us later.

I had to laugh at Grandson. The little flirt. He made friends with a little girl about his age. They were pretty much inseparable - well that is until her Daddy (cop) left with her. Poor Grandson. Nothing left for him to do except flirt with the older girls (ages eight to about thirteen). Oy, poor Married Son is gonna have his hands full with this one once school starts in September. And .... mean ol' grandma here is thinking "better him than me" ... or "paybacks are a bitch". Take your pick.

And of course, her daddy took her away before I could get a picture of them together. Oh, I have plenty of individual pictures of them. Grandson asked me if he could borrow my camera. He then wandered off to the other side of the Chiefs huge yard and between him and his little sweetie, the both snapped off a lot of pics of each other.

Finally it was off to the park for fireworks. I hear from different sources that it's the second biggest fireworks in Michigan outside of the Detroit/Windsor Freedom Festival fireworks. I believe it, too!! And they were great!! I was able to film the finale, with the fireworks reflecting off the lake, it's just beautiful. Not to toot my own horn, lol, but searching youtube for others who had filmed the fireworks, I have to say mine are about the best I've seen. Something about the fireworks being reflected off the water. Ya know?

Great show. And the traffic was surprisingly manageable afterwards. In years past three hours drive time wasn't unusual (normally it only takes us half an hour to make the same drive). This year, with Married Son driving we were home in about 45 minutes.

The Fourth is also my dad's 79th birthday. When I called to wish Dad a happy birthday and find out the day's plans, Mom had answered the phone. She fills me in that she's not talking to Dad today. I'm not sure what he said to tick her off, but I bet it was a doozey of a cut-down. He's a little too good at those these days. My reaction is to counter his comments, but Mom's not as gutsy as I am. She needs to learn how, or lose her sanity for sure. Anyway ... she's pissed off and says that she's cancelled his birthday plans. Good grief. I'm sure I'll get a call tomorrow to meet them at their favorite restaurant for a birthday dinner.

She gives the phone to Dad. I wish him a happy birthday and we talk about stuff in general. He never once indicated he's in the dog house.

Old farts. God bless 'em both. But at the same time it makes me glad that I'm single. I don't think I could handle what Mom does on a daily basis.

In other news, I just tonight found out I'm going to be a gramma yet again. Care to fathom a guess as to who is pregnant? If you guessed Alien you would be right. And after only having a baby seven months ago. Her story is that the birth control pill failed her. Don't know ... could be. Could be she quit taking it. Seems the Idiot has her convinced they want a large family. The number eight keeps coming up in conversation. Eight kids? Good grief. Be real. This day and age ... unless you're Kate Gosselin or Octomom ... or some other publicity hungry momma, you DO NOT NEED to bring eight kids into this world. Especially when the sperm donor can't hold a job because of his criminal past.

So ... back to the 4th. Here's the link for my Lake Orion Fireworks Finale video. It's only seven minutes in length. The finale starts at about the minute and a half marker. It's the highlighted video, can't miss it.

http://www.youtube.com/user/LCM1219

Friday ...

I've determined my family is odd. Oh wait ... that was thirty years ago I figured that one out!!

Mom calls me this afternoon. Chatty ... doesn't tell me until five or so minutes into the conversation that Daddy is in the hospital. Um ... is it me, or should that have been the first thing we talked about? The way she tells it ... last night they're watching tv and Dad makes a weird grunting/grasping sound. Mom asks what's wrong ... Daddy says he's having chest pains. Mom says she's going to take him to the local clinic, Daddy says no. "Why not?" Mom asks him. "Because my underwear is dirty" he says. Oy vey!! "So change them and let's go. I don't want your headstone to say 'Here he lays because he refused to go to the hospital saying that his skivvies were dirty".

It really is funny when you think about it. The skivvies, that is ... not the chest pains.

They got to the clinic at about 10 PM. The clinic treated him for the pains and then transported him to the hospital so they could do some stress tests on him. The hospital decided to keep him for a day or two for observation, given his history with strokes and heart attacks. Mom says he's doing well, and does not want family there to visit him. He hates when we all make a fuss over him like that. I won't go today, but if they admit him tomorrow I will head on up to visit him. Or is that harass him? He's hell on those poor nurses (flirts with them). Someone needs to keep him in line. LOL.

Part of the phone conversation with Mom had to do with my soon opening my store, Elsie's Attic. I'm still rather stunned that Mom's being as supportive as she is. I would have expected "it's too risky" or "with this economy do you think it's a good idea to do this right now" but, no, she's been very supportive of the business. Daddy, well he's always been supportive of my plans and dreams. I'm about six weeks away from opening the store ... and Mom couldn't be more excited for me. Only complaint Mom has is because it's an internet business she'll have to learn to use the computer if she wants to shop at Elsie's Attic. I haven't yet told her I will have old-fashioned paper catalogs, too ... those are only reserved for the non-computer people I know (and there are quite a few of them)!

The rest of the phone conversation had to do with good ol' family gossip. The stuff I'll spare you! Really. It's rather dull if you don't know who's who. LOL!

The *kids* are bringing in more boxes today. I've been ordered to stay out of their way until further notice.

Guess I should get back to homework, eh? Since I'm grounded to my room anyway ... LOL

Survived Saturday ... Barely ...

I debated even posting this until I realized I can send it to select friends. Just one of those posts I don't want everyone to read, lol.

So, I get to my folks house an hour late yesterday. Wasn't entirely my fault. Ok, yes it was. I was proscratinating by having Married Son check out something on my car that was questionable to me. Anyway ... so I get there late. Mom's in watching QVC and no "hi" out of her, she starts whining that the QVC channel had been out for a few days. Poor thing, how did she survive without her QVC? Dad was napping when I got there, so I didn't go say hi to him immediately.

Mom and I are enjoying the a/c in their den, just chatting. Catching up - gossip sort of thing. Out of the blue her lower lip starts to quiver and she says "I pretend you're in California and I only hear from you at Christmas". WTF? Where the hell did that come from and WHY? Needless to say I start to tear up. Took me a minute or two of sitting there to compose myself enough to say to her "show me where you want the flowers so I can get them planted and get out of your hair". I grabbed my bag and went to my dad's bathroom to change into my work clothes. Daddy was awake, saw my tears and asked what happened. So I told him. I grabbed a smoke from my purse and headed outside afterwards. Mom did not follow immediately. I can pretty much assume Daddy confronted her and told her to be nice. When she did come outside to show me where the flowers were to be planted and how far apart she wanted them, she was real testy, almost violent as she bent over and put the shovel in the dirt a few times, showing me the spacing. Stabbed at the dirt is what she did. We only spoke if we needed to. "Don't use the skimpy ones, just the biggest ones." "I bought too many maybe we should re-space them?" ... that sort of thing.

After I was about half way done, she started to talk to me like nothing was wrong. Here I am still very hurt and my face still tear stained and now she's playing all nice? She never brought up her comment or apologized for it, either. I can usually forgive and forget, but that comment cut to the bone.

Planting done, I went inside to get out of the dirty work clothes and say goodbye to Daddy. He begged me to stay, to go out to dinner with them after all, it is a tradition, he said. Said what Mom said was inexcusable, but he thought I was the bigger person and could get over it.

Out to dinner we went. Applebee's. Had ... hell, I don't remember what I ate now. I was still hurt. Tilapia something or other. All through dinner Mom was more typical than I've seen her in a while. Funny, really enjoyed herself. Even teased with the waitress that I'm cheap labor - just bribe me with dinner and she can get me to do almost any chore.

Dinner over, I'm driving their van back to the condo. Mom says to go up the road a few extra miles, she wanted to show me something. We get to that intersection - btw, it's out in the middle of nowhere, there's not even a house there - she says "well we drove this far, why don't we stop in to visit your brother?" 20 Miles later there we are. She wanted to show me something upstairs in Brother Deere's bedroom  ... and once cornered there, she starts in again with the emotional burden shit. How the only way she'll be free of the burden is to turn her back on me. Told her to do what she needed to do. I'll do what I need to do, too. It was about that time I noticed a picture of my deceased brother on Brother Deere's dresser, and Mom's words of long ago "It should have been you, not him" came back to haunt me.

After our visit, we headed back to their condo. It was getting late, and I could see lightning off in the distance. The perfect excuse to head home!! Thank the Goddesses! What I don't understand is, after bitching about what a burden she thinks I am, she gives me a huge box and three full bags of groceries to take home. She brushes it off with "I buy those buy one get two free sales at Meijer and I over did it, I don't have the room for all this shit. Get it out of here for me."

The rain had started as I drove home. Tears flowing. By the time I got home the storms were pretty bad. I unloaded the car in the rain. Only put away the freezer and fridge items, the rest would wait until later. That done, I came back outside and in a downpour just sat on my front stoop and cried. Didn't even dry off when I got in the house later. Why bother? Fell asleep in front of the fan, soaking wet, and still crying.

Mom called me today. All chatty and friendly. Never an apology, like nothing was wrong. I'm still hurt, not everyday you hear your mother say shit like that. And here I thought lately that we'd been doing good in mending a lifetime of hurt between us.

Guess I'll always be the burden. The black sheep. Guess I'll never be good enough in her eyes.

If it weren't for Daddy, maybe, just maybe I'd start apartment hunting in California.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to Mum's I go ...

Get to spend the afternoon bonding with the folks. Fun, fun. I was actually supposed to go over yesterday but told Mom I'd be out today instead because of the headache I had yesterday. It wasn't that bad, but a day of "bonding" it'd have been much worse by the end of the day, lol. See, Mom is big time Nag-ger. A regular Maxine. I love her to death, she's my mom, but there's certain times I know I can't take it - like when I already have a headache.

And I'm going over there to plant flowers for her. Which means she'll be standing over me, in the heat, telling me "you're doing it wrong". LOL. Thankfully, it's a tiny garden so I'll only have to endure about half an hour of that! She'll probably have other chores for me to do while I'm there, she usually does. "Climb the ladder and take those curtains down for me" or "I need you to help me sort through a box of something or other" or "Go look at Daddy's computer, it's acting strange again". Then we'll go out to dinner. At least if we stick to the normal routine we will, LOL. It's my reward from Daddy for surviving Mom's chore list.

I'm sitting here thinking that it's funny how as we age we need help with the things we used to be able to do. I can't do the lawn anymore, or even take the garbage out because of all the surgeries I've had - I can't lift more than 25 pounds without feeling severe abdominal pain and can't do anything too strenuous either (like pushing a lawn mower, LOL). I've had to rely on my kids for a few years to do what I can't anymore. Yet it seems so odd to hear my mom say "you have to do this for me, I'm too old to be doing it". Thankfully she's got my brother to do what I can't ... LOL.

Hoping ya'll are enjoying your Saturday! I know I'll be grateful when mine is over. LOL!

Sunday Evening ...

... and I'm finally done with studying. I swear I'm cross-eyed now!! But it's done.

My mother is having surgery tomorrow. I'll be gone for a few days to take care of my dad while she's in the hospital recovering. It's nothing real major, just "warranty work" needed from a previous surgery. Since Dad can't really take care of himself since the stroke, I've been drafted into staying over and keeping him out of trouble. Nice thing is he'll treat to dinner out. He's a huge seafood lover like I am. We'll probably hit Red Lobster. It's part of our routine when I go "daddy-sit".

So, I'll be there for a day, maybe two (or more). Hopefully not much more. I love my folks, but I just can't handle being there for too long! Ideally it's an evening. Come home to my own bed. Riiiight. I get the couch for a day or two. Yuck.

I'm hoping to post my Ten Thoughts on time.  Riiiight, like I normally post 'em on time anyway. LOL!