Mother needs more practice puttering

Today was a production day for the weekly newspaper I work for. Production days are hard. Some harder than others. One of the things I enjoy about my job is flexibility. What is it about Monday & Tuesday that brings on personal crises? The days I really can't be flexible.

Today was a typical Monday with not one crisis, not 2, but 3! Mail at our house tends to get buried. Is it any wonder we're always living on the edge financially? I picked up a stack of towels on the arm of a chair & found a final notice of a final Qwest bill! What???? Of course, it couldn't be taken care of over the weekend. And I couldn't get online. So, this morning I clocked out & went out & sat in the car to call. Forty-five minutes later I returned to work.

The second crisis came at 4:17. Don-Mike called to tell me Mother was having an episode. He was on his way back to work. I called Luana & asked her to check on Mother. She suggested I call Dr. Beckstead & see what he said. I really enjoy having Mother's doctor right here in town. I called, talked to his nurse, she said she'd talk to Dr. B & call me back. She did. He didn't seem too concerned, but said to watch her. He was on call tonight at the hospital if we needed to come in.

I decided Mother was having caffeine withdrawal. Don called while I was talking to Luana. So, I called Don back & asked him to go get Mother some Mt. Dew. I also asked him to bring me a refill of ... you guessed it ... Mt. Dew. Don brought my refill & while he was there, Nick called, angry & frustrated. He hung up on Don. Don jumped right up & tore out of the office like he was being pursued. Next, I received a phone call from Nick, which was incoherent & he hung up on ME. So, I took off. I did have the presence of mind to grab my street glasses, bag, clock out & lock the door after me. It was after 6 & I was there alone.

Don, knowing Nick was working on a car, was afraid the car had fallen on him. I, not knowing what he was doing, thought maybe he, or one of the cats, was hurt & bleeding. He was okay. Just frustrated & jumped to the conclusion that his dad would take forever.

At 8 o'clock, I decided to call it a day. Besides I've promised Kelly (publisher) & Rod (editor) that I will not stay later than 8.

I went directly over to Mother's. Luana was there. Mother had red all over her shirt. That gave me a jump start. I thought it was blood! No, she'd missed her mouth when she was eating some red jello that Luana had brought her. That concerns me. She missed her mouth.

The washer was going. I had heard her say something about washing Levis when I was talking to Luana earlier in the afternoon. I thought we'd talked her out of doing the laundry. I didn't want her up when she was weak on one side. Luana had started the washer. I love having Mother right next door to Luana.

Tomorrow is another day. Dr. Beckstead wants to see Mother in the morning.

Moving in May, 5/18

Did I move today? or shall I say, "Did I MOVE today?" It's Monday, did I walk around the block, did I walk across the street or up or down the street? No, sigh, I moved from my desk in the editor's office out to the desk in the computer room, back & forth all day. From 9:15 to 6. Up & down at least a million times. Why doesn't my butt muscles get tired of the standing up & sitting down? Maybe that's why my hips & back hurt every Tuesday & Wednesday & I feel like I just can't move. Who knows?

I also walked across the parking lot to the South Stake Center & ate lunch with the DUP at their annual Jubilee. It was a nice lunch.

I was going to go to bed "early" tonight, but I started reading April Rose's mommy's blog & it looks like I may get to bed "on time."

G'nite

Moving in May, 5/4

"Just another manic Monday, not Sunday, that's my fun day, my don't have to run day ..."

Love those lines from that old song. Can't remember off hand who sang it & I'm not going to take the time to google it.

Another 11 hour day. I walked over to the pharmacy today, then back to the Subway, then back to work. I forgot to go back for the meds & at a quarter to 7 I called Don & asked him to drop what he was doing & run to the pharmacy. They close at 6:30. He went to the window & he called & said they were closed. I said that after 6:30, you have to walk up to the door. He did & they let him in, gave him all of the meds, mine (lexapro) & Nick's included. They walked out of the pharmacy behind him.

I sent him over to Mother's & asked him to call me & let me know how it went. He didn't call. So, I went over to Mother's to see if she got her meds. There was no mirtazepine, but that wasn't critical, the coumadin AND cardizem were there, the 2 she was totally out of, & she had taken them. I saw the nightlight laying on the table. I asked her about it & she said the light was burned out, but Don-Mike was going to get her a light. I said not to count on it.

I came home & Don-Mike was out in the garage. I went out to ask him about the night light & he had forgotten, just as I expected. But, I found a package of night lights with only one taken out of a package of 4. So, I put the night light AND the package of nightlights on the console in his truck. I reminded him as he left tonight to take the nightlight in & plug it in.

He had forgotten to bring me my phone earlier today. Nick brought it up to me.

Nick had a job offered to him today at ComputerWise. I'm not too sure what it entails, but hey, it just kind of fell into his lap. It will be part-time & he should be able to keep his SSI. Cool, huh?

Another Monday

It happened again. A death notice showed up just as a hole showed up! I never plan these holes, they just kind of show up when they are needed.

Today I had TWO, yes two, ladies to help with the paper. Besides that, the paper was chuck full of ads. Kelly bragged that HE packed the paper tight just so it wouldn't be too hard for us to edit. I let Vicki Atkinson, new co-worker, & Karen Naylor, she used to work at The Citizen, my two helpers today, proof & Karen made some of the changes on the computer. At 4 o'clock Karen & Vicki had caught up to me. They had seen all 18 pages, minus the 3 full page ads. So, we let Karen go home. I told Kelly we would be through by 6. Vicki stayed & I'm sure glad she did. She was my runner, she did the checking on facts, spellings & signed us off on the pages. And yes, we were finished by 6!! So, cool, that's the first time we've been done that soon all year!! A cause to celebrate.

We have to sign off when we release a page to go to the next step. I was the second copy editor today. It reminded me of Mrs. Pollifax & the Second Thief or Tony Hillerman's The First Eagle. In both cases it was the second one that got caught, hehe.

Anyway, about 4:30, we got to a sports page that had a 1 column by 2-3 inch hole that Bob (Merrill, assistant editor) had put a box & instructions to use an in-house ad. I had just scrolled down to it & was commenting to Vicki that we needed to find something to fill this. I hadn't even finished making my comment when Stacey (Comeau, ad salesman) came around the corner with a fax in her hand & said, "I don't know if you guys have seen this obituary. It was on the fax machine." I just sat there, took the obit & said, "No, we haven't seen it." I said to Vicki, "This happens all the time. And it never ceases to amaze me."

I went in to the editors' office & told them we had a space to fill & we had an obituary just handed to us. Neither Rod (Boam) nor Bob batted an eye. Bob said, "Well, then fill it."

It fit, perfectly, of course. Just blows me away. I never expect it. If we plan it, it never happens. I hadn't even started on the obituary page this morning about 10 when Doug Webb called & said there was an obituary. He promised it just after lunch. At about a quarter to 3, I told Vicki & Karen that we still hadn't got the obituary. Before I could finish what I was going to say, Jessi interrupted & said Webb's didn't get to dictate when we finished the paper. That if they didn't have the obit there by 3 p.m., they were out of luck. Vicki called Webb's at 10 to 3 & told them that we had to have the obituary by 3. Jordan said he only had 2 paragraphs left to type. OMG, that was a humongous obituary. We had to split cards of thanks & move 2 of them over to another page.

I was getting so agitated, I was ready to bitch slap someone.