I would have to say that by all the meaningful, objective standards I am happy and things are good...but! if I linger on the question, and settle into it a bit, and really ask myself how am I doing right now, today, on July 1st, I would have to say that I'm a bit out of sorts.
So, what's bugging Chuck B?
Well, for one thing, the situation at my dad's house is bugging me.
My aunts who are trustees of my 92-year-old grandfather's estate, and for all practical purposes his conservators, have decided it would be best if he went to live with my father.
At first blush, everyone agrees this seems fine and reasonable. But the actual implementation has been carried out extremely fast and this has created considerable disruption for my father, and by extension, for me as well.
The situation is complicated--of course--and because it's all happening so fast, I for one do not feel like I've had adequate time to fully consider the pros and cons of this new arrangement and to consider all the options. That bugs me because the cons of this arrangement happen to be considerable, particularly for my father and I'm not clear that he's had adequate time to consider it all either.
It really bugs me that I volunteered my assent to this plan without first taking the time to consider the situation more fully. Believe me when I tell you that with my family, at 37 years old, I should know better!
So I have to own that. I hate being angry at myself; I would so much rather be angry at someone else.
Then it bugs me to see that granddad has been allowed to collect all this crap. And trust me, a lot of it is crap he's collected. He picks things up and brings it home. At 92, granddad is surprisingly active. This puts us in a hard spot sometimes since we are loathe to curtail his freedom but we cannot control his compulsion.
After granddad moved in to his previous living arrangement, I went part-time at work for six months and spent 2-3 days per week at his house to help my aunt clean it out. I wish I was blogging back then so I could show it to you now. Anyhow, here we are doing it all over again on a smaller scale. That bugs me a little bit.
So, I'm frustrated and my dad senses it and sends me home with a basket of apricots from his tree. In all that, there are some important facts that I'm not losing sight of.
On the 4th of July, I'm going back to my dad's house, to pick some more apricots, and make a pie for my dad, my granddad and I.
3 comments:
When I arrived in Clyde I started calling around and going to see about getting a storage space for my air freight box that was a comin to Knoxville on the 25th. Every place I called and every where I went was full. For some unknown to me reason there is no avaiable storage in WNC and there are a lot of storage places for such a rural area. My parents were kind enough to let me put it all under the stairs in the basement closet.
In California there must be some available storage units. Perhaps your active and mobile 92 year old grandad could rent such a place to call his own. He would have a private place to do what he does with his collectables and still live with your dad.
Most of what you see is my dad's stuff that was moved out of his house to make way for granddad and his FT helper. My dad needs space to go through his stuff to get rid of it. That's part of the disruption.
Granddad's not yet at storage rental stage yet. And even if he was, there would be strenuous objections, I'm sure.
Wow...makes me think about my own packrat habits and how that can impact family...I think I need to setup an Ebay account NOW, before it gets more out of control! Good luck with the situation, I know this kind of thing is hard to get used to. I'm trying to convince my mom to come live with me, but in all honesty, I have NO idea where I'd put all my crap to make room!
Post a Comment