Stuff

Spouse's Xmas present showed up today and got me out of bed at eleven. This wouldn't be a problem if I hadn't only got to sleep around four, and only drowsed and coughed until the doorbell rang. Stupid system. (Not that I have a better one in mind, I'm just whinging).

Have given up trying to be energy-saving and eco-conscious and whatnot and put the washing in the dryer. Having wet washing around the house, trying to dry it on radiators and airing racks is just annoying my lungs more.

Remembered to order drugs in plenty of time, I think. They should come before I run out this time. See, I get better at things. Yay, me.

Have gone back to making my bed-throw larger just in case the forecasters get it right this year and I'm going to need the extra warmth in middle of winter. I don't really believe the forecasters, they've never seemed accurate at long forecasts. (Not brilliant at short ones, either).

Have decided not to make the change in the book that may be just cross-contamination of reading material. I can always bear it in mind for the second draft - if such a thing ever comes round.
I found a boxfile of notes and previous versions (original story was set a couple of decades later so there's lots of material there that I've forgotten about) and found some changes I've made to the world-building. I have no idea why I changed the set up in one way, it's a great puzzle as the original setting was more reasonable, I think. Will have to ponder that.

Have just looked round and realised the place is full of amazon boxes. I really must get round to filling up what I need to send xmas and birthday presents in, and then recycle the rest. I'd get an armchair back if nothing else.

Must go and clean the spare room. Baby Grandson is coming for a visit at the weekend. Must have cot ready. Yay, baby.

Spouse and I went to pick up the Mother in Law on Friday afternoon for the usual shopping trip. We were earlier than usual because Spouse had a little work-related side-trip to make, and besides we wanted to go and spend ages with the baby later.
"I fell again!" MiL brightly remarked as she looked for her shoes. "I was just getting ready this morning, had my bath, had my breakfast and went in to get ready." So she had been 'up' for some time, this wasn't a case of sudden movement after lying in bed. "I was standing in front of the mirror and I just went. I couldn't stop myself and I hit my face on the cabinet." I think she meant the wardrobe. So she was standing still, it wasn't a trip. Couldn't help herself, means unable to reach out, all of which means it sounds like a TIA or mini-stroke. She said she sat for a while 'to calm down' and then was fine. Which also sounds like the mini-strokes. Worrying again.

New grandson is still lovely, and beautiful, and clever, and bright, and cuddly, and loveable and smells nice. Both amazing and good. (Besotted? I?)

Writing. Am wondering if a character I killed off should be allowed to survive. sometimes think she might come in handy later. Is this my hindbrain prompting me or is it my current reading matter contaminating my process? Normally, writing isn't infected by reading but what I'm reading is not really very good imo. I know loads of people love the Wheel of Time series and this is all my own personal opinion. I like Brandon Sanderson's books and because he's finishing off the WoT series, I thought I'd read it and so be able to read the BS finale. Unfortunately, the early books (perhaps they improve) are full of typos, cliches, boring internalised teenager angst and stubborness. Weird descriptions (how can something be both flat and conical?) pull one out of the story, and there are a lot of coincidences 'explained' by the mythology of the Wheel. Apparently the Wheel weaves. As it wills. Haven't worked out how you can weave wit a wheel, or how it can be so deterministic. A lot of fatalism and prophecy-fulfillment which is tiring and yet oddly boring. And so far, all the viewpoint characters have survived everything thrown at them when a few of them really should have been dead by now. (Am three books in).

My grandson may be leaving hospital today. Middle Daughter has a lot to put up with (a caesarian is not an easy option no matter what people say) but she will be happy to get her boy home. And we can go and cuddle him without being thrown out an hour later.

You know, I cannot account for the fact that I have never looked into any other books by Stella Gibbons. I loved Cold Comfort Farm but it did not occur to me to look for anything else. Have now downloaded to my Kindle 'Nightingale Wood' which sounds like fun.

Bored now. Dunno why. Got plenty to do, lots of things I can read, write, paint, crochet, weed, cook, but...

Feel too restless. And it's cold. Usually when I get cold I just curl up and read in a nice warm room, or under a nice warm blanket I've made myself. Cosy. Dont' feel like it today.


Decided to get hair cut. That'll make my neck cold too. Possibly a mistake. Shall try for something less drastic and yet easy to look after. An impossible dream? Possibly. Probably. May come back looking like a skinhead. Or a lollipop. No, too fat to be a lollipop. Fuzzy Menhir?

Should stop blathering, I suppose.

Made a nice meal last night. Spouse suitably impressed. Always impressed by my producing good food. It's enough to give one a complex. The meal wasn't complex though. Possibly the most straighforward meal one can produce. Throw tray full of chilli-sauce covered prawns into hot oven for a few minutes, serve with Thai Lime rice. Easy, delicious. Mmmmmm.

May make an apple pie later. Or cakes. Or xmas cake.
Should be finishing baby blanket. Or MiL's new bedspread. Or the book. Always the book. Seem to have ground to a halt again. Been writing though, but something else. A kind of addendum to a short story I wrote ages ago. I don't do short stories much. At all really. Can't remember the last time I did one. This one was always going to be one episode of a series. Does that count as a short story? Concerns the discovery of sex-changing species of human found on remote pacific group of islands.

I'm cold still. Coffee time, I think. And ginger snaps.

Monday night,popped in on MiL so Youngest Daughter, who was up on business trip for the day, could see her and her new flat.
As she was in the kitchen, putting kettle on I went in to talk to her.
She had another fall on Monday morning. But she didn't hit her head. "I ended up in the shoes!" she told me and laughed. Only told me about it because I noticed a new bruise on her arm. "That looks awful," I said.
"I'll put a cardigan over it," she said.
"That's not what I meant!"

Went back to MiL's place last night to set up her broadband and pc. Telephone had been switched on, setup went smoothly. Got her to play with skype a bit and showed her spider solitaire as a way of getting used to moving the mouse, clicking and co-ordinating. If anyone skypes her, I hope they ring for a very long time, as she takes ages to get the cursor to the answer button. It will get better with time and practice, of course, but at the moment she just needs encouragement.

Wind has got up today, (which is more than I did, am still in pyjamas. Disgrace) and things are blowing around my house. Time I put clothes on and tried to rescue my milkbottle cover.

Something I noticed recently. Clothes. Hardly anyone seems to pronounce the 'th' in Clothes. Makes it Close. Am I just slow to notice?

Spouse is getting a new car. He's very happy. It'a a bargain. Yey.

Watching Tim Minchin on TV. Brill.

Problems notifying everyone of move - not people but companies. Almost everyone has some kind of online presence so, in theory, it ought to be easy to notify all the utilities, councils etc of MiL's change of address. Unfortunately, one problem that keeps arising is that many companies are using the same, faulty, address location database. Currys use it, but Comet don't. The dentist uses it, but the council doesn't, the energy companies use it .... you've got the picture. Whoever inputted data on the MiL's new street stopped at 18. She lives at 19. If there is a manual input that's fine, but rare.

As her phone isn't in yet, that means we either write, take her and all her paperwork down to my house to phone, or use my mobile phone (eeeeeek! cost!)

In addition, few of the "help" pages help at all on these websites. The Frequently Asked Questions are all devised by the company to tell you what "they" want you to know, not answer your questions, and the 'contact us' into is usually lacking in the method we want to use.
Sooooooooooooooooo annoyed right now.

Second day of moving Ma in Law into her new flat started well, we took her down to retail park to buy a new fridge and a new telly, got back around lunchtime and had a sandwich before settling in to serious unpacking and re-arranging. She couldn't be persuaded to part with a thing, intending to put 40 years' of stuff from a three-bedroomed semi (with loft) into a small, two-bedroomed flat. This caused a lot of frustration but we were managing it.

MiL and I were standing over a couple of bags and boxes, placed on a table for easy reach. I found the second handset for the cordless phones and asked her if she wanted that in the front bedroom.
"Yes," she said.
"Righto," I said.
And then she went. She just started to fall sideways, I could see she was headed for the tv, a corner, the edge or the screen, all were horrible options. I lunged forward, pulling myself over obstacles with my left arm while I grabbed her and tried to stop her. I sort of pivoted her away from the furniture but I wasn't close enough, or strong enough, to hold her up, she just kept going down and I went after her but she fell all the way and hit her head on the door with an almighty bang that even the family outside in the garden heard. Everyone came running and prised her off me, or me off her, or something, I'm not sure about the next few seconds. I went outside in the rain and had a small meltdown. Went back in and found Baby Bro putting her in recovery position and talking to her, Spouse on the phone explaining to the 999 operator. The kids, small niece and nephew, peering round the doorway, part curious, part scared. SiL was being efficient and I felt guilty for leaving them to it. Took the kids in back room to the toys there and explained that Gran had fallen. Em pointedly asked why Daddy was crying, and I was too, so what had happened (she knows her Gran falls so she knew there was more wrong than usual). I talked to them for a bit and went back into living room. Two rapid-response paramedic cars and a big ambulance converged on the house within about 7 minutes of the call. I think that's impressive.

They plugged her into all their machines and I explained about her medical conditions and which tablets she takes, Baby Bro told them what he'd observed after the fall - apparently she had drifted into unconsciousness and one side of her face behaved strangely so we all thought 'stroke'. She had the best of care.

We followed the ambulance with MiL and Baby Bro inside to the hospital where they did all the tests they could, hooked her up to every machine that goes 'bing' (quite frequently in fact)
and xrayed her etc.

As usual, she recovered well and they couldn't find any reason for the fall, but the doctor said she was going to set the process rolling again to have her looked at, by the falls clinic I suppose. She had looked surprised when I explained that she'd been to the falls clinic, had an MRI but had never been seen again by them. I suspect an admin foul-up over the appt she should have had.

Doctor detained Spouse for a few minutes to check he was all right, the shock was showing on him and he's the oldest of MiL's children, her next of kin, and he suffered a lot. Baby Bro was in a terrible state too, but he's a lot younger and fitter and I wasn't worried about him. Spouse went for food, though, and we had a good night's sleep. Hopefully, if MiL has slept too and not obviously impaired today, he will relax.

This morning Spouse has gone up to the flat to tidy up and await the delivery man. Unfortunately, I'm paying the price for the lunging and hanging on, the pain is quite bad so I'm resting up. Every time I close my eyes or stop concentrating on something else, all I can see is her falling and falling and not being able to reach her. Hopefully, that will go away soon. I shall go up later and very sedately put some clothes in drawers or something easy like that.

On the tenth anniversary of the WTC attacks, a family problem probably seems small beer to most folk, but we're rather fond of the daft old bat and would prefer her to be around to see her great-grandson born in November.

Van hire man wouldn't accept passport as ID. As most of our bills are paperless and the rest are in my name, this presents a problem. He's off now to try for a third time to get the van. Still no call from solicitor releasing the keys.

It's now quarter to three, soon time to fetch niece from school. We were all hoping to get much of the moving done during school hours. So that's not happening at all. At this rate we'll be moving in the dark.

Nephew is in my garden with a bubble-sword, making bubbles (occasionally) and trying to clean my patio (with the kneeler and water from the rain-barrel).
He's just run in yelling, "It's going to rain!"
Not so far.

Time for a cup of tea. If nothing else, by the laws of the universe that seem to be in play, we'll end up having to leave it.

We can hope.