Getting It Done

Yesterday, I made waffles for my dad for breakfast. I felt generous. It was Valentine's Day, after all, and I do want to be kind. So I also agreed to help him go through papers. He's been asking me over and over to help. We went through all his life insurance papers (of which he didn't know if the policies were still in effect). I left it to him to figure all that out. Most of them were 'free'one-year policies connected with accounts. Then we had to go through all his funeral prep stuff. Three hours later we'd gone through medical receipts for the last four years and multiple other useless pieces of paper. I took out my anxieties on the shredder and filled a 13 gallon garbage bag full of shreds. :) I told him that was ALL for that day and I went home after making us salads for a late lunch. (I was surprised that he actually had veggies in the fridge.) :)

Today, I had plans for taking stuff to GoodWill donations, getting my income tax paid, taking some stuff to a consignment store and really cleaning house. Dad showed up at my door at 9 a.m. and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the grocery store. I told him my plans and he said, okay, put the stuff in my truck and we'll go. He drove home to get his income tax papers and we went at that aggravating 35 mph pace of an 83 year old for the next five hours. I shouldn't have. I was sarcastic and he was snarly. Suffice it to say that as the morning progressed, he got more snarly, as he found out he owed more income tax than he anticipated and that prompted him to tell ME how I needed to learn how to plan ahead and be financially responsible. Grrrrrrrrr. I finally got hold of my own emotions and realized that he was getting beyond snarly, so I agreed to go to a late lunch with him. My hour's worth of errands lasted the better part of the day. When I got home I was exhausted. Slept for an hour. Phone rang and I didn't answer it...of course it was dad. He wanted to know if I wanted his iron (mine broke). But the way he said it was, "You didn't take this iron." Uh, we'd only talked about mine being broken. How was I supposed to read his mind that he had his iron all ready for me to take?

This is a BIG BAD HABIT of his. He expects others to read his mind and fill in the details of what he is talking about. And then he gets angry when people don't do as he expects. Sanity, oh Sanity! (Hey I could make new words with tune from the Canadian national anthem....probably not appropriate.) A little sarcasm is still hanging around.

Frankly, I'll be glad to go back to work tomorrow. Next weekend is MINE, all MINE!Thank goodness I have my own place and he does NOT have a key!

companionship

Those of you who follow my blog will be interested to note I signed onto eHarmony today. I put in my info and had 4 matches to review. Of course I can't talk to any of them until I pay the fee. That will come later, if I decide to do so. See what happens when all my friends and family are far away? I go nuts.