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This site is a member of WebRing. To browse visit here. Saturday, August 19, 2006 The Horrible Summer I think that's what I'm going to call the last three months. We seem to be coming out of it finally. Clarence is home from two weeks in the hospital and almost four weeks in a nursing home for "rehabilitation." Every time he leaves the hospital, he is less able to manage things for himself, and whatever rehab he got in the nursing home didn't help him get back to where he was before the hospitalization. He can no longer walk even from the bedroom to the bathroom without assistance, nor take his medications by himself. And he came home with two huge bags of meds, twenty-one different things in all. I think he was grossly over-medicated in the nursing home, but there isn't much I can do until his own doctor can see him again. With that many different meds, administered at different times during the day, it's hard enough for me to keep up with them. So Clarence is going to have to go with me whenever I'm away from home from now on unless I have someone else here to stay with him. That was just what I needed.On a happier note, I did finally get my car, photo below. It took an entire day in the dealer's showroom, with Clarence--just retrieved from the nursing home--having to be wheeled down a steep hill outside and in through one of the service bays to the lower level restrooms every time he wanted to use the bathroom. And of course it took the usual round of haggling with the salesman and the sales manager. They insist that they have almost no markup on the Yaris and wouldn't budge from the sticker price, but I did get a couple of concessions, including moving my satellite radio antenna and power cord from the Daewoo to the new car, so I don't have to take the Yaris to a car audio place and pay through the nose to get it done. Then they wrote up the contract with everything under the sun financed on it. Extended warranty, sales tax, license and registration--you name it, anything they could include was in there. I spent the last ten minutes telling them to "Take that off and see how much the payment comes down" and managed to trim $50 a month off. Why on earth would anyone finance their sales tax? It made a $25 dollar difference in the monthly payment just to pay that up front. I'd have paid that sales tax five times over in interest if I had let them keep it in the financed amount.But I finally drove out with the car, and I love it. We went up the mountain to do an inspection after we left the dealership, a good test for the car on a steep winding road, and it handled wonderfully. The Yaris has a long wheelbase for its overall length, and it took those curves and switchbacks without any trouble at all. I was also concerned about whether it had enough engine reserve to handle cruise control in fifth gear, but it did just fine. Once I was back down the mountain, I engaged the cruise control and never had to shift at all until I slowed down for my driveway. Now I have to find someone to go over to the dealership with me and drive the poor old Daewoo back, since I'm keeping it. I'll eventually fix the many little things that are wrong with it, and it will be an adequate car for Kate when she is able to move down here.And now I need to drive the truck to the dump with its two month load of garbage bags before they close at noon. Clarence can't go with me for that, because he can't get up into the truck, so I hope I'm not going to come home to find him on the floor again. posted by Liz @ 8:21 AM | The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section RSS Feed PERSONAL Send email toliz at life-as-a-spectator-sport.com Home I'm a mother, grandmother, a computer professional, Democrat, Christian. I welcome politely worded comments and email, my spam filter throws the rest away, so don't bother to flame me WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT' "If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart. THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3 KNITTING BLOGS Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits FINISHED PROJECTS -------FINISHED IN 2006------- Peruvian Cap Tutti-Frutti Socks Shelley's Socks Carol's Socks -------FINISHED IN 2007------- Chain Link Socks Baby Surprise Jacket Valerie & Friend Baby Bonnet Rainbow Baby Socks Girls Pixie Hood Mitred Square Heart Red & White Socks Coffee Cup Pot Holder Nubbins Dishcloth Garterlac Dishcloth Suede Booties Kate's Socks Norwegian Sweet Baby Cap Half Thumbless Mittens Red Mittens for Akkol -------FINISHED IN 2008------- SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE -- Blogs and websites -- Causubon's Book Club Orlov Food Storage Made Easy From the Wilderness In the Wake Listening to Katrina Survival Topics The Modern Homestead The Oil Drum Notes from a Hillside Farm -- Mailing Lists -- 12vdc Power Living on the Land Rainwater Refrigeration Alternatives Old Ways of Living POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES The political sites have moved BOOKS I'M READING How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising ARCHIVES February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 Feedjit Live Blog Stats
I think that's what I'm going to call the last three months. We seem to be coming out of it finally. Clarence is home from two weeks in the hospital and almost four weeks in a nursing home for "rehabilitation." Every time he leaves the hospital, he is less able to manage things for himself, and whatever rehab he got in the nursing home didn't help him get back to where he was before the hospitalization. He can no longer walk even from the bedroom to the bathroom without assistance, nor take his medications by himself. And he came home with two huge bags of meds, twenty-one different things in all. I think he was grossly over-medicated in the nursing home, but there isn't much I can do until his own doctor can see him again. With that many different meds, administered at different times during the day, it's hard enough for me to keep up with them. So Clarence is going to have to go with me whenever I'm away from home from now on unless I have someone else here to stay with him. That was just what I needed.On a happier note, I did finally get my car, photo below. It took an entire day in the dealer's showroom, with Clarence--just retrieved from the nursing home--having to be wheeled down a steep hill outside and in through one of the service bays to the lower level restrooms every time he wanted to use the bathroom. And of course it took the usual round of haggling with the salesman and the sales manager. They insist that they have almost no markup on the Yaris and wouldn't budge from the sticker price, but I did get a couple of concessions, including moving my satellite radio antenna and power cord from the Daewoo to the new car, so I don't have to take the Yaris to a car audio place and pay through the nose to get it done. Then they wrote up the contract with everything under the sun financed on it. Extended warranty, sales tax, license and registration--you name it, anything they could include was in there. I spent the last ten minutes telling them to "Take that off and see how much the payment comes down" and managed to trim $50 a month off. Why on earth would anyone finance their sales tax? It made a $25 dollar difference in the monthly payment just to pay that up front. I'd have paid that sales tax five times over in interest if I had let them keep it in the financed amount.But I finally drove out with the car, and I love it. We went up the mountain to do an inspection after we left the dealership, a good test for the car on a steep winding road, and it handled wonderfully. The Yaris has a long wheelbase for its overall length, and it took those curves and switchbacks without any trouble at all. I was also concerned about whether it had enough engine reserve to handle cruise control in fifth gear, but it did just fine. Once I was back down the mountain, I engaged the cruise control and never had to shift at all until I slowed down for my driveway. Now I have to find someone to go over to the dealership with me and drive the poor old Daewoo back, since I'm keeping it. I'll eventually fix the many little things that are wrong with it, and it will be an adequate car for Kate when she is able to move down here.And now I need to drive the truck to the dump with its two month load of garbage bags before they close at noon. Clarence can't go with me for that, because he can't get up into the truck, so I hope I'm not going to come home to find him on the floor again.
The template is set to display 10 posts. To see all the posts for this month, click on the month name in the Archive section
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PERSONAL
WHY 'LIFE AS A SPECTATOR SPORT'
"If you're lucky not to live in the gutters of a slum, but still can't afford to take vacations in the Alps, you're part of that enormous middle class who lives life through the medium of the television, further separated from "real" life by air conditioner, by automobile, by dishwasher, microwave and ice-in-the-door refrigerator, by automatic washer and dryer, and all the other appliances and conveniences that make it possible for America to live life at second hand. I'm not sure why Americans decided that televised drama was better than the real thing, that cardboard microwave food containers were an adequate substitute for real dishes, and their contents for real food, or that cooking, dishwashing and face-to-face conversation wasn't worth the effort and time it required. Someone fed this nation a plastic crate of out-of-season tomatoes and told us it was life and we took them at their word, and we're so much the poorer for it that it's hard to know where to start to list the shortcomings." I wrote this a couple of years ago, but I have to admit it's much less amusing than I thought it would be to see the artifical construct falling apart.
THE NON-ELECTRIC HOME
Cleaning, 1 Cleaning, 2 Cleaning, 3
KNITTING BLOGS
Extravayarnza Knitting Heretic Mind of Winter Pie Knits Persistent Illusion See Eunny Knit The Keyboard Biologist Taleweaver's Ramblings TECHnitting Wendy Knits
FINISHED PROJECTS
SELF-RELIANCE AND THE FUTURE
POLITICAL BLOGS and SITES
BOOKS I'M READING
How to Grow More Vegetables, etc. Small Scale Grain Raising
ARCHIVES
February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002
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