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[332/365] not a good day
Nov. 28th, 2021 11:12 pmI woke up this morning with a scratchy throat and sore ears. I managed to go all last winter without my chronic sinus problems flaring up but it looks like I won't be so lucky this year. It hasn't been awful but it has made me really uncomfortable and sorry for myself today.
Not as much, however, as the fact that there's something wrong with our boiler. Not something worth a Sunday call-out fee, so the plan is to call a guy tomorrow and to just muddle along today with wearing hats or fingerless gloves in the house and keeping internal doors closed to conserve what little heat the radiators could produce.
Closing the doors is Garyphobic though, he really hates not being able to get from one room to another, and maybe some combination of that and the cold (of course this happened on the coldest day we've had so far; it snowed not heavily but steadily all afternoon), and how tired and miserable I was because he's a little emotion-sponge, meant that he was mithery all day and didn't calm down until I shut him in a room with me so I could Skype my parents.
Who are having a tough time with the now-impending Christmas, since Thanksgiving is finally out of the way. They always decorate the house the weekend after, and my mom didn't put up as much of my stuff as she normally would because I won't be there.
And my dad's sister had already tapped out of Christmas Day how that side of the family usually spends it, since her emotional support dog is too old and sick to travel that far, and my mom's currently annoyed at Dad's brother's wife for not answering pointless emails and texts with further pointless emails or texts, so days she isn't even going to invite them for Christmas. Which will mean my mom and dad are on their own for it, which is a huge fucking bummer.
My mom is going to make a few of her usual Christmas cookies but not many for the two of them. And, it just occurred to me, it'll be my mom's first year doing them without Bonnie. They always devoted a day to making Christmas cookies and candy, ever since I can remember and no doubt before that.
So yeah, this Christmas really kinda sucks already.
My mom really likes the new interim pastor at her church a lot though: she seems very approachable and compassionate. Having heard at church-basement coffee the other week about my brother dying and me moving away so soon after, this lady asked my mom how her Thanksgiving had been and said that when she got to spend it with her own (grown) children it made her think of my mom who didn't get to do that. Little stuff like that is really valuable to my mom, who doesn't get to feel known as seen as often as I do but probably values it as much. I'm glad to hear about the new lady. (Though this was the second or third time I'd heard an anecdote about her, and they always start with how fat she is (in my mom's approved language: "she's very very heavyset," which always makes me want to barf). They immediately go on to "but she did this nice thing! she's this incredible person!" Could we maybe get right to that bit, and skip the body commentary? Apparently not yet. Today Mom even made it worse by following "she's very, very heavyset" with "she's like [aunt who doesn't answer pointless texts]," which alarmed me, but it turns out my mom meant she's just "like her" in body size, which is the least objectionable thing about that aunt, sheesh.)
Not as much, however, as the fact that there's something wrong with our boiler. Not something worth a Sunday call-out fee, so the plan is to call a guy tomorrow and to just muddle along today with wearing hats or fingerless gloves in the house and keeping internal doors closed to conserve what little heat the radiators could produce.
Closing the doors is Garyphobic though, he really hates not being able to get from one room to another, and maybe some combination of that and the cold (of course this happened on the coldest day we've had so far; it snowed not heavily but steadily all afternoon), and how tired and miserable I was because he's a little emotion-sponge, meant that he was mithery all day and didn't calm down until I shut him in a room with me so I could Skype my parents.
Who are having a tough time with the now-impending Christmas, since Thanksgiving is finally out of the way. They always decorate the house the weekend after, and my mom didn't put up as much of my stuff as she normally would because I won't be there.
And my dad's sister had already tapped out of Christmas Day how that side of the family usually spends it, since her emotional support dog is too old and sick to travel that far, and my mom's currently annoyed at Dad's brother's wife for not answering pointless emails and texts with further pointless emails or texts, so days she isn't even going to invite them for Christmas. Which will mean my mom and dad are on their own for it, which is a huge fucking bummer.
My mom is going to make a few of her usual Christmas cookies but not many for the two of them. And, it just occurred to me, it'll be my mom's first year doing them without Bonnie. They always devoted a day to making Christmas cookies and candy, ever since I can remember and no doubt before that.
So yeah, this Christmas really kinda sucks already.
My mom really likes the new interim pastor at her church a lot though: she seems very approachable and compassionate. Having heard at church-basement coffee the other week about my brother dying and me moving away so soon after, this lady asked my mom how her Thanksgiving had been and said that when she got to spend it with her own (grown) children it made her think of my mom who didn't get to do that. Little stuff like that is really valuable to my mom, who doesn't get to feel known as seen as often as I do but probably values it as much. I'm glad to hear about the new lady. (Though this was the second or third time I'd heard an anecdote about her, and they always start with how fat she is (in my mom's approved language: "she's very very heavyset," which always makes me want to barf). They immediately go on to "but she did this nice thing! she's this incredible person!" Could we maybe get right to that bit, and skip the body commentary? Apparently not yet. Today Mom even made it worse by following "she's very, very heavyset" with "she's like [aunt who doesn't answer pointless texts]," which alarmed me, but it turns out my mom meant she's just "like her" in body size, which is the least objectionable thing about that aunt, sheesh.)