Excuse Me While I Whine

I didn't post anything yesterday. I could come up with a lot of excuses but, basically, I didn't have anything to write about and I took that as a good enough reason to be lazy. Though I really don't need a good reason since laziness is my natural state.

"Douglas, why are you so lazy?"
"Because of all the things I could be, it takes the least effort."

I no longer consider myself lazy. I consider myself efficient. I realized a number of years ago (decades, actually) that efficiency is admired while laziness isn't. And there really is very little difference between the two except that one is a tad more productive.

I am not writing about either laziness or efficiency today. I am simply doing the written form of babbling while I figure out what I do wish to convey.

I have hit a little bump in the road of life in the past few weeks. First, I have experienced a rift in my relationship with my brother-in-law (sister's hubby, or as I like to call him "#9"). Jack is not a bad guy. But he is a retired Army colonel (full colonel, he will remind you at most every opportunity) and they have some annoying habits. One of which is to treat people like subordinates. You can ignore this for just so long and then... well, there's a rift.

Second, there is the matter of my 92 year old aunt. Grace is a nice, but a bit odd, person who used to live in Naples. My sister, who was made guardian of Grace's husband, who was in bad physical shape, moved her and Norm up here so she could better see to his needs about four years ago. Norm lasted all of a month before passing away. This left Grace all alone with no one to look after her. Grace is a headstrong woman. Charming but a little offbeat. At 88 (when Norm passed), she was physically healthy but a bit forgetful. That was 4 years ago. She is still physically healthy but her forgetfulness is in, shall we say, full bloom.

My sister reluctantly looked after her. This became more and more of a chore as time went on. Grace cannot be convinced she should move into assisted living. Therefore, Grace ends up with a small house (actually two, side by side) in the heart of town where she can walk to the junk... uh, antique... shops and art stores which dot the downtown area. She has yet to do this. She is also a pack rat (a family trait, sadly) so her little house overfloweth... with junk, trash, and who knows what.

Finally, my sister has some health problems which she has ignored, and exacerbated by not eating enough, which has landed her in the hospital. This was not wholly unexpected. Unfortunately, my sister had not taken steps to see to Grace's needs while she would be laid up. So I got a call from Grace asking me to give her a ride to Naples. She wanted to return there to the house she once lived in. A house which may be unlivable except by the wild peacocks who have taken over the formerly screened front porch.

Fortunately, Grace has a friend in Naples who is also a nurse (pediatrics, she likes to remind me) who has some apartments where Grace can live. And I arranged for Kitty to come get her. Kitty is happy to do so.

Did I mention that Grace has assets of close to a $million? Well, likely much less these days but still...

My next step is to see that Grace's financial needs are seen to without her being fleeced. I think that can be done easily enough. But it means I will be busy over the next several days trying to get things organized down in Naples

Did I mention that I am also having guests (Faye's other sister and her husband) drop in this week for a two day stay?

This is severely impacting my laziness...