Jumbled

Jumble by Craig Thompson
print for sale at art

I got hit with a triple whammy this evening that throws the next week into total chaos for me. It isn't bad news or anything just a confluence of events both expected and unexpected. The expected event is the arriving this weekend for early Xmas festivities of my husband's brother's family from Washington. I was already fretting enough about that as social gatherings are super stressing for me, pushing all my anxiety buttons. It doesn't help that I've been sick since Sunday evening. Though I'm feeling much better today, I'm still not feeling up to anything strenuous.

Then three unexpected events transpired. First, the pilot light for the gas heater for this trailer house--my in-law's home--keeps going out so they're having it serviced tomorrow sometime. The issue for me is that the heater closet is right outside our room door and when they work on it they block the hallway and I have a choice of being trapped in here with no access to the bathroom or kitchen while they work while being subjected to the noise or choosing either the kitchen end of the house or the bathroom end of the house to hang out for the duration and thus have no access to my room or the other end of the house. On the day I'm needing to shower and do laundry to prepare for the arrival of the company.

I was fretting about this intensely as I did the dishes this evening.

Ha.

Now that seems so minor. Except that it still is a major inconvenience that contributes to the weight of the second two whammies that hit in the two hours after I finished the dishes. The first of these was in play while I was doing the dishes, unbeknownst to me. Ed's younger brother and his son who live locally stopped by while I was still in the kitchen and as I was on my way back to our room Ed was on his way out the door with his brother saying he had to help him lift something out of the truck. When he came back in he beckoned me to follow him back to the kitchen where there was a HUGE TV sitting on the kitchen table.

His brother had just upgraded his living room flat screen and moved the old flat screen into their bedroom and now was giving this one to us. This TV is only two or three years old and is HD ready and it is eight inches bigger on the diagonal than the one we have in here right now. It is way too big to fit in the slot of the entertainment center so it will have to go on top. But currently the top is piled to the cieling with shelves and storage containers.


This is so dejevu.

It was about this time last year--actually it was during NaNo last year, just after Thanksgiving, that my in-laws upgraded their living room TV to a flat screen and wanted to switch out the ancient TV in our room--their guest room--with the larger and newer one being replaced by the flat screen. This switch was made during the last week of NaNoWriMo and turned our already messy and crowded room into a chaotic jumble.

A jumble I made much worse when I packed for my trip to Longview to visit my Mom and sister the day after NaNo. A mess that was made even worse by the two weeks of Ed batching in it while working ten hour days. A mess I had to come back to three days before Christmas needing to unpack and go Christmas shopping and prepare for the family festivities here.


Look close at the top of that picture. That's the top of the closet, see the closet rod in the background? I was standing on the bed to get this before shot. To put this in context, see more pictures of the condition of our room this time last year in my Thursday Thirteen #68.

The first week of January was devoted to a total makeover of the room which I documented in the following week's Thursday Thirteen #69. The picture showing the top of the entertainment center above is from after the makeover. Ed wants to move all of that off to make room for a monster TV. The idea just overwhelms me.

With the next three days consumed with family events and him not having another day off work until next Wednesday we can't even do anything about it until then. Except that I can try to do some prep work for it by packing smaller items into boxes and bags that can be schlepped easier. As this is going to entail a total rearranging of that entire wall of the entertainment center and my side of the bed aka my office. Ed spent half an hour talking me down and brainstorming how we could make it work. And then he settled down to sleep as I was thinking aloud that maybe it would as long as my Mom and sister wait until late next week to travel north.

And then my cell phone rang.

It was my sister calling from California, near Sacramento, where they were visiting my Mom's eldest sister when my Mom fell and broke her hip just before Thanksgiving. I posted about it here. I was slated to travel north with them immediately after NaNo like last year and spend a couple weeks before Christmas. But Mom's accident changed all of that. She wouldn't be able to travel by car until they released her from rehab and no firm date for that was set as it would depend on her progress. Besides the mobility issues from the hip they were also working with her on some aphasia and confusion caused by a minor stroke from a blood clot post surgery.

And the plan has been for me to travel north with them for an indefinite stay to help my sister care for my Mom.

My sister was calling to say that Mom is being released from rehab tomorrow and they are planning to travel north Sunday, stay in a motel near me Sunday night and head on to Longview on Monday. Could I be ready?