Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Jim, Jim, And My Tiresome Day

It was a pleasant surprise to get a comment here from Jim Wetzel. He and I had followed each other's blogs for several years, but then he withdrew from society,  moved to a cave in deepest Iowa, and spent the rest of his life contemplating his...
Okay, not so, but I was glad to hear from him.
As for my day--it seems to have been a series of misses. I called Mike Williams at Grey Law and after I explain the "utilities bill" situation, he looked up the law and yes, it's perfectly legal, as I expected. It's unbelievable how the politicians in this state issue all kinds of pronouncements about how expensive housing is here and how tough it is on people, knowing very well they've allowed laws designed to do exactly that. Anyway, I emailed those who had received my letter in error to tell them.
My brother, Jim, called again to get my address. At 94, he's getting somewhat slow and confused, I'm afraid. I'm still hoping to visit when he and Therese move to Bangkok in August.
I tackled trying to get my deposit of $283.15 back from AirBnB. I literally (and I know that doesn't mean "sort of") spent hours on-line and trying to get them on the phone. I "chatted" with several people, who kept pushing me up to case managers and above. I think--but I'm actually not sure--that I got the refund, less thirty-six something for "cleaning" and "taxes." How this can be justified for a trip from June 11 to 24 is beyond me, but at this point, I'll just settle for something.
All that meant I didn't walk to Green Thumb, which I wanted to do. In fact, I didn't go out at all until 4:30, when I was completely drained from staying in. I changed (it had gotten very windy and cool), walked to the bus stop, and boarded. Got off at the mall and went to Target, didn't buy anything, and went back home.
Betty called and asked, "how are you?" I told her I was very down re the thwarted trip to Jersey and her response was, "Oh. Well, guess what I did today?" She played a game with Carolyn and "I got them all right. Want to hear them? Here they are..." and so on and so on. She even worked in the story of how son Wes got a perfect score on the LSATs (I've heard this a million times and it happened thirty years ago) and how all her grandchildren are on the honor roll. I just said, "I have to go. Goodbye."
I know this is rotten of me because my twin sister has dementia and is getting worse all the time, but in this particular instance, I had just run all out of sympathy and patience. I couldn't stand to listen to it anymore. Yes, I should be ashamed, but I'm not. I know she won't remember the exchange anyway, which is--what's that old saying?--oh, yes, both a blessing and a curse.
Called Ellen on my way home and, as ever, felt a lot better after chatting with her.

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Thursday

Left for the mall and Target a bit after 10:00. Returned the two large towels, picked up two packages of blueberries, then walked to The Mar...