Life in Middle Girth

Mood: Confused
Listening to: Birds twittering

Holy guacamole what's been going on here? Suddenly my nice safe comfortable blog has gone all sterile and odd.  I'm not a great one for change, but will try to keep an open mind.

I'm lost for words actually! Feel most disorientated.

Logic tells me to catch up on the biggie of the household, the husband's health, so that's where I'll start. Mind you he's about to get up and I don't like blogging about people who are around me.... We saw the surgeon last week and have booked in for a "laproscopically assisted right hemicolectomy" on August 31. That will involve 5-7 days in hospital, then at least two weeks recovering at home. Part of what they will remove is some lymph nodes or glands, and its not until that bit gets analysed that we will know one way or another, cancer or merely pre cancer. Waiting is not a pleasant thing, causes lots of tiredness, tension,  niggles - but we have lots of distractions too.

Next biggie - the house. New or old? Well as for the old, we put it on the market the week before last with the thinking that by selling up we'd at least know what we had to work on with the new house. The up side will be no bridging finance except what we've got for the section, but the downside is the likelihood of having to move out and rent somewhere before the new place gets built. If we could have our druthers, it would be to find a buyer who will pay the asking price and be happy either for settlement to be way down the track when we're ready, or have us rent until we can move into the new house. We'll just have to take what comes, but then we're getting good at that, comes with practice.

Selling is all a bit of a worry for a person who has been an inefficient housewife for the last twenty something years. Not to mention a hoarder of all things. When the real estate agent first came through I had two hours notice - amazing how much you can pick up and stuff in cardboard boxes in two hours! The trouble is, now I have to go through the boxes to sort the crap from the uncrap. And I can't find lots of things, whereas when they were randomly strewn over the place, I could. The dreadful part is that although we know how great the improvement has been already, an outsider would still cast their eye over the place and think "what a mess"! Even I am beginning to look through a stranger's eye at the house. Sigh. Put it on the list. The To Do list.

The week of the "listing", I was off work with small who had chicken pox. I'd thought he was going to be the only kid in class who missed it, but he was just a late starter.  Lots happened that week, or maybe I was just aware of it because I was home. There was the argument with the rubbish men, they'd missed our wheelie bin the week before and wouldn't take my excess because it wasn't in official bags - after twenty minutes of being staunch and strong I resorted to feeble female weapons, snivelling and mentioning my sick child etc etc. Despicable I know but it worked, then I blasted the office lady because she'd given me special dispensation but hadn't told the guys on the truck. Then there was the visit from the MIL who has been telling all in sundry about the hubby's health and making it sound as though we need to get the shovel out....and the daughter from hell who is still not speaking much to us, although she came home briefly this weekend and spoke but we wish she hadn't because none of it was  pleasant and positive, its all negative and critical which gets a bit hard to bear sometimes.

On a lighter note.....Harold the Tranny.  Not his, er, her real name, but let it suffice.  This six foot vision with pink and purple braided hair, long fingernails, boobs and a two day growth appeared at work and asked me, "Where's the toilet?". At least that's what my ears heard....He had a child with him, about seven I guess, so, assuming it was for the child, I said, "follow me", and half way out to the back I took the drink the child was holding and gave it to "Harold", and we carried on, out the back and up the stairs. "Why are you bringing us here?" asked Harold. "There's the toilet", I replied helpfully. "But I don't want to go", said Harold. "Yes you do," I answered, confused, "you asked where it was!" "I asked where's the Twink!" Oh-My-God.........I have never been so embarrassed in my life. Apologies were profuse, I would willingly have flushed myself away if I could have. The walk back downstairs, out to the shop, to the Twink, to the counter was excruciating. Of course, all the other girls were watching this because of the very interesting nature of the customer, and when they twigged what I'd done, it was almost too much for them. There was a fifteen second pause as "Harold" left the store, then total, utter collapse all round. Strangely enough, the following week our Twink sales were phenomenal, and not at all connected with the Harold incident. But it only takes a customer to ask for Twink and we're off again........

Had cousin from Australia visit this weekend. He arrived in NZ on Wednesday but his bag didn't, so that was a bit of a drama. He got it back eventually on Friday, but not before we'd been shopping for clothes.... I thought he'd do a freeze (we were) but he didn't seem bothered, even went up to Ruapehu on Saturday but without joy as the weather packed in and just got wetter and bleaker. He'd come over to visit his mum who is in a rest home here, but I don't think she knew him, and didn't want to go for a drive with him mainly I suspect for that reason. He soldiered on through three visits though, good on him. He's gone back to Aus now.

Right, I should go for a walk. Have been doing zero exercise and binge eating (comfort eating?) and the result is that I am now the heaviest I have ever been in my life, including when I was pregnant. Yes I feel guilty, but that only makes me reach for another slice of cheese or bag of chips....

Hope this all works, I'll be devastated if it doesn't.

Jaybee