I go through the house every little bit to find things to FreeCycle. Usually I’ll put together a bunch of toys Alyssa isn’t interested in, or clothes she outgrew (most recently I had a bag full of summer clothes and another bag full of fall clothes, and a third bag of shoes and sandals that I scrubbed and washed so they’re almost as good as new). Last week we purchased a coffee table & end tables set, but only purchased it for the end tables, as we have a coffee table. So that went up on FC. The other day we got a new sofa, so I happily FCed the old one.
Anyway, I give people my address, and tell them to check Mapquest if they’d like a map and turn-by-turn directions. I then give them my directions – roads and landmarks to look for. I describe my house – color, color of shutters, the placement of the air conditioner in one of the front bedroom windows, the Halloween ornaments on our lawn, where we have potted plants, what our mailbox looks like, etc. I tell them what side of the road we’re on, the color of our cars in our driveway, etc. I even give people blow-by-blow descriptions of what they’ll see when they turn onto our road and come the 3/10 of a mile down it to our house. I even tell people how many miles it is from Major Intersection to Our Road, and then how many miles from that turn onto Our Road to our house.
Yet people still can’t find it. Amazing. We’re on a major road, right out in plain view, and even with Mapquest directions and my directions and descriptions, they can’t find it.
Daniel likes to share little gems about work – you know, the stupid things people say and do. And almost always these are people who look down their noses at fast food establishments, while they’re the ones not only patronizing the store but acting like dumbasses in the process. But whatever. At the end of the day, all the holier-than-thou attitudes won’t change the fact that as long as you’re shoveling whoppers and chicken fries in your mouth, my husband will get his salary.
So he’s in the office the other day, and gets a call from a woman. She bitches that her food is cold, and that this happens every single time she comes through the drive-thru. She gets her food, and it’s nice and hot, but when she gets home it’s cold. (Can you see where this is going?) For kicks Daniel asks her for her address. She gives it to him, and he plugs it into Mapquest. Not surprisingly, the woman lives about forty-five minutes away from the store.
Um, duh?
Oy, stress… my mother is a diabetic and has problems with neuropathy and chronic pain. On top of that, her foot is infected. It’s swollen and red and the infection is going up into her ankle. She’s running a fever from the infection. She’s been to the doctor several times, and has a bunch of antibiotics to take, but if it doesn’t clear up or if it gets worse she’ll have to be admitted to the hospital. My mom had complained to me about her foot hurting, but she didn’t elaborate much or show me, so I didn’t know how bad it was until I was over at her house last night and saw it for myself.
I don’t want her to wind up in the hospital, so now I’m taking on the burden of her household as well as mine. I was over there last night for about three hours, making dinner, cleaning, and catching up on her laundry (there’s at least six loads to be done; I’m amazed they still have clean clothes to wear!). As soon as Daniel gets back from work (he has off today, but went in to work on the schedule and to oversee a delivery) I’m going over there again to do some more laundry, clean out the hamster cages, check on Merlin and Romeo and their food and litter, and make her a late lunch.
It’s going to be a pain to fit this in… Ryan cluster feeds in the morning and then again at night, so I’m pretty much tied down. During the day he naps a lot, but I need to pump every little bit to add to my freezer stash. And there’s no point in taking Alyssa and Ryan with me to my mom’s, because I won’t get much done, whereas with just Ryan I can manage, since when I put him down I know he’s staying put. 
Throw in Daniel working a lot of later first shifts and a bunch of second shifts, it’s hard to find time to run over there when it isn’t really, really early or really, really late.
I just wish my mom had told me about this sooner, before it got so bad. I could have gone over there more often during the past week or two so she could have stayed off of her foot and rested as much as possible. Now it’s so bad, she still might wind up in the hospital.
hahahaa….45 minutes away from the drive-thru? OMG. no wonder her food is COLD. maybe someone should suggest to her to go closer to her home if she doesn’t like eating cold food. hahahaha.
so sorry to hear about your mother.
FreeCycle sounds great! I’ll have to check it out for myself. Do you get paid when your stuff is gone, or does it just get given away?
I’m sorry about your mom. I hope she feels better
I used to freecycle my old stuff. I gave it up though because half the people wouldn’t even show up to come get it. Plus all those people were so damn greedy. I never got anything off of it cause 99.9% of it was junk. I gave away some really nice stuff though.
I don’t mean to scare you, but with your mom being a diabetic an infection in her foot is VERY dangerious. My grandma had both of her legs removed because of infections in her foot. Once one foot goes the other and the legs usually go, so they say.
The woman you mentioned in Daniel’s work story…is probably one of the stupidest people I’ve ever heard of. I told my boyfriend this story and we had a good laugh at her complete lack of intellect. I used to work in retail, and I’ve gotten some stupid people, but…wow. Just, wow. That has to take the cake.
I’m really sorry about what your mom’s going through. I hope everything turns out OK.
If your mom is anything like my mom, she didn’t tell you because she knew you would want to help her, and she probably didn’t want to burden you. Sweet, but nerve wracking. My gradma was in the hospital for over a week before my mom finally called me. The reason? ‘The hospital is really far from your house and I knew you would want to be here everyday.’ Uh, doy. I hope everything will be okay with your mom and that it doesn’t get too much more serious. I’ll keep her in my prayers.
I hope your mom recovers soon. My parents are both diabetics and I know what a burden it can be. My dad had his leg amputated (up to the calf) because of an infection he refused to get checked out by a doctor. If she really needs to go, it would be best for her to get medical care at a hospital, just in case it gets any worse. It can’t be good if it’s spreading to her ankle :(.