More than a year...
Apr. 4th, 2022 04:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
realsorien... Since I last posted. A lot has happened, good and bad. To start off, I haven't mentioned this elsewhere, but my Dad had been diagnosed with prostate cancer several years back. They'd initially told him that he'd probably pass from old age long before the cancer became an issue. They were wrong on that.
The cancer metastized, moving into his arm, liver and elsewhere. It was about a yearlong slide, and he passed away on July 19, 2021, at about 5 PM. I got there minutes after he'd gone. It's all over, the grieving mostly done, and life has continued. I miss him, but I was ready for it, so it didn't hit me nearly as hard as it did mom and my brother. And that's the worst of what's gone on in the last year.
Now for more stupid stuff. After he passed, my parent's neighbors across the back yard, the Holcolmbs, were having issues of their own. Jan's knee was in desperate need of surgery, and Dean was in and out of psychological care. Their daughter came out to visit, saw the situation and determined that she was going to move them out to Oregon with her, so she could help.
You might be wondering how this impacts me- well, in two ways. First, Mom and Paul (my brother) volunteered to help clean out their house after they moved, and assist in the sale. This... Was likely a mistake. I won't go into details, but it was a hellscape of labor and surprises. Regardless, they got through it, and Jan offered them her car as partial repayment for the assistance.
My mom and brother being who they are, they refused and outright gift, and paid about $5000 for it, roughly half the blue book value. A good deal, right? Riiiiight. There were problems from the start, which I'll not get into, but the long and short was that it took from August of 2021 to April of 2022 to get the damn thing running.
Originally, the plan had been that I would receive Dad's old car after he passed; that changed when Paul's minivan crapped out completely. I'll note here, I have NO problem with this. He has busted his ass to help both my parents and me over the years, and he deserves whatever benefits come his way. The plan changed to me getting the Holcolmb's car. This was fine, til my old Beast, a 2001 LeSaber, started having more and more problems. For the last two weeks I've been using Dad's car, and Paul has been sharing vehicles with mom and Maggie, his daughter.
However, that's all done, finally. As of yesterday, I have my 'new' car- a 2014 Buick Lacrosse. It has a rebuilt engine (turns out all the problems stemmed from a cracked block- ouch), and so has 72,000 miles on the body, and about 60 miles on the engine. So, woot.
That's all the big stuff. I'm healthy, well-wheeled, and employed. The tabletop games I'm in go well, and I'm making a vague effort to eat at least a little bit better. Spaz is fine, still has kidney problems but is mostly healthy otherwise. He has bad teeth, not uncommon for his age, and will be going in for a cleaning (and probably one extraction) in 10 days.
So, that's the update. Maybe I'll post more frequently... But probably not.
The cancer metastized, moving into his arm, liver and elsewhere. It was about a yearlong slide, and he passed away on July 19, 2021, at about 5 PM. I got there minutes after he'd gone. It's all over, the grieving mostly done, and life has continued. I miss him, but I was ready for it, so it didn't hit me nearly as hard as it did mom and my brother. And that's the worst of what's gone on in the last year.
Now for more stupid stuff. After he passed, my parent's neighbors across the back yard, the Holcolmbs, were having issues of their own. Jan's knee was in desperate need of surgery, and Dean was in and out of psychological care. Their daughter came out to visit, saw the situation and determined that she was going to move them out to Oregon with her, so she could help.
You might be wondering how this impacts me- well, in two ways. First, Mom and Paul (my brother) volunteered to help clean out their house after they moved, and assist in the sale. This... Was likely a mistake. I won't go into details, but it was a hellscape of labor and surprises. Regardless, they got through it, and Jan offered them her car as partial repayment for the assistance.
My mom and brother being who they are, they refused and outright gift, and paid about $5000 for it, roughly half the blue book value. A good deal, right? Riiiiight. There were problems from the start, which I'll not get into, but the long and short was that it took from August of 2021 to April of 2022 to get the damn thing running.
Originally, the plan had been that I would receive Dad's old car after he passed; that changed when Paul's minivan crapped out completely. I'll note here, I have NO problem with this. He has busted his ass to help both my parents and me over the years, and he deserves whatever benefits come his way. The plan changed to me getting the Holcolmb's car. This was fine, til my old Beast, a 2001 LeSaber, started having more and more problems. For the last two weeks I've been using Dad's car, and Paul has been sharing vehicles with mom and Maggie, his daughter.
However, that's all done, finally. As of yesterday, I have my 'new' car- a 2014 Buick Lacrosse. It has a rebuilt engine (turns out all the problems stemmed from a cracked block- ouch), and so has 72,000 miles on the body, and about 60 miles on the engine. So, woot.
That's all the big stuff. I'm healthy, well-wheeled, and employed. The tabletop games I'm in go well, and I'm making a vague effort to eat at least a little bit better. Spaz is fine, still has kidney problems but is mostly healthy otherwise. He has bad teeth, not uncommon for his age, and will be going in for a cleaning (and probably one extraction) in 10 days.
So, that's the update. Maybe I'll post more frequently... But probably not.
