. It's 2:57 a.m. EST. Can't sleep, so might as well post to Savings Advice...
Saturday I had high hopes of getting the "medallion signature" on the T. Rowe Price forms at my mother's bank so I could finally mail T. Rowe the paperwork needed to gain complete control over my mother's brokerage accounts, 1 full year after they mailed me the forms. (At the time I received them, the paperwork seemed overwhelming with everything else going on and I just couldn't deal with it.)
Unfortunately, the bank couldn't do anything for me because they said I needed to have brought the most recent T. Rowe statement with me, which I hadn't done. And I didn't have my ID/Password with me for the account.
So I'll likely have to wait til next Saturday to do this AGAIN as I can't get over there during the work week. Also, only the branch manager can perform this task and she told me she's on vacation next week. I'll have to go to another branch, where they don't know me, and call ahead to make sure the branch manager will be there when I go.
I had a good visit with my mother. She's still not making any sense, but at least she's calm and was happy to see me.
Yesterday, Sunday, was a pretty heavenly day. Meaning, I stayed home and had the day to myself with no real agenda or to do list as I usually do.
In the morning I wound up tidying up in the house. "Tidying up" these days is a relative term, but I've been doing what I can.
I spent several hours sorting through my mother' art. To be honest, she had a fair number of framed or unframed photographs which I don't believe would ever sell. I don't have the same attachment to her photos as I do to her art. So I made the decision to reuse the frames they were in, and then I was able to carry them up to my attic for long-term storage. The unframed photos I'll dispose of. I have to make room around here, especially knowing I'll be getting back the 31 pieces soon from the current exhibit.
I was also able to frame 2 matted pieces of art that I thought could sell and if not I would keep them myself. I kept shaking my head because my mother appears to have a lot of matted art that is not in the standard sizes. I have A LOT of matted art in VERY large sizes as well, meaning that framing any of them will be fairly expensive because it will all be custom. I do have a few in mind that I like and plan to frame, because i know that over time just being mounted on foam core, they can get damaged. Now's the time to preserve what I can.
Also to make room, I hung more art on the walls. And there is now room for when Make a Home Foundation comes on Tuesday to take away my couch. Once the couch is gone, I'll plan on storing there most of the other art that is coming back to me and also the art now sitting on the floor of my living room. The family room is unheated over the winter but I don't think the cold will affect the art.
Although it was a PERFECT weather day today, bright, sunny and in the low 60s, I didn't really get outside til about 3 pm. After drinking my tea outside on the lawn chair, I decided to get to work getting rid of the pile of plastic pots at the head of my driveway. They'd been sitting there all summer and this is how I stored all the hundreds of flower bulbs I dug up to save them before the masons came to rebuild my front entry in June. I wanted to get the bulbs back in the ground before winter, plus there were overgrown weeds in all the pots, looking like a real eyesore.
I planted everything rather hurriedly; who knows what will come up or if I planted at the proper depth. The plastic pots are in the recycle bin. I swept up most of the leaves in that corner. I still have a humongous mulch pile in the driveway which you have to walk around to get to another set of stone stairs leading to my backyard. I'd wanted the Make a Home guys to carry my couch out through the sun room, into the backyard, and down these stairs becus the sun room door is wider than my front door, plus art is in the way all over the place. But the mulch pile is a bit of an obstacle. I shoveled some of it into a trash bin in my garage but there's still quite a bit more.
Anyway, in addition to all that, I also spent some time deadheading my coral bell bed. I loaded up my car with a bunch of cardboard boxes and paper for recycling when I stop at the landfill on my way to work on Wednesday.
I also enjoyed perusing the pumpkins at the local garden center. I had an orange one, but wanted some more for my beautiful new bluestone step entryway. The steps are plenty wide for pots or pumpkins. So I bought another orange one but with lots of warts (I love warts on a pumpkin) and a cool pinkish colored one.
My reading materials these days is a book about the Okinawa diet. Okinawa, an island off the coast of Japan, is home to some of the longest lived people on the planet, and not surprisingly, they eat a largely plant-based diet.
Which leads me to a phone call I need to make. I don't at all like the food they are feeding my mother at rehab. Granted, she is eating it all, but that's because she has dementia. Pre-dementia, she would NEVER eat this stuff. Sugary desserts at both lunch and dinner. Lots of white bread, sugary drinks, stingy on the fruits and vegetables. The typical American diet. I bring her one of her favorites, nuts, whenever I visit, but that's not enough. Fresh fruit for dessert would be much better, for a start.
It galls me that a facility that should be dedicated to promoting a healthy diet is not doing so. When I was last there, some old ladies from some group were there for their monthly visit, distributing snacks to the rehab residents. Needless to say, it was more sugary treats...little cupcakes with a Halloween theme and matching napkins. I know they were trying to do something nice, but most people have no idea how harmful their diet is. Sugar accelerates aging at the cellular level, leads to obesity and diabetes, feeds candida, rots your teeth, raises your blood sugar and much worse. It just amazes me that so many people are so ignorant about something as basic and important as the food they eat.
It's 3:35 a.m. I suppose I should get back to bed. Good night....er, I mean, good morning!
Weekend doings
October 12th, 2015 at 07:36 am
October 12th, 2015 at 09:21 am 1444641669
October 12th, 2015 at 10:42 am 1444646548
October 12th, 2015 at 02:50 pm 1444661406
October 12th, 2015 at 02:59 pm 1444661997
As for the diet, or bad diet, do you think it is like our schools...kids will often leave the fruits and vegetables so they don't serve them? Everything I've been reading has been saying too much sugar does present problems and it seems to be a big problem with dementia/Alzheimer's.
October 12th, 2015 at 03:22 pm 1444663352
Rob6, I think it may be different with dementia patients. AT least with my mother, she will eat whatever you give her. So I want to get her back on track with better food choices because she can no longer make those choices on her own. I don't think the answer to getting kids to eat better begins with capitulating to their bad eating habits though. Although I never had kids, I've known many adult "problem eaters," like my friend Ron who lived for decades on mainly pizza, burgers and the like. Now he has prostate cancer and this is one of those cancers they say is very much a lifestyle disease. Sadly, he has no interest in even trying to change his eating habits. I even once met someone on an online dating site and when he learned I was vegan, I never heard from him again. His first question is one I've heard a million times: Where do you get your protein? My answer was that Americans eat far more protein than they actually need and the more important question for typical American eaters should be, Where do you get your fiber?
October 13th, 2015 at 02:44 am 1444704287
October 13th, 2015 at 05:03 pm 1444755800