May 1st arrived this year, with me overwhelmed by several major tasks that needed to be taken care of. These were sapping my brain power, even making me unable to concentrate on many other things needed.
One task was finding a new family car. We decided to do this almost a year ago, but had trouble finding the one we wanted. We finally found something close, though at a dealer in Oklahoma City. Since we have multiple trips there to help our daughter’s family move, that worked out well. We bought the new van on May 18. Our oldest grandson named it the Silver Dragon, a name that I guess will stick. One main task out of the way. The actual completion of this task was held up in a paperwork mix-up by the dealership. That was completed the week before last, and the vehicle is legal.
A second main task was selling my now-not-needed pick-up. I didn’t want to advertise it until we had the new car. Even then I was slow to do so. But I mentioned to a colleague in another engineering company it was for sale. He spread the word, and one of his co-workers wanted it for his son. The deal was concluded, then he moved out of state and said he didn’t need it. I was getting ready to advertise it when his daughter contacted me, saying she wanted it based on her dad’s recommendation. She picked it up two weeks ago. Task #2 out of the way.
The biggest task was finding a new living situation for my mother-in-law. She’s lived with us for 2 1/2 years. Her care was beginning to increase, and she and my wife didn’t get along all that well. For her sake, we needed to find her a place to live—not a nursing home, though, as she wasn’t in need of that much care. My wife looked around, and found a room available at an assisted living facility just a little over a mile from our house. She moved there around May 15, and seems to be happy and acclimating well. Task #3 out of the way. Obviously my numbering scheme is in relation to the order of them in this post, not in terms of importance or of completion.
Scheduling a trip to see our son in Chicago, and actually doing that, which we hadn’t done in many years was another major task. We did that last weekend, taking six days including drive time and a day in Springfield IL on the return trip. We had a great time, and our son seemed to as well. Another major task completed, but I don’t want it to appears it was a “task”, as the word carries negative connotations. It was something we wanted to do and did it, something that, once done, allowed me to concentrate on other things.
One other task was the paperwork following my auto accident in February. That’s not actually complete, but the main work of it is. I settled with the other guy’s insurance company for an amount (less than I hoped for). We’re just waiting for some late medical bills to come in, after which it will all be settled.
Which brings me to minor tasks. One of those is semi-major, working out a dispute between my company and a client, on a project I took over for someone else who has since left the company. The negotiations are about over. Now we’re at the point where we have to have the corrections constructed at the site. That will require me to travel to Minneapolis once or twice. That’s a significant task, but is doable, and I have help within the company.
I have a few maintenance tasks around our property, and tasks related to de-cluttering. I’m pleased, in general, with how they’re going. Still plenty to do, but I see progress being made.
Which brings me down to today. Yesterday afternoon I went to The Dungeon after church and lunch. It had been over ten days since I’d written a blog post. I decided that, rather than work on my novel, I should take time to write a real post. So I worked on this. I hope this is the first step in getting back to regular blogging. Monday and Friday are my posting days. See you on Friday, I hope, with a substantial post.