Today, I got to shovel again. Whoopee! So, we get a glimpse into daily life around the ole F.O.S.

Actually it wasn’t that bad and I don’t mind getting the exercise. The last snow we had last week we got quite a bit but all the gook I threw down took pretty good care of it.

I wasn’t sure we were going to get a lot of snow. I kept watching the TV yesterday into the night somehow hoping the forecast would change. I just hated last week with the cold weather and I was really hoping it would get just warm enough we would have rain. I can’t complain too much about the cold though, I just play hermit and avoid going out.

So, I got the driveway shoveled and then I threw down the last of the stuff I had gotten since it was still snowing. It was good since it meant that I wouldn’t have to go out again. I even did part of the neighbor’s driveway — the bottom part, the hard part where the plow kicks back all the snow from the street. It was a matter of self-interest in a way since we’re downhill from those neighbors and I was insuring the next time the plow came through I didn’t just kick a bunch of snow back into the driveway.

I was also hoping my neighbor would ‘get it’ and the next time we had snow, shovel the way I did since I went up the street in front of his house and took a lot of the snow and just shoveled it back up out of the street. This way the next time the plow came through he didn’t wind up with ‘plow mess.’

Afterward I went in and told the EYOC (that’s Eighty Year Old Child for the uninitiated) that the ‘guys’ had come to shovel and asked how much I should tip them. He got all up in arms about tipping anyone who shoveled the driveway. Then, to add fuel to the fire, I said it had cost $30 to shovel the driveway.

Well that hit a nerve, last time we had a heavy snow though the guys knocking on the door actually wanted a bit more than that (and I couldn’t blame them - it is a bit of work). I wanted to make a point.

So, he turned and said, “Didn’t you shovel it? I saw you outside I thought you were taking the snow off?”

The EYOC hasn’t shoveled in years, not since he was the SFYOC (Sixty Five Year Old Child) or even before, I always had those images of seeing him keeled over in the driveway. As much as I may not get along with him at times, I wouldn’t let that happen.

Anyway, I said to him, “Yeah, the snow crew came and shoveled the driveway for you.”

He was mumbling and grumbling when I just turned around and said finally that I had in fact shoveled but, maybe he should think about paying me for it. I didn’t want money from him and I said that. What I did want is to be able to stop hearing him complain about me on the phone all the time and that’s what I said.

This caused him great consternation. His first response was to yell on how we should just have the phone taken out of the house because he can’t have a private conversation - this is from the guy who has the door closed but, whose hearing is so incredibly bad the level of his voice can be heard rather clearly in the basement.

On the subject of his hearing, when he pulls into the driveway you can hear (I mean, you actually know) what radio station he has on. When he has the TV on sometimes, you can actually watch the same channel in another part of the house without the sound on and follow everything rather well (I have confronted him at times about this by knocking on his door and telling him the neighbors called and asked if he would turn his TV up because they can’t quite hear it clearly).

He has every right to complain as much as he wants, I just don’t want to hear it. It gets a little much at times. After washing his dishes, taking out his trash, cooking for him, fixing everything around the house that breaks (which is how I spent a better part of Saturday - fixing the exercise bike I gave him because he broke the thing) you grow tired of hearing someone complain about you instead of at least appreciating the efforts you put in on their behalf.

I’m not alone in this, I know other people dealing with older family members going through much the same thing but, I have been doing a lot longer than a lot of people realize.

Anyway, the snow got shoveled and I gave him a bit of grief. He actually had been invited to go out with a lady friend but as he put it ‘he doesn’t want her to get the wrong idea.’ This translates into, ‘if I let her get too close she’ll come to rely on me and I don’t want to feel responsible to anyone.’

This is a lifelong trait.

So, that got done and the bike got fixed and I managed to get some things around here cleaned up reclaiming more open floor. My life has become a quest to throw things out and reclaim floor space - what does that say about me.

I’m never sure who reads so, I’m sorry to bore. I had meant to write the other day about Bush’s announcement regarding the space program, about watching Dick Gephardt speak and also about MLK’s birthday which was this past Thursday but, in each instance I crashed when trying to upload the entries so, it’s just more mundane stuff — if I’m motivated later maybe I can come up with something more entertaining.