Strong women need help too

My mom has had a companion for over 20 years. Companion is her word as she doesn't feel comfortable with 'boyfriend' at her age.

He has been ill for several months and in a nursing home. This weekend he took a serious turn for the worse and after 3 days in ICU has finally passed on and is at peace. My mom has shouldered all the responsibility for this alone as his son that used to be in contact with him, has not returned any calls.

My mom will have an appointment today with the funeral home for the paperwork part (Joe and I have been in touch with the funeral home all weekend so she didn't have to be) and she thought she'd just go alone. Hah!  I stayed home and away from the hospital to take care of things otherwise for her that needed doing, but I will not let her go to this alone. I asked her if she would let me go alone and she said NO WAY.. of course, I then asked why she thought  I would let her go alone. I told her that she has 2 choices.. either she meets me here and we go from my job, or I meet her there and thats that.

The warm fuzzy feeling

Our previous home was a joy in the cooler months. Added to that was Joe's reticense on paying for enough fuel (oil or wood) to heat the home properly. We tended to live like polar bears .. or at least it felt like that. I won my battles with the wood stove regularly to make sure  we were warm enough. It also was so drafty that as soon as it got cooler, we started bundling up. The 'master bedroom' generally leveled out around 55 degrees without the space heater. Brrrrrrr. We had gotten used to it, but our parents worried about us. JP was always kept warm. if we had a time with really cold house temps we put on the space heaters as well.

One of the things we looked for in a new place was heat included, which we found. Our new landlords keep the temp at 70 degrees in a locked thermostat, which is fine by me. Last night the temps dipped to a chilly 44 degrees outside. In our bedroom we had one window partially open ( an inch or so) and a window fan in the other window. I woke up this morning and it was 65 degrees in the bedroom - yay! finally a house that will keep us warm!

Peanu't Weekly Wednesday - Ahhhh room to hide...errrr I mean move

So the new place is pretty awesome. My first night there Mom will tell you I actually pranced down the hallway.. yes I can prance. I love that I have so much room and if I need some time to myself, well there are plenty of places to  go. My favorite is under the end table in the living room. Quiet, and out of the way of that cat and JP.

Now I do have one complaint. The neighbors.. the 4 legged ones. I think every home in our little 'commune' has at least one dog. First off this means I can't be free roaming...sigh, not happy about that. Second are the 'chatty' ones. Especially our non-commune neighbor to the left of our house. EVERY morning between 6-6:15AM they let him out. EVERY morning, he starts barking at NOTHING right away.

I of course bark back to tell him to be quiet... I'm slowly learning that this is not considered polite by Mom who doesn't appreciate my alarm clock tendencies. I think I need to sleep with puppy earphones.. do they make them in Corgi size?