It has been 2 weeks. I leave the house at 8, get to school by 9. Class begins at 9:30. I have a lunch break then, after school, I either plan lessons or head home. I alternate late days with early days. Early I am out of class by 2, the other 4. Early days I try to run errands, late days I try to make it home in time to get dinner cooked before either A or D leave at 6.

Colin is doing well with both of them. He has learned to tell A when to stop cleaning. He and D are best buds and make all kinds of plans for excursions, meeting friends and having fun. In addition they do his therapies as well as take him to the doctor. So long as nobody gets ill, we are ok.

Ian came to visit the first week. He arrived about 10 am on Thursday the 23rd. I was at work. They hung out until I got home with some food. It was my late day so I didn’t want to be cooking while Ian was home. We all hung out until I had to get ready for bed. I got Colin into his bed but left Ian to give him his meds and turn everything off. I even turned off the monitor.

Friday Colin was up when I was making coffee, Ian not long after. D arrived at 6 then I left for work. They had plans to see a movie then we were meeting for dinner at 5. This gave me until 4:30 to get school work done, pick up Sam and get to Pismo’s. Sam and I arrived first, got a table, ordered drinks and appetizers. Ian, Colin, Brandon and D all arrived by 5:15. After more drinks, great meals and a $200 tab, we left for home. I let D keep the Subaru so he did not have to drive up then back down, I took the van home. He was back on duty tomorrow so it worked out for all of us.

It seems lately,  when someone visits, we have a major job going on. Today, Saturday,  we are replacing the kitchen floor with the remaining tile from Colin’s room. We empty the kitchen. The refrigerator is in the family room, the cart in the dining room, everything else any place we can find. We still have had no opportunity to clean the room Colin was in nor even begin to tackle the mile of cardboard and clean up outside. D was there so Ian and I went down to the grocery store, picked up Sam and headed home. I would be cooking on the grill for the next few days. My husband was dealing with materials and the tile guy.

For the rest of Saturday we hung out, ate, started drinking too early, ate late, stayed up late and enjoyed hanging out. We paid far too much for a movie but still had a good time making fun of it. They all lasted far longer than I. I put Colin to bed around 11:30, left Ian and Sam to take care of the meds and night logistics. Colin did not sleep. He had his brother put on the TV at 3:30 am. He did not go back to sleep. I was up with him then at 7.

Sunday A arrived at 9. Colin had some coffee then finally went to sleep. He slept till 10. Ian and Sam hung out. A got him up then we all hung out in his room where it was cool. I got a bit more school work done, but not enough to make a dent it what I needed to do. My class website is not operational as I allowed the domain to expire. I have registered another one but needed to get it activated on the servers. Then I had to add content. I am so far behind. I worked for a coupe hours, then said enough.

We had to cook outside again, all meals. We managed to eat well regardless of the cooking limitations. The house and yard was looking worse than ever. Further behind again.

The afternoon, evening was spent hanging out after Colin was up. We still has to rein A in from cleaning and I finally just told her it was 7 at 6:30 and time for her to head home. We enjoyed another evening. Ian had at leave by 6 the next morning to return South. Santa Monica is a nice place but it is a nightmare to get to. I had Colin in bed by 10, myself by 11.

Monday morning I got up at 5:30, made sure Ian was up, made coffee. He left at 6, I went back yo bed. He barely woke Colin to say goodbye. I was up for his 7 am meds, D arrived at 8 and I headed to town to begin my second week back on the job. The tile was not quite finished but would be by Tuesday morning.

Monday night was quieter than last week but Tuesday morning I was dead tired. By the afternoon I was dragging myself through. Colin skipped PT last week since the van is still without suspension. No word from the mobility shop as to when the part arrives. Fucking thing cost $400, it should be there!

He did not skip it a second time. In fact, he texted me that he HANDLED therapy, then went to a friend’s house in town until 9 pm He got home just in time for his 10 pm meds. D helped me get him in bed, the  headed home himself. I was in bed by 11:30. His sinuses were completely clogged. He could not breath. I was up every 45 minutes to apply Vick’s, adjust him so he could at least breath a little. His mouth was dry so he had water then also. I tried to sleep on his futon couch but the 8 lb dog took all the space. By 4 am I went back to my room. Was back up at 5, then 6:30 so I stayed up. I barely made it through Wednesday at school. It hurt to climb the stairs, to pass out papers. I stumbled out by 3:30, made it home to make dinner.

By then we were able to move things back into the kitchen. I had my kitchen back to normal. Now the plan is to start working on getting the yard and the rest of the house in order. We only have weekends to do it. Three day weekend is coming.

Thursday all I had to do after work was pick up rats for the snake. I cooked dinner, fed Colin and even managed a little school work too. I would have felt more productive if I wasn’t still far behind. His nerve pain is returning also. The med adjustments seem to work fine for a couple weeks, then taper off. again every morning and evening from his lower back to his feet he has burning sensations that drive him crazy. Regular pain medicine will not help. Only the nerve pain meds they are adjusting. He goes back to the Neurologist on the 11th. Hopefully they can come closer to a long term solution.

By Friday he had had enough of being at home. I got a text inviting me to a Brazilian place for dinner with him, Loni and D. I was off work by 4, leaving campus by 4:15. We met at a bar, had a drink until the place opened at 5. We had a nice dinner, I got a meal for my husband then went to the grocery store. I was the first one home at 8, Colin, D and my husband all arrived together. We sent D home, hung out, streamed a movie and went to bed late. We all slept in Saturday morning. This was my day on duty with Colin so we could take our time. My husband and I decided Saturday was our rest day, Sunday and Monday we would get work done when A and D were here.  By noon we had done nothing but have coffee, toast and  barely finished Colin’s BMP. It was nice to have no people coming, no work being done. Just the pending work that will take so long, it is easy to ignore.

Colin wanted to go outside despite the poor air quality from the fires in Yosemite. While he hung out in the shade of the trees I began to breakdown the cardboard and put it in the truck. By the time we finished with most of it, the truck bed was full. But at least it was’t all over the fucking place anymore. Every tiny bit we get done gets us closer to having the disaster we call our home and yard back to the way we want it.