Pat’s Polemics

Earlier I had felt a change coming with the demise…. I mean end of 2017 or, more precisely, the end of the holidays with their tumult and irregularities. And that seems to be the case. With my grandson living with us now – the second one after the eldest left in July – adjustments have been necessary, due esp. to his autism. All in all, things are going well, which leads to further complications as his parents feel bereft. Yet how much change can they handle so things won’t go back to the way they were – the status quo ante? We have our doubts.
As the old Chinese saying has it (is there any saying that is not both old and Chinese?): in chaos lies opportunity or in crisis lies opportunity. Thus I have found niches and interstices in which to plug my language studies and other readings. (see categories What I’m Reading Now and Personal Language Learning for updates)
My strategy has been shaped in part by my new responsibility, the yard. We have a very big yard and upkeep is tough. My other grandson said it took him and another crew member over 8 hours to do our yard. If I spend two or more hours a day, I can keep up. There is also the money factor as upkeep costs.
That’s another item on the list: money. Due to exigencies of family and health, we got into debt and will pull out by the middle of 2019, something to look forward to. So I’m putting off some yard and house upkeep items until then. The last two days we had a scare with our heating system, but it seems to be holding up. Both HVAC units need replacing after 14 years and that’s a hefty cost, but if they hang in there another year, we’ll be good. The same with our remaining car after Old Betsy gave up the ghost a few months ago. Thanks to our son, we have either a 1982 Mercedes or a 2013 Volt as the second car, not often necessary but sometimes, yes.
Coincidentally, I finished my in-pool exercises my wife’s nephew gave me and have transferred them to dry land (see Category Health).
A major house repair issue we got done, thanks to a friend, was recovering our deck. That ties in to my reading and language study b/c that’s where I like to do a lot of it.
All in all, the new year is looking up in all areas as long as we tough it out another year. The big question is does our grandson continue living with us and will our eldest one recover his physical, mental, and financial health. Here’s hoping.