And so it goes...

I'm sitting with a cup of hot coffee looking out my kitchen window and watching yet more snow fall on the broken branches that litter my back yard. Billy Joel is playing on Rhapsody, his music a perfect match for my melancholy mood.

Yesterday was a challenging day. Dad had been without power until Saturday night and had been staying at Colleen's, so I volunteered to take him home. I picked him up at 10, and we cruised by my house so he could see all the damage done to the trees in my yard and all the work still yet to do cleaning up the mess.

I had forgotten that since he lives way out in the county, his street is never plowed. It was still ice-covered when we turned down toward his house. I had thought my neighborhood looked bad, but his was much worse. Each and every house had branches down, gutters pulled away, trees broken in half. His house was no exception.

When my brother-in-law picked Dad up last week, he took some pictures and emailed them to me, so I knew there was considerable damage to Dad's trees. The pictures pale in comparison to the real thing. The tree on the corner that I climbed as a kid had one huge branch at the first fork that had simply split down the middle. Since it was on the corner, branches had fallen onto both roads. Neighbors had cut enough to allow one car to pass through, but that's all. There was not a bare spot of ground in the yard. Branches lay on his roof, across the sidewalk, on other branches. His flag pole had been ripped off the house, and his flag was lying in the snow covered in ice.

I carefully pulled into the ice-covered driveway and helped Dad out. With his Parkinson's, I was worried he'd lose his balance and slip on the ice, and I made a mental note to shovel the driveway later. We got inside okay, and Dad set out to look around and open the blinds and get settled. I brought his stuff in and put it on the couch and then started cleaning out the refrigerator.

This was a particularly irritating job for me yesterday. Back in September when Dad lost power due to Ike, he had let all of his food spoil and hadn't bothered to throw anything away, so after a week without power, it was gross. I don't know why I expected it to be different this time, but I did. I should have known better. I opened the fridge to find a gallon and a half of spoiled milk, eggs, cheese, lunch meat, molded vegetables, salsa, salad dressing...The only saving grace was that after just being cleaned out four months ago, there was not a lot of that accumulated food that multiplies in the doors and in the back of the shelves this time.

So I got a big, black garbage bag and began tossing stuff out. Same with the freezer. My younger sister had made Dad some "TV dinners" for Christmas, and he had thankfully taken them in a cooler when he left, so they were okay. But he didn't bother to take two boxes of mini pizzas, shrimp, popsicles, waffles...I tossed them all. Then I got hot, soapy water and scrubbed the shelves and drawers and ice tray out and restocked the frozen food. The only things that thawed out from the cooler were some sausage links. They were still really cold, so I put them in a skillet to cook up and then refreeze.

Dad was standing around looking like a lost kid. He kept asking what he could do. I looked around at the mess and thought, "Just pick something and start!" but I didn't say that. I had him break down boxes for recycling and put his suitcase away and check his furnace. He was obviously so overwhelmed and wanted to feel like he was helping that I finally told him he should go to the grocery and restock his perishables. That way he was accomplishing something and getting out of my way.

As he was getting ready to leave, I wandered into the living room. For what, I can't remember, but it was then that I noticed that I could see the sky when I looked at the ceiling. I yelled, "Dad, did you know you have a hole in your ceiling?" He came rushing into the living room. Drywall was all over the furniture and carpet. Water was dripping down the wall and onto the floor. It wasn't a big hole, but it was big enough to cause a fair amount of damage in short order if the snow and ice melted any faster. So I put the kitchen on hold and got busy cleaning up the mess in the living room. Dad got on the phone to the insurance agent and a roofer and tried to make arrangements for a temporary fix for his roof. After wiping, vacuuming, and blotting, I got a bucket to put under the drip. Dad got someone to come out that afternoon, and with nothing else he could do, he headed to Meijer's. He backed out of the driveway and immediately got stuck. A neighbor and I had to push him until he got traction enough to go.

I reran the dishwasher, swept the floor, and threw away the fruit rotting in the fruit bowl. I just shook my head at the kitchen. My mother is rolling in her grave at the state it is in. On the counter by the back door were three empty jars, two empty boxes, old mail, a box of kitchen garbage bags, and a can of Johnson's paste wax. There was no rhyme or reason for any of it. From another counter, I tossed a plate of Christmas cookies and a bag of Chinese noodles and put three plastic containers away.

After filling up two black garbage bags with food and other trash, I headed out to throw them away. The patio and driveway hadn't been touched, and the snow/ice had melted enough to refreeze into solid ice. I was terrified of Dad trying to take something out to the trash or slipping on the way to his car, so I got out my snow shovel and began chipping away at the ice. I was able to get a path up the driveway and to the house so could get in and out safely. I also shoveled a path to the trash cans so he wouldn't fall if he took any garbage out.

I was coming in to start on Dad's dirty laundry when the phone rang. It was school. They had tried me on my cell, which I didn't hear, then called Kirk who gave them Dad's number. Emily was sick with a headache, stomach ache, and fever of 100.5. Dad was still gone, but I was thinking he should be back pretty soon, so I told the school nurse that it would maybe be an hour before I could get there to pick up Emily.

I got the sausages on a tray and put them in the freezer, put the jars and boxes in the recycling, and wrote a note to Dad letting him know I had leave to get a sick kid. I headed to school and got Emily, stopped by the grocery for soup and popsicles, and came home and got her settled. She was pretty puny, but I put Nick Jr. on, and she was content.

It was getting onto 1:30, and I knew today would be cold, so I fired up the chainsaw and started working in my yard. It was pretty fun chopping things up. I made quick work of the branches we had left out front and got a stack of reasonably sized firewood going. I am not going to split logs ever again as long as I can help it!

By 3, the kids came home from school, and I had to take Kyle to guitar lessons. It was the first time I'd sat down all day, and it was good. After lessons, I worked in the yard a bit more, threw in some laundry, and started dinner.

I called Dad to see if the roof man had come (he had) and what was done. The branches are still on the roof, but there is a tarp over the hole. I told Dad he would have to call the insurance man to get the name of some tree guys to come get the branches down off the roof. I reinforced that insurance will only cover the removal of the tree from the house, so he might want to get other estimates for removing the rest of the debris, etc. Dad said, "Wait a minute, I had a thought." He was quiet for a second and then said, "Now who do I have to call tomorrow?" I almost cried.

Kirk got home from guard duty and I handed him the reins. He took Kyle to basketball practice from 7:30-9, and I sat on the couch and watched basketball on TV. My team lost. The perfect end to the kind of day I had.

I took Emily to the doctor this morning, and she has strep throat. She'll be off tomorrow too. Someone came to my door wanting "$400 cash money" to clean up my yard, but I was too cheap to pay for something I can do myself. I have a couch full of clothes to fold and more laundry to do. Kyle has to be at the science fair at school by 5:15 and then the first game of the city basketball tournament is at 8 at another school's gym. Kirk will be on duty in Frankfort until ?, and I have one kid with strep and only one of me, so I guess she'll have to go and sit on my lap and not breathe on anyone. The snow keeps falling, and I am cold, and I hate being cold.

And so it goes...