2000-11-18 - 9:45 p.m.

Now playing: Loretta Lynn's greatest hits or some such. She cracks me up.

=-=-=-=-

I had a slow day. Got my hair cut, did laundry at Mom's, and swung by the grocery store for a few things.

Mom and I have an agreement - in return for me doing my laundry there, she leaves me little lists of things to do. Well, on today's list were a bunch of piddlyshit little things, but they really, really irritated me for some reason. Item #1 on the list was to fix Granny's flashlight. Well, I just fixed it last time I was there. Put a new battery and bulb in it, and taped the closing ring so that it would stay closed. Now, the thought that the ring was broken and to treat it gently may seem obvious to me, but apparently not to Granny. The pieces of the flashlight were in pieces in a bag. I don't mind doing things once. But I'm getting FUCKING SICK AND TIRED of doing the SAME GODDAMN THING for Granny. Mom asked me a few days ago to go over the operation of Granny's radio with her. Well, I've done that. Three times now. AND she has the instruction book. "Oh but honey I never read those..I'm not smart enough." Well, if you're not fucking smart enough to read the instruction book, you shouldn't have the device. I'm sick of Granny's attention-getting ways, and I'm growing really resentful toward Mom for just passing Granny's requests along to me. Can't Mom do any of this herself? Maybe she can't, maybe 60 years of it has rendered her incapable. But *I* shouldn't have to put up with it, that's for sure.

Item #2 on Mom's list was "pepper mill." Lo and behold, there was her pepper mill. But what was wrong with it? Plenty of peppercorns in it. Grinds fine. A little explanation would help! Finally I figured that maybe she wanted to fill the top of it with salt - it's one of those combo jobbies - so I took off the top. Again, nothing hard or difficult about it - so why is she having me do it? I am realizing that my main reason for getting pissed about this shit is that Mom should be able to do this stuff for herself and not rely on me to do it.

Item #3 was to fill some sort of car windshield squeegee-thing with Windex. Oh, that was hard. Unscrew bottle. Open Windex bottle. Pour Windex in. Close both containers back up. SHEESH!

Item #4 was "Buttons on keyboard not working." Um, more description, please. I booted up her computer and it worked just fine.

So I'm just frustrated and grumpy that my mom can't take care of these things herself. In with anger, out with love. In with anger, out with love.

=-=-=-=-=-=

I'm also at an impasse about Thanksgiving. I want to spend time with the family, but I don't want to cook, and I don't want to go out, either. *sigh* I can just hear Grampa on the phone to me, "I'm waiting for an invitation." Well, bub, so am I, so am I.

Maybe I'll invite Dad and Grampa over for coffee and dessert. I think I could handle that.