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 Hi Hammie, I am Sonar, Pepper's new Guinea Pig. Nice to meet you!

I am so sorry. My mommy has been taking care of gramma, and she finally died. now they're cleaning out her house, and her estate, and all that ...   This is the note she left for her buddies who were all upset because they hadn't heard from her, or Misty, or me ...

 Last tuesday about 2 a.m., Mother Turbin breathed her last.  It was our night "off duty", we were home in bed, but as sister-in-law Mary doesn't do death, barf, blood, or tornadoes, she called. "Idontthinkmotherisbreathingbuti'mnotgoingbackintheretocheckcanyoucomeover."  At which point we got up,got dressed, drove to the house, yup, she's gone, called hospice, who called nurse on-call, who got out of bed to drive an hour from Linwood, who then "pronounced", who then called Science Care (anatomical gift program, zero funeral expenses to family,ashes returned in a month), who notified funeral director in Pinconning (who had refrigeration) who got there in another hour, by which time Mary, Dennis and Larry (SIL's hubby) were hiding in some other part of the house while the funeral director and I picked her up, put her on the guerney, tucked her in, and wheeled her out. YES, all one sentence.  Then we went back home to bed, somewhere around 5. (Dennis and I. Not me and the funeral director). That was May 13. 

Up until that point we were on duty 48 hours on, 48 hours off, and that last week or two she was so far gone that no body really slept, we had one eye on her all night ... Misty has been MOST displeased at our continued absences.

Then, of course, there's the matter of my father. Anyone want one? He's for rent, in fact, I'll even PAY you to take him off my hands for awhile.  I live with two alpha males. Neither wants to share me. Neither wants to deal with the other one.  Both are terribly opinionated.  If you're not a white, anglican, anglo-saxon conservative republican, who thinks the sun rises and sets in Rush Limbaugh, who eats only fish, or turkey, broiled or blackened, hates vegetables, chokes on salad, drinks anywhere from 4 to 8 Sweet Manhattans a day (with CANADIAN whisky, nothing else, no other whiskys are pure whiskys, The other, spelled "whiskey" can have "paint thinner" {not really, he calls mineral spirits paint thinner} in them), then you're totally WRONG.  And he will take all the time it requires to explain to you WHY you are wrong.   His mind is made up. Do not try to convince him of the facts.  i told him i'm renting the house mother has been living in for 550. We bought it when they moved up here, and decided it would eventually be rental income for me one of these days.  We took out an equity loan on our own house, to buy it ... carole/jim are our property managers. they get 10%. I'm putting 95 in the bank for a hedge against necessary repairs. I'm giving him 400 (which he's gotten all along) against the loan we took out to buy the house (which will be paid off when Mesa house sells, which we NEVER expected woudl take this long). Then I get the whole story again about how he's on the hook for 55000 yadda yadda yadda.  I paid him back the 4400 out of mother's money, right off the bat. the rest has been going for medical bills, overdue bills, auto repairs, etc.

I gave up on fingernails. Got the sorry mess I had left coated with acrylic.  On a bad day I can have those puppies chewed off in a few hours. Otherwise, at least they last.

SO, there's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!  I'm trying not to lose my sense of humor ... the deer trotted by the window this morning on her way to nibble some forsythia ... the fox cleaned up the "thanksgiving" leftovers Sunday (yeah, what the heck, turkey and all that jazz for 16) ... Mother's squirrels are beginning to think their throats have been cut because the never ending supply of peanuts has died out ... (though I'm giving the new tenants a 25 pound box of peanuts as a housewarming prezzy, with instructions ...)