A Lightening Scare

I got an early morning text from my Aunt Vicky with a photo of a firetruck outside of my parents' home.  Lightening had stuck their house.  I couldn't believe it.  With everything else going on in their lives right now, it didn't even seem real.

After an afternoon of no electricity and a few days without internet, everything was restored at my parents today.  Hoosier Tree had assured me that the tree that it hit was not permanently damaged.  It would only need some soil replaced around the roots.  Nipsco checked the line into the house and all was fine with that.  Mediacom replaced the modem that was taken out from the storm, and the electrician checked the entire house for faulty wiring and thankfully found none.  Even the 75-inch television that was first thought to be blown came back on with the restored internet. 

In the end, my parents were very fortunate that nothing more serious had happened.  I told my mom that I believe that this was a sign from God that they need to move into an assisted living home.  She laughed at first, but I truly believe that as do several of my children.  Life should be easier as you age. Staying in a fifty-year-old home is hard to manage for any of us, but for those with serious health issues it is almost impossible without a lot of help.  I am very glad that the house survived the strike, but hopefully, they will see that now.

Moving Furniture

Last month, I was finally able to talk my parents into moving their bedroom downstairs into the "business room."  My mom cannot go upstairs, and I knew that soon my dad would not be able to either.  Thankfully, Aunt Vicky's family was willing to help and even offered to clean as well.  My parents didn't want to move the dresser down which helped in the process.  They also didn't want to use their king size bed.  They thought that it would be too hard to get down their winding stairs and that it wouldn't fit in the room.  Since we still had a queen size bed stored at their home, my mom offered to buy it off of me and then I could order one for Cameron's room.  I appreciated that as I was going to get the bed this summer on one of my trips to Syracuse.  This solution worked out well for both of us and I was impressed in how great their new bedroom looked when my cousins were done.

One thing that I rarely ask Doug to do is move furniture in our home.  He is great at helping, but he had done that a lot at his parents' home and I knew that it wasn't much fun.  This time I had no choice.  I couldn't get the new queen bed set up in Cameron's room without his help.  The worst part wasn't the bed, however.  I had decided that I would save the two twin beds in Cameron's room for guest use when we had a house full.  At first, I thought we'd store them under the queen bed, but they didn't remotely fit.  Next, I tried them in my walk-in closet, but they took up too much room there as well.

In the end, I was able to use them as a daybed in the music room.  I had always wanted one in there and this worked out perfectly.  It also allowed me to completely clean out my closet downsizing a lot of the tubs that were stored there.  Everything looked wonderful when we finished.  The only new piece of furniture that I had to buy was the nightstand by the daybed.  It was not only a perfect fit, but it held all of Cameron's vinyls as well.  The one downside to all of this was that Doug had to move the piano to make all of it fit.  Thankfully, I don't plan to ask him to move furniture anytime soon.  

A Shopping Spree

It had been a long week, and I was definitely feeling overwhelmed today.  Doug had the perfect answer - an afternoon of shopping in Ocala.  Our first stop was DSW.  I needed new Birkenstocks as mine were starting to wear out on the bottoms.  This has been a yearly issue for me as I wear them almost daily.  I wasn't sure what I wanted, but after looking I found the perfect pair.  The last few years, I had bought the same style and these were a lot different from any that I previously owned.  Doug agreed that they looked great and I was very happy with the purchase.

We walked to Home Goods next.  Neither one of us needed anything but wanted to do some window shopping.   Doug found a glass food storage container that would be great for him to use to take lunches to work.  He didn't do it often, but we didn't have anything in the house that worked since I had gotten rid of all of our plastic ones.  I also found a pair of adorable citrus drinking glasses that I decided I couldn't live without and added them to my cart. Our last stop of the afternoon was Kohls.  I had a 40% off coupon and Doug wanted to look at dress shoes.  He hadn't bought a brown pair since we had moved to Ocala and needed new ones.  While we were there, I picked up lightweight socks for walking and a cute set of St. Patrick's Day kitchen towels.  

I was so glad that Doug suggested getting out of the house today.  The shopping and the sunshine were exactly what I needed.  I love living in Ocala and today reminded me exactly why.

The Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

One of the best parts of March is Epcot's Flower & Garden festival.  It opened two days ago and last night Nick, Meg, Doug and I met at the theme park to enjoy all that the festival had to offer.  There were some wonderful foods to try.  Doug and I especially liked the chicken gumbo in United States, and I loved the chocolate cake in Canada.  The topiaries are always my favorite part of the festival and there were some new ones this year.  They also moved some of the longtime ones such as Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan to new spots in the park making it feel like a treasure hunt as we walked the countries.  While we were there, we were also able to listen to the musical entertainment offered, enjoying several different bands.  It was the lightest crowd that we had seen in Epcot for quite some time and overall, we all had a great time.  I really appreciated everyone taking time out of their busy schedule to meet.  It was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go several more times before the festival ends in June. 

Lego Time

When Doug and I were downsizing our home in Syracuse, we weren't quite sure what to do with a lot of our children's possessions.  There were some really nice toys, bedding and other items that they no longer used, but meant a lot to us.  I didn't quite finish the project as it took me awhile to sort through everything and decide what to keep and what to donate or sell, but I made a lot of headway during those two years.

Out of all of the items that we sold, the ones that made the most money were the Lego sets bringing in well over a thousand dollars for our children on eBay before we moved.  We still had a lot left when we arrived in Ocala almost three years ago, but neither one of us wanted to donate them.  We had enjoyed building them together and our children appreciated the extra spending money.  I found a great place to store the tubs of pieces above the cabinets in our laundry room and didn't even think about them again until this winter when Doug was working on puzzles and I suggested instead working on the Legos after he finished it.

As soon as Doug agreed, I pulled out every half-built set in our home and picked out one of the largest ones to complete.  Doug spent quite a bit of time rebuilding it and I spent an equal amount of time finding all of the missing pieces, but as of yesterday, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull set was on eBay ready for a buyer.  There were a lot of memories in that set as Jeanette bought it for Cal when he was recovering from hip surgery.  Even so, Cal was the first to say that it was time to find a new home for it and I was glad that I would be emptying a large tub from my closest.  I don't know how quickly it will sell as it is a more expensive piece, but either way it was a lot of fun to build and led us to other sets that also need to find a new home.

Well, That's Strange

Since my dad was going to be in the hospital longer than we originally thought, he asked me if I could do his taxes.  I had no problem with that as I had been doing Doug and my taxes for years and until recently all of the Heinisch children's as well.  While Cal was in Syracuse last weekend, I asked him to take a picture of all of the tax documents that my dad had in his 2024 and 2025 tax folder plus all of the passwords that were relevant in his black notebook.  It took some digging and some detective work by my mom but 36 pictures later I had everything I needed . . . almost.

The one item that was missing was the same one that my dad had trouble finding last year, my mom's SSA-1099.  At first, I thought, "No problem, I will just set up a social security online account like I had for Doug and I and get it from there."  I guess I was naive when I assumed that it would be a ten-minute process.  Social Security had changed their online registration steps.  A photo of the driver's license wasn't enough, now they needed a selfie from the person's phone as well.  I was frustrated but not discouraged when I read that.  I knew it would be hard for my mom to do, but with Aunt Vicky's help I thought it would work.  

After talking them through the process and several attempts, social security finally accepted the photo of my mom's id and a selfie.  I was happy to finally have solved the issue and continued the steps helping her set up the online account.  We got to the last question which asked for a phone number to text or call.  No problem, we gave them hers and soon got the response, "Sorry, this number is not linked to the registrant."  I was floored.  The only phone number that they would recognize was the landline that my parents had cancelled at least a decade ago.  That was no help.

That was when I decided to call the social security office and explain the issue.  The first time was absolutely no help.  The second person I talked to was a lot more helpful.  She let me merge my mom on to the call and after she verified that I could talk to the social security office on her behalf, they at least let us know the issue.  My mom's address was wrong.  We gave them every address that we could think of, even mine on Sunset Dr. but know of them worked.  That was when we found out that Medicare might be able to give us the information that we needed as the two accounts were linked.  After several failed attempts, we finally got into the website on our last try by remembering that my mom's favorite ice cream was butter pecan.  We saw the problem right away; her address was listed in Cocoa Florida.  I wrote it down and we called the social security office back hoping we could now find a resolution to the issue.

In the end, we were let down once again.  My mom was able to give them the fake address, but they started asking her a lot more questions that we weren't prepared for and only confused her with "What's the account number on your savings account? What is your father's name?"  My mom didn't have her account number memorized and she didn't know if they meant CrapPa or her biological dad.  We gave up.  They did give us the numbers for her SSA-1099, but that was it.  I realized at that time that the only way to solve the issue was to make an appointment with the Social Security office an hour from her home and take her there myself at the end of March.  What a pain.  At least I gained knowledge for what to do so this never happens to Doug or I and I can now work on my parents' taxes.

How Can It Already March?

Nick told Meg that he was glad that summer had arrived.  She reminded him that it was only March and that spring hadn't technically even arrived yet.  I had to laugh when Meg told me that story.  The weather had changed here, and it did feel a lot like summer.   

Even so, I still can't believe that it is already March.  February absolutely flew by.  It seemed like we had just been in Indiana celebrating Cameron's 21st birthday not too long ago and now he was talking about his spring break trip to visit us.  I am definitely not complaining.  I love March and am ready for all that it brings - beautiful weather, green grass, St. Patrick's Day, March Madness, spring break and so much more.  Hopefully, this March is just as much fun.