Insert Witty Title
All is quiet at the hotel right now. I’m shocked, since there was a baseball team complete with little teenage groupies in the lobby earlier tonight. I have a feeling they’re all out getting wasted. I’ll probably be cursing them in a few hours. I guess I can’t complain too much. Other than loud neighbors for awhile last night, we’ve done pretty well in the hotel noise department. Overall we’ve had a pleasant stay here, though I do wish the housekeepers would have done a little more housekeeping. They made the bed and left a few fresh towels, but that’s about it. I would have liked to have the toilet cleaned today and the floor vacuumed a little. I would have done it myself, but I don’t exactly have the supplies. Usually when we have an extended stay at a hotel our room gets more attention than we’ve gotten here.
We had a really nice day again today. It started out kind of shaky. We found the peach festival, but I don’t think it was open yet. There were about five stands, none of them selling anything remotely peach like. It started raining, so we ended up walking around downtown Roanoke and buying our peaches from the farmers’ market. We decided we needed an indoor activity, so we spent a good amount of time at the Transportation Museum. If you’re ever in Roanoke with a little kid, you simply must go to the Transportation Museum. They have a small playground that Erik thought was totally cool, plus they have a bunch of real trains that you can get on and explore. They have some other things as well, but those were the main hits among my three year old.
He loved driving the train.
I didn’t see as much of it as I would have liked because I called my mom to check in and see what was going on. I didn’t realize I would be on the phone more than five minutes.
My grandma is still hanging in there, but it’s not looking good.
To make matters worse, my uncle is the biggest jackass on the face of the planet. My grandma has a living will in place and everything is taken care of. Her funeral was bought and paid for over 10 years ago. Her living will is updated quite often because she changes her mind about things.
My uncle has decided he wants all her money and her house in his name. That is not going to happen. She had a hard enough time trusting my mom enough to put her on the living will. She’s terrified that she’s going to be left homeless even though she knows my mom would never do that to her. She doesn’t trust my uncle at all and I don’t blame her. I certainly wouldn’t give him control over my possessions.
When he was here for her original surgery he demanded to see her will and was not happy with it. I don’t know why she let him see it. Note to self: never let anyone see your will until you’re dead and they can’t argue about it. She’s giving each grandkid some money and she is giving my uncle’s ex-wife some money. She’s been more a part of our family over the years that he has. It’s not a significant amount, but he is livid that she and my sister are getting anything. I want to grab him by his over sized ears and tell him it’s not his business. Because it’s not.
He told her, while she was in the ICU fighting for her life, that if she didn’t sign everything over to him he was going to leave and never come back.
Such a charming fellow, eh? He also started a giant fight with my sister. For once my sister was being good, too.
I wish he would just walk away and never come back. That’s not how you treat your dying mother. It’s not how you treat anyone.
Have I mentioned that I’m glad I’m not there.
He didn’t carry out his threat. In fact, his wife and daughter are coming down to see grandma this weekend. My mom had to ask my grandma to please be nice to my cousin. How sad is that? My grandma doesn’t feel any connection to her since my uncle and his wife never let my grandma see her. There is a whole long, sordid history between my uncle, his wife and my grandma. It all comes down to my grandma being totally pissed that her son left his wife and two children for a shameless hussy. Can’t say I blame her there. The shameless hussy (current wife) was treated very poorly by my grandma and doesn’t want to be around her. So she kept my cousin away. So it is just all a big shit storm. The biggest loser is my 23 year old cousin who doesn’t understand why her grandma doesn’t seem to love her. I wish I could have a long chat with her, but I don’t suppose that will ever happen.
Have I mentioned that I’m glad I’m not there?
This afternoon I finally made it to a quilt store and bought a few things. While I was in line waiting for my fabric to be cut, the owner asked my opinion about a fabric another lady was going to use to make some smocking. I had to admit that I didn’t even know what smocking was. I soon learned. She gave me a crash course and now I can tell you that I will never be a smocker. It didn’t sound all that fun or practical to me, especially since I don’t have a little girl. It is basically a piece of tightly pleated fabric that you then embellish with embroidery. Then you sew a little dress and put the panel in the front and you have a smocked dress. I guess I have seen dresses like that before, but didn’t realize the panel was something so fancy. I just thought it was elastic.
Tomorrow we head home! I think we are going to hit Luray Caverns on the way so that will break up the drive. I will be glad to get back to my bed, but not so glad to get back to my real life. Not that my real life is bad. I’ll just miss having Mike around.