Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life? That you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulthood. While doing so, humble light. Welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Today I'm gonna talk again or more about caregiving and my caregiving journey, because that's just where I'm at. And I I think maybe some of you might also be in that predicament. If you're a regular listener, you know that my husband has been recovering from um two bulging discs in his back and two recent hospitalizations, and it's been challenging for both of us. Um, for him, it's been his level of pain and the weakness of just being in bed so long. And now he's for the most part doesn't feel pain, but he does have some discomfort and just laying in bed for so long, he has definite weakness, right? So we've just been struggling, I've been struggling with taking care of him and trying to help motivate him, if you will, to push himself to you know get up and get moving. Because honestly, moving is the best thing that you can do for yourself, even though sometimes it's difficult. It's it's challenging, right? It's it's easier to just lay around. So that's kind of where we're at. And like I was saying last week, a lot of you know, people, um, friends, coworkers, neighbors, whatever, have said, you've got to take care of yourself, Tracy. So it's like, yes, but there's it's challenging, right? It's not just taking care of him, it's taking care of the pets, it's taking care of the house. Obviously, my ha I'm not Martha Stewart. Um, but there's certain things that do need to be done every day around here. And um our cat has been stressed lately. He's a very set, he's a he's very, he's like a teenage boy. You know, he's very stoic sometimes, but then he's very much a mama's boy. And if I don't give him the right attention and the the right routine, he gets very upset. And so this past week, we had a couple of days. I had to go down to my office, which is 25 miles away, one one way, about 20, 25 miles, and I was gone for a while. And I came back and he had been throwing up. Um, and then he threw up the next day, he threw up in the middle of the night. I was worried about him. Um, you know, is this gonna be another ER visit? Is this a doctor visit? What is this? So, and getting him into the vet is not an easy thing. I mean, just getting an appointment is not an easy thing, but getting him into the vet because he's not the most compliant patient. So there's that. My dog is you know, she has separation anxiety, she's got to be with us all the time. Um, she's got a lot, she's got a lot of energy. So it was nice this past week. Friday, I I one thing that I dream about is having the time to go out and walk and take a long walk. And it's challenging for me because I do have a bad back as well, and so standing for any period of time can be a little challenging. But I took her out, we walked about a mile and a half, which was great. I felt good, I had a lot of energy myself. Um, she had a lot, obviously, she had a lot of energy. We walked the next day. We did the same thing. That was great. Then it wasn't as easy that day because my my back was a little iffy, a little bit more iffy. Um didn't quite have as much energy, but I did it and it felt good afterwards. Um so I did more for myself this week. I'm I've managed to kind of find a rhythm with all the things that I have to do and you know, all the unpleasant tasks, if you will. Um and Bill, you know, for his part, has been walking more. When he does get up, he does walk through the house more. He doesn't need such close supervision, which is good. I think he's making progress. He still hasn't been outside to walk, but anyway, I think we're moving in the right direction. And then this week we're gonna see the the doctor, the one of the spinal doctors. So we'll see. We'll see where we're at. Last week I talked about my friend Lauren coming over. We did get all the Halloween stuff in the garage. We got some of the Christmas stuff out, we put the Christmas stuff up. I have a lot of Christmas stuff, I have a lot of decorations. We did kind of a minimal mix of what we have, but a full disclosure, I did buy new pieces this year. I bought one big thing, which is still sitting in the living room in a box, and I bought one small Rudolph, um, the Rudolph from the 1964 Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. There's Rudolph Clarice the Bumble Yukon uh what's his name? Anyway, that Rudolph. So I so last night Bill and I got ambitious, and we decided to put that Rudolph together. And and all together he's maybe not even three feet tall, but um, so we pulled out the directions, and it's got this little brochure, little c color brochure with the instructions, and it says estimated time to assemble it, eight minutes. Now, if you've ever put any of these things together, it's that's that's a joke. I kept saying through the whole thing, eight minutes, eight minutes, because it probably took us closer to well, it took us over an hour altogether, because the challenge was to get these screws in the piece to link up like a leg to the body, right? And to get the screw in the right um angle, and then to screw it in with the hex wrench that they give you, which is a little tiny piece of it, looks like a paper clip almost. And so that was challenging because then it would be off center, and you'd have to take it off, and or it wouldn't be in all the way, or whatever. And then so we had to put the four legs on the head and then the ears, and but we finally did it. Uh and so it's I I just have to put the plug on it uh with the electrical plug, but anyway, it is it is assembled and it looks really cute. I don't know where I'm gonna put it actually in the yard, but I want it protected. But um, the weather now is fine, it's very warm. I don't know if it's gonna rain before Christmas, but we did we did get it together. But we've done so many of these Christmas or these Halloween holiday decoration pieces. I don't know why they can't make it easier to put together, but anyway, that's neither here nor there. So we did that. And oh, so the other thing that we did, we have the hearse from Halloween. And it's it's a big, it's like a carriage, right? It's an old-time hearse, like a horse-drawn hearse with the carriage where and it has a skeleton inside, and the skeleton is driving it, and the skeleton pony. Well, it turns out that we had a lot of bad weather right after Halloween was over, and Bill was in the hospital, and my brother-in-law came over. We tried to get some of the most of the stuff in the garage, but we couldn't get the hearse in because it's quite large. And then it rained. We covered it up, it rained, then it was windy, it fell over. Oh boy, and it was it looked like you know, it looked like a weather disaster out there. Anyway, we got it up and we've made it over into Christmas. I put a Santa hat on the driver and decorated the hearse, so it kind of looks like a Christmas carriage, almost sort of nightmare before Christmas thing. And I'll I'll post a picture of it. And then we put the two inflatable reindeers. I have two reindeers that are the same, so I put that, and then I got some garland to make like reins so that the skeleton driver is holding these garlands anyway. It is what it is. I don't know what I'm gonna do after the first of the year with this thing. I'm gonna have to find a place for it somewhere else, get it out of the it's not gonna be the Valentine, it's not gonna be the Valentine hearse, but anyway. And Bill and I were watching a show the other night, and it was about comedians, and he said something that I thought was really sweet. He he came up with a question all on his own that I thought was really sweet and thoughtful. He asked me if I missed comedy and if I missed writing comedy for myself. And I said, Well, yeah, I do miss it. I did stand up for I think six years or something like that. Um I still get the memories come up on Facebook of these shows that I did, and I always did a picture afterwards with people that came to see me. And so he asked me if I missed it, and I said, Yes, I do miss it. And he said, Well, you should find time to write some comedy stuff for yourself or just write some comedies. And I said, Well, yeah, I should. I mean, I should also do a whole bunch of other things, like purge junk in our house and paint the bathroom and clean out the garage, but it's not an there's not enough of me, right, to do all those things. So anyway, um, but I thought that was very thoughtful of him to think about that. So our anniversary is coming up this month, and we are um I don't know if we'll be able to go out to dinner. We'd like to go out to dinner, but we'll see how Bill feels. It's coming up on the 17th. I'll let you know. And um just want to say before I close, I want to say that both myself and Bill, we um we send our our heartfelt thoughts to um Lauren and her family. Um they lost their dog yesterday, boomer. Uh they had him for fourteen and a half years, and it's never easy, it's never easy to lose a pet that you love. Um that is a member of your family and it is your constant companion. Um Lauren messaged me yesterday and told me this. And um my heart just broke for her and uh her parents because I know I know how special he was to the whole family and how much he meant to them uh because I've lost I've lost a bunch of pets, uh, a bunch of animal companions, including my horse, Dallas, and every one of those losses has taken a chunk out of me. And it's been very, very difficult. Um eventually, eventually you're able to think of them and smile and laugh without breaking down into a puddle of goo. Uh but it it takes a lot of time. And I can't really talk about my horse too much because if I do, I just I lose it. I'm never I'm never gonna get over that loss, I don't think. But uh I think about all the pets that have come into my life, all the special animals, and I'm grateful. I'm grateful for them. Um, like I read in a book once, uh, animals are the infinite light's greatest gift, they really truly are, and they deserve our respect and our care. So I want to just dedicate this episode to Boomer and to the Wheeler family, and um I love you, Lauren, and um so sorry. I'm so sorry. So next week we're gonna end on a better topic, hopefully, and uh we'll tackle another topic then, and uh well, I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries Podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on. And consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page, Only Child Diaries, or Facebook, Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wallace, and these are the Only Child Diaries.