When your crisis isn't everyone's crisis!

It was a busy and productive week.  Lots going on at work and at home.  Today I'm enjoying my day off and doing last minute chores before I start another work week.

I've been a little too distracted thinking about whether to retire early or stick it out another 30 months.  I never thought I'd be so ready to stop working but I'm there.  I have enough to do caring for members of my family that would fill my time completely.  Caregiving is a round the clock job that doesn't necessarily wait for you to finish your 8 hour day job.  Financially it just doesn't make sense to retire now so I just have to hang in there for the time being.

I felt sorry for Mike yesterday.  He has made a friend at the Subway shop near his house.  Mike really likes the manager there and he has been really kind to Mike.  Sometimes he just gives him a sandwhich for free or cuts him a deal.  Mike invited him to visit him at his house and the young man said he would.  It was arranged for yesterday after church.  Mike was so excited he wanted me to fix lemonaide and make cookies for his guest.  So together we fixed the lemonaide and cookies.  After church yesterday Mike wanted to go straight home to wait for his company.  Unfortunately the guest never showed up.  Ron and I went by later in the afternoon with dinner for Mike and he just looked so sad.  I felt so sorry for him.  Secretly I was afraid this would happen but what can I do?  Honestly I don't know if Mike really understood whether he was coming or not.  Mike doesn't always understand things and he gets ideas in his head that just aren't accurate.

On Friday, Mike heard about a fire in Okla. City caused by a laundry room dryer.  It became a full blown crisis in his head.  He completely dismantled his dryer before we could get there to clean out the lint trap and check it over.  He had called 3 of his neighbors all day telling them he had a crisis.  That's just an example of his lack of impulse control.  If he thinks he has a crisis he wants everyone to stop what they are doing and fix his problem immediately.  If I hadn't been at work I could have dealt with it right away but I just couldn't get there until after work.  Of course he had no crisis....we got everything put back together and we brought him a dryer lint brush.  That will make him feel better.  He can clean that dryer to his hearts content.

My niece is moving into her apartment this weekend.  She suffers from the same mental illness as my brother.  We found her in tears yesterday completely overwhelmed by the move.  We also discovered she isn't eating so the first thing we did was get her to eat.  I had made pinto beans/ham for Mike and took some to her as well.  I feel like I'm operating a meals on wheels program. 

Retirement would definitely make this easier!