Life and interactions with relatives

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Allergy season is here. I think I have gotten more allergic to my allergens. I've been sneezing frequently for the past couple of weeks, and no it's not a cold--definitely allergies.

I have a car with a dead battery and a broken hood release, which has kept me from using my jump starter power pack on the car for several months. I had a lot of food stock piled in late fall, so I did all right until a month ago. I haven't felt up to taking a taxi to the store, although I have done it before. In the winter I tend to really go into hibernation mode, so I rarely go out. I solved the food issue by having a pizza place deliver a lot of food once a week for several weeks. Not pizza though. I don't like that, but they have lots of other stuff on their menu, so I've been doing okay. They even have salads. I don't like veggies, but will sometimes eat salads--without dressing, as I don't like it. I was out of veggies and fruit, so I've been buying several salads from the pizza place each time I order to go with the other foods I get from there. I've been keeping the salads in the freezer to keep them from spoiling, and I found out that I like them better when eaten frozen, so I eat more than I would if they were kept in the fridge, so I had to increase the number of salad trays to order each week. Since salads are good for you I don't mind. I will soon be getting my car fixed, so I will be able to get out occasionally.

Some snow bird relatives are back up here now for the warm months. Already they've dropped by twice--in one week. They are not bad people, but they do tend to be very critical of me, and I have a very low tolerance for criticism, so having them over gets me very stressed out. I am an introverted hermit type, and prefer solitude. Fortunately, I live alone. Due to health issues I can't work any more and can't get out much. I really like the winter because then I rarely have to interact with anyone.

Last night I found out just how much I was bothered by the two visits this past week. I had a bad dream where I was at a former home where I used to live, and my relatives were there too. In the dream my relatives were sort of creepy, and I was trying to jump start my car to get away from them. In the dream I did eventually get the car started and drove away. Unfortunately, I will have to deal with at least one visit a week from my relatives until sometime in late October, when they go south for the winter again. No offense meant to the relatives, but I'd rather do without their stressful visits. It really gets on my nerves.

Couldn't find an edit/update button, so I am posting an update reply to my own post. [Hey WP--We need a clearly visible edit/update button on site--or maybe one button for each.]

Had another visit from relatives this week, but it went better this time. One of the snow birds came with a local relative who doesn't visit much during the winter because he can't afford gas for non essential drives. The local relative got my car's hood open, and jumped the dead battery. He let it run for a while, but when he turned it off before leaving, he tried restarting the car, and it was dead again. He jumped it again, and left it running with the spare key locked inside. I let it run for a very long time, and then went out and ran it around the block a couple of times. After that I turned it off and managed to restart it. It started again today, so I ran it around the block again. Guess I'm good to go with that, but my relative is going to replace the broken hood release for me. Also, the first place I go when I finally go anywhere besides around the block will be the nearest gas station. There was only a quarter tank of gas in there when my relative left yesterday, so after letting the car run so long, I am low on gas. I have some stuff to do around here first, but I will be getting out after that. I've been invited to a Mother's Day gathering this Sunday at my father and step mom's place. I get along okay with her, so if I can get my home stuff done, and get some gas, and am not too tired from my health issues, I will go. They have a lovely view from their house, and wild life often stops by their place too, so it's nice there. They also have a new little dog I haven't seen yet. I love animals, but my health issues make it too hard to handle having a pet any more, so I like to spend a little time with other people's pets when I can.

My local relative helped me with another problem, too. I was told last fall that he collects cardboard boxes to burn in his fireplace for heat, so instead of throwing them out when I ordered stuff, I kept them for him, but he never came over during the winter to pick them up, so they were taking up a lot of space here. When I found out he was coming yesterday, I managed to get most of the boxes out on the porch for him before he got here. I also managed to bundle up a big bag of packing materials for my snow bird relative that came with him. The place is a lot roomier now, and last week I gave my snow bird relative my Walmart card, and some money to put on it, because he was headed there, so now I can now order more stuff.