Seems like it's always something. Yet, it could be so much worse.

It's been a very challenging few weeks.

1st, moving out of a home is always tough. That took a while.

Wasn't able to get an auto carrier to pick up our car in Carson City. The husband of a cousin offered to drive it to Louisiana for us. He was planning to visit his family here anyway. So he picked it up yesterday evening...and ran out of gas an hour out. Cops stopped to check and found the registration was suspended.

Trying to think ahead, I'd notified the insurance company to switch address of the car to Louisiana on October 15th - the day car was promised to be delivered. Completely forgot I'd done that, and Nevada considered out of state insurance as no insurance...so they suspended the registration.

Fortunately, mom's motorized wheelchair is in the back seat. So they took pity on all of us and didn't give him a ticket. I'd provided him with proof of insurance, a AAA card, cash and a note authorizing him to drive the car. Never even occurred to me that the registration could possibly be suspended.

My own journey had no complications whatsoever. Still, traveling with an elderly disabled person is something I find stressful even when all goes as well as you could possibly hope for. Add another elderly semi-disabled person and I am constantly on edge. Did that for a week.

Trying to get a quite large house habitable after decades of neglect can be difficult. That's what I'm dealing with now. No internet except for my phone, for days. The washer flooded the laundry room this morning as I was washing a batch needed to pack for an overnight trip to New Orleans. All I'm getting to see of New Orleans is the cheap hotel across from the airport.

There are some good things. Small town life = a special on washer/dryer that comes with an offer to deliver the same afternoon. Wow. Other things are falling into place. Got to see my daughter and the 7 year old. My mom and brother got to visit, and he was happy to see her looking so good and enjoying herself.

So nothing, you know, really horrible. Just a lot of somethings spaced a little too close together for a little too long for comfort. My comfort. But, really, I think I just need to learn to chill.

How does one learn that, anyway? Is it even possible to learn that if you are not one of the fortunate people who are just born that way?

I suspect one may form the habit with practice. Fewer responsibilities will certainly help.

So that's my goal. Work my way down this To Do list - which, after successfully moving and finally taking care of having the car transported, actually seems somewhat manageable - and then CHILL!

One way to get through the list with a minimum of freaking out is to keep repeating my mantra: 24 hours at a time.

Because, even though the To Do list is now a lot shorter and made up mostly of things I've got pretty much sorted, it's still got one huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge task on it.

Finding someone to take care of my mother.

Two people, actually. Because we'll need one to live in and one to come in as relief. Fortunately, one of my cousins has a lead on two people who might fill this need satisfactorily for us. Just in case, though, my sister suggested we call the local churches to ask if they know of anyone who might be interested. That's how we found the two great women who took care of her in Carson City. Church pastors tend to know who might be hurting financially and they are usually good judges of character. So we'll look at those options before putting an ad in the paper.

My younger daughter plans to come to Louisiana the middle of next month, bringing the 2 year old. I'm hoping to be done with all of my obligations by then, and able to enjoy a nice visit with everyone before taking off on my own.

For a nice long while.

Counting down...