My Alzheimer's Journey
Part 41 - Finally, Settling In To Our New Norm
It feels like Linda and I are finally settling into our new lives in Chapel Hill. Settling into our new norm. Accepting that I have Alzheimer’s disease.
Being settled means less anxiety, more mental peace, a sense of community, and financial stability. I think this is extremely important because it allows us to focus on our health without distractions.
You may be wondering why we are finally getting settled. The answer is multifaceted.
Making the decision to close our business certainly lifted a huge weight off of us. The stress of managing a small business in today’s economy and political climate is overbearing. Especially, a construction business. Home Depot fell short of third-quarter earnings estimates, its third straight miss, and cut its full-year profit outlook. Subsequently, their stock dropped $21.55 today. Our renovation and remodeling company was a Home Depot Pro Elite customer, on track to spend nearly $175,000 this year. For that reason, I have always considered the performance of Home Depot as an indicator of the opportunities or challenges our business should expect.
Secondly, a number of small things came to together in the past few days to give us the feeling of being settled. You may find this funny, but getting our washer and dryer this morning was a really big deal.
Our apartment had a washer and dryer included. The washer was an older standard top load machine. It had a faulty bearing and the machine had to be replaced. Even with the shiny new machine, we missed our beautiful front load washer and the matching dryer. Thanks to good friends, our washer and dryer and several other items we left in our South Carolina home were delivered to us this morning. Big shout out to Brian and Mike.
Our apartment community has a resident advocate who brought us an apple pie today. She also plans community events. I guess you could call her a modern day welcome wagon. I can’t wait to dig into a slice of warm apple pie with ice cream on top.
We have booked a cleaning service to start later this week. Again, not a huge deal. Yet, we missed having our home professionally cleaned every few weeks.
We are almost completely unpacked and organized. I am certain you would agree that a disorganized house causes stress and discomfort.
Our cats seem to be fully acclimated to their new home. They all have found secret places to sleep. They are getting along better than ever. In fact, Lola washed Bella’s face this morning!
Add all of these big and small things up, and the sum is a happy and settled family.