Paradise Season 2

16:54 Tuesday, 31 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 62.65°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 14.58mph
Words: 67

We finished watching Paradise Season 2 last night. I was wondering/hoping it'd wrap the whole thing up, but I guess we're getting a third season. It's still unclear to me if we're dealing with time travel or parallel universes

I think the whole thing is a bit of a mess at this point; but if I don't think about it too much, I did enjoy it.

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Visiting Mom

16:13 Tuesday, 31 March 2026

Current Wx: Temp: 63.95°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 14.85mph
Words: 750

Spent a long weekend on the road and in Clifton Park. Mitzi took the train from Albany to Boston to attend the bat mitzvah of one of her cousins. I stayed with my sister in Clifton Park and spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday with Mom.

I did go to the No Kings protest in Clifton Park. Still felt pretty strongly like I had to show up to stand up for democracy. It was cloudy and the wind made it feel colder than it was, but it was a large, enthusiastic crowd.

I learned that the work my siblings are doing caring for my mom is beginning to wear on them. We've discussed getting some more help for Mom since last December. I decided it was time and took it upon myself to try to find additional help.

It's complicated because she doesn't need full-time care. She has a home health aide come in four mornings a week for two hours to help her get up and dressed in the morning. Getting into bed isn't as much of a challenge as getting out, and my sisters cover the other three mornings. My brother has been attending Mom seven days a week, getting her from her apartment to the dining room. She could make her way there with her walker and get seated, but getting out of the chair has become problematic. So he wheels her to the dining room in a transport chair, which she can use at the table to have dinner with her posse; then he collects her an hour later and wheels her back to her apartment, seven days a week and he's feeling the strain. It's about a 35 minute drive to Mom's, so it's over an hour in the car every day. He spends three evenings a week with her, beyond just getting her to and from the dining room, Sundays because there is no evening meal on Sunday so they order in.

Everyone feels they're doing as much as they can, and they're worried about paying for additional care. Mom's finances will become deficient beginning this summer, and adding additional help will only accelerate that.

Finding help is the other challenge. I spent about 90 minutes on the phone this morning calling various agencies. They nearly all had the same minimums, four hours a day at around $40 an hour. Mom doesn't need four hours of care, and she doesn't welcome a stranger in her apartment doing nothing for several hours, to say nothing of the additional cost.

We got very lucky this morning. One of the agencies I spoke to has an aide in Mom's apartment complex who was looking for some additional hours, and apparently our 4:00PM to 6:00PM wish married up well with her schedule and her existing clients in that same complex. So we were able to find someone for two hours a day, four days a week at around $38 an hour, so $304/week, about $1200/month. She will get Mom to and from dinner and assist her in getting into her nightgown. Mom can get herself into bed when she's ready. She stays up pretty late.

When Mom's savings are exhausted, we have some money we've been saving in a separate account to backfill, which should get us into the fall sometime, at which point I will be picking up the main load with some assistance from two of my other brothers. We're fortunate that I don't have a mortgage, or a car payment, or an HOA fee, so I have the resources to meet the moment. Of course, this is competing with the expenses of building a new home, so we've been kind of scaling back our ambitions and timeline. A finished basement is going to be a project I'll be taking on, hopefully with the assistance of my Mitzi's son-in-law, who is currently in vocational training as a contractor in various trades. He's pretty skilled already, but I'm sure the additional training will be valuable.

This is likely the penultimate arrangement. The next change will be when she requires someone at all times, and I'm not certain what that's going to look like. My sisters insist she will not be moved into a "facility" or a "home." Ok by me. Show me the plan.

For years I've maintained that my "long term care plan" is a .45 and a quiet place in the woods.

The beat goes on.

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