Beware the Rajin Cajun

Checking in a little late this week because I’ve been on the road. And still am, actually.

At the moment, I’m sitting in Gray’s house in Louisiana, taking a break from cleaning.

So far, my mom and I haven’t started the real task, which is checking with the doctor to see what the soon-to-be 86-year-old needs as far as supervision goes.

Gray has no idea we know the entire history (which I’ll spare you) of his being checked in on my Elder Care and the resulting fallout. But tomorrow, under the guise of leaving after a short visit, we’re going to run around town and try to check with Elder Care, his doctor and the VA hospital to try to figure out what to do next.

During the visit part, my mom’s been ironing and I’ve been cleaning out Gray’s two freezers, which are so full of outdated food that it’s dangerous.

And I don’t mean in the vein of how-old-is-that-Taco Bell-taco-sitting-on-the-shelf scary only. I mean as in the this-half-pint-of-milk-fell-off-the-shelf-and-cracked-me-on-the-neck-twice-already scary.

I have filled the trash can with stuff that has no business living in the freezer at this date and time. My theory was, if it was around for the last presidential election, it’s being tossed, whatever. I mean, I can see freezing a container marked “grits,” but a container marked “grits 2007,” uh, no.

Honestly, I’ve no idea of how long things can stay in a freezer, but let’s just say I was really leery of a Ziploc of a thing of meat with a “sell by” “date of 2000. And there were multiples of those. I hate to think how much of Somalia I could have fed with what’s in the trash can right now.

And under that layer of soon-to-be-stinky garbage (the trash collector comes Tuesday; I’ll move the can out before I leave tomorrow and hope stray dogs don’t investigate) is a layer or so of old newspapers and magazines, some of which are unopened. I pilfered all I could – Gray tends to get upset when we go through his stuff. Now, I did ask permission before I did all this, but it’s a coin toss as to if he remembers that tomorrow. He’d been known to get a little hot under the collar when we try to clear the clutter.

So tomorrow we try to get paperwork accomplished and then head back, stopping somewhere along the way to crash for the night. It’s really only a nine-hour drive back, but we’re likely not going to get going until noon or after so we might stay in Biloxi or somewhere like that, which will enable me to break up the drive and visit the Bass and Pro Shop, which is always cool.

On the way here, I’d stopped in Pensacola to pick up Zippy, who played in a tournament there. They went undefeated and won the whole thing and we celebrated at a place called Flounder’s. (The celebration was premature, being on Friday when the finals were on Saturday, but it worked.) I had some awesome Gulf grouper, blackened, and finally got to wade in saltwater for the first time in forever. You’d think living in a country of over 17,500 islands I could have made it to a beach, but it didn’t happen.

But the Gulf didn’t disappoint (neither did the grouper) and, while wading, I assisted some little kids catch some crabs. I’m such a bad influence.

This trip is my second since returning, but after this it should slow down. I arrived back in the States on April 2, and left on the 8^th for DC to take that assessment.

That was successful, though not overwhelmingly so. I passed and have advanced to the next step, which is medical. So I’ve now made a doctor’s appointment and am hoping for the best. Glancing at the paperwork – which is all I’ve really done since I’ve been on the go since DC – it doesn’t appear to be as intensive as the medical paperwork for PC.

I have 30 days to do that, and after that the security paperwork kicks in. I’m not looking forward to this. There’s nothing in my history that’s shady or anything, but it’s a lot of paperwork and a lot of questions I have to answer. I think on paper I look like I’m going to be a complicated case – as in, I’ve traveled internationally a lot – but once you actually take a look at it closer it’s really boring. I mean, yes I’ve been to Rome, Cairo and Seoul, for example, but I didn’t overnight during any of those trips. It’s much more exciting on paper.

So those are my next two steps in this process. I’m still not guaranteed a job, but clearing the assessment thing was a big, big one. I’m really relieved for that.