My Tuesday.

Rain, rain, glorious rain. And hail. And snow not far away from here - brrrrr! I didn't work today, so I stayed nice and warm in bed until about noon, then reluctantly got up and dressed to do something constructive for the rest of the day. Last night, for the first time in 20 years, Ken cleared out his wardrobe. He'd been hanging on to shirts and trousers which he'd grown out of 10 years ago, hoping he'd lose weight and fit into them again. Can you imagine a woman doing that?? He went on a little spending spree two weeks ago in Target and K-Mart (last of the big spenders on high fashion, Ken is NOT!). I said he would have to clean some stuff out of his wardrobe to fit the new stuff in (3 pairs of jeans and 3 shirts). So he discarded a sizable pile of stuff, which I put into two large garbage bags ready to be taken to Savers. I had a big bag of my own stuff to go, so today, inbetween showers of rain, I drove to Greensborough and deposited my load of clothing. What a great feeling to get rid of it all!!

In case some readers think I must be a lazy sod to stay in bed all that time, I should explain that Monday was busier than usual for me, and I was absolutely exhausted last night. There are about 300 carers employed by the company I work for, but during school holidays quite a few take a week or so off to be with their kids. Normally this is dealt with by other carers taking on extra jobs over that time. However, over the past month, there has been a lot of viruses and nasties floating around everywhere, thus reducing the workforce even more than usual. My supervisor rung me at 7.20 am in desperation. Several carers had called in sick, and she was trying to replace them. I had two showers and one home care on my roster for the day, so I had quite a lot of spare time. I ended up with five showers and two home care jobs. The first shower was at 8 am, followed by three more, then the two home care (housework) jobs.

My last job for the day was to shower a 96 year old man at 7 pm. I would not normally take on after hours work, but as the supervisor was so desperate, and the job was just around the corner from our home, I accepted it. I'm glad I did - he was a darling old man, no dementia, and relatively fit for his age. I enjoyed being there to help him. He asked hopefully if I would be coming back again on a regular basis, and I explained that I was just filling in for his regular carer. In this job, you know you are doing a good job when the clients ask for you again!