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My Caregiver's Wishlist

This list is in no particular order within each section; it's just being thrown together as I think of things. It's mostly a collection of things that I think friends might be able to help with if they feel like it. Don't feel obligated.

Some of this is stuff that we've been paying people, mostly unemployed friends, to do when it gets particularly bad. People who have been following my "Done yesteday" posts on Livejournal will note that this file is not in my "to.do file" format, and in fact most of the items here weren't originally to.do file entries.

Note that many items have dates in parentheses. This is the date it first went on the list. Four-digit dates are (still) in 2009.

Friendship

It almost goes without saying, but I'm going to say it anyway: the most important thing you can do is just being a friend. Someone that one or the other of us can go to for advice, a friendly word, a shoulder to cry on, or a sympathetic ear to rant at.

Chauffeur/shuttle pilot: Right now Colleen can't drive. Right now we have that mostly covered, but sometimes none of her "designated drivers" are available. Also, most of the usual drivers don't have cars, or don't have cars that Colleen can comfortably get in and out of. When one of our two vehicles is in the shop it would be nice to have a driver with their own, not-too-cluttered car.
Old Lady's Companion: Every once in a while I go on trips by myself. When that happens, usually over a weekend, Colleen really needs someone to stay with her. It has to be someone who's comfortable sleeping next to Colleen and vice versa, and ok with emptying the commode and cleaning up the occasional mess. Marty usually does this, but she isn't always available. (0830)
Ideally we'd be looking for someone to live with us -- at least part-time -- and do light housekeeping and occasional care in exchange for room and board and car privileges. That's still going to require a lot of thought and negotiation, though. (20100317)

Bureaucracy

I loath paperwork. I hate dealing with strangers over the phone. The American health "care" system doesn't.

Research: I have no idea what services are actually available in a state whose budget is even more broken than my own, to people who make far too much money to be considered needy, aren't disabled enough to be considered housebound, and aren't old enough for medicare or social security. (0726)

Around the house

I've broken some things out below, specifically the office and kitchen (for now). We'll see how it goes.

Puttering: This one's easy. If you're visiting and see something that looks out of place, ask where it belongs. If somebody knows (not always the case, of course), put it there if it isn't too much trouble. (0726)
Re-shelve books: There's nothing particularly difficult about putting books back on shelves -- except that the shelves are located behind furniture and are mostly full. We've already moved most of the mysteries to the bedroom, but the fiction shelves still have books on their sides on top of books, and the towers of unreshelved cookbooks are getting to be an earthquake hazard. (0726)
Organize DVDs: The DVDs are worse-off than the books: they're not organized at all, and there's not really enough space for them. I'd settle for having them on the shelves at random instead of on the furniture, but if somebody actually wanted to organize them it would be wonderful. (0726)
Recycling: We save aluminum cans and plastic bottles, rather than put them out on the curb. Colleen used to take them to be recycled. Whoever drives gets 50% of the take. There's a lot of electronic stuff to be recycled, too; that's a little harder to deal with. (0726)
Remove the TV antenna: Now that we have cable, and now that digital broadcasts need a better antenna than the one we had, we can get rid of the old one. I am not going up on the roof again, thank you. Low priority, but might be fun if you like dancing on the rooftops without a net. (0727)
Cleaning: Cleaning is supposed to be the Younger Daughter's job. We're paying her for it. It mostly doesn't get done. We don't need someone to come in and clean so much as to knock the YD over the head with a suitable clue-stick. Occasional visits from her BF seem to have that effect. (0806)
Clearing/organizing the Guest/Music Room (stalled): the Guest/Music Room, formerly known as the Sewing Room, is still a nightmare (0120). As of 20100201, the mess in the middle of the closet has been cleared out, but now there are piles of bedding and such in the room. One can walk in, but there isn't room to sleep. (Recently it also contains the contents of our old dressers and other debris from the bedroom, but at least the beds are out and properly installed.
Cleaning/debugging the Kitchen (ongoing): The kitchen is not merely a mess, it has unwanted six-legged visitors that need to be evicted. Somehow we need to get everything out of the cabinets so they can be bug-sprayed. It can be done incrementally, i.e., one cabinet at a time. (0726)
Dishes?: As long as this is a wish-list, I wish I wasn't the only one in a position to do the dishes. But that would require a live-in housekeeper. (0727)

Office

An element of ruthlessness (Bribes from the Cat help a lot.) ... and many thanks to Eileen for her help on 20100721.: I think maybe I need somebody to sit with me and egg me on while I toss 5-year-old magazines into the recycle bin, and 10-year-old SCSI cables into the trash. And just how many power cords do I need, anyway? (0727)

Garage

The garage is a mess. I'm not even sure how to begin on that one. (0727)

Yard

Replace rotted fencepost(s?): I have concrete mix. I have pressure-treated 2x4's. I have a wheelbarrow. What I don't have is time and energy. (0726)
Fix the drip irrigation system: Did I mention that I hate yard work? (0726)
Gardening: Go Rick Moen! weeding the front yard, 0909.; Some people really enjoy gardening: they love weeding, pruning, tending beautiful flowers and watching them thrive. At best I ignore them to death. Weeding the front yard is probably the most urgent task. (0726)

Cyberspace

There are a lot of computer-related projects that need doing; unfortunately most of them involve either writing code (the design for which is in my head), or consolidating my ISP accounts. A few are straightforward enough to be handed off to someone else.

Move Colleen's address book to cyberspace In progress, 0830. Go Moshe!!: Several attempts have been made to do this; all have failed. It needs to be done using text or XML files in a well-known format. Given that, it's pure data-entry. (0726)