With Sharyn on board driving her walking frame, I begin to notice scrapes on the kitchen island. This freezes me in my tracks as I don't know whether these can be repaired. It's a lacquered finish. I'm relieved when she gets in her wheel chair. The wheels are softer, but the dents keep coming. In the gib and on the door frames. I get out tape and talk to Sharyn. It's demoralising after all the work I've done and with shaky co-ordination and poor eyesight, she's not fully in control. I can see she's trying but more scrapes are inevitable. So I set about taping the kitchen island and visit the hardware store to pick up thicker, padded insulation seal. The choice is black except for thin, white foam. I buy some of each. Then I sit on the floor and start applying it.
Visitors tell me, however, that the tape will take paint off. So I go back to Mitre 10 and buy thinner painter's tape. A few days later, Anjie tells me it's as bad. So I drop in on Bunnings on the way to the beach and pick up 60 day, yellow painter's tape. By this time, I've spent 100 bucks and my stress levels are high. I take off the second tape and put on a third. The white foam tape is a nightmare to get off and the whole process takes a couple of nights to accomplish. I'm tired. But the dings subside and Sharyn is aware of the damage she can do. I've banned her early on going out of the pvc doors in her wheel chair. The door sills would get munted.
We're getting there by degrees. Ironically, it was me who said it would take a while to get settled in. I was referring to Sharyn's adjustment, but in reality it's me who's taken the bigger leap. And it hasn't been easy. I'm not a giver upperer. Cool ocean water helps stabilise my sanity, school might send me over the edge though. My junior classes require too much energy. I think about another job. But one of the naughty kids in referral tells me two of my most troublesome kids told him I'm their favourite teacher. This makes me feel better, sort of. I take it with a grain of salt.
Day to day stuff- 3 trips to the bike shop to sort one puncture, looking for light fixtures with no luck, dinner at Lis's in Lyttleton, I spot my first black piwakawaka in her garden, planting last of the summer lettuces, harvesting apples from my garden, the walk in wardrobe goes in and I unpack boxes of clothes- I'm able to walk round my bed again, the last two door handles arrive and one of the light switches breaks. That's enough for one week.
Photos in backward chronological order
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