November 1

We arrived Saturday night...back to the old hometown area. We're freezing, having left our southern home in short shirt sleeves. I don't think I've taken off my heavy sweatshirt since I got here. It'll see a lot of the washer on this trip, I'm thinking.

I wish I was here for a vacation, but alas, we're in the area to prepare Mom's house for a new tenant. The existing one was to be out by today, and when I went yesterday to see what the progress with her move and work future was for us, she greeted me with a phone in her ear, a towel wrapped around her body, and a blotchy tearful face. I don't know what was happening, but she did inform me that she had not begun to move.

The news was not good for me to hear. I am on a somewhat limited time schedule, and we need to get in there and do what needs to be done to have the house ready for a new tenant which has not yet been found. This is all causing us a good deal of stress which we don't need. Had we been told that she would be delayed, we could have stayed at home until she was out of the house. Now, we have to sit and wait, with no idea as to when things will be accomplished so we can get back home.

If I had my will in this matter, the two houses in East Hampton would be sold and the problems with them would be done. But, they aren't my houses, they aren't my problems, they are only mine to deal with for my aging mother. I wonder if there is a property management company around here who could take this weight off me? I'll look into that... although my mother will probably not agree to the paying of someone to 'do nothing' most of the time. I wish I could say that I'm doing 'nothing' in all this...but I'm the 'go between' for everything that must be done, especially phone calls, since Mom cannot hear well anymore on the phone. Mom makes the decisions, collects the rent, and pays for the contractors. I set up all work, listen to tenants, and stand before the judge with tenants who have left her in the lurch for rent or damages. It's no picnic, but I don't know how else to do what needs to be done.

I need to go walk off this stress.