Tuesday, May 4

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

Decent weather.

I spoke with my Trainwreck sister, to see how she's doing after the loss of her friend. She had been cleaning for him, and his daughter asked my sister to clean out his fridge, shut off the water, put locks on the shed, etc. yesterday since the daughter had to fly in to tie things up. Today, his daughter got into town, got the keys from my sister and was changing the locks on her Dad's house to be extra careful. My sister was kind of insulted that her friend's daughter would change the locks, but I think that makes sense. My sister is kind of insulted to be effectively dismissed from her duties, but I said "well, he died. There's nothing more for you to do at his house".

Sure, maybe his daughter could have been nicer to my sister, but I think she thought my sister was a gold digger, hoping to inherit from this man. Not even an unreasonable assumption, though I think my sister was a great comfort to this man in his last year. She cleaned for him, shopped for him, hung out with him and talked and watched movies, and took him to his appointments. He gave her purpose and companionship after her partner died, and she was kind to him when no one else, including this daughter, was around to help him die with dignity.

There was no will, my sister wasn't looking to inherit anything, and she's not a thief. YET, I could see my sister blurring the boundaries of what would be appropriate, because she does that with everything. If she had the keys to his place, and if the daughter asked my sister to keep an eye on the house, I could easily see my sister going there when she's in town, to use the shower (hers hasn't worked in a long time), or to do laundry, or she'd keep beer in the fridge and some food and go there to eat if she was in town, or she'd end up sleeping there when she drank too much to go home (his house is in "town" where the mail and grocery store are, my sister lives in a ghost town 25 minutes away, so she's in town often, and it's inconvenient sometimes to drive back and forth if she has something else to do in town the next day.) Given even the slightest inch, my sister would have started pushing the boundaries. The daughter doesn't live in this town, she lives in another province, and it will likely take months for her Dad's house to sell. If my sister had keys, and knew the daughter was away, she's likely take advantage of having a "spare house". Especially since she's practically lived there this past year caring for this man. She wouldn't wreck anything, but it could get messy if anything happened, went missing, or got damaged.

There's no point in telling my sister that really, this is all for the best. She needs to face her own issues with housing, not just sort of move into this guy's house.

I went to see River. Covid restrictions are forcing R to be more strict about going back to one person at the barn at a time, and maybe only doing lessons outside. Our province is having another big upturn in infections, so here we go again.

We worked out outdoor obstacles some more, and I rode in the outdoor arena. It was a beautiful evening with lots of birds calling to each other.

I came home and had a lazy night. I just watched a movie.

Monday:

I got all of one side done on the very long row of hedges. It's just been the one side I've been working on so far this past two weeks. I'm cutting out all the old, dead wood from the middle.

I worked with the ponies some more, and they did very well. I'm quite proud of them.

I made two Mother's Day cards, with watercolors.