Slightly overwhelmed

The enormity of what needs to be done makes me feel like I have a dark cloud over my head. Forgive me if this post is a little all over the place.

Let me go back to Monday.

Those Reebok shoes I won in the Design UR Own twitter contest finally arrived.

On Tuesday I headed to the airport to pick up the rental, again haven't driven in 6 years and while I did a week ago this time I was renting for 4 days. I asked for an economy and I got this...

It's a Chevy Orlando and by far the biggest thing I've ever driven. I've never even heard of this vehicle. So my first stop was the Walmart in Olds (1 hr from Calgary) as I needed to pick up supplies for Dad's house later that day the highway was hit by mega hail so my timing was good. Parked far away from the store as it was the first time I parked in a parking lot in a long time.

Then I headed to Sundre (30 min from Olds) I parked at the Sobey's as I didn't get groceries in Olds,as I didn't want them sitting in the car forever, just cleaning supplies and replacement stuff. Sundre is so small that it's pretty walkable.

My next stop was the lawyer were I promptly burst into tears. I despise crying in front of people so this is torture for me. The Will will be in probate anywhere from 6 months to a year. The lawyer is hopeful as it's pretty straightforward that it will only be 6 months. Now I need to find an accountant to do the final tax return for my Dad. I'll deal with Canada Post back in Calgary.

My next stop was the bank to open an "Estate of" account, were I burst into tears for the 2nd time.

Then it was off to deal with vehicle insurance. As neither vehicle is being driven currently I got the insurance changed to cover fire, theft sort of stuff. My Dad's neighbour thinks her son would be interested in the Aveo, now she told me that over a week ago. I talked to her today and I still haven't heard from her son.

Then I went to Sobey's to pick up a few groceries and got to my Dad's house just as thunderstorm started. After all that I was wiped but I did wander around Dad's house and looked at the enormity of stuff. Remind me to downsize when I get close to retirement. That's when the overwhelmed feeling hit high gear. My Dad was 90 you accumulate a lot of stuff. I can also tell that since I saw him at Christmas his energy level probably wasn't great as his house was a mess. I almost bought a mop and then didn't I wish I had. The mop in this house is not so great.

My mission for the days that I'm here is just to clean the top floor. The basement is pretty much all stuff that can be given away or tossed. I'm going to need to help with that so it's not my priority at the moment.

I slept on the couch again as I was just more comfortable. I did go through his photo album and found some neat pictures.

Dad is in the center, dark suit. This picture made me think of Mad Men and there are very few pictures were my Dad smiles, he's a little like Victoria Beckham in that regard.

This is 1954 somewhere in Saskatchewan and I suspect my Dad's first Canadian winter. See the no smiling.

There were loads of pictures of people I don't recognize but I found some cute shots of me.

Me in my christening gown, could I pose or what.

Both my parents say I never crawled I just used furniture for stability.

Can I say I'm super happy I bought this

The Avivision personal scanner that's been a huge help with all the documents people need.

I actually slept pretty well on the couch last night and woke up at 6 am. Today I got cleaning, I cleaned up the messes I noticed when I was last here. Cleaned both bathrooms top to bottom, the kitchen floor and have 10 garbage bags sitting outside. I intended to sleep in my bedroom in this house so I cleaned this room too and I got new sheets. This is also the room where my Dad passed away but I was at peace with that. The only thing is I bought the wrong size of sheets. It was a guess. The sheets can go to Calgary as they fit my bed there. So now I'll stay on the couch for the rest of my stay.

I couldn't bring myself to clean Dad's room today.

Then I called all the bills and got them changed into my name, only burst into tears once. The only people who are charging me a deposit is the gas company, two places had to set up new accounts under my name. I also called the life insurance.

I got the house insurance sorted for the house in Calgary but they had no record of the house in Sundre. My Dad only used one insurance company but multiple brokers for example vehicle was in Sundre, Calgary house was in Cochrane, no clue where the Sundre house is I need to still find that.

Tomorrow I wan't to tackle the rest of the kitchen, the dining room and finish the living room. I'm not in a rush to get to Dad's room.

Friday I need to clean out the fridge.

I'm also trying not to push myself, slow and easy as I'm still pretty raw. I couldn't phone the cemetery people either to see if they have spot for the urn I'll try to do that tomorrow.

Let me end on a brighter note. I did buy this today

The Stampede is selling these and all  proceeds go to the Canadian Red Cross for Alberta Flood relief, they went on sale Monday afternoon, by Tuesday afternoon over 10,000 were sold. They're $19.95 and available here.