Time to Buckle Down

After the initial panic---no elevator for a month?! or more?!---I have started to settle down and work things out. Don't get me wrong, it still completely sucks. But I have to deal with it anyway.

My initial thought, honestly, was: how infrequently can I manage to have to go out? But then I had a chilling realization.

Used cat litter smells. Strongly. As does some kitchen trash, too, but the cat box scooping? I have been taking that down every other day, in happier, elevator-filled times, because it just does not smell good.

So it's not like I will be able to go out once a week and make that work. Following up on that, as long as I have to go down, I can maximize errands for those days. Or, for instance, bring home pizza for dinner. 

One of my initial thoughts was dismay about doing the condo checks. But honestly, that isn't going to be much worse than climbing the stairs would be anyway. Stopping on each floor going up? Well, it's not like I can climb five flights without a break anyway, not in these temps and with these knees.

Another 'happy' thought (such as it is) was, at least we have a garage, and can leave things downstairs. Cereal was buy-1-get-1-free, and I left a box in the garage. I'll buy some bottles of wine for Mom, but only carry up one. I'm even going to bring a gallon ziploc bag down and carry up that much cat litter at a time, because why kill myself bringing up 20 pounds at once? It's not like I need that much on a given day.

Yesterday I used a good, heavy-duty tote bag with good handles to carry things, and I also have a backpack in the garage that I can use.

Am I calm about this? Not really. I was already counting down to my vacation and how much I have to do to a) be ready to go, and b) have things ready for my brother when he comes in to keep Mom company. Removing the elevator from my tools for this planning increases the degree of difficulty by an unexpected and truly unpleasant amount. But what are you going to do? I'm not cancelling the trip. Do my best and move on.

Breathing deeply.