today I learned

So my mom called me this afternoon. (Long story, but: she doesn't use the internet, my dad, with his bad back and knees hasn't gone down to the computer for weeks). They needed more of the medical-grade honey dressing that he's using on a small wound.

Anyway: the last set of this they had, my sister-in-law ordered off of Amazon over Thanksgiving break. But, as my mom said: "I don't want to bother her with it right now what with her not getting paid"

(So yeah: my sister-in-law, who works for the feds, is going to work and hoping the shutdown ends soon so she gets a paycheck. They will be OK; my dad has already told them that he will help them with bills if they need it and I think they have some savings. But yeah, the whole thing is a mess).

And yeah, yeah, I get it. It's like $60 and even though my mom is paying back for it, maybe adding $60 on their credit card right now isn't so great but....yeah. I'm trying not to be a little cranky about this but there are two of them and just one of me. (And I admit, over Thanksgiving, the little things *they* did around the house seemed to generate a lot more thanks and praise than the little things *I* did. Difference between sons and daughters, maybe? IDK.)

Anyway. I got it ordered okay (and yes, it's not a big effort on me, except she did call when I was in the middle of doing the workout I didn't get up to do this morning. (Another long story but: my bad shoulder has been griping me - probably arthritis, so I do need to keep up with the workouts - and I didn't sleep well last night, so I slept in and decided to do the workout this afternoon*)


(*And one good thing I realized: if I move my laptop to right next where the cross-country ski machine is, I can hear Pandora while I work out, meaning I am untethered from the horrors of listening to radio news - because the choices of radio I have are news, talk, country music, or current pop, and none of those make me want to ski to nowhere for 40-50 minutes)

And also, I admit these days when my parents call at an "odd" time, my heart sinks at first until I learn what the phone call is about....it was a Thursday afternoon when I found out about my dad being in the hospital, for example.

I'm trying not to be petty about this but it does seem often the little things I do (not just in my family) are kind of taken for granted, and things other people do get roundly praised. And also lots of people seem to expect I'll cheerfully do extra stuff. And yeah, yeah, I will....but sometimes I do feel a little taken for granted. (I suspect it's a curse of being a responsible person. When you're someone who doesn't need to be asked eight times to do something, you get asked to do more. And if you can do that thing correctly without screwing it up, you've just bought yourself a ticket for more stuff. And yeah, yeah, it's good to be useful and also "God help me but I cannot do otherwise," but I admit sometimes when I do something and nobody seems to notice, but someone else does a thing of equal size and difficulty, and they get lots of praise....well, I admit, I notice. Petty of me, but I notice.)