soozannah@sbcglobal.net

To: turn the lights out when he leaves; do his dishes and not leave dirty, greasy pans in the sink for hours; pick up his shoes, his clothes, his wet towel as they all end up in the middle of the floor; just work and live clean, neat, organized and not make a chaotic mess wherever he is. I've been asking these same things for over a year now; he's like a little kid and I don't want to be a mom - or his mom - or a nag. It's bad though, this mess he makes everywhere he is. I mean disaster and chaos. It's just awful. I'm starting to scream at him more and more about these terrible dirty habits he has but he keeps doing them over and over and doesn't seem to make any effort at all to stop my screaming, dissatisfaction and disgust.

She needs a place to live, I need help with my mom who is about 2nd stage Alzheimer's. The caregiver has about 8 yrs experience w/ Alzheimer's patients but is not licensed and has no real formal training. Shold I take the rent I'd charge for the room and deduct it from a salary? I'm thinking of $10/hr to start then as this disease progresses, increase her wage. Any input would be appreciated.

I took my mom's car in specifically to get chk-engine working.Told them chk-engine light would not come on and this was intermittent. That the car failed smog test and I need tags. Car was in shop 5 wrkg days, Finally said their diagnogstic indicated distributor, igniter & ignition coil had to be replaced at a cost of $985+diagnostic of $119, total around $1,100.. They got OK to do this based on their word and that this would fix the chk-engine light problem. Then it would pass smog, could submit certificate to DMV and get Registration Tags.

When we finally got the car, mom paid them with a check, (total of $850). Right after leaving this repair shop, took it to a certified smog shop. Car didn't pass test because check-engine light would not come on. Went back to repair shop, they said it worked when they started it but saw it was not working now. Then they said the car needed a new computer.

It seemed to me their diagnostic test was faulty. Mom was out over $800 and it still had the problem. So she stopped payment on check. What should we do now?

My mom who will be 86 soon sent $50 to support a political cause she wants to support. She now receives between 15 and 20 unsolicited pieces of mail PER DAY from all sorts of causes (associated with her political party) and she is GIVING AWAY all of her money to support this cause or that. How much of her contribution is really going toward helping the issue? I look at all the trash created by all this mail and I just am so sad about the forests being cut down to make the paper only to be thrown out. What can I do to stop all this mail? It's a form of abuse of the elderly if you ask me.

I have a lot of boxes, furniture and other misc stuff that need to be moved to the dumpster on my front lawn. Everything is in the back yard and it's simply toting them about 20 ft. Should I pay minimum wage ($9.xx? /hr) or is lower ok?

I didn't see her do it but where I found the small BUNDLE of cash (less $75) was no where near where I put the cash so there's a 2% chance I'm mistaken. I put it on a shelf and found it in between the shelf with solid wood between where I put it and where I found it. She was the only one in the room. I suspected her as I've missed cash before so I know I put it on the shelf. The only way it could have wound up between the shelf was to put it on top and I never would have done so because it is hollow. Only I know that. But there it was, in between the shelf. She swears up and down she didn't do it. But the money is gone, she was the only one here and where I found the remainder well, it had to have been her. What do I do?

A friend or mine has a very beautiful but very matted long haired and very big cat. I mentioned she should take the cat to a groomer and have the cat shaved and let the poor thing start over (with her help by brushing him and gettig all matted hair off. She won't because she thinks he'd be too embarrassed and feel like he was naked, I say that's hogwash, but could it be a posibility?

Do I touch + to + or + to -?

I found a couple of pinecones the other day - mostly all opened up except for the very bottom. If I washed them, clipped or sanded down any spikes, baked them for an hour or so, can anyone tell me if they could be offered to my flock of mostly budgies - many of whom love to chew on wood - will they even want them and are they safe?