[Name changed to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent.]
Day -1, Thursday: "Alex" texts me before I even finished driving to work. Could I come over a day earlier, that day? Something about the expected storm. I'm all, no. I won't get home until 8pm, couldn't be over there before 9pm. Storm would still be happening. I purposely asked for a 9-5 for Day 1 so I'd be home by 6 and there by 7.
Day 1, Friday: Get home, get packed, load the car, head out. Realize a mile or so out, as I'm mentally counting ports on the USB hub I'm bringing, that I forgot the mouse USB key, turn around to go get it. Arrive at the house to realize "Alex" and their SO aren't even there. Sure.
Walk around the car to get to the passenger door, hit ice, and go down on both knees, hard enough to draw blood on both. Wonderful. Get my stuff inside and realize I forgot the backpack. Sorry, Mum, gotta go get that. That's an extra 30-45 minutes out of my day. My fault, but still fuckin' annoying.
Day 2, Saturday: The only good thing I suppose is that I managed to get through Season 1 and some of Season 2 of The Girl From Nowhere. That aside, migraine all day long. Overslept (because I messed up on the alarm), but no biggie. Headed out to get gas, do grocery, and stop at my place to get the mousepad I managed to forget and the box stuffed full of cardboard (to leave in my brother's garage for his cardboard hand-off whatever deal).
Day 3, Sunday: Migraine again. Great. Otherwise okay until I heard a noise and looked over to see the cat in the kitchen sink. Why? Shooed cat away, saw no evidence that the cat had used it as a litter box, but it did remind me to go deal with that. I find out that there are huge clumped areas that were NOT dealt with. I must have removed 1/3-1/2 of the litter because of all the urine clumps. Fantastic!
At that point I started going into a meltdown about adults ("Alex" and SO, who are in their 20s) who apparently did not do the things they were supposed to, which included taking the trash out to the wheelie bins in the garage. On a happier note, I finished The Girl From Nowhere and sneered at the Reset version (whoever is playing Nanno isn't even close to looking the part).
Day 4, Monday: Not a terrible day, but not a great one. Cat did not finish his food (by the time I got home from work), so I go to use the transdermal ointment. Hey, there is NO package insert with detailed instructions as promised. Fine. I'll wing it. Get that done.
Day 5, Tuesday: Wake up to find out a dog shit on the carpet near the front door. A moist one. Those dogs went out at around 8 and again at 10 the night previous. Clean up what I can, saturate with whatever the hell cleaner I can find, and dump paper towels on top. Came home to a brown stair on said carpet. Oh well.
Day 6, Wednesday: Go to take the 2 wheelie bins to the end of the drive for garbage pickup and realize one of two things. Either "Alex" & SO managed to fill both of them near full between mid-late Wednesday (Day -2), so roughly 2-2.5 days, or they never bothered to take them down for garbage pickup. Fabulous. I finally turned the ceiling fan on in the bedroom, just so it'd be a bit cooler in there.
Day 7, Thursday: One of those damn chickens slipped out of the coop. Cue me trying to herd it back inside with the help of a rake. They're so stupid. It kept peering through the sides at the food I'd just left there, uncomprehending as to why it couldn't get to it.
Cleaning lady showed up (she seems nice) and did some more work on that dump spot. It's not very noticeable at this point, and she said something about a Bissell for next week...
Because the gas fire is on practically all day (because the cat has trouble retaining heat at his age), it was too fucking hot in that house. Even my mother, who has the same issue with heat retention, was complaining it was too hot (and she'd turn the thing off just to get some relief).
Day 8, Friday: Got up, stripped the sheets off the bed and remade it (which really just meant straightening out the blankets and other covers—who really needs a sheet, blanket, electric blanket, and a quilt/comforter at the same time?), then tossed the sheets into the washer (along with a set of my mother's) and set it going. [The washer later error'd out on the spin cycle.]
One more round of cat meds, chickens (including refilling the water), and then packed the car and got the fuck out of Dodge, though I did wait until my mother was fully awake and aware. My brother and his wife aren't even scheduled to land until 9pm, so I wouldn't expect them to be home before 10pm, possibly later. I was home by roughly 8.15, and got everything put away and set back up by 8.45, so not terrible.
I am home. I can actually relax for the first time in a week.
ETA: I am reminded, now that I'm home, that the toilet in my brother's bathroom is ridiculous. It's small, like it was designed for children.