Dropping Crazy.

For the last week of January and the first 3 weeks of February, The Crazy Man took his annual Winter trip to warmer climates.  This go-around had him on an 11 night cruise to the Panama Canal and 3 weeks in Boca Raton, FL.    

Due to much conflict with The Crazy Man’s girlfriend, the whole trip even happening was touch-n-go.  From the planning to the booking of the cruise to even communicating when the plane took off, The Crazy Man kept calling it off.  His threshold for dealing with the girlfriend is at an all-time low.   All of this drama added to the usual hysteria of getting him ready for travel.  The Crazy Man had me counting down the minutes until it was time for the plane to take off.   My fingers and toes were crossed he’d be on the plane.
 

Fortunately for me, the trip did occur.  And other than hearing from him 1 day after he left to help him get a new hearing aid replaced that he lost for his left ear, his time away from me was very peaceful.  I loved not hearing from him.  I loved my afternoons after finishing work at the preschool being free until the kids got out of school. 

When The Crazy Man returned home and I went back to working for him, I realized just how bad he is.  He is CRAZY!  I mean, really crazy!!  He means well, but I don’t think I can put up with it anymore.  

I want to quit.  I don’t think I can.  I’ve worked for him over 3 years.  I do a great job and I am not sure anyone else is going to be able to pick up where I left off.  He is 77 years old and he is losing the sharpness he once had.  I can remember places, people, tests, phone numbers, etc from years back.  No one, no matter how competent they are, is going to have this history.  One of the things that makes me as successful as I am assisting him is my memory.  I can recall so much.   Furthermore, all these doctor offices’ nurses, receptionists, office managers, technicians, pharmacists know me.  I don’t even have to identify myself anymore, let alone get The Crazy Man to tell them they have permission to talk to me.   This didn’t happen overnight.  It would take months for a new person to build up to this kind of access; that’s saying a new person would last that long.  The Crazy Man wouldn’t have patience to break someone else in and he doesn’t do well with stupidity.  

I look out for The Crazy Man’s best interests. The last assistant he had took advantage of all the access she had and stole tens of thousands of dollars from him.  It would probably still be going on if she hadn’t ended up in jail with a DUI.  It was only then that he opened his own mail and saw the bank and credit card statements.  

My quitting would be devastating.  I am not sure he would recover. I know how much relies on me.  I don’t know what to do.   On one hand, he is 77.  So how much more time would I actually have if I stuck it out?    But on the other hand, it’s not my problem.  If I want to quit, I should be able to quit and not feel bad about it.    We are employer/employee; nothing more.  It’s not like he is a family member and I am abandoning him. 

I’ve gotten close to quitting.  This past week, he received a new Marriott/Chase branded credit card.  He wanted me to call Chase and find out why the card they sent him was a different color than the one in his wallet.  The Crazy Man wanted to verify that all his benefits/rewards will remain the same.   Long story short, all Chase did was send The Crazy Man a new credit card for his expiring one.  No biggie, right?  Apparently somewhere along the way, he was told he would never have an annual fee for this card.  And, you guessed it, he has been paying a fee each and every year.  The Crazy Man goes off the deep end and now the letter writing campaign begins in full-force.  A letter is getting written to the President of Marriot and the President of Chase.  And for good measure, let’s contact Channel 7 On Your Side.   He is sure they’d like to hear about this act of injustice.  

As soon as The Crazy Man said the words “Channel 7 On Your Side…” I looked at him and said, “I’m done.  I can’t do this anymore.”   When The Crazy Man asked why, I replied with “Channel 7 On Your Side doesn’t care about this.  This is a wild goose chase.  I can’t do it anymore.”  

The Crazy Man quickly tossed aside the idea to contact the news media and said we didn’t need to worry about them.  Oh goody!    The Crazy Man deserves to have someone working for him who doesn’t mind contacting everyone under the sun.   He deserves to have someone who doesn’t get so excited at the thought of him leaving town.  Or someone who isn’t counting down to how many years he may have left.   It just can’t be me anymore.

So I’ve been gathering all his 2014 tax forms (banking, mortgage, investment accounts, prescription medication costs, charitable donations, etc) to send to his accountant.   After The Crazy Man returned from being gone for a month, he went through all this mail (A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT!) and I knew all the forms I’d need would be somewhere in this pile.  After a reasonable amount of time, I asked The Crazy Man if he came across any of the tax forms I needed.  His answer?  “I made two piles, one stack with all the important stuff and one stack that could get thrown away.  I think the maid threw everything away.”  UGH!!  Let me say that again, UGH!!  So now I am contacting all these places and seeing if they have the tax forms online that I can print.  Some do have it easy to find on their websites and others don’t.  Some have it that it can be printed out and some need to put it in the mail.  What a mess!   Oh, and the clock is ticking!  We are about to enter the month of March.  The accountant needs to have everything by March 25^th to avoid having to file for an extension.   Lastly, and this is huge, I have to hope that when some of these forms come in the mail (for the 2^nd time!), they actually make it to me and doesn’t get lost or thrown away.  

My dream is to get The Crazy Man through tax season and then quit.  Maybe I will tell him that I will stay to April. In the meantime we can look for someone to replace me and I can help train them.  A month’s notice is plenty of time, right?   Ugh. I just don’t know if I can go through with it.  I am genuinely worried about what will become of him.