My grandmother has always been stubborn and when it comes to replacing old items in her house she’s even more-so. She has kept things that just baffle me. I will be trying to find something, looking through drawers, and find foods/medicines that are 15+ years out of date, coupons from the 80′s, broken decorations that have never been repaired, clothing that is worn out and well I could go on but you get the gist. Now before my husband and I lived here, I had stayed up here with my mom for a while and I remember my mom wanting to throw out a sleeping bag my grandfather had used back in the 60′s. She had found it crammed into a small wardrobe in the “guest room”. She took it out and showed it to my grandmother telling her it should be gotten rid of because it’s not good but my grandmother refused saying that my grandfather would be mad if he found out. I don’t think he even remembered having it. It was old and smelled terrible, but my grandmother took it from my mom and stuffed it in her closet upstairs somewhere never to see the light of day again.
So my grandmother’s kitchen, all its appliances, pots and pans are as old as this house. They’re all from the 60′s. Thankfully a few things have quit working and she was forced to replace them at last. She had been using her stove/oven where two “burners” wouldn’t work, one would superheat, the oven light was completely broken, and it didn’t cook food evenly anymore. All the appliances were that ugly gold color that was so popular back in the day. But anyways, she won’t throw anything out until it’s completely broken, even if it doesn’t work well anymore and it would make her life easier if she did replace it. They have a lawn mower that’s probably as old as I am which is being held together with duct tape and the throttle is held by a rubber band. Yeah that’s how bad they are with throwing stuff out. I’m getting side tracked, so moving on! Her pots and pans, like I said, are old and they’re all pretty much wearing out. She’s used the SOS pad on them so often the bottoms are horrible scratched up, or have foggy spots on the bottom cause of scorched food and most are stainless steel pots with copper bottoms. Needless to say, stuff sticks to them.
My hubby was making some pudding and even though he was being vigilant and watching it so it wouldn’t scorch, it still glued itself to the bottom of this old pot. It was so thick even the SOS pad wouldn’t tear away at it until I had put it back on the stove to boil for about 15 minutes and even then it was tough. Well he told my grandmother she should really get a new pot because it shouldn’t be sticking like that, to which she replied that she’d get the pot clean and looking just like new. So we left the kitchen and let her have her fun with her pot and went down stairs. Well about twenty minutes later I hear the kathumping of her slippers coming down the stairs. She triumphantly strode over to Micha and proudly presented her pot said “It’s all clean. SEE it’s still a good pot.” To which Micha just nodded and, shortly after, face palmed once she’d turned to go back upstairs. Though later on, when he went to use the pot again, there was still some chocolate in the bottom but it is there for good now because no amount of scrubbing is gonna get that thing clean.
I don’t think she’ll ever replace her pots unless the bottoms are worn through. 
My grandmother went in to get her right hip replaced yesterday. Boy does that sound funny, but it’s amazing how they can just pull out an entire joint that’s pretty much essential to living and replace it then have that person up and walking that evening. Anyways, my grandfather was nervous, though he wouldn’t say it of course. That’s not a manly thing to do, and he turned into, what I like to call, a “Clouseau” (Pink Panther) while at the hospital.
When they first called us back to see her before the surgery he manages to trip over one of the doctor’s wheelie chairs, successfully landing with one knee to the floor. This all seemed to happen in slow motion too. Funny how that works. The nurse that was in the room almost successfully filled her drawers watching him go down. We got him back up and he sat down, regaining his composure, twiddling his thumbs and acting like nothing happened at all. Business as usual. The nurse told him to behave himself and to hold my hand on the way out. lol
He did manage to trip a little getting out of there, but I had shoved the wheelie chairs out of his line of travel, so nothing much happened. We got him to park himself in the waiting room and chill. He impatiently sat there waiting for the buzzer the nurse gave him to go off. Every buzzer in the room that went off made him jump for his. After the surgery was over we traveled to the next floor to wait. He was standing in the hallway and after about 30-40 minutes my grandmother finally shows up. She was still really out of it and drugged up. She couldn’t talk or anything just move her head and look around a little. When she was in place and set up, he went over to her bed and was leaning in to say goodbye and give her a kiss. He tripped again. The wheels on the bed weren’t locked so it started to roll off to the other side of the room, with him almost falling on her. My husband caught the bed so it quit moving but he looked at her heart monitor and saw that it had shot up about 10 points. I was watching her and her eyes were the size of pies and she gave my grandfather such a glare. The glare of I can’t do anything but if you stay around long enough I will try. The whole thing reminded me of a scene in the Pink Panther with Clouseau and Dreyfus. After that, we put the bed back in place and he again leaned in and was going to kiss her goodbye. He told her we were going to leave and her heart monitor instantly dropped a few points. I couldn’t help but laugh a bit.
I think from now on I’m going to keep any furniture with wheels on it away from him. Overall her surgery went really well though, they got her up on her feet that night to walk a bit and we got the old man home in one piece. We have success!