Welcome September

It seems that the intense heat of summer is over with, just as September begins.

We've also had so  much rain again that we have not been able to get out and mow.  Dave will do it tomorrow, taking advantage of a few days with no rain, and a holiday.

We had a storm last week that was so terrifying that now I know why the cats freak out when it thunders.

This storm was just like the one in April of 2017.
That was the one that happened while we were away, trying to celebrate my 55th birthday in a luxury cabin in the woods (unlike our more rustic cabin that we rent every Thanksgiving).

That one, in April of 2017, tore down all of those trees in our back yard, and ripped the power service off of the back of the house, sending the riser flying 70 feet away from the house like a missile.

That one, in 2017, left us without power for a week, and cost us all of our refrigerated/frozen food, and over $5,000.00 out of our pocket in clean up and electrical repairs.

The insurance paid $1200.00.... equal to their deductible.  We had to borrow against Dave's dad's trust (with full approval, of course) to come up with the $5K.

Anyway, on Thursday night, about a mile from our house, they clocked the straight line winds at 95 miles per hour.

Our windows were literally rattling, the house was shaking, and branches came down all around our neighborhood. We still have one dangling out of the pecan tree over our cable and electrical lines.  Dave has a tool on order at Lowe's to try to reach up there and get it down without taking the lines down, too

The city will not help us, because the tree is on our property.

If we didn't have a new roof already, the old one would have been destroyed, shingles all over the neighborhood.

Power was knocked out far and wide, whole sections of town are still dark, businesses closed, and some of the traffic lights still don't work yet.

There was massive flooding, as 2 inches of rain fell in about 45 minutes.

It was epic!

There was only one tornado, though, that caused very little damage way up north of us.  The rest were straight line winds.

We are very grateful that our power stayed on, and that the pecan tree is still standing.

Dave saw his new psychiatrist this past Monday for the first time.  He likes him.  They will be changing his anti depressant, and decreasing his anti anxiety dosage.

The anti anxiety medication causes him to have tremors and to jump while he's sleeping.  I really hope that goes away.

Dave is continuing to go to a talk therapist, as well, and I can really tell the difference in him.

He's actually reading a book now!

This is a big deal, because he's not usually able to follow through with anything he starts.  He picks something up and never finishes is.

Like that instrument he bought himself for his 60th birthday.  He sold his bass guitar and his ukelele, which he never followed through with, to have the money for this unique instrument.

It's been sitting in a box ever since.

Maybe this winter, he will take it out, and watch videos, and learn how to play it.

This past week, I also went to my oncologist's new office.

This was his original goal when he moved out of the practice that was taken over by the huge hospital system, but the building wasn't ready yet, so he had to go to an interim location for 8 months.

Now he is back in a facility that has a phlebotomy lab, an imaging center, and radiation therapy all in one place.

I won't have to go to three different places anymore!

It will be time for scans again in October.  If they come back clear again, I am going to ask if I can get this port taken out.  I am SO tired of having to have it flushed every other month, and the last time I had it flushed, something weird happened (I think the needle came out of it or something, after she had pushed the needle through my skin), and I jumped and yelped....  It was pretty awful.

Maybe he can make it medically necessary... say there's something wrong with it,  and it that has to come out.... so the procedure will be paid for by insurance.

We are preparing to go to Illinois and Michigan soon.  My nephew is getting married in Michigan (no idea why they did that to their families, making everyone spend money to find lodgings out of state).

The hotel where they got a block of rooms is SUPER expensive.  It would have worked out to about $150 per person per night, for just a place to sleep, so I booked an Air BnB for us, my sister and brother in law, their kids, and their son's girlfriend.

It's costing us each $32 a night.  THAT is manageable!

Plus, we have a whole house, not just a room to sleep in, so we can buy groceries and eat in, which is also much less expensive than having to eat all meals out.

We will be in Illinois for 4 days, and Michigan for 2 days, and we will leave from Michigan to head back home on the morning after the wedding.  We will return to work on the Wednesday after.

I had to ask for special permission to use more than 5 vacation days at a time.

Also this week, I went and got my long hair chopped off.  I wanted to NOT look like a mop in the wedding pictures.

She cut off 6 inches of length, and added layering.  However, she did NOT cut the top, straight layer enough, so it covers all of the waves, and I will STILL have to pin it back.

I asked her to cut it short, but she refused, and said she would rather blend it to try to give a good overall shape.

I get that, that part works, but I want my waves to be wavy, not buried under heavy, straight hair.

OH well...its really cute, other than that!  I just wish I were allowed to dye it lavender, or opal (lavender, teal, pink, etc).  Stupid rules at work.

Tomorrow, since none of us in class are out of town, we are having our usual Monday dance class, but we are having it at 4 instead of 7:30.  It's nice to have the freedom to do that, and we need the practice before our performance at the end of the month.

Today, we are meeting a friend for brunch.  Seems like every time I tell Dave that we need to curtail our spending, he wants to go to brunch.... sigh....

SO, that being said, I am off to the shower.  Have a nice holiday weekend!