Stormy weather

 It's been so beautiful out lately!  We really are having a nice autumn.

It was in the low 90s yesterday, though, which was too hot.  Today, it's supposed to warm up again, and then there could be severe storms as a front comes through. 

We need the rain, though.  It's been a while since we got a good soaking.

This year has been great for rain, overall.  Everything is so lush as it begins to die back for the winter.

We even have two HUGE garden spiders (golden orb weavers, or zipper spiders) in our back yard.  Nice to see them back there!  I just keep my distance, HAHA!  

Yes, I am an arachnaphobe, but I like seeing them in their natural environment.  My house is not their natural environment!

We're going to try to get the mowing done before it gets rainy out.  I might help, if I have time.

This would have been our big dance weekend at my dance studio, but the workshops are on line, and the show was virtual last night, with only a few dancers performing.  I was not invited to perform, and neither were most of us.

It was really sad.  

Anyway, I am taking a workshop today, so that may preclude me doing any mowing.  Dave is still in bed, and the later it gets, the less likely I will be to have the time to help with yard work.

Watching the show last night made me emotional, then we went out and soaked in the hot tub.  

I relaxed enough to actually allow myself to cry after I came inside.  It has been a while since I had a full melt down, and it needed to happen.

I feel so much lighter this morning.  The stress of living in this world right now is too much to bear, and I need to let it out more often.

We met up with our friends from Switzerland yesterday at an outdoor beer garden.  It was lovely to see them, in a safe and socially distanced setting.

Rita gave me a jar of home made peach jam.  As much as I want to start cutting down on the carbs in our diet, I am making biscuits for breakfast so we can have some of that jam!

That should use up the last of the Bisquick that I bought in a panic at the beginning of lock down.  I won't be buying more, so that's one less high carb item in the pantry!

Off to do that now.  Have a lovely Sunday and a good week!

Cutting ties

 Our post vacation work week went fine.  We're back in the routine.

We finally got someone to come fix the alarm system yesterday.  It turned out to be the cellular connection box...  I have no idea how that all works, but it was out dated.

Had nothing at all to do with the battery, but I guess that's its default warning code or something... NO idea...HAHA!  I'm just glad it's fixed!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous!  Cool at night, and moderate during the day.  The only thing is the high ragweed and mold counts, and the smoke from the fires all over the western part of the country.

My cherry tomato plant has been prolific.   I think it's having its last gasp now, though.  There are still lots of little green ones on there, but they drop off easily.  

I'm glad ONE of my container plants produced in ample quantity!  

I got one last cucumber, making a total of 5 all season, and had it for a snack on Friday.  

Well, my biggest news for this post is not happy news.

Last Sunday, we discovered, via Facebook, that Dave's son got married.

We knew he and his fiance`, and some friends, were going to Florida for vacation, because they were posting pictures on Facebook..... 

But they purposely kept their wedding a secret from us.

Yes, just from us.  

Dave's brothers knew about it, and Dave's (now former) best friend was specifically told by Eric to NOT TELL US, and he complied.

Said friend (and his wife) traveled to Florida from their home in San Francisco, and attended the wedding.    

He then had the GALL to send Dave pictures from the ceremony, knowing FULL WELL that we were intentionally left out.

The reason he gave was that Eric is a positive person, and Dave isn't, so Eric didn't want us to know.

I guess they've never heard of clinical depression.  

I can't even.  

It's not like we would have gotten on a plane and gone to Florida, but it sure would have been nice to know they were getting married at last. 

We would have been happy for them, instead of feeling betrayed and stabbed in the back.

SO, this week has been rough for Dave.  He has an on-line appointment set up with is counselor next week.  This is a good thing.  

He has lost so much this year, and I am glad he is getting help from a professional.

It's really sad that his own blood would do this to him.  

His brothers claim that they didn't think to mention the wedding when we were together for the funeral last month.  I guess I can give them the benefit of the doubt if Dave can.

But Eric?  Not so much.  

And the friend?  No. Way.

After the way the family acted toward me at the funeral (no one spoke to me other than to say hello), and now this, I am DONE with Dave's immediate family. Done. 

Anyway... moving along....

A friend of ours has no income, and is needing a battery for her car, so Dave is going to go take care of that today.  

I'm not sure what I am going to do today.  Probably read through my course work, and definitely cook something yummy.

Happy Sunday to you, gentle reader!

Autumnal

 Our vacation has been really nice.

The weather mostly stayed in our favor, and those nasty cold wind chills never came.

It did rain all day Wednesday, so we just stayed in, but we got out to hike on Tuesday (it was HOT), and Friday (it was PERFECT), with a walk in a different park (here in the city) on Thursday after my doctor visit.

Our weekday hikes were wonderful, in that we saw only a few other people at the state parks we visited.  Friday, we had the woods to ourselves until just before we were leaving.  It was blissful.

We hope to get out somewhere today, our last chance before starting back to work tomorrow.  We may stay local, but that will mean crowds of people.  We'll see.

My Doc visit went fine.  I've now been reduced to seeing him every other month.  I still have to get my labs drawn, and get my injection once a month, and my port flushed every other month, but I don't have to take the time to see him unless there's a problem.  

Anyway, part of what will determine if we will get out of the house today is how tired we feel later.

Last night was not a good night.

Our household alarm system kept beeping.  It was doing that about 10 days ago, and Dave called the company, found out that he needed to replace the battery, which he DID.... 

...and then it started beeping with the same message again last night.  I think we got a "dud" of a battery, perhaps?   He will try to figure it out today.

In the meantime, it's disconnected.

SO, I got exactly one good night of sleep all week, the night before last.  

I had hoped that ignoring the news for a week would allow me to relax enough to get real sleep, but it didn't work until almost the end of the week.

However, I think I would have slept well again last night, had the alarm not beeped 6 times, Dave FINALLY doing something about it at 2:30 am  (not sure why he waited that long, I had suggested he call the company after the first one).

I was so anxious by then that it took me another 3 hours to fall asleep....and the cats woke me 2 hours after that.  UGH.

The weather has certainly changed for the better over this week!  I am pretty sure we are finished with the heat for this year.  

We left the windows open all day yesterday, until the air started to smell bad from the fires out west. The smoke is causing a haze all the way over here in Oklahoma. 

With the change in the weather, we should be able to get out and take our twice daily workday walks again!  No more getting up in the dark and trying to get some exercise before it gets hot out.

Yay!

Dave spent most of yesterday playing video games, and I did my usual chores, with the addition of finally getting out to work on my herb garden.  

I got all of the grass and weeds pulled out, and the sage and basil cut back.  I shared a huge amount of sage with a friend, who stopped by and traded me some venison steaks for the herbs.

Before we can do any adventuring today, Dave needs to do HIS chores, but then we should have some time to get out of the house.

I haven't made our Sunday pancakes for a while, so I am off to do that.  Have a good week!

Labor Day staycation

 We decided to extend the Labor Day weekend into a full week off.

The plan is to limit our consumption of news, social media, alcohol, and junk food.

If the weather complies, we will get out in nature every day.  If the weather is terrible, like they're saying it might be (wind chills in the 20s on Wednesday), then we will stay in, read, play guitars, get out the backgammon board.... 

We both surely need a break from the news, especially.

Yesterday, I had a nasty headache from the barometric pressure, which was at 30.30 (29.92 is "normal").

We went to Trader Joe's.  That was my first time in a grocery store since March.   It was actually FUN!  

But after that, and after lunch, I had to go lie down in the dark.  Took an ibuprofen, and slept.

When I got up, the barometer had dropped to 30.14, and the headache was gone, but I felt washed out.

SO, yesterday, I didn't get my chores done.  

After we run up to Costco this morning, I will focus on my usual household chores, and Dave will do the mowing at some point.

We've got a pork loin for the grill, and I have a painting project I want to do on my grandma's gate leg table.

It's supposed to be brutally hot tomorrow, and then the cold front comes Tuesday afternoon, so I need to get that painting project done today and tomorrow.  

The table is an antique, but it's so badly damaged (it went through a few floods in Grandma's basement, and the top is scratched and has a big water mark), that it's really not valuable as an antique, so I feel okay sanding and painting it.

On Tuesday morning, I will go get my monthly blood draw.  I'll call my nurse on Wednesday to see if it's okay for me to start my next cycle of chemo, and on Thursday, I have my monthly appointment.

I've also found a place to donate my breast prostheses, so we will drop those off after my blood test, and maybe get out to take a walk in the woods after that, and before the weather changes.

There were a couple of evenings this past week when our back yard was filled with magic!

Apparently, there is some kind of little fly that dragonflies love to hunt.... and we had a bunch of them, so we also had a swarm of dragonflies!

I went out and stood in the middle of it, with them buzzing all around me.  Anyone who knows me knows that I adore dragonflies.  I have a tattoo of a dragonfly on my shoulder that is 20 years old this very weekend!

They came two evenings in a row, but have not been back.  They must have eaten all of those little flies!

In the mix, there were also hummingbirds.  

We have tried and tried to attract hummingbirds for years, and this year, we finally have them!  There has usually only been one here and there so far, but lately, we have seen more!

They're even here in the heat of the day, not just early and late... They are such a joy to watch!

They've been busy on my bean vine, with its red blossoms, but it's gone now, and they're loving the native trumpet vine and rose of sharon.

I am off to the shower, then breakfast, then Costco.... Have a good Sunday, gentle readers, and a safe holiday, if you are in the US, and if you celebrate Labor Day.