I had one job. Well, that’s not really true. I had a zillion and one, but my only “outside of the house” job yesterday was to stop the mail and return a package. Easy enough. Both at the Post Office. I finished and went to Dollar General to pick up a couple of things. (I forgot the toothpaste.) I came home and cleaned the fridge, washed the dishes, and took out the trash. I sat down to send a couple of emails when Mr. FixIt came in. And, as soon as I saw him, I expressed an expletive of utter frustration. He looked back at me with that, “What did I do now?” look that husbands often give their frazzled wives.

Where the water meets the creek from the drain we baby!

I told you all the other day about the water coming off the road into our yard when we get really hard rains. It saturates the ground, overwhelms the French drains around the foundation of the house, and the runoff has nowhere else to go but the drain at the bottom of the back stairs. I cannot tell you how many nights we have stayed up or set our alarm for every three hours to check the basement or suck up water at the door where it comes in. 

There’s a day in October that hits me in the gut. I don’t know the date, but I know when it’s coming, and I feel it when it arrives. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, I was playing on the playground after lunch when a little girl came up to me and asked if my brother went to Sumner School. I said yes, and she went on to tell me she heard on the news that the little VW bus they used for transporting the kids had been in a terrible accident and someone was killed. I knew my brother was on that bus.

Ever have one of those nights where you just can’t seem to turn your mind off? I’ve had way too many of those over the last several years. Grief messes with your circadian rhythms. Well, it’s probably more the cellphone usage in an effort to pass the hours till it’s time to get up. Let’s face it, I’ve never been a great sleeper, anyway. Add Politics, a Pandemic, and Parathyroid disease and you have a recipe for insomnia. 

See, this is why I don’t bake the good stuff...I eat it. We polished off that whole apple pie in little more than twenty-four hours. It’s ridiculous....but OH SO GOOD. Life is short, right? Eat dessert first. Use the good dishes. Wear that hat. Don’t wait for a special occasion. TODAY is the special occasion!

Yeah, I know...I’ve worked in medicine long enough that I should be encouraging you all to eat right and exercise and stay fit and live forever. And, there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m sure I’ll get back to that really soon. After all, mowing season is coming and I’ll be working my butt off again. But, I’m not going to beat myself up over a few pounds gained because, dang it...it was a pretty rough year. And, by golly, we made it through! There is something to celebrate there, I think.

I love sixty-four degrees! We keep the thermostat at 64 degrees year round. We have a gas stove in the family room that keeps us a little toastier, but the rest of the house stays at 64. In the summer, the AC is on...until the heat of the summer breaks. Then...as soon as I see the outdoor temperature is 64, the AC is turned off and the windows are thrown open wide. The opposite is true in the winter. As soon as the thermometer hits that magic number, I can breathe again. It means spring is well on its way...even if there are more freezes, or even snow after.

After a week of stunning springlike weather, the waterworks were scheduled to get turned on during the night. We’re supposed to get more than two inches of rain this week. When that is added to already saturated ground after the snow melted, we have flood warnings out all over the state. As a matter of fact, in an effort to be prepared, our Governor has issued a State of Readiness for all of our public services...just in case. I have to say, I have been pleasantly surprised by the actions of the Governor’s Office during the last year.

I kept a “Gratitude Journal” for years before I ever started writing this blog. When I was going through some of the darkest days of my life (up to that point), I wrote in it every night. I proclaimed my gratitude for everything in my life...large and small. At the time, I hadn’t learned that we must be grateful in everything...good AND bad. Believe me, it is not easy to find gratitude in our most challenging places, but I have always made an attempt to at least look.

We did it! We got our second vaccines yesterday and the feeling of relief nearly brought tears to my eyes. It’s not over by a long shot. We still need to wear masks and keep doing what we’ve been doing because...we could carry the virus to others. The vaccines are 95% effective, so there is still a chance of catching Covid, however small. We are a long, long way from herd immunity, so the more of us who get the vaccine...the quicker life can get back to normal.

We had an important appointment yesterday...one we’ve been putting off for too long. Time to make our wills. Not everyone dies with a will, but in my experience, if you really love your spouse you make a will. I didn’t realize how stressful this simple exercise would be for me. When you talk about wills, you are really talking about death. And I didn’t adequately prepare myself for all the feels that would well up surrounding that.