Mid September

 Two weeks without a post.  I sort of blanked out.  At least it's not as bad as when I blanked out for most of 2021.

I think it was just too many things at once.  My brain confuses easily.  It seems that I often go weeks without much happening - and then it all happens at once.

To recapitulate: Friday, August 25 was The Golden Wedding Anniversary.  I celebrated, I cried. So many memories, so sad to not make any more with him.

Saturday August 26 was Jeff's visit, when we did the escape room.  So much fun.  Such a sense of loss when he drove off, back to Tennessee.  Especially this time of year.  For many years (10+) in September we would have been in almost constant contact, designing the trail, props, costumes.  We all would have been in each other's hip pockets for the next 6 weeks.  Now - he was in town for meetings, and had several other friends he had to go see on this day, so I was grateful for the 4 hours.  Still  . . .

Sunday, August 27.  Mischa passed away.  Today I was talking to one of my long-time coworkers at the museum, and talking about how they don't even do the Halloween Howl any more.  I pointed out that of the main crew of 6 for the Haunted Trail - Rob and Jeff moved to Tennessee, Bob and Mischa passed away, and Gill is pretty much disabled.  I'm the last "Sick Puppy" standing.

Monday the 28th I was doing hurricane prep and trying (not very successfully) not to worry.

Tuesday the 29th I spent most of the day at the Museum helping to prep for the storm.  I normally work Tuesdays and Thursdays - but I went in Wednesday to help "unprep" - get the animals moved back, clean the carriers, etc.  Then my normal work day Thursday.

And then I seem to have blanked out for a week.  The week of Sept. 4-10 happened, but I don't really remember it.  I did at least do the repairs on the chicken coop and moved the girls back in (I haven't seen Miss Sassy Raccoon for a couple of weeks).

Monday I had to get routine bloodwork done, but rather than coming straight home afterwards I treated myself to a lunch out, a wander through World Market (got some good coffee beans) and then the Spirit Halloween just to play with the animatronics.  I've been downsizing and getting rid of so much stuff for the last three years that I thought I could bring one small thing into the house, and picked up a flask for my Kraken dark rum.

Otherwise I worked three days in a row at the museum because they're still short of volunteers and this was the week that the ceiling in the kitchen was being torn out and rebuilt - so all the animal diets had to be done on tables outside.  The work "chaotic" doesn't begin to describe it but we got it done.  And today I am feeling empathetic.  I have mentioned my friend Los before, who lost his wife and since then has not missed a single day doing FaceBook posts of trying to remember their lives together.  Today is the third anniversary of her loss, and he's really torn up.

The fun thing of the last two weeks is that Ebaida and I did a really deep dive into The Hunchback of Notre Dame.  We read the book (unabridged), compared it with a movie, and then watched a French rock opera musical based on it - which was an amazing production.  We both liked it so much that we took advantage of technology and watched it together so that we could comment throughout.  (it still amazes me that I can do stuff in real time with someone in Egypt, with no more than the normal internet charges.  I still remember waiting until 9:00 p.m. to make long distance calls because the charges were lower then, but you still talked fast and kept the calls short).  Our discussions were so intense that even now that we're finished, it's sort of hard to let it go.

Rambling done.  Two busy weeks, and one lost one in between.  All caught up.