We Survived September - Welcome October/Fall

If I haven't made this clear in the past, let me make it perfectly clear now, I DO NOT LIKE COLD WEATHER.  I am a summer person, bring on the heat and humidity I can always cool down with iced tea and water but I can never get warm in cool weather. 

Since I am a summer person, the onset of fall is not a super happy time for me.  For the past 12 years I have occupied myself with my son playing football and my daughter cheering in the fall and then the holidays came so it was really the week after Christmas before I really thought about cold weather.  This year with no cheerleader or football player the dread of the shorter days and impending cold weather is really getting to me. 

Mini loves fall and cold weather and she has been doing the cold weather/snow dance for weeks now.  She is all about pumpkin latte's and apple scented candles, grrrrrr.  I would be working in the yard completely drenched only to hear her say "why won't it get cold."  I would laugh to myself and think we aren't even close since the last couple of years I have managed to drag being in the yard out until Thanksgiving.

When the calendar turned to September, I was bee bopping along still in my summer mode when I remembered.   It's September....oh noooooooooo!

Maybe my dread of fall is more about the month of September than the cold weather coming.  You see, since Wonder Hubby and I married many moons ago, September has been a notoriously bad month for us.  Truthfully, we just dealt with things and went along   It has been only the past few years when we realized that for more than a quarter century, September is not a happy month for us.  If it is going to happen, it will happen in September. 

Now that we have put this together maybe we can formulate some sort of defense plan for next year but this year we were wide open to potential disaster and we once again experienced the curse of September.

The month started out so meekly that we were lured into a false sense of peace.  By week two things were beginning to get cranked up.  We had a couple of work related issues that had the potential to flip our world upside down (one is still not fully resolved).  We negotiated those as best we could only to be met with more really crappy luck challenges.

The ankle biter has been dealing with a skin rash for a while now.  Normal treatment would include dietary changes but since we are still dealing with a diet to control bladder stones and to prevent a repeat of last fall's (yep it was September) near fatal bout of pancreatitis diet changes could not be made.  We moved from simple rash to bacterial infection we had to spend some time with the best vet in the world Dr. Ellie Goan and now spend a good part of our day mixing up a concoction of meds to try to handle the new crisis.  The good news is, it seems to be working.

While the ankle biter was busy scratching constantly, I realized that I had been taking acid reducers multiple times per day and was still having some weird symptoms for 3 months.  I know, I am apparently slow and didn't put things together for 3 months!  So off to the doctor I go....now when I am not working on the Ankle Biters meds I am working on mine.  I have turned my diet into a fiesta of bland and tasteless foods in an attempt to clear up my issue in a month.  So far, improvement (until this morning when I decided to have a bit of coffee since I was so much better, big mistake) but I have to be fully healed in 2 more weeks or I have to be scoped! Yippee

Okay, we are good right?  Wrong there were several other issues that were quite emotional that came up in week 2 and 3 that I cannot even go into.  Let me just say they were not what needed to be dealt with at a time I was trying to stay calm and heal.

Then there was the day that the dash of the 4runner lit up like a Christmas display with check engine lights and more.  Thankfully my little brother was willing to work on it for me saving us hundreds (so nice having a mechanically blessed brother).

Oh, did I mention worms ate up my 3 tomato plants in September, or that The Nana broke her hip, or that all the shelves Wonder Hubby and I made and hung weren't level?  Had about I re potted my favorite plant (for my gfathers funeral 10 years ago) and it looks like it is dying,  No....well all that happened. 

Then there was the day of the fire alarms, they started sounding at 4 am and even with the breaker thrown and the batteries removed in all but one (the only one in the house that I can't get to) they continued until 3 pm when Wonder Hubby got home.   Bless his heart he got to the one I couldn't and replaced the battery.  It all looked good till week 4 of September when it happened again!  The new fix required installing all new alarms.

Week 4 brought more fun.  Wonder Hubby had an accident at work and thought his foot was broken.  Thankfully after a couple of days of ice, compression and elevation he is able to be on it to work.  At work his hours have been bumped around and cut....still trying to determine how this will resolve. 

Finally, to complete the month. On Sunday, September 30, Wonder Hubby worked and Mini and I went to church and then did the whole Place that Can't Be Named for groceries.  Little brother was due to come over and make the car repairs at 5 so I was rushing about to get most of dinner cooked before he arrived.  Wonder Hubby came home from work at 4 and sat down to enjoy a bit of football while I puttered in the kitchen.  At 4:30 I reached under the sink (which, by the way I had just organized and it looks awesome) for some cleaner only to have my arm covered in spraying water and the under counter area flooded. 

Oh how I hated to announce this to Wonder Hubby....he had been at work since 4 am for the first day back on his smashed foot!  What could I do....I crawled around cleaned up some and tried to do a bit of plumbing to no avail.  I had to tell him.  I really expected this is be break point, I just knew he would turn and run out the back door with pipe wrench in hand.  To my surprise, he calmly looked over the situation and then headed 30 minutes away to Lowes for parts.  I really wondered if, this last day of September did him in and he was really going for a really, really long drive! lol  Thankfully by the time he came home, Little Brother was well on his way to having the car repairs handled and despite the fact Wonder Hubby hates plumbing, he had the sink repaired in 30 minutes.

So, here we are, day two of October and it has been wonderful!  I am skipping about in full fall appreciation because even though we are closer to cold weather......WE SURVIVED SEPTEMBER and around our house that is a feat!