wittenlover

Will be GD SS time again soon enough!

Oh my goodness... That's awful. Thomas (and you) will be in my prayers. May he heal completely from these serious injuries...

How are we already almost halfway into August? Eesh... Time's been flying. Little miss Mew (in my profile pic here) has been trying to give mama a heart attack lately with some health issues. Not entirely unexpected at 17.5 years old but I could do without the couple of emergency vet bills I've had to deal with when she apparently was just battling a bug of some sort. Antibiotics and time and she's back to being her spunky self. Go figure. No clue how long I still have with her but these past few weeks have made me more appreciative of the little things like the special moments when she chooses to curl up next to me vs in one of her other favorite spots, when she comes to me looking for attention, etc. This coming weekend is the annual Woodward Dream Cruise. As a classic car lover, this is one of the events I look forward to each year. I know the traffic on Woodward drives some locals crazy (and I get it) but I love being amongst all the cars from days gone by. Memories of being a kid and riding with Mom or Dad (or both) and having them tell me what the cars were and some little fact about them when we'd see one on the road. I'll be down there Saturday morning/early afternoon before I head into my weekend "side gig", camera in hand to capture some of the best and share with my fellow car lovers. Looking ahead to the end of the month, I am headed back to Cedar Point and will actually have my coaster buddy back with me, as she's been able to work in a couple days off to come back up for another quick visit. I'm happy to have her join me for that run since I know she loves the coasters as much (or more) than even I do. The day she heads home is actually opening day for one of my favorite local orchards, so we're talking about her potentially staying late enough for a quick orchard visit before she starts the trek back to her place. She's not been up here for that before - firsts are always fun and... She could take some fresh orchard doughnuts home. Bonus. lol

I've had too many friends lose someone they love the first half of this year (hubby for two of them, mom for one, grandma for another), so goodbye, first half of 2025. It's been a rough one. Got my buddy in town from Indiana this week. We're hitting The Henry Ford/Greenfield Village for Salute to America, Cedar Point for a couple days, Frankenmuth (because Frankenmuth) and she'll get a day of rest before I send her back home thoroughly exhausted and needing a vacation from her vacation. LOL (The cats are enjoying having an extra "staff member" around.) In garden news, my lettuces (romaine and red/green leaf) have grown beautifully, my dill has created a forest and I am now in harvest mode on all those. Still to come are cucumbers (hopefully), celery, and brussels. Maybe this year I can finally make dill pickles using my own dang cukes. LOL Hope my GD fam is doing well as we enter these hot summer months.

So sticky today. May be "cooler" but that almost makes it worse with this high humidity. Blah. Over it.

Can we get the SS list started already so I know who I'll have???

Have a blast! Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. You won't feel the heat with the humidity so low out there. It'll get you faster than you think. Vegas has certainly changed a lot even since I first started going in '06 but still fun to be had when you know where to look/go.

Heck, I've "washed out" in years past but I've still come back around and posted/read throughout the year just to see what everyone was up to. Good times.

So yesterday was "May the 4th be with you" and today is "Revenge of the 5th" for us Star Wars nerds. Mew (kitty in my picture) goes in for her semi-annual checkup this morning. We check her thyroid and bp twice a year since she's a senior kitty and is taking daily maintenance meds for both. She's not happy with me right now because, in order to safely handle the drive (we've discovered her heart rate spikes badly on longer than about a 10 minute ride), I have to give her a dose of gabapentin 2 hours before we leave. I know she hates the way it makes her feel, so I feel terrible giving it to her, with my only comfort being that it's better than the alternative for her. [If we could draw her blood remotely somehow, I'd totally spare her the "fun".] The gaba takes 8-12 hours to wear off after I administer it to her, so I do my best to set her appointments on my work from home days to minimize disruption to my work while allowing close monitoring of her to keep her safe and to make sure it actually does wear off properly. When she's feeling good otherwise, it does tend to wear off closer to the 8 hour range than the 12, thankfully. In other news, my "sister from another mister" mom's celebration of life has been scheduled for 5/24. This will be while us other two of the 3 musketeers are local, since that's Charlotte race week (this was not intentionally set up that way - just happened to be the best date for the family overall) so we will be able to be there for/with her as she says her last goodbye to her mama. In the meantime, we told her to keep us posted on how much of the race week stuff she wants to join us for, as we've committed to making the drive between her house in SC and Charlotte (roughly 2 hours each way) multiple times as needed. It'll be worth every minute and every penny we spend on gas to support her any way we can while we're that close.

As any race fan knows... This. Is. May. Bring on the annual Memorial Day weekend run to Charlotte with a helping of watching the Indy 500 on TV before we take our seats at Charlotte Motor Speedway for 600 more miles of racing. One of my "sisters from another mister" unexpectedly and tragically lost her mom to a heart attack yesterday morning. She is one that is always with me in Charlotte and is now VERY much counting the days until we are together. Our group of "three musketeers" are all feeling the loss today.

At this rate, I'd need a full on brush mower if I did a no-mow May... The dandelions are as big as my cats already!

Anyone else have "fun" trying to get a Switch 2 preordered last night/today online? I tried to grab one on Best Buy site last night but got white screened when I reached the "front" of the line the first time and they were gone by the time I got back to the front of the line the second time. Oof. Accomplished in-person pre-order at my local GameStop on my lunch break today. The location I went to had 45 total pre-orders available, 30-ish MK World bundles, the rest plain consoles. I missed the bundle by a few people but got a plain console and went ahead and ordered the physical copy of MK World to go with it. Once mine was reserved, only three plain console preorders remained. Crazy.

Started the week with the news this morning that a dear friend has passed away. She's been in hospice at home for the last couple of weeks. She was like a mom/grandma to me, as she was roughly my dad's age (80+) so, while not a shock, still a loss. Doubt very seriously that we have enough room in our church to hold all the folks that loved her dearly. As I told another of our friends when we got the news today, that is a great "problem" to have (to be that loved). Her name was Linda. I was blessed to call her a friend for over 25 years.

Oof... As if last Sunday in my store wasn't wretched enough (we were supposed to close at 6 and be gone by 6:30 - last customers finally left store at 6:30 and we didn't clock out till after 8). I saw the email about the Torrid Cash "after party" going on this weekend and just wanted to punch a wall. smh LOL

Watch out for the fools today! My birthday month has begun (and that's no foolin')! The birthday reward emails have begun rolling in so I am starting to plan which ones I can (and want to) take advantage of. Aside from that, as the weather warms, I am starting to plan out what I intend to plant/try to grow outside this year. Romaine, leaf lettuces, spinach, dill, and parsley are back in the plan, as all have done well in my garden boxes these past two years. Cucumbers have been a struggle, as I've battled fungus attacks. However, I am enclosing part of an existing tubular structure behind my house to turn it into a greenhouse of sorts and will try again to grow some cukes, knowing that the dang fungus is airborne and the enclosure might help me fend it off better. (If anyone has any suggestions on the battle front here, I'm listening!) As for flowers, I had some solid luck with what I called a "red, white, and blue corner" last year - I intend to repeat that with similar color scheme this year - maybe reverse color order. Last year, I did short (height) red, mid white, and tall (stalk flower style) blue. Thinking short blue (purple), mid white again, and stalk red this time around. Front porch will once again get hanging baskets - not sure what flowers just yet - just going to see what strikes my fancy when I make my trip to my local greenhouse. Hope my GDer family has been surviving the severe weather that's been crossing the country lately. I know we're due for another round here tomorrow. Color me thrilled (not).