IU Home Opener

Doug and I had a fun first night in Indiana with Karen and Brett last evening going to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and watching Doug and Brett try blazing sauce. They both decided that was a hard pass.  Karen and I played it safe with sweet barbecue.

The traffic was pretty light this morning on our way to Memorial Stadium to watch IU play its first home football game of the season. Both Doug and I were excited about the game, but a little skeptical about the new parking system.  Thankfully, it worked and we found a spot close to the stadium. Once we got settled, we walked over to meet Cameron at Cora family’s tailgate. We had a lot of fun with them and appreciated all of the great food that they grilled this morning. Doug brought his own beer and enjoyed a few while we were visiting with Rick, Charity, and Cora’s grandma. They had a pretty good size crowd, and we met a few parents of Cora's friends as well. The Zink family always brings a television, so it was great to be able to catch up on all the football news while we waited for the gates to open. We also had the perfect view of Hoosier the Bison ziplining to the tailgate area.

Doug and I left when Cameron had to go to the stadium to hand out rally towels. We had planned on spending quite a bit of time in the tailgate tents provided by IU athletics, but they were absolutely packed since Big Noon Kickoff was positioned right beside them. Instead, we walked around the stadium looking at all of the National Championship signs and then went into the game early. In the end, I am not sure was the best decision because of the heat. Temperatures today were near 100° and from what we heard later they were 152 on the field. The first half of the game was good. We played pretty well considering that we lost seventeen seniors from the team last year. North Texas gave us a game in the beginning with Tayven Jackson, their quarterback, playing well. He had been on our team for several years when Tom Allen was the coach, and his brother Trayce Jackson-Davis was a legend on the basketball court at Assembly Hall.

I decided after the first quarter to get a refill of water. They were free today for everyone who brought in a water bottle, but the line was 30 minutes long.  Since it took so long, I decided to buy Doug and I lunch as I didn't want to stand in the long line again. I was glad to see that we were ahead when I got back to my seat. Doug appreciated the snack and we finished out the first half and part of halftime watching the band play.

As soon as we heard the Marching Hundred play "Fernando," Doug suggested that we stand in the shade under the concourse.  Everyone else must have had the same thought as the area was packed.  After five minutes of standing, my legs started shaking.  I knew that the heat was getting to me and told Doug that I could wait for him in the air-conditioned car if he wanted, but I couldn't go back into the sun.  Since we were up 24-6, he said that he was ok leaving as well.  I suggested that we watch the rest of the game at the Vault in the Union.  Doug loved the idea and we enjoyed the big screen, air-condition light crowds and easy access to drinks.  IU's 52-16 victory made the afternoon even better.

A New Thrift Store

I drove in to work with Doug today so that we could fly to Indy together this afternoon and only have one car at the airport when we returned.  After I dropped him off, I headed to Baldwin Park for the morning.  While Meg was at a doctor's appointment with the ENT, I went to several furniture stores near her apartment to look for armchairs.  I found some really cute ones but wasn't ready to spend $1200 yet to replace ours yet.  

After Meg's appointment, she and I met at First Watch for brunch.  It has become one of our favorite places to eat.  We both ordered our usual breakfast meal, and I enjoyed listening to her talk about her weekend plans with her new friends from kickball.  After we ate, Meg suggested that we walk to a thrift store that she and Nick had discovered a few weeks ago.  I loved the name and was interested in checking out what they had to offer.

The store was really impressive.  It not only had an area for thrifting, but also a designated pharmacy with free tests for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.  The handed out free condoms to those who wanted them and gave 96% of its profit to HIV related services.  I didn't buy anything but had fun sifting through all of the items for sale.  Meg found several pieces of clothing and was still happily shopping when I left to pick up Doug.  It was a fun start to my weekend, and I was glad that Meg had suggested it.

So Much Fun, But Time to Say Goodbye

This week I worked quite a bit on transferring my items on eBay to Facebook Marketplace.  Since the steroid that I was taking made it hard to sleep more than five hours a night, it was a good use of my extra time in the morning, and I could still rest while working on it.  By this afternoon, I had over thirty items listed on Marketplace and even got my first sale.  The two McDonald's Riddler glasses not only gave Brett a little bit of extra cash, but it was also fun for me to see how excited someone was to replace his and his brother's beloved childhood glasses.

After the sale, I started thinking about other items that would sell better locally than on a shipping platform.  Meg and Cameron's hamburger and hot dog costumes were two that quickly came to mind.  They had really enjoyed the Halloween that they wore them and Cameron had even used them several times later at Bethany, but I thought maybe our use for them had waned.  Cameron and Meg agreed and I listed them this afternoon.  I don't know if they will sell, but it was a nice walk down memory lane posting the pictures.

 

The Crazy Gnome Lady

Yesterday after our CCW board meeting, I helped my friend, Robbi, load several items into her van as she was taking them to Brothers Keeper to donate.  As I was carrying a box out to her vehicle, I noticed three cute gnomes mixed in with the items.  I quickly pulled them out and set them aside.  Before we left for lunch, I handed her seven dollars to donate to the organization and said, “I’m keeping the gnomes.” She just smiled and said great.

As soon as I get home yesterday, I put the one of the new gnomes out on the front porch with the one I had had since the spring.  The cute matching pair we’re not durable enough for outside decorations, so I found a great spot for them in our garage. As soon as Doug got home, I showed off my new “big purchase” and sent a picture to Robbie as well.

Today, I got a text back from Robbi. She loved the gnomes and sent me a picture of another one that she found at Brothers Keeper this morning. She asked me if I wanted him. Of course I said yes, and now we have a new friend to join our tiki bar outback. I sent pictures to the kids, knowing that they think I’m crazy, but I just love my gnomes. They make me smile every time I see them.

It’s 85 in the house

Yesterday afternoon, I noticed that the temperature in the house was rising.  That didn’t surprise me at first as I knew that it was harder for the air conditioner to keep up in the hot afternoon heat of the Florida sun.  As the sun set after dinner, I realized that this wasn’t just a typical August afternoon.  The temperature in the house was 85 degrees and while the fan was running, the AC unit kept kicking off.  I tried a few remedies suggested on Google but couldn’t get the air conditioner to run and decided to call Sun Kool, the company that had installed the unit three years ago.

Sun Kool called back right away and offered to come out last night to fix it.  The only issue was they couldn’t give me a time that they would arrive.  It could be within an hour or at 4 a.m. When I asked about setting up an appointment for today instead, they didn’t have anything before 5 p.m.  I didn’t want to wait that long as I knew that it would only get hotter in our home.  

Doug and I agreed to the late night repair.  He even offered to stay up until they arrived since I had gotten very little sleep the past few nights due to my tooth pain.  It was nice of him to offer, but I knew that it would be challenging for him to stay up and get up early to go to work in the morning.  He said that he would sleep in and go in late, but instead I suggested he go to bed and I would wake him up when they called if it was after I went to sleep.  

I was just starting to get ready to go to bed at 11:45 p.m. when the repairman called to say he was on his way.  I was surprised to find out that a part had already worn out on our new air conditioner, but found out later that this was common in Florida with the heavy usage of AC units.  It made a lot of sense with the extremely hot weather that we had had these past two weeks.  Thankfully, the repairman was able to fix it within an hour and the part was covered by the warranty.  I woke Doug up after he left to let him know that it was fixed and by the time I went to bed at 1 a.m., it was already a few degrees cooler in the house.  

Doug called me this morning at 9 a.m. to find out about the air conditioner.  I was a little bit surprised as I had talked to him last night and thought he was fully awake when I told him.  Obviously, I was wrong but didn’t think too much about it.  At lunch time, Doug told me that he was going to leave at 5 p.m. since he came in late today.  I asked him why he came in late and he said, “Because of the air conditioner repair.”  I laughed out loud when he said that as he didn’t have anything to do with it.  He laughed as well and admitted that he had slept in.  I was glad to hear that and even happier that it was 75 in the house once again this afternoon.

The Worst Pain

Over the past few months, I have been back-and-forth to the dentist multiple times. I had a tooth that was giving me some pain for the past year but nothing that I couldn’t tolerate. When I had my cleaning in mid-June, something aggravated it and the pain increased quite a bit. Since my dentist wanted to put a crown on it anyway because the filling was no longer serving its purpose, I decided to go ahead and have the work done at the end of June. 

Unfortunately, the new crown did not solve the pain in my jaw. I was completely surprised by this as I had had multiple crowns before and had never had a problem with pain. My dentist decided that the next best step was to do a root canal. I had also had several of those and never had any issues. That changed last week. The root canal caused so much pain over the weekend that I could not sleep. Ibuprofen and Tylenol didn't help and even ice wouldn’t solve the problem. I was in tears almost all day yesterday.

After not sleeping much at all last night, I decided the best thing I could do was arrive at the dentist right when they opened at 8 AM. Once the assistant saw me in the waiting room, they took me right back to a chair. I guess all of the work that I had done recently had aggravated the gums and bruised the ligament. My dentist instantly took the crown off, and within a few minutes, the pain was a lot better. Since we were going to Bloomington for Labor Day weekend, they went ahead and made a temporary crown that was extremely small and fit in my mouth without causing additional pain instead of doing any more work.  They also gave me a steroid to help the inflammation heal quicker.

By the end of the day today, I was able to find some relief. I did multiple salt rinses throughout the day and took my steroid. I don’t know if I’ll sleep tonight because of the effects of the medication, but at least for now I do not want to cry. I was even able to eat some soft foods tonight for dinner. Hopefully, this will all be solved in a couple weeks and will just be a very painful memory.

Penguin and Bill

When Meg visited her grandma shortly after she broke her hip in July, she brought her a penguin from the Toledo Zoo that her and Cameron picked out on their trip. Grandma Jane loved the penguin and had it next to her bed at the nursing home and has since kept it close to her chair at home. A few months later, Meg decided to experiment with making a teddy bear out of one of her favorite yellow shirts. The bear turned out great and Meg was super proud of it, so much so that she decided to send it to her grandma in a care package. Not too long after it arrived, Meg started receiving pictures of penguin with his new buddy, Bill the teddy bear. 

Over the past few weeks, my dad has continued to send Meg some great pictures of Bill and penguin on adventures all through their house. Sometimes they are riding in my mom's walker, other times, they are watching their favorite television shows, including Gunsmoke. My dad has started to include me on these text messages, and I have had so much fun looking at the pictures and laughing at their scenarios. Just recently they were reading the wedding albums of Brett, Karen, Meg and Nick.  I am very glad that Meg’s gift was so well received and hope to add some new friends to their group soon.