What Did You Do Today?

Doug asked me tonight what I did today.  At first, I said not too much.  Then I started to list off everything that I had done during his time at work.  I spent an hour working on CCW items.  I talked to Cameron about his upcoming interview.  I helped Meg with an issue that she was having.  I did four loads of laundry and put everything away.  I wrote my blog.  I washed Doug's bedding.  I filled out a missing mail report for the package that I sent Cal two weeks ago that was never delivered.  I ran to the gastroenterologist to update Doug's insurance information for his upcoming colonoscopy.  I sprayed the weeds along the side of the house.  I took care of the grass that was growing into the road by the mailbox.  I checked in with Brett about the weekend of October 26th and I watered the plants. 

Once I said it out loud, it made sense why I was tired this evening.  It didn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but it was a lot to accomplish.  I started thinking about how families with two full time working parents handled the stress of working and running a household.  It was overwhelming when Doug and I tried it and even though all of our children have "grown and flown" I could still find enough to do every day to keep myself busy.  I also appreciated that by still being at home that I could offer help when any of my children or their significant others needed it.  I know that this isn't the life for everyone, but it has been a good one for our family.

A Poignant Homily

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." Matthew 6:24

"For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." 1 Timothy 6:10

Doug and I went to mass on Saturday night and found the homily given by the deacon to be extremely relevant.  He talked of greed, misery and idolizing one's money over everything else including God.  We both walked away from the sermon touched, but with different thoughts.  I felt that the deacon was affirming our decision to help our children start their lives by paying for their college educations.  The stress of Doug's job and the decommitment of his family to help with that expense had really taken a toll on us these past few years and my mind had started to drift away from what was important and focused instead on wealth and hoarding money for "someday."  I had even started to wonder if we should have had them be partially financially responsible for their expenses as well.  I was afraid that we had robbed from our retirement to support them.  We hadn't and I was glad that the deacon reminded us today that Jesus asked us to forgo riches and to let go of earthly idolatry.  He was right and I knew that.  Doug and I were able to help our children start their lives and still live comfortably ourselves.  The most important part of raising them wasn't money, but to give them richness in faith.  This summer, I realized that we had done exactly that, and we had reaped the benefits of following the Jesus' teachings.  

Doug completely agreed with my thoughts, but he had never doubted that we had made the right decision all along.  His thoughts were deeper than mine as he contemplated his family's legacy, the promises that had been made to him years ago and what that meant for our future.  He brought up legitimate concerns, but did not have a solution for any of them.  The nice reminder for him Saturday was that we had learned long ago to only rely on each other.  We had weathered many storms together through God's help and the hardships of the past two years were slowly becoming a memory.

I appreciated Doug's opinion today.  He doesn't talk as much as I do, so it was nice to hear that we were on the same page with our own decisions.  When he went to bed tonight, I thought a lot about our upbringings.  They were so different from each other. My grandparents lived on a fixed income and worked commodities to bring home government peanut butter and cheese.  They had nothing to leave me but a case of Halloween Miller Lite beer and some knickknacks that I absolutely cherished.  His grandparents owned farmland that was now worth millions of dollars that they wanted their grandsons to inherit.  I hope that one day the boys are allowed to be owners of something that was so precious to their family.  The nice part is that no matter what happens, Doug and I both loved our respective grandparents dearly and had wonderful memories of them.  That's enough for me.

Oktoberfest

Last year we went to Oktoberfest at the World Equestrian Center and really enjoyed it. Thus, when they were hosting the same event this year, I put it on our calendar. They offered two dates for the festival, but Doug and I were busy last weekend, so we bought tickets for today.  Phil joined us for the event, and we all had a fantastic time.

This year we decided to arrive at Oktoberfest right when it opened at 11 a.m.  Last year, we waited until noon, and it was already standing room only when we arrived. I knew that I couldn’t stay very long if I wasn’t able to sit for part of the event. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite as crowded this year and there were more tables available. The first thing on our agenda was to try all of the authentic German foods. We sampled knockwurst, bratwurst, beef and cabbage, German pretzels, apple strudel, ginger snap cookies, and German chocolate cake. Everything was delicious, but the bratwurst and German chocolate cake were my favorites. I did not sample any beer, but the guys tried several of the Oktoberfest offerings. Doug even scored a German Oktoberfest hat when a Sam Adams representative walked by handing them out to those of us who arrived early.

Besides beer and food, we also watched juggling acrobats and a stein holding contest. There was cornhole, a giant jumbo game and connect four as well.   As much as I loved all of the food and activities, the best part of the day was the band. I liked the one a lot last year, but this year's was even better. It was a family band called the Swinging Bavarians. They yodeled, played polka music, and did traditional German Oktoberfest chants and songs. They showcased their children dancing and even taught the crowd a few dances as well. I loved listening to "It’s a Small World" on the cowbell and I know that Doug really appreciated the Chicken Dance. We never made it to the dance floor, but we sure enjoyed watching everything.

After 3+ hours of fun, we decided to call it an afternoon. Doug and Phil both went home and crashed for a while. I couldn’t blame them as there had been a ton of food mixed in with some heavy beers. After Doug took a short nap, he and I went to mass and spent the rest of the evening home watching football. I told him over and over how much fun I had had today. That has been the best part about moving, all of the different activities that we have been able to enjoy and now that he doesn’t have to work so much, we can actually attend many more of them.

                                              

Scary Movie Season Revisted

Every year October becomes scary movie season for our family. When we were still living in Syracuse, Camerron and I would pick out our favorite horror movies to watch to commemorate the holiday. We watched Scream together, Halloween, and many more. Doug wasn’t as big of a fan of scary movie season, but he would join us from time to time.

If Cal was home, he would suggest some of his favorites or a new thriller that he had heard was good. Cal’s favorite horror movie was Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He and I rewatched it one year while he was still living at home, and I realized that it was a little bit too much for me. After he moved out, he suggested the movie "The Strangers" for Cameron and I to watch. Cal did warn me that it was one of the scariest movies that he had ever seen. We decided to brave it and watched it one afternoon while Doug was traveling home from Florida. I had never been so scared.

I have started to realize the last couple of years that I just can’t handle scary movies season anymore. The heart pounding thrillers that I used to love were just too much for me now. Thus, last year I switched over from scary movie season to Halloween movie season instead. I focused more on Brett and Meg's favorites that I found on Disney+ instead of the horror classis.  Shows like "It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" were more my speed. This year, I even bought the pumpkin shaped soundtrack to it on vinyl that Meg had recommended. Doug and I both really enjoyed listening to that. 

Last week on the Rewatchables podcast, the movie "The Blair Witch Project" was featured.  The film came out in 1995 and had become one of Doug and my favorite scary movies. When we first saw it in theaters, we believed all the hype about the Blair Witch.  As I listened to Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan talk about the film, the memories of the first time I saw it 25 years ago came back.  Even though we found out later that it was a made-up story, we still had fun showing it to all of the boys. They also enjoyed the unique movie style.  Doug listened to the same Rewatchable podcast on his drive home from work today and loved the walk down memory lane as well.  We talked about watching it again, but I knew I couldn’t. We decided instead to watch the Curse of the Blair Witch. It was a faux documentary that was made after the original movie was released.  It described the Blair Witch's legend and the film students who had gone "missing" while studying the myth. We watched it outside on the tiki bar tonight and even though we knew that it was not a true story, we both still found it scary. 

After tonight, I realized that scary movie season is over for both of us. That’s ok with me.  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow had always been my favorite Halloween story and fortunately, I could still handle the animated Disney classic.

The Clean Up

Doug and I spent Tuesday getting ready for the hurricane. We brought in all the outside furniture, moved all the plants to the side of the fence, filled the bathtub with water and had food and water ready in case we lost power. For the most part yesterday, we really just dealt with rain. It started after midnight and continued throughout the rest of the day.  We watched the news off and on and knew that the storm had moved a little bit south of us. I hoped that meant that we have to deal with the storm at all.

Unfortunately, just as the weather forecaster said that hurricane Milton had made landfall in Tampa, a gust of wind picked up here and knocked over our tiki bar. I couldn’t believe it. We had it under the patio and it had never moved in any other storm. Unfortunately, we could tell that the countertop shattered when it blew over. Doug and I ran outside in the rain, picked it up, took everything inside that was stored in it, and put the fireplace in front of it so that it was wedged against the wall. Even the 80-pound fireplace didn’t make a difference, as the tiki bar blew over one more time in the evening. We to move it to the fence and lay it on his side after that.

I was pretty bummed last night when I thought about the countertop to the tiki bar being broken. It didn’t help that we lost power for six hours in the middle of the night, making it hard to sleep in general. This morning, I got up and started researching what we could do to fix it. I knew that it was going to be a really big project, but we loved the tiki bar and used it quite often. Doug went outside to access the damage and said that besides the tiki bar the only other issues we had were a broken wind chime and a few slats that had blown off the fence. I didn’t need the wind chime anymore and he was able to fix the slats, so it was really just the tiki bar. I knew that I was silly being sad about it as a lot of other people had lost their homes in the storm.

Our power had been restored at 6:30 in the morning, but the Internet was still out when we were outside cleaning up. We could see the Cox Cable trucks working on it in our side yard.  Doug suggested that we take some time to run over to Lowe’s and see what they would have to fix the tiki bar. He carefully measured the area that needed replaced.  He thought that maybe we could have a piece of plywood cut and use that until we came up with a more permanent solution. I didn't have a lot of hope but agreed to ride along.

Doug and I walked into the store, thankful that it was open. It wasn’t as crowded as I thought it would be, but there were a lot of people buying supplies to fix different items. Doug suggested that we walk to the flooring area first.  As soon as we reached the flooring aisle, I noticed that they had large piece of tiles that looked a lot like the size of our countertop. We ran over to it, looked up the measurements and realized that we had just found the perfect solution. They even had the exact same color as the one that had been destroyed. Neither one of us could believe it. It was only $22 and soon we were on our way home with a brand new countertop.

I couldn’t stop talking all day about how fortunate we were. I had envisioned this huge project that was really never going to look the same. Instead, no one would ever know that my favorite piece of outdoor furniture had been damaged. As an added bonus while Doug was out picking up, he found the pickle ball that had been stuck in the arborvitae bushes since last Christmas. Nick had hit it high up in the bushes on an errant return up and no matter where we looked, we could not find the pickle ball. After each and every storm, I would go out and look to see if it blew down. I had actually given up ever finding it after Hurricane Helene, but thankfully hurricane Milton gave it back to us. It wasn’t a big deal that it was lost, but it sure was fun finding it again. Hopefully, this is our last major storm of the season. I don’t think that Florida can handle another one this year.

A Great Way to Spend Time During the Hurricane

When I was sorting through mine and my brother's childhood possessions at my mom's a couple of years ago, I ran across two nightlights that my Grandma Guard had given us when we were very young.  Instantly, a flood of memories came rushing back. First, they were of my Grandma Guard. I absolutely loved visiting her when I was a child and looking though the knickknacks that she had picked up on her various trips. I also remembered the orange blossom perfume that she had.  It smelled just like the Florida orange groves. The next memories that came flooding back were from our family home on Jackson Street. I remembered my room, my brother’s room, his record player, and this really awesome vanity that I used to have when I was little.  I was incredibly thankful that my mom had kept the nightlights.  I quickly found a place for them in her guest bedroom closet along with my other prized possessions - Zip the Monkey, the Charlie Brown encyclopedias and the doll crib that my grandpa made for me.  

This fall when we drove up to Indiana to visit everyone, I decided that I wanted to bring the nightlights back to our home in Florida.  I felt like it was a true homecoming for them as it was the state where Grandma Guard bought them over fifty years ago, and Bunk's fit the decor in our Ocala home perfectly. I knew that it would take some time to get them back to their original state again as a lot of the beads had come off and the cords no longer worked.  I didn't mind as I was really looking forward to the project.  

Last week, I started to investigate what I would need to refurbish the nightlights. I had looked through all of Ocala's craft store for replacement beads but couldn’t find what I wanted. After doing a lot of research I thankfully found some on Amazon that would work.  That solved problem one. The cords were a bigger issue. I couldn’t use them anymore because they did not have a safety plug at the end, but I also couldn’t just put in another nightlight cord because it wouldn't fit in the bottom correctly. The original chords came out the side and had connecting wires to the light bulb. The other issue I had with it was that the cord had gotten stuck up inside the ceramic nightlights and the prongs on the bulb were almost impossible to get out. After taking the cord completely apart and getting out pliers, wire cutters, and tweezers, I at least had a plan to take out the bulb. It took about an hour of manpower, but I finally got both bulbs out without damaging the ceramic figures. Amazon had battered operated fairy lights that fit perfectly inside our prized childhood objects.  I then reglued all of the bulbs and soon my brother and my nightlights were shining once again. I was so happy that I worked on this project this week. It kept me busy during the hurricane and it was a great way to remember my brother on his 61st birthday.

My Brother's Birthday

As I spent the majority of today getting ready for Hurricane Milton, I didn't realize what date it was.  Thus, I was surprised when my cousin Billy called me to check on the hurricane and to also talk about Bunk's birthday.  I never forget my brother's birthday, but sometimes the date gets away from me.  I couldn't believe that it was already October 8th.  It felt like the month had just started and here it was already over a week into October.  

After I hung up with Billy, I felt bad, like I had let Bunk down for not posting anything this morning.  It was still early afternoon.  I could put out a post then, but that's when I realized that I didn't have to post on his birthday. I could post about him whenever I wanted. The most important thing about my brother was that I remembered him.  That I do quite often and the past few weeks, I had actually been thinking about him a lot.  I was working on a project that included something that he loved as a child.  I hadn't had a lot of time to finish it and had set aside this week to do so.  If the hurricane hadn't been coming, I would have finished it done today. Now, the project will be a great way to spend time while we are sheltering from the storm and remember some of my favorite childhood memories of my brother.

People Get Ready

I really thought that hurricane Helene would be the last major hurricane of the season. The destruction that it caused was massive and I couldn’t imagine that we would have to worry about another storm this late into October. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Hurricane Milton is supposed to make landfall later this week as a category three storm. Although it will not cause the destruction that Helene did north of us, it does look like a pretty nasty storm for our area.

With the storm making national news and the map showing it going right through Ocala, I had gotten a lot of texts and phone calls from friends and family to make sure that we were ready. I really appreciated everybody’s concern. As this was our fourth major hurricane since we moved here last August, getting ready for a hurricane was not quite as scary as it was the first time. Thus today, I was happy that I could text this to everyone:

“It is amazing to me how prepared the state of Florida is for hurricanes. We have been getting warnings all day. Ocala will have wind gusts up to 80 mph and 8-12 inches of rain. We have our hurricane pack ready, cars fueled, battery operated generator charged, will bring in all of the outside furniture Tuesday and fill the tub with water on Wednesday. Doug's work is closer to Orlando so they will get hit harder. They are closed on Wednesday and Thursday, so he will be home for the storm. I'm nervous, but we should be fine. Fortunately, we do not have to evacuate. I’ll keep you updated! Thanks for checking!”

I was proud of us for taking it seriously. Phil called tonight to let us know that there was no gas available in our area of town and that I-75 was at a standstill with evacuees. Thus, filling up early and Doug staying in Lake Mary tonight were really good decisions. Once he gets home tomorrow, we are going to treat it like a mini “staycation” complete with movie nights, games and plenty of snacks. Hopefully, my positive attitude works and by Friday morning everything will be back to normal.

A New Relationship with Rain

When we lived in Indiana, my least favorite weather was rain.  I hated it and avoided it with all costs.  Spring rain was the worst as it was usually cold as well. Watching golf matches when it was 40 degrees and rainy was just miserable. Because of this, I complained more about the rain while we were in Syracuse than I ever did snow, ice or even below zero-degree temperatures.

Because of my hatred of rain, I wasn't sure how I would handle moving to Florida.  There is definitely more rain here.  One afternoon this summer, we got four inches in less than two hours.  There are also more storms and an entire rainy season down here.  

Overall, I have been surprised with how well I have adjusted to the rainy weather.  I have a heavy-duty raincoat and carry an umbrella with me on most afternoons during the rainy season.  I even have an umbrella in the garage ready to go in case I need to get to my car when it's storming.  Then of course, there is another umbrella in my car to get back into the garage when it's raining.  I think that one reason that I have adjusted so well to the rain is because it is a small price to pay for the vast amount of sunshine that we have increased in our life since moving.  It also is not as cold when it rains here.  This, Sunday when we were in Gainesville, the temperature never dropped below 70 degrees even though it rained all day. 

The best part about getting used to the rain is that I have been doing more outside in it.  I was able to attend the IU vs Maryland game in the rain.  We could also still visit all of our favorite stops this weekend and even a new brewery without the rain dampening the mood or freezing me out.  Of course, I did have a sweatshirt on when everyone else was wearing short sleeves, but that's a whole other story.  

An Unbelievable Football Season So Far

Today was one of the most exciting football days that I could ever remember, especially for IU fans.  We played Northwestern in Evanston this afternoon with the possibility of going 6-0 for this first time since 1967.  It was supposed to be an easy win for us, but I was nervous all morning.  Northwestern may have been last in the Big Ten standings and we may have been a two-touchdown favorite, but I was too scared to believe it.  

Northwestern's offense played the best that they had all season and hung tight to the Hoosiers throughout the third quarter.  My anxiety was at a ten.  Thankfully, we pulled ahead during the final quarter and our defense made a few stops as well.  IU ended the game with a 42 to 24 victory making them the first FBS team this season to be bowl eligible.  All of the Hoosier fans in our family were ecstatic. Cameron had predicted at the end of last season that we would win 9 games.  We all thought he was crazy, but after today, I believe that it could be a reality.   

IU's win wasn't the only good football news on the night.  First Alabama got beat by an unranked Vanderbilt team, then both Michigan and Tennessee fell to the same fate.  If someone would have told us how the first six weeks of the football season would start, no one would have never believed it.  I can't wait to see what happens next.  

What a Fantastic Week

Doug and I couldn't have asked for a better week at his new job.  He had planned on staying in Longwood a couple of nights but was actually able to come home every evening this week.  The drive wasn't as bad as he had anticipated with this afternoon's commute being the only one that was delayed.  Doug didn't mind that as his new end time on Fridays is 3 p.m.  Thus, he was home by 5 and we were able to make it to Hiatus for dinner by 5:30.  The rest of the night was spent outside on our back patio watching IU soccer and enjoying the beautiful evening.

Doug did have to work for his former company a couple of evenings this week, but nothing like before.  He was able to answer their questions through email up until today.  He offered to meet with them for an hour this afternoon, but that didn't work.  He said that he would make time one evening next week.  I didn't complain since they are paying him for the month.  Plus, he knew that there would be situations that would need his attention after he left.

In all honesty, I actually felt like we were on vacation this week.  Doug was in a great mood.  I was able to finish all of my cleaning and decorating for Halloween.  Doug and I ordered out several times.  We caught up on the current episodes of Law & Order and even took a few walks at night.  It was so nice and relaxing.  Doug and I both noticed a huge difference in his stress level, and overall, it was one of my favorite weeks in Florida since Cameron left for his sophomore year at IU.  

Life Lessons

Now that Meg is married and Brett has become engaged, I have thought a lot about them joining a new family.  Meg changed her last name to Yoder, which at first seemed strange, but definitely made sense.  I loved becoming a Heinisch.  It wasn't about being a member of another family, but more about becoming a family with Doug.  It was the greatest decision that I could make as we loved creating a family together.  

In becoming parents, we looked to what we saw around us and modeled what we thought was best.  Just like most young couples, that meant blending our families' parenting styles to create our own unique way of parenting.  The majority of time it worked well, but there were still some rough spots.  Cal and Meg have told us that we were way too soft on Cameron, but sometimes I think that all of the experience that we gained with the other three made parenting him easier.  Cameron would say that he was just way better behaved. True to his personality Brett sides with none of them.  No matter who is correct, the one thing in life that I am most proud of is raising my children.  They are not perfect, but they are self-sufficient, happy and successful.

Over the years, Doug's dad had told me that he could have "taken parenting lessons from us."  It was a nice compliment, but always made me feel uncomfortable.  It wasn't what he said, it was the fact that I couldn't be honest with him.  If my dad had said that I would have told him what I thought he did well as a father and what he could do to continue to support me as an adult.  He may have debated my opinion, but I know that he would have at least listened to what I had to say.  I didn't know Doug's dad well enough to be honest, and I really didn't think that he would listen to me.

During the last couple of years, I have regretted that I didn't take the time to say something long ago.  It may have made it easier to express my opinion now and be brutally honest.  Yesterday, when Aunt Jan asked me how Doug's new job was going and told me that she had been thinking about him all week, I realized that Doug's dad had never contacted him once about it.  He knew that Doug had really been struggling with the hours of his job at Champion and the stress that it was causing him.  For a while, he seemed to be concerned.  He even offered to help Doug if he had to take a job that paid less.  He sent him a letter saying that financial help would be given.  It would come out of his inheritance and wouldn't be a loan.  When Doug asked him about it after he got a new job, he changed the parameters.  It became a loan with interest and if it happened, his dad would no longer be able to give a yearly gift to Doug's brothers.  Thankfully, I was able to refigure our budget and Doug was able to decline the help for now.  Doug didn't want a loan or to take away from his siblings.  He just thought that his dad wanted to help him out of concern for his well-being.

I thought a lot about Doug's situation and was glad that we had chosen a different path with our children.  We dedicated our lives to helping them, first while we were raising them and now with emotional support when needed.  That support has no limits, no judgements and no questions asked. Even if we can't pay for their expenses anymore, we can help them look for a new job, listen to their problems, share in their joys, hold their hands when their heart is breaking and provide advice when asked.  

The last time I talked to Doug's dad, he told me that he wished that his boys were advocates for him like his cousins were for their parents.  I didn't know what to say at the time, but I now realize that relationships with adult children start well before they leave the home.  When Cameron graduated from Bethany, I told our children that they now were old enough to make their own choices on the type of relationship that they had with their parents, grandparents and siblings.  I am so proud of the fact that they have remained close to the family members that were the most involved in their lives when they were growing up.  I also love that we hear from all of them multiple times a week.  It took a lot of work to raise them, but well worth the rewards they give us.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Headphones Make Cleaning A Lot Easier

I had been so busy helping Doug look for a new job during the month of September, that I hadn't really had time to thoroughly clean our house.  The pain in my leg hadn't helped and I really only kept up with the day-to-day cleaning.  With Doug starting his new job this week and my leg feeling a lot better, I decided that it was the perfect time for some deep cleaning.  I started with the front of the house on Monday and moved on to the inside yesterday.  Today, I worked the hardest, cleaning both bathrooms, the kitchen and the tile floors.  Once I dust, vacuum and wash the windows tomorrow, I should be done.

As boring and exhausting as cleaning is, it was made much better today by the fact that I was able to use my headphones to talk to several people.  Meg and Cameron both called to fill me in on their days.  I caught up with my mom and was glad to hear that she was feeling a lot better.  I even talked to one of the women at CCW for a while this morning.  She wanted to update me on several items and asked me to help with a few projects.  Once the phone calls stopped, I used my headphones to listen to the Purple Rain Rewatchable on Spotify.  Thankfully, my headphones made the afternoon go by incredibly fast and cleaning not quite so bad.  

Being Friendly Never Hurt

Several years ago, Meg told me that "I speak Blue Collar."  Although that sounded funny, I knew exactly what she meant.  I had grown up and taught in a community with all different socio-economic backgrounds.  I had become accustomed to talking to all types of people.  As our neighborhood changed over the years, I remained friendly to those who moved in no matter what lifestyle they led.  It wasn't a conscience choice; I had just learned long ago that being friendly never hurt.  

I know that not everyone in my community felt the same way, but once we moved to Florida, I was amazed at how friendly everyone was in Ocala.  People that I didn't know would stop me at the store just to say that they liked what I was wearing, and everyone in our neighborhood waved and smiled when we walked by their homes.  Over the past two years, every person that we had come to our home to work had been nice and helpful.

That friendly feeling went away this morning.  I had hired a handyman to repair the lights in our kitchen.  I had read a lot of reviews on Google before I called him and was positive that he would be the perfect fit for the projects that we needed to have completed.  I thought that choosing him to do our lights first would be a great way to get to know him and to schedule him for future work.  After five minutes of dealing with him, I realized that I was wrong.  He was the opposite of friendly and spent most of his time talking down to me.  I felt humiliated after he left our home.  Meg reminded me that at least I got my lights fixed and that I would never have to deal with him again.  

Even with Meg's advice, it took me awhile to feel better.  Thankfully, the hairdresser that I tried at Great Clips later in the day made up for his poor behaviors.  I hadn't had my hair cut by anyone but Amanda for at least ten years.  I knew that I wouldn't be back in Syracuse until Thanksgiving and couldn't wait that long.  The hairdresser was very understanding, gave me a great haircut and recommended several ways to improve the health of my hair.  Even the woman who waxed my eyebrows was friendlier than the handyman and English was not her first language.  In the end, I did feel better and decided to just remain friendly even if it was not reciprocated.  It couldn't hurt.