Una had to have two different surgeries last year, which is why I stopped blogging after March. The first one on April, the second one in August. She had to have another surgery in February of this year, then another in May. That’s all I’m going to say about my baby, it hurts too damn much and it’ll just make me cry even more than I already do.
I don’t think anything significant happened last summer, so let’s jump to September of 2023. This was a monumental month, this was the month that we got our new car! New to us, anyways, but new all the same. She’s a 2019 Chevy Cruze Hatchback that only had 70,000 miles, which was decent for the price. It was really bittersweet saying goodbye to the Impala, but her time was well past being up. We just hit 200,000 miles and I’m fairly certain the engine or transmission was going out. Thankfully they still gave us a 2k trade in. I’ll add a pic below if I have one on my phone.
September was also the month that I got horribly sick with an egregious head cold. It really, really effected my ears, mainly my right one. I have Eustachian tube dysfunction in that ear anyways, but it was mild and I was able to live with it. This cold basically destroyed my ear. My ETD is so much worse now. It’s muffled and feels full all the time. Plus, I have patulous ETD so my tube stays open all the time unless I manually close it or use saline nasal spray. Even then, it opens as soon as I yawn, talk, swallow or move my jaw. I have to go to an ENT soon, it’s inevitable.
December of 2023 was a weird one. I feel like everyone had some type of illness, which really put a damper on the holidays. In the beginning of December we got to see the Way Of Lights show at Our Lady Of The Snow… absolutely breathtaking! My ear was really annoying at that time, so I was miserable the entire ride. We also hit up like 5 Dollar Trees while we were in the city, plus stopped by Five Below, Crumbl Cookies and then proceeded to pick up food for everyone from Steak n’ Shake, White Castle and then McDonald’s. I was freaking dead. It’s not like it was in a 50 mile radius, Our Lady Of The Snow is in Belleville, IL which is 88 miles one way from Perryville. That doesn’t include all our side missions.
I felt the aftershock for like a week.
Neither LaVaughn nor I got our flu shot last year and, lo and behold, I got some type of flu on the 22nd/23rd. We looked at Christmas lights with Jake and our extended Perryville family on the 23rd and I was miserable the entire time. I was so sick and rundown, it was just awful. We went home on Christmas Eve where I felt a little better, but Christmas Day was awful. I had no appetite and maybe ate like two or three bites of food. I also over salted my homemade stuffing and that just really pissed me off. Thankfully I started feeling better the next day.
Let’s fast-forward to 2024.
The beginning of the year my sister and I were introduced to Vikings, the tv show. We already loved The Last Kingdom, so we knew we would like that. Absolutely obsessed and still am.
We did the garden like always, but I slacked so much this year. Our tomatoes, green beans and Italian zucchini did amazing, but everything else kinda sucked. I have to do better next year.
We got the pool up and going pretty early and were able to swim by the end of May thanks to our solar cover. Unfortunately our pool cleaner tuckered out before we got a chance to close the pool this year, so there’s still lots of small debris on the bottom. That’ll be a big purchase next spring. Those things are ridiculously expensive, they should last longer than three summers.
We got to witness the total solar eclipse in April, which was amazing. We had like 3ish minutes in totality here, so we got a nice long show. Much better than the 2017 eclipse that only lasted like 20 seconds.
Then the following month we had an X class solar flair that allowed a lot of the southern states to see the northern lights. It was really difficult to see with the naked eye, considering we didn’t realize it was happening until after sunset. Still, it was awesome to witness and photograph. Still kicking myself for not having my camera on me. I won’t make that mistake if I ever go to Iceland or Alaska/Canada here in North America.
To conclude this very celestial year, we also got to witness the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet in October. I think out of everything I’ve witnessed space wise, this has to be one of the absolute best. Seeing a comet with your own eyes is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
Pretty much everything else this year has just been meh. Summer was okay, but fall has been nothing short of depressing. I’m trying to get into the holiday spirit, but it’s nearly impossible. I’m pretty much sad and/or mildly depressed on the daily. It’s really taking everything I have to function normally.
I believe I’m jabbered enough for now, so I’ll leave you with s few random pictures from the last year and a half.
