I Am Really In A Cr*ppy Mood....

I am really not a complainer. I strive to take things in stride, be flexible and honor that things can always be worse and usually are for someone else. My life is blessed...I have a great loving and supportive husband two loving adult children, three wonderful adoring granddaughters and an overall good life...and am honestly super grateful for all that. However, since our air conditioning cr*pped out last Wednesday as the temperatures started climb into the triple digits and still waiting for repair parts to be received by the service company I wonder how did we survive years ago when air conditioning was a luxury? Granted I was much younger than and able to more easily endure such discomfort...fortunately I have a basement that is at least 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house where we have taken to sleeping on a blow-up mattress for the past several nights...not a friendly bed for these creeky bones and sore muscles...but it could be worse.

Friday was the worst, reaching 104 and raising the inside temperature to 92 with no way of bringing it down...that heat just lingers with no where to go...I spent most of the day prepping for a craft show the next day and with my husband's help got all the gear and merchandise loaded onto his truck for our early morning departure. We didn't get to bed until well after midnight, did not get a good night's sleep, were up at 5:30 and out the door at 6:30 to the show site...outdoors! When I booked it I never expected that we'd be in the midst of a record breaking heatwave...13 vendors chose to cancel due to the extreme heat...setting up was quite the chore and greeting the brave souls who ventured out of their homes with my hair dripping wet from perspiration was not a pretty sight...according to the organizer the heat kept the traffic way below normal. I had one sale that thankfully covered my entry fee and paid for gas...but the effort put forth in the oppressive heat was hardly worth it...my husband and I were quite exhausted and came home to our un-air-conditioned home to collapse until late this morning...a good morning with a break in the weather.

I had a couple of missed phone call from the day before to return, one to my mother who was admitted to the hospital, nothing life threatening but she had just been in a couple of weeks before...I hate living so far away from her, but fortunately my sister from NY was visiting with her this weekend and my youngest sister lives nearby to Mom.

Next, I checked my emails...there was one from a neighbor that chairs a committee that I am on...but this wasn't committee business. I had to read and reread the message several times...a fellow committee member and a neighbor of mine that I have been getting to know better and better each week lost her adult daughter to a drowning....Oh dear Lord, I couldn't believe what I saw on the screen...33 years old, married and also a neighbor. We live on a lake, which has been extremely active well into the late evenings on these excessively hot days and nights. Apparently, she and her husband were on another neighbor's boat and decided to take a swim...they went in together...he started swimming and then realized she wasn't with him and didn't surface....we heard lots of activity late into the evening but didn't pay much mind, after all it was the weekend and folks were out there trying to stay cool, but it seems it took the rescue team a couple of hours to find her...I stopped by to see my friend to bring some food and convey my condolences but she was out with her husband and son-in-law making arrangements...I really can't imagine what they are all going through. I have been deeply touched by this tragedy...I'm not sure that I look out to the lake and feel the serenity and peacefulness that it has brought to me...I think about the neighbor whose boat they were on...what may he be going through...I wonder if my friend and her husband, who also live on the lake, will be able to remain in our community...I pray that they will find peace in their hearts and reach out for help when they need it....

I am really not complaining...but I need to express that this has not been a good five days for me...and yep, I am in a cr*ppy mood and entitled to be so!

God bless, Barbara and Tom, Gina's parents, Josh, her husband and Gina, may you rest in peace!