Should I Tell Them?

Nah, I don't think so.

But get the snowballs ready...

A Quick Check-in...

Little Crow is getting married this weekend and things have been crazier than normal.  

If my penchant for procrastination and late-onset anxiety weren't enough to deal with right now,  a rogue storm rolled through Sunday morning leaving me without power for over 4 hours and doing a great deal of damage - including, but not limited to, decimating my back-up generator, my pool pump/robot cleaning system, garage lights, wireless remote light switches, and my pc hard drive.

Why me? Why now???

UGH.

Anyways, it may be a while before I catch my breath and things return to the low hum of my old "normal," so I wanted to do a quick check-in to let you know I'm still here even if I won't manage to keep up with checking in on blogs, etc.

Since my photos (and most of the rest of my life) are on my defunct pc, you get some random, unedited (i.e., no attempt to remove blur), photos from my camera roll..and posted from my Ipad which is always a bit of a challenge.

{Love the way the sunshine reflects off my favorite crow's wings...}

{The hibiscus is putting on their final summer show....}

{The moon has been so spectacularly orange it reminds me of those jelly orange slice candies some nights...}

{I tried to disguise a black-and-blue toe (fall down the patio stairs) with a pedicure.  I wasn't entirely successful....}

{A little dark stitching - "Jack's Bash" by Plum Street Samplers....}

{Rajah Roo...pretty much summing up how I feel at the end of each day...and, truth be told, at the start of many as well....}

I have the honor of walking Miss Mia down the aisle.

  Wish me luck.

She's too little to hold me up. 

Rough Waters

It's been the better part of a year since I've been here to stay.

Much has changed, much never will.

I was apprehensive about what I would find as a tornado had touched down on the other side of the lake about a week and a half prior.

{Boat and lift flipped completely upside down.}

Thankfully, my little island was unscathed.

I have been here a week.

My days have been spent cleaning, making lists, searching for things that are no longer where they were...things that are, simply, no longer anywhere.

More pieces to pick up, more holes to fill.

Inevitably, and sadly, some pieces will never fit back together, some things will never be found, and some holes will never be filled.

The latest (3rd? 4th?) phase of remodeling is relatively complete.

{Yes, I know I promised someone before and after photos...I will do that at some point...}

The next phase(s) won't start until January or later.  I need to catch my breath and see if my heart is still here.

The first few days were difficult.  No television, no phone, no internet.  No overhead fans working, garbage disposal not working, leak in the laundry room, broken front porch light, broken back door, light switches not working, non-functioning clocks, no window screens... Too much activity on the lake, too many fireworks, too much filth, too much to do, too many memories, too many ghosts, too many haunts.

And something of which I cannot yet speak.

But the days were pleasantly warm, and the sun shone.

I caught the swans and their young swimming in the far bay.

That, too, changed, however.  The clouds moved in, the winds quickened and the lake darkened.

There's still rough waters ahead.