I just don’t know where to begin except to first apologize and then go back to the beginning. If it sounds like I’m whining, then maybe it is because I am.

FIRST, PLEASE ALLOW ME TO APOLOGIZE for all the weeks I missed posting on this blog. It was six in all.

SECOND, IT STARTED BACK IN EARLY JULY DURING A VIOLENT THUNDERSTORM when two very large pine trees tee-boned one large section of our home. Chuck walked into the house late one afternoon, and somehow my engineer husband didn’t notice that two large pine trees were lying across our roofline…

—that is until he headed toward that end of the house and noticed a large hole in the office ceiling and a lot of wet insulation lying across my desk and chair.

He got closer, and to his horror he could see daylight through the ceiling. The other tree crashed into the attic ceiling in the garage, and all in all the two trees destroyed over 30% of our roof and 18 very large trusses. Miraculously, no one was home at the time nor did any of our equipment get destroyed, except for one very old vacuum cleaner.  We were blessed.

Looking back it was to become become a perfect storm of many events.

We quickly moved some of the items from the office and garage to other rooms in the house and an outside POD. But not before another bad thunderstorm hit. It rained or rather it poured into the office and garage. Thankfully, we had already moved the computers and other technology.

Also, my sister Linda who is an interior designer sprang into action and got us someone to place a tarp over the house right after a tree company came out and removed the trees. She would be a Godsend over the next several months. Her business Linda McDonald Design provided oodles of names of contractors and companies who were quick to help. Linda blogs at “Life on Summerhill”. You can find it here.

She also arranged for several kids, in-laws, spouses and cousins to come and help us quickly move everything from the office and garage. We were so thankful for family!

Within a couple of days, we were off to Orlando for a business trip that could not be postponed; and it was truly the calm before the storm. It was nice to leave all the clutter and destruction behind in Tallahassee. Orlando was a pleasure.

As soon as we returned, Chuck was off to Idaho for his annual fly fishing trip with his fishing buddies, while I spent my time down at the coast. It was another nice break from the mess at home. Do you think we might have been avoiding it?  Problem was, there was no internet.

Then we were on our way to Scandinavia for a cruise—a celebration of our Silver Wedding Anniversary which we had planned last winter by giving ourselves a cruise in August. Meanwhile, we were able to leave the clutter behind again and act like we didn’t have a care in the world. Linda and our daughter Jamie took over while we were gone.

Getting out of the house was a hassle, though. While packing for weather far different than what we are used to here in north Florida, we were juggling people from the insurance company, already talking to contractors, and moving everything else out of the garage and the office. Thankfully, family members came to help.

Finally, we were on our way overseas, and…

–thankfully, there was a lot to help us forget our problems back home. The trip was great, but we finally returned to Florida and to our own little slice of the perfect storm.

First thing we learned was that everything from that end of the house had to be moved–the laundry, the butler’s pantry (full of glassware), everything in a small hunting/sewing room, the contents of a little fishing room, and a large attic full of stuff. So now while the crushed part of the house looks like a war zone, the rest of our home looks like the star in an episode of “Hoarders”. There are literally trails through the stacks.

There are two desks and a makeshift office occupying the middle of the living room floor. The dining room table is sharing a sitting area with the baby grand piano in my dining room. Boxes and boxes of papers, books and Christmas are stacked in a downstairs guestroom and an upstairs bedroom, too. There is even a case of fly fishing rods sitting in my kitchen.  The floors everywhere are crisscrossed with large extension cords leading back and forth across the house.

Please don’t ask me where anything is, because doing so will instigate an instant meltdown. I am sooooo tired of looking for things.  I lost my yoga mat for over a month, but I never missed a yoga class.  I couldn’t afford to.  I needed those calming sessions more than ever.

I found that life goes on, whether one can find something or not!

Finally, the insurance company and our contractor agreed on what needed to be done; and they began work in September, turning off the power down at that end of the house. We thought that power panel down there only covered that end.

Wrong! We’ve now been living almost a month with no stoves, no refrigerator (both are hooked up to extension cords running from other places in the house), no air conditioning (during one of the most humid summers anyone can remember), no power at all in our master bedroom; and no hot water heater (actually cold showers feel pretty good right now).

And to add insult to injury, my computer crashed the Monday after the Sunday we got back from overseas. After having it sent to a computer expert, he said that the hard drive was gone. Thankfully, Carbonite had all my files; and I was able to download everything after they installed a new hard drive and after I re-installed all the software programs.

And then the air conditioning unit quit working. The one at the destroyed end of the house was already dis-connected, but now the one where we are living doesn’t work either. It cannot be fixed until they bring the other one back up. I just discovered that my late father’s last pair of cowboy boots, which I keep in my closet, were beginning to mildew. That is what happens in these houses that are insulated to keep the cool in and the heat out.

God, give me strength!

Actually, he did, because I’m still here.

During this time we made at least two trips to Atlanta; and this is a big birthday month for our family. Both daughters, my sister Linda, two uncles and two grandbabies all celebrated during this time. Add to this season tickets for football games (we attended two), and we are just about beat puppies.

Then my uncle took a turn for the worse in his fight with cancer; and instead of visiting him every two weeks, we’ve been trying to get by to visit with him weekly. Life goes on, and these moments with him are golden and not to be missed.

I’m leaving one thing out, because I cannot seem to concentrate on it. About mid summer I sent in an application for two of my ancestors to be certified as Florida Pioneers. The feedback from my application came while we were gone, and I have more work to do. Thankfully, I have until the end of the year to complete it.

So, the blog I’m ashamed to say took a backseat to just about everything else. I actually wrote a few posts during the month of September, but didn’t get them posted until this past weekend.
A NEW EDITORIAL/POSTING SCHEDULE!

Usually I post on Tuesday or Wednesday of each week, but I’m now working from a new editorial schedule. I’ll begin posting on Friday or Saturday from now on.

Stay tuned! Life is getting better and I hope to actually get back on schedule!