Hurting

Just a quick note to say that I am hurting right now. Lots of things going on in my personal life that have come to a head at the same time and I’m struggling to deal with it. I know time will help, and I just wish I could make the time go by faster so I could stop feeling like I do.

More details later….

I Didn’t Think So!?!?

Yesterday there was a health fair at work. We have the option to have various screenings done: blood pressure, cholesterol, height/weight/body composition and glucose levels. While I do participate in those screenings, I rely on it for my annual flu shot mostly.

I had to fill out a basic medical form about some stuff, such as allergies to eggs and if I’d ever had a reaction to a flu shot before. It also asks, if you are a woman, to answer if you are pregnant. I answered no to all questions.

The nurse doing the shot said she had to ask me the same questions verbally. OK, fine. So she asked me the same questions I’d already checked No to. She asked if there was any chance I was pregnant. I said no.

She said, “I didn’t think so!”

Um, OK. How am I supposed to take THAT?

Snowtober

Snowtober. That’s just one of the newly coined words I’ve heard to describe the incredibly rare October snow storm we experienced here in New England this past weekend.

Heavy, wet snow started to fall around 3 pm on Saturday afternoon and quickly picked up steam. The media was hyping this to the nth degree, and it was hard not to notice.

Around 7 pm I heard a loud crash outside, and saw a section of my beloved cherry tree had fallen. Oh well, I thought. I love that tree, but I’ll just have someone chop that limb up and we’ll be on our way.

The power went out around 9, and over the next few hours I heard at least two more loud crashes. Through the darkness I could see my tree had split open like an orange. And taken some wires down with it.

We got 6-8 inches of heavy, wet snow. We’re not unaccustomed to this sort of thing in this part of the country, but in October we sure are. And what made this so disastrous was that the trees were still in full foliage (for the most part), and heavy snow falling on the large surface area the leaves provided made for some hefty weight. Trees can be hardy, but most of them are just not equipped to handle that kind of weight.

In the morning, this is what I found (taken standing by my front door).

Fortunately the local power company came and moved the tree off the power line, allowing the power to be restored to the neighborhood 45 hours after we lost it. But I still need to have the tree picked up and carted away.

Oh, and schools in our area appear to be closed for the foreseeable future. It’s a real fun week around these parts.