Week 20 - More Crazy Weather

What a week! Blazing heat in early May, ridiculous virtual reality and finally a return of spring weather.

The weather was nuts. It was in the 90's for much of the week. In the second week of May. CRAZY. The blazing heat brought some worry for me because last May, my central AC, which came with the house and hasn't been upgraded like most everything else in my house, needed to have freon added. I wasn't sure if it would come on cool or not but it did. Big relief. I will need to get a new one but didn't want to deal with that now. Also, most of my county and the one to the west lost electricity for an hour Monday morning when something on the grid blew. Probably when everyone turned on their AC. To top that off, it was so hot that Monday Night Knitting was cancelled because everyone bailed. And that was just Monday!

Tuesday was a gorgeous day and Andrea stopped by on her way t work with a bouquet of lilacs from her yard. I have a small bush but it hasn't bloomed yet so this was a treat. With it not so hot, I went right outside after work and got my hoses sorted and brought up my madevilla that I'd overwintered in the basement and got that set up with lichen covered branches from my brush pile to climb on. It felt great to be outside and it was my only chance because the 90's were coming back.

Wednesday was my day on campus and we were having a surprise graduation party for my boss, Ben, who was getting his master's on Friday. It was a good thing I'd offloaded my picking up the ice cream duties because my 8:00 dentist appointment, which would have been 30 minutes with my old dentist, was an hour and then they sent me to the pharmacy for antibiotics to take immediately because my knee surgery was only 1 year ago. I barely made it to campus for the 10:00 team meeting. The party was a complete surprise and fun. We had cupcakes and ice cream and Ben's family and his other staff from across campus came. Nice. 

Ben had gotten our team virtual reality headsets to use for our team meetings so I spent time Thursday getting that all set up. We had storms comes through Thursday night, which finally broke the heat but I also lost internet so went to bed early to read. I got a message from Andrea asking if I wanted to go to a vintage sale in Cedar Bluffs on Friday and I responded immediately that I was in. I'd start work early on Friday and work through lunch so I could leave early to hit the sale. I hoped for a Fremont run and then Andrea wanted to get burgers at our favorite dive bar - Todd's in Cedar Bluffs.

Our first team meeting in VR was stupid. Yes, the sound quality was better but we were interacting with cartoons! I had spent a bit of time creating my avatar but it looked nothing like me and you get zero facial expressions from them plus your mouth moves when you cat meows. Sheesh! Cindy had trouble getting hers to work so I, the old lady of the team, did the trouble shooting and got her operational. We hung out in our virtual meeting room for a bit trying things out and were in agreement that it was absolutely ridiculous.

I hadnt' heard from Andrea so called her at 3:30. She hadn't seen my response but I said I was ready to go so came right over. The vintage sale was a bust and Andrea hadn't considered a Fremont run but I convinced her to go and we scored big with high quality yarn at the Estate Disperal Store, which is only open 1 weekend each month and sells things from people they've helped downsize and move. We bought $400 of quality yarn - what a find! After a few more errands, we headed to Todd's for burgers and beer. What a great way to start the weekend.

With errands already done and some spring weather at last, it was time to start my containers on Saturday. I went to the farm store for plants and while they weren't in sad shape, many of them were tiny, as in 2-3 weeks early for selling. But with a 60 mile round trip as the alternative, I bought the small plants and went home and started my containers. I got most of the ones for my deck and backyard planted that afternoon.

It rained all day on Sunday, which watered in all my plantings nicely. After my first ever Facetime that morning with Deanne, I spent the afternoon doing every floor in my house. Having taken all my overwintered plants outside, they'd dropped leaves everywhere so the floors were a mess. All good and long overdue.

So, not a typical weather week but the weekend was wonderful and since I work full time, that's what counts. This is my first year with 2 functioning knees so I have big plans for my yard and garden. I hope this weather holds for the next couple of weeks so I get everything done before my trip. I live in hope.