The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is on Fire…

…something’s on fire, and it’s sure not me.

Today, for "breakfast" (around noon) I had a cherry slushee and about 2/3 of a cup of hot boiled Cajun peanuts. Then, I came home with my purchases that I was noshing on, went to the storage unit, and realized that the A/C had died. In Florida weather. In the middle of summer. Lovely.

Called Dad, told him what was going on, he had me hobble out to the storage unit to take some measurements, and has discovered that one of the A/C units we bought 2 years ago for our sudden "A/C broke, in Florida weather, in the middle of July, on a Friday night and no one can fix it until Monday as they need a part" situation will fit into the space in the storage unit. Excellent! He’s offered to come over tomorrow, with all the "tools I’ll need to cut wood, and cut metal to make this things fit right", and put it in for us.

C is out, of course, while this happens. I’ve noticed that every time C goes somewhere that something random happens – or I realize something…and maybe that’s just because the Universe is trying to spare her some stress – or maybe it’s just because when she’s NOT here I’m out looking at things or something? That doesn’t explain my knee giving out last Monday, though, when she had a scheduled appointment.

Hmmmm…

But, anyway, about the knee. I ordered a knee brace from BetterBraces.com (they are awesome to work with, btw) – the first brace I ordered did NOT get shipped on the 3rd as they said it would, it didn’t get shipped until the 5th, and by then it was too late to cancel, so I ordered a second one which I got on Monday. It was too small, even though I used their sizing chart. So, because of that factor (sizing chart guide) they sent out a replacement in the next size up, overnight, which I got yesterday. That is too big. Actually, the back straps are great, but the rubber front part is a bit too large, IMHO. Got the first brace today, in the smaller size, took off the back and front from each and swapped them – and Viola! I need a smaller front and a larger back…I THINK – I’m testing this now. If this works, I’ll call them tomorrow and ask them if they can do something like that, and then return one of these to them – if they can’t, I’ll see what they can do to make this work. Paying for two braces seems stupid to me.

I have an Ortho appointment Monday, that I plan on keeping unless this brace does wonders AND the swelling in my knee (which is still pretty bad) goes down by Sunday. I know the Ortho is going to just tell me the same stuff he told me 2 years ago (we can inject joint fluid) but he might be able to assist me in getting the right TYPE of brace for these problems (I think it’s a combo of overuse, patella tracking being off and osteo-arthritis – both of the last 2 I have, and the first I know I did the week before this started up, along with a small twist that I think happened a few days before as well).

…in other news still – C found out on Sunday that one of her friends of whom she’s known since she was 5 (29 years), and just came to visit/stay with us a few days last year, passed away in her sleep at the age of 35. This is C’s first major friend/relative (someone she cares about and knows well) that’s passed – it’s a pretty big blow…thankfully she’s at therapy today. She also found out some interesting information (well, confirmed) about her mother and that’s taken her for a bit of a loop…all I’ll say is that it wasn’t at all Christian like, but it explained a lot for C about certain events in her childhood. I don’t want to get into her business in that respect here since we share some readers.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks.

We need to get up to Wisconsin to visit her Grandmother, who will be 90 next month. She says she’s "medium" when you ask how she is, and she’s told C that she’s "tired"…it seems she’s ready to go, and is just waiting it out, so we need to go up. I’ve been with C for 6.5/yrs and I’ve NEVER met ONE person from her family – and she’s got a big family, and I’ve been up to Wisconsin with her twice, I think. That’s really sad, so we plan on changing that.

I am trying to figure out how to make money appear out of thin air, so I’m thinking I’ll have to sell one or two of my larger LEGO sets to pay for this trip…it sucks, but you can’t hold onto things that might help you now, as you never know if you’re going to have a tomorrow.

-T