Saturday, November 13, 2021

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken a few days before Peter's birthday. We celebrated Peter's birthday early because on November 12, 2008, Mattie was having his second limb salvaging surgery. That surgery was much more extensive than his first surgery, since it involved his left arm, left wrist, and right leg. Peter's birthday is today, November 13th, but his birthday in 2008, was a nightmare. Mattie was dealing with pain and all sorts of issues from such an extensive surgery. As you can see Mattie did make Peter a model magic birthday cake, which included candles. To this day, we still have this cake on display in our home.

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 47,029,901
• Number of people who died from the virus: 762,816

I had a bad night of sleep. I was up at 3am and was tossing and turning. I think all the stress is getting to me. By 6am I got up officially, because our electrician was coming by at 8am. He was with us for several hours trying to figure out why lights wouldn't go on. Naturally it was because of faulty wiring. All these issues I believe have now been corrected. But it never ends here. 

This is the last pile of snack and candy! It will be delivered to Children's Hospital at Sinai (Baltimore, MD) on Monday. I would like to say there is a magical elf who moves these boxes and items around, packs the car, and delivers them. But Peter and I are the elves. I would have to say between this item drive, the Farm, and my parent's move, I am wiped out. With no end in sight. 

Peter has taken it upon himself to install outdoor lights all over the property. He actually has the skills to do this, because he did this at my parents home multiple times. But it is very labor intensive and time consuming. Peter juggles these tasks between lots of work demands. Meanwhile look at Sunny! While Peter is working, Sunny is asleep on the job. 

Sunset on the Farm. 

We haven't even had Thanksgiving yet, but I am already trying to contend with Christmas. Peter and I went shopping for his parents a few weeks ago and last night, I got paper out to wrap and label items. The reason I knew I had to do this now is because once my parents arrive, I think things will be too chaotic for me to focus on gifts, much less putting them in the mail. While juggling that, I am also trying to juggle our Foundation's end of year mass mailing. To me this is like the perfect storm. 

Peter was outside by the pool today, removing leaves. Our pool hasn't been covered yet, because the cover is no longer on the property. Therefore we had to order a whole new cover. I won't tell you how much that is, because the way the former owner designed the pool, the cover has to be custom. Naturally! Nothing here has gone right. 

While Peter was cleaning the leaves out of the pool, he text messaged me to come outside. He wanted me to see that a live snake was in the pool. For those of you who don't know this, I am VERY scared of snakes. I don't like even garden snakes. Meanwhile Peter and Sunny were fascinated. Virginia has one poisonous snake, the copperhead. The baby copperhead and the Dekay's Brownsnake can look alike. Fortunately this is the Dekay's Brownsnake and not poisonous. Nonetheless, I asked Peter to remove it from the property!

I was too overwhelmed by the snake to think straight, but Peter feels this snake is a sign from Mattie, for his birthday! I wouldn't put this passed Mattie, especially since Mattie loved all creepy crawly things. As usual, I am sure Mattie is getting a chuckle today out of my reaction to the snake. Happy birthday Peter...... Mattie wasn't going to let this day pass without letting you know he is with you.