Today’s meme is not just about Monday. It pretty much illustrates my whole weekend. Don’t get me wrong. There were some good things but there were some doozies at the same time. Where to start? Good news or bad news? Okay. We’ll get the good news out of the way.

College football. Boy howdy. There were some serious ups and downs. My now-ranked #19 OSU Cowboys barnstormed into West Virginia and taught the Mountaineers a few things. (Sorry, Vero. Nothing against WVU–I like them in the Big 12). The Pokes were NOT supposed to win, and especially not so decisively. Even though they’d beaten a Top-10-ranked-at-the-time Oregon. I’m loving the new coach, the new QB…heck…the whole team is practically brand new. As for OU…? All I can say is “ouch.” To all y’all out there, I hope your team won. I always wish that unless your team is playing my Cowboys.

In other mostly good news but mostly oh-m’gawd-it-took-forever news, LG and I have new phones. It’s a long story but Only needed a new phone. It’s been a two-week process for reasons (she STILL doesn’t have her new phone but…maybe Thursday because…reasons…anyway…) She found a cool new “friend” at the AT&T store up in her neck of the woods and while trying to deal with her phone issues, he waded in to help us get better pricing, service, etc. We were there over 3 hours. But, LG and I left with new iPhone 17 AIRs. They are skinny but bigger screen and feel weird and have all sorts of new extras and OMGMUPPETFLAIL TECHNOLOGY!!!!! Hey, mine works *knocks wood* and I’ll figure it out eventually. We way upped our internet speed at less cost. And, we are also in the process of migrating from U-Verse TV to DirectTV streaming. AT&T is phasing out U-Verse so it’s just a matter of time. It was almost 10 o’clock last night by the time we got home, ate the Arby’s we picked up on the way back, and got our phones set up. Since we still have U-Verse, the other could wait. It’s still waiting for…reasons.

Oh, Toby went with us. It was still a struggle to get him in the car but he was a Very Good Boy™️at the store even with a tiny puppy that was there with his dogparents. He also played hero dog with LG today. That comes with the bad news.

Weather. Again, good and bad. Saturday we had enough rain to leave some puddles. Probably a tenth of an inch. Not much but some. Temps were still warm but not high 90s. Then, a round of storms came through around 3 a.m. Sunday morning. There was a HUGE crash and rumble. I thought it was a nearby lightning strike. It might have been but mostly, it was a HUGE tree-trunk sized part of a massive tree hitting our house. On the spot where the electrical and telephone lines connect to the house. Praise the Lord, we did NOT lose electricity or internet. LG was out there on a ladder trying to trim branches away and he fell a few feet. I was in the house and had no clue. Toby was outside. He immediately ran to LG, sniffed the arm he scraped and bloodied in the fall, then came to his other side where LG had landed on those ribs against a rock. LG said Toby stood right there, patiently, pressing against LG’s side with his arm over Toby’s back and the braced so LG could use him for leverage to stand up. Did the man bother to holler, text, or call me? Of course not! 🙄

Uncle Fix-It came over to help and is coming back tomorrow with a crew to remove the actual tree trunk and an electriction to deal with anything that might have gotten owied. So far, we still have electricity which means AC, refrigerator, coffee maker, TV, internet, and phone charging. Life is good. How the hell we’re gonna pay for the removal and repairs is another matter. I gotta sell more books. I’ve only sold 9 this month. I’m considering shelving Ariel’s story for a bit and pulling out some older manuscripts that just need a little polishing and covers in order to publish. 😮‍💨

Anyway, here’s a pick of what we found when we walked outside yesterday morning. That trunk ran almost the entire length of that side of our house which is in the neighborhood of 50-60 feet. Yowser! Hope y’all’s weekends were more fun, less stressful, and productive.