You Never Stop Being a Parent, Even When They Leave

The Kiddo™ moved out back in 2021, and has been living her best life in the frozen North ever since. She's had some rough patches - I think we all had some rough patches when we were just starting out, right? But she hit a nasty rough patch a few months ago, and it really sunk in for us that you never stop being a parent, even when they grow up and leave your house. 

I got a phone call the day after my birthday... A trembling, crying, snot-filled voice asked, Mommy, can I come home? Oh, how does your heart not break when you hear that pain in your child's voice??? 

The very first thing I said was of course! followed by what's happening, what's wrong? Between the tears and the snot-sucking, and the deep sighs, I was able to put together that her two roommates had been slowly and secretly moving out over the past few months! Her two roommates were partners, and one of them was going to college. Because that campus was a little bit of a distance away, and they had a shitty car, they would often bunk with some other friends for a few days and come back to the main apartment on the weekends. Because The Kiddo works part-time, mid-shift (after lunch until 10pm or so), much of this secretive moving was happening while she was at work. Finally, a few weeks ago, they came out and admitted that they were moving out for good, and that they'd try (try?!) to help The Kiddo pay all the bills and make the transition easy for her. 

Yeah, that didn't happen. 

And so she was unable to pay all of the $1000 rent due on September 1st. Late fees piled on for three days ($10/day), and on September 4th, the landlord sent her a Notice to Vacate, giving her five days to either pay the remaining rent get out. We started talking about how we could possibly pay her rent for this month, and then what we'd need to do to get us up there to pack her up and move her back to Florida. 

So while I was on the phone, Hubby was next to me on his tablet looking up as much info as we could find. First and foremost, Wisconsin law states that this five days' notice did not include weekends, so The Kiddo had until September 10th to comply, or eviction processes would begin... She wouldn't be kicked out at that point, but only that legal steps would begin. Okay, so a little breathing room. Dangerously shaky breathing room, but some breathing room nonetheless. She had a paycheck coming on September 9th, but not enough to cover all of the rent. Next up, Hubby was googling all sorts of things like United Way, 211, food stamps, rental assistance, etc, and I was giving her all sorts of suggestions to look for (including the places above). Overwhelming her, I'm sure, but lots of go look for this or go look for that suggestions. We talked for an hour and then she had to go back to work. Once we were off the phone I shared all of this information with her via a Google Keep note, including all links we found, so that she could access them when she got out of bed the next day. 

We cleaned up dinner (that neither of us ate very much of) and went to bed. My brain was still going a mile a minute, and I'm looking up prices of U-Hauls, rental cars, flights, etc. Hubby came to bed and we snuggled for a few minutes and I just lost it, like big, ugly, juicy sobbing. With everything else that's going on, WHY!? Why NOW?!? I just blubbered over and over, I'm so tired, I'm so fucking tired, I just can't anymore... But once that passed, Cold & Calculating Me came back on-line and we started making plans on an Emergency Road Trip to Wisconsin. How to afford to do this. When to do this. Would we need to, in turn, call my mommy for help (she'd help in a heartbeat, I know she would). Over the next few days I came up with the bones of a plan. We'd rent a huge SUV (like a Suburban) and drive up to Wisconsin, pack up her shit, and move her home. U-Hauls would carry her stuff but not 3 people. Cars would carry 3 people but not her stuff. I really didn't want to spend $1000 on a trailer hitch that I'd never use again, just to rent a U-Haul trailer. And I didn't want to drop way too much money on airline tickets (I think the cheapest I could find from our home airport was $1200) and still have to rent an SUV to drive home. We'd have to go the last weekend of September to accommodate a work conference I needed to attend. We'd need to work our asses off the next three weeks to clean out her room (that had become The Room Where Stuff Goes to Die, like a junk room). 

A week later, we had a phone call to touch base with her, and I was so proud of her, hearing how she was taking charge of the situation! She'd reached out to a lot of resources, and even though they couldn't help (do safety net entitlements really ever help the people they should help?), we at least knew they weren't an option and could cross them off the list. She'd taken a lot of initiative and I could hear some new-found confidence in her voice. She listed the now-vacant room on a few roommate-finder websites and had a possible roomie coming in November - that won't help the we need to pay rent in October situation, but will help after that. She was adamant that she wanted to stay in Wisconsin, instead of moving back to Florida, so we shifted our focus on getting her home, to getting her stable. 

The following week, with another check-in call, she asked if it were possible that we could help with half of her rent to get her through October 31. She'd been working hard to secure that roommate (still ETA November). She was able to get her employer to bring her up to Full Time hours, so she'll be making twice as much per month. She also worked with the horrible roommates to get the internet and electric services swapped over to her name (without swapping over any of their overdue balances!), and she got her new Wisconsin state ID (yes, she'd been in WI for three years with an expired Florida ID, yeesh). At risk of jinxing it, it's starting to feel like she's going to be standing back up on her own soon (knock on wood!), hopefully by the end of the year. 

At the beginning of October, we paid half of her rent, which was definitely painful for our bank account, too, and honestly, I'm still reeling from paying out about $2000 over the past few months, when we're not having a whole lot coming IN (thanks to Hubby being out sick so much)... At our check-in call, she said she felt like she was slowly getting a hold on the situation. She ran some numbers and realized that her new full-time paycheck will cover so much more, and she may be able to stay in the apartment without a roommate! Now, granted, she neglected to add in the non-bills, but her rent, electric, internet, and phone would only be around $1500 a month, and she should be bringing in about $2000, which will leave her $500 for groceries, bus fare, Ubers, etc. 

So at this point, at the end of October, she called us last night for one more check-in, and she sounded so much lighter! There was no stress in her voice, she sounded almost happy... Like, she knows that there's still a bit of a hill to climb, to pay us back and save extra, and figure out how to live as a single woman without roommates (the November roommate may not be happening now). She's also thinking that she wants to move once winter is over; she doesn't like where she is (never has, really), and thinks that having a roommate will allow her to save a bunch of money (better to pay $500/month rent than $1000/month!). That's something to worry about in the Spring, I suppose. 

But for right now, my baby is safe and secure. She's not surrounded by shitty roommates who are rude and lazy and selfish and possibly mental. She can focus on living her life the way she wants to live it, maybe discover who she is and who she wants to be, out from under the stressful conditions she was living in previously. 

I'm so proud of her. My daughter from 10 years ago would never have been strong enough to do the work, face the hard times, and make the difficult decisions that this daughter has. She's grown into a capable adult who knows how to rise above a flood and fix things. It's truly amazing to see years and years of difficult parenting result in a wonderful human like her. 

Y'all, go hug your kids today. Especially if they're tweens and teens... those are some hard years to parent, and hard years to show affection. Hug them. Laugh with them. Tell them they're awesome. Small things like this now will yield amazing results down the road. 

The Saga of the Chronic Kidney Disease... and some Abdominal Pain (Part 6 - October 2024)

If you've missed any parts of this saga, you can catch up with the links below:

Part 1 (April & May)

Part 2 (June)

Plus   (Baby's First Coloscopy)

Part 3 (July)

Part 4 (August)

Part 5 (September)

Hello, and welcome to Month Six of trying to nail down causes for Hubby's Left Lower Quadrant pain (LLQ) and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD2). 

When typing up a previous month's post, I needed to look up the type of magnesium he was taking for his insomnia, and there just happened to be a Google result about magnesium saying that low magnesium levels - hypomagnesemia - could result in muscle pain, which may be a reason for that mysterious LLQ. I asked Dr. L to add a test for mag levels in his next round of labs. 

He was supposed to return for a follow-up with the Urologist on October 7th (which had already been rescheduled from October 4th, since we were supposed to be out of town), but we were also out of town on the 7th. I called them Friday morning, but only got their voice mail, so I left a voice mail that we needed to reschedule... As of today (the day before Halloween), we never received a call-back to reschedule the appointment, so frankly, we're just gonna let it go. It's highly unlikely that any of his problems are urology-related, so why bother dropping a $75 copay to be told nope, nothing wrong with you here. We got the result of the FISH test, which was negative for any cancer. The cytology report from his Peeper View was negative for urothelial carcinoma. Benign urothelial and squamous cells present. Red blood cells, crystals, and polymorphonuclear leukocytes {white blood cells that fight infection and inflammation} were present. 

The following week, he got his lab work done, and unfortunately (well, fortunately), his magnesium levels are fine, so it doesn't look like hypomagnesemia is an issue. Normal mag levels are between 1.5 and 2.8 milligrams per deciliter, and he's almost right in the middle at 2.0 mg/DL. 

Everything else was relatively steady - no drastic changes. His eGFR (Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate) is bouncing a little bit. An eGFR is a test that measures the level of kidney function and determines the state of Kidney Disease. It is calculated from the results of a blood creatinine test, in conjunction with age, body size, and gender. 

The lower the eGFR, the worse your kidneys are functioning, and there is risk for Chronic Kidney Disease to progress to Kidney Failure. Right now, Hubby is in the low end (high end?) of Stage 2, kidney damage with mild loss of function, with 60-89% of kidney function.  Once you get to less than 15% eGFR, you are in active Kidney Failure, and that's when things like Dialysis and Transplant come in. It is important to remember that eGFR does decline with age, so a low eGFR in an older person doesn't always mean CKD. But hubby's only 50... he's not "an older person" quite yet. 

Things got a little testy at his October follow-up on the 22nd though. She reviewed all of his labs. His eGFR went up a smidge, to 66% (they've been between 71% in May 2023 and 61% in September 2024). eFGR can't really be fixed... Diet and exercise won't cure him and bring him back up to 100%. But things can be done to to slow down the damage, or stop it altogether. Diet, exercise, medications, lowering blood pressure, etc. Dr. L shared the results of the Natera DNA test - he is genetically predisposed to Cystinuria, a rare condition in which stones made from an amino acid called Cystine form in the kidneys, ureter, or bladder. Cystine is formed when to molecules of this acid are bound together. This condition is passed down through families, inheriting the variant from both parents. About 1/7000 people have Cystinuria. Most peoples' bodies simply deal with the cystine, but those with Cystinuria will deal with build-up that creates crystals or Cystine Stones. Some people experience Flank Pain in the side or back, often on one side. Pain could be felt in the pelvis, groin, genitals, or between the upper abdomen and back. To keep those stones from forming, you should drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, including at night (to pee at night to keep the pipes clean). Making the urine more alkaline may help to dissolve crystals, which can be done via potassium citrate or sodium bicarbonate {eating less salt can also help}. This is a chronic, lifelong condition, and without any treatment or diet changes, these crystals or stones commonly return. Chronic Kidney Disease is a possible complication of Cystinuria.

Dr. L doesn't think that the Cystinuria is solely responsible for the CKD, but it's good to know. Because of the lack of "good news" in the gene panel, she stated that the next step needs to be a Kidney Biopsy. And as soon as she said that, I could see Hubby just shut down. His body language completely changed, crossing his arms, crossing his ankles, tucking his neck down, clenching his jaw, and just shaking his head. I don't understand why this is such a No-Go for him, especially after all of the other things he's dealt with in the past few months. Is it a needle thing? Is it a pain thing? I don't know... I'm hopeful that I can talk him in to it, but he put up a stone wall and there's no way to break through to this obstinate SOB when he gets like that. I love him, but when he digs in, he DIGS IN.  

I asked Dr. L if we could simply maintain for six months and see what happens, like... let's not do follow-ups every month, let's not continue to throw biopsy around, let's just live our life for the next few months and see what happens. My plan is to do all the other stuff (that we already should have been doing, to be honest): change up the diet, increase exercise, get him to drink more water, etc. She tried to plead her case with him, reviewing all of his labs and explaining why it's important, what will happen if his eGFR gets too low, but he wasn't having any of it. 

So for right now, we're going to put the idea of a biopsy on the shelf for the rest of the year, and we'll work on all the other things, which frankly will be harder to deal with! Lord I have a fight in front of me, but I'm going to get him to take his meds daily, check his blood pressure twice a week, get him taking a walk at least once a week (hopefully more), get a better diet, and get him to drink two bottles of water per day. It's gonna suck, and I'm going to get extremely frustrated with him, but I'm out of options. He's decided that his health isn't a priority, but I'm not ready to give up. By the end of the visit I was so fucking frustrated, I just shut down... I had tears in my eyes as we walked back to the car. He ended up behind me, and I don't know if that's because he was having some emotions to deal with, or if it was because I was just so shut down that I was walking faster than I normally did. Either way was fine with me, he didn't need to see my tears. 

We picked up lunch at Chick-fil-A and brought it home with us, not saying much during the drive, or at home either. Usually, he'll come in to my office every so often for a visit hug, but I think he only came around once. I didn't make dinner, since I was still full from CFA, but make a little plate of cheese and crackers and took it to bed with me early. I zoned out and binged Hulu for hours, hoping to shut off my brain and fall asleep, but no such luck. When I finally turned off the TV around 11:30, my brain went right to the What If... scenarios, and I lost it and just cried. Around midnight, I curled up with X for a while, hoping it would numb my brain and make me sleepy, but still no luck. After about a half-hour I put my tablet away, and I think I probably fell asleep around 2am. 

The next morning, October 23rd, I'm still frustrated and emotional and sad and pissed, but I guess I now have a mission. I need to create a plan for him to follow to get all of that diet/exercise/med stuff done. And I'm probably gonna have to be a bitch about it. And he's gonna push back because he's obstinate. And we're gonna yell at each other because we're emotional. And we're gonna both have hurt feelings because we love each other. But I don't fucking care. Because I have to care for both of us, since he doesn't give a shit about his health. I mean, if his eGFR dropped from 71 in May of 2023, to 66 in October 2024, he'll be in dialysis by 2034. 

So, at this point, I think I'm going to put a pause on the monthly updates, unless something crazy happens. We set up a three-month follow up with Dr. L for January to see what's happening, and I'll check in with you guys at that point to let you know what's happening. I'm hopeful that in that time, he'll at least have a normal blood pressure, and no loss of eGFR. 

Gotta Get Away - Quick Staycation in Ocala

The end of September has really sucked. The whole year, really, but especially the past month. The Kiddo™ is having some financial issues up in Wisconsin. We're having some financial issues down here. The Hubby™ is having health issues. And to top it off, the cool work conference I was supposed to go to was cancelled because of Hurricane Helene! Yes, I know that there are many, many people out there struggling because of that storm (and the... lack of support... after the fact). I'm just talking about how much it sucks on a personal level. 

When I told Hubby that the conference was cancelled, he said that we should go somewhere anyway to just forget about all of the bullshit; we kicked the idea around a while, but nothing really grabbed me. I looked around Central Florida (north of Orlando), Ocala, Crystal River, etc... but what was there to DO? I found a few fun things like hiking trails, kayaking, and river tubing. I ended up booking a hotel in Ocala on Friday night, for the weekend. I needed to stay in town for parkrun the following day (we were expecting a large crowd) and then we could drive down to Ocala. 

We drove down around lunch time and ate way too much fried food at Long John's, then checked in to our hotel. I gotta commend LJS here... We ordered one meal (plus some extra shrimp) and two beverages, and they were nice enough to give us an extra plate so we didn't have to both eat off of one plate. Anyway, we chilled out for a while at the hotel and then headed over to the Marion County Fall Festival. 

Bless his heart, he tried. When we were looking for things to do in the area, Hubby found a few things, like Oktoberfest at the World Equestrian Center, and this fall festival. I'm a huge fan of fall festivals. I can walk around and look at stuff all day long. So I was up for it. 

This wasn't it. 

Apparently this was a fall festival put on by the municipal Parks & Rec department, mostly for kids. We didn't have to, but we brought some canned goods to donate, and then headed inside. Even at 6pm (the event was 5p to 9p), it was full of kiddos; mostly in street clothes, some in costumes. There were tons of bouncy houses inside one of the pavilions, so I had hopes that this would be a good festival. Outside, before the Trick or Treat Trail, there was a large area full of food trucks, but alas... no elephant ears, fried dough, or funnel cakes to be found. Womp womp. 

The Treat Trail was badly designed; each candy stop was also a table for a vendor, and many tables were so overrun with kiddos that I (as an adult) couldn't visit the table to talk to the vendor. Plus, all tables had the same really crappy candy... Even as a kid, I'd be pissed off to get no-name candy, candy bracelets, and generic SweeTarts. We walked all the way to the end of the trail and back, and by the time we got back, the line for the Haunted Stalls (it was held at a livestock pavilion, so cute tie-in there) was probably 100+ people deep, and it didn't start until 7. Part of me wanted to stick around and see how "haunted" they really were, but the line was mostly teenagers, and I have no patience for teenagers who think they're cooler than everyone else. I'll say this, I commend the Parks department for putting on a nice event for kids and providing some affordable fun for everyone. It was a little janky, with some employees in sad Spirit Halloween leftovers, and I wish it was advertised as being more for kids than a true "Fall Festival," but in the end, it was a nice event for the entire community, and I hope they keep it going. 

So we headed out and planned to head back to the hotel, but we decided to just go on an adventure instead. Don't know what prompted it, but we got on US-441 and went south, just to see what was down there. We went through a town I'd never heard of called Santos (very interesting read, by the way), and then down to Bellview before I decided to turn around. Oh, but what is that in the distance? I see neon! It says ice cream! Huh... gonna just tuck that nugget of info away for later. 

Back at the hotel, we chilled for another hour because we're old, and then headed to see Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice at the Ocala Drive-In Theater - YES you read that right... the Ocala Drive-In Theater. We paid $22 for two tickets and a $10 food voucher - the voucher is mandatory, and the sneaky way they can keep movie tickets at $6 a pop! (But hell, even $11 a pop really isn't that bad either!). We used our voucher (and a little extra) for popcorn, a pretzel with cheese, and an order of nachos. 

Now, I haven't been to a drive-in movie in probably 35 years... the last movie I remember seeing was at The Mustang Drive-In, a double-feature of All of Me (Steve Martin & Lily Tomlin) and... something else. Gah, age sucks. But I remember the swing set up near the screen, and the speaker boxes on poles, and running up to the concession stand before and between movies. When life was simpler and easier, and your parents could make out in the car while you sat outside in those folding webbed patio chairs. 

Did this drive-in experience live up to my memories? Yeah... kinda. When you're sitting in the dark at 10pm at night with nobody's headlights or brake lights on, it's really dark. So when a latecomer comes in and blasts you with their headlights, it's a little distracting and annoying. I think we dealt with that 4-5 times. These days, the movie's audio is delivered through the radio, which was great, because we could turn it way up for that "bust your eardrums" theater experience. But the windows kept fogging up, I didn't have anywhere useful to put my trash, and I was kind of cramped in my seat. Would I go to another drive-in movie anytime soon? Oh, hell yeah. Maybe an earlier one though... we didn't get into bed until almost 2am! 

On Sunday, I awoke to a warm and cuddly husband, and we didn't get out of bed until almost 1pm. It was rainy outside (sprinkles, but not full-on rain). We had a lovely lunch at Harry's Seafood Bar & Grill, then walked next door to pick up some drinks at Grandpa Joe's. As we waddled back the car, bellies full of seafood and chicken, he looked at me and said, wanna go get some ice cream from that neon place? Uh, yeah! 

On our way there, hubby (who used to live in the area) got us playing the Where does this road go? game. He said that he had a vague recollection of his mom and/or aunt driving that way when they were little, but had no idea of why they'd go there. We never found anything that looked familiar to him, so we turned around after a twenty minutes or so and came back. Just now, I looked it up on Google Maps, and we were literally 10 minutes away from the ice cream place when we turned around!

We started at the top, came down to Mercado, went back north, then took 301 south to Ms Steve's

So after taking the scenic route to Ms. Steve's, we first stopped at Wawa for drinks, and then got treats - he got a Root Beer Milkshake, and I got a small hot caramel sundae with whipped cream. I lost my receipt, but I think both of them together were about $12 or so. We went back over to Wawa's parking lot to enjoy our treats in the car. I didn't get a photo of his milkshake, but the sundae was a glorious sight to behold! Slathered in real whipped cream (not whipped topping) and gooey caramel, so full that it was a single breath away from overflowing onto my hand. It was a real race to eat enough, quickly enough, so that it wouldn't melt all over me. I think Hubby took more pleasure from watching me devour it (yes, I ate the whole thing), than he did drinking his own milkshake! 

This photo doesn't do it justice!

As we ate, the rain became more and more substantial, so there was no hope of heading to a nice trail, or talking him into kayaking, so we just headed back to the hotel. I treated myself to a hot bath, and then curled up with my tablet to read all about newly formed Hurricane Milton and what his plans were for the state of Florida. 

On Monday, we slept in until about 10am (for once, he was awake before me), packed up and checked out. It's still raining, so again, no hope of a trail or kayak trip. I wanted to hit up Tas-T-O Donuts, but they were already sold out and closed by the time we got there at 11. We went over to Silver Springs Diner for brunch, the diner that I took Mom to for a Girl's Day Out a few months ago. It wasn't nearly as good as I remember it being, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt... There was just a hurricane a week or so ago, so maybe they were having problems getting shipments of food. Maybe there were staffing issues. Yelp reviews said that new owners too over this summer, so maybe that was it... I'll probably give them one more chance and see. I got pancakes, eggs, and bacon, and they were just okay. The pancakes were flat, the bacon was too crispy for my liking. Hubby got a Club Sandwich, and it was stuffed with meat, so his meal was definitely better than mine. 

We hopped over to Sam's Club to pick up a few things (basically, so I wouldn't have to do it as a separate trip). When we pulled in, we saw that the gas station portion of Sam's was barricaded off, with an employee waving everyone past. I didn't think anything of it and we went in to get soda, chips, and a package of chicken to tide us over until next payday. Afterward, I wanted to pick up a soda at Circle K before we got on the road. Outside, I finally removed my vacation blinders and realized that the gas pumps were stacked 2-3 cars deep at every pump, and State Road 200 was bumper-to-bumper, with the interstate entrance and exit ramps completely clogged. I could see the cars on the overpass, inching forward slowly, and finally - finally - I realized that there was an actual hurricane out there! It wasn't just a hurricane that other people are dealing with on the internet, but a hurricane that may actually affect us at home. It finally clicked that all of this traffic was because of south Florida running away from Milton (duh), and we should probably get on the road ourselves. 

We took the super-long way home, along 301, and traffic was almost non-existent. Every time there's a hurricane it amazes me how many people completely forget about State and County Roads! Everyone on social media bitching about how roads were bumper-to-bumper, people couldn't get anywhere, etc... Well, you put yourself in that position! Nobody forces you to take the interstate! People evacuating the Gulf Coast easily could have driven up US-98, US-19, or US-41. 

And, to continue on my soap box, there was no need for this massive evacuation at all (in terms of what people did, not what was ordered)... When you evacuate, you need to run from the water, and hide from the wind. People in Tampa or Sarasota or Fort Myers or wherever didn't need to evacuate North to an entirely different state, but instead move inland, move East toward Lake Wales, Lake Placid, or Immokalee. 

Another thing that many people forget is that it's rare for an entire county to be called to evacuate - in Florida, we have what are called Evacuation Zones within some counties, which are based on how close you are to the shore, and how you may be affected by Tropical Storms and Hurricanes (most inland counties without large lakes or rivers do not have any Evacuation Zones). When Emergency Management in that county calls for evacuations, they generally will say Zones A, B, C are mandatory evacuation zones. So in the photo below, the entire square shown is Hillsborough County (where Tampa is), with Zones A/B/C being the red, orange and yellow colors... Maybe a third of the county. Only residents of Zones A and B were required to evacuate (plus mobile homes). Honestly, the majority of the people in the affected areas could have gone east to Brandon, Lakeland, and Lake Wales, but instead you have people scared out of their minds because of social media and The Weather Fear Porn Channel, and they think they have to leave the entire state! It's a waste of their time, it's a waste of their money (hotels, food), it's a waste of their gas, it's a waste of gas for everyone else (because you filled up there may not be any gas left for me), and frankly, it's mostly unnecessary. 

It's just so damn frustrating as a lifelong Floridian to see the way that social media and weather personalities whip people up into a frenzy... People are bombarded with images of storm surge wiping out houses on the beach and the insinuation that this could happen to the entire state. People lying about climate change and how storms are so much stronger and how Florida is going to sink in to the ocean and all this crazy bullshit, repeated over and over and over again everywhere you look from the minute a storm is detected... it's exhausting. 

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox... 

We were home safe and sound by mid-afternoon. We unpacked, put the groceries away, and just plopped in our respective places for a few hours. I cooked a simple dinner and bagged up the remaining chicken to put in the freezer. We put the big containers of water back in the freezers (we took them out until after Helene), and I went to bed. I binged Hulu for a few hours, but couldn't sleep until around midnight (Hurricane Brain is in full force). I'm at work today (Tuesday), but our office will close on Wednesday and Thursday for the storm, and then I'll probably just telework on Friday. 

****

Hi there! We made it through the storm just fine. As I said above, I was at work on Tuesday, trying to shove in as much work as possible to this day, since it was the only day I'd be IN the office for the week. I was off yesterday for vacation, the office closed for two days, and then I am home today (Friday). 

I texted my mom on Tuesday night and she said that she was planning on staying (she's not in an Evac Zone). I said that we were planning on staying, as well. We watched the track change a little here and a little there, but because it was always going to be south of us, I felt comfortable with the decision to stay. As with all storms, when the winds began to kick up, so did my stress levels, but it wasn't nearly as bad here as it was during Helene (who passed over us to the north). I was able to sleep peacefully, and honestly, it was a nice two-day vacation. I am, of course, heartbroken to communities to the south, like Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and surrounding areas. I used to live on the Gulf Coast in those areas, and I'm saddened to see the damage, but I know that these communities can rebuild, especially with the amazing leadership and resources provided by our Governor and his administration. 

Hopefully, that will be the end of the storms for 2024... It wasn't as bad as 2004, but it was certainly bad enough! No more, please!