Important News Here

Oh my, I forgot to blog yesterday. And it was a big news day, too.

The biggest news was that John was diagnosed with diabetes. They seem to have caught it very early; in fact, the doctor said that some might call it "pre-diabetes." He said it didn't matter which you called it, because the treatment was the same. He's going to have to take some classes to learn about diet, etc, and he has an oral medication to take. Plus, he has to start exercising regularly. He's taking the news well, but of course it's a bit troubling, especially when you don't really know the ropes yet.

It's been deadly hot. Even now, after 6 pm, it's still 97 degrees!

We've had a couple of different roofing companies come out and give us estimates. The estimates vary widely (and of course we're only talking to well-established companies). It's going to be expensive, no matter what. But we have no choice. Our roof won't last another winter.

The roofers that have looked the job over have told us that we win the world record for hornets and yellow-jackets on/in a single roof. Not a record we like holding!

Today John decided he'd better go ahead and replace the attic fan. That was not a fun job in this heat. He went up with the fan and his trusty electric screwdriver/drill thingie, and was reaching around to start unscrewing the mounting for the old fan when he found himself inches from not one, not two, but three yellow-jacket nests, each with mobs of irritable winged stingers crawling and buzzing around them. Now, for those of you who don't know, John has had a deadly terror of stinging insects since being chased and stung all over as a young boy. (On that wonderful occasion, he got to hear the doctor tell his mother, "Well, if he's not dead in ten minutes, he'll be all right!" That sort of experience tends to make an impression.) Also, for those of you who don't know, John is claustrophobic. So having today's scary experience in an attic was just doubly fun. But he made his way down to where we keep the wasp spray and took it back up to the attic with him. He emptied what was left of that can, and found himself needing more. So he came back down and drove over to the store to buy some. After killing a bunch more nasties, he got ready to start his job again, only to see one of the creatures perched right near a hot light bulb. He knew he couldn't spray the bug without hitting the bulb, and he knew that might make the bulb explode. But since he feels the way he feels about bugs, he decided he didn't care if the whole house blew up, so he sprayed it. The bug died. The bulb didn't. Neither did we. Things were good.

He ventured to go the rest of the way up the ladder into the attic at that point, but then heard a loud buzzing and felt something ominous on his hip. He tells us that he screamed his head off. We didn't hear anything, but there were competing sounds in the house, and we weren't on the second floor. Anyway, it was a blessing that he didn't fall off the ladder in his terror. Especially since it wasn't a bug buzzing on his hip...just his phone.

Today I took advantage of a really great clearance sale at Sears. I almost never get new clothes for myself, but I got myself a Lands' End linen tunic blouse and two skirts (of some other brand), plus a pair of Lands' End sandals for Andrew and brilliant green Lands' End flip-flops for Phillip (all marked WAY down, even lower than what's in the sale catalog. I don't know about you, but I don't buy Lands' End at full price!). John's company had given him a Sears gift certificate as a token of appreciation, and it went to good use.

Nothing else of interest today, unless you're fascinated by grocery shopping. Anybody want to admit to that?

Yesterday John grilled burgers for our dinner, and tonight I just threw together some easy stuff because grocery shopping kept me out too late to cook. No recipes today, sorry!