It's Officially Fall!

It's finally here! Fall has arrived! The temperatures are still high, with the occasional beautiful day thrown in to tease me before it gets warm again. I guess that is what fall is like, summer is still fighting to stay but fall is pushing summer away! I can see the days getting shorter, the sun is going down earlier which means less sunlight and less time for the heat during the day.
I did start working on getting the last of my cleaning list done. I wanted to wash all my towels and redo the linen closet. I picked a cooler day and pulled out all the towels. I had a basket of laundry and wanted to wash my sheets and blanket too. I put in the first load and went about my morning, once it was done I put the laundry in the dryer and put a new load in the wash. It was a beautiful day and I like to lean on the rail and look down on the little stream under my deck. As I looked down, I saw a massive stream of ants trailing across the bottom of my deck. I ran inside to get the ant spray and get rid of them before they made it up to my deck. I sprayed the bottom of the deck and then it became a horror story. Every time I would look somewhere, I saw ants. They were everywhere! There was a line of them running up the wall, when I followed that stream, there were hundreds on the beam over my deck running across it. I would spray every time I saw a trail of ants. I sprayed the wall, then I sprayed the beam, then I looked over and they were all over the ceiling of my deck and running into the cracks under the roof! I sprayed and sprayed, the wind was blowing so I was covered with ant spray and I am sure they were dropping down on me as they died. Once I was sure I had sprayed everywhere I jumped into the shower! I have never felt so itchy and creeped out! I did not venture back out on my deck until the next day. There were still a few ants, but they were dying  from all the bug spray. I hate ants!

I gave up on washing all the towels that I had pulled out of the cabinet, and the temperatures were supposed to be pretty warm, forget warm -- it was going to be hot! Hot is was, the temperatures were over 100 degrees. On Friday it was 106 and Saturday it was 102. How horrible! I did absolutely nothing, I did not even leave the house.
Now it is the third week of September and I have started updating my Infoarmy reports for quarter 3. I was planning on getting two updated a day that way it would not be overwhelming the week they were due. It has been working out pretty well. I have eleven reports updated for quarter three.
One thing that I don't look forward to in the fall are the allergies. I have mild allergies and usually I may have a day or two when I have issues. This year is different. I started feeling allergies coming on, for me that means my front teeth start hurting. My lower sinuses always become inflamed and cause pressure on the nerves of my teeth. I did take some Benadryl, but the post nasal drip was so bad that I got a really bad cough. I hate coughing. Since my surgery I have stress incontinence, which means that I lose some urine in stressful situations. Coughing is extremely stressful. So I was not only coughing, I was running to the bathroom constantly. By Saturday I thought I was feeling better, so I cleaned the refrigerator and freezer. I felt great that I got that done, but by Saturday evening I was developing a sore throat and really did not feel well. I spent Sunday resting and recovering from overdoing it. It was a good move and by Monday I was feeling better.
Now it is the last week of September. I have until the end of the week for quarter three to end and I will not only have to work to get the rest of my reports updated, but as senior researcher, I will have to approve the updates that have been made to the reports that I am senior researcher on. My plan is to get all my reports updated this week, that way next week I only have to work with the senior researcher to get my reports updated and work with primary reports that I am senior researcher on. I did get quite a few updated today. Updating does not really take a lot of time, you are only really updating some of the information for any changes or additions for the current quarter.
The temperatures are supposed to be warm again this weekend, but I am hoping that things will start settling into the lower temperatures soon....

September

September was one crazy busy month! In my last post I was getting ready for fall and had found a treasure trove of energy to help me through it. That energy did not last long after that day, but I am glad that I was able to get so much done when I did have it. That is a lesson to take advantage of my "good energy" days.

My last post was on the third and that upcoming weekend was the Lobster Festival. I get some extra money by stuffing the will call tickets, it is not too taxing a job. I go to my friend's house, she is in charge of the ticket pre-sales, I get a printed sheet of name labels with the amount and type of tickets ordered. I sit on the couch with boxes of blank envelopes and rolls of tickets. First, I put the name label on the envelope and then I put the corresponding tickets into the envelope and make sure everything is alphabetized. I usually stuff tickets on the Wednesday and Thursday before the Festival since it starts on Friday. I wind up with an average of 4 boxes of tickets.

This time it was different. Tickets had been sold on Amazon local and the numbers doubled the usual count of tickets I stuff. Plus there were also two new tickets that could be sold for a lobster roll and lobster on a stick. That gave me five different tickets and double the amount of tickets. I worked as fast as I could but I still only made it through the letter "L" after six hours. I knew I would have to be over even earlier the next day, not only to catch up from where I left off, but there would also be more ticket orders that had come in since the day before that also needed to be stuffed and alphabetized.  I arrived around noon and started working. I did not finish until 10pm, by that time my eyes were starting to cross from looking at the same tickets. I wound up with a grand total of eight boxes full, twice the usual amount. That was much more exhausting than the usual ticket stuffing.
On Saturday I went down to the Lobster Festival. I arrived around 10am to help with setting up the ephoto booth. Not only is my friend the graphic designer and in charge of ticket pre-sales, she also has an ephoto booth that she works at during the three days of the festival. I did not go down on Friday, I had things to do, including continuing my job search and some errands to run. I usually only go down to the festivals for one day, it is all I can handle. I don't really do much at the festival other than help with set up and occasionally I will walk around the festival taking pics for the website. At least I got some lobster! yum! I think the heat really gets to me the longer I stay at a festival and it takes me a couple of days to recover. My body really can't handle the heat at all anymore. I get overheated and then start feeling sick. I spend a few hours at the festival and then head home.
As I suspected, I was really not feeling well by the time I got home. It took me two days to really recover and start feeling good again. At least the festivals were over for the year.
I found out that my ex boyfriend's aunt had been diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, which is a smooth muscle cancer. Hers was located on her uterus, so she had to get the same surgery as I had, a radical hysterectomy. Her cancer is very rare and the doctors don't really know much about it so her treatment will be different from mine. Since I am the only one that really knows what she is going through, I have been talking to her about her treatment and her fears. She is really having a hard time coping with it, especially since someone close to her passed away from cancer the year before. I am glad that my story and experiences can help her. I have managed to calm her fears as much as they can be calmed considering the treatments she is going through. I told her to call me anytime, that she was not going through this alone. I am glad that I can help others that are going through something like this. I did not have anyone that really understood what I was going through. I had support and love from friends and family, but no one really understood. That is why people that are going through cancer really need to connect with others that are going through the same kind of cancer. I am a member of several groups on Facebook for survivors and people that are just starting their journey. We can be there for each other, it really makes a difference.

Somehow, during these past two weeks, I did get enough energy to be able to finish going through my final bookcase. I have a couple more things that I want to do, like cleaning the linen closet and the fridge and then I will be ready for the holidays. One step at a time and I will get there...

Fall!

I don't know where I got my energy from today, but I am not questioning it!! I noticed that on the days that my feet are not swollen, though that is not too often, I have lots more energy. The backed up lymph must really drain my energy. I must take advantage of my good days when they come up. I have gotten so much done today! I am not quite done, but my house is just about ready for the holiday season.
I started this morning with throwing sheets and blankets into the laundry while I had my coffee. Coffee...the most important start to my day! Once that was done, I threw it into the dryer and started another load of laundry. While that was going I started to tackle my deck. I have a small barbeque grill out there that I have barely used this summer, I cleaned it and put it into storage and then swept the deck. All the leaves that have blown on there were driving me crazy but I never had the energy to take care of it. Well, it is done now!
Time to tackle the rest of the apartment. I took my fresh sheets out of the dryer and put them on the bed....I love fresh sheets...can't wait until bedtime! That finished I started on the bathroom, I really only needed to wipe down the mirrors, the counter, clean the toilet and sweep and wash the floor. I have found a time saving tip on Pinterest to keep my shower clean all the time. I keep a soap dispensing brush in my shower, I filled it with Dawn dishwashing liquid and vinegar. Now the first day it smelled pretty strong, but after I shook it up a lot it mixed and has been fine. After every shower I run the brush across the walls and glass doors and floor of my tub and I don't have to worry about cleaning it with harsh chemicals. Saves time and energy.

Now vinegar is pretty thin so you want to fill the brush with the Dawn first and then add the vinegar. Shake well to mix and leave in or near tub for a quick clean every time you shower.
Finished the bathroom and it is on to dusting and fallifying. I use cloth napkins in fall colors to give my home that fall feel. Adding some silk fall leaves from the craft store in glass vases with a fall themed bow really make the room pop with color. This is an example of some of the fallifying I did today.

It really gets me in the mood for fall and even if the temperatures are still summery outside, at least in my house it can be fall!
I can't believe I still have energy after all I have done already. I am almost done with my house! I quickly vaccuumed and put away my laundry. The only room left to tackle is the kitchen. I think I have almost reached the end of my energy today. I will take a break and have some lunch and see if I can get the rest done.........
In the meantime, not only is my house almost clean, but it is almost de-cluttered too. I only need to finish going through the last bookcase and the kitchen cupboards and I am ready for the holidays! Of course, I still need to get some of these boxes down to the garage and sort the ones that I meant to donate a few years ago before the cancer. There will be two piles when I am done, one for the library and one for Goodwill. Once the house is done and the temperatures stay down I can get that done and get rid of my clutter. Soon.........