Photo Finish Friday - Featuring Friendly Fowl

I have the sleep habits of a milkman or a morning drive-time dj. I'm asleep before 8 and wide awake at 4am. It's bizarre. I don't try to fight it... I just enjoy my early mornings and those couple of hours of leisure time before I have to start the glam routine for work.

I hung tough yesterday. My headache never really went away but I think I did a good job of faking it. I may have been a little unfocused at times, but I stayed there all day. I'm sure I can make it again today. If I'm still headache-ing over the weekend, I'll check in with the doctor. Ultimately... I can't take decongestants because of my tachycardia... I don't WANT to take antibiotics because they make me sick... so it's best if I can just wait it out.

I did have a whiny moment on my way home from work... Austin called and said there was water leaking onto our dining room table from the apartment above us... it happened once before when we were moving in. There was a lot more water this time. I told him to go find Morrie, the maintenance man who lives upstairs from us. When I pulled around the corner to our building Morrie and his wife Ellen were hanging out with James - our next door neighbor. I thought, "Awesome! Austin has already gotten Morrie down here and it's fixed"... but when I stepped inside the door Austin said, "I looked all over and couldn't find Morrie". I'm not sure he was lying but... I don't think he really looked too hard, what do you think?

At any rate... there was a good bit of water... but it stayed on things that are waterproof like my little china cabbage leaf tea set and the dining room table and the linoleum floor. Austin went over to talk to Morrie and he knew immediately what the problem was. There's some pipe defect that has caused this to happen in every apartment and his apartment is the last to get repaired - that whole concept of "the shoemaker's daughter never has shoes" - where he's put the repair to his apartment last. He can do all the work from his apartment so we won't have any destruction/construction mess, which is good because dust is not good for me. Austin and I dried up the water. It's a leak similar to what we had in my trailer - the drain in the bathtub is pulling away from the tub and it causes some of the bathwater to leak below. In our trailer "below" was the ground underneath. In this apartment "below" is my dining room. So there you go. Good times.

I started to have a mini-meltdown about it and then reminded myself that this was soooo minor in relation to most of the crisis' we have faced this year. No big deal. We did tease Morrie about falling through to our apartment... and how he would become "that thing we smell" when he gets stuck between floors. Although there really isn't a "between floors" here.

I still love my New Nest. I love it the most on weekends and I love it even more when it's clean (and it mostly is) and the weather is mild (and it will be) so that I can keep the windows open . We are officially into Oktoberfest in Helen which means traffic will be picking up with tourists heading to town on the weekends to enjoy the colors of the leaves. There is already a tiny bit of color at the tips of the trees. Nothing worth coming to see yet so all you folks from Atlanta can wait another week or two before you clog the highway to Helen. Oktoberfest means that Austin and I will be avoiding Helen as much as possible over the next month or so on weekends. It works out ok because I'd rather grocery shop early and be home in the afternoon to watch football.

These photos are not the best quality because I couldn't get too close... every morning on my way to work I play chicken (pun intended) with the Abernathy's chickens.

I'm having lunch with Stasha today! Haven't seen her in a few weeks... have to get caught up on her wedding plans. She's getting married next May. Not sure where we'll go but it will be a treat to have lunch with someone... a nice break in my work day.



One last thing I wanted to mention. Remember about two months ago when I mentioned that the aunt of our church secretary had disappeared? They found Aunt Pat on Wednesday... her car had run off the highway on the way to Clarkesville and flipped over. It looks like she may have already been unconscious before the car left the road as there were no skid marks or indication that she tried to brake. Possibly she had a medical "event" that affected her and caused her to lose control of the car. Hopefully she didn't suffer. She was missing for 62 days.

You've got to make every day count... never know which will be your last... Go out there and make a difference to somebody!
love and hugs, y'all!