Olly, Olly Oxen Free!

So, as the kids today would say, "I did a thing."  Actually, I did a lot of things.  August has been thing-filled.

I had my first colonoscopy.   It actually wasn't bad.  The prep isn't terrible.  You avoid corn, nuts and seeds for a week.  Then you spend a day on a liquid diet.  You take a bottle of vile tasting laxative that evening, spend the rest of it near or in a bathroom, then around midnight, you take a second bottle of vile laxative, spend a few more hours in or near the bathroom.  A few hours sleep, then you roll into the surgery center, get an IV, get some really cool goofy meds, and the next thing you know they're handing you a juice and kicking you out.

Then you get to eat, and then you sleep it off for the rest of the day.

It was kind of like a spa treatment, after a fashion.

The good news I don't have to do it again for five whole years.

In my mind, I had this thing worked up as just the worst thing ever - and in the grand scheme, it was actually pretty simple.

There's a bigger lesson there, of course.

The very next week, to the day, my husband did his. Similar experience, and he doesn't go back for ten years!

We're adults!

Weirdly, the whole month as been kind of a grab-bag of Grown Ups Stuff.  The big one is, we started contemplating a new vehicle.  I had really hoped that we'd be able to enjoy another few years without a car payment, but as it turns out, our little beater truck may be at the end of its sad little life.  We are its third owner, so in reality, it's certainly done well for itself.  And my Mazda isn't getting any younger, and is starting to hit the point where any money we put into it would exceed what the car is worth.  But as you may know, new vehicles, especially of the truck sort are not only scarce, but also pretty expensive.

That said, we bit the bullet and did it anyway. I am now the proud partial owner/paying off a new truck.  It has lots of bells and whistles, which is expensive, but we think worth it.  It was a custom order about a year ago, and by the time it came in (this past week), the person who ordered it had found something different.  To which I can only say, thanks! I know that in no time, I'll be wondering what had me so worried about paying it off, but for now, I just need to drive carefully and be frugal.

Imagine this, but in blue.

So there's that.  My husband managed to catch a crud that maybe came from me, maybe from colleagues - he says their are a few folks at his office that have... something.  So we've also been working on that - I'm still coughing a little, to the surprise of nobody.  If I get a lung thing, it's with me for at least six weeks.

We have a few things coming up - doctor visits, weddings, trips to the cabin, trips to see Mom.

And then the usual groceries, laundry, life, liberty, and the pursuit of nap-taking.

To say nothing of work.  We're about to go into the busy season - which is good - we're going to launch training, get a lot of new members, keep things running like the well-oiled machine that it is.  But it's still a lot to do - we're excited, but of course, it's going to get crazy.

Oh, and mid last week, we ended up getting a gift from one of the Giving Trees.  Which is what I am now calling the trees which have jettisoned large limbs over my neighbor's property line, and into our yard.

This one embedded itself into the phone and cable lines, and was hanging from a strong network of vines.  We extricated it as best we could from the former, then wrestled it out of the latter.  Matt made quick work of it.  It is now in our old truck, awaiting a mulching company run.

See?  Grown ups!

ae