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REALLY!! That’s all I want to do!!

I don’t know if it’s my age, my desire to do things the ‘right way’, my selectivity and lack of desire to start over and play tiny dumps for gas money and try to pack while brawls break out… maybe it’s my hard-nosed work ethic or maybe something in my playing that I’ve yet to identify (my tempos and timing returned to ‘normal’ a year after leaving FE)… maybe it’s something about me personally that I need to improve… but I’m anxious to be playing full time again… my eyes are always open and I’m in great health so, fingers crossed, this is the year I get back out there!! So apologies up front for the lack of music news – at least for the time being…

January… Tick tock, tick tock… 🙂

Happy 2024!!!

Welcome to the new year!! It feels a little odd waking up about my normal time (around 5:00am) without feeling stiff or tired from the previous night’s NYE gig… hopefully next year… 🙂 And it’s a very different year with Selena living with her Fiancée… Julie has struggled the most with it to the point where she wasn’t that into Christmas which is so not like her… she started to shake it off around the 27th or so and was acting more like herself… hopefully we’re back to only dealing with her health rollercoaster… 🙁

January 24th… headed out for school this morning – about an hour later than usual… several inches of snow fell overnight… it was 33 and raining when I hit the untouched roads and made my way to the highway which also appeared NOT to have been plowed… it’s only 3 or 4 miles from the exit I get on to the next exit and, in that short span, I narrowly missed not one but TWO separate cars passing traffic and spinning out in front of me before crashing into the guardrails… nice driving a–holes!! Enjoy the repairs to your fancy cars!! I’ve driven in much worse so it wasn’t phasing me but, like my parents told me and we’ve told our daughter, it’s the OTHER people you have to watch out for… these incidents didn’t shake my confidence but were – I suppose ‘frustrating’ would be the best term – to the point that I got off, turned around and settled in at home for the day – burning a vacation day at work… school was closed (which is probably why none of the roads were touched) and I can do almost everything remotely anyway.

February… I’m considering a smaller kit and lowering my expectations… tick tock, tick tock… 🙂

February 1st… Julie’s been fighting another head cold and sore throat but no COVID thankfully… I’m prepping my tax stuff and running store errands for Mom who has confined herself to her room at the assisted living facility where they recently moved a woman from another floor who’s mind is sadly gone and who is going into other people’s rooms and taking random stuff then putting in drawers or closets in other parts of the floor… she has to be frequently removed from office spaces and she’s scratched and bitten multiple residents and staff… while most of the nurses and aides are sympathetic and try to keep her corralled, others laugh and say there’s nothing they can do… and administration will only say they’re ‘working on it’… Mom started by locking up her iPad and phone whenever she went out but now she feels like she has to stay and protect her belongings – sacrificing any remaining independence she had… I was charged with picking up several things for her and making more blueberry muffin tops for a Maintenance worker who was very helpful when Spectrum managed to kill about half the cable boxes in the facility… it took overnight to get it straightened out but he got her back up and running again so, along with Mom’s other items, I dropped off a plate of about 2 dozen muffin tops and a ‘Thank you’ card…

February 16th… Julie had her 6 month checkup which went very well… she’s dropped some weight and her doctor is very pleased with everything given her chronic ailments and has apparently kicked whatever bug that was that hit her……

February 22nd… Julie’s therapist has started her EMDR therapy every other Friday in hopes of helping her come to grips with all the abuses she suffered when she was little… Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a mental health treatment technique. This method involves moving your eyes a specific way while you process traumatic memories. EMDR’s goal is to help you heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences. The sessions are pretty intense and she can’t be alone for 24 hours afterwards… her first one was a couple weeks ago and they started off ‘light’… even at that Julie wasn’t herself until sometime Sunday afternoon… it’s going to be a rough weekend and I don’t anticipate any gaming but I hope in the end it helps.

February 24th… Julie and her therapist ended up NOT doing EMDR this week because at 1:30 this morning I was awakened by Julie crying uncontrollably… she had just received a text that her Grandmother – who had taken her in when she was very young when her Mom kicked her out – was in GF Hospital on ‘End of Life’ which means the family is allowed in at any time to say their goodbyes… her ‘family’ consisted primarily of a number of cousins and such – several of which had lived at her house at various points in their lives… she’d been in the hospital for about a month but no one in the family bothered to let us know so we could visit which is typical… we got dressed and I took her down where Selena met us and they went in while I waited in the car with the dogs… after about an hour Selena texted me that they were going to stay a while and I should go home and she’d bring Julie home…

The dogs and I slept until after 8:00am and the girls came home about 8:30am… while she was unconscious, the girls applied Vaseline to her lips and towels to her head which she seemed to like… they held her hand and talked to her and she would squeeze their hands seeming to respond… at one point Selena went to let go of her hand and she let out an irritated groan as if to give her Hell for letting go… 🙂 The only family present was her son Chris who told the girls that they had done more that morning than the rest of the ‘family’ had sadly done in months… her other son was in Rochester and hadn’t been around in years… this son had raped Julie every weekend that he came home when she was younger but Julie would never say anything because she didn’t want to hurt her Grandmother… that filter might come off now and could get ugly… 🙁

Later this afternoon I would go grocery shopping and was almost done when Julie called – again very upset… to the point I couldn’t understand her other than ‘her Mom wasn’t good’… I flew home thinking we’d be heading to see her Mom but when I arrived home, I learned the circumstances were a little different… her Mom’s Dementia was getting worse and she was no longer following instructions – mainly that she needed to stay in her wheelchair… she would get up then fall and injure her head or something… she had just gotten out of Albany Med for a similar incident… they were hoping Julie would talk to her and try to get her to understand…

February 25th… Julie’s Gram passed around 10:30am… Julie was understandably upset but more relieved… her pain was over… RIP Gram.

I had taken Mom shopping for one of her Christmas presents – knowing that Selena was coming up to spend time with Julie… Mom had never been to Boscov’s so we made the trip to Clifton Park…

I think she was a little surprised to see the prices… many items were 50-60% off but when the regular price is $60-80, that’s still more than she was willing to pay… of course she did find a number of things on clearance and, between my gift card and her $50+ scratch off winnings, she found several items she liked… AND got a nice workout in as we browsed the store before heading to Sonic (one of her favorites) for lunch… 🙂

Early that afternoon after I returned home, Selena and I were talking and the phone rang and it was Julie’s Mom… after a few minutes we hear Julie crying again… her Mom really hated her Gram (maybe for taking her in way back when) – to the point that Julie wasn’t even going to tell her that she passed… but her Mom could tell she was upset so Julie told her and she was surprisingly sad and sympathetic which made Julie cry some happy tears for a change…

March… I’ve reached out to a couple fledgling groups with no members I’ve ever heard of… no response…

April… Still nothing… I’m still getting dates from the last touring group I’m on call for as a sub which is nice (had a great show in Illinois a few nights ago)… no one in these parts is interested which is about right… 🙂

April 20th… picked up Mom for shopping and lunch and today we uncovered the grill for the first time this year – one of Mom’s favorites… 🙂 Hot dogs, kielbasa, a couple different salads, chips, etc… we stuffed ourselves before visiting our favorite local ice creamery – Rookies Cookies & Cream!!

Julie’s been in pain for a couple days – most likely from the weather and allergies – but she was up and grilling… I tried to get her to rest for the afternoon

May… June… crickets… I’ve reached out to a couple groups that were either forming or regrouping but never got a reply… patience… 🙂

May 7th… Julie’s been sicker than usual for about a week… fever higher than usual… increased nauseousness… even some vomiting… she definitely picked up some sort of bug but, once again, multiple COVID tests (one old and one of the new ones) proved inconclusive… both had a faint line indicating a positive test but the Internet is loaded with differing opinions on whether that’s an actual positive or not… Alka Seltzer Cold & Flu, Popsicles, chicken soup, crackers and lots of rest and she was pretty much back to normal today which was great because her sister is coming to stay with us for a couple days on her way back to Georgia after too many years (in my opinion) away from her kids who love and miss her – all because of her loathsome ex-husband… she’s heading back in time for her daughter’s graduation and we couldn’t be more excited…

May 8th… Julie was supposed to perform an exercise her therapist had recommended in a location where multiple abuses occurred… unfortunately, she became so over-stressed about returning to the area that she ended up in bed and didn’t budge until late in the evening…

I left work early to try to get her calmed down enough to go through with it but, when that failed and she was sleeping, I went back out and took Mom shopping and grabbed some supper…

May 10th… Today I loaded up Julie and the dogs and took everyone on her Mother’s Day excursion to her chosen eatery – the Country Drive-In off exit 8 in Clifton Park… after we all stuffed ourselves with selections from their delicious menu, we headed to Guptil’s for ice cream treats – including the dogs who slept the entire trip home… 🙂

May 11th – Mother’s Day… I started today making my family favorite blueberry muffins with a sweet streusel topping… I somehow managed to not wake Julie up in the process and had already had the dogs out so they were either back to sleep or curious as to what I might be up to… I was able to finish the process then wake Julie up with several piping hot muffins and butter (she loves to slice them in half and melt butter inside), a big, cold glass of liquid sunshine (OJ) and her Mother’s Day card… then she was back to sleep and I took the dogs out once more before picking up my Mom for her Mother’s Day lunch… she selected Scarlotta’s followed by a stop on the way home to Rookies Cookies & Cream where we both (didn’t need but totally enjoyed) their hot fudge sundaes – mine over vanilla and hers over strawberry… 🙂

May 24th… a bonus day off from work because my district didn’t have to use any snow days… We have Monday off for the Memorial Day holiday but our Superintendent closed campus today so that 12 month employees also got an extra day off,,, teachers get today AND Tuesday the 28th off giving them a 5 day weekend but we can burn a vacation if we choose Tuesday…

For the most part I used the day to break in a battery powered mini chainsaw to take out a couple nuisance bushes that are growing out of control that no one knows how to kill… I at least inconvenienced them a little… 🙂 Then some weed whacking until the battery on that died by then I was ready for a badly needed shower…

May 25th.. Happy birthday, Julie!! I’m up early for a run to Hannaford to top off our cookout supplies but not before a stop at Dunkin to grab Julie her favorite donuts… of course I walk in to find nothing but bare shelves… the girls comes over and looks at me as I quipped, “Busy morning?” She replied with a straight face, “No – our truck broke down”… I guess there’s one truck supplying ALL of the Dunkins in the area because I stopped at no less than 4 and they were all void of donuts… I did find her a confetti frosted donut at Hannaford and her favorite gold cake (we love their bakery) before heading home…

After enjoying her donut and my story (and the sight of her cake) she and the dogs went back to sleep but not before the first of two deliveries arrived… luckily, this one had shirt I’d ordered for her “This is what an awesome Dog Mom looks like”… she fell asleep with it on… 🙂 I’d already given her (and Selena) their big presents – 4 tickets for them, Mike and a friend of Selena’s to see Gabriel Iglesias in Newark (closet show to us) the end of June…

I asked Julie where she wanted to go for her birthday meal and without hesitation she wanted Mr. Bill’s – a local eatery that was taken over by new owners who have totally overhauled the place from the ground up – even staying open for pickup and delivery all winter… the food (and the service) is a quantum leap from what it had become and we couldn’t wait to see it come together for the summer and it is absolutely AMAZING!! All that aside, Julie picked because it’s one of the few local places that offer Poutine… 🙂 I continued with various projects while everyone slept – eventually making myself some lunch… guess we’ll head to Mr. Bill’s later… 🙂

May 26th.. I slept in a little, had a late breakfast then tested out the new batteries for the weed whacker and hedge trimmer before mowing everything again… I moved our Memorial Day cookout to today because the weather isn’t looking good for tomorrow… broke Mom out, Julie grilled and we all stuffed ourselves with salads and hot dogs and chicken and birthday cake and ice cream… 🙂 I returned from dropping Mom off about 1:30 to find Julie and all the dogs sleeping off their full bellies again… the dogs didn’t move until around 5:00 and again about 8:00… other than taking them out to ‘potty’, I grabbed a short nap and worked on some projects inside before calling it a night about 9:30.

May 28th.. I’m up early, working remotely and making mini blueberry muffin tops – our family’s new favorite… I’d just finished some sign updates when Julie comes in and wants to know if I’ll take her to see her Mom who’s in assisted living a little over an hour away… I’d offered a few times in the last month but she wasn’t feeling up to it but today we’d make the trip… I finished some files for the BOE President while she tried to get the dogs to potty once more before we left since we were leaving the big ones home and only taking the younger one… my plan was to drop her and the dog off then back track about 15 minutes to my favorite local game store that I hadn’t visited in a few years… it was a great plan and of course I couldn’t walk out empty handed… 🙂 Jump over to my Games 2024 page for details…

June 3rd… Julie had some GI tests looking for answers about some recent issues – namely severe cramping and some loss of control… hope they see something but my brain thinks that it could be related to the large combination of meds… wait and see as usual…

Then I broke Mom out of assisted living to stock up on food and such since her floor has reached ‘outbreak’ status… apparently a staff member came to work sick, left early but not before passing COVID on to 9 residents so far… thankfully, Mom is still negative though she’s tested positive 4 times in the past with nothing more than a runny nose… she turns 92 on the 8th and we’re hoping she can still get out to celebrate… for today at least we were able to shop and eat and our favorite ice cream stop had her favorite flavor – mocha twist!!

When I returned home Julie was still upset over her health issues and lack of answers on several fronts but wanted to play a game… her therapist told her what I’ve been telling her for years – that these games are an excellent distraction for her… maybe I missed my true calling… 🙂

June 5th… Julie’s been having pain behind on knee and was able to get in to her regular doctor today… they were afraid it might be a clot but, upon examination, determined that it was most likely a cyst… they didn’t want to take any chances and were able to get her in the hospital for a STAT Ultrasound (meaning they were rushing her in AND she had to stay until the results came back)… it turned out to be a large Baker’s Cyst… I did some reading regarding treatments and the most common was ‘R.I.C.E.’ – Rest, Ice, Compression brace and Elevation… it was almost 90 and the dogs and I were still hot in the van – even with the AC running the entire hour… the ultrasound appointment wasn’t for a couple hours so we came home, cooled down the house and dogs and Julie’s meds schedule meant she could drive herself for the ultrasound while I stayed with the dogs…

June 6th… the assisted living facility that Mom’s in is in is still battling a COVID outbreak… she’s been tested 6 times in 7 days because her roommate is now positive and there’s no place to move anyone… as of this afternoon Mom’s still negative and able to leave the floor and the building so I broke her out again for some fresh air, food and another mocha twist… 🙂

June 16th… Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there!! A quiet day for me for the most part… Julie was up to lighting the grill but not for eating which I’ll come back to… Selena had an early morning cleanout for her new job and stopped over for grilling goodies and I snagged Mom because she loves the grill…

Julie’s been a bit distracted by this latest round of doctor visits and tests and the endless quest to get answers that never materialize… a CT scan a few days ago has her stomach topsy turvy so she’s been resting and hasn’t had much interest in gaming or food…

June 28th… Julie and Selena and her fiancé Mike were all headed for Newark, NJ to see Gabrial Iglesias in concert at the Prudential Center…. I got them tickets and parking, etc. for their birthdays… they left early in the morning to surprise Selena with some other stops – mainly a visit to the Statue of Liberty… they had a fabulous time, ‘Fluffy’ was great and, on the way home, Mike completed one of his destination stops by hitting a White Castle on the way home!! 🙂

June 30th… today Selena turns 24 and yes – the time has flown by… 🙂 Mike spent the day with her for her birthday while Julie continued to rest then they stopped by the house for cake and ice cream of course (I know – I get that from my Mom)… Selena spent the night as we had to be on the road by 4:15am for Sloan Kettering in Manhattan and she was dog sitting until we got home…

July… schools out and I’m taking over the music room in my building once again… getting the kit cleaned up, tuned and setup so I can start practicing regularly… 🙂

July 1st… Julie hasn’t felt like gaming in a couple weeks and had to use a walker to get around their NY/NJ birthday trip… today was her last hope to get some answers about her cancer… it’s been 9 years since I first drove her into Manhattan for the first time to see the specialist at Memorial Sloan Kettering… 9 years of nothing on scans and being told she’s fine but no one could tell her if she was in remission or at risk or anything… she (understandably) has no faith in the scans and blood work because her initial cancer never appeared in any of them… it wasn’t until she had a total hysterectomy to try to alleviate the severe pain from Endometriosis and the surgeon sent the parts removed to be tested (as a matter of routine) that her cancer was discovered… up until that point they all told her the same thing – the scans and blood work were all fine…

So here we are 9 years later… 9 years with an absolutely horrible quality of life – partly due to a rare side effect of the Taxol (many cancer patients call it ‘the red death’) which caused her to develop Costochondritis… since the treatment, she’s had constant chest pain – sometimes flaring to heart attack levels… and because she would complain of ‘chest pain’, every trip to the ER resulted in heart tests, a long wait and a trip home after being told she’s fine – even though they’d been told going in it’s not her heart… and the cancer center in Glens Falls never even heard of Costochondritis and had to research it… she was placed on disability and has been pretty much bed-ridden ever since except for the occasional ‘good day’…

Over the last 6 month she’s been having severe abdominal pain – reminiscent of what she had before her surgery and treatment for Endometriosis… FINALLY, a doctor up here referred her back to MSK in NYC which brings us back to today…

After about 2 1/2 hours and several interviews because of her suicide attempt and psychiatric history prompting a review by the MSK psych team, we got to see the doctor… the revelation of the day came when Julie explained that she understood that the chemo would have no effect on the cancer tumors but might work on the cancer cells and, after her chemo was finished, they would somehow check to see if it indeed had worked but nothing was ever done… the doctor explained that tumors and cells are the same things… if anything, the chemo wouldn’t have done anything for the Endometriosis… she read where Julie had been on a Chemo pill since right after her treatment,,, most people are only on it for 5 years (Julie has been on it for 9) though she did have one patient on it for 10 though she’s been off it for 2 years and doing fine… then came the best news of the day… the doctor (who initially told her that women with this type of cancer usually live 5-10 years), told her that she believed that Julie is probably CANCER FREE!! If for no other reason than because she’s sitting here in front of the doctor. That was better than anything we were even thinking we’d hear… 🙂 AND… as for her abdominal pain, she believes her regular doctor is on the right track with the gastro and GI exams because her current symptoms are consistent with a perforation in the bowel that could be leaking into other areas… she has a coloscopy in 2 days and now they have better direction on what and where to look… and with that, a sense of relief that she’d waited years for seemed to come over Julie… she finally had some answers and some good news… we had to wait another 20 minutes for the psych team review before they green lighted us to leave… now I just had to find the van… 🙂

July 7th… A couple days ago Julie was having pain in her ear – bad enough to call and get into her doctor (or at least a PA) first thing on a Saturday… there she was diagnosed with an outer ear infection and they called in a prescription for drops… I got her home and settled in but just after lunch I heard something over the AC and found her sitting up in bed, holding the side of her face and crying uncontrollably!! The side with the ear infection was very swollen and she couldn’t close her jaw all the way!! I grabbed an ice pack and she called the PA she’d seen earlier and they called in an antibiotic… later her regular meds (including Oxy and Morphine) had kicked in and she seemed more like herself… it happened again overnight and, as before, the ice pack seemed to help…

She was much better today and caught up on some sleep and by supper she seemed pretty normal though she was probably a little high from all the meds… 

July 10th… Julie’s ear still hurts but is getting much better and the pain in her jaw seems to be lessening judging by her appetite… I spent much of the afternoon after I got home from work mostly watching the radar and storm chasers as our area was under a tornado WARNING for the entire day into the evening…

I stumbled on a YouTuber’s page called Max Velocity a couple days ago and watched for a while after hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas / Louisiana and into Arkansas… he has radar and storm chaser feeds and I was fascinated… tonight he was covering my neck of the woods as what was left of Beryl wreaked havoc in a line from Cleveland northeast along the NY state border into Canada leaving some major devastation near Buffalo… as the day went on, the warm front line moved closer and closer to us and so did the tornado watches as the front rotation of the original storm touched off violent weather throughout NY, Pennsylvania and parts of Vermont…

As the sun was going down the atmosphere seemed to settle down a little but I was staying up to keep an eye on things in case we did need to leave as our house has no basement… I kept checking the radar app on my phone… the dogs needed to go out and there was a lull in the storms so the timing was right… Julie said it was breezy and muggy out… TONS of lightning but strangely no thunder… we headed for bed but I kept my phone with me… there were two storms I had my eyes on… one had already dropped a brief tornado near Cortland and the other was only 10-15 miles to our north and had triggered a tornado WATCH due to evident rotation… thankfully both fizzled out and I was able to put the phone on charge in the office and actually climb into bed… the weather has been crazy – nothing like I would call ‘normal’ for a couple years now at least… I hope this isn’t the new norm… we always thought the surrounding mountains would protect us from these types of things but – this year especially – it seems like we never get just rain… it’s almost always accompanied by high winds and lightning, etc…

July 16th… Just when you think things are starting to turn around…

We had a hard storm go through yesterday early evening that dropped a good-sized branch across part of the road about 100 feet up the road from us… I checked with the neighbors and they were OK… the husband was out to make sure no one flew down the street and plowed into it because it would have done some serious damage… but today was another story…

I left work early to get Mom to a cardiology appointment… the sun was out and skies were mostly clear so when she finished, we hit Walmart and grabbed an early supper… there were severe storm warnings with the potential for tornados again… I could see a small line of storms coming across on my radar app… a particularly nasty one was hitting Ithaca where my friend Bill’s daughter had just moved… as it headed east, tornado watches kept popping up in front of it and it was heading in our direction but these things usually lose steam as they get closer… not today!!

It was very strange… as I watched it get closer on radar, the skies were still bright and there wasn’t even a hint of a breeze… that would change in a hurry…

Julie was getting more and more anxious and talked about leaving… I told her if she wanted to go, she needed to try to coax the cat out and find something to carry him in because she wasn’t leaving without him… it started raining a little… the A LOT… then there was a dull thump and I looked out our back window… I could barely make out through the horizontal rain but was pretty sure one of our sheds just got hit… with that she found the cat and I ran out the front door into the torrential rain and constant lightning to get the van and back it around to the back door where Julie, the dogs and the bag-o-cat only had to come down a few steps and get in the van… there were lines down to the north and a lot of road debree to navigate but we made our way to a nearby school to wait out the storm in the open…

Within minutes of our arrival it turned to a gentle rain and we could see the mountains behind our house… we waited a few more minutes as a parade of fire trucks went by… Julie called our neighbor across the street who was excited and a little shook up but they were fine… she said she looked out her front window and everything in her yard was in the air blowing in a circle!! They and their house were fine… we hesitated to ask but were relieved to hear her say that, from what she could see our house was still standing…

When we returned home, I had Julie wait in the van with the pets while I checked the house which appeared to be untouched… the sun was peaking through and we walked around to check the damage after putting the dogs and cat back in the house…

I could see 2 separate areas of our fence were crushed down the side and would later learn that much of the back section was also down… our blue wooden shed was obliterated!! This contained some of my older drum gear but most of our memorabilia from when Selena was growing up among other things… it’s going to be a lot of cleanup and I already am anticipating getting screwed by the insurance company adjust as we did back when the hurricane came through but we’re all OK, the house is still standing and, somehow, we still have power (days later many would still be without).

Here are some picture… in the last one you can see where a tree got twisted by the rotation while being snapped…

July 20th… this afternoon a representative from our favorite tree company – A-1 Tree Service – met me to walk the grounds, assess the damage and give us a quote which came to about what I’d anticipated though I’m afraid there may be a couple more that will need to go before they’re done…

If you recall (back when hurricane Irene(?) blew through this area), a sudden downdraft – A WEEK BEFORE the hurricane hit – dropped part of a tree through our roof… that adjuster was impossible to get a response from and, after assessing the damage, kept repeating how busy he was going to be after the hurricane came through which was why we were trying to get him moving on our claim so we could get the big hole in our roof patched among other things… he was totally useless and uninterested in helping at all and I ended up borrowing money from friends to get the roof fixed and bring in a tree company… that’s when I first met A-1 Tree Services… unlike the other tree companies who just wanted to charge us a flat $1000 / tree, Martin (a New Zealand / Australia transplant) examined the situation and quoted each tree individually and priced them what I considered extremely fairly… AND, with the hurricane only a few days away, offered to have his crew stop on the way to another job and remove what was left of the tree that came through the roof to take away any threat of that coming down on the house in the hurricane… at that point the total job was theirs!!

That adjuster?? After the hurricane hit, several more trees came down – destroying some odds and ends like a trampoline in the back yard but thankfully missed the house… we left messages for the adjuster but received no response and ended up calling his supervisors and ultimately having a friend in the company do the same in order to get any response from him… he gave us $100 for ‘trees on the ground’ towards the $7500 bill… my golf clubs were in the closet where the first tree came down and were destroyed for which I received $10 (yes – TEN)… I haven’t golfed since… they did cover a good chunk of the roof repair but most of the money came out of my pocket…

Later in the afternoon, the insurance adjuster arrived… I held my breath until I learned his name… I’m still with Preferred Mutual but thankfully, they’re using different adjusters… Mr. William Howard arrived right on time… a very nice 20 something who looked fresh out of high school… 🙂 iPad in hand, he spent 20-30 minutes walking the property with me – all the time making notes and taking pictures… he explained about non-living structures (the sheds and fence) and was thankful nothing hit the house and we were all OK… I told him we couldn’t remember much of what was in the shed but believed the vast majority of items, other than some old drums and hardware of mine, was memorabilia from Selena’s childhood and understood that there was no monetary value for the large sentimental value we placed on it.

When he finished, I was very relieved as he had explained everything in detail and said we’d hear from them the following week… very different from our last adjuster encounter…

July 21st… Selena and her fiancé Mike along with his younger brothers (9 and 12) came over to help me try to get anywhere near what’s left of the blue shed and try to clean up some of the limbs and branches that had spilled out on to our neighbor’s manicured lawn… Mike had borrowed a ‘real’ chainsaw for use on the large fallen trees blocking the shed while I had my small battery operated one (I call it my ‘Fischer Price My First Chainsaw’) for the smaller branches around the fence… I would cut and the boys and Selena would pile them along the fence that was still standing… but Selena was itching to use EITHER chainsaw so I let her cut and I started dragging limbs with the boys… then we raked their lawn as best we could… after over 3 hours we were all soaked with sweat and sticky with Pine sap… we had made a could dent in the damage which the neighbors appreciated and I was satisfied with the effort we’d all had made given the amount of damage… time to get the ribs off the grill, throw on some dogs and have a well-deserved late lunch.

Later in the afternoon, I wanted to try to mow the front at least but my mower wasn’t having it… I pulled until my shoulders ached and I could barely stand… of course none of the local stores had the spark plug needed in stock so hit Amazon and found the plug with a new air filter for $12!!

July 23rd… the adjuster calls and I’m holding my breath again… the non-living structural damage – that’s the sheds and fence have reached the policy max of $8000 which is what they’re sending me… that’s very nice but I have to replace a lot of fence, two sheds AND pay for the leftover shed parts and damaged property removal… I’ve already made plans to borrow from my retirement as I did when I had to come up with $16000 out of pocket for my oral surgery that my job’s insurance didn’t cover so I should be able to make it work… I asked him about the trees and almost feinted when he told me that’s separate and they were covering the full amount of the quote – another $8000+ so I’d be receiving a check for about $16000 less my $250 deductible!! WHEW!!!! What a difference an adjuster makes!!!

July 24th… my spark plug, filter and game arrived so I set out to mow once more but nothing it seems is ever easy at this point… 5 minutes to find my spark plug head and 5 more to find the socket wrench that fit it… i get it and the filter changed and it still won’t start… I had just returned from dropping stuff off to my brother and told him what happened and he too has an old Troy Built lawnmower that wouldn’t start… he thought it might be plugged underneath, flipped it on its side, found nothing, flopped it back down and it started right up… it was worth a try… I turned mine on its side for a minute, laid it back down and it took right off!! 🙂 Now I just had to muscle my way through what’s become thick grass that apparently love the downpours, high humidity and dog urine…

August… to heck with going smaller – I love my kit the way it is!! I love the added ‘colors’ in my tom and cymbal ‘palettes’ and, to be honest, scaling down would only save me maybe 15 minutes tops… that said, I’ve spent the better part of July tweaking tom angles and overall heights on everything… and repositioning my upper 3 toms to ensure adequate space for my single leg hi-hat with 14″ Zildjian Brilliant Quick Beats between my 8″ tom and the rack stand WITHOUT having to use the 2″ wooden block I’ve been using to get it above the tom so it would fit without hitting either… I was very comfortable on my kit before but having the space and time to tweak, test, rinse and repeat has been wonderful… I can’t wait to try it live again… 🙂

August 7th… our 20th anniversary is a week away… I got Julie (and Selena) tickets she desperately wanted for New Kids On the Block and Paula Abdul at SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center)… New Kids was the first group she was allowed to listen to on her own when her grandmother was raising her so they’re special to her… and today a box came the she and Selena ordered for me containing?? You guessed it – mail-order Chinese food!! OK – it had board games in it… 🙂

August 10th… The insurance checks arrived today… one for $8000 and the other?? $950… after a couple calls to our adjuster that weren’t returned, I called the in-house adjuster handling the claim and was told that he didn’t understand why the adjust that visited us would tell me the company had agreed to cover the tree cleanup since my policy maxes out at $500 for trees… yep – screwed again!! If anyone had told me that was the case after the hurricane I’d have cranked that part of the policy for sure… guess that’s stuff they don’t want us to know… with that I borrowed $7500 from my NYS retirement (I wasn’t ready to retire anyway) to go with the $500 to cover A-1’s bill… I thought I just had an adjuster who was being a dick (well, he was) giving us only $100 towards tree cleanup… after seeing my mangled golf clubs where the tree came through the roof of our bedroom and closet, he gave me $10 for clubs in the claim… he also refused to remove the water damaged carpet and we’ve been dealing with black mold ever since… but life goes on…

August 25th… A-1 Tree Service arrived yesterday afternoon (Thursday – August 24th) to begin cleaning up after the unconfirmed tornado ripped through back in early July… after walking the grounds with the owner Martin (who I really like and has earned my trust), we talked about a tall pine that was leaning that was a concern to us… he pointed out a large, tall totally dead one – with no bark at all from bottom to top – about 20 feet to the right of that and said taking those two would leave this other lone tall ‘top-heavy’ pine in the middle with its only growth at the very top exposed and it would catch wind like a sail… after some thought, he said he’d have them take all three of them for $600 each because they would already be there anyway… if I wanted to make it an even $2000 they’d clean out some other small clusters of trees too… it was a no-brainer for me and I agreed…

They would return first thing this morning (the 25th) and pickup where they had left off… they had a small skid steer(?) which would make it’s way to our back yard, grab a giant tree trunk, carry it back then swing and feed it into the chipper in our driveway!! It was impressive too watch and the driver handled it like a magician… 🙂 I ran to the bank and emptied our savings to pay for the added tree removal…

Our neighbor out back didn’t want them bringing their large crane on his property so the A-1 crew had to maneuver it through the narrow opening between the fence and our house to get it in the back yard where it needed to be AND avoid getting near our buried septic system the other end of the house… they made it look easy… another masterful job!! A few days prior, it had taken Julie, Selena and I a few hours to move and clear Julie’s vegetable garden and all her raised beds to open the path to make it possible for them to get back there… we weren’t sure it was enough so seeing it back there was a relief…

The A-1 team worked all day with only a break for lunch… I brought water bottles out in the morning then, when it got hot in the afternoon, ran the hose out for any that needed a cool down and made a walkthrough with a cooler full of ice and sodas… 🙂

August 26th… A-1 would come back this morning (on a Sunday) to finish and clean up… in only a couple hours, they were gone and everything was cleaned up so we could move on to getting our fence repaired. It was another amazing job and worth every penny!!

The total bill was a little more than $10000 – all but $500 of that was out-of-pocket… but now there are only a couple trees left and they’re far enough back that they shouldn’t pose a threat… to the house anyway… the phrase ‘famous last words’ comes to mind but time will tell…

Here are some pictures of the project… the first few are from when they started with what was on the ground – using a skid-steer(?) to grab the large chunks, carry them to the chipper, swing around and feed them in which was pretty impressive!!

Then they moved the crane into the back yard to get the ‘sticks’ – what they call what was left of the trees that had snapped 30-50 feet up – and the others that were still standing – even salvaging some nice logs they could turn over… you can see Martin (the owner) loading the log truck…

Then there are some shots of everything all cleaned up… what a crew!!

Mid-August… I’m struggling to get my left hand back in shape but it’s coming along… I’ve actually gone so far as to run mics to my 8 track recorder and setup my GoPro and do some recording… if I end up with anything shareworthy after all the mixing and editing I’ll be sure to share it here in the months ahead… it feels good to be playing anyway…

I’ve (finally) had a couple calls for fill-in dates but already had commitments and had to turn them down though it was good to know someone knows I’m still alive… 🙂

A few nights ago I ran into a couple of old bandmates… I noticed in a recent band picture that some of the guys I felt were responsible for driving me out were now also gone (I was fired via email only minutes before I could send my email announcing my intention of leaving)… guess I wasn’t the problem after all… 🙂

August 31st… Mr. Stanton from Stanton Fence was working in the area and wanted to swing by to make sure he would have enough sections now that the trees were gone and he could see everything… to mu eye, I thought he’d need another 4 or 5 panels for the job but he was spot on with his original proposal – counting the sections by looking at the posts (why didn’t I think of that?)… he and his crew will be here the 6th or 9th to get our fence back in order… currently the fence goes to the back down our right property line – stopping 4-50 feet short of where the corner SHOULD be (because I was nice to a previous family that lived in the house), goes back to the left corner where it should be then only comes back up the left side 2 panels because the company that put the original fence in never came back to finish the job… next year, my plan is to ask Stanton Fence to finish the left side and bring it in to the back corner of the house and do the same with the other side – adding a gate… that would give us a completely enclosed back yard that we and the dogs would all appreciate… 🙂

September 8th… Mr. Stanton and his crew arrived this morning to repair / replace 10+ sections of fence damaged by the spinning-wind-that-wasn’t-a-tornado back in July… I left work early but they were done around lunch time and long gone before I could get there… it looks fantastic!! I’m hoping I have recovered financially from the tree repairs and all so I can have them back to finish the other side (where the original company never returned) with the goal of closing in the back yard for the dogs… 🙂

Here are a few pictures…

October 1st… only three calls for gigs this year… I was already booked for the first two – then BOTH got cancelled (weather was miserable for outside gigs this year) and was going to be out of town and had to turn down the third… as it stands right now, this could be the first year in 49 years that I haven’t played a single gig… the only thing that could potentially change that is the alumni drumline reuniting for the South Glens Falls Holiday Parade next month… fingers crossed… 🙂

Whatever the reason, it sucks!! I’m really missing playing and hoping things might turn around in 2025… I’m still editing and mixing a handful of videos I recorded over the summer and hope to have them online soon.

October 30th… sadly, Julie’s baby brother (27) is in PA and has been battling brain cancer and has taken a turn for the worse… Julie, Selena and Mike ran down Saturday evening and came back late Sunday but Julie is a wreck… Monday night she got a Facetime call and they had him outside and he was doing pretty well but then they told her that the doctors are recommending Hospice…

November 5th… It’s been a rough few weeks with Selena landing in the ER on the edge of anaphylactic shock due to her allergies… she now carries an Epi pen… Julie’s ortho doctors telling her she needs both knees replaced… but the saddest news was Julie’s baby brother Tim passed away about 1:20 this morning after a long battle with brain cancer… his wife Alana has been nothing short of amazing through the whole ordeal.

Musically, it appears that I am going to complete the year without a single paid gig… this hasn’t happened since I was 14… I’ve been keeping my eyes and ears open but am being very slow and deliberate about who I contact… I know what I’d prefer – I just have to find it… 🙂