This year was the Midwest group of relatives' turn to host the Family Reunion.  After much discussion about all the events, my husband and I decided to redeposit my airline ticket and to stay home to try to get the re-pairs completed and to continue to water our property.

There are so many  issues at work here, it is hard to image them all happening at once!   Our irrigation pump had failed( which meant that we had no automatic irrigation for our property, hence me watering 7 hours a day!), the backup generator has failed, the attic fans had failed, the pressurized pump which is needed for the swimming pool decide to rip (I mean literally RIP into) into and that had to be ordered.

I made the phone call about the reunion which was not received well, however, everyone understood under the circumstances.  My relatives called in the "Half Reunion".  After all the "life of the party" wasn't there – ME! HA!

I can't say that that week here at the house has been restful.  No sooner had I put my guests on the plane than I began to feel severe cramping in my intestinal track.  I was in bed for three days and I tried to get up and out in the late evening to turn on the oscillating sprinklers and that was just about all I could manage.

I bit of toast and a couple of sips of water and I had to crawl into bed.

While I was having my root beer float; my spouse and his mom were arriving back home about 1 am local time and surgery was scheduled for 6 am that same morning.  A long 36 hours trip and now a 3 hour ride to the hospital and a day of waiting.  Talk about being fried!

My husband and his mom arrived just about 45 minutes before surgery and the tears flowed and my poor father in law had been laying there in traction with out pain meds (due to his age) for 5 days up to now.  He was relieved to see his wife and she was glad to have a strong intelligent son to lean on.

The surgery went well and now my father in law is bionic.  He had a titanium plate and 7 screws to hold that leg together put in.  After the surgery, everyone went home to crash and start again the long process of recuperation and recovery after a major surgery.

Mean while, back at the ranch – ha!- we had another set of cascading failures in our own infrastructure and the thermometer spiked upwards of 105 with a higher heat index and humidity.  I went in to fire fighting mode literally and became the water queen trying to  save several new tees which we had just planted and a patch of new sod which had just been laid prior to our company coming.

Now I have a very big place 13+ acres and it takes about 7 hours to water just the essentials.  Thank God we have a John Deere Gator with a 55 gallon water drum on the back.

SO for the next week that is all I have been doing is to water and try to keep our investment alive.

Our check book is a great deal lighter than it was one week ago.  Tickets purchased on the fly are just shy of ten grand!  We had to buy two of them!  It was as if a tornado blew through the house and out again and suddenly, there were too many groceries, too many missed reservations, tickets which would go unused and a very disappointed wife…after all today is my birthday!

So what would you do?

I had several choices I could have made;  1)  I could have been made, 2) I could have been puckered up and crying, 3) I could have put on a brave face and pretended that it really didn't matter to me, or 4) I could make my day special even if there wasn't the usual hoopla that occurs around my b-day.

I went to the store and bought all the ingredients for my favorite home made "German Chocolate Cake" and I made it for myself.

I went to the party store and I bought my favorite Mylar big sunshine balloon and attached it to my chair at the table.

I went to my annual birthday celebration which is to go to Dairy Queen and to have a big root beer float and savor every bite!

It was a great day!