Meanwhile...

 Let's see....I hadn't written in this since Feb. 2021. I didn't even mention the huge winter storm we had, right after my mom had passed. If you live in Texas, you know.

We were lucky, in that we were only without electricity for about 22 hours but didn't have water for about four days. We existed on homemade cinnamon rolls and other snacks during that time. No, we hadn't properly prepared for this, but overall it wasn't that bad. Considering the fate of many others in the Austin area, I consider us fortunate. We burned a lot of firewood during the time our electricity was out and used water from our hot tub and a neighbor's pool to keep the "plumbing" going. By the Friday following the storm, we were able to get out a bit. We had the most delicious Popeye's chicken finger family buffet ever.

I still am not completely done with all the doings post my mom's passing but am closer. Without going into too many details, most paperwork is done. But that was an odd time, and I still haven't felt like I've properly grieved. One day. Or one year.

In other news, I took on some extra job duties at the ol' IRS for awhile, leading to way too much stress. That, coupled with the passing of a kidney stone, landed me in the hospital in early August, 2022, with high blood pressure. First hospital stay since a tonsillectomy at age six. I'm on high blood pressure meds now, but it looks like that's subsiding. Which leads me to...

I retired from the IRS at the end of 2022. I better post this before I let it sit for days.....again. More to come.