HHN, my Dad, Household Annoyances & Some Happier Stuff

I am pretty far behind in my blogging. As you can possibly tell from the title, lots has been happening here. I am going to a summary style because I don't really feel like writing, but I also don't want to fall further behind. So, in rough chronological order:

Kara and I have season passes for Halloween Horror Nights. So far, we have gone three times. The passes are only good for the first three weeks of September, so we are trying to get in as many visits as we can. We went on opening night and got drenched. It was an insane rain storm and we were stuck right in the middle of it. We went another day and stayed until past the 2 am closing, doing ten houses in a single night. The third time, Anna came with us. She was nervous, but wanted to try. She ended up doing 6 of the 10 houses and would have done more except we were all tired. She was surprised to discover she liked it. We had to go on a school night because I needed to take my dad to the doctor on our originally planned day.

Opening night monsoon! Kara and her friend, Shannon.

A mother-daughter tradition.

With both my girls :)

My dad had a procedure done a few weeks ago for a bladder/prostate issue. I don't want to invade his privacy by writing about his issues, but I will say that I had never heard of post-operative cognitive decline for older people who undergo anesthesia. However, it is a very real, and very common, problem. It can take up to 3-months to resolve and according to at least one study, may never resolve in about 10% of the population who experience it. Anyway, I took the day off on Friday and took him to the doctor. It is really hard to see parents get older and especially hard with the recent surgery after-effects. But, I am glad that I am (relatively) close by and can help.

While I am writing about bad news, we had to replace our water heater. We could have fixed it, but it was 19 years old so we knew we were on borrowed time. They told us eventually it would go out and probably create a flood in the garage. So, we spent way too much (about 3x what I expected) and had them replace it that day. Then, guess what happened? It created a leak and a flood in the garage. The installers fixed the leak, but claimed no responsibility for the water damage or the hole they had to cut in the drywall. Essentially, the installer connected an old pipe from the wall to a new pipe attached to the water heater. It was a concave connection and that is where the leak was. They said it was the fault of the old pipe. So, they fixed it by replacing the old pipe, but basically said they were doing us a favor. It makes no sense, but we are probably going to let it go. At the same time, we had an unrelated issue with our air conditioner. I think it is all resolved now, but I can't believe how many issues this house has! It feels never-ending. If I ever buy again, I want new construction.

In good news, Luke had his first tournament with the Vipers, which consists of most of the players from the Leones. They won the tournament for their bracket, which was a nice way to start the season.

The kids are now about four weeks into school and it is going well. Luke really likes his teachers and is enjoying 4th grade. He is working on reading the Sunshine State books and has read 7/15. Band is in full swing for Jack. He likes it better this year and has made some good friends, two of whom live in the neighborhood. One of them lives just down the street and we have been carpooling to all the band stuff, which has been amazing for everyone involved. As mentioned, Kara and I have been frequenting HHN. Anna is still skating part time in Lakeland and part time in Kissimmee. Her next competition is less than 5 weeks away! So, as always, we are busy, but (mostly) happy. 

Two final pictures:

Running the bases at a Flying Tigers game.

A fun night at Islands of Adventure