August was a weird month. Pneumonia, an earthquake, and a hurricane. Not going down as one of my favorite months of 2011 - but quite possibly, it could be the most memorable.
It started with a cough - and a pain in my back, which escalated to fever, chills, and the nagging feeling that I just might die. Being the Queen of Procrastination, I had not found (or, I confess, even looked for) a doctor in Pennsylvania, even though I have lived here for a year now. So, this put me in a terrible spot. I was forced to turn to Urgent Care. I am not sure what the current definition of "Urgent Care" is, but in my mind, it did not include waiting for 6 1/2 hours in a germ-infested waiting room with a fever of 103. This was the price of my procrastination, however, and I accepted it as gracefully as possible while promising God that if I ever got out of the waiting room alive, I would find a real doctor ASAP. Which I did. It took two weeks before I was able to go out the door without feeling like I might pass out.
Being the quintessential Southern woman, the first thing I did was to go to the hairdresser. I was already two weeks beyond my regular appointment, and the gray roots had reared their nasty little heads and were beginning to roar. As I was sitting quietly in the salon, waiting for my turn, the earth began to shake. My first thought was , "Boy, I am still really sick." I mean, who would have suspected an earthquake? In Pennsylvania? I was probably the only person who was actually relieved to find that it was indeed an earthquake - and not a relapse for me.
Then we trudged forward to experience Hurricane Irene. I dutifully filled the bathtub with water, found all the flashlights and checked the batteries, bought bottled water, even though I was certain we had little to worry about. Truly the only thing I thought would happen would be to lose Direct TV, since reception is precarious at best. The wind blew, the rains fell, the house creaked and groaned - and all was well....until it was all over. Then we lost power. Go figure.
My family does not know how to chew without the TV on, so three days of no power was beyond stressful. First of all, it is REALLY DARK out here in the country! I have heard the expression about not being able to see your hand in front of your face, but I had never experienced it before. I was glad that I had filled the tub with water, because that was the only way we could flush the toilet. Eventually, we started using water from the pool. It was all too much like camping for me - without the S'mores. I know that there were people who were without a lot longer than we were....I can't even imagine.
So I gladly greeted September, ready to get back into the swing of life. Of course, now we are experiencing rain, rain and more rain - and floods. But I don't mind. I'm not coughing, the earth is not shaking, and I am still marveling at the wonder of electricity. Maybe we all need a little shaking up from time to time to appreciate the little things. At least, I think I did.
