it's always something ~ but you gotta find the humor

Hard to believe that in my last post (May 21st), I said I had to turn the heat on. A few days ago, the weather slammed us with temps in the 90's. The humidity wasn't bad, so I actually enjoyed time outdoors in the morning, planting more flowers and cleaning the patio. The heat really pushed more plants into blooming, including the Columbine (the plants climbing the trellis)...

One day my peonies were mere buds...

and the next day they were full blooms! So amazing. This peony bush was just a little stick of a plant last year when my mom gave it to me, so I was thrilled that it's thriving and producing blooms this year.

Same with the clematis ~ one day just buds all over and the next day, tons of blooms. Both the clematis and peony bush are right outside my bedroom window, so when I opened my blinds in the morning, I was greeted by the sight of both these beauties. I had to do a double-take because I couldn't believe this could happen overnight.

Brian worked a long weekend, but had Monday off for Memorial Day. We decided to grill burgers and pork tenderloin for dinner. I was inside the house, prepping the side dishes and getting the condiments for the burgers set out. All of a sudden, there was a knock on the kitchen door, which is the side door on our house. I figured it was our next door neighbor. I opened the door, and there was Brian on his hands and knees! I yelled, "What happened?!" All I heard was something about bees, so I assumed he got stung. He said, "No, I ran from them! I have a bad Charley Horse in my leg!" I told him to walk it out and instead he sat down and was massaging his calf muscle. He got up and tried to walk and couldn't.

 We then knew it was more than just a Charley Horse. We ate dinner, I cleaned up, then went to a friend's house to borrow her crutches. The next morning, we went out to breakfast at the local greasy spoon, then it was on to the doctor. Brian has a pulled calf muscle - that much we had figured out. But it could be a tear. He's doing all the right things - icing and elevating. Now he needs to see an orthopedist.

And then today I was out running errands in the pouring rain and came home to find this:

That's our soffit and gutter on the north side of the house! No one was home at the time, so we can only assume it was the heavy rain that caused this damage. My neighbor across the street came over when he got home from work to make sure we knew and that we were OK. And my next door neighbor (the Nice One) called me to check on us, too. We put a call in to our home owner's insurance company and the adjuster is supposed to call us back tomorrow. I'm actually not that upset about it - except for my beautiful Weigela bushes. I'm just glad it wasn't on the other side of the house. That's where the patio furniture is, as well as a lot of plants and flowers. And our Nasty Neighbor's fence.

The Nice Neighbor joked that I could park my car under the overhang. I told him, heck, I was going to leave the damage as is so that our house would match the Nasty Neighbor's house. Nice Neighbor then replied that at least it would detract attention from his Weed Garden in his front yard. (He hates yard work and gardening.) Ah...if you can't joke around and laugh in these situations, you'd cry. I'll take the laughter.