Stormy/A Decision/Update on Painting Bathroom

We were awake at 3:30 am this morning as a massive and severe storm occurred. Having grown up in Ohio, thunderstorms do not frighten me. I find the sounds of thunder and rain soothing. Storms are great reading weather!

The thunder and lightning of this morning’s storm rolled one right after the other. I tried counting between flashes of lightning and never got past 2 seconds. It was one second or less between the flashes. The thunder was one long roll for at least thirty minutes. Joe had told me the windows were closed. I went to the window to get a closer look at the rain and the lightning. The windows were open! Fortunately, the roof overhang  kept the rain out of our room.

Joe and I had planned to go on a cruise at the end of August 2025. After considerable thought, we decided to cancel that plan. The primary reason is that since we moved into the house our spending plans have changed. We weighed the trip of a lifetime against paying for low-maintenance landscaping and for electrical improvements so Joe can have his dream home machine shop. The two combined will cost a bit more than the trip and will also improve the value of our home over time.

There were other factors that tipped the scale in favor of canceling the trip as well. One reason is that I am not sure how I will do on board a ship. My excursions on small boats have been fun. In 2003, On the Red Sea we were in a small boat to go snorkeling. I got seasick. Joe, Megan, and I enjoyed snorkeling and watching the dolphins frolic near our boat – it was only one afternoon though! Not eight to ten days! Another time, while pregnant with Megan, we went out on a houseboat for the day. We had to leave early when about two hours in I got sick. During my pregnancy certain smells meant instant vomiting. The houseboat and water had combinations of odors that had my head spinning and my stomach cramping. I have had a few incidents where I did not get sick on smaller boats, but the rides were less than a few hours each time. Joe and I  talked it over and decided we should try a small weekend cruise down the Mississippi to see how I fare before taking on a longer cruise.

One of the plus sides of the Alaska trip is that we have friends in Haines, Alaska and another friend near Vancouver where our cruise would end. The ship listed an excursion package we could purchase to Haines but the timing to get back to the ship would have been critical and left us little time to actually do more than say hi and bye. I wanted more time to see them! The friend in Vancouver had other commitments and we would have had to skip seeing them.

When we weighed the pros and cons, we decided it would be better to cancel the August 2025 cruise and see what pops up again in 2026. Meanwhile, we will consider a separate non-cruise trip to Haines and Vancouver. Maybe even drive! 

Megan is making progress on the half bath paint job. No painting, yet. Both Megan and Joe are adamant that they do not like wallpaper! Fortunately, we only have one other room in our home with wallpaper. One of the guest bedrooms has a wallpaper fishing border at midlevel on the wall. I told Joe someday I might like to redo that bedroom. For now, I am leaving it as is to find out if my brothers might appreciate it when they come to stay! Joe told me, “If anyone complains tell them where to find Sherwin Williams and to feel free to paint the room.” A little testy and he is not even doing our current job!