For that matter, I just realized that there isn’t much left of September, either.  While the afternoons have been sunny and warm lately, the signs of a quickly approaching Autumn are unmistakable.  The leaves are changing fast, with vibrant new colors appearing every day and the chill in the air each morning leaves little doubt that summer is now behind us.  I stepped out onto the front porch just a few minutes ago to snap this photo and noticed that it’s a mere 27 degrees outside.

If last year is any indication, we’ll soon be experiencing some incredible winds, some below zero temperatures, and probably a bit of snow…..  often, all at the same time.

For now, though, I’ll try to get everyone caught up on the past couple of months.

Travel and Visitors:  My mom decided that she wanted to move to Cripple Creek, too.  Part of it was a desire to be closer to us, and part of it, believe it or not, was to escape the harsh winters of Central Montana.  She found a really cute, brick house that was built in 1900, just up from the main street through town.  My son-in-law managed to find a few days between training excercises to make quick trip north, so we headed up to Montana,  loaded her apartment into a truck, put her car on the flatbed, and turned around and headed back.  She’s pretty well settled in now, and enjoys being close enough to walk to the casinos and restaurants in town.

My oldest daughter got tired of living in Southern California, so she and her family decided to move back to Washington (the state).  We were excited to have them stop by on their way north from Texas and spent a day showing them around the area.  The grandkids really seemed to enjoy going for rides on the quad and playing outside.  Hopefully, they’ll be able to come back soon and explore even more.  My youngest drove up this far with them, spent an extra night with us, and then flew home to Houston.  For those who might be wondering; yes….  Texas is on the way from California to Washington.  Sort of.  The image of a Second Lieutenant with a map and compass comes to mind, but we were glad to see them anyway.

I may have mentioned the local wildfires back in late June.  Cripple Creek had planned quite a fireworks show for the 4th, but they cancelled it due to the hazardous conditions in the area.  To our delight, they decided to put the show on a few weeks ago.  A little later than expected, but well worth the wait.  Casey and the grandkids came up for the night and we found a great spot on the top of our hill from which to watch.  It was perfect.  No crowds, perfect weather, and a great view.

Sandi took some time to go visit family in mid-August, and her sister and brother-in-law are here visiting us now.

  I’ve taken a few breaks from work, but with a steady flow of visitors, one of the jobs I’ve had to spend time on is the installation of doors.  For some reason, guests like the idea of having doors on bedrooms and bathrooms.  Mind you, the trim is still a work in progress, and they need to be painted yet, but they open and close just like they’re supposed to.  Some hosts put out fancy soaps and towels, we give them a door they can close.  Hey, we can be fancy, too!

Weather:  This years monsoon season brought quite a bit of rain, but nothing at all like the downpours we saw last summer.  It did, however, bring something new to us…..  hail!  We’ve seen the little stuff, but considered ourselves extremely lucky that the majority of the damage was over the hill from us, down in Colorado Springs.  The kids had damage to both of their vehicles from the first storm in June, but the storm that hit in August was even worse. 

They had additional damage to their cars, along with enough damage to their trailer (on the left, formerly our guest cottage) to have the insurance company total it.  Theirs was just one roof that had to be replaced, and driving around their neighborhood, it’s hard to find a skylight that isn’t covered with a tarp of some kind.  There were several animals killed at the zoo and a number of people went to local hospitals for injuries.

Both of our vehicles are in the shop now for dent repairs, and the shattered vents on our 5th wheel were easily replaced, so we still came out of it better than many, for which we’re grateful.

Surgery :  For 20+ years, I’ve lived with carpal tunnel in both hands.  It’s annoying, and at times, painful, but I never really bothered to look into having it fixed until recently.  Turns out, things were a bit worse than I first thought.  Sort of like this house….  seemingly small issues somehow turn into major repair projects.

Last Friday, I went in to have the left side done.  As a result, I’m sitting here with a finger-to-shoulder splint that limits my typing to just one hand.  Okay, so the truth is it’s just two fingers, but I do use my thumb for the space bar.  A skilled typist I’m not.

They did relieve the carpal tunnel by cutting in to my wrist, but they also cut in to my elbow to relieve some carpal tunnel there, too.  While they had me out, a quick incision in my palm should get rid of the annoying trigger finger that causes my middle finger to occasionally lock down.  Probably better than locking my middle finger up, though that’s a gesture I’m only vaguely familiar with and would almost never use.

As if that all wasn’t enough, the big project was fixing the arthritis in my thumb.  The doctor actually removed the small bone at the base of the thumb and replaced it with a prosthetic, then pulled some tendons from my wrist to secure it into place.

I’ve managed to wean myself off the pain meds already, and I should get the splint off and sutures out next week.  Then, I wait six to eight weeks for it to heal sufficiently that we can schedule a similar procedure (without the elbow) for the right side.  I’m hoping that once we’re all done, the constant ache will go away and I won’t drop things so much.

In the meantime, progress on our remodel is going slow down a bit.  A little rest is nice, but I’m already incredibly bored.

Progress on the House:  To keep this post a reasonable length, and since I’m on a forced hiatus, I’ll save some of the work updates for another post.  We have carpet in the bedroom, blinds up on some of the windows, and our fireplace got a pretty substantial makeover.  Photos to follow.