I have some updates to share, too. First, since I’m now more than halfway through the year in which I hoped to regain control of my abdominal muscles, I ‘m now forced to admit a partial defeat. I didn’t realize until after I stated my goal just exactly how badly my abs had lost their tone. Even now, 8 months later, I still can’t do a full set of 10 sit-ups. This does not mean I’m quitting, or resigned to look terrible forever. It just means that I’m now realizing that this will be a process that takes more than a year to resolve.

Second, I need to talk about our home improvements. Every year we try to use our tax refunds to do something to fix a problem in our home. One problem that has been on our minds for the 11 years we’ve lived here is water control in the basement. The sump pump has always managed to prevent any severe water build up, but whenever there is extreme weather outside (rain, thunder storms, etc.) it has to work around the clock for several days to accomplish that job. We’ve known about “French Drains” for a long time, and have been looking for someone to install one here, but none of the contractors we talked to would even come over to give us a quote. This past spring we found out about a company from Omaha, Nebraska, that does something similar to those drains – but it’s installed in the floor of the basement instead of putting it around the outside of the house. The company’s name is Thrasher. We called them for a quote, and got it very quickly. Then, thanks to Presidents Trump and Biden (financial stimulus checks), we were able to put together the funds to get the system installed THIS YEAR!. It’s done, and the big take-away is that since the installation, our basement floor has been completely dry!

Finally – last Monday (July 26th) was the 21st Anniversary of my wife and I getting married. Thanks for putting up with me all of these years, honey!