STORMY WEATHER REFLECTIONS

Only once, in all of our holiday travels, have I been scared. 

We had arrived in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico, and in the middle of our first night and for the entire second day, an unexpected storm causing a flash flood ensued. We were hunkered down in our room, completely blindsided and pretty much gobsmacked at what was swirling around us.

By the time the sun rose, the pools at our large resort were overflowing, the roads in and out of the 1000+ room hotel were washed out. We were officially stranded.

This, in a lot of ways, is how both my travel buddy hubby and I have felt the last five weeks since his accident. And what we did then, is what we are doing now. 

Grabbing on for dear life, keeping the other safe, inserting a ton of humour into the situation; while exploring everything as much as we possibly can.

Rhondi Rule #506: When caught in stormy weather
... Just go with it!

Top Photo: The night before the storm hit
TAKEN: November 27th, 2019

Lower Photo: Just hubby and me on the beach !!
(Mid afternoon during the storm)
TAKEN: NOVEMBER 28th, 2019

My personal struggle in both situations, is that I have an extreme fear of the unknown. As a result, I am not sleeping as I should because my mind simply won't shut off. To compound things, I work from home, and my husband is housebound here as well. 

The truth of the matter is that we are both going stir crazy. Only being able to access two of our three floors, our living quarters are close. So, today on my lunch break, we began watching travel videos on YouTube. Not because there will be any travel in our future but because we are of the mindset that we will never say never.

On a more comical positive front, this morning we both laughed a hearty belly laugh as I cracked my first joke with regards to our situation at hand. I know we will be A-OK, because he also laughed then commented...

'Here we go', he said.  She's already starting with the stroke jokes!!'

#yagottalaughaboutit

BORINGLY NORMAL NO LONGER

As the saying goes, life as we know it can change in a heartbeat. And in the last month, my travel buddy hubby and I are living proof that one day life can be boringly normal and in a nanosecond, it can be anything but.

Nothing prepares you for a life altering change. At one moment, my husband was kissing me goodbye on an early morning. 

Then, before we knew it, we were waiting for confirmation when he would be air lifted to St. Michael’s Hospital trauma unit. 

He moved, and once he arrived, he had emergency surgery to stop the internal bleeding, and by 1am the following morn, we knew the left leg would be saved and we were ready to boldly face the next hurdle. 

With his severely irregular heart arrhythmia challenges and no ability to administer those drugs with the brain bleeding still on the table; the worst fear was he’d have a stroke

Sunday led to Monday, and good progress had us out of the trauma unit the following Thursday, with him moved into a room. 

We had been nine days in the trauma trenches and survived, when early morning call came the following morning.

“During the night (at approximately 3am on May 31st) Mr. Peacock suffered a stroke.” The stroke team neurologist shared. 

“A blood clot left his heart and travelled to his brain. His right side and speech have been affected,” she continued. Not even remotely prepared to hear the words, I went numb. Again, we were back together, with me witnessing he was both physically and mentally spent.

Just a little over a month since our 'boringly normal life changed', we couldn't help but reflect this morning on the fact that tonight we were to be at Soldier Field in Chicago with 70,000 other Kenny Chesney fans to enjoy his Sun Goes Down Tour.

Thought we aren't in Chicago, we decided to blow the doors off and tour the local grocery store circuit together. 

We did a solid double header (in reference to the fact that we had tickets for Wrigley Field yesterday). 

First up was Food Basics, then we opened the sunroof and cruised to the other side of town to hit Wal-Mart. Radio blaring, no pups to worry about, we were hitting our semi-normal stride.

Kenny vs. Recovery. 
Thumbs up says it all!
Left - (c) Kenny Chesney Instagram
Right - TAKEN: June 15th, 2024

Because I am listening to Kenny live on #noshoesnation on Sirius as I type, I am sharing where our seats would have been for the concert tonight with a yellow dot on the left. 

Impressive, but it is the photo on the right that truly makes my heart swell with joy, as he is officially out and about and ultimately on the right side of the soil.

That said, Lord knows if that sexy cart he was navigating today was a four-wheeler, he probably would have immediately rolled it in the produce section... taking out all of the organic tomatoes!

Too soon?

#yagottalaughaboutit