Summer is definitely here, and June has been an absolute scorcher. The heat here in Louisiana has been unbearable. Within seconds of stepping outside, I am drenched in sweat. So, I’ve been staying inside with my books and my pets with the AC and fans blasting. My rare ventures outside have been dominated by doctor’s appointments, CT scans, and bloodwork. Luckily, all of the tests have come back relatively normal, which means no new cancer. Yay for continued remission! Reading, doctor’s visits, and housework have dominated my June, along with anxiously waiting to see where my wife ends up getting a new job. Without further ado, here is my monthly wrap-up for June 2024!

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I’m so glad that May is finally over. I’ve been in a funky mood and have had some things going on that have been eating up time that I’d rather spend on reading or blogging. I had a few doctor appointments and needed to have a colonoscopy done for the first time. It was definitely not the most pleasant of experiences. Luckily, they found nothing serious, which means I get to have even more tests to investigate potential causes of my symptoms. Yay! /s I am grateful for the thoroughness, though. It is honestly strange how differently I’m treated now that I’ve had a rare cancer. Every single symptom is investigated with multiple tests to make sure there’s not some other weird thing going on. I feel so special. lol.

My wife has continued her job search, and everything just feels like it is in limbo. We will likely be moving somewhere new before the end of the year, but I have no idea where we’ll be yet. It has me on edge, and I’m just ready to know what’s going to happen so I can start planning. On the bright side, I found out IKEA finally delivers to our home, which means I could purchase some bookshelves I’ve wanted from there for a long time. I spent a week building them and still need to work on getting the base boards re-installed. I actually have extra space on my shelves for the first time in forever. I’m sure it won’t last long. 🙂

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April felt like a bit of a slog despite also seeming to fly by. It has rained SO MUCH. There were some points where I wondered if it would ever stop raining. lol. Everything is so saturated, and now May is off to a wet start, too. On the bright side, I haven’t needed to use my sprinklers. So, I guess it isn’t all bad. My wife has been looking for a new job, and it seems like we will probably be moving in the near future. I’m actually quite excited at the prospect of being somewhere new, but I dread needing to move all our stuff, especially the mountain of books I’ve acquired. Has this stopped me from buying more books? No. 🤣 Speaking of books, let’s get to the point of this post and jump into what I managed to read in April!

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I’m not really sure what happened to the month of March. It just flew by! The weather was finally not horrible, and I managed to get some landscaping work done. I pulled weeds and planted some new rose bushes. I also had lots to do around the house, including getting some new faucets installed and making sure our air conditioner is ready for the brutal summer ahead. I also had a couple of medical follow-up appointments that all went fine. All in all, it was a pretty productive month. Most importantly, I read a bunch of books… So, let’s jump into talking about them.

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February is always pretty busy for me because everyone in my family, including me, has a birthday during the month. So, I spent a lot of time at birthday celebrations and baking cakes. It was a pretty great month and seemed to fly by.

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The start of another year has come and gone. January was a bit of wild month, with deep freezes that lasted for days and rainstorms that seemed to never end. Seriously, it rained every day for a week straight. I thought I’d never see sunshine again. lol. We survived the weather without any damage, though, and I’m grateful to have avoided burst pipes, which so many in my area experienced. In general, it was a pretty good month despite the weather, and I managed to get quite a bit of reading done, mostly because I never wanted to go outside. 🙂

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I’ve been in a mood for the last month and a half or so, and it left me with no motivation for blogging. So, October’s wrap-up never got finished, which means this long overdue post will include stuff from October and November. I’m not sure if the gloomier weather has soured my mood or if the meh feelings are just a result of a mild depressive episode. Whatever the cause, it has made it so much harder to get things done. I’m feeling a bit better now and had a great Thanksgiving holiday with my family. Hopefully, things will continue to improve since I have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas.

The only stuff I’ve wanted to do over the last couple of months was sleep and read, and I did plenty of both of them. I managed to read some great books, which is one of the only things keeping me sane and feeling somewhat productive. I’ll stop my moody rambling now and get to the good stuff, all the things I’ve read since September…

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September was a bit of a mess. I had quite a few doctor’s appointments, including my annual scans to check for cancer recurrence. I’m always anxious when it is time for the scans, but I was a little more nervous than usual because I’ve been experiencing some worsening shortness of breath for the last few months. They did some other tests, and it turns out that my remaining lung is just struggling with asthma. So, I’m on some new medicine and remain cancer free, which is great news.

The second half of the month was dominated by my wife’s contract negotiation with her employer, which was such a frustrating process. For a while, we thought she might not be working after the end of September, which would mean losing our health insurance. It was all annoying and somewhat worrying, but my diligent savings the last few years meant we’d be okay either way for quite a while. In the end, they couldn’t come to an agreement on terms to renew her contract, but she has a year to find something else before they eliminate her position, which is a much better outcome than we’d expected.

All this to say, the anxiety derailed my reading plans a bit. It was still a solid month, though. I just didn’t make as much progress on my remaining annual goals as I’d have liked.

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