I've changed the background to something bright and cheerful...

... because I'm sick and tired of winter now. I'm fed up of being cold and I'm bored of grey skies and dreadful weather! Roll on spring, I say (and I don't like warmer weather in the main, but I'm a bit disheartened with it being so bleak and miserable all the time).

I quite like tulips, they aren't my favourite flower, but I love the myriad colours they come in and they certainly do have a knack of cheering up dullness.

I've finally got the results from the doctor. Turns out I have a severe vitamin D deficiency. I'm now on a super strength supplement tablet (which is vile, by the way... note to companies making these things - if a tablet has to be either sucked or chewed you could at least make it taste pleasant... is that too much to ask?) I've only taken two so far as they are one a day, so I haven't noticed any change yet as it's too early. I just hope that they work... I don't know what happens if I still feel like crap in a few months time. What if the vit D thing is just something they found and not the cause of the aches and pains I'm suffering from? I guess I shall have to cross that bridge if I ever come to it.

I wish that sciatica was as quick to abate as it is to arrive... it can take seconds for it to appear and you're in agony for days/weeks until it decides to pack it's painful bags and sod off again! Mine seems to have come to stay for longer than the weekend, though. I hope it's not going to be visiting for much longer... I've been in bed for two days and already I feel like I'm going mad lol. Unlike last time it is mainly in my left leg so sitting isn't too bad, it's walking and bending that leaves me gasping for air. As I can sit down I've been trying to get some writing done.

I like writing, when I'm in the mood (which isn't very often as my concentration span is minute at the moment... pain does that to me) - but I found a book I started writing almost two years ago. It's set in London during the Blitz and it follows the life and struggles of a young woman called Tilly. I'm thinking of making her under twenty, that way she won't be conscripted into war work and I can develop her character more fully. Of course she'll volunteer for something, probably the WVS as I have first hand diary accounts of that branch of the voluntary services I can draw information from. I had only written a basic 'chapter one' before I put it down the first time (yeah, I'm easily distracted!)
  I'm unsure as to how long the piece should be, a full novel, novella or short story? I'm leaning towards novella and see how I go... it can be edited down or padded out to become either of the others if I find the story grows or I run out of ideas hahaha. I like to keep my options open.
  Normally I write poetry... mostly short and they have to rhyme. I don't like poetry that doesn't rhyme, it makes no sense to me, it doesn't 'flow'. I'm not a natural novelist, and I envy those people that seem to have hundreds of pages of stuff floating about in their brains. Part of my problem is that I'm impatient to get it all written down... so many times I have good things in my head and by the time I come to write them down they have disappeared, never to return! So frustrating to me, and I begin to lose heart, and interest, so I just stop. I also struggle in being descriptive, of conveying the pictures I have in my head down for others to read about and absorb.
  Apart from poems I have only ever completed one novella, in my life. A murder mystery, all written in long hand, and probably not very good... but at least I can say I have written one book lol.

Anyway, it's late and my painkillers are starting to work so I should try and sleep. I've had a bad few nights as I just get comfy and something spasms in my back or legs and I wake up again. Not helpful, not at all *sigh*

Picked up the new car yesterday...

... and as much as it's nice, I still preferred the old one. Maybe because I'd become used to it, I knew how to park it and the width, for barriers and just general driving.

I'm not a fan of change anyway, so having change forced upon me never works well.

I should stress that the car is for my Dad... because of his disabilities he qualifies for a new car every three years under the Motobility Scheme (which is all about giving people with disability more opportunity to get out and about).

I've just had to go out and move it because of the atrocious weather outside... it's pouring with rain, the wind is gale force and it's tossing large wheelie bins about like a child throws toy bricks! The small bin belonging to "her next door" has blown over twice, and when Mum looked out of her window it was being blown straight for the new car!! Despite putting it back it happened again... so she came and told me and I moved the new Betsy (all cars are called Betsy lol) to a more secluded part of the road (a small parking section referred to as 'the pan' because it is shaped like a pan... it is also away from the main road, you can just make it out in the picture on the right behind the car). I was still in my pj's and didn't wait longer than it took to put on socks and shoes to move it.

Now I'm sat on my bed with cold knees as I'm wearing shorts. My socks are wet and I had to dry my shoes as well lol. My coat got drenched, and as it's an old wool coat you don't notice how wet you are until ten minutes after you take it off lol. I have a sort of lingering chill across my shoulders and I suspect my night shirt it damp as well.

At least I can't say my life is always uneventful hahaha. If nothing else the weather keeps me on my toes.

We are having lovely weather lately.

Perfect spring weather... it makes everything seem more positive somehow. It's warm, but not too hot (which is how I like it) and the sun is not so blinding as the summer sun can be. The clocks went forwards an hour last night, so that means that the nights will be lighter... which is great as it gives me more time to do things, like work in the garden or even get out with my camera, as the sun will go down after I finish work.

All in all, I love spring... especially seeing as we have had such a harsh and bitter winter.

We bought a new gazebo today... a pop-up one that we can take down if the weather turns nasty (and also at the end of the summer). Hopefully it will last longer than the normal ones we end up buying as we can store it away from the winter, and high winds, and not have to leave it up to fend for itself and just hope it makes it through to the spring without damage - because it is such a hassle to take down and put up (like we usually have to do).

The mind boggles sometimes!

I knew it would happen, it was just a question of when!

People are already saying crap about the "end times" and "the return of Jesus" just because of the earthquake in Japan! One person even managed to connect three separate events together because they all happened on the 11th of the month (not the same month, and years apart mind you, but "it's not a coincidence!").

The statistical odds of events happening on the same day of the month are at most 31 to 1... there being only a maximum of thirty one days in the longest months. The person failed to mention all of the other disasters that have not happened on the 11th... but only the ones that did! I failed to be impressed by this news... if all earthquakes and/or tsunamis happened only on the 11th of any month, I would start to worry, but to take three individual events and tie them together just because they share the date of the 11th is lunacy (and with the super Moon coming soon, the pun was intended!! LOL).

There are also those that believe that "Japan had it coming" and that "they deserved it for what they did at Pearl Harbour"... and yes, they are for real! That would be like my revelling in something happening to present day Germany for what happened in The Blitz! How damn cruel are people?!

The only thing I will say is that to me it seemed worse for Haiti. Unlike Japan, Haiti is a very poor, third world country and they have had to rely on the rest of the world for help as they were powerless to do anything for themselves... Japan is a first world country and can do as much to help itself as the rest of the world can help it. They have machines and technology that Haiti could never even dream of... but I still wouldn't deny them help just because we were enemies 70 years ago or because they are considered a rich country! I can kind of understand old people thinking like that... for them it was personal and although it was a long time ago some wounds never heal, no matter the time-scale involved - but to be glad over thousands of innocent men, women and children dying and losing everything they possess... who are the inhuman ones there?

Just having to read rubbish like that makes me so tired... sometimes it even makes me embarrassed to be human and share a species with such total arseholes!

Yay!

Sissy and Pingu are away from the house until tomorrow afternoon! I know I shouldn't feel like doing the happy dance, but I do. The house feels so much lighter when they are gone (or should that be when he is gone).

At the moment he has a chest infection and a cough that always has him bringing stuff up from his lungs when he finishes. I know he can't help it, but just hearing him bringing up phlegm makes me want to throw up! He did it when he came in early today and I had just made myself a ham sandwich - as I went to bite it he finished coughing... I thought I was going to heave and I couldn't even start my sandwich until he had left the house. Had I been eating when he had finished coughing I just know that I would have been physically sick!! I'm determined to not get another cold, so am using Vicks First Defence nasal spray... weird stuff (and a bit stinging if you inhale it too deeply, which of course I did on my first attempt). It's a thin gel stuff that you spray up your nose - it traps the cold virus, then renders it inactivate and you either blow your nose to get rid of it or sniff up and swallow it... sounds gross, but it works, and if it lessens the length of the cold (or better yet, stops it in its tracks as the box says it can do) it will be worth it.

The weather has taken a turn for the worst here... the temperature is plummeting and the sky is turning a leaden grey colour, which is bad. I heard on the news last week that the north of the country is going to have snow from today, and that is could spread south until we might get it nearer the weekend. My right wrist has been aching for two days (my left upper arm, too), always a sign of bad/cold weather... and I'm hoping that it is not an omen of weather to come!

Wow, that was some heavy rain we've just had!

So heavy in fact that it forced its way under our front door and needed lots of newspapers to mop it up! The sky turned an ominous charcoal grey and suddenly the sky opened and all of this water just appeared... even the cars on the motorway were forced to slow down (and seeing how mental a lot of the people that drive along it are, that's a miracle in itself, lol!)

It seems to have eased now, for which I'm glad... I don't think we'd have had enough old newspapers to have dealt with much more of it.

Mum got her new Blackberry today, so I'm having her old one... it's a lovely phone and I'm determined that Sissy is not going to destroy it, so I'm having it. I've got a small contract all set up, now all I need is for Mum to hand over her old one, LOL! I admit that I have missed the 8520 Curve BB that I had before xmas and I really missed being able to nip onto the net and look stuff up (normally I'd have to rely on this laptop and it's reaching closer and closer to reaching critical mass so having another option for keeping in touch with people is a nice back up in case this machine decides to give up the ghost completely when I least expect it).

Hopefully I'll also be able to better keep this site updated as I don't like doing so on my laptop, just in case "someone or other" starts poking their nose(s) in where they don't belong!

Sometimes thinking too hard is bad for me!

I've been reading some of the blogs I follow, and I wish that I had some of the interests that other people seem to have... and also the seeming ease they have in writing about entertaining things that they do. Their entries are full of such exciting things, about subjects that I know nothing about and I wonder just why anyone would be interested in reading the stuff I write about? Most of the time I'm moaning, and if I'm not then I'm angry about something that I really should not be angry about. Rarely do I update about the pagan things, the very things I want to write about, yet because of my lack of privacy at home now, I rarely get the chance to practice.

I do nothing of any substance, certainly nothing that would be worth writing about anyway. At the moment my life seems to be working with kids and then watching tv or reading, eating and sleeping and maybe playing some games at Facebook. Hardly exciting stuff, is it? I highly doubt that the BBC are going to be beating my door down asking me to make a documentary about that! I think that the most exciting things I did today were wash up the dishes after dinner and write a few xmas cards for neighbours... yeah, really front page news! LOL. I felt so tired that I didn't even get dressed, I stayed in my pj's.

I wonder if my not feeling too well is the reason for my present ennui? Or maybe it's the weather? We had more snow today and whilst I agree it does look beautiful, it caused chaos on the hill - eight buses were stuck and one of them scared the hell out of me as it slid into the kerb, right outside my house and then came to a stop... it was a double decker, too, so quite capable of destroying my house if it happened to slide too far and crash through the front room windows!

I seem to have a permanent headache at the moment, and my nose is also blocked (and no amount of Sinex spray seems to remedy that for long, sadly). My whole head feels like it wants to explode and I have a dreadful pain above my eyes... I wonder if it's my sinuses? They usually are the cause of most of my headaches, stupid skull cavities.

See what I mean, moaning... again! Maybe I should just accept that I am quite a misery-guts most of the time!

Hopefully when I have ten days off at xmas I may be able to get out and do some things that normally I can't do as I work five days a week. Just getting out and taking some pictures would be better than sitting on my bum doing diddley squat (which is my usual habit).

I suppose I should go to sleep, I only had five hours last night as I got to bed late (or rather, early!) and then I was woken for breakfast, which was lovely, but I wasn't expecting it or else I would have gone to bed earlier, lol.

Actually remembered to observe the two minutes silence today

Yes, I did! Makes a change as I normally forget (stupid woman!) Two minutes seems so long when there is total silence... I don't know how the Quakers manage having their Sunday meetings in silence, for an hour! Don't get me wrong, I love peace and quiet, but silence just allows my mind to wander, and then it starts to think of all of the things that I shouldn't be thinking of, and then I start to worry! Not good!

It's hard to believe that it's November already... where has the year gone? Maybe it was having no perceivable summer that has thrown me off track somewhere? I don't like summer, not at all, but somehow it seems like it never happened at all, and now we are back to having the dreary grey skies until March (as usual *sigh* )

I'm starting to feel differently regarding xmas... not excited, but not as "Bah! Humbug!" as I was before Bonfire Night. The fact that I get "10 WHOLE DAYS OFF!!" is making me look forward to it. I stop working xmas eve and don't start again until the new year! So wonderful, knowing that I'll not have to think about kids, the EYFS (four letters I have come to abhor!)... or planning, policies, procedures... and all the rest of the cobblers that go with it (I still have an Ofsted inspection to come, but I'll worry about that nearer the time, lol).

It's also pouring with rain, again... and Mum and Sissy have gone out with no umbrellas... oops.

It is pouring with rain here...

... such a lovely noise (though I'm glad I don't have to go out in it, lol)

Greg was meant to be going to Forest School today, but on seeing how vile the weather is we decided not to bother (he was happy about it and asked to watch Waybaloo, hehe).


My back is killing me... it's not been this bad for ages. I wonder if struggling with the large umbrella that used to be over our washing line is the cause. In order for it to cover the line and keep the clothes dry in the event of rain it has to be opened before threading it through the rotary washing line... which means it has to be lifted out open, too. I was attempting to do that the other day (when it was really windy) and this huge gust of wind caught the umbrella and pulled me backwards sharply, kind of twisting me at the same time... I thought that my arm would have suffered, sadly not, it got me in the lower right side of my back instead. Great, just what I need (though sleeping without pillows is helping, as is taking strong painkillers).

The constant lecturing from Pingu about "if it keeps on I'm taking you to the bloody hospital" and/or "get to the doctors' woman!" is really beginning to piss me off, too... like he can give out advice... this is the man that has important scan results at his own doctors in Ealing and has failed to collect them in months. Sure, I'm taking advice from someone that fails to practice what they preach... arsehole!  **sigh**

And my arm still hurts!

In fact it feels worse as my wrist is now burning in three different places! 

I'm also convinced that the diclofenac is doing things to my digestive system, too... I have the feeling inside that under normal circumstances would have me thinking that I'd eaten onions (or some kind of allium). Not a nice feeling at all. I'm still going to take them, at least until they give me pain (at the moment I have all symptoms except pain, so it's not too bad). I still have to take painkillers, though, which is annoying me as some of them seem to make me feel weird in the head (which is not very helpful!). I get that feeling with anything other than just plain paracetamol... so I'm going to have to buy some more soon.

Having rain every day is not helping either... all of that damp air is making my arthritis sheer hell! So much for the weather prediction of two days with rain in the next fortnight... I think someone is fibbing, LOL!

So much for the next day update, lol

I've not felt comfy in even opening this page in case it's seen by "other people".

Fortunately they are both gone until Sunday at the earliest. Their friends are getting married on Friday so they are staying nearer to the venue (Pingu is sort of second best man... he'll get none of the credit but the silly sod is doing all of the running around, getting the stuff sorted that the "real" best man will no doubt get the thanks for at the reception *sigh*). I've no idea just why it takes four days, but I'm not complaining. I think that Pingu is getting his new tattoo started on the Sunday, it will be going from his neck just by his ear right down his right arm to his elbow... I have no idea just how much it's costing, but he's already put down a £200 deposit and he's giving them another £100 on the day!... and something tells me that he'll be going back at least three more times (such a huge waste of money, but there we go... both of them always seem to find the cash for stuff like that, yet not for the bills they should be paying... madness *sigh*)

Anyway... I started work with more kids today. A brother and sister (he 2 1/2 and she 5), three days a week, Wed, Thu and Fri. It means I lose my half day off Wed and my day off on Fri (which is a shame as I'd got really used to them, lol), but it's money and the little boy (I'll call him by his initial, G) is infinitely better than I thought he would be... if anything it's his sister (C) that is a bit of a whinger, but it doesn't work with us (others have tried and failed in the past, hehe). They weren't meant to be here tomorrow as their Mum came in and said they were both going to their grans' house, but it turns out their gran bogged off down to her caravan so they will be here after all (that's the main reason the kids are with us, their Mum was always being let down when it came to family taking care of the kids... sometimes she even had to take time off work as there was no one to care for them as had been arranged beforehand! :( )

It's really nice having spare money again (I was paid this morning for this week, which was lovely). Just to go shopping and be able to buy something if I want to (even though there is now nothing that I want, so ironic, hehe). To not have to worry about either having gas and electricity or eating... to be able to pay our bills and not keep having to stall people with empty promises to pay them later - well, it makes all the difference in getting a good night's sleep!

I was woken up three times by Pingu last night! I was livid this morning... I never wake during the night, so if I'm woken I end up feeling as if I've not been to sleep. He woke me at 3am crashing about in the toilet... then his alarm was so loud it woke me at 4.30am... and then he woke me again when he left for work at just gone 5am. The first thing I did with my new wages was to go into my local chemist and buy £2's worth of earplugs! I've been looking at the garish hot-pink soft foam rubber things for weeks, but resisted the urge to get them. However, last night convinced me that it would be a sound investment, lol. Typical that I buy them and then the noise is gone as they are both away for four nights, hahaha! I have no doubt that they will be worth every penny when they return, though.

So loving the cooler weather at the moment... sadly it won't last, but it's so much nicer being able to sleep in a cool room instead of feeling as if you've just layed down in Satan's armpit!

Finally got rid of the last of my dyed hair...

... I feel so much cooler now (which is great as I was baking my arse off before). Since I started dying my hair black in May 2009 I have gone about 25% white... not even grey, but white! From my temples on both sides of my head to way back past my ears in two inch sections, the hair is pure white! No wonder I was having to colour my hair black every three weeks! I walked past a mirror after I got out of the shower and was shocked to not see myself with black hair, hahaha!

I've learned my lesson with hair dye, though... if I ever were to dye it again, it would either be lighter than my original colour or as near to my own shade as possible. Never am I going darker, 100% never going black... EVER!! I also hated the way it made my hair thin and perpertually greasy (I have greasy hair anyway, but it would no sooner dry after washing and start to look lank).

I'm thinking of never cutting my hair again and seeing just how long I can get it before I completely get sick of it or totally make myself out to be a liar and reach for the dye, LOL! I would like long hair, it's something I always say, yet never achieve because I always do something to it and then cut it all off to within an inch of my head (as I've just done, hehe).

If I'm going to be a true Hippy Goth, then I need Hippy hair... oh well, as long as I'm alive it'll grow. On thing I can do quickly is grow hair (in the summer it can be as much as almost two inches a month! No joke of a lie, and if take sea kelp it's even faster).

So bloody hot today, and having electric fans blowing constantly is really drying out my eyes and making them red and sore... I hate summer, I'm more of a Spring and Autumn person. I like it so that you can sleep at night without waking up drenched in sweat (which is imcredibly nasty) if you turn the fans off, or freezing cold if you leave them on. No pleasing me, is there? LOL!

I had to laugh when we lost 4-1 to Germany in the World Cup... as I was watching the motorway just afterwards I saw not one single England flag adorning a car... now, if Andy Murray would just lose at Wimbledon we can go back to being the cheerful underdog, rather than the cocky, "never-shut-the-hell-up-about-it" winner! (That and I just really dislike his poxy attitude, the fact he can never even crack a grin when he's welcomed on court to thunderous applause... oh, and the fact that he reminds me of a rat-faced chump *sorry for insulting the rats, there*)

The garlic capsules were a bad idea...

... and I've not taken anymore today. An hour after taking them yesterday my stomach had bloated up to such a degree that I was having trouble taking a deep breath!! Guess that rules out garlic as well as the onions *sigh*

The match at Wimbledon finally reached a conclusion... 70-68 in the final set to the American, John Isner. The Frenchman, Nicholas Mahut looked gutted when he lost... but they both got a special trophy and present for taking part in the longest tennis match in history, as did the chair umpire.

It's been really muggy today... it feels as if it's brewing up a storm somewhere. The atmosphere is airless and seems to just sap the energy right out of your body (or it seems to do that to me, anyway, lol). I hope there is a massive storm soon, one that will freshen the air and return the energy... gotta love those negative ions, hehe.

What the hell is wrong with people... they are going bonkers over the new iPhone, I just don't see the attraction. Even if I had the money I wouldn't buy one... I don't see the point in spending that much money on a bloody phone! Madness *sigh*

Sissy is back...

... and already we've run out of tuna and are almost out of loo roll - she's been back two days!! LOL! She's now out trying to join our local Blockbuster as she and Pingu want to watch Sherlock Holmes (and heaven forbid that they should WAIT!!)

She's also looking into finishing her degree up here, and leaving Brighton... she's sick of it down there, and she's also sick of the girls she's living with - all they seem to do is argue and her uni work is suffering as a result (what's the point of doing all this if she doesn't get the degree that she's hoping for because the stress of being in a place she hates, with people she hates stops her from reaching that goal?)

The only problem with her being back home is that the noise increases, Pingu would probably move in here to be with her (the plus side being they would pay rent, they've already agreed to doing that)... and my craft life would have to become more secretive - Sissy is very scornful of all things religious and I wouldn't want to be caught doing things that I would have to explain to people that wouldn't (or don't want to try to) understand.

It wouldn't be until the end of June, though, as that is when Sissy has to leave her current address and come back here (at least for the summer holidays, even if she then has to find somewhere else down there if she can't switch courses to up here).

It's a beautiful day here... a bit too beautiful for my liking, LOL! The sun is too bright, the temperature is too hot and I spent the morning stuck in my local branch of M&S with my Dad and 87 year old Nana (she was buying new bras and the lingerie department was so hot I thought I was going to pass out!! I managed to get a leaflet and use it as a fan, and it really helped)... that was after we had to go to the council offices to see about someone coming to fix her hot water, which has been off for three days - the earliest it can be sorted is Monday morning - oops!

Anyway... I suppose that wearing head to toe black on the hottest and sunniest day of the year, was a mistake... but being goth I really have no other colour of clothes that are comfortable (it's not about being cool, it about being me!)... so black it is, and I shall just have to suffer, hehe. I must remember to carry a small hand-held fan and a drink in future, maybe a parasol of some sort (if I can find one) - at least it would stop me feeling so hot!

I'm really tired now... the sun always makes me sleepy (not that it needed much, I was tired before I even started! Hahaha)

We have thunder and lightning...

... as well as torrential rain.

April Fool's Day turned out nice after all :D

Never seen rain so bad before

I just dropped Sissy to the dentist and I've never driven in rain so bad! It was like trying to drive in a monsoon! The wipers were going like the clappers and still I could barely see... most scary.

So tired now...

... I don't know why, maybe earlier, maybe just a general feeling of blahness (is that even a word? lol).

I just want to crawl into bed, pull the covers over my head and stay there until the spring. I never used to hate the winter, it used to be my fave season, but since the snow and ice came and made everything so dangerous it has gone down in my liking and I can honestly say that I am really looking forward to the start of spring... I can't wait to get out in the garden and take out my frustrations on the weeds, hehe. I also can't wait to get planting seeds and other things out there. I'm hoping to get a decent herb garden going this year, and maybe start off some different veg, maybe some mini veg, I'm sure I'll think of something to do with the ground.

YIPPEE!!!

YEEESSSS!!

I am now on holiday... two whole weeks. All of the kids are gone until January 6th and I am really so very happy. I'm not bothered about presents, or good tv or anything like that... I have what I wanted for xmas - good food and time off from the kids LOL!!


We had snow last night and this morning in the early hours. About two inches, which was considerably less than predicted, about which I am incredibly glad. I used to love snow when I was young, but ever since I've been driving I've come to look on snow with dread. The thought of skidding my car and being stuck in the snow is not something that appeals to me in the slightest. When we had all that snow at the beginning of the year, I had to wear shoes to take the kids to school and they caused me terrible blisters (the shoes had special soles that had mini crampons on the bottom for walking on compacted snow and ice)... so I was dreading having to wear them again if the conditions underfoot proved to be incredibly treacherous (those shoes and my feet just do not get on in any way, LOL!! Sadly they are the best shoes I have for slippery conditions and I have to be careful as if I fall or something then we could be in a tight spot as there will be no-one here to drive the car and do the other school run, hence my being glad about the snow being bearable and the risks to life and limb being very slight).

So much for the early night!

I'm still sat in front of the laptop and the time is now 1.41am! I am over-tired and extremely bored, LOL!!

The house is all quiet and I am the only one awake now... even the cats are sound asleep (or as asleep as cats ever get, anyway).

It started to rain here again earlier and I was just stood there ironing listening to it... I really do love the sound of the rain, it calms me. On the plus side I think that my headache is finally going, on the minus side I have to get up early in the morning to take my Dad to the doctors **sigh**


The wind was so bad last night that it broke our gazebo legs (actually the plastic connector joints between the roof and the top of the legs)!! We seem to have bad luck with gazebo's... we lost one a few years back when it almost blew over next doors' fence and got all torn up, we lost one to the dreadful snow earlier this year (the sheer weight of it broke all of the legs) and the strong wind yesterday almost claimed another one, but we managed to fix it by using some of the parts from the one the snow killed, LOL!! So glad that we took in the expensive patio umbrella! Knowing our luck it would have been smashed to pieces or been blown away, never to be found again, hahaha.