It's time to change the watch band..

 ... Sixteen days into the start of the scary month.

I've been so out of touch with updating my wardrobe because the hurricane happened, I haven't even changed into my October earrings and attempt to change my watch band. Which means I haven't gone into my closet to get my Nightmare Before Christmas watch strap. Unfortunately, the one I have was purchased at a liquidation warehouse, so Amazon doesn't seem to have the one I'd be wearing. They have others, though. 

The second after I wrote the above paragraph, I got the watch band out of my accessories box. It's nice, but I should have attempted to try it on before I bought it. It doesn't slide into the watch so great, and I'm a little nervous it'll pop out. But, I think the magnets are holding. This is one instance where I'll be damned glad I'm not moving tables and chairs anymore. 

As it is, I was so afraid of the bumper I've got on the watch. I originally bought one of those all around plastic rubber ones for a pretty low price. But it's no longer available on Amazon as a single bumper purchase. The brand is currently selling a 2 pack for almost what I paid for the single one (and not a series 3). The bumper lasted me almost two years, but because it was a plasticy rubber, it started degrading and finally broke at one of the edges. I think it had to do with all the moving I was doing at work, plus the constant hand washing as well as the Florida heat and humidity shining on me all day. 

So when I went to the liquidation center, I picked up a no name bumper case with screen protector and it's working out pretty well. I've had it on my watch since March of this year, at least, and have had no problems. Reviews on Amazon say it can slip off and do other problems, but quite honestly, it slipped off once, and I think it was because I didn't install it right. I do have a ding on the screen part of the bumper, but my watch screen itself is unscathed. These things work, and I actually went and bought a few more cases for when I'd want to swap them out. The multi packs are cheap enough that it's worth it. You just need to be careful on what you're buying because not all of the cases have the screen protector. 

My earrings, as mentioned in the beginning, are not from Amazon. I have been buying my jewelry from another site since 2011, roughly. I'm grandfathered into their rewards system, so I get 10% off all orders but now they've decided to do free shipping over $50. Which isn't a bad thing, since I usually buy that and then some on most occasions (several pairs plus cleansers). The plugs and tunnels are good quality for being under ten dollars a pair sometimes. I usually switch out every week and depending on the month, I've got awareness ribbons, holiday drops and cool colors along with plain old clear and solids. 

One time when I was still working at the hotel, I was playing with the Mega Baby Q70 lights and trying to get them to dance with the thumping music I was playing. I locked myself in the lower office with the ceiling lights off. My boss comes in to check on me because he had finished with a meeting across campus. He asked what I was playing with on the sound and light board and how I was doing a specific light move, so I showed him. 

All of a sudden, he looks right at me and says my ears are turning bright and flashing. I grabbed my phone and turned on my camera. I said it's my earrings catching the shadows of the light. They were unintentionally black light earrings, I guess. It was so odd because I couldn't recreate it with other light shows and music or with other earrings. It was only the particular patterns that made the room look like a rave and I my head was part of the attraction.

Fun times at the hotel when you're the only tech for almost a year and the only one among your crew who becomes the light person.

The whole point of the post today is because my mother and I went walking a little around our neighborhood. Of course, I took pictures. 

We started out walking up our street and there are some houses with decorations. 

* All photos taken on my Canon EOS Rebel T7i and slightly edited (in some cases) in Photoshop CS 5.

Then we stopped at Betty's for something. 

We continued our walk and got to the front gate area. 

The pictures are little out of order, sorry. 

 

As you can see, everything looks pretty bad. 

We are now going on three weeks since the storm? I keep thinking the downed lamp lights need to be picked up because they do work - power is going to them - and I'm really surprised there's not been a fire yet.

Then again, we've had massive thunder storms the last few nights, so the ground is staying wet. 

But it just shows you how things can go by quickly on some cleanup, but still take forever in other parts. 

At the gate area, where all those chunks of trees are along a fence, you never used to be able to see the main boulevard or main street (intersection) because there were thick and high bushes / trees along each side of the fences. My mom joked that people wanted them cut back a bit, but she doesn't think it was supposed to be in this way. 

The coconuts in the trees are real coconuts. The landscapers take them off the trees by the bushel. I attempted to crack on open when we first moved here. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I'll leave it at that. 

The mound of trees on the sidewalk is from what the city (?) has cleared from the side of the fencing. We had to walk around it to get back on to the sidewalk. 

The palms are still headless... must be getting ready to ride with the Horseman. 

Work this past week has been interesting. I've been doing my 8 hours every day and the limited staff has dwindled down to an even lesser amount of people, mainly due to some got out of the state or still didn't have power. One of the girls I work with needed to meet with an insurance adjuster at one point this past week, so she had to come in late. I don't know how long she stayed once she got in, but she arrived about 3 hours later than she normally does. I have been watching the clock and watching the rain because we've had storms roll in around 3, and I don't want to get stuck in that area, seeing how one of the days a couple intersection lights went dark during a rain storm. Not what I wanted, at all. So rainy season isn't over and the power isn't up to 100%,

As it's 8:10pm, I should cut this off now and get ready for bed. It's Sunday and I know tomorrow will be a long day... Mondays are sometimes hard to get back into the swing of things. 

Until the next check in, stay dry and cool

Cheers

See also:

• I had Suddenly Seymour in my head for part of the writing of this post.
• Friendly reminder that I've got a Ko-Fi page. Like what you read? Buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi..