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August 17: Bobby Russ

One of the many things that I loved about Renee is that she found ways to look through adversity and find the positive in it. When we first moved in together, we had some very lean times. I'll talk about that in another memory. However, today, I want to focus on a very specific time period. One in which our place that we lived in was threatened by Hurricane Irma.

We would lose power for 9 days. The trailer would become a hot box. It was so bad that when we had to stay in the trailer we put down towels to try to not sweat as much on the bed. It really didn't help. We ended up pitching a tent outside and sleeping in it. It was miserable, but we still enjoyed talking. Memory over?

Well, not exactly... We ended up deciding that we'd escape the hurricane by going to visit some friends. We had never enjoyed New Orleans, LA together. As a general rule, I only had visited NOLA in passing. So, we went and stayed with Jaime Oquendo and Julie Liberante. They took us on a trip of the French Quarter on September 9, 2017. The picture is from Good Friends Bar & Queens Head Pub.

Renee was wearing one of her favorite shirts and I was wearing the key that Heather Hall had given to me. What could have been a very rough week instead turned into a vacation. We laughed, we raised a glass and we had a good time. We visited historial sites, hung out with friends, and I tried the hand granade. I remember some of the warm feelings from that night and others. One of the things I miss how happy she normally was around me. Seeing her smile and laugh. Yet deep down, I know her smile and laugh is deeply ingrained into my being.