Seismic Twitch

Let’s see:
• Bran and I continue to work on getting my hobby work space built. I have photos on my Clicks blog (button on the right) if you want to see our meagre progress thus far.
• I finally got rid of the drain last Friday (the one before the one just past). I was greatly relieved to have that gone. I leaked for the night (laid down a towel to keep the bed dry, but it was healed over by morning. I have a lot of scarification on my belly now. I can’t say I’m happy about that, but I’m relieved to be a more complete person again.
• I began walking with Bran on Wednesday last week. He goes to a cardiac rehabilitation program that is subsidized by the provincial government. He, Boy and I walk around a track. On Friday last week I was feeling ill so didn’t go. I doubled my walking on Monday because I learned a valuable lesson. Clothing that is tight around an internal seam will limit what one can do. Loose clothing has no such limits. Tomorrow I’ll be wearing newly laced shoes (to try and solve a numb foot issue) and try to walk the entire 40 minutes.
• My tax refund is being held up wherever they are holding it. It was pulled for assessment or something for some reason. I’m to call by Dec. 22 if I haven’t received anything before then.
• Bran’s cast came off last Friday. He was having issues with his thumb becoming numb and having chafing problems. So he went in, it was x-rayed and the techs removed it. He’s inordinately pleased about simple things, like washing his hands.
• I spent time today looking at the possibility of immigrating to another country. Bran and I considered Costa Rica but they don’t recognize same-sex marriages even when the marriage is legal in the home country. That was my search criteria. I looked at Sweden, Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Spain and Portugal. Thus far Spain and Portugal are ahead because they are more temperate.
• After looking at other countries to move to I checked out the government job sites here and found one that I could apply for in the province. I finished up the application a few minutes ago. Hopefully I’ll hear something from them. I saw a pile of boner errors on my previous application and corrected them. Then I read through several times to make sure I didn’t screw up again. I hope I caught them all since simple errors aren’t a good thing.
• Bran thinks that the renovations the landlord did last year included adding some (if not all) of the downstairs suite’s wiring to our meter. This is because somehow our power usage doubled. While it’s possible we used that much power with the air conditioner and the computers, it’s not fully likely. Personally I wouldn’t put it past the landlord to be trying to save himself money with a fast one. On principle I don’t trust landlords.
• My weight is fairly steady since getting out of hospital. That’s unsurprising considering my activity level dropped considerably after the surgery. Hopefully the walking will help and then I’ll be going back to work at the beginning of January.
• Since beginning the work on my hobby corner I’ve been craving doing something. What I’ve been doing is tracing patterns onto tracing paper to transfer onto cloth for embroidery and beading. I also want to get back to making jewelry again. I really would like to make it a paying venture. I’ll have to figure out a way of doing that sometime that doesn’t involve Etsy. There are too many re-sellers there. When a place says they can make 10,000 dresses for your chain to sell, you can bet that they’re not an individual crafts person. What makes it worse is that when members make it known in the forums the thread gets shut down. You can see that if you go to Regretsy where they post that stuff. It’s hard enough for an individual craftsperson to get sales without re-sellers getting the edge.
• I want to win the lottery.
• I’m way behind on others’ blogs. I need to go read them.

I’ve got another cold. Right now I’ve got a slight fever, my nose is all congested, the glands in my throat are swollen (not severely, thank goodness) making it a little uncomfortable to swallow, I’m tired (I know, that’s nothing new), and I’m grumpier than the usual me. Fortunately most of the people at work are used to my usual growly moods and laugh at me.

This week I’m doing a whole lot of paperwork. I’ve done two case plans and several month end reports on residents. I also prepped my month end and quarterly reports to be completed tomorrow night when I put together the stats. Tonight I’ll be working on more month end reports of residents. Hopefully that’ll complete it all for the residence and tomorrow will be easy. April’s month end is going to be similarly stupid with reports because there will be 5 case plans due within a week. That’s a whole lot of work. Add in 29 month end reports (though there won’t be that many residents remaining at that time we do month end reports for every resident who lived in the house in that month, even if they moved out). It’s a whole lot of work.

My hot iron transfer pencils and trace paper have arrived so I’ll be able to make patterns to bead. Also, my beads are now here (though not in my house). I pick them up tomorrow. That’s several pounds of beads. I”m quite looking forward to working on that again. I’m not sure I’ll be continuing with making jewelry. It’s very possible that I’ll be using all my stone beads like seed beads, working them into a pattern on cloth or leather. I might be able to make something like that sell. There are lots of jewelry makers around, but there aren’t many who make beaded badges, mocassins and such for pagan type ritual things.

I’ve been day dreaming about opening a bead store. I’d not just sell beads and other supplies, but it’d also be a venue where Aboriginal beaders could sell their creations as well as me doing the paganny type things. It’s just a dream and will not likely come to be, but it’s nice to dream about it. I could deal with that. I can order beads wholesale now, but I can’t use the quantity that I’d have to order. Retail would be an excellent way of making sure I get what I want, make it available to others at a reasonable price and sell my stuff as well. Oh well. It doesn’t hurt to dream, right?

I’m tired again and have to get ready for work. It takes a little longer when I’m not feeling well since I forget where I put things I’m going to put on.

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous. It was above freezing, snow was melting all over the place. There was even some rain to help that along. Of course melting snow also means pot holes all over the place (especially hidden by puddles) and slush is all over and hard to walk in, but it was a harbinger of spring. Today we had a blizzard. It is that heavy wet snow of spring. It’s piled up and stepping in it is like stepping into a very deep, cold puddle. Bran’s truck was covered with ice. My Ute was covered in snow and I had to spend nearly 10 minutes clearing off the Ute before I could go anywhere.

I took my sewing machine to work tonight hoping to finish the stole I’m making for Bran. I’m nearly there. I was stupid and used some inferior thread in the bobbin and that created times when the thread would catch and then bunch up. This meant that I went through 2 needles because they broke in/on the tangling created. I finally clued into what was wrong and threw out the low grade thread and reloaded with better thread. If my guts settle down tonight I’ll finish it up tonight. If not, then I’ll finish it tomorrow night.

There’s not a lot going on right now. Bran and I haven’t gotten it together to contact a mortgage broker. It seems to be the best way for us to go as it’ll save us time in terms of finding a mortgage.

Oh, and for the spammers…penis enlargement, breast enlargement, selling on my web site and lose weight fast.

The inheritance came through last week. This means that we are able to afford certain things that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. Bran and I now each have our own vehicles. In total we spent more than we probably should have, but each auto is only 3 years old, they’re both covered by 2 year warranty that covers nearly everything that could bork out, such as the electricals, drive train, motor, and nearly everything else mechanical. Being used cars that is a good thing. Bran got a red truck.

I got a silver SUV (gets reasonably good gas mileage – better than the Volvo did). It was taken back into the shop to get a bit of body work done, detailed and have a sun glasses visor replaced. It was taken in on Tuesday for the work and I got it back today. I’m pleased as punch with it. It’s easy to drive, quite manoeuvrable. I like how I fit in the driver seat. The signal lights turn off automatically. It’s an automatic so no more shifting gears (though for the first couple of days I was automatically trying to find that nasty clutch – hit the emergency brake once or twice because of that). It has tilt steering so I can get in and out comfortably and have the wheel set at where it’s comfortable. I also don’t have to duck down to get into it, it’s just a slide across from a standing position. It’s a scary thing as previous to my first ever all-my-own vehicle is that I’m enjoying driving. That took Boy and Bran by surprise. Me too, when it comes to that.

Boy doesn’t like driving at all. He didn’t want an auto of his own. We are requiring him to get his driver’s license. He has his learner’s right now. Instead of a car he chose to get a very zoomy, very fast computer. He’s extremely happy with it. It’s a desk top beast that sits on his end table in the living room. They keyboard mouse and flat panel monitor sit on a table in front of his chair. Boy also got a new DS so I got his old one. This one has a hinge that actually works. Gotta love hand-me-overs.

I got a cheapo purse too. It was only $20. I desperately needed something to replace my old purse that was falling apart. The new one is made entirely of vinyl so it gets mighty crispy and stiff in the cold. It’ll get replaced when I find a leather one I like enough. I’ll hang onto this one as a spare. It also doesn’t have long enough shoulder straps.

My shifts at work are still all over the place. Last week was the first time I had a steady week of regular shifts. This week I was supposed to work evenings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday then days on Tuesday and Thursday. That didn’t work out as planned. Our night shift person is sick so I worked most of my evening shift last night and then did the graveyard shift right after. I worked until nearly 7 and then walked home to spend a bit of time relaxing. Then I walked back to work again so that I could be there to relieve the counsellor who needed to go home at 9. By the time the shift was over my knees were seriously aching and I was ready to collapse into a coma of fatigue. I got a call this afternoon and she’s still sick so instead of relaxing and spending a leisurely night at home and having a short shift tomorrow evening, I’m covering her shift again from midnight to 8 am tomorrow. Happily I have my baby back so I don’t have to walk to work again. It’ also means that I get some nice overtime.

I reserved the hotel rooms we’ll need in May when we got to Edmonton for the Rammstein concert. It’s boy’s 19th birthday present. He and a friend are being treated to the concert and two nights in a hotel (they get their own room) as well as all meals paid for. Of course I’ll be paying for any incidentals that Boy will want in terms of shopping. I should have Bran make sure he takes cash to the concert (yes, he’s going too – with ear plugs to protect his hearing) for t-shirts and such that Boy is bound to want as memorabilia. While they’re at the concert I’m going to be relaxing at the hotel. The next day we’re hitting the West Edmonton Mall for shopping. I want to hit up Cotton Ginny as they don’t have one in Saskatchewan anymore at all. It’s a great place for fat women to get good quality, natural fibre clothes. I’ll probably get another purse, if I can find one I like.

As some of you may know, I’ve been making a stole for Bran to wear when he does hand fastings (pagan type weddings). It’s nearly done. The beading is complete, I’ve got most of it attached to a very long piece of canvas (9’5″ long to be more accurate). I put black ribbon around the whole thing except one end. I’ll be finishing that up this weekend. Then I will sew on wide black ribbon for the back to hide the threads and knots that tie the beads to the canvas and finish by the final sewing of the side ribbon to hide all ravelling edges. I’ll take a picture of it when I’m done. After that I’m making him moccasins to wear. They’ll have sheep skin insoles and be made of either cow or deer leather. One of the residents is willing to teach me how to make them and they’d be ideal for Bran’s feet. I might have to get a rubber sole put on them to ensure they last and to further protect his diabetic feet.

I start paying student loans back really soon. I may be able to arrange to have my loan frozen (where they don’t charge interest on it) so that everything I pay on it goes straight to the principle of the loan rather than the interest for 14 years. If that’s the case I can apply every 6 months to continue that for 5 years. That’ll mean I can pay a significant portion of the loan without being screwed by interest charges.

I’m watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. Seriously, what’s with the hair? Dog has a mullet with a Great white Shark Alfalfa thing happening in front and on top. Then two of his sons (or one of them) with that long rat tail thing. Beth’s hair is relatively normal though an unnatural shade of blonde. Her boobs! My Goddess, her bodacious tatas defy gravity! She also has shoes that can kill ants in the corners of room. If they curled up she’d have genie shoes.

It’s still winter here. I’m seriously tired of the snow. I’m not sick of the cold. I like the cold, but I’m seriously tired of the temperatures the thermostats have to be set at in the building at work to make sure that none of the pipes freeze and flood the building. I mean, if it’s a choice between the two I’ll take the tropical rain forest temperatures. I mean, I’ve already had to deal with two cold weather related floods (one a regular plumbing pipe, the other a frozen heating pipe) and I don’t want to have a repeat of those adventures. But speaking as a middle-aged, fat woman whose body temperature runs higher than most other human beings, those tropical rain forest temperatures suck donkey balls.

We will soon be looking to buy a house. We’re thinking of working with a mortgage broker as they do the work that we’d have to do by going to banks, comparing interest rates and mortgage amounts, etc. We’re trying to figure out if that would be worth the extra cost. It’s hard for the two of us to coordinate our off-work time together right now. Then it’ll be finding a real estate agent to organize house viewing and make an offer and buy a house. I want to do this while it’s still wintery outside as house prices tend to be lower in winter. Then we can give notice to our passive-aggressive landlord and get out of renting. Of course we’re getting an insured mortgage that would be automatically paid in the case of either Bran’s or my death. We’re too old to not go for that option. It’s a way of making sure that the other spouse (or Boy) will be sure to have a home after the other income is gone.

This week we heard of the death of Brian Jacques , the writer of our favourite books. He wrote the Redwall series that we’ve been reading since Boy was 3 years old. Our interest in the books began with the television with the animated production of Redwall. After watching and being charmed by the series we began purchasing the books. I used to read for an hour a night (this usually got one chapter read) each night between 7 and 8, just before Boy’s bedtime. We started the tradition with The Long Patrol and progressed through the series. I also read the Harry Potter series this way. We now own all the published works to date. Sadly there won’t be any more Redwall books. I heartily recommend the books to anyone, young and old, who likes adventure, engaging characters and a general good read. Like the Harry Potter series, these books have been read repeatedly by all of us through the years.

I have 4 new bras. They’re Wonder Bra 18 hour types. They’re very comfortable. I will be getting more at Cotton Ginny in Edmonton. Sure, this might be more than you wanted to know about me, but bras have become important in my life. I like being supported and having the appearance of being “perky”. I’ve never been “perky” so it’s a novel look.

That’s about it from here.

First off, Firefox is acting stupid. I like to have a sidebar with my bookmarks in it. It’s handier than always going up to the bookmarks menu. For some stupid reason the bookmarks menu in the sidebar is different than the one in the menu up top and in my organize bookmarks function and I can’t get the damned thing to change. I’ve tried closing the sidebar and I’ve tried restarting Firefox. Neither has worked.

The next thing was a stupid mistake I made while working on Bran’s stole. It was a stupid and careless mistake that I shouldn’t have made. I was in the midst of sewing the beads to the canvas when I discovered an error I’d made in sewing the two together. I was taking the beads off with a seam ripper when I missed the thread I was trying to remove and slipped it into the beadwork itself. I ripped the thread holding the beads together. So I had to remove beads back a distance on each side of the booboo. Now I have to rebead the ribbon, join the blue again to the red and sew it all to the canvas again. It’s a frustration. It’s relatively easy to fix, but still, I’d rather have not made the mistake in the first place.

Today was spent doing weekly reports. The entire shift was devoted to that task. I had to write up 23 reports. Sure some were shorter than others, but there were several that involved a whole lot of writing because they either talked to staff a lot or else they created drama and that had to be documented. I didn’t finished until 4:30. Happily the woman who usually works nights is happy to take on the weekly reports. Chances are she won’t get through all of them and the day staff will have to finish them up (we’re expecting to get up to close to 30 residents in the next few months) but having a goodly portion of them done will make Mondays a whole lot less painful.

Tomorrow I have to be at work at 8:30 am. Then my co-worker and I will be picked up by a cab and we’ll be trundled out to the airport where we’ll fly to Edmonton. Needless to say Sudafed will not only be in my bag, it’ll be in my body. My ears aren’t totally cleared up and I’d like to minimize the pain and ancillary effects on my hearing. Then it’s off to Edmonton Institute for Women (EIFW) to talk to the women who are incarcerated there to promote our half-way house. The next day we have a full time at Grand Cache. Then it’s shop ’til I drop, or until it’s time to leave for the airport to fly to Calgary then fly home. My poor ears, how they will plug, hopefully only temporarily.

On Friday I work a short 4 hour shift (walking to and from work) and it’s the weekend. I’ll be putting together some monthly reports for my co-worker. Happily the overnight staff will be working on weekly reports on Sunday (her Monday). This means that my evening shift will be a whole lot less in terms of having to do other than my own monthly reports. Hopefully it’ll mean that I don’t have to do more than a quick check to make sure she got the right stuff on the reports and didn’t miss anything important. Since this is the last trip out of town for a while, it’ll also mean that there will be more time for those nasty monthly reports.

That’s been my time of late.

…from the inside out. That’s because I’m not going outside today unless I absolutely have to (read: the house has to be on fire). It’s 10 am and it’s -31C outside. I can see that it’s cold because the car is covered with a thick layer of frost and the exhaust of cars going by doesn’t dissipate. I can see it floating even after the car is gone. It’s a good day to have coffee and toast with tomato, don’t you think?

Bran and I went out on Friday and got my needed fabric and notions to continue with my beading projects. I got 4 metres of fabric, black ribbon (1″ wide to go around the pieces), iron on interfacing (double sided so it’ll stick to both pieces of fabric), thread, some sewing machine needles. Bran also picked out some iron-on patches, a bumble bee, a frog and a Chinese dragon. I don’t know for sure where they’ll go, but I’m sure they’ll be somewhere nice. Perhaps in the middle of a beaded project.

It all cost about $100. It would have been twice that but I also got a membership and right now everything is 50% off to members. It’s a very convincing way of ensuring that memberships get sold. I paid $30 for the canvas. It would’ve been $60 without the membership.

So now that I have all that I realized that I need one more thing. Ordinary, but very stiff interfacing to go behind the badges. They need to be very stiff to compensate for the heaviness of the beads. The beads make the badge want to fold over and roll. The interfacing would keep it stiff like badges are supposed to be. That’ll wait for a bit though. I want to get Bran’s stole done first.

I should go eat now. My stomach is beginning to whine at me.

It’s crazy at work the way my hours are all screwed up. Thanks to the two who quit without notice (who, by the way are acting really stupid) my hours are all over the place. It also seems that when people start work at our place (or the new residents arrive) they get sick with a cold. The latest casualty is our new overnight person. It sounds a whole lot like she’s got the flu, not just a cold. This means that there is no one to work her shift. So that’s what I’m doing tonight. I shall be the midnight to 8 am person. This also means that my February long weekend starts much earlier than originally planned. I’ve had a 3 hour very profound nap, so I’m good to go…for now. We’ll see how things are come 4 am.

We’ve got cable back. I’ve been trying to get the recording on the DVR right again. It looks like I have to overshoot the recording time by about 1 minute or so to prevent premature cut-offs. I’ll get it right. The good thing about A&E is that they rerun everything eventually, especially with their more popular shows.

Just so you know, the new Swiffer ads are stupid.

Next week I work the day shift on Tuesday (Monday is a stat holiday – Family Day) and then fly to Edmonton on Wednesday. Yes, I’ll have my Sudafed with me. Fly back on Thursday night and work Friday…evening, I think. The good news is that they’re getting some quality resumes in for the full time position. They’ll be interviewing soon (I hope) and then I’ll be helping to train the new people. I hope they work out. The owner things the starting wages are too high, but they’re having people turn down the full time positions because the starting wages are lower than they could get elsewhere. It’s going to be a case of finding someone who really wants to work there and has a passion for the work done, as opposed to is in it for the money.

My ears are slowly clearing up. I still have a lot of clicking in my ears indicating fluid behind the eardrums, but my hearing is more clear. I just asked Bran how loud the tv was to high. I can hear it clearly, though I can’t turn it down more and still hear it. He said it was “reasonable”. So there you have it. My hearing approaches normal. I’m also not getting the achiness in my jaw, teeth and deep ear that I got last week. So, yay!

I finished the stole that I was making for Bran. It was entirely of seed beads, approximately 4 metres in length. It’s a long ribbon of blue, red, green and yellow beads. Now I have to get 4.5 metres of canvas, some bias tape, sewing machine needles and good thread to sew the ribbon down to. I could leave it as it is but it’s life would be greatly diminished. Besides, that much canvas will encourage me to direct bead things like badges. I can even use the precious stone beads I have to make things. I also have to join the Celtic knot badges I have made to canvas to stiffen it up. Oh, that reminds me, I have to get some double sided interfacing. I’m going to get a membership to the fabric store because then I can also get beads for less money. That’s one of the things I’m getting on Saturday.

That’s about it. I hope y’all have noticed that I’m posting more. I’m trying to get back into the routine of writing here. It’s an excellent way of keeping track of how I’m doing, what I’m doing and such like. That reminds me. I have to update my WordPress.

In the past two weeks I have been confirmed to go to Bowden and Drumheller institutions, then told I wasn’t going, then confirmed again. It’s official. I’m not going this year. It has nothing to do with money this time. In the past week we’ve had two staff quit without notice. I’m still going to Edmonton the week after next though.

I expected the one. She’s training with Corrections to become a Corrections Officer. That’s very intensive training. Splitting her attention would be, at best, difficult. Luckily we had new staff hired to work other shifts. However, last night another staff quit without notice. This means that we’re short staffed again. We filled her shift right away, but we’re still down one full time person. So I’ll be working evenings until we get someone trained to work opposite shifts to me. That’ll be at least two weeks. While I prefer evenings and it gives me more contact with the residents (though I’m not sure some of them like that) I’d like to think that there was some degree of regard for me and other coworkers. Apparently I was wrong. This doesn’t just screw the bosses, it screws me and other staff. The past two weeks have had me change from days to evenings to days again to get shifts covered. That’s hard on a 50 year old body.

My cold. Oh, my cold. Yeah, it’s hanging on. Most particularly my ears are still plugged. My hearing is better than it was, but I’m still missing a significant portion of my hearing. Since it’s now 2 weeks since the initial plugging up (landing in Saskatoon) it’s time I see a doctor to make sure there’s no infection and see if I can get some more potent decongestants to unplug my Eustachian tubes. I still sniffle and such, but that’s just the tag ends.

The weather here is stupid. We’ve gone from the deep freeze to near melting, back to the deep freeze and now back to hovering around 0C (32F). I can live with the cold. In fact, I prefer the cold. I dislike dealing with such large fluctuations. It doesn’t help me get rid of illnesses.

Bran’s been working. Did I tell you he got a job? He did. It’s a great relief to me to know that we have another fairly reliable source of income. Anyway his shift has been 1pm – 9 pm. This means that I’ve been walking either to or from work. The walk to work when it’s frigid cold is nice. When it’s warmer I end up all hot and sweaty from the walk. It always takes me a lot of time to cool down from that.

I have cable back. When we decided to disconnect Bran did a seasonal disconnect. That’s one of the advantages of living in the Great White North…snowbirds. You see there is a large segment of the population who go south for the winter. They don’t want to be paying re-connection fees every time they return home, so the phone company (that’s who provides our cable, phone and internet) offers a seasonal disconnection for those who travel in winter. So now I have A&E back. It needed some help (Bran had to call SaskTel to get instructions to have the box try and connect to the right whatchamacallit at SaskTel). I have murder and mayhem back. Right now I’m watching Man Hunters. I’ll be recording a whole lot of First 48s.

I finished the major beading of Bran’s stole. I have a few beads to replace as they broke when I was joining the ribbons together. I also have to weave in the tag ends of threads. Then I have to get about 4 metres of canvas and other things to put the beads on.. After that I’ll be making moccasins for Bran. I have plans for the top beading. It’s going to take an impressive amount of leather to make moccasins for his skis. One of the residents at work is going to teach me how to make them. I have to make a few changes because the seams have to be on the outside because I don’t want there to be ridges inside to cause rub sores. That’s a minor change though.

Bran got me a portable DVD player today. It’s a nice little beastie. It has a car lighter adapter that means I can watch movies while travelling. The picture quality is a bit lower than I expected but that’s ok. It’s not for all the time, just for work and travelling. I already tested it out and it works well.

Dad’s estate still hasn’t been settled. The lawyers sent out statements (two of them) that were incorrect. They also sent out releases. Apparently we’re waiting on the releases from my nieces for the final distribution. I don’t know what’s taking so long though. Even mail from California (where one niece lives) doesn’t take a month. I’m waiting on that to go house and car hunting.

Speaking of finances only on the not-so-good front, I got my notice from Canada Student Loans this week. They’re setting me up for a payment of nearly $900 a month for nearly 10 years. Oy! I’ll be contacting them to reduce that amount. Sure I know that means that I’ll be paying it off longer therefore paying more, but I don’t earn enough to allow me to pay that amount per month, even with Bran working.

Work is going to get crazy, stupid busy. Right now we have 20 residents. That’s a good number for a single staff to manage. Things are busy but not out of hand. Weekly reports can be done in a single shift. There’s a nice variety of people with differing challenges that makes a shift pass fairly quickly. However, in the next month or so we’re expecting up to 12 more (I don’t know if this includes the women we expect). I’ve never worked there when it’s been this busy. We’re going to be getting most of those (if they’re given day parole) because the other half-way house has only 1 bed available right now. I pity the cook. She’s going to have to cook for that many people. Hopefully not many have allergies.

I can’t think of much else to write about. It pretty much covers the gamut of events in the past week or so.

Thy name is that asshat surgeon who did the hernia repair a few years ago.

Some of you might not have been reading my blog long enough, but in early January of 2006 I had a hernia repaired. The hernia was just above my belly button and was caused by a weakened scar from when I had my gall bladder removed several years before.

Actually, there were two surgeries and I should have known after the first one to allow the hack at me again. You see, he nicked my bowel on the first surgery. Having done that he closed up and put me on some rather intensive iv antibiotics. A few months later the second surgery successfully sealed over the hernia and I’ve not had any trouble with it since. However, there was a problem from the get go.

After the second surgery there was a large bulge just to the right of the incision site the right side of my abdomen about level with my belly button. I didn’t think anything of it. I thought it was just that the surgeon had sutured up the fat as well as fascia and muscle to make sure everything was closed up. That would create more scarring.

As the years went by I began to wonder what this large bulge was. Every time my IBS flared up that bulge became quite sensitive to pressure and I could feel movement in there when food passed through. If I laid on my right side and had any pressure on the area during a flare-up nausea would overcome me and well…you get the picture. Now that was something to be concerned about. So I finally had it investigated.

In September (just after Bran’s heart attack) I had a physical. Part of that was a mammogram (everything is normal, yay!) request and also a request to have the large bulge examined with an ultrasound. I finally remembered to make an appointment at the end of October and was scheduled for November 30. After having my poor old ladies squashed in two different directions each, I was taken to the ultrasound room. I laid down on the table and a friendly and pleasant tech scanned the bulge. After the doctor took at look at the scan I was informed that it was a rather large hernia and there was a fair amount of bowel poking out through the hole. Unlike the hernia I had before, because the hole in my muscle wall is large there is no strangulation of the bowel happening. This, of course, would change rather quickly should the bowel twist over itself.

So now I’ll be having a CT of the area because an ultrasound can’t do an efficient or clear scanning of the area to show exactly what’s going on. One thing for certain is that the incision grew from 1 inch to rather much larger than that. Another certainty is that I’m going to have to have this repaired. I have to hope that everything remains as it is (no twist of the bowel) long enough for me to have two weeks of holiday pay saved up. My boss is hoping that surgery won’t be scheduled for September because he’s going to Disney World. I don’t see an issue with that because there is staff who can take over my shifts. It would be better in August though because then students wouldn’t have to worry about school and my shifts would be easily covered.

I won’t be going back to the same surgeon, that’s certain. I was stupid enough to let him at me a second time. I can’t even be sure that he did the surgery. It’s possible that a minion of his did it. However, regardless he was the one who should’ve made sure that everything was done correctly. Obviously, since the bulge has been there from the day surgery was complete, he failed miserably.

Other than this fine issue I’m doing ok. I’m still reading a lot. The Redwall series were located and I’m reading the third book, Mattimeo. I just finished Beneath These Stones by Ann Granger. She does serial mysteries featuring Meredith Mitchell (a civil servant who works for the British foreign office) and Superintendent Alan Markby (her boyfriend). It was an interesting read. I wouldn’t turn down more by the same author should they come by my way. I also read three books by Sarah Caudwell. It took a while to get into them, but the idiosyncratic writing style of the author grew on me. I’m glad I kept plugging away at the first book because it was worth it. I also read the Chaos Chronicles Orphans of Chaos, Fugitives of Chaos and Titans of Chaos. They were quite good as well even if they’re not in my usual genre of mystery/true crime. I’m trying to expand my reading range and they definitely did that.

Work is going ok. There’s not a lot I can say about it. We have a nice crowd of residents. Each resident offers their own particular challenge but nothing that can’t be coped easily with.

The sale last weekend was a particularly difficult let down. I’ve decided to leave jewelry making alone for a while. I’ll put the beads away for a while and learn more about working with wire. We’ll see where things go from here.

That’s about it.

Those spam people are really clever in their random, multiple lettered stuff telling me that my entry/essay whatever is the best they’ve ever seen and look forward to more information coming from the tips of my pudgy fingers. It makes me glad that there are spam filters running on my comments thingie.

I’m doing better. I took two days off work and cried a whole lot. I know now that part of it is because my thyroid is failing more because I received word that my test results show wonky cholesterol levels and problems with hormone levels. The thyroid puts out hormones that affect metabolism as well as mood. Since it was under functioning it’s possible that I might not need to increase the antidepressant once I get the right dose of hormone into me. Certainly the cholesterol levels will fix themselves. That’s one thing about having hypothyroidism, it does affect cholesterol to the point that it can cause severe heart problems Such a simple fix too.

I was going to go in tomorrow and talk to the locum but my own doctor is coming back on Monday. I’ll find out which day next week that he’ll be working in the evening and go and see him. I just started to work with him. I don’t want to try and deal with a locum right now.

There’s word at work of things coming down the pipeline. I can’t say anything here right now as it’s not official (as in I haven’t been told anything, but have heard that someone was told by the boss). When it does become official and it’s in the bag (if it’s going to happen) I’ll let you know. If it’s going to happen it is good news. One bit of news I can share is that the work health plan cards have come through. Saskatchewan has great health care coverage for people. I get to go to a doctor for any reason at no cost out of pocket. All my hospital care is free of charge including any prescription drugs given in hospital. But those prescription drugs aren’t covered covered by the province all the time once out of hospital. This makes supplementary health insurance is a good thing.

The work plan will prescriptions up to $2000/year, basic dental care and some other types of dental care like dentures (though there’s some foggy bits here) as well as eye exams and some toward the purchase of glasses. With the prescriptions, we can apply to get extended benefits if our income is low enough. Because Bran is taking a whole lot more medications and my income is low, we should get partial coverage by the province and the supplementary coverage through the work plan will take care of the rest, except for dispensing fees. That might ensure that Bran doesn’t go over the yearly cap. Lower drug costs are a good thing.

As I said before, I’m not part of the life insurance plan offered through work because I’m depressed and fat (go figure) so I have to get private life insurance. I’m also going to look into disability insurance for me as I’m the primary wage earner of the family. That’s down the road though as we couldn’t afford that right now.

I finally got my wire today. I’ve already made a nice bracelet using chrysoprase stones (they’re May’s semi-precious stone, I can’t afford emeralds). They’re expensive little buggers those stones. I’m not sure I like the bracelet as it is right now, but it’s a start. I’ll take a picture of it and post it here and you can let me know what you think. I also repaired and shorted the chain on Bran’s medic-alert bracelet. I did up a few earring chandeliers as well. So far working with stainless steel is a bit of a challenge as it’s more stiff than the copper wire I was working with, but it makes stronger jewelry.

I took my library books into the university library, turn in the keys to the grad students’ office and to my locker and gave my form of withdrawal to the secretary for sociology grad students. I did that yesterday after a delicious sushi lunch. I was offered some treats from Tim Horton’s but I was too full. I would’ve needed a ram rod to eat anything more at that time. I haven’t heard from the woman who was my supervisor since I told her I would be withdrawing from the grad studies program. I think she’s mad at me. Oh well. This isn’t about her, it’s about me. I had a lovely chat with another of the profs who encouraged me to the program and wrote me a letter supporting me when I applied. She understands that I need to leave even if she doesn’t know the reasons. I’m doing this for me. I already feel an enormous sense of relief with that burden gone.

Last night, as I was working away at my desk, Michelle brought by a large piece of very rich, very fragrant chocolate cake. I commented when we were out for sushi earlier in the day that the chocolate cake they had there just wasn’t up to meeting the requirements of the craving that was created by the cook at work making chocolate cake the previous Friday. Since the cook was making “finger foods” for supper (an entire meal of appetizers) I didn’t want to spoil what little appetite I had left after the large sushi lunch by eating the cake. Instead I sniffed it…several times through the evening. I also knew that it was large and rich and I probably wouldn’t be able to eat the entire thing. So I shared it with Bran. He also had a chocolate cake craving since Friday. He shared his bit with Boy who didn’t crave chocolate cake but is always up for a treat. I did eat the majority of the piece though, probably a little over 2/3 of it. It was glorious! It was rich! It was the perfect chocolate cake. Thank you, Michelle!

So that’s about it. Thank you to all who commented with such wonderful support. It’s been a really hard few months. Having support, both from my family here and from all you and work as well has made the difficult times easier to cope with. I appreciate your words and intent more than you could possibly know.

Geez Louise! It’s nearly 3 am. Then again, I’ve only been home for 3 hours. That’s like 8 pm for people on regular hours.

Ta-Ra