How do you feel today? v. 3.0

[Savor Dam]

Rob, I still think you should try to meet up with whichever Watchers are still in San Francisco when you go there for work. Yes, it will be similar to meeting those of us at ElohimFest; but since you travel there more frequently, you may develop deeper fried ships there overtime.

I believe deep fried ships is a culinary specialty sold to tourists on Fishermans Wharf.

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Social dynamics have certainly changed in the last decade or so. It's not necessarily worse, just different.

Mixed feelings...still a couple days leave left, but on the down-side...back to work on Wednesday.

--A

[deer of the dawn]

I am also back to work on Wednesday. That is, that's when students arrive back at school; starting Friday teachers were around for meetings and sorting our rooms and lesson plans.

I am actually looking forward to it. I spent all summer recovering from burnout from last year. This year I plan not to go there again. It starts with putting my foot down and setting some boundaries in places where my principal won't want them, but I have my health to think of. Chronic pain really sucks and it makes people uncomfortable to acknowledge but that's my reality now, unfortunately.

But, today I feel pretty good, so I am grateful for that!!

[aliantha]

Hugs to them what needs them.

Looks like the estate progress was somewhat of a false alarm. My brother was supposed to get me all of the financial stuff over the weekend, right? He said there was a lot of stuff -- too expensive to mail, apparently -- so he was going to set up something on his server so that I could go in and download it all, so I could finish the paperwork to file with the court. I work for a law firm, remember, and we deal with confidential stuff all the time; we use a program called Box to do what Dropbox does, but more securely, and so I suggested to him that I could set up a folder in Box for him to upload everything there. I thought it would save us both time.

So I set up the file and send him the directions for getting into it. And he emails me back and says that it looked fine until he got to the point in the directions where it said that our setup was optimized for IE and Chrome -- neither of which he has. Now, he's told me before that he's using Linux as his OS, so I get that he wouldn't have IE. (I'd dump Exploder in a heartbeat if it weren't impossible to extricate from Windows 7...) But WTF? He can't be using Firefox, can he? Or Safari? What else *is* there? Opera?

And "optimized for" doesn't mean the others won't work, for crying out loud.

Anyway, that was Saturday. Yesterday morning, it dawned on me that what he intends to send me is all eight years of bank statements and the like. So I shot him another email saying that really, all I need is the spreadsheet or ledger pages or whatever he's been using to keep track of the income/outgo.

No response so far. Which means, I suspect, that he doesn't *have* a spreadsheet or ledger -- he's just been looking at the bank statements and shoving them in a box. And now he wants to dump the data entry work on somebody else.

I mean, I'll do it. But I am just so done with dealing with him.

[Sorus]

Aren't Linux users usually tech geeks? Sorry you have to deal with all that. Family, eh?

I'm going to vent about work. Because I was sick most of last week, and I came in anyway (and they wouldn't even let me go home early), and I did my best - considering I had a high fever and was getting dizzy every time I stood up too fast (which they knew), and I know I left a lot of stuff unfinished when I went home on Friday. I also knew that the person who said he'd help with the unfinished stuff wasn't going to do any of it. I thought maybe they'd see how much I actually do, and how quickly it can go to hell if I'm not feeling 100%, but no. I got torn a new one first thing today for leaving stuff unfinished. I apologized. I reminded him that I'd been sick. It wasn't good enough. I'm up for review in a couple of weeks, and I know this is going to be his excuse for not giving me a raise this year. Need to find a new job...

[aliantha]

Family, indeed. He says he got everything uploaded today. I'll check it when I get to work tomorrow and see how much of it I need to print. Stay tuned...

Also, your boss is a doink. And yes, new job.

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I feel like I'm back at work.

As always, it's like I was never away, apart from the 100's of emails.

Also feel like this is shaping up to be a hell of a quiet month on the Watch...

--A

[Sorus]

A doink? Adding that to the repertoire of invective I've been thinking very loudly in his general direction...

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Oh, there are so many of them out there.

I'm still not back into work. Bleh.

--A

[Sorus]

So many what? Doinks? I know. Believe me, I know.

[Avatar]

Yep.

I feel like I need this weekend. What I should do is sleep. What I will do is play more FO4 and get moaned at by the GF.

--A

[Iolanthe]

Sorry to be quiet again. Havin more probs. Typing with right hand only; haematoma in left boob due to core biopsy. A & E last Thursday admitted overnight on a drip, low blood pressure due to blood loss. When will this ever end? One thing after another.

[aliantha]

OMG, Io. If it's not one thing, it's another. Feel better!

The estate follies continue. After doing all that work over the past week, I emailed the estate attorney yesterday and let him know I what I had, and how best to get it to him. He emailed me back almost immediately -- keep in mind that this is the guy who my brother claimed would not respond to him -- and said he'd take care of the paperwork; the only thing he needed from me was my consent to the final distribution. Really? My brother couldn't have told me that in April?

Anyway, I wrote right back and gave my consent, and the lawyer said he would send each of us a document to sign today.

I'm not gonna throw a party 'til I have the check in hand. But at least I feel like we've made progress.

Oh -- and I should warn y'all that I'm likely to be scarce for the next few days again. I'm taking a quick road trip, and who knows how the hotel wi-fi will be...

[Sorus]

Sorry Io - that sounds quite unpleasant. Good luck on the results of the biopsy.

The estate follies continue. After doing all that work over the past week, I emailed the estate attorney yesterday and let him know I what I had, and how best to get it to him. He emailed me back almost immediately -- keep in mind that this is the guy who my brother claimed would not respond to him -- and said he'd take care of the paperwork; the only thing he needed from me was my consent to the final distribution. Really? My brother couldn't have told me that in April?

He's probably thrilled to be working with someone who's actually interested in getting it done.

[Iolanthe]

Thanks Sorus and Ali. Better today. Still swollen but not so much and less painful. Started using arnica cream on the bruising. The cut they made seems to be no longer bleeding.

Saw the head man on Thursday (appointment 4.15, got to see him at 6.00!). Still no cancer cells found but there were some abnormal cells that they will keep an eye on. I have to have another ultra sound scan on Tuesday re the haematoma. He says he can aspirate it when it becomes more liquid!! In 5 weeks another mamogram - they put a titanium marker in where the lump is and have to check it. I should have had that done on the 4th but didn't because they spent so long trying to stop the bleeding. I hope this titanium thing doesn't send the airport alarm bells ringing

Feel a little happier today.

[lorin]

Hi everyone, been awhile and I think I owe an explanation. It's kind of "the world crashed into lorin" kind of story.

I'll start easy hardest (or is it the hardest easy) thing. BEWARE TEXTING TEENS! On 2/9/16 I was driving down a small Long Islandish highway near my house in my beloved Prius. A young woman decided (later to find out while texting) to cross one mall across the highway to another mall. Not sure what she was thinking but she cut in front of me (never saw her) in her Suburban. I broadsided her, then bounced into the parking lot she was aiming for, hit another car and crashed to a stop into the third. What I remember before I passed out was my car was aiming right for a stroller where the mother was standing, loading the trunk. I went to sleep thinking I killed a baby. When I woke believing I was a murderer and my life was over, I found out the mother had pulled the stroller away at the last minute. That was the good news. The bad news was everything else. I crushed three vertebra in my lower back, two in my neck, detached my meniscus and lots of other goodies. For the first few weeks after the accident I had speech and memory loss, which was really weird. I would be with my cousin, knew I knew her, but didn't know her. I stuttered, couldn't find words, it was all so weird. In April I stabilized enough to have my lower back repaired. They removed three vertebra , replaced it with cadaver bone and bars. It actually feels ok. Because the bone is still mushy I have to wait until November to do the same thing with my neck. And my knee repair will be last. The hard thing is I've lost fine motor skills with my hands. No jewelry making, no long amounts of typing. Since my fingers are numb I have to watch the keyboard when I type. But that's ok. Needless to say, my Prius lost the battle. Didn't get much for it since it had 180,000 miles. But I cashed out some retirement money and got myself a tank. Screw the environment, I am going to win the next 'battle'. I got a Subaru Forester which I'm proud to say gets a whopping 23mpg! Even with all this, I am grateful. I didn't kill a baby, so everything else is cake.

#2 on the hit(ha ha...get it?) parade: My father was diagnosed with bladder cancer exactly during the time of the accident. I won't go into details but it didn't have to be this bad. He should have gotten a second opinion over a year ago, but like a lot of old people, 'he liked the doctor' and kept going to her. So by the time it was finally determined he had a tumor the size of an orange and had to have an ostomy. After the surgery he began to deteriorate, with infection after infection. My father is not a fighter. Three months in the hospital and they decided he was going to die and sent him home with hospice care. And now he is doing fine. Going out to eat, doing the Florida old people thing etc. All this because he refused to get a second opinion.

Lastly Helldog is coming to her end of time. She has torn both knees and I no longer have the money for another surgery. So she hops around on three legs but it is getting harder and harder for her because she is favoring the leg that was operated on. So her time is coming, but I don't have the emotional strength to put her down yet.

I spend some time on FB because they have lots of groups for the crafts Im interested in but have eased off recently because watching and not doing is depressing. The hardest thing is the inactivity while the bone sets. I wear a bone growth stimulator to help things along. But no bending, lifting, twisting, can't use my hands. If I put on a knee brace I am up to about 2 blocks but have a tendency to fall which is very dangerous. Been trying to watch my weight with all this inactivity.

I am sorry this post is all about me. I will read back and catch up. I am going to be in Abq for the fest. Hope to see some of you there!

[Sorus]

Lorin. So sorry.

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Sheesh, rough one guys. Lorin, Io, get better fast, y'hear?

Hell, and I thought I felt rough because I didn't get enough sleep last night.

--A

[Iolanthe]

Dear Lorin, so sorry to hear of your troubles. Puts mine rather in the shade. One large boob is nothing compared to your injuries. You didn't say what happened to the texter. Is there a law against using a mobile in the car in America?

Hopefully we can commiserate together in ABQ. I still intend to come as I've been told that my swelling should have gone down in 5 weeks. Until then I'll be thinking of you. Don't want my boob exploding in the plane, do we?

[I'm Murrin]

I just got back from a long week away (thanks for noticing, folks ), first at the Edinburgh Fringe then Nine Worlds Geekfest in London. Really fun week, my anxiety got the better of me last night but other than that I had a good time. I also saw Les Miserables on Thursday, a show I'd never seen before, and it was really great.