Kevin's Watch

It's been a hectic month. Near the end of October, we had a fire at the house. It was a Wednesday afternoon when no one was home. It started outside on the porch, possibly from a lightning strike, and went into the wall behind the kitchen upstairs and the downstairs bathroom when the firefighters arrived. They put out the fire rather quickly, though they seemed to alert every fire department for 15 miles around. I saw a picture of the street lined up with a half a dozen tanker trucks.

Fortunately, my neighbor, who has had her house up for sale since July and whom I hadn't seen since then, happened to be passing by to pay my other neighbor for taking care of her yard. Seeing smoke come out of the house, and knowing we had pets, managed to get the dog out before the firefighters arrived. She then alerted the firefighters to our four cats.

Long story short, the house is uninhabitable. The kitchen and downstairs bathroom and laundry room took the most direct damage. there was some fire damage to a couple of beams in the roof and water damage over a slightly larger area and some smoke damage throughout.

For about two weeks we stayed with the gf's brother. Now, we arranged to rent the neighbor's house, conveniently empty. I'm typing this out while looking out the window at my wounded house. I'm reminded of a passage from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story, The Empty House.

"Do you know where we are?" he (Holmes) whispered.

"Surely that is Baker Street" I (Watson) answered, staring through the dim window.

"Exactly. We are in Camden House, which stands opposite to our own old quarters."

"But why are we here?"

"Because it commands so excellent a view of that picturesque pile.

So now we're settled in. The insurance company and my home contractor are close to establishing a scope of work and are scheduled to start demolition next week. Next week, we will also meet with the contractor to lay out what we mean have done otherwise. Restoration involves taking care of the number two and three items on my long term home renovation list: Re roof the place, next year's scheduled upgrade, and redo the kitchen, the project for two years from now. I've been assigning value to the items in the total loss list and hope to have that done this weekend.

It could have been a lot worse, but all the animals were rescued, and everything that was lost can be replaced.

I'm so sorry. Fire has always been one of my biggest fears. Glad all your animals are okay.

Damelon - thank God you are ok. and your animals too. you and yours will be in our prayers.

we are at Julie's sister's house taking care of my mother in law. that is why I am here. I had pneumonia (really still have a bit I believe) and ended up in the hospital for three days. they told me I need to see a neurologist for my migraines. they were giving morphine for them in the hospital and it was not touching them. the headache lasted some eight days.

I ended up missing the week long school for work, so I go in a week or so. other than that work has been good. our captain really likes me, we worked together at my old unit.

my brother had pneumonia the same time I did. not sure if I updated that some months ago the took part of one of his legs. he is on the transplant list for his kidneys. that situation is touch and go as always.

Julie is seeing a heart doctor, some recent tests forced that. will update when we know something.

Happy Holidays to all!

hoping Julie can get us back online at home. we have tv again, and she says we can sign up some sort of Hotspot thing.

that is it.

Wow, rough one Damelon. Hope you get things sorted soon. And hope everything turns out ok for you too Null.

I feel demotivated. 2 weeks until I'm on leave, can't come soon enough.

--A

Not one single post in Gen Disc in 24 hours? I feel let down...

--A

sgt.null wrote: we are at Julie's sister's house taking care of my mother in law. that is why I am here. I had pneumonia (really still have a bit I believe) and ended up in the hospital for three days. they told me I need to see a neurologist for my migraines. they were giving morphine for them in the hospital and it was not touching them. the headache lasted some eight days.

Good luck with the migraine thing (and everything else). Eight days, I'd be a danger to myself.

Hey guys, I'm at the hospital.
My older boy, aka "Little Mister "Mom, could you check 'Corrupt-a-Wish'?"...
...he has Type 1 diabetes!
So I'm hanging out with him.

The part before we had the diagnosis.. where he was getting thinner and thinner and feeling lethargic... that part was real bad!
I'm sure reality hasn't fully set in about this, but... I like that we know what the problem is, and I like that he's getting insulin.

Damelon- appreciated your picturesque Sherlock Holmes lament for your house.

Sarge-

Linna:

Both from the perspective of having gone through adverse diagnoses (deafness, leukemia...some 20 years apart) for Dam-et and having been down the diabetes trail (admittedly, Type 2, which is a different beast) with both myself and Menolly, I have a sense of how trying this moment is. With good care in this world and blessed overwatch from G-d, all will be well. Do what is needful for your son, yourself and your family; do not waste imagination on fruitless worry.

Identifying the issue is the most important part, so that's good at least.

Chin up all.

--A

Reading all the above I feel like a heel for posting, but I'll go ahead anyway because it may just help me take my mind off what's happening and keep me sane. My own fault really: my digestive system seems to be screwed this year and I have to be really careful what I eat and when. Today I took my eye off the ball and ate too much bread and crisps and sh*t and boy am I paying the price! Now I have the most painful indigestion - like a severe gall bladder attack - and I could cry. I've had them before and know the drill: it'll last four or five hours and then pass, but in the meantime I'm folded up like a pocket knife. The tablets I take (proton inhibitors daily) do help, but only if I'm not a stupid twat and do what I did today.

Man, pain sucks.......!

To try to cheer anybody up, a sample from a stand-up routine that I'll never perform.
It's that time of year when Christmas songs start making me angry. And the beginning of Rudolf is the worst.
So it begins: "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen" as you know. But the next line is just stupid. "But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all?" Well of course I do. Don't be daft.
It's like saying, "You know Biden and Kerry and Lew and Carter, Lynch and Jewell and Vilsack and Pritzker, But do you recall the name of our President?"
Or asking a kid, "You know Mewtwo and Noibat and Swalot and Hoopa, Jigglypuff and Psyduck and Stunky and Ledyba. But do you remember that little yellow Pokemon that seems to be the majority of the advertising?' C'MON!!

Sorry Linna, that's got to be rough for a kid. But like Av said, it's good to have a diagnosis and have treatment started. Hope he starts feeling better soon.

Cagliostro wrote: It's that time of year when Christmas songs start making me angry. And the beginning of Rudolf is the worst.

That is obnoxious, but I will maintain my opinion that the entirety of Jingle Bell Rock is the worst. I passed angry earlier in the week and have crossed over into snarky sarcastic commentary.

My wife can't stand the song that repeats the phrase over and over again, "Simply having a wonderful Christmas time."

How I miss Jenn's yearly rant about the Nutcracker.

There's one that plays at work that I haven't heard anywhere else, so not sure how mainstream it is, but it has a line about someone's 'eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree' - which my mind insists on rendering literally, and it's a rather terrifying mental image.

Most of the rest are too offensive to post here.

I hate 'em. My most annoying one is probably the the little drummer boy one...it's already playing bloody everywhere.

--A

Cagliostro wrote:My wife can't stand the song that repeats the phrase over and over again, "Simply having a wonderful Christmas time."

How I miss Jenn's yearly rant about the Nutcracker.

My daughter hates that Paul McCartney song as well and for the same reasons.

You guys are lucky - we have that Slade song that starts with Noddy Holder blaring out "IT'S CHRIIIISTMAS!!!" playing on the radio and TV about every two minutes untll Christmas Day, by which time they are illuminating your house with floodlights and playing it on full volume through your letterbox all night.

Bah humbug!

--A

Exactly: bah blooming humbug!

SD- thanks.
With blessed overwatch from God, indeed. All will be well.
Have no idea what good things are planned or appointed to come through this, but it could be tons.
There's a great variety in good.

I didn't know your son was deaf. From infancy?

Sorus wrote:Sorry Linna, that's got to be rough for a kid. But like Av said, it's good to have a diagnosis and have treatment started. Hope he starts feeling better soon.

Oh goodness yes... he's already gotten a bunch better.
He's been getting better since Monday.

And he's taking it really well.

Sorus wrote:That is obnoxious, but I will maintain my opinion that the entirety of Jingle Bell Rock is the worst. I passed angry earlier in the week and have crossed over into snarky sarcastic commentary.

oh, excellent. I really hated that song as a teen and was just amazed at the frequency with which it got played. ("Why? Why?")

Though I hate it somewhat less than I used to, it still bothers me that it's this song that constantly advertises itself as being about Christmas in basically every line ("hey, this song is STILL a song about Christmastime!") while managing to be almost completely devoid of content.

Cags- I kinda like it. (The stand-up routine, that is!)

Peter- don't feel like a heel for posting about your own pain.
(Is it better?)
I'm amused by your description of the obsession with that one song.