What a way to start the year…
Where to start, how about the fact I have still not been to work this new year. Nothing wrong with that, right? I was going to complain that I wasn’t going to get a vacation this year. LOL. Thank God for FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act). While I was approved for it at work in order to take care of my wife, I had only accrued about 100 hours of sick time (from when I had my ACL surgery 3 years prior). I had used my 60 hours of vacation during Christmas week and a few days the weeks before. So while all of this time away is “paid” I will basically be left with only some floating holidays when I get back to work.
As for my wife, she is doing much better, compared to this time some 2 weeks ago. We visit the doctor for her second follow up on Monday. Not sure if he will be recommending physical therapy at that time or not. She does seem to do very well in the mornings when she first gets up. As the day wears on, depending on how much time she has been on her feet, her pain will vary. Since we still have stairs in the house, she is up and does those a few times each day. She walks with a walker, we have a temporary handicap placard for parking and many ventures out have taken more time, for obvious reasons.
I continue to wait on her daily, thus the reason I have not returned to work. She has been able to do more and more as the days roll by, but still has many limitations when it comes to what she cannot accomplish without assistance. There is still a long road ahead, but I do think the worst is behind us. She still cannot drive, but that should pose too much of a problem with me being scheduled to start work again on Thursday.
As for the house, we are more settled in than we were 2 weeks ago. Is that really saying much? Most of the boxes in the garage have been emptied and I can now count the remaining boxes on one hand and some of those won’t be emptied. I am still amazed at the amount of “crap” I continue to carry with me. I have thousands of baseball cards and countless collectibles I have collected over the year. While I haven’t followed baseball or any sports (outside of soccer) I still continue to cling to these possessions, debating if I should sell them. Currently they sit in a storage unit, along with other possessions and stuff from our old house.
I am maybe a few steps closer to getting my amateur radio on the air, but just came to the realization I won’t be mounting the hex beam on the roof. I made a venture up there the other day and was very surprised at how slippery the Spanish tile were. It was all I could do to mount my weather station to the facia of the roof without falling off. While I spoke of buying a 55′ tilt-over, crank up tower, I am now having second thoughts as to just what it would take on my part to get it to Oakley. Even if I got it home, there is no guarantee I would get it erected. That is something I would need to check with the city first.
