Vacation to Walt Disney World Parks

19 Sunday Jun 2016

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My first day back to work from a week long vacation is tomorrow and I should be going to bed but as luck would have it I’m waiting for a video to render on my computer.  Once that’s done I’ll eventually go on to bed.

The family and I  drove the ten hours back from Orlando on Friday.  We spent four days there and I must say we had a pretty good time.  Because of some breathing issues I had to cut my days a little short the last two days we were there.

We drove down on Sunday and if you’ve been following the news that’s when Orlando had the nightclub shooting which killed those 49 people.  Security was beefed up a bit and it took longer to get in so I’m told. And of course, we also learned of the tragic death of the two year old boy that got drug into the water and died.  Orlando had a trying week last week.

Like I said earlier, we had a pretty good time.  The lines were long, temps were high, food prices were high, some of the patrons were rude and the security was tight.  Nearly every ride my wife went on broke down at least twice during the ride.  Fast Trac was the only ride that offered another ride without having to start back at the beginning.

This trip was a graduation gift to my three kids.  Our son graduated from college and my two daughters graduated high school.  Taking three kids means that you have three opinions at which time caused problems within itself.  They either all wanted to do something different or just one wanted to something different.  I tried to stay neutral because this was their trip and I wanted to do what they wanted to do.  By Thursday afternoon I was tired of all the bickering I went back to the cabins so they would work it out themselves with me interfering.

We did encounter a couple of problems.  With the alligator incident Disney decided to close down all the beachfront activities which included the boat that left out of Fort Wilderness where we were staying.  If you stayed at Fort Wilderness Campgrounds the only transportation to the Magic Kingdom was to take the boat.  When the boy was attacked the transportation department didn’t realize this and stranded many guests.  Of course, you could hop a bus and go to another resort and catch another bus to Disney but that would take a lot of time and most likely they would lose their “Fastpass” time slot.  Communication between transportation and the resorts were non existent during this time and neither knew the answers to the questions being asked.  On Thursday I had a backstage pass to the steam locomotives and had to call many people just to get a ride from the campgrounds to the Magic Kingdom.  I made it just in time not to be late.

Most of the problems we had were personal and had to deal with it our own way.  When I say personal I mean being raised differently I guess.  An example;  When standing in line for a ride I would always give the person in front of me their “personal space”.  Meaning, I don’t want people breathing down my neck when we stopped or not bumping into me every time I stopped. Cutting in line.  We actually had adults send their kids in front of us and cut in line and once they were in place the adults would come up and join them.  I watched them do this several times by several different families.  Maybe that’s what they do in their countries but I have a problem with it.  Dress, or should I say lack of.  I saw teen girls wearing outfits that should only be worn in the presence of their own mother and no one else.  And another thing.  Just because you own the outfit doesn’t mean that you should wear it in public.  My kids are nearly grown and they were even embarrassed by them.

Well, the video is finished so I guess I’ll take my meds and go to bed.  All in all a good trip and would do it again if I had the money.  Next year will be a nice relaxing trip to the beach which is a lot closer and a lot less crowded.  I just hope my kids can work around their schedules and go with us.  They’re getting to the age now where they may not can go with us.

05 Sunday Jun 2016

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Tomorrow will be my first day back at work.  It’s been two weeks and I’m not real excited about going back.  I’m to the point that I just don’t care any more.  I had to use up all my vacation time and I’m scheduled to take a week of vacation in two weeks. I’m not sure how that’s going to work out.  My plans are to take a week off without pay. We’ll see how that goes.

It’s going to be rough getting up in the mornings because while I’ve been home I’ve been sleeping in to at least 8:30 or 9am.  I’ll have to get up at 6am to be able to get to work on time.  I think I can do this as long as they don’t have me climb a bunch of stairs or do a ton of walking.

Time to Vent

03 Friday Jun 2016

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November 2015 I caught the flu and spent 5 days at home.  December 2015 had kidney stones in which I spent another week at home.  Last week of December, 1st week in January 2016 I spent 4 days in the hospital with some sort of chest infection in which I was off a total of 2 weeks off from work.  With all that time off from November 2015 to the first week in January I used all of my vacation time.  From January to now trying my best to build my time back up which meant for every hour I spent at the doctor’s office I had to spend an hour working overtime without pay to make up for the time lost. I have vacation planned for week after next and I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to take off because someone came into work sick with the flu and I caught it.

I had finally built my time back up to 77 hours but I got sick with the flu and pneumonia and had to spend a week in the hospital and another week at home recuperating. This was very costly not only money wise but I missed some things that I’ll never get back.

While at the doctor’s office Monday a week ago, I passed out because my O2 levels were so low that  I had to be carted off to the hospital via ambulance.  That within itself is quite costly.  Two weeks of vacation time gone, my vacation to Disney is in jeopardy because I won’t have the time to take off and the most costly of all was the fact that I was not able to go to my daughter’s graduation from high school.

I have the most inconsiderate co workers that anyone can have.  They always come to work sick and in most cases, I end up catching whatever they have.  They don’t care either.  All they want to do is brag about how much time they’ve got accumulated.  This is twice in six months that I’ve used up all my vacation time being sick and I’m so mad right now that I could take these guys and beat their face in with my fist.

Thankfully my wife and kids have not gotten sick from me being sick.  While I was in the hospital they took all the necessary precautions by wearing a mask and disposable hospital gowns.  I’m better now but easily get out of breath when doing the least little thing.  I’m scheduled to go back to work on Monday.

Rant over.

The above picture was taken after the graduation was over by my son.  I think he’s got a hidden talent in photography.  He did an awesome job.

 

A Lot Going On

10 Tuesday May 2016

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It’s been a busy past few weeks here in the deep south. In fact, the whole month of May is going to be very busy.  My son graduated from the University of Alabama this past Friday evening, my twin daughters had their spring concert last week, and they had their awards program tonight to list a few.  I’ve got cataract surgery on Thursday, a bicycle ride that I’ll be working communication this Sunday and my daughters graduation in two weeks.  Not to mention a couple of other doctor appointments thrown in there for good measure.

I knew this month would be busy and I’m trying to build my vacation time up so I’ve been working a lot of overtime so as to not have to take personal time when taking time off.  It’s an okay plan but I’m not getting home until late and the girls have already gone to bed when I do get home.  I’ve got a week in June that I’ll be taking off to take the kids to Disney in Orlando Florida so I’ve got to have at least forty hours to be able to take off.  It will be close but I’ll make it.

Time For an Update!

24 Sunday Apr 2016

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It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted so I decided to give everyone an update, for those that are keeping up.

I haven’t been on the treadmill but the one time a few weeks ago.  It’s not the feet, it’s finding the time to get on there.  It’s been a very busy couple of weeks with three seniors around.  With award events, proms and other events such as birthday parties it’s been nonstop.  But, that hasn’t stopped me from doing what I can at work.  I’ve been taking the stairs instead of the elevators and walking upwards of 20,000 steps a day  and climbing around 20 to 25 floors a day.  Since I’ve started I’ve lost nearly eight pounds as of Saturday morning.  The bad thing is that, like this weekend with two birthday parties, it’s extremely hard to get my steps in on the weekends.  Next  weekend, just as this past weekend, will be a bust as far as exercise goes.  Saturday will be spent taking my daughters to where they’ll be going to college to try out for the band and later that evening we’ll be going to a band banquet with them. Sunday will be spent going to a spring concert that my daughters will be playing in.   I’ve got so much going on that I told my wife on the way to the party today that if it’s not on my calendar now, I won’t be going to anything else unless it’s an emergency.  I’m saying NO!!

 

Out of Shape :(

11 Monday Apr 2016

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After working all day and getting close to 15,000 steps on my Fitbit, I reluctantly got on the treadmill after eating supper.  In the past I have been able to reach speeds of 3.8 mph for 1.5 hrs but not tonight.  I started off at 3.2 mph and it wasn’t long before I realized I couldn’t keep up the pace.  I reduced the speed to 2.8 mph and tried to keep up for 30 minutes.  That was all I could do tonight.  I know it’s a start and I’ve gotta start somewhere  but I had no idea I was that out of shape.  I guess I’ll see how my feet do tomorrow.  Right now they’re a little sore but the true test comes the next day.

Thanks everyone for your kind words of support on my last post.  They are appreciated.

It’s Been a While

10 Sunday Apr 2016

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And it’s been a rough couple of months.  I had hoped that this year would be better but it’s been far from it.  I won’t bore everyone with the details but I’m hoping for a turning point soon.

By this time last year I had already put several hundred miles on my bicycle.  This year, not to much as a single mile has been put on the saddle.  Thanks to the new cancer meds I just don’t have the energy.  Everyday is a challenge just to get out of bed and go to work. I look forward to the end of the day when I can take a shower and sit in my recliner.  My weightloss goal that I’ve set for myself for my kids graduation is so far out of reach right now that I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no hope in ever reaching any type of goal, ever.

Things have got to turn around for me, and soon.  Tomorrow I will try again to get on my treadmill.  The problem I’ve had in the past four months is that my feet won’t let me.  They hurt me so bad toward the end of the day but tomorrow I will not let that get in my way.  If I don’t at least try to get my weight down by the end of May then I’ll feel like I’ve let only my kids down but myself down as well.

I’ll let everyone know how that works out.

Grayfeathers Blog; A Bit of Good News

14 Monday Mar 2016

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For those that are keeping up;  my parents are back at home and are doing pretty much everything on their own now.  They still are not able to cook much and basically they don’t have much of an appetite for food anyway.  My sister, as well as others, have cooked enough food for them to last a month or so and have frozen much of it so when they do get hungry all they have to do is nuke it in the microwave a couple of minutes.

Both mom and dad are off of the oxygen throughout the day.  However, mom still sleeps with her oxygen at about 1 ltr I believe.  They have also put away their walkers for good I’m told.  Dad is still having difficulty finding a comfortable place to sleep.  Neither one is able to lay flat on their bed so their both having to sit nearly straight up in order to get comfortable.  Dad often times gets up during the night and heads to the recliner and will sleep there for several hours.

Their lives has completely changed since the accident.  I doubt very seriously that they will ever get back to what I’d call normal.  However, mom keeps telling me that they are still here for a reason and that God has a mission for them to perform once they are able to get around better.  I can’t imagine what this mission would be but I’m sure mom will tell me when she finds out herself.

On a side note.  My daughters have been college hunting for quite some time now.  Once I think they have it figured out where they want to go my wife will bring up another school to consider.  I really wish she would stop doing that because we don’t have the money for one car much less money for two.  The wife and I have been praying for some sort of an answer as to which college to “push” them toward.  Since my son is about to graduate for Alabama university I figured it would be hands down which college these girls would want to go to.  I think they’ve known all along too but they keep going to these other colleges just to satisfy their mother.  We had an answer to our prayer this past Saturday.  Both my daughters not only got accepted into Alabama but they each have received scholarship money worth over $20,000.  For those that know math, that’s over $40,000 in scholarship money if they will choose Alabama as their college destination.  Guess which college they’ve sent acceptance letters to today?

We needed some good news in our household for once.  It’s been a long time since anything seemed to go our way.  There is some stuff going on with my health and my employment for that’s for another story.