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Hospital Visits, Craft Fairs, and Nine Hours of News

07 Friday Nov 2025

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Patriotic Black Slate Coaster

If you’ve known me for more than five minutes, you know I live by my calendar. It’s not just a planner — it’s my Bible, my life map, and my emotional support spreadsheet. I color-code, I plan ahead, and if something’s not on the schedule, it’s basically not real.

So imagine my stress level when my mom landed in the hospital and my siblings decided we all need to “take turns sitting with her.”

Now, before anyone clutches their pearls — she’s fine. She’s getting great care from an entire team of professionals who actually know what they’re doing. The woman is being treated better than most people at a five-star resort.

Meanwhile, my siblings and I are out here acting like we need to take shifts in case she suddenly decides to join the Hospital Olympics. Spoiler alert: she’s not going anywhere.

The thing is, I’ve got a craft fair coming up next weekend, and that means I need to be creating — not sitting in a hospital room pretending to enjoy watching nine hours of nonstop news coverage. Nine. Hours. I don’t even like watching nine minutes of the news. I can only listen to so many “breaking” stories about things that broke three days ago before I start questioning my life choices.

But there I sit, smiling, nodding, pretending I’m not slowly dying inside while she argues with the TV. I could be home making candles, painting signs, or doing literally anything that doesn’t involve election updates.

And when I say, “Hey, my schedule’s packed,” my siblings look at me like I just said I’m skipping Christmas. Listen, I love Mom. I’ll visit. I’ll call. I’ll even bring snacks. But she’s being well cared for — by actual trained professionals — while I’m over here trying to figure out if I can make fifty more gnomes before Friday.

So no, I’m not heartless. I’m just scheduled. And if loving my mom and respecting my calendar at the same time is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.

Life Has its Ups and Downs.

09 Sunday Feb 2020

Posted by in diet, Disability, Family, Retirement, Weight Loss

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A shelf I built for the kitchen but ended up in the garage

Life has been so stressful lately and I guess I eat more when I’m stressed.  I thought when I retired my life would be less stressful but lately, it hasn’t been the case. I’ve tried to stay on my diet but that hasn’t worked out so well.  The good news is that I’m back on it and I’ve already lost six pounds.  I’ve set mini goals and I’m about four pounds before I reach my first ten-pound mini-goal.  My twin daughters will be graduating from college in May.  They want to go on a cruise in June so this has given me an incentive to lose about twenty pounds before the trip.  I really hope I can do it.

As I’ve stated last time I wrote, I had applied for Social Security disability.  I had my hearing and I got a favorable decision.  I’m still waiting on my backpay as well as my first check.  This whole process has me concerned somewhat.  I’m not surer If I can explain it or not but it makes me feel inferior or worthless.  I’ve worked all my life and over thirty-two years at my last job, not they’re telling me that I can’t work.  I feel like I can do something but I’ve got to be honest with myself, I do have trouble breathing when I do anything.  No one will hire me at my age with all the issues that I have.  So I guess I’ll just have to get over it.

The last two days have been dry and I’m glad it has because the few days before that it rained at least four inches in less than two days.  The next four days we’re supposed to get at between six and seven more inches.  There will be a lot of flooding and trees down.  Let’s hope that the severe weather that is projected for Wednesday is not too bad.

Tomorrow will be a hard day for me.  One of my friends worked for Kimberly Police department and was shot and killed the other day while on duty.  He will be buried tomorrow.  If you’re a praying person please pray for Nick O’Rear’s family.

365 Day Photo Challenge 212/365 “Took a Day”

30 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by in Photography

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My truck had to be towed to the shop yesterday because my shift cable had broke.  I decided to take the day off even though I really couldn’t afford to take off just to have a break from my bosses.  Work has become a source of stress that I really need to get a handle on.  With that said I decided to take the day off and go visit my daughters while they were at band camp.  I figured that if they could march in the 95 degree heat I could at the very least go and sit and watch them for an hour or so.

My truck is finally fixed so I guess I’ll be heading off to work tomorrow. It’s just a day until the weekend.  No plans thus far for the weekend except to relax and spend some time with the family.

“Life Goes On!”

365 Day Photo Challenge 161/365 “Tough Day”

09 Tuesday Jun 2015

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http://tchphotography.smugmug.com/Botanical-Gardens/i-WrdQdqB/A

It’s been a long day today.  I had to get up early this morning to 1) make sure my girls got off to work and 2) get my wife to the eye hospital to have Cataract surgery done. Getting my girls off was one thing but getting my wife to her appointment was another.  The smallest thing makes her nervous, so much so that it makes her sick to her stomach.  It’s like dealing with a five year old.  She also has a very low tolerance for pain.  A paper cut will cause her to scream for pain meds.

It was an early night for the girls.  They got home, ate the supper I prepared because the wife couldn’t do it and took their showers and went to bed.  They are currently working at a local water park and they have to stand up all day helping people on the water slides.  I’m hoping it’s making them a little more responsible.  It’s good for them. It was also an early night for the wife.  It was a very stressful day for her.

After the supper dishes were cleaned up and put away I was planning on going on a bike ride but mother nature had other plans. A couple of thunderstorms showed up and I don’t ride when it’s lightning.  Tomorrow means that I’ll be back at work catching up on what wasn’t done today while I wasn’t there.  Just one day closer to retirement is what I keep reminding myself.  Have I said lately how much I hate my job?

Hoping to get a ride in tomorrow to relieve some of this stress that’s building up inside me.  Twenty five miles should give me a good start.

“Life Goes On!”

Looking for a stress free zone.

29 Thursday May 2014

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The last month has been one of those months where nothing seemed to go right.  The last few weeks has just topped it all off.  

I had to have laser treatments in both my eyes and boy let me tell you what an experience that was.  Before my first treatment the doctor told me that there was no words in the English dictionary that would describe just how bright the laser was.  He was right.  I’ve never experienced anything like that before and I hope I don’t have to go through that again any time soon.

All the doctors seem to agree that the CML was the cause of my vision problems and not the Gleevec.  I am now back on my medications.  Although, I do believe my vision is getting a little worse as the time passes.  I don’t go back to either of my doctors until mid July.  

The weather here has been nice enough to ride my bicycle and I’m really glad.  It’s really been nice to be able to get out and do some riding to get rid of some of this stress that I’ve been having to deal with.  My job has really got me to a point where I’m counting the days until I can retire; 4 years, 2 months and 15 days.  In the last nine days I’ve been able to ride seven of those days at at least twenty miles each day.  I’ll be traveling to Dothan, Alabama on the sixth of June to ride in the Tri States Ride on the seventh of June.  I’ll be riding the 45 mile loop.

A lot of changes at work within the past month.  The manager we had resigned and now we have a new manager.  He’s got a military background and is very strict on policies and procedures.  Right now I don’t know if I like him or not.  I’ll have to give him another week or so.

The last two weeks I’ve been repairing air conditioning units on the roof of a warehouse.  Fifteen units to be exact.  Most has had bad compressors and or bad condenser fan motors.  It’s been a real hot job and we’re finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  However, rain has entered the equation and the lack of parts so we’ve had to put the repairs on hold until next week.  At least we’ll get a break for a couple of days.  

People keep asking me how I’m doing with my CML.  I’m doing good I guess.  Other than the eye problems and the leg cramps I’ve had no other symptoms of either the CML or the Gleevec.  I’m finally able to see some results of my bike riding plus the dehydration factor of being on the roof for two weeks has really helped out as well.