January slipped away without my knowing. Five AM Monday as I sit here feeling rested and ready for a new month. I have a difficult Client situation to deal with today. I find it interesting that many of my Clients seem to believe that nothing in the plant ever wears out unless it is production equipment, yet they understand the cost of a plumber, electrician or auto technician in the private lives. Today is also chemo day, last of the series. While I have a tentative date to restart in a couple of weeks I want to discuss my status with Dr. H after the CT scan and then decide if we proceed with this course of action or not.
Chemo went off OK except for the infusion nurse blowing a vein. This is the second time she has been my nurse and the second time she has hurt me. As I have learned in the process no two nurses poke the same way. Some are painless, some are clumsy, slow and/or make it hurt more. Chemo starts with the taking of blood to test to determine my fitness for the poisons. Van noted a drop in white and red blood cell counts and a drop in creatinine in my blood report. I figured that was just part of the chemo consequence.
Tori, normally my Nurse for the initial inspection and blood draw is moving to Denver. I told her had I lived in Denver we would not be going through this today, as there are cliffs in Colorado. She laughed but I was most likely serious. Her ability to stick and hit the first time with minimal pain, sometimes no pain is extraordinary. I only wish she could teach her technique to some of the infusion Nurses who need the lesson. She will be sorely missed I fear, so to speak.
The roads are solid ice and the weather continues to punish this first of February. The vehicles are encased in ½” of solid ice. The snow is covered by a laminate layer of clear and white ice and sleet, supporting my 200 lb frame with ease and barely a creek or crack. It is perfect for sliding and tomorrow I am likely going in search of something to slide on around here. Vanessa may lose a Rubbermaid tub lid. We only had the office open for a few hours today and by afternoon this part of the state was pretty much hunkered down. The weather people on television continue to threaten us with massive power outages. Even I have been spooked into charging all batteries for lights, putting 10 gallons of water in the tub for flushes, getting sandwich makings to eat if we cannot cook. We are all electric and I have a Majestic gas log stove in the fireplace running on propane, which this last fill was a stunning 4.55/gallon plus a few bucks in administrative and tax cost. The stove gives us nominal back up heat. The power is now flickering on and off so I will shut down for a while.
In the dark of night I took a rubber mallet to the car and truck carefully tapping and breaking the shell of 1” thick ice that encased both. It took about an hour but I did get windows and doors cleared and vehicles started and warmed in the even we need them. That same ice also coats the roads out here, yard, deck, roofs etc. so I hope I do not have to go anywhere. All of the working out allowed me to sleep well although I was up very early and unable to go back to bed. We have not lost power to date through this storm most likely because we prepared for it. Today the storm is passed. Once again Angela the weather comedian missed the mark. No wide spread damage or power outages from ice that never materialized. We got sleet and snow instead. Oh I know it could have been ice but it was not, and once again her certainty has totally missed the mark. This morning I watched as a TV reporter wandered a grocery store. At last the connection between the TV news and the milk and bread team has been blatantly exposed.
I went out at 3P and with my trusty bin lid carefully maneuvered to the top of the hill in the front yard and road the lid down on the solid glaze. The sun today melted the top and it quickly refroze with the afternoon cloud cover, now harder and more difficult than ever. I managed to do it 3 times and rested for about an hour. I took a pain pill before I started and now I am in great shape. Vanessa is on a tear around the house cleaning like mad (cabin fever). Fortunately she has a lot of tutoring scheduled tonight on line to keep her mind occupied. I must admit the place looks great and it is difficult to find a dust bunny anywhere. I put a finer filter in the air handler this time and got the genuine OEM elements. The house has always been a dust haven and I am experimenting with ventilation as a way to alleviate some of that. Bad enough we have a feline dander bomb roaming the castle.
Work is keeping me hopping which is good. I am talking to a lot of really nice people and it is a ton of fun. The challenge is of course to make orders happen. Oh well, I am getting half of it done. Thursday morning and the Government has appeared with plows and chemicals to dig us all out.
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