Medical innovations

All three of us have been embarking on medical innovations. At a quarterly visit with one of Vincent’s doctors, the doctor heard more stories about Vincent’s long sleeping and sometimes sleepless nights and laid out a path for Vincent to take a waking-up medication that might require a sleep apnea diagnosis – so off Vincent is to a sleep specialist later this month. Although Vincent’s got less than a month to finish his English class, he’s been periodically energetic, apparently writing down ideas for novels, scripts, or video game storyline ideas. Vincent apparently came back from a counseling session with this idea – ostensibly to do research for Asian-themed story lines – by going back – 2 ½ years after quitting – to St. Matthews Martial Arts, where teachers all seemed to remember him.

As I continue to go to physical therapy to work on my knee, I’ve gone back also for an aspect of the shoulder-neck-back problem that began during a June 2006 visit to Michigan. I had hoped to combine knee and shoulder visits – but I’m having to separate them , for reasons of time – and so I’m going not only for essentially do-it-yourself work on my knee, but also work on my shoulder, for which I need more help. On my first visit my PT found evidence of shoulder problems and gave me a chiropractic-style intervention that I’ve only gotten for this injury (not for the knee injury). We also took about her idea (an epidural) and my idea (acupuncture?). PT for two different injuries for a while.

Stephanie’s forays into sewing classes helped her realize that it’s not easy to find patterns that fit her, and some patterns may produce clothes that need to be altered. That – and a return to Weight Watchers, with its new Points Plus system – got her not only to count points (plus) again but to use our gym membership regularly. After going to the Breckinridge Inn gym/pool twice in one year (for some $600 – that’s $300 per family visit), we’ve gone five times in the past month – including three times in the past week. Now, in turns out that some of the knee weight machines actually bother my knee. But between swimming and weight machines and the stationary bike/”elliptical” machine – both of us have been losing weight.

-- Perry

Emergencies

Last week we faced a number of emergencies:

- We discovered that all of Vincent’s three online dual-enrollment high school/college classes had “timed out,” after four months and lost the money invested in them. We were able to get Vincent signed up again for one of the classes, at the same reduced rate, although incompletes will now show up on a community college transcript for him. As he tries a third time to complete this class, it’s more clear he will have until the end of February only.

- Contractors for the gas company came to our house to dig up our lawn and upgrade our natural gas links and they decided our natural gas hook-up to our dryer was outdated and shut it off, pending replacement. (The picture above shows the bulldozer they left in front of our house for a couple of days.) We were eventually able to reach our landlord and persuade him to consider covering this, and a plumber was out to our house today to do so. Our dryer should now run after being out of commission for nearly a week.

- Taking some of my stuff up to file in my boxes in the second-floor alcove, I made what may have been a mistake of peeking into Vincent’s room (which takes up most of the second floor and has no door). His room was a disaster area and this eventually led to our first post-Vincent returning argument. We seem to have made up – although I promptly left for a long weekend for work – even though Sunday night (by days of the week) was the one-year anniversary of the big argument we had that triggered Vincent’s ten-month stay with his father in Ohio. Stay tuned.

In the midst of the construction and dryer problems last week, bad weather – including two tornadoes – struck Kentuckiana. Vincent and the dog had to go into the basement, my colleagues with windows had to leave their offices, and Stephanie’s school lost power and then had to spend an hour on the floor in the hallways. Some of the kids were upset, and the events threw the whole week off.

- This past week Grandpa Beck, Uncle Don, Aunt Sandy, and her sisters helped arrange for him to shift from regular home health care, with extra therapy, to hospice care. This should give Don, Sandy, and June extra help but will mean that there are limits to what health-care workers are to do to keep Grandpa alive if he goes to the hospital. More on this later.

P.S. During my last few minutes at the sociology of religion conference my colleagues and I went to last weekend, I managed to inadvertently humiliate my manager, in a way that I imagine he’s still annoyed about. Although I’m relieved the conference – including my presentation and several other projects I was trying to get done by the end of the month – is over, as well as the election (in 20 hours), November brings the final few weeks for me to get things done before my Annual Review – probably at the end of the month – including two Panel reports, a Panel reestablishment time line, and so on. Already my manager seems annoyed that the November Panel survey is obviously going to go out late. And another mediocre Annual Review would not be a good way to go into the next round of layoffs in a year or two.

In up and down health news, Mom tried a new machine that assesses balance this week, and came through with flying colors, impressing her former physical therapists and not appearing to be the resident most likely to fall. On the other hand, I left a drawer open in the bathroom and Stephanie’s foot was injured – and bloodied – in an incident shortly thereafter.

- Perry

More victory!

Surprise!

Thursday night my new urologist called and said that my blood test results with regard to my prostate were OK, but that I had low testosterone. TOngith Stephanie read more about this and this can be connected with a whole nexus of male menopause/andropause symptom and it has some weird treatments, which the doctor alluded to. I am to get another blood test and see him in six months.

Friday - after almost finishing one of his on-line classes in time for his Mom's birthday - Vincent first said explicitly what we suspected recently - that he thinks he'll stay here with us instead of going back to Ohio and staying with his father. He was somewhat disappointed with his father aborted a planned-for move to Florida and he told Stephanie he's been surprised how easily he's almost finished this class here. They don't currently have Internet access in the RV they were staying in - with no working toilet or shower. Today Vincent highlighted the creature comforts - a bed, food (homecooked by Mom), Internet access, video games - and didn't say what I think is also true: we've been getting along pretty well, enjoying each other's company, and for better or worse we haven't been bugging Vincent much about things we used to (school work, getting a job, cleaning his room, bad language, etc.). We've also done some fun things together. I wouldn't say Vincent is that much less isolated here - he's really disengaged from his friends (including ones we don't like) and stayed in the house for the most part - as in Ohio - but in principle he still knows how to get around here more (and Meemaw is no longer in Ohio). (We also do a better job of taking care of him - with doctor and dentist et al. visits - and he seems to have quit smoking here!).

Sunday night two more surprises awaited us when I pulled the two baby turtles out fo their habitat and put them in bowls of dechlorinated water with a piece of dog food I'd been soaking. First, it appeared after a while that Big Mac - who I saw on Saturday in the contained with food in the habitat - had defecated (which they would do in the water), and then Filet of Fish - the scrawnier, less active baby turtle - whom Dr. Williams and her colleagues had tube fed - began to bite at the piece of dog food. Filet of Fish ate! Check out the video above for more evidence of this.

-- Perry

- Perry

Other health

Aunt June and Aunt Sandy called us Tuesday to tell us that Grandpa Beck, 97, is in the hospital, facing undetermined ailments. His blood county and kidney count are low, he has bronchitis, and it's possible he had some mini-strokes. We may visit this weekend. We feel bad that we didn't spend time with him this summer, as we did last summer. This is complex, since Vincent has talked about returning to Ohio this weekend, but we don't necessarily want to encourage that (and all of us going to Ohio would certainly encourage that). I may go alone. This may impact Mom's visit, slated to start in eight days, since we may want to include an Ohio visit, which wasn't originally planned.

This week Mom is taking a two-morning AARP driving class, which hopefully is giving her tips on how to perfect her driving strategies and assess her driving abilities. After trying and failing at participating in a swim class several months ago, Mom engaged in regular one-on-one swim lessons. Her mixed feelings about water, being out of the water for 30 years, and Parkinson's made the in-class experience scary and humiliating. But her general work on stretching, strengthening, and balancing - and her specific work in the pool - made her return to the swim class a success. She's still better at some things than others, but no panic in the pool this time. Good work, Mom!

Our doctor said Tuesday that I have an infection in my inner ear - my stubborn than the more run-of-the-mill infections Vincent and I had last month - and so he put me on a new round of medication. If that doesn't work, I may head off to an ear, nose, and throat specialist, potentially to have the fluid in my inner ear drained though a tube (through my ear drum!). To try to prevent the need for this, I'm also supposed to do things like I do in an ascending or descending plane to clear my ears.

No luck feeding the turtles. We are buying a new heating element to try to get the terrarium at a better temperature (instead of only 77 degrees or 107 degrees). We tried hand feeding Monday and Big Mac tried to bite Stephanie (hope that's a good sign, that he's trying to eat)! It's very hard to get the pieces of food small enough (especially cutting up live worms into small pieces). We were also told we could try fruit.

Heard from Penny Tuesday on how Serge and Jacob's birthday parties went last week. It turns out that she and I will both be in the D.C./Baltimore area - me for a conference for work, her for another round of movement classes - so she may stay with me in Baltimore one night.

P.S. Our Weight Watchers leader and meeting were in the Louisville paper today. Check the article and accompanying pictures out at: http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010309220035

-- Perry

More health

Friday I took Vincent for his follow-up visit to the oral surgeon did removed his wisdom teeth. Vincent’s mouth had been bothering him all week, but when we got there the doctor removed Vincent’s stitches (I missed it – I was out with the dog – in a couple of minutes. Vincent has used up almost a whole bottle of Advil, but is getting better. I’ve faced health issues as I re-re-injured my right knee (on my way to the doctor three weeks ago) and have started going back irregularly to physical therapy. Fall allergies – worsened by dust in Nancy and Bob’s basement and Nancy’s things now in our house. When I went to the doctor, I got some antibiotics for among other things an ear infection. Replacing it was a weirder ear condition that has made my hearing a little worse and has lately mimicked tennitis. Tuesday I go back to the doctor – but no running to the bus this time. In between, I’ll hope that my allergies and sneezing don’t wake me up in the middle of the night again. We’re also fighting health problems with our baby turtles, who haven’t eaten after three and a half weeks (despite one and a half reptile vet visits). This week we’re going to try to a different heat lamp.

-- Perry

Baby turtles

For years one of our adult turtles, Speckles, has been laying eggs once or twice a year. In recent years, we've adopted an elaborate incubation system for the eggs, but grew pessimistic about them hatching (We knew they could be fertilized.). Imagine Stephane's surprise two weeks ago when she noticed something moving in the incubation chamber, and found not one but two apparently less than one-day-old baby turtles. We've done lots of research since, but haven't got them to eat, which we are very concerned about. We've created a somewhat different kind of habitat for them than for their parents, tried different foods, and tried fiddling with the temperature and lighting (and tried taking them outside). Their father (Greenville) went on a five-month hunger strike when he first connected with us, but the vet we took them to last week said the babies definitely wouldn't last that long. Wish for patience and ingenuity for us and energy, healing, and (eating) inquisitiveness on the part of the babies, who Stephanie have dubbed Big Mac and Filet of Fish.

-- Perry

Challenges

Tough couple of days coming up: stressful encounteres anticipated, with a church meeting Friday and then spending time with Stephanie's stepfather and stepsiblings. We'll hope to see Vincent during this.) Also Friday: Mom shifts the stuff she couldn't fit in her apartment from a storage space a couple of miles away to a space within her retirement center complex. Keep all of us in mind as we make our way through these days.

-- Perry

First day

First day of school for Stephanie, and first day back for both of us. It's the first day for teachers in her school district (with no big district-wide meeting this year), but no doubt there will be some meetings today and Tuesday at her school. Students arrive Wednesday; Stephanie is supposed to not have students until later, but she now has a classroommate, and her students, and her classroommate spent all last week what Stephanie had planned to do: set up the classroom ("volunteering"), them having both moved over the summer and now sharing a classroom. We'll see what kind of negotiation there is with her (Tiffany) and with their principal (Susie Gahan). Stephanie also doesn't know what she's teaching exactly, who she's teaching, whether she's doing after school activities (she didn't sign up for this), let alone do any lesson planning. You'll recall that the school lost the 5th grade, which Stephanie used to teach, but gained 100 extra students, plus the usual new students, with all of the district-wide school closings. Also, last year, Stephanie started teaching the READ 180 intervention program and sometimes math, in addition to teaching English as a new language, and we'll see what happens with that. You'll also recall that a district-wide ENL administrator got promoted.

(Also: As part of the reorganization, the school district switched the middle school and elementary school times, and now elementary schools start earlier, and so Stephanie must be there at 7:40 a.m., instead of at 8:15 a.m. We both got up at 5 a.m., and I may start coming in to work at 7:30 a.m. instead of more like 8:15 a.m. myself. Even if we're not carpooling, things work better if we leave at around the same time.)

Things are also a little different at my work, where I've also been gone for a week. I had to clear out much of my office before I left (when I thought I was going to meeting in Chicago), for recarpeting and refinishing the desks, etc. This is done, but now I must move back in. I've lost my telephone, which I'll probably have to pay to replace. I have behind with a range of projects and am slated to go to a couple of conferences in Atlanta for five days, starting this Thursday PM, and must prepare a Friday AM presentation for that (plus church meetings this Wednesday). Lots to do while we also try to follow up on this past week's events.

P.S. I did get some good health news for me over the weekend, although some follow-up is needed.

-- Perry

Missing Nancy

Stephanie called me at 3:45 a.m., after texting Vincent, to tell me the news. Hard to believe that just two months ago Nancy (pictured above during Night 1 of that long weekend) joined us for a marathon weekend that included 2 1/2 hours at a largely outdoor Beatles festival and 10 races at Churchill Downs and two weeks ago Stephanie and Nancy went shopping for a wedding present for Dustin and Jamie at Kohl's in Pickerington. Nancy went through an awful in the last eight years - with her car accident, Bobby's illness, and her own illness - and she remained determined and in good spirits - and deepened her faith - during almost all of it. But we so wish we had even a few more months with you.

- Perry

Health and housing

Frisco spent a day at the vet, with vomiting, but was back Monday night, seemingly as good as ever (see above)– though he vomited again Thursday night. The half a dozen eggs Speckles laid late Saturday night continue not to look good, and the one good one she laid earlier this spring has done nothing. The Nissan is still in the shop, undergoing rear axle work. I completed my second week of physical therapy on my right knee. At some points during the day it feels great; other times it does not. I plan to bring my cane to Minnesota and Guatemala. Stephanie (pictured below) came home Tuesday night via the Cincinnati airport (without luggage - it arrived the next day) after a challenging nine days away (in China and elsewhere), jet lagged, exhausted, and with swollen ankles and a bad cold (probably due to exhaustion, too much salt and MSG, and lots of air pollution), but no blood clots. After working on the yard all day Wednesday, she slept all day Thursday. She took something like 1,300 photos while she was away and had an mediocre-to-OK excuse for not calling me from the LA airport and not contacting me by computer once she got to China. Although she did miss having dinner with my father in Koreatown, she did not miss having Peking duck in Peking. My Mother also started one-on-one water exercise classes this week. Although the water is still cold, she's done better at this than she did with the group class, although she may re-join that as she gets used to the water. The exercises she are doing are similar to what she does every morning in the gym, but these under water. She also continues a group exercise class also at the gym, I think twice a week.

Vincent and his father are awaiting the clean-up of their place-to-be in metro Columbus, while Mother awaits word Friday on the possible sale of her house after three months on the market (including one month - May - which was the worst market for U.S. home sales in years and years).

- Perry

Exercise

It’s easy to blame Mom for some of the physical problems she’s facing, although we also profited from her working many extra years for the Department of Education. Sitting behind a desk all day and being physically active only sporadically in recent years contributed to her physical problems today. One of those problems goes at least back to her knee replacement surgery, when she was not able to do some of the exercises to get back her range of motion and make it easier for her to get up off a chair.

Tuesday I got some of this medicine myself, however. Ten days ago I reinjured an old knee injury – that goes back to running in high school and then a 1994 NYC car accident – when I slammed my knee into a metal barrier I was trying to climb over (something I’ve done several dozen times there) while walking the dog. Not only did the circumstances seem freak/stupid, but – when I got to physical therapy – one thing the therapist asked me to do that I couldn’t do was lower my foot slower from one step to another – and it was clear this was not just due to my injury but due to my failure to work out my leg muscles, as I was to do at home after my 18 months of post-car accident PT. In other words, my recovery from this latest incident might have gone more quickly if I had only exercised my leg muscles more (Mom would be too nice to say: take that, son!).

My knee really hurt after I slammed it into the barrier. Unfortunately, I had a whole long list of activities planned for the rest of the day – including door-to-door canvassing in the mid 90s in New Albany between 2 and 4 in the afternoon – and I did them all. Very late in the weekend I iced my knee and elevated it, and I have taken some somewhat hat baths since then too. Gradually, I’ve gone to some of my whole post-injury routine: using a cane (sometimes) (I didn’t find it until Friday, after we had gotten the trunk fixed), not running at all, wrapping my knee in a Ace bandage, avoiding stairs or going very slowly up and down them, driving with my left foot, etc.

I did 18 months of PT back in 1994-95 partly because I loved it, and I loved going to my physical therapist in Louisville for my neck/back/shoulder injury. So, ten days after the accident, I was finally back up at KORT Spine and Sport (inside pictured above), a few blocks from our house, being diagnosed and then – the next morning – doing an hour of exercises and icing/electrical stimulation. Some of the exercises were surprisingly hard. Periodically after walking the dog in the morning I do about 5-10 minutes worth of exercises: including some I picked up from past yoga classes, some from 1994-95 PT, and some from Louisville PT a couple of years ago. However, I have never been good about using light weights to do leg lifts, which is the kind of exercise I needed so that I could step down from that stair slowly (instead of going . . . plunk!). I also have some electric stimulation device my Dad got me, that I haven’t gotten out for years. I may have to use all of these, as I try to figure out how to do PT for at least a few weeks while I try to negotiate my PT being gone next week and then me being gone to Minneapolis and then Guatemala after that. The big question: will they allow me to take a cane on the plane? It’s going to be an interesting – but sometimes painful – few weeks. And who knows whether Stephanie dodged the blood clot bullet on her elongated (but also spread out) transcontinental flight? She won’t tell.

P.S. Two more Mom connections: Mom and I may even be doing some of the same exercises (she formerly in physical therapy and now at home or at the gym; me in physical therapy). Also, I plan to check with the physical therapist/gym staff about whether Mom could use the facility to do some exercises if she were to visit us for a week or two at some point (so she wouldn't get too far behind with that).

-- Perry

Changes

Vincent and my car going through some changes. You’ll recall that Vincent his grandparents’ long stay at his father’s and his one-bedroom apartment in Columbus got them in hot water with their landlords. His father had talked with us about him trying to buy a house in Upper Arlington (?!). Then Franklin County had pushed Vincent’s father to pay child support.

Vincent called Saturday and we got out of him that they lived their place near Easton, tried moving into a house and something like asbestos in the house made his father sick, and so they’re staying in a motel while the landlord cleans it up. Vincent didn’t say where in metro Columbus they were staying or arre staying now. Vincent called us putatively to try connect the WiFi on his father’s family’s laptop from a Bob Evans near where they’re staying (putatively to work on his classes). Apparently they can’t afford to pay the extra WiFi charge at the motel. (We weren’t able to help him figure how to get it connected.)

We’ve been working on Vincent to try to get him to go to our cousin Dustin’s wedding, at his mother’s house in Canal Winchester. We got the surprise news that he and girlfriend Jamie are getting married next month, via Facebook message. We met Jamie earlier this spring at cousin Corey’s wedding to Brittany.
Vincent says he’s been working six days a week at Bob Evans.

Ever since we got the brown Nissan back from my sister a couple of years ago, I’ve almost never locked it because the alarm system goes crazy when I try to unlock it. Twice this month – including until almost midnight Thursday – the alarm system has gone off and these times it just wouldn’t quit (even if we got the sound to stop, the car still wouldn’t stop) and so we had the car towed to a nearby mechanic. Whatever they did the first time obviously didn’t entirely solve the problem, and so back it went Friday night. Friday Stephanie got it back: They didn’t charge us, but said if we wanted to fix we’d have to take it to the Nissan dealer (presumably expensive), but gave us some advice on how to keep the alarm off. We decided to risk it and not take it to the dealer – yet, even though this is a good time to take cars in since Stephanie is not working.

One of the reasons I’m sometimes tempted to lock the car is that the trunk – which worked some until a few months ago, when my key broke off into the trunk when I was parked at a metered spot downtown – doesn’t work. A couple of months ago I took the car to a local St. Matthews locksmith. They got the remains of the key out and oiled the lock, but we still couldn’t get the trunk open. They recommended I try taking the car not to the dealer but to another locksmith on the far end of town. Friday – on the way from the doctor’s to the track for the Friday night under the lights – we decided to drop the car off at this locksmith. Saturday lunchtime we went back and got it. They said the oil must have seeped in by then and the trunk lock was working fine, and sure enough it was. They said we’d need to oil it regularly. No charge. So we got some advice from folks at both of these businesses and no charge, although we had to drive to the southern part of town once (although we’d found time to do it).

Hopefully Vincent will get into their apartment soon, and we’ll stay trouble free with my car’s alarm system and trunk lock.

-- Perry

Busy week

Last Friday was the last day at work for Mom and the last day of the school year (without kids) for Stephanie. Mom’s colleagues had a modest-sized good-bye party for her, and she went through some more files. She still has a work laptop at home and a very complex table of numbers she’s trying to finish working out.

Monday morning Mom lost the close-to-the-building handicapped parking space she had informally used since she moved to the retirement center and will have to use a space she now has at an outlying parking lot. Along with not having to drive to work, this will encourage her to drive even less frequently. Mom has consoled herself about her retirement by continuing to tackle a host of transition business she’s got to take care of. She’s also begun visiting and participating several different above-ground and in-the-pool exercise classes at the retirement center. Mom hasn’t been swimming since the early 1970s, and so we’ll see how that goes. Mom concedes that she has gotten out of shape and hopes to remedy some of that without straining too much. (Her initial swim class and riding the center shuttle to a shopping mall Thursday didn’t go great.) Mom also faces challenges settling into a dining routine she likes (as practices at the retirement center continue to change) and finding people she enjoys eating with.

Stephanie ended up going back to school every day during the first four days of the week (volunteering all but one of the days). She finished packing up – or bringing home – the stuff in her old classroom and helped the custodians move some of it to the much smaller new classroom she’ll be sharing with another teacher. Tuesday Vincent and the dog went to help her. Vincent has been here for most of the week.

While I was away for the weekend, Vincent’s father – on a moving job to a nearby town – essentially brought Vincent here. Vincent – who still has a job as a Bob Evans dishwasher up in Columbus - was here ostensibly for an informal one-year class reunion of his old high school and a doctor’s appointment. As usual, Vincent spent the first couple of days here out with friends – although this with a friend we approve of - and then was tired and somewhat grouchy much of the rest of the time. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all eventful. The two kids Vincent hung out with most of the time he was here back in April – who soon thereafter got arrested – had tried to be in touch with him, and stopped by several times. Vincent finally visited with one of them, but apparently told this kid – who is probably headed to prison – that he wanted to take a break.

Then Monday, when Vincent went to counseling – in the end, with Stephanie and Frisco – Vincent, apparently tiring of counseling – brought up stuff from the long past. He’s apparently been going through some of his father’s court records and started a debate with his mother about who was right in the expensive trial we were in vs. his father some 10 years ago. Tuesday and Wednesday Vincent went to the doctor and then an oral surgeon and then set up an early September for having two of his wisdom teeth out (an experience, Vincent recalls, that was particularly painful some 14 years ago for his mother). Thursday Vincent’s father called to explain that the child support enforcement office in Ohio had finally gotten on him, threatening his driver’s license if he didn’t start paying child support, and he enlisted Stephanie’s aid in lowering the monthly amount due (never mind that the final amount to be paid is shrinking in real terms, due to interest and inflation). Stephanie also got out of Vincent that – being kicked out of their apartment for having two extra people (Vincent’s grandparents) for the past few months – they kicked out the grandparents but are now having to look for a new place to live. (The child support enforcement effort may put a crimp in their plan to buy a fancy house in Upper Arlington.)

(Vincent also reprised his knife incident in a very small way by knocking over and braking a glass jar with marbles in it but also surprised us by going to church for the first time in months, for a Wednesday night dinner designed partly to help out people in the congregation – like us – having trouble making ends meet, with a free meal.)

Unsure about how to afford the time and money to driving Vincent all the way to Ohio Thursday (Vincent pitched that we shouldn’t do the usual meeting his father in Covington (KY) just south of Cincinnati), instead, for the first time, we drove him to the Cincinnati bus station and but him on a Greyhound bus for Columbus. This was a trial run and he should be able to do the whole bus route between Louisville and Columbus at some point (but not if he has a lot of stuff). With a driver’s license or not, his father picked him up last night and they got home safely last night. Vincent was to work this morning.

(In the past, Vincent’s father has gotten out of the driver’s license penalty by saying he can’t work – driving a moving truck – without a license and therefore wouldn’t be able to pay child support anyway. But it’s a vicious circle, because when he gets his license back and works, he doesn’t pay any child support either.)

(Because Vincent’s relationship with his friends here has dwindled – except for the friends in trouble who he broke it up with – and I guess except for the guy he hung out with this past weekend – having Vincent home this week – when he wasn’t asleep – especially since Stephanie was home some of the time – was a bit like back when Vincent was on house arrest, in that he was willing to hang out with us and do stuff with us. Vincent and Stephanie watched “Ghost Hunters” and a PBS show about ferrets and their people on TV together Wednesday night.)

-- Perry

Countdown

Four more days of work for two people in our family: till the end of the school year for Stephanie (who will take all but the last week of summer off, because the school district couldn’t afford to have summer school, and is currently spending part of her time at work packing up her books, files, and so on, since she'll be moving to a former closet, which she'll share with a colleague, over the summer); and – apparently – for the rest of her life for my Mother. Mom is trying to finish two projects at home and to go in to work (in the Florida Education Center - or Turlington Building - pictured above) to go through more of her files. A couple of months ago she gave her manager June 4 as the date. Mom is not advertising the end of her 35 years with the Florida Department of Education as much as she might because she has mixed feelings about wrapping things up, as her health really pressed her to do it. Jacob has another week and a half of school. This weekend I may see Penny, Jacob, and Serge, as I head through there on my way to or from a college reunion in Pennsylvania. At this point, Stephanie is slated to stay home, as Vincent will be back with his own little one-year reunion and a doctor’s appointment.

-- Perry

Cyber-activists!

Stephanie and Vincent have both become cyber-activists! Vincent told us last weekend he’s been spending some time on-line arguing – apparently in chat rooms or through comments on-line – in sites frequented by the Nation of Islam (black separatist strand of Islam at one point associated with Malcolm X) and white separatists. He said the white separatists have kicked off their website three times. Earlier this week Stephanie started a new Facebook “group” called “Boycott BP until the oil spill is stopped” (logo she used for the group above). Said Stephanie in her invitation to join the group: "If Facebook can get Betty White on SNL maybe we can do something even more important! Let us send a message to BP that we need this oil spill stopped." We’ll see what Stephanie and other members do with the group. I know when we drive to and from Florida this weekend we’ll be avoiding gassing up at BP gas stations. Check it out on Facebook!

Perry

Family news

Friday is the big day at my job. Earlier this week Mom got the go ahead to work at home, up until her retirement date (June 4). She went in for several days and got some important work done that she could have only done in the office. She met with a fitness center staff and was a little surprised that she can only mainly do what she’s been doing at the gym (she missed a couple of days when she was at the office most of the day) – She may have to consider breaking down and do exercises in the pool. Hasn’t gone swimming for 32 years.

I called Mom’s realtor’s office about whether we could get in to see Mom’s house during our brief visit next week, and she said that prospective landlords – attracted by the four bedrooms – have been the biggest draw to see the house so far. One person who visited didn’t like the house backing onto the apartment complex (over the fence). The pictures on the realtor’s website certainly don’t show the complex behind the house (though it peaks out behind the fence in the picture above). The bigger recent challenge as been the now student rentals on both sides of Mom’s house, and we probably won’t feel great about contributing to that.

(Mom will also be headed to the doctor's office Friday for a routine visit.)

Stephanie’s had a crazy week, staying at school to work late every night, five nights in a row. Tuesday afternoon was the probably the last district-wide English as a new language teaching staff meeting with the long-time leader, who will probably have different responsibilities next year (and Stephanie’s Camry may get fixed as a follow-up to that meeting). Tuesday night brought a very modest-sized group of parents and children coming mainly from the school whose families tried to hard to keep it from getting closed (the school that President Bush visited several years ago). But one Silver Street parent said he opposed the closing but was excited about Fairmont’s diversity (including many of Stephanie’s students). Wednesday afternoon brought some annoyances but bottom line a visit by a group of district staff, local academics, and state staff eager to let the IN education officials how Stephanie’s ENL program could be a model for others around the state.

(Earlier Thursday Stephanie also took her fifth-grade ENL students - and this year the fourth-graders too - in an annual field trip to see the middle school where most of them will be attending and to meet some of the staff. The regular ENL teacher - the one injured in a bad car accident this winter - is of course still out. But they met the long-term sub who Stephanie met last week, as she's a student in one of the Indiana University Southeast teaching ENL classes.)

Undergoing new treatment, Stephanie’s mother is already seeing some new side effects (without the old side effects all going away). Earlier this month Nancy and Bob had their swimming pool filled in with a dirt – a pool that Vincent, Stephanie, and I enjoyed regularly – and that dates back almost to when Stephanie, Nancy, and Bob first lived there. Maintenance is a challenge, and neither Nancy nor Bob ought to be outside in the sun.

-- Perry

Job news

Lots of job news today. Stephanie learned that she has got a final positive recommendation from her principal before she goes up for tenure – over the summer? – with the school district and school board. Stephanie - still recovering from being ill - stays late at school all week this week: Tuesday night for an open house for families of incoming students, aimed particularly of parents of one the four schools that the school district is closing next month, most of whose current kindergarteners, 1st-, 2nd- and, 3rd-graders will be coming to Fairmont. (Families associated with this school had in recent years campaigned very hard to keep the school open.)

I learned at a big all-staff meeting that there will be a net loss of 45 jobs at the Presbyterian Center. Friday is still layoff day. Apparently people won’t have to leave immediately or lose their e-mail accounts immediately. I looked up more information about layoff policies (which would include about eight months of pay and benefits for me). My Mom learns more Tuesday about whether she will be able to work at home for her last three weeks or so of work. She had started to do so but then learned that it wasn’t all approved. For the first time in months, last week she started going back to work. June 4 is the day she set as a retirement day. Stephanie and I are set to visit her and go to a high school reunion for me later this month.

And then there’s kids news: Vincent and Stephanie talked twice briefly by phone on Mother’s Day. And, just as importantly: Today we got a chance for new kids! As she often does in the spring, Speckles laid an egg – but just one (unusually), so far.

Indian Lake

Click on the arrow below to see Indian Lake (from Lakeside, OH) on a cloudy April morning (where we stayed and then awoke two weeks ago tonight)

Mid-week musings

Good news and bad news: Our church had been wavering on whether to go ahead with a Guatemala mission trip in July, with dwindling numbers on our end, and Tuesday we determined that we have 5-6 people going and we would go ahead and go. A surprise late addition was the Guatemalan American daughter of the man who was a guest pastor for us for six weeks several years ago (her first chance to go home in 3 ½ years). The bad news is that now I have to finish organizing the mission trip (which helps me avoid paying much).

Tuesday I also got my first speeding ticket in 10 years, and in a school zone (I don’t know how I missed that blinking light), which means I can’t just mail in a check and must also go to three-hour traffic school and be even more careful in the future. A fellow church member who is a lawyer contacted me via Facebook and phone and is going to try to help me get the court fee waived (and maybe get out of making an appearance).

On his birthday, Vincent commented on my Facebook page for the first time ever. He was slated to go to see the movie Kick Ass with his father for his birthday. (We celebrated his birthday this past Friday and then went to Thunder Over Louisville Saturday with him.) Vincent said he was slated to start his Bob Evans job later this week. I didn’t ask him about starting his classes (clearly he’d been on the computer) and he continued his hermit line which may mask that he’s bored and depressed and has got no non-family friends in Ohio (and for that matter doesn’t see his relatives on Stephanie or my sides of the family – he seems dead set on boycotting Corey’s wedding this Saturday). Stephanie wasn’t really able to reach him on his birthday.

One of my first assignments at the Presbyterian Center was to write a report for a Presbyterian Panel survey that I had not authored – about attitudes towards reparations. Later on I had gotten assigned a second Panel report – for which I had drafted a small part of the survey – which I’d never finished. More than a year ago I got the transfer/promotion that made me administrator of the Presbyterian Panel (random samples of Presbyterian church elders, other members, and ministers whom we send questionnaires about various topics four times a year), and yet I had not finished that report or any for the three or four surveys that I have worked on since becoming an administrator – something my managers were not happy about and was not good given the impending layoff date (May 14). This week final hard-copy versions of two Panel reports (the long delayed one and one for the first Panel survey I wrote entirely – the May 2009 survey on the Environment) came out and I distributed them. If I can just finish two more Panel reports before May 14 . . .

--Perry