News

Good news and bad news: It appears that my health and job are somewhat secure for a while. Mid-year review went OK and blood test came up negative for cancer. Stephanie has met the new assistant principal for her school and had lunch with the person promoted to head up the school district English as a new language education program, and got along with them both. Mom's closing went fine - and she met and liked the young woman who will live there and her parents (and found that the A/C - probably 20-25 years old - died, but Mom had insured it for the whoever the buyer was before. Stephanie's mom also went home from the hospital, as her condition has improved somewhat.

Still, Nancy is weak and will be embarking on somewhat unfamiliar medical territory. And Vincent - we think - after he changed his mind and stayed in Ohio - apparently didn't get his job back (which he quit when he thought he was coming back home). Hopefully, Vincent will join Stephanie to visit Nancy and Bob at their home Saturday, while I entertain Peter and his family, before leaving for three days of meetings in Chicago Sunday night. Stephanie will come back to set up her room early this coming week.

-- Perry

Big 24 hours

It’s already started to be a big Wednesday/Thursday for us. In Ohio, as we speak, Stephanie’s Mom is getting out of the hospital and heading home. Also in Ohio, Vincent – who called us this morning and asked us to pick him up to come back for good today - is – having been persuaded to stay on – trying to make up with his father (maybe they'll even move to Florida together, Vincent said), with whom he’s been living in an RV parked in the front yard of a friend of his father’s.

Today Stephanie – having met Tuesday the new assistant principal at her school - had lunch with the person who has been promoted essentially to head up her school district’s English as a new language education program.

Thursday afternoon – more or less simultaneously – I’ll have my mid-year review – which I’m anxious about, all the more so in this layoff-prone environment – and Mom will go with her realtor to the closing on the house. If everything goes OK, I’ll still have a job Thursday evening, but Mom will no longer have a house. There are still a few things from the house – like a chair or two – that Mom needs to figure out what to do with.

-- Perry

First of the week

Leading into an unnerving Thursday Mid-Year Review - in the wake of a mediocre January review and May's layoffs - as well as an unnerving now-annual review of my student loan restructuring - are three medical appointments for me: follow-up to Friday's colonscopy (pictured above) which what Stephanie figured out was partly a test for prostate cancer; an follow-up to my knee reinjury with an orthopedist; and our first appointment with Vincent's/our counselor since Vincent's blow-up there earlier this summer (and our first appointment with her without Vincent since last winter).

Stephanie's Mother continues to be in the hospital - with some visitors. They've ruled out kidney problems, but she is still having bladdar problems.

Mom's realtor called to say that the closing Friday is apparently on, and so, by this weekend, Mom may no longer be a homeowner.

Stephanie was back to school for the first time in seven or so weeks, at a paid week-long district-wide curriculum planning activity. Next week she'll probably "volunteer" setting up her new half classroom.

After helping entertain houseguests this weekend, I'll be traveling a lot for work-related meetings/conference in the next couple of weeks: first to Chicago and then to Atlanta.

-- Perry

Back in the saddle

Thursday, after a six-week gap, we coughed up the money (with some help) to reestablish our hotel gym/pool membership, paying the extra $20 for a family membership, so Vincent is still on our membership. We hadn't been there for quite a while.

-- Perry

Thursday

We made it three for three today, as - having gotten a new furnace and new A/C unit during the past year or so - today we got a new water heater. I left work early today as I prepared for my first colonoscopy (Friday AM) - inspired by me going with Mom to get one in December. Nancy, Stephanie's Mom, got a blood transfusion earlier this week, as she fights side effects of cancer treatment. Frisco got dental work done Tuesday, and Vincent decided his breathing problems had subsided enough that he doesn't need to go to the doctor. Vincent said Wednesday he would go today in Columbus to take the written test for his learner's permit driver's license. And Stephanie tried enjoying her next-to-last free day of the summer (now interrupted by me). Next week she will be paid to go 8-4 to continuing education activities, and the week after - her last official week - while I'll be in Chicago, part of the time - she'll probably go ahead and "volunteer" and set up her classroom, which - for the first time in New Albany - she'll be sharing, and - for the first time in four years - will be a classroom that is new to her. Custodians, Stephanie, and Vincent already moved her paced boxes to the new classroom, but the room isn't really set up. We're also planning for Vincent's next visit here, an early-September visit that will combine routine health care check-ups with the removal of two of his wisdom teeth.

-- Perry

Housing and health

My Mother spent a nervous weekend waiting to hear whether the would-be buyer of her house would go ahead and buy. He had been trying to get Mom to pay to fix some additional wood rot that was found. But no final phone call came him and the drama will apparently go on until the end of the month, when the closing is scheduled. The buyer will lose some money if he does not go ahead with it. He's buying it for his daughter, a Florida State student, to live in (and probably housemates). Mom also reached a couple of milestones: she turned in the last work product for work - a short narrative describing and analyzing some data she had put into tables - and marked her fourth week of one-on-one swimming exercise activities.

Health problems also abounded in Central Ohio, where both Stephanie's Mother and Vincent have been having trouble breathing. The guess is that Nancy's problems stem from her cancer treatment and Vincent's from smoking and asthma. Nancy was slated to go to the doctor Tuesday to find out more. Vincent and his father - having left their apartment - somewhat near Vincent's work - are now staying very near the motel we sometimes stay at when we visit Ohio - and not too, too far from Stephanie's Mom. The two also had a short drive Saturday to Canal Winchester, scene of cousin Dustin and Jamie's wedding. Vincent and his father are currently staiying in an RV - apparently Vincent's grandparents' old RV - parked in the yard of a friend of Vincent's father. (They are quite far now from Vincent's job, at the North High Street Bob Evans.)

I'm wrapping up physical therapy this week (as my knee continues to feel better - the PT said I had gone from 45% to 85%), starting taking antibiotric for stomach problems I picked up in Guatemala, and start the prerlude Thursday for a Friday AM colonoscopy. i hope my current stomach problems do not jeopardize my colonoscopy.

-- Perry

Congrats!

Upon her return earlier this week, Stephanie learned that the New Albany-Floyd County (IN) school board had granted her tenure (having taught in the district for five years and her principal having giving her positive recommendations) (click on the image above to read the tenure letter). It’s complex because Stephanie occupies a niche. But, in general, it means it would be harder to lay her off and, if her position was eliminated, she could “bump” non-tenured teachers, if she were qualified for their positions.

Over the past week and a half, Mom received an offer on her house, went back and forth with the would-be buyer (a man buying the house for his daughter, who will attend Florida State, and presumably some housemates. Friday Mom’s realtor helped engineer a deal. In a couple of weeks the man will – or will not – put up a downpayment and then two weeks later a closing will take place. The downpayment will be big enough that if he pays it, he’ll definitely close. The sale somewhat official (at a somewhat discounted price), the house is apparently off the market for now. Mom doesn’t seem to be rushing back to see the house another time or two. She won’t have to worry about having to keep the outside mowed, etc., won’t have to keep paying pest control and utilities, and won’t have to worry about not being able to sell and having to rent it out.

- 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