Care Giver

For the last couple months, the wife and I have been dealing with her medical condition. Diverticulitis flared up and produced an abscess on her colon. A week in the local hospital calmed down the abscess, which was surgically removed in a colon resection three weeks later. This next week, four weeks after the last hospital stay, she will go in again to have an ileostomy reversed. It has been quite an ordeal, as she has been tremendously weakened by all this.

Throughout all of it, with the exception of a couple visiting nurse visits, I have been caring for her as well as working, cleaning, and all the other mundane things necessary to keep up a household. There are moments when I feel a bit sorry for myself, what with having to do all this stuff, but mostly, it reminds me of what she was doing every day while I was at work. If you ever start to feel like you're not in a partnership with your spouse, try doing it all yourself. It is amazing how soon you realize that there is a lot of stuff you do not appreciate that is being done while you are not looking. Take a few minutes and remind your spouse, life-partner, POSSLQ, that you appreciate what he or she does to add to your shared quality of life.

Some pictures from my wife's trip tp Italy

Replacement Car

I am a bit of a car nut, always looking at Corvettes and classic cars. I have always enjoyed the mechanical and artistic aspects of cars. So after owning my ultra dependable Toyota Avalon for the last few years, I started looking around for something different, sportier, with more personality. I thought about a 'vette, but they do sit pretty low, and getting in and out may prove to be a bit less graceful than in my earlier days. So I was looking at the new Buick Regal Turbo, which is really an Opel. I looked at the new Volvo S-60. Both very nice. At the same lot as the Volvo, I found a Certified Previously-Owned 2007 Jaguar XJ8L. Which I bought. Very luxurious, and it is sporty as well, being powered by a reasonably powerful 4.2 liter V-8. It has lots of gadgets which I am familiarizing myself with. Here's a couple pictures:

The summer has sizzled past me

It has been a hot summer here in Huntsville, pretty humid as well, although not much rain for the last month or so. Today, Tropical Storm Lee is approaching, with the promise of a few days worth of much-needed rain. Hopefully, no tornadoes or flooding. I have not inspired to write much in the blog lately, life goes on with most of the normal stuff happening.

We had some issues with the house we rent, the realty management company has been pretty good for getting stuff repaired, the singular exception being the high end stove we have in the kitchen. It blew a circuit board or something during cleaning the oven, so we've been without an oven for over a month. I managed to totally incinerate a pizza in the barbecue before learning how to gauge when its done. And without an oven available, it is amazing, you start to crave things that require baking. Like meat loaf, or pot roast.

We have been trying to plan a vacation this year, and have settled on spending a week or so in Sante Fe, New Mexico. We've not been there before, and it sounds a lot like another favorite of ours, Sedona, AZ. So barring any unforeseen things, we'll head out the first of October for a week.

Mid-May Update

We survived the big storms and tornadoes of a couple weeks ago. Suffered no damage, unlike so many other folks here in Alabama. The biggest tornado, an EF-5, passed just a few miles north of us. We feel quite fortunate to have been spared.

The storm knocked out 1600 miles of power lines in Alabama, according to the TVA. We were without power for 5 or 6 days. The storm hit on a Wednesday afternoon, and we drove to Nashville to get a generator on Friday morning. We saved the food in our 'fridge and freezer, and were able to survive reasonably well. We grilled some, and because we have a gas stove, were able to cook indoors. Hot water was the biggest challenge.

It took another few days before I was able to go back to work, but even that is pretty much back to normal. As we drive around the area, it is sobering to see the damage, but also encouraging to see people working hard to clean up and put things back in order.

My lovely bride left for a long-planned trip today. She is going to accompany her 89-year old mother in Italy for a few weeks, so the dogs and I are by ourselves for that time. I miss her already.

Things have a way of working out

The deal with the renters for our house in Sugar Land never worked out. We never heard from that realtor again. Our movers showed up, and we emptied the house. We found a nice house in Huntsville to rent. Shortly after we got here, our realtor called with an offer on our house. After a few days of negotiation, we reached an agreement and on Monday the 28th of March we closed. Yeah! Our check from closing was delivered the next day and we used it to open an account at the local Credit Union. A week later, the check was recalled. Apparently the issuing bank didn't do something right. So they wired the money to our new account, but that didn't go right either. Finally, I went in to the credit union and asked them what was going on. They called the issuing bank and got the rest of whatever information didn't come with the wire transfer and now all's well with the world. For the moment at least. Worked on the few remaining boxes in the garage this weekend, a few more to go, and maybe we can park both cars in the garage!

Another change (for the better) in our lives

For the past six months or so, I've been working here in Huntsville, and traveling back to visit my wife every month or so. Not the greatest situation, but our house in Sugar Land just wasn't getting sold. So recently, we received an application to lease the house for a year, and everything about the potential lessors checked out well. We advised our agent we were amenable to this, and at about the same time, received word that our other house in Tennessee was going to be rented by my cousin's oldest daughter and her husband. Great!

We found a house to rent here in Huntsville, and scheduled the movers to show up and get all our stuff here. That's supposed to start tomorrow, 2/24. I'll fly back to Houston and we'll drive back here over the weekend. Our stuff will show up in a day two afterwards. The only hitch in this giddy-up is that the lessor's company is balking at our rent amount, so we must wait while they evaluate some comparable rent amounts to see if it will all go through and get approved. Keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well.

A big change in Egypt

I have travelled to Egypt many times on business and once for pleasure. On each trip I have been touched by the hospitality and gentility of the people. I have never felt unsafe in Egypt. During most of my trips, at one point or another, traffic was stopped and held at rest while Mr. Mubarek took a ride to get from one place to another. I was often struck by the sheer disregard for the business of running Cairo, for the inconvenience caused to 20,000,000 people because one of them decided he needed to get a caramel latte at the 7-11. Or whatever the reason was.

I believe Mubarak was for the most part a benevolent dictator, but a dictator nonetheless. I am glad he realized that a graceful exit was the most advantageous.

I hope the upcoming elections are spirited and provide some choices for the Egyptian people. I hope to go back again someday and enjoy their smiles, their culture, their history. They added an important chapter today.