It's A Dreary Day In The Neighborhood

It's been raining pretty much since Adam left, nothing heavy - but constant. The yard squishes when I walk due to the Clay Stuff, I'm very careful to keep my balance as falling in that nasty stuff is WAY disgusting. It's all slick and slidy and impossible to get off. I had another job to do today, I hate admitting on the weekend as if there's a problem you're on your own - I had the wrong phone number, an address with no house number and the facility he'd been released from had the same info that I did. And of course no one was around for the weekend. I did track him down and got to see him today, but I hate having to waste half a day (when I could be knitting or something). Pearl has been driving us crazy, with it raining we haven't been walking this weekend and you can only stay out for so long so she's been amusing herself by following everyone, harassing the cats and just being a General Pest. The rain is supposed to continue until midweek and then the temp will drop dramatically which will interesting. We went to Sam's Club today to restock, we're trying to cut down on trips to the supermarket as it seems lately we're there everyday. As you can see, not much going on. Sigh

The Call Rotation

Yesterday was my first day back to work after vacation, this of course excludes the hour of phone calls on Thursday tracking down the medications and getting (and arguing) the amount of authorization I would need for my infusion. One of the things I've started doing for my job is getting auth which means when you do a visit, you need permission from the insurance company to do it. Their goal is to give you as little as possible - so it's sort of like flea market haggling but over the phone. If you're not careful you can lose a lot of money - for example they're always trying to give me 2 hours of auth for a 2 hour infusion, but I have to get 3 hours since there is an IV to start, etc so we haggle away. It's actually sort of fun in weird way if you have time for it. Anyhoo, I managed to get a walk in yesterday before making a Guest Star Appearance at work, yesterday was technically a "half day" but there were two infusions out in PA so I sucked it up. I came into work to see about 100 emails, sigh - but most were not directed at me - unsigh. I saw the nurse that quit, not so bad as she'll still be doing per diem for us. We hashed out the scheduling for next week, I finished up the paperwork I needed, and was out the door by 9:20 only to be back in the door by 9:25 as I had left the new patient's paperwork up on my desk. I've got two jobs to do this weekend so far but it's raining and after being on vacation for two weeks I sort of done with sitting around and stuff. It's supposed to rain all weekend, so there'll be time for that. David has been working on the house this past week, he took time off when Adam came home so he's busy finishing up some projects that he'd started in the fall. We've pretty much decided when Jackson graduates we'll put the house on the market, it's really way too big for the three of us and the 6 acres of yard have become nightmarish in the summer for David. David's on the fence about selling the two acres down front so the real estate agent is coming over on Thursday to reassess and advise him. After that we'll be looking for a much smaller house and a VERY SMALL YARD as per the person who has to do the mowing.

Reality Is Rearing It's Ugly Head Again

I had an awful time sleeping this morning, the 2 AM Girl decided to get an early start so I found myself around 1 AM repeating over and over none of this is real, I would deal with it in the morning, etc..and then of course I fell asleep just in time to get up. Sigh. Nothing tramatic really, little problems and issues blown way out  of proportion, stupid things becoming Epic Adventures In Neurosis. It's amazing how when morning rolls by I'm surprised that I even thought of these things, let alone stewed and fretted. The temps have dropped dramtically, it was only 20 this morning, I took my walk down by the river sans Pearl the Destroyer. She is improving, but with me being short of sleep I knew my temper would also be a bit short so she stayed home. I didn't want to lose any progress we've made because the OWNER couldn't behave! Adam emailed me this morning that he's back in Japan, the trip was uneventful and went smoothly so that relieved a bit of stress. While I was getting ready to walk I got a voice mail from work, my patient is fine with me coming at 10 am tomorrow morning, but did I know where his medication was..... so I got home and called the company that supplies him and got that straightened out. I've just been doing things today, got my oil changed, pictures made up, all in anticipation of going back to work tomorrow. This is the time I most desparately want to win the lottery, so I can perch on the end of the couch knitting and watching CSI Miami until my eyes fall out. Oh well, I guess I'd better get my car loaded back up........

Sleepwalkers

Adam's flight left at 6 am this morning which would have been convenient if a) we resided in Pittsburgh and b) we could've dropped him off at 5:55 - neither of these things were true. So we got up at 1:45 am Jackson included, I badgered everyone through showers and coffee and we were on the road at 3 am. Good thing as not only had the temp dropped but it was snowing alot in Morgantown, we started to worry but as we neared the airport it cleared completely. We made good time, I waited with Adam until he got checked in and hugged him goodbye. I watched him walk towards the boarding area - new regulations don't allow us to go with him, he got further and further away, smaller and smaller. It's so odd that he's been out of the house for 5 years and it still doesn't get any easier. The urge to run after him, just one more day before he goes so far away from us again. And of course I cried, but I'm getting better, I made it out to the truck - I hate to cry in front of him as it makes him feels bad and guilty - and he shouldn't. Your children leave home for two reasons -either they hate you and can't wait to get away, or you've given them enough confidence to be able to explore the world and know you'll always be there to catch them if they need it. Adam has assured us it's the latter. I know he would've liked it to be longer, it's so easy to fall back into your family rhythm, isn't it? But we knew he couldn't stay and I think after awhile, he wouldn't have wanted to - but how easy it is to deeply wish that things stay the same forever? In a couple of weeks things will be back to normal, I know part of this is because he just left and honestly, we're all over tired. Jackson lucked out because today became a snow day for him so he'll be off to Becky's for the afternoon - but he'll come back. I miss Adam so much all over again.

Back Home

On Sunday we managed to get ourselves together and out the door to Philly before noon. We went to the Mutter's Museum,it's all full of medical "curiosities" which is a lovely way of saying you can see every type of lesion, deformity or absolute disgust-o thing a body can grow in one place. There were wax replicas done in minute detail (did you know people can grow horn-like protusions and there was an 82 year old woman that had an 8" horn sticking out of her forehead?) or better yet - the real deal stuffed in a jar! Whoo hoo, giant skeletons, siamese twins or my favorite, the "megla - colon" which is probably more fun to look at than to own. I was finally retrieved by Jackson because apparently some people can only look at that stuff so much. We decided to split up which lasted for half an hour until we got a frantic call from Adam - remember he lost his ATM card the other day for awhile? Well, he went to take out money and found he was negative $204 and he'd had over $900 the day before. If I didn't know him better I would've panicked but I had him call the bank - the airline had delayed posting thier charge for the ticket and Mr. Moneybags never questioned the excess moola. Hmm. So I gave him some cash and he ran off again, since he was now a House Monkey with Money. We went to Johnny Rocket's for lunch and then walked around a bit. As we strolled along coming toward us was a young woman and a vizsla! Even more hilarious was the dog's name was also Jackson so of course I had to get a picture before we headed back to Janet and Di's. We left early this morning, Janet and Di had to go to work so we were on the road by 7:30, the traffic was light and we got home a little after 12. Adam said this has been a great vacation, better than he even thought it would be. Pearl was very excited to see us all back and gave us the standard Flying Greetings.

What A Beautiful Day

This is totally weird without pictures, isn't it? I think when I get home I can add them in so you'll all have to patient. I went walking yesterday morning, I have to admit it's a bit harder to do any signifcant walking here, there are no sidewalks or shoulders on the road so you really have to step carefully. I walked a bit down route 30 to the next housing development and did some tramping about there - all the new developments have sidewalks. When I got back I went to move my car to the parking lot - and it wouldn't start! One of the kids I suspect had left the interior light on and killed my battery so it wasn't too tramatic, but you know when you're not home it's always a bit more stressful especially since we have a 300 mile trek to do tomorrow. I've got AAA and Janet suggested we call when we get home since we were eating in. Adam had fun the other night out in Westchester, he found a live punk rock band playing, he said they weren't that good but he hung out with them after thier set and discussed all the bands they knew. Janet and Di picked him up around 3am and we didn't really get moving until 11 - everyone was slugging along. We didn't do too much, Janet took us to Barnes and Nobles, we had lunch at this great place called Appetizers On The Main and then to Lacaster to Reading Glass and China - I was VERY disappointed. I loved that store, you could get all sorts of housewares and glasses, etc at a fairly reasonable price, but Diane said they have new owners. All the prices were the same as Chef's Catalog which is the most expensive one you can order from, so I only got a few little dodads here and there. I figured there was no sense in carting all that stuff home if I could get it for less in WV. I called AAA wjhen we got home and they came pretty fast and got my car started. We had dinner in last night and watched movies, everyone is just getting up now. I poked my head out the door, the weather is still wonderful and I did start my car to check - when I get home I'm getting a new battery otherwise I'll be paranoid all the time.

You'll Have To Use Your Imagination

Since I'm a GUEST (haha that's right, someone does like me enough to let me in thier house) there will be no pictures so you'll just have to imagine the luxury and grandour of Pennsylvania which is only slightly swankier than WV.We made very good time yesterday, we sprung Jackson from the institution around 1-ish faking an appointment (well, we actually used the old "don't ask don't tell policy"), horsed down some Burger King and hit the road. Jackson drove for the first 140 miles, he can only go between 75 and 80 as he's on a permit which makes him the occasional Pouty Driver. I took over after the Cumberland Gap and we blew the amish skirts  up as we rolled into town around 5:30 or so.  There was a fake amish horse and wagon at the gas station and Jackson refused to let me take his picture in it, since he's still loaded from Christmas and his birthday he's not bribe-able for awhile. We did the King of Prussia mall today, the boys went off by themselves and we did Eddie Bauers, Bath and Body,etc.. Right before we left there was a flurry of panic as Adam had lost his ATM card which sucked ALOT as his bank is in Virginia and his mailing address is in Japan. We backtracked - no luck and then stopped at customer serivce to see what he should do. One phone call and we were down the hall to the security office, someone had found it and turned it in right away. That ratfink Adam is the luckiest person I know. So right now we're hanging out and the boys are playing video games, it's been raining all day but we don't care, it's fun just being here.