One Day's Difference

Snow Now Gone!

Really lovely weather today, can't hardly believe that the snowstorm of last weekend happened.  Left for work with snow still on the ground, covering the yard, ice still showering down from the trees.  Came back from work this evening, and only a few little bits of snow were left.  The robins are happy, and we had two meadowlarks that were very bedraggled and sad about the snow so I'm hoping they are back to nesting now.  Looks like all the leaves in the yard tried to wash up on my back porch/patio though.

At work, got a different room and desk this week since apparently last week while I worked from home it was "Moving week" at the office!  I laugh everytime it happens - we play musical desks about every six to eight months where I work.  I really don't care where I sit (except next to the lunch room when I am nauseous is not so great) but I got moved out of the office of many lights to a nice warm room (actually hot in the summer) with fewer flourescents and some soft nice natural light.  My only request this time was that I NOT be moved to the super cold conference room area.  You can practically see your breath in there, and I think I would have to wear a winter coat all year long.  I think this one will be nice and toasty.  Yeah!  At least until next moving week, eh??

The new employee the trainer trainee is EXCELLENT!  I am holding my breath that she continues to like the company and the work.  She is bright, a quick learner, good sense of humor, and a great communicator.  Woo Hoo!  She has two school age boys, so I am hoping that the travel part of the job won't be too much for her.  I have such a great crew to work with: the programmers are fantastic, and the clients are great [even when I get client fatigue from being there too long], and now finally someone trainable with the ability to do the job!  Life is good at work, if I can just get the body to cooperate with the brain!

Not a great day for me pain wise, but am just sucking it up and moving forward.  Resting last weekend helped, but still very painful for me - especially driving. Can't take the meds and drive to work, so nothing until I get ready to go to bed. The Soma takes away a lot of the nerve pain, but I am left with pretty weak legs, so not too functional lately. Ah well, maybe tomorrow all will be normal!  After all, look what happened to the snow in one day!

Fire Tender

Furnace Woes

Today (really early early this AM) my furnace died.  It is only 10 years old, and the "cool air intake blower motor" decided to quit.  I will call the heating and cooling dudes tomorrow morning and get them to come out, order parts, and fix it.  If it had only waited a few more weeks, I might not have needed the repair until next fall.  Big Sigh.

Tonight I am tending a fire in my fireplace insert (a wood stove inserted into the fireplace space) and now have the house temperature almost up to eighty degrees.  My mother, being elderly, gets cold very easily and with The Headache I also cannot tolerate cool temperatures, so we generally keep the house at a tropical 82 degrees all year long.  In the summertime with high humidity I drop the temperature lower with air conditioning because my mother has difficulty breathing, but otherwise I live in a pretty warm house.  I am glad so far we have been able to afford the luxury of warmth.  The people who owned this house before me heated only with wood using the fireplace insert (it has temperature contolled blowers which helped keep the temp even throughout the house) but my mom has allergy issues with wood smoke, so I only use it on the coldest nights or in case of emergencies like now.

The Headache and The Belly are not happy with me lifting good sized logs to put them on the fire.  Neither problem likes the movement or the exercise I guess.  My nerve pain in the pelvic region is on overdrive and the nerve pain in my feet is excruciating.  Not sure if this is aggravated by the heavy lifting or if it just the result of being poked and prodded last week during my cancer checkup, but my legs are very weak too which happens when the nerve pain gets bad.

I'm sorta excited about work next week because my sweet boss hired another trainer to replace the one who only lasted a couple of weeks! The Big Guy hit one out of the ballpark this time I hope! I shouldn't have to travel right away, and maybe can get her oriented to the job better than the last gal who only lasted a couple of weeks.  I think I work for the best company in the universe!  This new lady has tons of experience in programming and software support, just no medical business experience, which is fine.  I can train her in medical office terminology and business practices, there just is no way (like with the last gal) to train someone in the mindset of thinking like a computer works!!  I'm so glad she is on board, praying that she likes the job and likes to travel.  Woo Hoo!!!