Work update

After working for the 78th Comm Directorate for 15 years - back before it
was a directorate, before it was even a Comm anything and was part of
Maintenance... I will be moving on.

I'm on the fence on how I feel about this. I'm excited for new challenges,
but sad that I will be leaving the familiar setting of the 78th. I have
been with them for so very long. So, why am I changing? Well, I had sent
my resume out a number of times to folks in SMXG Software Development for
years in an attempt to move over there.. I had a huge nibble a few years
back, however, my bosses essentially blocked this move by asking that the
division wanting to pull me in provide a one for one swap... well, that was
the issue, they wanted me because they had NONE of my type of personnel over
there... so that died on the vine. Sigh. This time, the way it all worked
out was rather interesting. I sent my resume out and within 24 hours I had
a bite... someone wanted me. They reached out and asked about a transfer
and I did tell them about the time prior and our division would want a
trade... so they were welcome to try, but I didn't know that it would be
beneficial for the new division. In the mean time I applied for two other
positions in another area over there and just watched and waited. So - two
weeks ago I got an IM asking if I was still interested as they were going to
select me via my resume. They had apparently done some horse trading and
gotten the position that was NOT advertised for their area directly and were
pulling me in from that application. Sweet. So, I accepted the job offer.
It was very QUICK once things got moving as they wanted me to start work the
very next Monday... uh, I still have to wrap up two contract purchases on
this side... so I made the announcement to my boss and they got to discuss
just how soon I would be moving over. In the meantime I was transitioned to
the other areas pay within two or three business days. Goes to show you,
when they want you, they can move mountains to get you where they need you!

So, flash forward a week and my new boss finds out I'm part of a program
called Emerging Supervisor Development Program (those classes I did during
the last 6 months) and she realized I may get there just in time to just
leave to take a 13 somewhere else... she said as much and I told her I would
like to come over and stay put and advance there... the issue is they don't
really have advancement opportunities there... so they moved me to a NEW
position that will hopefully give me a way to advance while staying there.
Again, amazing feeling to know you are WANTED and they will do what they can
to keep me in place and find ways to help me advance in the long run.

And with that, I have been packing my office out.. and finding out just how
much CRAP I have accumulated over these last 15 years in this one business
area!! YIKES!! Elizabeth came to help me put boxes of books and odds and
ends into my car while I was still teleworking the 19th or 20th...


And the scary part? THIS is just what was not VISIBLE as I wanted to move the bulk without anyone knowing as I hadn’t announced I was leaving as I hadn’t even come back to work yet!!

I had another full bag (orange bag) of poopers as well!! I did cull through it all, go through all my pens and such and make sure they all worked.

What I ended up with was two bags of holiday things, two bags/box of books and one smaller box of office supplies. I will go check out the digs and see what I’ll bring in with me to the new office next week. I will definitely pare down I’m sure!!

I have a small box of essential things I had left in here to get me through the rest of the week. I also brought back some holiday things as well. I’ll just leave them here for the old crew to have. BUT they wanted some of the things I’m not willing to part with. Silly things, but things with good memories over the years. Yeah my new office will be doomed too I’m sure!!

Conversational frustrations.

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it 30 time “at least they caught it early” and I wanted to scream.

Number one i have discussed my staging with very few people so just how do you know it was early? This bad boy was growing 10 plus years. Early for me would have been 10 plus years ago when this was just a pesky polyp.

Instead I answered “yeah, I’m in the positive side of the 60/40 split for 5 year survival”.

I know it’s mean but it’s good to see their jaws drop. Yeah. This is my statistical number, but you know what? I’m more than a statistic. I’m firmly on the 60% and going no where folks!

Then again if it rears it’s ugly head again I’ll do like I did this time, put one foot in front of the other and deal with it. Although this time I would ask a ton more questions with my tiny knowledge base and my HUGE reach back to the folks at Colontown.org (yes that was a shameless plug!)

Reflects on my time In Florida

My posts make it seems like I’m doing fine 99% of the time...and really I am...then I have days like today and the 10th and I wonder just how “fine” fine is. I’m spending time with clustering (aka multiple trips to the potty with the feeling of not being able to fully empty among other things I won’t torture you with in detail). It’s tedious and very inconvenient, but not the end if the world really.

I keep thinking “it could be worse” and really it could. I could have issues with diarrhea.  I’m not sure which is worse constipation that tends to put me into clustering or just getting out in a long torturous bout of diarrhea and a raw bum.

My accounts of this weekend seem like I have been super active but as always it comes in fits and spurts and has been a lot of hurry up and wait time. I’m good with that too. I am supposed you be recouperating. And I am. No lifting.  No strenuous things. I have slowly emptied out the closets of items that need to go home with me or go in the shed or the laundry room to get them out of the way. The stack is growing of things that are headed home with me. Once they’re at home I’ll sort through and take a load to consignment. My work is never done.

Next up is fence install - that will happen on the 5th of next month. Here’s hoping the A/C stays where it is until the fence is put in!  Pray for me!  Tomorrow I have a drywall guy coming in to look at the hall ceiling to see what he can do for us and the attic fan fiasco. And tomorrow night Butch comes in (late). Liz is staying home. Can’t say as I blame her, she doesn’t want to drive down for a short time and come fuel again in a wee, to see her friend in Tallahassee.  Fair enough.

As for me and the remainder of my time, I have zero plans..I’m pretty well finished with what I needed to get done (and blinds too). Next major thing would be to have the house painted...so maybe we could pick colors this weekend?  Who knows.

We have heat!!

I spent all day from 9am to noon with all doors open in 57 degree weather makes for a popsicle me. Burrr!

The old!


From everything we could tell the unit was from 1997. Twenty years is a good run for a rental unit and a house that was totally trashed be the prior owners.

The inspection note on the side was from 1990. Scary!


Taking the first look at the mess!


The removal had begun.


It took two trucks ;)


The new being staged to be installed.


The old lines coming out!


An empty closet!!


Prepped for the new unit note the fence is removed or part of it.


The old coils - rusty!!


The new


Old...note no insulation inside.


New! Insulated.


Old. Doesn’t look too bad.


New. Looking good.


And the great unveiling. We haven’t seen under this since we bought the house. Just never pulled it down.


We have louvres!!


From the back of the house looking towards the kitchen.


And up into the attic they go. Only to find out we can’t remove the fan. Drat it. There is a cast iron pipe over the end of the unit and right smack dam in the middle is a water line. Why? Because they felt it was necessary. A man plan. Why not figure out the fan isn’t used anymore and just remove it then? Why not plan to remove it and not place water lines over it!??? Sigh!!


And with that bad news the guys went to lunch and I shut all the doors and turned on the oven to cook lunch and the stove top to warm up.

They came back fairly quickly.


Note the lines are coming in through the attic vent hole... assuming they were just “measuring” how long the lines needed to be.


All gone!


And all put back together!!








And the new surprisingly quiet indoor unit. It heats fast!!

And the guys doing the install spoke Russian. That was a fun change for the day. Listening to them talk in Russian to the one worker who didn’t speak English.

Personal shopping.

I needed some spring tops.


Ok so the burgundy sweater in the front isn’t spring but it was soooo soft and it’s been chilly here so I justified it! The black with flowered has cute sheer ruffled sleeves for work... the others are shirts that are self explanatory until you get to the white. Yeah, that is a robe. A NICE robe that was like brand new at Goodwill. Butch grossed out at Goodwill however it went straight to the wash when I got home. It’s a VERY nice robe and really was new as the fabric still had the stiffness that only a new robe would have had with the waffle weave....and since I forgot my robe this time I could justify this purchase as well for $4.xx.

The rest of the shirts are from TJ Maxx and Ross so I’m STILL not a big spender!!

Work around the house

Someone painted over the house number. Wow, just wow!!


You can’t even see it from a distance. Nada!


So I painted the numbers! Gotta love paint pens :)


Looks good. When we pain the whole house we will pull that plaque off and do it proper.


AND because we have garbage can thief’s I painted the number on the trash can.


AND the recycle. What isn’t shown is I ALSO bought a length of chain and a lock to chain these bad boys to the post to hopefully put a stop the thief and make the point that they are NOT welcome to take the cans as they see fit.



What else did I do? I finally put the toilet paper roll holder back on the wall and tightened the towel hook that was coming loose. I didn’t really “tighten” so much as replace the anchors in the wall with new ones. And with that we’re back in business.

Today’s accomplishments

Hope you’re sitting down because this is ALL I accomplished and it took two of us to get this headboard in. It was just awkward.



I think I like it and as I lay here in bed leaning against a WARM headboard instead of a cold wall I definitely like it.

Much nicer than bare wall and the price was the kicker!

Normally $179.xx on sale for $79.xx which I thought was awesome anyway and they gave me a further discount and I walked out the door with it for $67.xx. Yep, you read that right! Can’t beat that deal. It was meant to be!!

I’m excited for both the comfort and the price for sure!!

Shopping and poop talk.

For those that don’t want the poop talk, I will limit it to the BOTTOM (haha see what I did there?) of this post and you can skip it.

Sally and I went out to breakfast with Ina this morning. It was good to see her again. Wednesday night Sally and Ina had their girls dinner at Ruby Tuesday’s and they invited me along. There were 8 total including me. Most were in their 70s and 80s with the exception of one gal and me. I think she’s probably in her 50s as well...maybe younger I’m not a good judge of ages. Anyway it was nice to meet them all and have dinner with them.

It’s always nice to see Ina. She seems to be doing OK after the loss of her husband Robert.

After breakfast Sally and I headed to Elgin to get some fruits for her fellowship meal tomorrow at her church. I dropped her off and went over to the Bx to look for a headboard as I had seen them at out BX a while back. I had my mind set on a black leather one but THIS one caught my eye immediately:





What I didn’t realize is that they were selling me the floor model. BUT it was in great shape. We took it apart and put it in the back with minimal issues.

That being said I was having some “issues” today and had more than my fair share of potty stops. BUT I did make it through the a small part of the BX, a bit of the commissary, Lowe’s and a bit of Sams club as well before I realized as I was getting gas that my issues needed me to be home for a bit. And we headed to the house.

I didn’t accomplish much else, as evidence of the headboard still in the car! Soooo life is still good, just working through today’s issues and hoping things will calm soon.

I did come home, take a shower and put my sweats on and did some laundry and took a nap (short one as the phone woke me, but that’s OK too).

**poop talk**
This is what I posted on my reversals group.

Ok over the last few weeks I have come to the conclusion that if things are going well I have a HUGE sense of guilt and don’t want to say anything to everyone on the group because of the number who are suffering after reversal and, well, it feels like bragging. BUT for this facing their reversal, there is hope, and a few let downs. (Sorry long winded)

Im 4weeks4days post reversal, 1ft rectum/sigmoid colon removed, stump of a rectum left (1/2” maybe) and a side to end connect (tiny pseudo-pouch?)

For the first three weeks it was poop central. I decided because I had the time off work I would let my body do it’s thing. I would see if it work out it’s own issues and behave, if not I had fiber and all that Jazz to fall back on. I don’t take pain pills and am only taking Gabapentin, a stool softener (too chicken to stop those just yet), a multi vitamin and a probiotics (gummies type)

I was shocked that at about three weeks of constantly pooping myself at night and living in fear of pooping myself (with protection) in public that the switches started flipping. I started to NOT poop at night. Lots during the day still but my nights were mostly mine!! Yay

Then things started to slow down during the day and for about 5 days I had been pooping at 9pmish and not much during the rest of the day. As long as my stools were easy to pass I kept going with everything the same on meds.

I got so Cocky I drove 5 hours to Florida to get some work done on our little House here behind my mother-in-laws. I was wondering what the drive would do to my schedule but I’m happy to report things stayed pretty steady the first 4 days.

Today is day 5 and I’ve had a bit of diarrhea and urgency. Happy to report that Always incontinence pads work pretty good and my clothing survived. So. If it’s only every 6 days I get a “clean out” day I can live with that. But there IS hope. Your body can adjust. It’s not like it used to be, but it’s all good!!

I joked to my MIL that I can stay out until I run out of supplies! So what that I had to poop in three stores today. Then as the uncontrollable urges hit again while getting gas I realized that, nope, supplies or not, it’s time to go home and let this play out close to a potty!

Shopping and adventures in Fort Walton

I went to TJ Maxx but they weren’t quite open. Soooo I went to Salvation Army. I know, I know. But it was a huge one and I resisted a lot of “project” items that had temped me quite a bit.

So what I DID buy I had been thinking about for a few years and determined if I ever found a house canister set I would buy it. Why? Christmas mantle pieces. I had been looking fir ones I could paint,but this one was much better. It’s already ready to go. Ones I have seen in the past were $30 or more which is why I passed on them. I was looking for a bargain.

Here is what the front looks like. Obviously a canister set as it’s confectioner shop, bakery and coffee shop. There was s 4th one but it was broken and glued together. It got left behind. I purchased these for $5. I think they will do just fine.


And here is the backs. Now you can see why I wanted them. Nicely plain for decorating at Christmas.



After that, back to TJ Maxx. I bought three shirts (yay me!) and more importantly to my poor feet in tile floors was this:


A cushy set of rugs for my bath so I don’t have to keep moving the rug all over the bath! My poor feel are a mess here. The tile just NEVER warms up in the bathrooms. The floors are so cold and the neuropathy is really messing with me while I have been here. Feel aching and feeling cold although when I feel them with my hands they are perfectly warm. It’s just my nerves not working right. Sigh. Oh well problem solved with more socks and rugs ;)

Saw this cute towel (didn’t buy it!)



So I THEN went to Ross. Hummmm bad store!!! Really GOOD store but bad for my wallet!!

I found Three MORE shirts. Sweet. Spring shirts for me!!

Well I found shells to put on my glass containers on either side of the TV. Nice. I like them.


I also bought some things for Georgia. I got a plant rolling caddy for my lemon tree. I then picked up a super soft fake sheepskin for the office chair. Either at work or Home. As yet to be determined.

I then went to K Mart. Bet you didn’t know they had any more. Yeah it’s one of the few left I think. I picked up the last of my odds and ends items on my list - laundry soap, plungers, fun stuff like that - ha!

This is my car after the fact! Ha! Time to go home when your car is full.



But:



The one thing I noted today was my hair! Goodness. It’s a mess!! AND I just got it cut. It’s either too short or not short enough. Sigh.



It won’t lay right.


You can see all the new hairs growing in and waving at the world.


So I bought a headband or two at KMart. We shall see if we can’t figure something out a Pt taming the beast!!

Updates from Florida

Yeah. I decided I would do my rest and recuperating in Florida like a proper diva. Now to have warmer weather, a beach chair and a drink with an umbrella and I would be set!!

I got here Tuesday night after getting my MRI done. The MRI is to look at my spine to make sure there are no compressed or bulging disks causing the numbness in my legs. I still think it’s all neuropathy from chemo and as I wasn’t moving much, I simply didn’t notice how far it had progressed. The answers to that will be found out soon enough. I’m big sweating it just yet. Nothing I can do about any of it anyway.

So. Last I updated things in the healing front were going well. I participated I. My first Undie Rin for colon cancer.






Sherry’s boyfriend Josh. Tagged on his bum, appropriate for a colon shot anyway. Yes that is a Giant colon behind us.





The three of us ready to go





Liz with her “What’s up your butt” shirt.





So this ambulance was following me. It was funny he first quarter mile.





By the 1/2 mile I was beginning to wonder if he knew something I didn’t. Ha! Although I have walked upwards of two mikes in a day recently I have discovered it’s not all at once!! Yikes!!





Sherry and I at the finish





Butch and I at the finish amazing this is such a good shot as I couldn’t see a thing!!





Lizzie coming across the finish line. She cut two minutes off her time fro
The 5k ran the weeks prior. Yay Lizzie!!





And a fun time was had by all!!

The day after Lizzie and I drove to Ikea to shop and to visit with Angela. She drove down and met us. We shopped out hearts at in Ikea (buying surprisingly little) had pizza at Antico’s pizza.






They have the BEST pizza. Check them out if you’re ever close!! It’s as close to TRUE Italian pizza as we have found stateside.

That done along with a Target run and we headed home.

Long fun filled weekend!

Flash forward to me making some calls for air conditioning heater replacement for the the tiny house. Why you ask? Well one emergency call from kids last year that the A/C was on the fritz on the weekend of all times led us to know it’s time. So. Everyone wanted to give me quotes on Wednesday. I HAD planned on driving down on Wednesday. Guess not. I decided to bite the bullet and drive down after my 9am MRI. Thinking that it should be quick. *insert maniacal laughter here*. Yeah what they didn’t tell me was blood work was first then an hour after that was the MRI. So I didn’t go in until 10:30. I came out at noon. Back just screaming. I hate MRIs. That table is too hard!!

So seat heater is a wonderful invention as it goes up the back a bit. I had it on for parts of my drive.

I had to go home from that, eat and pack. On the road by 2pm. Not shabby. By the time o got here I just wanted to lay down and relax, so that’s just what I did. Crawled in bed and read and played on electronics.

I didn’t even disturb my bowel habits too bad. Whoop whoop!! Still had 9pm poo and bed. Yeah!!

Wednesday was four quotes and even a nap as the 1pm came early and the next one was at 3pm. Yeah!! Nice nap!!

So today is Thursday. Sticker shock is in full affect. $4500 to $5645. U had to justify my choice to go with the cheapest. The REASON wasn’t because of price. It was because he was the only one to mention the $400 rebate from the gas company AND will fill out all the paperwork and file it and pass the saving on to me up front. Sweet!! I like one stop shop!! So, choice made.

Sad fact was someone “rang my bell”at the front door. Yeah. It noworkie. So I went out to take it off to check battery size as it’s a wireless one. Uhm, yeah, I broke it. Whoops!!! In my defense it’s about three years old now, so it was delicate. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!! Ha!!

I think parts of the higher price is I’m not doing a simple a/c replacement. Why would I do something so mundane? Nope. So, when the folks had the a/c put in they put it here:






This is it. Smack dab in the middle of the back of the house! Right next to the back door and RIGHT under windows.





Yeah can you tell that’s the living room windows. Yikes!! Noisy in the summer.

Where do I want it?

Right here:





It’s in the west side if the house... the only down side is it’s planned to be in the wrong side of the fence. Now realistically it is just a deterrent for honest folks. The gates are never locked so it would be easy enough for anyone to off with the unit as it is. But it’s OLD so who wanted it?











And realistically it’s sort of out of sight when the azaleas are in bloom and has leaves. BUT. Going to get a fence there anyway. Why???

This:





That my friends is three windows in the house next door boarded up. Why ? Who knows but it’s a crappy job and it’s all sorts of messed up with plywood, metal and some fake brick veneer looking stuff. Not sure what’s going on over there. Not sure I want to know!! They are odd ducks.

So while out there I snuck this picture. See the pink dog in the distance? Gone are the days of folks not stepping out of their house fully put together. (Guilty as charged a lot of the days)





A closeup. I feel I can show this as there is a shrub blocking her face. Hahah. Wonder if bunny slippers are involved?






During today’s adventures I also listened to my husband and ordered my blinds for the last two rooms in the house - coral bedroom and side window in the living room. A bit more sticker shock... but I bought them anyway. Done and done.

Now to get a fence installed on the side of the house I’m having the A/C moved to.... and a few other odds and ends and this will have been a very success trip indeed. Finding a handyman to remove our attic fan would be icing on the cake, but doesn’t look like it will happen. Sad face.