Sometimes, silence is indeed golden.  When it comes to the fyr and this blog, golden is not even remotely apt. In this case, the fyr being silent is a very bad thing.

Or so some of you may think.

The fact is, the fyr has been silent for a number of different reasons. The main one being her new job that she landed that keeps her surfing the web all day long, being paid for much of the surfing that she does.  I have been busy. The job brings many new horizons closer for me, yet introduces a curve to my routine that I am still trying to work out. It’s interfered with my yoga classes, my home routines, my food and cooking routines … it’s put a spoke in everything simple because I haven’t yet found the best groove in which to slide it in and have it work in concert with everything else.

Throw into the loop the fact of my very minor surgery last Thursday and I have a mess of tasks that just don’t have their place in my daily routine. A literal mess. I need a way to organize, focus and channel.

What’s that? What minor surgery? Not to worry, I am fine. I was in and out before you might have noticed (had I been blogging regularly, of course) and I am recovering nicely – albeit slower than I had expected. There is much pain and a lot of the tasks I took for granted before are next to impossible – things such as bending, sitting for long periods of time, standing for long periods of time – and by a long period of time I mean in excess of a few minutes.

The surgery itself was supposed to be exploratory with the option to correct – and they did indeed have to correct. It is surgery some of you who have been reading about my perils and travels for years might remember from 4 years ago. Although I can find no posts that explicitly mention the procedure, I did find the one that lamented the loss of my new navel piercing. The difference between that one and this one is that back then all they did was go in an look around – this time, the actually did some work in there – so I guess that I am taking more time to recuperate is not unusual. It’s just difficult for me to be this …. helpless.

I’ve had multiple offers for “help” while I recuperate and each time I’ve said ”I’m ok” because … really, how helpless can I possibly be after out-patient surgery – right? Well … apparently, it’s a great deal. I have to plan each and every foray from the bed, or recliner that I take. Because multiple forays from said spots become increasingly difficult and painful.

If there was doubt about how poorly I felt, you would be able to determine once and for all when you hear that I haven’t even been able to play WoW for longer than an hour or 2 at a time – and for the most part, I spend all day not playing just so I can play at raid time for an hour or 2 at night. Ya. That poorly.

In other news, it’s tax time again. And now that all the relevant paperwork is now available, I now have to get cracking on filing tax returns. The Kentucky return is going to be particularly annoying and I have to say that this is probably a good part of why a lot of army wives hesitate to find work after a PCS – it’s just too hard to deal with the tax return filings when multiple state returns are involved. I have to tell you this, though, I am eternally grateful for the training that JH afforded me last year in the preparation of tax returns. Without that, I think it would be panic time now while we figure out how to get it all sorted out.

With all that said, that’s pretty much what has been keeping me busy lately. I’m going to have to post about the new apps I’ve been playing with lately too – not the least of which is the app I use keep track of my time while I work and generate invoices based on those times. A really nice application that I know I wouldn’t be able to function efficiently without.  Ladies and Gentlemen, please .. say hello to Macfreelance.

And on that note, I make another planned foray from this recliner.

YUSH

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I haven’t blogged all week and I feel like I am missing something.

Since last week, however, I have managed to find an e-book copy of each of the Twilight Saga books and put them on the kindle and I started reading again. Like I was telling a friend, I STILL love the books. I am still thrilled to bits to be despising how much of a twit Bella is and how much of a completely unrealistic character Edward is. I Yesterday, I recapped their first “date” when Edward took Bella to his “special place”, a clearing in the forest. How completely weird the whole incident was. I mean, sparkly? Don’t get me wrong, I admire Meyer’s originality in explaining the centuries long aspect of the vampire myth that has them hiding out during daylight hours, but sparkly just feels …. fantastical to me. Unreal.

In any case, lack of realism aside, stupidity aside, I STILL love the damn story. And I think I am the sort of person who will enjoy anything that can evoke a strong emotion from me. ANYTHING that will make me FEEL, is a damn good story for me. And I don’t mean feel like punching out the creator of the story, I mean feel like punching out the main characters in the story. I feel like I’d step into the book, arrive in Forks, seek out Bella, give her a GOOD talking to about how women are supposed to conduct themselves with pride and dignity, spank her little childish bottom, give that disgusting Charlie a lesson in child-rearing and then walk out – head held high.

Well, lets set Twilight and its subsequent sequels aside and talk about the rest of the week.

It has been warm ALL week. In the 50s most days. Its been real nice. I was off last week Sunday, and I did absolutely nothing all day. I think I might have spent most of the morning on the computer getting apps for my iPhone. And then the afternoon playing with hubby .. until he had to go to work. Then I was supposed to play with Jen, but something happened, and I ended up on my death knight until they called me for a raid.

Monday was work again. I got up early (7am) and got ready and even got to work “early” only to realize that the schedule “change” I thought I was looking at was the wrong one and I didn’t need to be at work until 1pm. I headed back home, of course. Even thought I could probably have used an extra few hours of pay, I doubt that those hours would have been approved as overtime pay … not in the slow season like this. At least hubby and I got to spend a little time together before I went back to work. When I DID get to work, oh boy did I get in trouble. Last Friday, I felt SO ill that when my colleague suggested we close up shop early, especially since one of the other offices (and in fact the “spearhead” office) was closed early too I didn’t even think about it, and just came home and slept. On Monday, the boss called me on it. Wanted to know why, and when I explained, told me it was fine but that I should call him next time it happened. Well, the thing is … I was sick enough that I didn’t even THINK straight about what I should be doing. And frankly, I was only there until that time because I didn’t want to leave the other girl there alone late at night. Otherwise I think I would’ve left HOURS before the 8:10 I did leave. Oh well, lets hope next time I think more clearly – right?

The rest of the week was uneventful. I had my interview on Thursday and two things became clear to me from that interview: I DEFINITELY do not want another Digicel job and that job was going to like Digicel, if not worse… secondly, I better not commit to that kind of job at ALL yet – we might be moving house here in a few months and no one is going to like it if I up and leave 6 months after being hired. I am going to have to rethink this job thing a little.

Yesterday was weird. It dawned a little overcast. Then the sun came out for about an hour at 10ish. Then it got overcast a little and started raining about noon or 1ish. By 2:30 it had turned to a snow and rain mix and by 3 it was snowing hard. HUGE snowflakes. I mean, snow accumulating on the cars, kind of snow. Of course, it wasn’t accumulating on the road surface … oh no, that would have still been too warm!!!

By the time 5pm rolled around and knocking off time, there was a significant amount of snow on the ground

Ridiculous. It was freaking 50 degrees earlier that day!!! From 50 degrees to below 32 within the space of an afternoon??? Good grief!

This morning, was the best one ever. I woke up and got on my computer and started to blog and BLAM! out goes my keyboard. So, another trip to apple in the works, I wake hubby and we head on up there. Over the phone, they had wanted me to make an appointment which I didn’t want to do in case I couldn’t make it in time, or hubby said we would get it at the PX .. or you know – anything. Luckily, he was just as thrilled to make the almost-hour-long-drive into Louisville to visit the apple store again and so off we went. I went prepared to spend the $50 for the new keyboard … I mean, I was out of warranty on my iMac and there just didn’t seem anyway possible for me to get it any other way. Ha!

Dude takes the 2 keyboards from me, takes out the new one, puts my old one in the box and sends me home with a “have a nice day” smile. WOW! I love apple. I did NOT expect that at ALL – I walked up to him and pulled out my card to swipe and he was like “Oh no – I’m replacing it for you. Put your card back up.”

I secretly believe that had I looked like I expected to get it free they might have charged me for it. Maybe. /shrug Who knows. I am just LOVING the support though. And I have a brand spanking new keyboard. =) Want a picture?

Isn’t shiny looking?

/sigh

So today, the snow was still around, and coming back from the Apple store, we took a different route home, just so hubby could show me this route. And OH it reminded me SO much of Mount Rosser (well except for the snow part) that I had to take some picts (pardon the windscreen wiper marks – this is a highway, stopping on the side of it was just not possible. People are travelling in excess of 50mph on this road):

I miss home! =(

Ok, this post is long enough … I better stop here.

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I seriously don’t know where to begin to tell you all about this past week. To say it has been interesting is FAR too understated. To say it’s been hectic is understating it a little too. Exciting? Ya.

Alright, I shall take away the suspense and say that this past week we have spent most of it under cover of an ice storm the likes of which this state (Kentucky) has never seen. Kentuckians tell me that the state has never had to deal with this kind of ice storm ever. And I was here for the record breaking event. Lucky me.

It started with the icing over on Monday evening. By nightfall all the snow out there had turned to ice and more ice (or freezing rain) was falling by the minute. I spent ALL of Monday night listening to the tree outside our bedroom crack and break apart piece by piece and quell the worry that it might fall on the house. It was far enough away from it to not cause any damage, but still …. it is unnerving to hear “craaaaaack” and then “rustle, rustle, boom” as the branches fell to the ground.

We had heard some of the trees in the little forest behind our neighbourhood doing the same thing the night before, and hubby had told me not to worry because it was just the ice causing the trees to bend and break. Of course, it took me a minute to realize that indeed, ice can be that dangerous. But seriously, it wasn’t until Tuesday morning that I realized JUST how serious it could be.

I don’t even remember what woke us at 5am, but we decided to move the car and the truck down the driveway so that the car was out from under the tree I usually park under. If the trees are breaking apart, then we probably need to ensure the car is safe from falling branches and ice.

Ah yes, I remember what woke us now – phone call from hubby’s work colleague saying that “all hell has broken loose on Fort Knox” … apparently, so much damage had been done that one housing area was completely cut off from the rest of the post due to trees fallen across the road and power/cable lines.  Soon after we had got the car and the truck to safety, hubby got another call that ALL of his section were to report in to work because indeed all hell had broken loose.

Just then, our power went out in a blaze of blue, exploding tranformer glory. Just before he left, hubby reminded me to start bulking up from now since the house would start to get cold before long. So I donned 3 layers of clothes and brought out all my blankets and piled them on the couch in the living room. I closed ALL the doors except the kittehs’ room door, plugged out all the computer equipment, and settled down to chill in front of the living room window all day with my kindle, magazines, camera and Nala.

Well, it got bad pretty fast. Trees falling all around. Laden with the frozen remnants of the icy rain from all through the night, added to that from the day before had the branches bowing under the weight. At a little after lunchtime, hubby came home with a couple of his work colleagues and they were telling me all about what it was like out there. I SO wanted to go out and see, so they had me go along … I got some picts of the damage, and it reminded so much of post-hurricane vistas that I kinda smiled to myself. I mean, setting aside the cold factor, I was aptly prep’d for this sort of thing.

Anyway, turns out power was not to be had that day and so we took the offer extended by hubby’s supervisor to stay with them in their still-powered home until our power was restored. That turned out to be the next day, luckily. Because when we came home to check on the kittehs, the house was getting pretty cold and I was worried we would need to find some way of heating the house for them by nightfall.

Anyway, poor old Radcliff was out for the rest of the week tho. Each time I’d drive into town, there would still be large pockets of darkness – including the offices where I was to be working all last week. So I stayed in yesterday and today.

Frankly, I am amazed. This is like THE worst storm of the century for Kentucky. And what’s worse is that it showed so clearly. People had NO idea what to do, what to expect, how to act, where to go …. sad.

Anyway, it seems life has returned to normal – the crews were out with their electric saws today, sawing the larger branches down to a manageable size. And I am scheduled to work again this week. Well, should have been today, but I kind of found out a bit late. So tomorrow it is.

/sigh

Never a dull moment for me, eh?

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So, I turned in about midnight on Sunday. I was feeling icky and I just wanted to sleep the night away so I could try and catch the doctor on Monday morning. I started coughing, and couldn’t stop. Just kept coughing and coughing …. almost throwing up, coughing and then finally I just couldn’t breathe. I just couldn’t get a breath in. I went to sit in hubby’s lap and he tried to get me to breathe and I just couldn’t catch my breath. It wasn’t like hyperventilating, I just couldn’t get a full breath in.

So off to the ER we went. By the time we had walked from the parking lot into the hospital lobby, I was gasping for breath like I was dying. I could see hubby’s face through the tears and he was worried. I was too. Especially considering ER usually means a long wait. Well, we didn’t wait long at all. They took my info and laid me down in a bed, swabbed my nose, gave me a nebuliser, started an IV, shot some drugs into me and then left to organize tests. Soon I was breathing … real well. And high as a kite.

Doc came around and sent me up to do an xray … got my first ride in a wheelchair. I was thankful, cos I didn’t think I could actually walk to the xray department after the experience walking in from the truck. That didn’t take long and I was back laying in my little bed again in no time flat. By this time, hubby is fading cos he hasn’t slept yet and he has to work that night and it’s his sleeping hours. But the doc wants to do a CT scan too cos now we’re worried it’s a blood clot in my lungs that’s brought on this sudden lack of breathability.

But just my luck, the CT scan at this hospital broke down. It wouldn’t work. Tech had me sit with him while he rebooted it … and yes … it’s running Windows XP as it’s base operating system. Figures! Even a reboot didn’t work. So the plan was to send me to Elizabethtown and have me do the CT there. They couldn’t trust hubby to take me tho, so they sent me in an ambulance. That was fun – travelling looking out the back of an ambulance. Scenery is different that way. Course the meds were beginning to wear off so it wasn’t as fun as it could have been. I was beginning to have trouble taking in breaths again.

When I get to the hospital, they put me up in a bed straight away. Take all my info. Set me up and go get a doc who says the same thing – could be a blood clot and the CT scan should tell. So I go to do the CT scan. This is a strange experience, I have to tell you. They inject iodine into your blood stream. Apparently it’s a dye that reacts with .. something so that the imaging is vivid? No idea how that works. Only know the damn thing made me feel like I was having an orgasm …. well, except for the spasms and the thrills … warmth tho – ALL over – head to toe. Whoa! What a rush!  If I wasn’t having problem breathing, I think that might have been a pleasant experience. Ha!

Anyway, back in my bed and both hubby and I fell asleep – maybe for an hour. I wake up and I my bladder is so full I don’t want to move too much lest I embarass myself. So I ring for them to disconnect me from all the wires. They’re busy clearly, cos they don’t come at all. Hubby just unhooks me and I hobble off on my own.

So anyway, doc comes back and says the CT was clean and he wants to do some more tests – ultrasound my gall bladder …. er … ok. But that’s a crock. They keep me waiting more and then finally tell me they are releasing me cos clearly it was just some pleurisy … er ok. I get a boatload of meds to fill and get discharged.

Bronchitis with pleurisy…

The funniest part of this story is when I turn in the prescription at the pharmacy and the pharmacy tech goes “Did you just move here? … Yes? They should give these meds out with a ‘Welcome to Kentucky‘ banner. This is standard fare if you’ve just moved to this state.”

!!!

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And immediately thought of my mother … felt like my mother, probably LOOKED like my mother and certainly the words I WANTED to utter were exactly the words that she would use as well:

“Son? Before you go around selling donuts to people, I’d suggest you wash your face, take the rag off your head, put on a shirt instead of an undershirt thereby trying to look more presentable than you now do. That said, no, I will NOT buy donuts from you for your basketball team.”

My first reaction was to scream for hubby to call the police because the first thing that came to mind was a thug come to rape me and rob the house. What I said instead was:

“Uh …. not today though”

I have NO idea what my face said. All of you who know me personally will KNOW my face most likely said a myriad other things, probably not even remotely nice.

If that is a BAD reaction considering the times we live in, stop the world … let me get off.

Seriously.

The dude had this scarlet rag tied around his head, the corners of his mouth were caked with some white substance, he had on a black undershirt (or sweat shirt, as I’ve heard them referred to) and calf-length shorts … it made me scared and sick at the same time. I didn’t even WANT to look at his feet lest the downward movement of my head helped the bile to rise some more.

Hubby comforted me with the thought that THIS is how the youth dress now. Not much comfort at all, actually. It just made me feel even more sick.

Then to top that off, I go and hear about the man who molested a 9 month old baby to death back in Kingston.

What the hell … world’s going to hell in a hand basket.

/sigh

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