December 2008

Things change and I guess it's all about how you react to them good or bad. At the end of the year, we just found out we are getting a new boss. The company did a geography shift of peoples area and we were are now associated with a different group of employees. It's kinda odd, for December we still have the previous person and the new gentlemen is trying to get acclimated to our situation. It's just a coincidence, but there seems like a lot of THINGS going on right now. There's a new employee search, a couple of new "in the works" business deals plus the day to day work make our days plenty full. I hope as we move into the new year the excitement of these new challenges will continue.

This week, I had a follow-up visit with the neurologist. Not a place that you expect to be as your life winds along, but there I was. She did the usual evaluation, pricking, pounding, and asking questions, all of which I have had done before. The doctor comes in, they confer and she relates to me that she is very pleased with my progress so far. She also took a few minutes to review the MRI of my brain to satisfy my curiosity. What a great tool to look at the inside of your body. I assume that's why she makes the big bucks because she knows what to look for. After all of that she said "congratulations" and I don't need to come back only if something new comes up. When I left the hospital 14 months ago I had follow-up visits with 6 different doctors for different things and this week I now have none.

As I continue this journey people ask how am I and my standard response is " I'm happy to be here." Merry Christmas

Need a job

I haven't written in here in a while and now seemed like a good time. The "quirks" are still hanging around, you know the tingling finger tips on my right hand. There are times I just kind of forget it's there, but it's still there, not as predominate as it was though. Life goes on though...

During the last couple of weeks, I had been kicking the idea around about changing my position in the fire department. I am the assistant chief now and I had thought about moving up. I weighed the pros and cons, mostly the cons and decided my work situation didn't offer me that opportunity right now. I just can not leave my job during the day, because there is not anyone else there to do the job, the cows are still there waiting for me. Many customers have a regular time requirement on when they expect us/me. It sounds like a odd reason, but right now it's the right reason. I enjoy what I do there and I will certainly keep doing it......

On the work front, we are labor challenged again. On the first of Nov., we lost a good guy that left to live with his wife, who had taken a state job on the other side of the state. Certainly the right move for him, but right now it's leaving our team a bit short. I guess that's an understatement. Were making do with a couple of part-time people to get the job done right now. One person works Tues, Weds. and Fri. and the other person works Thurs., Sat. and Sunday. It's working... right now with an emphasis on the right now part. The first person is really a farm wife and second is a college student . Really, we're a little better off this year than we were last year about this time, remember why I started this blog, at least we have the part time help. So I guess this presents a job prospect for anyone that wants a challenge. The training is complete and the pay is good. I'm just putting it out there. The Internet is a big place.

September 25th

A day of reflection, a day in history and the ironic thing about it was that I don't remember anything about it. Mostly, just the sequence of events as they were relayed to me. My personel experience didn't start for about a week, ya a week..... If you are new to this blog, check some of the early ones in 2007 and they will fill in alot of the gaps.
Coincedently, I had the day off again and I offered to help out in the harvesting crew driving truck. I thought being home and not working might give me too much time to time to reflect on the last years events. I know it changed the future of my life probably forever, but that is yet to be determined. I continue to tell myself, no matter what, I am still on the right side of the grass.
I also know that atleast for now, I don't take anything for granted. Making my sons JH soccor games, none of which I made last year, are a priority. I am a little more diliberate, maybe just being sure of where I am putting my body, situations I get into I guess. I don't dwell on it, but just walking through a barn I keep alittle better eye on what I could bang my head on. Stuff I didn't really watch out for before. That's one of my 2008 goals, don't hit my head again....

Smile, life is good.. You really don't know what tomarrow is going to bring good or bad. I am really thankful for what I have, the relatives that care about each other and the friends I keep.

rabbits

It's been a busy week, alot of activities to get my mind around. Early in the week, a team member decided that he was going to a different group closer to his home, and not work with us any longer. So, after the 21st, our labor force is going to be smaller again. I guess the bigger the number of people that you work with the bigger the chance that there will be personel changes. It's not a great situation, but it will give us all a reason to reflect on why this person decided to leave for less money..... I recently read that "people leave people not companies". But, I wouldn't disagree that no one is replaceable and we will find a replacement, but we will have a time period again of transition.

Over the weekend, we were at an Eastern States Flemish Giant rabbit show, that my wife and son are members of. There was 200 rabbits there and for us it was nice because it was only about 10 miles from our house. Most of the people there were pursuing their hobby and I don't think that anyone there was making a living from their pasion. Our son showed 4 rabbits there and received a couple of first places. Those first places went onto place best opposite variety in the open show and best of variety - youth. From those placings he got a couple of nice trophies. Parents and child are real happy and proud... Just alittle explanation, in the rabbit world, there is no reserve champion placing. If a male wins the color/variety they also award the female from the same color as the best opposite or visa versa, you get the picture. He ended up selling one rabbit and buying another for the same money of a different color, a great deal for all involved. I'll put up a couple of pictures soon. Pretty much an un-stressful, a wind down sort of weekend for all involved. Makes you proud of your kids too.

MRI

I'm a big morale guy. I have been since I have been in this position and it's involved my home life too. You have to make the best of what you have everyday all the time because you just don't know what life will be in a few minutes from now. In sales, if something is bothering you or if your morale is low for some reason you are not going to try to do sales anywhere. It could be as simple as getting dirty at the start of the day. It could be as big as working alot of days in a row with no time off. Maybe your pay check was late this week. It effects peoples performance... We're an outside sales company and you have got to want to pull into that next driveway. Nine out of ten times just being there will result in some kind of sale. I realize that many things you don't have any control over, but I feel that you have to live off the good points.

Today, I had a follow-up MRI to see if anything has changed since the accident. I had the day off, it was raining and it just seemed like a fun thing to do, lay on a table and have a big magnet whirl around my head. LOL You never know what they will find, if anything, but I know today I feel good and I my body is on the right side of the grass! So I had nothing to worry about right. The technician asked me on the way in if I had ever had an MRI before? I told him, yes and no. I had one in 2007 but I was in a coma at the time, so does it count? It was simple, fast and painless and I was out of there in 20 minutes or so. On the way home, I made a follow-up stop at a customer I saw yesterday and made a big sale (200 units) for me. I was pumped and I even delivered some of it too. I could have been down about having to go for the MRI, but I took it as just another thing in life. The good and the bad I guess. So keep your spirits up and try to find something good in every day.

Relativly safe

We had decided to vacation at Sylvan Beach on Oneida Lake. A resort town with out a doubt, but when the weather didn't cooperate there wasn't many out of the campsite things to do. We spent time at the beach, watched a boat parade, went to the amusement park and ate out a few times, played some bingo and generally relaxed. The last day and night were the exciting ones though. There was rain on and off on Sunday and for something to do, we hung out under our tent shelter and played some cards. We were having fun though. About 7 pm. there was a huge explosion across the river from were our tent was set up. There wasn't any fire, no police response,etc. but it sounded like a propane tank exploding. There was a party going on next door to were we saw the explosion and I suppose it could have been a M80 or something like that I guess.... I don't really know. We went to bed and about 12:30 pm. the sky opened up. Thunder, lightning and lots of rain and more thunder and lightning. We had been more or less dry in the days before and the tents had been keeping out the water pretty well I guess. Tenting in a rain storm is not that fun. The night was flashing all around us and were just laying there watching it. We had nice air mattresses which kept us up off the floor so I guess we were relatively safe. My son thought he might feel better in the car, so he spent the rest of the night reclined in the front seat. The tent just dripped inside a little and it held up just fine. We toughed it out and in the morning it was still raining. We went out to breakfast and when we came back we were able to pack up the tent and we headed home, vacation over. It was one for the books, we made out OK and we saw an area we had never been to before...

vacation

We're taking an unforced vacation... Ya, you know one were I went on my own free will and none of it involved a hospital with an extended stay. It's kinda interesting, we only went about 50 miles from home to a new place for us, a campground on a river and a big lake. It's nice, there are a lot of permanent campers and it's quiet too. There's activities every night in town and I think we are just far enough from civilization so it's relaxing and there is no daily push to get stuff done. I don't know if it is good or bad but this campground has wireless Internet in the whole place. It's kinda cool. So, I'm setting at a picnic table by our tent typing on my laptop just for kicks.

My son just joked that I should do a search on the Internet on how to start a campfire. See what the world wide web had to offer. I'll try to get a picture or two in later this week.

new fence

We took some new pictures of the front of our house and the new fence for the world to see. I don't have them on this computer yet, but before I post this it will be there. This blog has not been very interesting as of late. Things are still moving along OK though. I guess the activity of note this week is the hand doctor visit. I'm going to see him this week and I think my "quirk" is giving him something to ponder. I still have this tingling in the tips of my fingers of the right hand, and on the bottom of my right foot too. They don't bother my movement, but I know it's there. We've wondered about the foot thing, but I really haven't not had something on my foot since before last Sept. It's been shoes, boots, heavy socks or something. And when I was in the hospital I had other things to think about. Somebody will figure it out someday I guess....

I was thinking the 25Th of Sept. is coming up and I was wondering what to do special, if anything. My wife didn't think that taking the day off and going to buy a ladder was even funny. It seemed kinda humorous. She thought that if I had to work there might be less chance of any excitement. For me, it seemed like a good day to find a reason to be at the hospital, maybe visit someone or have lunch. There's still a couple of months to think about it.

4th of July

Summer. It is passing us by, but I have been doing the fun things. Yes, it's been interesting. Adriane, spoke about the family reunion on the Fourth of July. Lots of great people, interesting careers, lifestyles, children and good food for all. It was just part of the day though, we did a family burial of my uncle in the morning and a wedding reception in the late afternoon. I take about the burial first. I know it sounds kinda different, but we have done it before. We have two family pastors, so we are able to this in house so to speak. It personal family time. Time with brothers, cousins, aunts, and my uncle and then we all go to the family reunion soon afterward...

After the food at the reunion and some great fellowship we took off for the wedding reception. I wouldn't disagree with you if you thought it was too much for one day, but we went anyway. It was for my best friends daughter, who had a previous civil ceremony before the birth of their son and was now was having a real wedding a year later. Lots of people having a good time, more food, just what we needed and our friends. Nothing against the reunion, but we have been for 15 straight years and this wedding was once in a lifetime. It was a no brainer. I will tell you though, it was a long mental day with a variety of emotions for sure. I was just drained.... Once again I went back to work to rest up from my day off. Not really, but mentally yes. Stick around and we'll talk about some more July events

Helmets?

Well, it happened again. Two evenings ago the fire department rescue went to a four wheeler accident in the wood with an unconscious male. We get there and the guy is a fire department member and he is laying in a ditch just moaning with blood all over his head. His son and a friend had been involved too. He had been thrown off the four wheeler, his passenger had landed on him, of course neither had helmets on.... We covered the hole in his head and loaded hi into the helicopter for a ride to the hospital. It was really kind of weird, I putting someone else in that bird..
It would still be nice to ride in one someday remember though, alert, upright and sitting in a seat.
Ended up a bunch of staples patching up his head, a few stitches got put in his hand and arms. He's real stiff too, but in a few days I think he will be out of the hospital. He's alive though,which is a great thing. Your always hearing about graduating seniors getting hurt or worse yet killed in car accidents. These two boys are good kids that I think just got a eye opening experience. I know that no one could have told them to be careful in stuff and it would have sunk in. This experience got their attention.
I heard, that when his wife got into the to the hospital room with him and the doctor and she read him the riot act. The helmet issue, the injuring their sons friend, the hospital, all of it. I heard the doctor was just speechless. It's kinda humorous I guess, but she was just dealing with the situation in her way, I guess. Remember my goal for 2008? Don't hit my head again... It seems like a good goal to me.

Community

Community is a great thing. Today we went to a benefit for a town resident that has cancer. It was a time to feel good about the town that we live in and the people that we surround ourselves with daily. I believe that there was over 600 people there for a chicken dinner, raffles, music and fellowship with their neighbors. He has four daughters who have husbands and there is some grandchildren involved too. The whole family had team Gerry tee shirts on, which was cool because you could tell who was related. Everything was run by the family, except the bar tending, the music and the food preparation. The fire department cooked all the chicken, another good bonding experience too. I was thinking, about it while I was eating my chicken, it has got to be overwhelming gratitude toward all the people there. Your family, the people helping out and the people partaking in the food, music and fun. I know for me, some of these people were there for me and I appreciate that and I needed to be there for them today. I helped cook the chicken in the am, we paid to eat and then we helped serve food to everyone else. Of course, no one knows God's plan for Gerry, but still today's events were a real feel good time for all.

Memories

Life has day's that are good for different reasons. You don't always know how you are going to deal mentally with the challenging moments either. Today we had a memorial service for my uncle and I didn't know how it would be for all of us dealing with the situation. From the get go I made sure to keep perspective on the age of my uncle, (86) and that he had lived a great and fulfilling life. There were cousins, an uncle, nieces and nephew's, lots of friends and neighbors of my uncle, all celebrating his life. Throughout the whole service I drew strength from being in the company of my wife, children and our extended family. Our family had always sat in the same place in the church and today was no exception. I had a proud moment when my two older sons and their girl friends joined us. It was cool to have a pew full... The whole thing was SPECIAL, the singing, the music, and the reflections of their time spent with my uncle. I thought about my parents through the whole thing. How would they have felt about the service and what they might have presented too. I felt great about the whole thing. All the siblings that had preceded I am sure were standing with Bernard today too. So many people asked how I was doing. My normal response is "I am happy to be here and I'm doing great"and I truly believe it.
It's going to be a intense weekend for sure. This memorial service and the reception following on Saturday and on Sunday we are going to a benefit for another town resident who has cancer. I wrote about the "pie lady" before, its her father. (See late last year) Stay tuned and I'll tell you how it went.

hospital part2

We were talking about my uncle, who's now in the hospital. We went there later that day for support. Maybe there's support/strength in numbers, I think there was 8 people sitting around waiting for report of the progress of the clot removal. There was an obstruction in the carotid artery, so they couldn't get to the one in the brain. I told you before that I am comfortable in that hospital for some reason. Even if the situation is not great, for some reason it's been a good place for me. Another day later, I stopped by again in the ICU and I think I almost needed a number to get in the room, I was person 11. He's still under sedation with some brain swelling and a little temp. Nobody knows what the future will bring and we are keeping all of the parties involved in our prayers.... I think it has been a little comforting for all my cousins to see me there when most of them visited me when I was laying in that bed not knowing they were there. It's been good for me just to see what the situation, the room, and the people must have looked like. It's almost deja vu and I'm sitting there watching what's going on. I feel I have it together for now, but life throws some stuff at you for sure.

Rescue

I don't know how to address the web, but maybe "the world" might be good. Yesterday morning, a fire department experience again became part of my life experiences again. The pager went off again and listening to the address, we were on our way to my uncle and aunt's house. We get there, the front door is wide open, a neighbor is in the house and I find my uncle on the floor in the bedroom breathing but not moving or talking. The neighbor said she wasn't ever so happy to see someone. Other firemen began rolling in each doing his or her thing, more or less the same procedure we've done many times before, but this time it was my uncle... You still need to do what you are trained to do whether or not you know the person or not. We moved him to the backboard, he indicated he wasn't comfortable there and we moved him up to a chair. He was still not talking and it was beginning to look like a stroke... The ambulance crew arrived, did their thing, and suggested they go to a city hospital, then rolled out. We did everything we can and or know how to do, but to many times you think is it enough? Realistically I think he made it to the hospital in an hour and a half, not bad for a group of trained volunteers with a hospital thirty miles away. I talk about the hospital experience tomorrow.

The fence

The tree saga continues.... We had a great idea after the county got rid of the trees in front of our house to put up a fence. We hired a tree service to grind the stumps again seemed like a good idea. It looked like he did a good job when he took them down a foot more than the diameter of the stump. Well then we cleaned up the mess and took a tractor mounted rototiller to the whole area to smooth out our lawn. Well now you couldn't see where exactly the trees had been which presented a problem. We started digging a hole for the first fence and what do you know a root... Well I cleaned it up alittle then took a chainsaw to the root in the ground. I didn't now what else to do. The root ended up being about 8-10 inches around after I cut a hunk out of it. That took a couple of hours for one hole, too long and I was tired. The next day we did a couple three more, then the next problem presented itself. In the fifth hole about a foot down we ran into a piece of concrete on the road side of stumps. Were did that come from??? My brothers have an air compressor and a jack hammer, so we broke that up. It looked like a curb that was about two feet down from the road level. It had to have been there more than 50 years. I didn't want to believe it then we moved on to the last hole. And you guessed it about a foot down under the dirt concrete again. It was beginning to get old you know. Jack hammer again and some small pieces of root and we got the last one done. Three days to put up a rail fence the length of our house, a good thing I wasn't getting paid by the hole. Well I will still win over the tree that got me next winter when the pieces of wood from it heat our house. The new fence did make a nice mother's day present..

Doctors - final

It's good time in your life when after seven months you can shed all of the doctors, and therapists and try to go back to a more normal life. Finally, this week I had the last follow-up visit with the hand specialist. He did another office x-ray of my pinky finger and said that it looked excellent. He had me make a fist and I can curl it almost as far as the left hand. I have more movement than he thought I would ever have, which is a great feeling too. I know you don't want to be a regular at any doctor's office, enough so that the nurse recognizes you and calls you by your first name. I am glad that I don't need to go back there again, but they really have been great.
A week ago, I had a normal physical with my new primary care doctor, the same one that my wife and son see. I had been going to this clinic because their hours fit my schedule better, but after the accident they seemed out of touch and the the whole thing seemed a bit above them. So, I switched to a doctor that had asked about my condition several times and I felt comfortable with. Well I was telling him about my finger tips on my right hand tingling and he suggested I get an EMG. It's just a nerve test to see if all of the pathways are unobstructed and that everything is working like it's supposed to. It's been kindof funny, because the neurologist thought it was a hand problem and the hand specialist thought it was a brain problem. A family friend, that's also a neurologist, did the test and she didn't find anything wrong. She thinks that any difference is from swelling and will improve in the next six months plus. The two appointments were right after each other, so I had her report to give to the hand specialist too.
People have asked if I am 100%, well are any of us? I am working, driving and loving my family and that is what matters today. I am doing everything that I want to do and yes I still have some "quirks" and I am still getting closer to that 100% every day. But for now without any doctors in the picture and yes September 25th does seem like a long time ago.....

trees

The tree saga continues. You know that tree that got me, well we wanted them cut down..... There has been a beautiful palliated woodpecker creating havoc in the tops of them. They are rotted enough that there must be some grubs etc. living in the limbs and he is making some large grooves( 1 foot long x 2") to get at them. The resulting wood chips were everywhere and I am sure that it is weaking an already bad situation. Well the county, who has decided that the trees are theirs to deal with, hired a tree service to assist them in removing them. The tree service had a boom truck to reach the limbs and three guys with saws and the county had maybe seven others to watch traffic and pick up the mess. They did a good partial job. They left about seventeen feet of trunk still standing, which looks really weird. They assured Carole that they would be back to finish the job, we'll see, I hope soon. They did leave me some nice firewood for next year and some mulch. It was fun to watch, they private company guys no hard hats, the county guys all hard hated up. I think probably we will have to grind the stumps ourselves and then we have discussed putting up a nice post and rail fence where the trees were. We will see what kind of a mood moves us when the trees are completely gone. I'll try to put up a picture of our lovely trunks.

Don't blink

Life passes by or goes on whether your ready or not. I am on the rescue squad with the fire department and this morning was one of those days that's part of life. We went to a neighbors house for a difficulty breathing which turned into a full arrest when we arrived. We did CPR, myself and a couple of others, but there was never a shockable rhythm for the defibrillator is shock off of, so we continued. I got to drive the ambulance to the hospital while some others worked on him. I've driven before, but it's still an experience driving someone else's vehicle, especially an ambulance, when the owner and a crew are doing their thing in the back. We got to the emergency room, they continued were we left off and some time went by, then the doctor called the person dead.... It's the way it goes, you work on the person for an hour and then a doctor has to make the decision whether to keep going or not. All of this happened before 6:15 am. I don't want to dwell on the call for us, but the good things surrounding the person.
This guy was the best friend of my father when he was alive. He was the best man at my father and mothers wedding many years ago. George was the patriacrh of a large family that has lived up the street for as long as I can remember. The family had seven kids, four boys and three girls, and it was always a fun time. My two brothers and myself went there regularly and the best thing was you could always get a decent kickball game going with two equal teams. We usually spent New Years Eve at one house or another, as we both had dairies and our daily schedule was pretty similar. My parents played alot of cards there too over the years. Four of the remaining children have families that live close-by, a real tight knit family. They were there when my parents died and when I was in the hospital too and I'm glad I could be there when they needed it. I feel good about our actions, but you always wish you could have done more... So, I'm falling back to the old adage, you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring so savor today.

Baseball

Maybe anyone reading my blog doesn't always care about some of the stuff that I do, but that's what this is all about I guess. I'm going to physical therapy a couple of times a week, where they are working on the range of movement of my pinky and the rest of my fingers on my right hand. They're still alittle swelled, believe it or not, six months after the fact. They are not really sure why, but they are. It doesn't affect what I do everyday, but it's annoying. My son has been after me for a few days, now that's it a little warmer, to play catch. I didn't know what I could do accurately, I was a bit apprehensive, but it was time to give it a try. My arm responded just fine, to my satisfaction. Little things are important to mentally keep yourself positive about the whole process.
We got together as a team this Monday to pull the schedule together for April. It was crazy. You wouldn't think for six guys it would be that difficult, but it was. We have alot of things that are coming into play which are affecting it this month. A guy is out for two to three weeks for an outpatient surgury, we're sharing a guy with another group and we're getting some help from another partime person who can also work some days. Whe are a seven day a week company and we need different amounts of people on different days. Challenges I guess, but we got it done...

making a schedule that works

Well, the mountain is done for another year. Today was the last day of a good season. There is still plenty of snow on the mountain, but it is hard to interest people in going skiing at a smaller mountain when people have green/brown lawns in the city. I know for them is costs a bunch of money to turn everything on and its hard to have employees sporadically. They had 100 plus days which for them constitutes a good season. The owner has a vacation planned too, soon.
On the work stage, we are a trying to head off a crisis before it happens. As I mentioned in the last blog, our team is one employee shorter, and another is going to get his hernia operated on this week. He will be out on disability for 2-3 weeks. And we have to began sharing ??? with another team for a few months, another guy that we have been using. He, though, got hired a few months ago as a rover type person and the change will be good for him. We contacted a couple of part-time people, who would be happy to help out for the money and we're lucky that they're available. So, this week we're going to try to put a schedule together for next month. I hope that we can cover the service, have days off and still do sales. After last week, our team's overall morale is not great, the team cohesiveness is just not there. I think a good team get together and a schedule that works should help.... I'll let ya know.

Greif and death

That's kind of a morbid title I know, but it will work I guess. We had a team member of ours, a work mate, pass away on Wednesday evening this week. He was in his mid fifties. He had gone into the hospital on Monday, I think, and Wednesday evening he was no longer with us.... The doctors didn't even think that he was going to make it through Tues night, but they hoped he might become more stable to move to a bigger hospital. But that never happened. I worked with the guy and went to a meeting with him on Friday last week. I didn't sleep very good Wednesday night and I kept pondering how life can change in moment and how you don't know what tomorrow, tonight or a couple of minutes from now will bring. To me this situation just reinerate's this. I'm sure that on the weekend he wasn't thinking about spending time in the hospital. I know in the morning on September 25th I wasn't clued in at all to what the afternoon might bring or the weeks to follow. Ya just don't know....
Our manager said he was going to stop taking team pictures, no matter how good they were. After the last three, someone has gotten hurt, died or left the company. Those certainly are not very good odds, I guess. Our labor force is a bit better right now compared to in the fall, so I suppose we will make do. The jury is still out on that one.. For the mental well-being of the group we will keep our eyes and ears open to see if their might be somebody new out there.
This gentleman, I know, was concerned about me when my life status was unknown and I am doing my best to do the right things for him. So Dennis, we are going to keep going forward today and in the future. And its been a pleasure knowing and working with you. Later.................

meetings

It was a busy week.....but now it's over and it went fine. It's always a good thing when you tie up a bunch of unfinished business. Yes, I generated a few new work jobs, but yes I can handle them. I have enough contacts in the company, so in theory I don't need to go it alone and even if I do there's lots of support.
One of the important meetings I was in this week, I felt I made a good impression. That's sort of a self promoting statement I know, but. It was a meeting that I was invited to participate in with the movers and shakers of that farm including a couple of bankers and the nutritionist. I presented an evaluation of the numbers from their cow database and I was able to show numbers to support my position. It was a good feeling to do a good job. The people who where involved will be involved in projects in the future.
I did the sking thing today and it was good. Now that the season is winding down I am feeling better about being there. It still tires me out sooner than it used to, but that's just time. On to another week.

computers

Well, stuff changes. I've got really used to the laptop that our company gave me to use, but like me it had a few quirks. The battery didn't last very long, it had a key that was only sometimes connected to the keyboard and most important the hinge on the screen side of the computer broke. I don't know why, but it broke. It still opened, if I was careful, but it was time for them to change it out. Fortunately I live close enough to the service center, so on my day off I went there and they swapped them. They moved the files over and a few are in different places, but so far I haven't not found anything that's not there. That's kinda funny, I haven't found anything that's not there? This one's got a bigger screen and it doesn't seen to have any quirks! I asked my wife if that would work on me too. If she just brings me to a service center and they will switch me for a new model with no quirks. LOL Well, I am going to start some physical therapy on my pinkie this afternoon. The doctor is already happy about the movement I have in the last joint. He was not very confident after he pulled out the pin, because it had been out of joint for 3 months. I think I am going to get four visits. But everything takes time.

concerns and a neat experience

I have tried not to offend anyone here. I have really tried hard not to mention to much information on here. I am sure that I have not brought up the company name that I work for. I have not said any of the peoples names that I work with either, to keep some confidentiality. But, I will say that this is a blog and I will write about my experiences good or bad to form a journal of my experiences for the future.
My wife's wrist operation went well, with no hitches. If she doesn't lift anything too heavy or use it too much the pains ok. We both have follow-up appointments with the hand/wrist doctor on Thursday and I think for the first time ever we both meet with the same doctor about different things. Our appointments are at the same time too.
I had an unusual experience this week with the fire department. We went to a car accident during a snow storm in the early evening. I was one of the first department personal there and after inquiring with the patient about her well-being, we helped her out of the broken out back window of her car that was on its side. When she got out of the car and realized who was helping her, she gave me a big hug and said how glad she was that I was all right!!!! She was the one just getting out of a wrecked car, wasn't she. I told her the same thing I have told alot of people,"I am glad to be here to tell you I'm doing fine "and are you sure you're ok?

wrist work

The event this week is that Carole is getting her wrist operated on. The tendons are apparently rubbing on each other and are not supposed to be. The same
Doctor that worked on my finger will work on her wrist. A couple of hours, more or less on Monday and I hope her pain might go away. We will see what Monday brings. I set up a meeting with my Manager near by, during the time she's in the operating room, instead of setting in the waiting room.
Last was a challenging year for our team. We were significantly under budget for the year, but for several months during the year we were short on people... For many weeks our team members worked without days off. These were not just because of my situation, but we also had a member out for back surgery in May. There were no extra people in the system to fill in, so they more or less had to suck in up and keep working. Two new fellows were hired, but it was too late in the year to have an impact on our dollars of sales for the year. Unfortunately, I feel that there was some grief that came down on our manager and now that we have plenty of people and its a new year, that grief is coming down further. Fortunately, for us we had a good January and February is coming along ok. Our team is a good bunch of guys that work hard and I wish they didn't have to read between the lines. Right at the moment, we have one team member on vacation for a couple of weeks and we will have to work around it.

Nurse practicioner

Well, it's been an interesting few days, with a couple of highlights that I will relate here. Earlier this week, I scheduled myself an OSHA physcal for the fire department. Everyone has to have one, but there are different amounts of time when you need to redo them depending on how old you are. They came to the fire station a few weeks ago and did a bunch of people there, but I had to work that day and couldn't make it. There is a fairly long personal history page that you have to fill out ahead time, that I had them send to me so I could mull over the answers at home and not in a waiting room. I didn't answer a few questions because I wasn't exactly sure what to put down,ie;"have you ever had a seisure?" They said I had one shortly after I hit the ground, but just one and I wanted to talk to someone about my answer. The person who did the physcial was a nurse practicioner who was a middle aged man. I passed the physcal part just fine and during so, we were just talking and he asked me how I felt. I said "fine", well he said I would feel better than today in a year+ from now. I asked him what he meant and he related a college experience to me. He said that while in college he was on the boxing team and ended up in the hospital from numerious head shots. I think he said that he was out for part of a day. He said that one day after a period of time, he just noticed that some things were not bothering him any more. He hadn't noticed, but they just weren't. It was nice to talk to someone else that had a positive experience. I guess the brain is just one part of your body and it might get injuried, like any other part. I know, it just so happens that it controls all the rest of the parts. I was thinking, my tag line should be "don't hit your head".

nursing homes

Per my past experiences, I've felt that I should make it a point to visit people I know in the hospital. Maybe it sounds noble, but I'm going to try. It's not been one of my favorite things to do, but I'm a strong enough human to get over that. This week, after a little bit of information at a meeting, I went to visit another fireman that's an elderly town resident. He is getting over pneumonia by spending alittle time in a nursing home. I made some time in the early evening a couple of nights ago to sit and chat with with him for some time. He knew the members of my family, what they did and just needed some recent updates. I found out during our chat that he had graduated with my father from grade school in Truxton. He also has three children that are scattered around the country and are alittle younger that myself. Coincedently his son is a teacher at the grade school that he graduated from. Nursing homes are not fun places, but who knows how many of us might end up spending our final years in one. I got the inpression that he hadn't had many visitors, so I was glad that I took the time.

whim

Somedays you do things on a whim. A few days ago, I mentioned to Carole that since I was going to have some body work done on my truck in a few days it would be nice to order a rear bunper that I damaged last year. We looked them up on ebay for a price, $200 -300 plus shipping, which seemed like kinda high. My son came by the computer about that time and said he visited a nice u-pull-it place in Horseheads. I looked their website up and they had just taken in a 2001Dakota that had been rolled over. I called them and they said they don't pull off parts untill you look at it. So on a whim, at 2:00pm I headed off to Horseheads to look at a bumper. Mapquest said 65 miles, but I drove right to the place. They had 25 rows of vehicles and a whole row of Dodge trucks and at least a couple with good rear bumpers. Their guy to pull them off was doing a transmission that day and I suggested to them that I wasn't going to drive back there the next day. So I borrowed some tools and it came off fine, and I came home with bumper for $42. An ovious great bargin. We have been working with a new employee that has some issues. From the get go we said he would be a project and that's for sure. His english skills are not great, so sometimes It makes hard to understand what he really means. His skills are good and he is very appreciative of everything you do for him. Now comes the but. He's been trying to take a course or two at the Community college and it meets during the day when he is supposed to be working. The one class is a Microsoft office class and it takes him a long time to prepare for the class. That's ok on his time but now the second problem. He was trying to get into an English as a second language class, the only problem was that it met twice a week at 11:00am?? It would seem to me that anyone that would be taking the class would also be working during that time of day. I think the lack of good english skills makes the computer class prep. go slower too. Us, as a team, have been trying to work around these challenges, but he is a new employee. He is taking a lot of advantages of the system which the more tenured employee's are becoming less toleratant of. I would hope that his common sense would get better, which would lead to the realizeation that he is not pulled his fair load. Again a blog is just my two cents......

sking

I stuck a new picture on here for everybody. I did go skiing on Saturday and had a great time. I won't disagree that I had the first day of the season apprehension. I had bought myself a new helmet the night before, which I had thought about getting last year. I'd thought about it but I hadn't followed through. I got a neck warmer/head cap with it which made the overall comfort good and warmth too. I went out with Nick and I told him ahead of time that my goal was to not fall and have a good time. My wife would have been big on the no falling part. Fortunately all of those things were realized. My feet were a little wobbly with the skis on but nothing more than the first day of the season, for me, muscles getting used to the whole situation. I was out there about four hours and yes I was tired when I came home. I told my son that three months ago my doctors or myself wouldn't even have pictured myself on this mountain this year. I heard a doctor say once that if your body is used to it before you got hurt, it will do it again. That's sure a positive statement.

Team leader

I see that blogger is available in three more languages; Hebrew, Arabic and Persian. I guess by that we are supposed to get a better feel of how big the Internet is? Well, I'm still just a guy that fell out of a tree and I've been writing about my time after it, for the whole world to read. Officially I'm the team leader at work. We had a group meeting on Monday night and our area manager told the whole group of my status. He has big plans and I hope that he doesn't think one person is going to change the results of the whole team. But I can say that having an extra person like myself working and visiting people/customers will help take care of a lot of loose ends and stuff that wasn't getting done timely before. I hope my personality will help the team continuity and overall well being of everyone in the team. In our business, many times just pulling in the driveway of a customer, being there at the right time, will result in a sale. Since May of last year we have been short on personnel, which has hurt our overall sales in my opinion. If team members have to go to work everyday for 50+ days straight it's diffinently not a good thing. I understand new employees don't grow on trees but, that still doesn't make it right.... We've all had some productive days since and we also now have a schedule through the end of February, so everyone knows when they are working. I'm getting more comfortable with work and everyone is getting more comfortable having me around slowly. Right at the moment, I'm still not the same person I was before the accident. I've had experiences that were not part ofmy life before. The "quirks" are still there but either they are slowly fading or I'm getting used to them being part of my life. I have some tingling in the tips of my fingers on my right hand that doesn't change very much and is more noticable in the evening. Again I don't know if the work distracts me from noticing it or if it is really more prevalant at night? The palatte sensivity has gotten better too, it's not back to normal but better. The balance is a lot better and I'm going to try some sking on Saturday. Hoo-rawh... My kids know I'm going and Carole will be alright with it as long as I wear a ski helmut, that I was going to get anyway. It's one of those things, if you have a $5 head get a $5 helmut, I don't think so.... So stay tuned and I tell you how the sking went.

schedule

I was thinking I need a new picture to add or replace the one in the blog. Maybe a picture with the coveralls and vest from work, I don't know, but we'll see. We're leading kind of a screwed up schedule right now. Nick's bus comes at 7:00 am, but he likes to be up around 6:00 to eat breakfast and get ready. I try to leave the house at 6:30 to quarter of seven because it takes me about 20-30 minutes to get to our first customer. Right at the moment, Carole is working the evenings when the school kids and their chaperone's are at the mountain. So she goes to work around 1:30 pm and stays till the last bus leaves at 9 - 9:30 pm. She's responsible to make sure all the school kids leave the mountain in one mode or another and that nobody gets left behind. The other night the buses loaded and a school was one kid short. The ski patrol did a sweep of the hill and found the kid off the trail and escorted her down minorly inquired. She did ride home on the bus and not in a ambulance luckily. So there are some fail safes to make sure everything ends up as it's supposed to.. So any way, were putting in a pretty full day right at the moment and we make sure Nick's in bed before Carole gets home from work..... And generally it only lasts for about 8-10 weeks, then she goes back to a daytime shift..

three places

Ya know, I've previously had three places that I would rather not go or be during a days time. A hospital, a doctors office and a lawyers office are those places, no offense if you work at one of these places, but today I was at all three. The first two don't bother me any more, but the last one I'm still uncomfortable in. Some days a necessary evil I guess.
The new bull proofs were out yesterday. If you don't know, they're a bunch of numbers showing the ranking of different bulls in our company and the industry. They have just changed the timing so they come out at the same time as the international numbers. The last time they came out was in August and January seems like a long time. We have about 65 bulls and each one has around 25 - 30 different numbers ranking different traits. So it's a lot of numbers and it will take me a couple of days to get a good understanding.
Well today I tried out a new game of Nick's. He just got a Wii and we tried out the bowling. The controller you swing and push a button. Pretty straight forward and a lot like regular bowling, except the controller is a lot lighter than a regular bowling ball. I did alright and it's pretty similar. The last time I tried a video game it was "Halo" on my other son's Xbox 360. Somebody suggested video games would be good, but I was smart enough to hide under a rock and let all the good players run by. Maybe 'Halo" is not for me or I don't practice enough.......

transition

I'm slowly moving myself and this blog to more job related issues. I am not saying that there are not or will not be still some health issues, but I'm not dwelling on them as much. I am getting comfortable with the things we talked about in the last post. The handheld computer for work, for example, seems to be working ok and I am working on a routine on when its good to use it. It helped my skills yesterday, I had an associate ride with me who needed some work with the handheld. In helping him I got better. The new cell phone is another work in progress, but I'm getting used to it, and it will do some nice stuff.
Earlier this week I went to a chimney fire in another town in the middle of the night. I was a hilly back road, with ice and snow all over the place. I called the water tanker that was a mile or so behind me on the two way radio, to tell him the road was slippery. I barely got the mic hung up, and my truck is fishtailing all over the place and I ended up in a snowbank in the ditch. I had some choice words, but I was fine. The tanker stopped to see if I was alright, I told them I was fine and go ahead and continue to the fire. Fortunately for the homeowner, we got cancelled a few minutes later because they didn't need any help. Unfortunately my truck was still in the ditch with a damaged front passenger fender. The chief came by and pulled me out, and I drove it home. The fire department's insurance from the neighboring town will cover it. Life's full of surprises......

Lifes little challenges

It's been a stressful couple of days. Two days ago, I got an upgrade to my cell phone. It's a nicer phone than I had, but it's different. Then last night, the department decided to get out of the cell phone business. Mind you, after they had just received seven new ones as upgrades. Verizon didn't want to keep the same rate for fire departments that they had been offering and for seven people it's not worth the hassle. Oh well I will just join Carole's plan.
Next, we have these new handheld computers for the company. There kind of like the one's the Schwan's drivers have and also the UPS people. We're doing our receipts and invoice writing on them at the farm and nightly we sync them to the mainframe in Shawano, Wisc. The advantage is they provide accurate up to date information about the customer and they make our inventory current on the computer to the day.
And finally, I met with my manager about my job with the company. He hadn't actually seen me since I was in the hospital, but he had kept updated from the blog and we had talked on the phone a couple of times. Aren't blogs wonderful. We talked for a while and he offered me a couple of choices, which I slept on and I got back to him today. Ya, we'll discuss it on here later. But everything worked out OK today, yesterday was just another day in the rat race.

Installation dinner

Carole and I spent the evening at the fire station for the annual installation dinner last night. What a great time with friends.... We recognized many individuals, number of years as members, most calls made in the last year and some individual achievements. We also recognized a fireman of the year and a rookie of year. For sure it makes everyone feel good about the time that they volunteered at the fire department in the last year. The other assistant chief wrote a sort of essay that he read, after a person had asked him why he did what he did. The fires in the middle of the night, people trapped in a smashed car, helping a elderly person not feeling well get to the hospital and finally, loading a injured friend of yours into a helicopter with an unknown prognosis. That's why we all do it.... Believe or not they even gave me a plaque recognizing my determination. That gave me the opportunity to thank everyone in the room that had anything to do with my "situation" if I hadn't done so already. The situation obviously effected different people in different ways. But, we all had a great time and seeing the chief gives out some gag awards I will try not to do anything memorable in the next year...

day off

A nice thing happened today. I talked to the guy from the long term disability company. It was a pleasure to tell him that I didn't need his services. The short term ended on the 25Th of Dec. and I went back on the 26Th of December. I had the day off today and tomorrow, believe it or not, but I'm seeing the doctor again on Thursday for my pinky. I hope that it's healed enough so that they can take out the stitches. It looks ok and it would look a lot nicer too. My day off list was a little longer today, but by tomorrow I will have walked through it pretty well.
Finally, I got the fire department reports caught up to year end. The chief is not a computer guy, so they hadn't been done since the middle of September. They are incident reports on each call that we have to file with the state. After each call we do up a basic report on paper, then we try to do up a more elaborate version on the computer for the state. The funniest thing about it was that I did the report for the call at my house for me.... Well I know everyone to thank....

normal house

Happy New Year! Here's wishing you and yours a happy 2008. Over the last several days a couple of things of note happened. The biggest thing was that we now don't have a ramp at all in front of our house. It migrated to the barn for storage and now our house is looking pretty "normal". It's a small thing, but a milestone. Another thing is, tomorrow will be a week back on the job. The doctors prognosis was significantly longer initially, but they didn't know or did anybody for that matter. I try to not think about the possible negative opinions expressed, I'm just happy to be were I am today. While I'm back on the job, I am trying to not step on anyones toes. They've been getting the job done efficiently and professionally and right at the moment I'm the new guy. I'm a little awkward in my routine, but I realize that most of that is practice. Three months is awhile for sure. I've been wearing a small blue latex glove to keep my stitches on the right hand pinky clean. The glove certainly keeps it clean, but it makes the routine a little more awkward, which slows me down. I know right now the object is to be able to do the job safely, not necessarily fast.... We attended a couple more holiday parties in the last few days. My brothers held theirs at an ice rink, with open skating. I felt that this time around it would probably be better if I passed on the skating, maybe next year? I talked with a lot of people, including a cousin and his family from the west coast. He said that the blog has been a great outlet for my experiences. In this case, I've made technology work in my favor..