Monday, May 14, 2012

Change

I turned to my blog and was immediately lost. I have been away for a while and completely forgot about this new blogger interface thing so I just stared dumbly at the screen muttering, "I just want to write something. How do I do that?" I do not like confusion first thing in the morning. I have had enough confusion recently and my confusion meter has pegged out.

I heard the little three-cup coffee maker gurgling mightily so I knew my coffee was ready. You see, it gurgles in a subdued manner until it has completed its assigned duty, then gives a hearty gurgle when it has finished its task. Simple things. Simple cues. I can contend with that.

Sipping my coffee, I mused that everyone is now used to this new Googledy blog interface and there even may be people that have grown to like it. I needed to look at this as an adventure. No. Not at five on this Saturday morning. I sipped more coffee and started clicking around until I finally found a button called 'Post' and here I am. I'm not contending too well with change these days.

I am sitting in a small office with gray walls and gray carpet and yes, white crown molding, in front of my old beat-up brown desk located in the wrong place in the room because it has to be where a telephone cord can reach the Model 7500 Modem which allows me to computerface with the outside world. All of this represents 'change'. I need to remember to get a longer cord today and, oh yeah, a wireless adapter for Marilyn's computer (which I need to move from the old house twenty miles away) so we can stop fighting over this computer. It seems like I need to get something else too -- oh yeah, an edger/trimmer for the yard. Too much to remember.

Change.

Last Tuesday we moved from our previous house to our smaller house. This was step one in our grand plan to downsize as I progress toward retirement. For days we had been eating hamburgers and to-go chicken and on Wednesday I vowed we would actually eat a meal fixed in our new house. Our brains were mushier then than they are now. We had a store-bought pizza in the freezer so I pulled it out, ripped open the package, then stood there stupefied, and hollered, "Where is the pizza pan?" It seems it was somewhere in the 85 boxes stacked nearly ceiling-high in the third bedroom which serves as our temporary storage room. So, I sauntered, while muttering impolite things, to my car and drove to the grocery store and bought a pizza pan. And that is how it has been going. (Did I mention that I forgot to take the cardboard off the bottom of the pizza when I cooked it?)

Change.

I like our new house even though it seems, well...small. Hutch, our Lab, does not like this place. He grew up in our bigger place and it is the only home he has ever known. He is agitated and nervous and moody and refuses to leave my side. You see, I am not the only one struggling with change.

I think that in my last post I addressed the subject of Crown Molding. Because this house is newer it is stranger. Normal houses have rooms with four walls that meet the ceilings in nice clean ninety-degree angles. For some absurd reason the walls and ceilings in this house meet each other too often in angles other than ninety degrees and this serves no discernible purpose other than to cause me to ask "Why?" We had a crew here prior to the move to paint and install carpet in bedrooms. The question was, "How the hell do you put Crown Molding up with those strange angles all over the place?" We were advised that something called a Compound Miter Box would be needed to saw the molding precisely. This sounded pretty confusing to me. On top of that, my ninety-degree brain simply couldn't comprehend molding jutting off in all these strange angles.

So we agreed that we would forgo the Crown Molding. Sometimes agreements between Marilyn and I go like this.

Me: "If we put up Crown Molding it would look stupid."

Marilyn: "Hmm."

Me: "So, lets just drop the whole Crown Molding thing. We have enough confusion already."

Marilyn: "Hmm."

Me: "Good it's settled. No Crown Molding."

Marilyn: "Hmm,"

Me: "Now don't you feel better. One issue solved!"

Marilyn: "Hmm."

So Marilyn had them install the Crown Molding. She happened to mention it to me a couple of days before the move.

Marilyn: "Before you say anything -- if you don't like it we can have them take it down."

Me: "Hmm."

I really messes with my manliness to say that it looks good.

I will include some pictures (assuming I can find the camera and the camera has a memory card in it...and the batteries in the camera still work. Surely I kept the camera in an accessible place....I hope.)

Health Issues

I am a little lumpy. Around the time that we bought the house we discovered an annoying lump on the left side of my neck just under my ear right about where the lymph nodes are. During the time of house-closing and lining up utilities and arguing with TV signal providers and movers I had to visit four separate doctors and have an ultrasound and then a MRI and a dreaded biopsy. So my brain has been switching back and forth between The Move and The Lump. It was concluded that I do not have cancer. But the lump was located near where the facial nerve bundle is,  which requires that I visit with a nerve specialist surgeon. I do that next Monday. Apparently this surgeon has some kind of computer that somehow connects to my facial nerves which will tell him, "Oops. Better not do that. Do this instead."

This leads to surgery scheduling. I have to go to Calgary which is located in Alberta which is located in Canada next month for some training in a course that I helped design. Yeah, that's right. Take a course that I wrote. The vagaries of corporate policy is another subject all its own. Now -- do I have the surgery now and show up at the training with scars that will terrify the instructor and other students, or wait until after? Also if I have surgery now I will be bedridden for a while -- which actually sounds kind of attractive. "Darling, which box are you going to unpack?" "I'm hungry -- could you scramble some eggs for me?" "You want me to do what? Oh, the pain...maybe I will do that tomorrow or next week or something." But then the doc may say that he wants to de-lump me now because he doesn't want it to go.

We'll see how it goes.

The Conclusion to this Post

I was going to write the conclusion of this post last Saturday morning after posting some Crown Molding pictures that was I was going to take with my camera. I couldn't find the camera. It is Monday afternoon and I still can't find the darn camera.

But there have been changes since I composed the stuff above. Instead of going to Calgary next month it seems I am going the last week of this month.

Change.

Saw the premier surgeon and it seems as if he is not premier enough. It seems I now have to go to the King of Surgeons in the Medical Center. It appears the surgery, if I decide to have it and now am beginning to wonder about this, will entail a bit of micro-surgery and lasers and the Best that Medical Science Can Provide. Okay, I just stuck that last part in there. This is now the fifth doctor I will now see. I am tired of doctors and I am tired of using up my vacation time seeing doctors. If I have to go up the surgical totem pole any higher I will end up seeing the Surgeon General of the United States....and I'm not sure he does surgeries.

Change.

Enough blather. Gotta' go fill a prescription. It seems I have a sinus infection.

Later. Have fun and stay away from lumps.









16 comments:

  1. Poor Jerry, your life has been in a total upheaval, hasn't it? And to add insult to injury, now a sinus infection!

    Get well and get settled soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jerry, despite all the change, it sounds like basically good news on the lumps.

    If you do have to show up for (your own) training seminar (or anything else) with scars don't forget you can always say you got into a knife fight defending a woman's honor, and they should see the other guy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh Jerry...it seems you have been sucked into various machines...the moving-medical-mitering-malfeasance machine. Go to Calgary. Read a book...:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Oh dear Jerry! Change may be fun if it's vacation time but your changes are a mixed bag of stresses. Still I sense a bit go humour. Please try to keep that. Don't change. Calgary eh?

    ReplyDelete
  5. A major move and the blog changing its interface is just too much to deal with all at one time, seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hate change. I hate the new Blogger. I hate the fact that I can't do a damned thing about either one.

    Sob. Sometimes being 85 ain't easy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. you cuddadone the crown molding urself,, just reverse the angle, put the molding in the miter box upside-down (back to the front), cut slowly and "dry fit" to make sure the angle was just right.. Ok,, throw that one away, I guess you only turn the backside out for the other side of the house. Ok, now start over....

    ReplyDelete
  8. I ran across your blog a while ago and have enjoyed reading your posts, especially since my husband and I are just beginning to prepare for the retirement downsizing stage. I get what you’re saying about change. One day I’m dancing on my tippy toes with excitement … the next I’m nearly frozen with fear. I hope all the lumps in your life soon become as smooth as your new gray walls.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey you! I am sorry to hear about your lump and I say - get the surgery now. You've already taken your lumps (literally, this time!) and I would wear those bandages like a badge of honor. Milk it - "I would like to participate in this dialogue for the course... but you see..." and they'll be all "Yes, of course! Heavens, please, sit! Can I get you some coffee?" and you can be all "Well, I am a man with pride but, if you wouldn't mind..." It could be wonderful -- there might even be danishes involved!
    Love the conversation between you and Marilyn... that's what it is all about and it's beautiful.
    I hate the new Blogger and I don't understand why it was done. Sure, if it was better... but it's not.
    In regard to the sinus infection - do you have a "netti pot"? Worth its weight in gold!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yeah we moved into our "transitional house" two years ago... actually starting to get comfortable with it. I had to completely remodel the bathroom to mark it as my territory. Starting to feel like home; it may be my last one. Donno

    ReplyDelete
  11. Be sure to address the Premier of All Surgeons properly, or he may not deign to un-lump you. Good luck with that, by the way.

    ReplyDelete
  12. We are just about in the same place. Our house is now too big. We're in our RV about a third of the time and think a much smaller place or condo is in our future.
    Hey, granny always said that change was good...
    Everything is going to calm down for you soon...

    ReplyDelete
  13. That's good news about the lump not being Cancer, but having to see so many doctors had got to be a tad annoying. I haven't blogged in a while either so when I signed in and saw the blogger I was lost! I scrolled down the page and saw your post and needed a laugh. (Mostly I was just happy I wasn't the only one confused about this new thing!)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm glad the lump isn't cancer. I'm sorry they are passing you from doctor to doctor. And even if the surgeon general of the US DID do surgeries, I'm not sure I'd trust him. So hopefully, you've seen the right guy and gotten it all squared away.

    The good news about your training? You should pass with flying colors.

    Hope all's well.

    ♥Spot

    ReplyDelete
  15. I feel like I'm watching myself navigate life a few steps ahead of my current state.

    Retirement is one year away....

    Thanks for being my guide.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I hate changes too. I sometimes spend close to an hour driving around the grocery store parking lot to get my usual space. ;)

    ReplyDelete