Say What?

It seems all of my blogging time has been devoted to our basement blog. That's about to change though as the basement project is finished and so is the blog. I told Dan I'd leave it up because I'm not at all pressed for webspace and if he wanted to he could send prospective clients there to watch one of his projects come together. I really pray he's able to continue to find projects to do and that he's able to carve out a nice living for him and his family. He's such a nice guy and so deserving of all the good which may come his way. I find myself feeling guilty at times when I look at how blessed I and my family are and I contrast that with what I see happening in Asia with the Tsunami and the tens of thousands of lives ended and ruined. There is so much death and destruction there. It's hard to comprehend from our comfortable homes as we watch and read about their horror. I pray that God comforts them and gives them the strength and determination they ...

I got my medical back at 1:20 this afternoon. The whole area gave me a round of applause when they told me I had my medical back. I'm very thankful to God for this happening. I'm a bit rusty in the sector but I'm hoping that after a few days I'm back to my old level of proficiency again. Tammy will be happy to hear the news. I spoke with my union rep, Rob, about the approach we'll take when and if the headaches return. We'd like to keep from having to go through the regional flight surgeon and having my medical pulled on that level. We're hoping we can manage the issue within our facility in the future. My uncle, Elvin, died yesterday morning at the age of 87. He left behind a trail of broken lives from the sexual abuse he visited upon so many young girls. He was always my favorite uncle before we discovered his problem. Of all the adults in my life while I was growing up I'd consider him to be the least threatening. How ironic. Fortunately for me, his...

I've been posting daily to our basement blog so this one sort of gets forgotten about. I lost my medical certificate at work over two weeks ago after I came forward and told them of my Cluster headache condition. I'm awaiting approval from our regional flight surgeon to give me the okay and to reinstate my medical. It should have already happened. I'm hoping this next week sees me returning to life as normal. I'm not holding my breath.

I got a phone call at 8:45 this morning to inform me that my medical certificate was being pulled pending a review of my condition. I was expecting that to happen but maybe not so quickly. It's a bit odd going back into the control room and having to explain to those I work with that I can't plug in and work traffic with them. Everyone is very respectful of my privacy but I know they're curious as to why I've lost my medical. I've gone into some detail with a few and expect the word will filter down to the rest. I came into work tonight on the mid-shift. There isn't much for me to do so I put up some new nav charts which go into effect tonight. I had to laugh...as I'm putting up the charts, John is coughing so bad he can barely get his composure to give clearances to the planes on freq. And I'm the one who isn't fit to work traffic? I came home from work and finished putting up Christmas lights outside. They look nice. As I was working on them la...

I had my meeting yesterday afternoon and it went about how I thought it might. Garry couldn't say much but did say that decisions would be made outside of our facility and it is most likely out of his hands. No doubt he will have some input but just how much I have no way of knowing. He did mention that I will most likely lose my medical and will be assigned other duties until I get it back. I'm relieved but I'm still concerned about my future. The tension between management and workers is at an all-time high for the nearly 23 years I've been doing my job.

Tomorrow is an important day for me and my family. It's the day I disclose at work my headache condition and leave myself totally exposed for whatever repercussions management may have for me. I'd first mentioned the headaches on my physical in the mid-'80s. They asked for specifics and I told them whatever I felt would help them to understand the headaches and how I coped with them. There wasn't any medication then that I was aware of (none of my doctors thought to prescribe prednisone for me). It's probably more the use of medication the past several cycles and my failure to disclose that than the failure to mention the headaches on subsequent physicals which will cause me problems. I met with my union president this afternoon and we discussed a bit about how we'll approach Garry with this news tomorrow. Garry is the number 2 man at our facility and we've known each other for nearly 20 years. I'm somewhat confident Garry will go to bat for me but I...

I'm afraid yesterday may have been our last warm day of the year. The temp got up into the upper 60s. I started doing some yard work and then I figured that was pretty stupid with my bike begging me to ride. I had a good ride. The wind was pretty stiff out of the west so I headed out 169 south toward Shakopee. I crossed the Minnesota River a couple miles north of where I usually do on the bike path in Bloomington. I picked up Old Shakopee Rd and followed that to where it turns into Homeward Hills Rd. There's a nice hill which was registering 7-8% and had my heart rate pegged for a time. There was a car behind me not wanting to pass and I was trying to keep the speed up. It felt so good to be working so hard and feeling fine. The feeling you get when your heart is beating so hard must be an addictive thing. I have to have it and I get anxious if I haven't experienced it in a while. That's usually not a problem for me. I picked up Flying Cloud Dr and followed that past th...