Say What?

Rachel was back at Canvas and Chardonnay a few nights ago. She texted Tammy and me this photo of the painting she'd done but we couldn't figure out what it was or if it was a finished product. Hmmm. A little later she sent us the completed painting (photo to the left). I think this is her third time taking a class there. I told her she should look into applying for a job there teaching classes. I could very much see her doing that. Oops...I just forgot...she's moving home in a few weeks! Tammy has been preparing for her mother to come and stay with us at the end of May. She's purchased a wheelchair that we can use to take her out and about. We'll have walkers on each level of our home for her to more safely get around and minimize her risk of falling. I don't think I can fully appreciate just how big of an undertaking this is going to be but we know it's the right thing to do. Tammy has many years of experience in this area so I'll just follow her l...

I received some very good news Monday night in a call from Dr. Johnstone. I posted the news to my Facebook wall: "I just got off the phone with my doctor/surgeon. She updated me on my CT scan from last Wednesday and used the word "lovely" a few times to describe what she saw. The clot in my left common iliac artery that had an irregular shape and was most concerning to her was no longer there. Wow! I wasn't expecting to hear that at all. The clot in my right iliac artery had diminished in size. Another wow! I thank God and medical science for that great news and anybody who may have offered up their prayers or good thoughts or well-wishes. This is welcome news to me/us." I had mentally prepared myself for a result that would have had me undergoing a surgical procedure that would've meant the end of my career and months of recovery. This gives me some breathing room and I'm once again focused on a retirement date of 1/2/2016, 259 days from now. Our ...

I had another CT scan on Wednesday morning. The results of the scan were to give my surgeon a better idea about the timetable for performing bypass surgery on my common iliac arteries. I was expecting a call with the results but I've heard nothing yet. I would think that if there was anything of urgency on the scan she would've gotten in touch with me by now. We took a drive into St Paul Friday morning to take in the American Craft Council art show. It's a yearly thing we try and do since first attending maybe 10 years ago. We came close to getting Tammy a new Ann Ringness purse but she opted to get some more miles out of the one I bought for her a few years ago. Perhaps we'll see Ann again at the Uptown Art Fair in August and get one then. We chatted for a while with David Royce, one of the glassblowing artists we met when we first began at Foci. His work is so beautiful and unique. On the way back to our car I noticed some pigeons walking along the metal supports...

Tammy has officially joined the ranks of the retired. She went into work last Monday to turn in all of her equipment  and do one final shift . Nearly all of her coworkers also work from home but a few showed up at the office to give her a surprise retirement party, something that seldom happens there. She was surprised! I was so happy for her when she told me that. She deserved it. After the party, she asked if she could be excused for the 2nd half of the day because her head just wasn't with Optum anymore. Her supervisor understood and with that, she left the world of nursing (although I know it will always be in her heart). We met up at home in the afternoon and I could see from the look on her face that a huge weight had been lifted from her. The work should've been much more rewarding than it was but Optum had a way of adding layers of stress through metrics that took all of the fun out of it. We took the pups to the dog park and let the idea that she no longer has to ...

33 years ago today I began my career with the FAA. I don't know what 33 years is supposed to feel like but certainly not this. Back when I was beginning my career that would've seemed like a very long time to be a controller but that's not my perspective today. Of the 500 or so people I sat with in the auditorium that morning as we filled out the many forms, I have to wonder how many (if any) are still working traffic? Could I possibly be the last man standing out of all of us? It's entirely possible. I spent too much time this past week trying to upgrade Tammy's phone after she'd dropped hers in the toilet. It still functioned but would occasionally go dark. She was a few months past due for an upgrade but that's not what our account's records with Verizon showed. I tried to get a resolution to the problem both in-store and over the phone but with no luck whatsoever. Each time I was assured that someone would get back to me but they never did. In my f...

Tammy and I celebrated the 16th anniversary of our first date last Thursday night. We considered going to Sawatdee restaurant in Minneapolis (where it all began for us) but opted for something different instead. We drove south to Northfield and with the help of Yelp we chose The Tavern for dinner. We enjoyed ourselves while reminiscing about those earlier years and looking ahead to the changes we'll be seeing in our near future. I was in the middle of taking a selfie to upload to Facebook when the couple across from us offered to help out. That was sweet of them. We walked in the cold night air to our car and talked of coming back to Northfield to check out the many shops one day soon. It's a beautiful older city and one we seldom visit. I'm all caught up on my TV watching after having viewed the final season of Breaking Bad and the last episode of the most recent House of Cards series. I was a little late to Breaking Bad and got mired down in the 3rd season when it b...

Finally! I was able to return to work today and resume my duties as an air traffic controller after nearly 2 months away on medical leave. It feels nice. Not that I didn't appreciate my job before being sidelined as I was but I appreciate it even more now. I showed up at work this morning to report to the Quality Control office for some 'other duties', running short on sick-leave and intending to either get my clearance to work traffic again within the next few days or reluctantly submit my paperwork and retire at the end of the month. Fortunately for me, I received a call mid-morning telling me that I was being reinstated and that I was free to resume my work as a controller. I quickly stepped outside to text Tammy and tell her the good news but decided to call her instead. This was something we both really wanted and a text message just wouldn't do it justice. She was very happy too! I'm not ready yet. I'm just not. The widget on my phone says 291 days unt...