This week in the news

After a pretty mild week weatherwise, we expect freezing rain on Sunday. At least the weather held for Spring Career Fair on Friday. It was much colder than they had promised us all week, but it didn’t rain or snow, so the crowds still came. We had 195 employers come, and most of them were very satisfied with their day. 1239 candidates came through the doors, so we did pretty well that way. I always shoot for 1500 or more, but that seems unreachable.

Most problems occur as employers set up in the morning, and I have developed some little tricks along the way so that I can be flexible in solving different issues that come up. For instance, one company said their display was too big to be in the middle of the row. Even though I told people the floor was sold out, I kept one table in reserve, on the end of a row, so I sent them there. Another table needed electricity, though they hadn’t requested it ahead of time. I got their table moved to a powered row and they were happy. Another was mad because I didn't put her in the healthcare section, and I explained that since she was looking for Biology and Chemistry people, I put her in the Science section, and that we had sent emails to the Science students telling them where to find this particular employer at the Fair. She wasn’t quite satisfied with that perfectly lucid explanation, and stalked off saying “We’ll see.” You know what? If she filled out her evaluation and tells me again that she was unhappy, I’ll stick her in the healthcare rows and let her fend for herself.

Oh-one more story about annoying people at the Fair: There is a therapy place called Tender Loving Care, and the woman who represents them comes from Boston for the Fair. Every time she calls and announces herself in that harsh accent as being from “Tenda Loving Cay-uh” I always doubt that that is what I would receive from them. Anyway, she is always complaining about things so I put her at Table number one. Later I saw her sitting at a table in the middle of the front of the Fair and I said, “Nancy, you’re supposed to be at Table One.” She said, there was a “One” on this table so that’s why I’m here. Well, she was sitting at a premium priced table, and those are designated with letters of the alphabet to distinguish them from the other tables. She was sitting at Table I (eye), not one. I kicked her out and sent her to one. The big bank that was supposed to be at “I” was at “one”, and decided to stay there, so we got another table for Tenda Loving Cay-uh.

The other day I climbed the stairs for the first time this month, and four year old Max was upstairs already. He ran to the top of the stairs and said, “How’s my buddy doing?” This weekend he slept over and woke up early, of course. Kathy amused him for a while, having him feed Kodiak. Max told us about his dream where Nana was in a video game with him and she killed 129 baddies, or something like that. Today Shane took him to a kids’ event at the Cleveland orchestra called “The Velvet Violins”. After that exposure to culture, a trip to the Natural History museum was planned as well. Max got a bug in his head that he also wanted to see the planetarium. Shane explained that it involved a lot of sitting, but Max was still intrigued with the idea of seeing the stars and planets. LATER: Max loved the Velvet Violins and insisted on listening to classical music on the way home. After the orchestra show they did go to the Natural History museum to see Sue, the world famous Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, which was also a big hit with Max. The planetarium idea was shelved for the time being.

One interesting thing that came of my being sick this month: I weighed myself on a new scale and I am down to 170 pounds. Last month I was at about 184. I did want to lose some weight before the cruise, but I was thinking in the neighborhood of five pounds, not fifteen. Guess I just haven’t felt like eating much lately.

The Sick Room

Today on the way home from work we were stuck in a long line of cars at a broken traffic light. Kathy was steaming as we inched forward. I kind of enjoyed it, though, since it meant less time I would have to spend in the sick room.

For a couple of weeks now I’ve been in the family room, ensconced in my recliner with my leg elevated and iced. I’m there from the moment we get home from work until it’s time to go to bed. I’m already in bed, since the recliner is also my sleeping quarters. Being able to go to work is a pleasure, though, after spending a week in less comfortable climes including the emergency room and a hospital bed.

This past week we were socked with about sixteen inches of snow (that’s 40 centimeters for our metric friends). It fell over Tuesday and Wednesday, and they closed the university for the first time in many years. Thank goodness our son was here to dig us out. Kathy did her part, as well. All I could do was watch.

Of course it was bitter cold with -20 degree wind chills and someone had to walk the dog twice a day. One evening Kathy took him about three houses down the street and he pooped and then laid down in the snow, looked at her and sighed heavily. He wanted no part of the snow and cold that night. He got up and led her home.

My knee is finally improving, as the swelling has gone down. I’ve started working on bending it further and further each day. I had to postpone my first PT appointment due to the weather, so I’ll go on Tuesday evening. In the past I’ve dreaded such appointments since it seemed the therapist was out to ruin my joints and put me back in the hospital. Job security. This time I think I have a better attitude since I am so anxious to get back to my regular exercise routine.

Kathy reminded me it is a month from today that we leave for the cruise. I can hardly wait.

Where I’ve been…or not been

Every time things seem to be going along great, in terms of work, personally, future-wise—anyway you want to look at a life, something…happens. At least to me. Healthwise, I’ve been doing well for months, maybe too well. I was walking a lot, swimming every work day, and feeling able to snowblow a neighbor’s driveway as well as mine.

As I say to my doctor all the time, “I felt so good, I hurt myself.”

A little over a week ago I wound up in the ER with my left leg swollen and painful. After eight hours, they said why yes, you have something: it’s called hemarthrosis. Be a good boy and go home now. So I was a good boy and went home to suffer in not quiet silence.

Hemarthrosis means a joint has filled with blood. That’s what happened to me. With the anticoagulant I take, I have to monitor my clotting times and somehow it got out of whack and were too high, thus my blood was so thin it looked for a weak point to sneak through. Of course it got worse and worse over the weekend such that I couldn’t stand it anymore. My doctor trusts me with his cell number (I’ve only used it now twice in eight years). I reached him and he said to go back to the ER and see about getting admitted.

It was now Super Bowl Sunday morning, and fortunately, the ER was pretty empty yet, since there hadn’t been any serious drinking done. At first they merely observed my grotesque limb, saying that if the pain abated, then they would send me home again. My leg was so sensitive that any touch sent me to the moon. This one aide grabbed my ankle to “help” me down off the gurney. I didn’t quite scream (for that would be unmanly) but I calmly told her to put.down.the.leg. She looked at me as if I were nuts, but she complied. I said that’s it, I can’t go home, and so it was after another eight hour session, they reluctantly admitted me.

During that second ER stay, a succession of nurses criticized each other for how the last one gave me pain shots. “What? That’s not right. Here’s how you do it”—JAB. Soon I was a gibbering mass of dry mouthed gratitude. Morphine was the drug of choice for the rest of the night.

They moved me to a room right after kickoff. After that, I was moderately interested in the game. Kathy got to go home after her own ordeal, and I wound up with a room to myself after all that.

Monday morning, an ortho guy came in and drained 60 cc of blood from my knee, and I started to feel much better immediately. Now I’ve been at home all this past week, trying to get my range of motion back in the joint. I can get to a ninety degree angle now. Those of you who are perched on a computer chair in a lotus position—stop it right now. You’re hurting me.

Tomorrow I see the ortho guy again and try to return to work. This is a super critical time in the office, so of course it had to happen now. Kathy and I now pray that everything clears up in a month, when we leave for our cruise. I ask for your prayers too—that’s the best way I know to heal.

Dueling computers

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on thecomputer. They had been going at it for days and frankly God was tired ofhearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from thoseresults, I will judge who does the better job." So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.
They moused.
They faxed.
They e-mailed.
They e-mailed with attachments.
They downloaded.
They did spreadsheets!
They wrote reports.
They created labels and cards.
They created charts and graphs.
They did some genealogy reports.
They did every job known to man.
Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency, and Satan was faster than hell. Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming: "It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come He has all His work and I don't have any?" God just shrugged and said,





JESUS SAVES!!