The Gilbert Cars!

This week has been pretty normal - well with the "new normal" of taking Tim back and forth to work, keeping up with the weekly clinic appointments and working myself on CBF contract work and job searching. All seems to be going pretty good! I'm even managing to get the clothes washed, groceries bought and even some meals cooked!

The last few weeks my new challenge has been the cars! so here's the story-

A couple of weeks ago, I had to get what I thought was a new registration sticker for Mary Beth's car. So I went to the courthouse, waited in line, gave my form to the person and she looked it up and said that the registration had already been paid and was not due. After telling her that I had just been in two weeks ago for my car, she said to me, "honey, I bet you have the wrong sticker on your car"! She went out with me to look and sure enough, I had the sticker that should have been on Mary Beth's car on my car and her's was expiring in a few days in Richmond, VA. Easy fix to that one - just pay the money to buy two replacement stickers - one for my car with my license # and one for Mary Beth's car with her license #. Seemed easy enough to do and now we both have the correct sticker for our cars.

Two weeks ago, I was going to get Tim's little red car inspected so it could be a back up car for a friend. The inspection ran out in Jan and I had just waited to get it inspected. I took Tim to work and returned home to take his car for inspection, sat in the car and turned the key and nothing! It was dead! I thought I had kept it started so that wouldn't happen. I do know how to jump a car but just choose not to do it except for times like this. So I got the jumper cables from the garage, pulled my car up as close as I could to Tim's for the jump (which meant I had to get into his car from the passenger side and crawl over to the driver's side to start it), put the jumper cables on and then get in Tim's car to turn the key. It started and all was good.

I crawled back across the front seat so I could undo the jumper cables and put them back and move my car. Got it all done. Put that little red car in reverse (standard car, don't you know) and off I went for the inspection.

I got to the station and told them what I wanted and that the car had been sitting for 6 months. They asked if I had had to jump it and I said yes and they said it couldn't be inspected that day. It would have to be driven 60-80 miles and let the computer reset before being inspected. Do What! I didn't have time for this - I needed the car inspected that day so all the other pieces would fit into place. So, me and that little red car headed south on I-35! I drove it 61 miles and came back to the station for the inspection. It passed and all is good. The car was ready for use if needed.

I learned that I could jump a car without mixing the positives and negatives and having sparks fly everywhere! I also learned that my new hip was good because I could climb back and forth across the front seat of Tim's car with the gear shift in the middle and do what needed to be done! Mission accomplished!

Well, last week was my car! I took it in for inspection and it passed without any hitches. I got the inspection, an oil change and new transmission fluid (since it was brown and is suppose to be changed around 50,000 miles and it has 90,000). Whew - this car thing has certainly been an experience. They are all ready now for somthing else to happen!

Long Time No Write!

I've looked at this blog for a while now thinking a fairy would just write and give an update on all that's been happening the past month. But no writing fairy has appeared and so much has happened that I'm going to attempt an update. So here goes ---

Tim is back teaching full time and loving it! That's good news! He's got 5 classes - teaching MWF and Sat. morning (teaching in the weekend college) which leaves TTH open for wound care clinic, infusion clinic and whatever else needs to be done. He's got office hours on those days but it does give him the flexibility to do what needs to be done. He's teaching intro to philosophy and world religions and working hard to stay ahead of the class. He's teaching with powerpoints these days which means he doesn't have to move around the classroom a whole lot and he can post the powerpoints on the web for students to have. So, picture this - I drop him off at the curb and off he goes on his rolley walker, book bag over his shoulder, brown bag lunch and red lunch sack with his 2pm infusion in hand - off for the day of teaching and encouraging students! quite a site I must admit.

I think you can gather from this that he's still not walking or driving, going to the wound clinic in HEB once a week and the infusion clinic once a week for dressing change and meds. The foot is making progress each week, the measurements are getting smaller each week, but still not healed completely. Just last week the wound clinic has changed his visits from weekly to every two weeks with me doing the in-between wound care. Now that's a little scary - but I'm doing it. I've learned lots about wound care in the last 7 months!

The new normal for us right now is me driving Tim to and from work daily and him teaching. He continues to visit Dr. Sotman at the wound clinic, Trish and Jane at the infusion clinic and keep his blood sugar levels steady. I think we've got that part under control for now!


As if all that wasn't enough for us to handle - my position with CBF has been eliminated as of Jan. 31, 2011. I'm now trying to figure out my own "new normal" with all this. CBF did offer me a contract which I have accepted. The contract is to continue to work on some of the projects I was working with as a full-time employee but for a less money and no benefits. I'm working to update my resume and look for other possibilities. I'm open to most anything right now! I'm really trying not to panic but that's a whole lot easier to say than to do. I found this quote by Seneca that I think sums it up for me, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." I'm working to make some new beginnings!