Finding My Voice

I've read many other blogs before starting this one. I find that they usually have a theme or other common idea that runs through from post to post. I'm having a hard time finding a focus. It seems that I don't have a lot to say about stuff. Yikes! My family, friends, and co-workers think I have lots to say!

To catch up:
The rain has stopped for now.
My husband is out of the hospital for now--and hopefully for a long time.
I've lost 41 pounds as of last Monday.

I'm glad to have a long weekend to re-energize, get ready for my trainings and staff meeting next week, and sort out home things.

He's in the hospital again...

My husband has had congestive heart failure for a few years now--pretty well controlled. In early January, he was hospitalized with shortness of breath and HUGE ankles/feet. He spent about 3 nights in the local hospital. He felt a bit better for a couple of weeks and was getting his strength back, but one of his new meds seems to have triggered an allergic reaction. On top of that, he isn't the best at following a low-sodium, low-fat diet. His ankles, feet and calves were very swollen, and he has had trouble breathing so that he has had trouble taking our dog out and walking from one end of the house to the other.

I took him to the hospital during my lunch yesterday. At 7:00, he was still in emergency and was waiting for a bed. I guess the hospital is very full. I haven't heard from him or the hospital yet this morning.

He thinks that an angiogram would have found this problem if the doctor had done it in the last few months. I'm not sure if that would be the case; but arguing about it isn't going to help. I think I'll talk to the school nurses today and ask about it--

At any rate, I think he'll be there for a couple of days or so.

I am reminded of how my father ended his days at age 79 and how his voice sounded and his legs looked. My husband's voice sounds much the same with it being weak and breathy. His feet look the same.

He'll be 60 in just over a month.

Getting Things Done at Work--Or Not

Disorganization. I see it everywhere. I see it in my office because I am not working on my priority activities. I see it in the work of others when they are so focused on one topic and their perspective of that topic and the other office priorities.

I recently read David Allen's amazing book, Getting Things Done. I think he's been in my house, office, and head. His book is the first of many I've read that defines why I have such a hard time getting started and completing tasks. He describes people whose procrastination is based on the fear that they will forget to do things and leave them out so they won't forget. Things pile up until the person can no longer see what is out and needs to be done. He writes that we have only so much memory and new memories crowd out older ones.

The biggest problem I have right now with his concepts is figuring out how to put them into action daily/weekly/monthly/etc. I need to schedule regular time to review my inbox of work needing to be addressed and to get moving on some projects I've been working on.

Actually, another holdup in the process is trying to figure out how to let our director know that I am not getting my regular duties done with the extra work she has taken on on our behalf this year.

Goals for Monday: Tackle the inbox, list what needs to happen next with each item.
Put away the paper on the surfaces of my office--inbox, file, or binder for everything.
Get a new binder for course documents.

Lazy Sunday and Work

Sunday, January 24, 2010--I have my book group here on Tuesday night; so I thought I'd straighten the house and work on my purse organizer project today. Well. I didn't. I took a long time getting myself together this morning and before I knew it, it was time for lunch. I took a long walk--2.2 miles--and then when I got back, I needed to run errands. Then it was 5:00. While I didn't accomplish much, it was a good mental health day...

Ran into a former administrator from our office and chatted with her for awhile at the grocery store. She's very happy in her new job. I'm glad that it's working for her. I sometimes wish there was a place for me there or somewhere else. While I mostly love my job, there is always the uncertainty when the office changes due to retirements and promotions. We have already had a lot of gossip over our superintendent's recently announced retirement. Some people are assumed to be in the running for the position. Some people even asked me if I was considering it!! I would have to be nuts to consider it. I don't the have the inclination, experience, political contacts, etc.

So as I left the grocery store, it was sprinkling again. We are supposed to have rain again for a few days.

Tuesday, the 26th: No rain yesterday and not until mid-day today.

Good cookies and pecans at book group tonight. I tried a new recipe for some shortbread cookies that turned out pretty well.

Old Friend on a Busy Saturday

What a beautiful day today! Driving toward Visalia to make a run to Costco was the most beautiful kind of day we ever have! The air was clear, there were just a few clouds in the sky and I could see the Sierras with a heavy blanket of snow. They looked like they were right behind Visalia; it was so clear. Even here, you could see them clearly. Usually, our air is so murky that you are lucky to see more than a mile away...

Seeing those mountains took me back sooooo many years to the winter I worked weekends in Sequoia National Park. I worked both in the kitchen in the Village Cafeteria (no longer there, I believe) and checking tow tickets at Wolverton Ski Bowl. The snow triggers memories of trying to get to work wearing hard, slick-soled shoes and slipping all the way; of sleeping in the dormitory with the window open because the radiator heat was too hot; and inner-tubing on the snow. It was that activity that terminated my weekends for a few months as I inner-tubed over a cliff, landed on an inch or so of slush and fractured my sacrum (lower back). I think of my old friends, Kathy and Fred and then that triggers thoughts of other people that I worked with that winter and the next two summers. I had a brief Facebook re-connect with Fred recently but was "unfriended" by him in a few weeks. No real idea why; just noticed one day that he wasn't on my friends list...

Returning from Costco, I had coffee with my first friend in life, Judy. I had lost track of Judy in the years after high school and met up with her last summer at Weight Watchers. We've had lunch and coffee a couple of times. She seems to have a good life with a husband who treats her like a queen. I'm so happy for her. She had a number of years of hard times and has really come through them. We had a good visit and talked of work, her kids, her stove troubles, my husband, and lots of other things.

overeating

Well, tortilla chips two times in one week... I will be curtailing my snacking this weekend and probably hitting the gym to kind of make up for it. Tortilla chips are probably my main weakness in eating. I LOVE them. Consequently, I don't often have them in the house. They're right up there with cookies.

MORE rain...

I think it's the 6th day in a row that it has rained here. I'm chilled through. On the bright side, I could see the snow on the Sierras from my driveway this morning. And this afternoon, we had a very bright rainbow behind our office building. It was actually a double rainbow, but the higher one was much fainter.

Saturday, it isn't supposed to rain here, but it will start back up either Sunday or Monday. We need it for the crops in the area. We also need to replenish (re-charge?) our water table. My father told me years ago that when I was a baby, when he would dig a hole to plant a tree or shrub, the water would fill the hole faster than he could dig. That would never happen now.