Oh, I forgot this was here!
Well....it’s been a while since I have said anything here, I kinda forgot about it to be honest. Lots has happened since May...
I went back to work in a Limited Duty capacity, trying to keep my Rural Carrier job, went so far as to have the Dr. write that I had no restrictions other than time, so I could try to keep doing my job the way it always was. I was unable to, stopping on the side of the road some days and just having to rest/cry/hurt, so I asked the Dr. would he lower the restrictions, which he did. I was eventually called into the office because of Post Office politics, I did not have a CA-17, which is the Post Office version of a sick note, that was current I did have sick notes, which the rest of the world takes! My Dr. at the time refused to fill one out, so he had me do what’s called a FCE, or Functional Capacity Exam, which is a general test that is supposed to dictate how well you are doing. The test was complete crap, I did nothing that I did at my job, mentioned this to my lawyer and Dr. and he said I should get another job. Back to the called to the office for politics bit, it eventually ended with me being told to go home until I got a CA-17. I originally thought this was the PO calling my ‘bluff’, which I though was funny, it’s not up to me to fill it out, it’s up to the Dr., who would not fill one out. I have since come to believe that I was sent home because the PO is crying they do not have any money, and that way the Dept. of Labor would pay me. I really have no idea if any of this is true, it’s all speculation on my part. I was also ordered to do another FCE, got the call the night before! My truck is pretty much broken beyond repair, I don’t trust it to drive to Raleigh, it only goes in town or to the trash dump, and the motorcycle is too painful to drive, so I had to get Terry to move some of her work schedule around, what a PITA. I am still here, still getting paid a portion of my salary from the Dept. of Labor, and still pretty bored.
As far as doctors go, I am seeing Dr. Lam at the REX pain clinic, he’s tried just about everything, from trigger point injections to therapy and most recently, Epidurals done under an X-Ray into my neck. So far nothing has been successful. The less I do the better off I am, but I can’t do jack shit forever, as good as that sounds when you’re working, it quickly becomes boring. Perhaps if I were completely healthy I would have a different outlook, but I am currently unable to do the things I enjoy outside, motorcycling and fishing, things I used to do damn near year-round. I have been referred to a surgeon earlier this week to see if there is anything that can be done by cutting, Dr. Lam states that there is clearly something going on in the neck area around C3-C4, as seen on a CT scan, so who knows. I have enough friends with back issues that I am a bit leery of operations, not only for the risk of paralyzation, but for the recurring problem possibility.
Other than that I’ve been catching up on my television shows, the Sons of Anarchy was very good this season, the fact that the club knew Jax was ealing with the ATF lady was surprising to me in the end. I also enjoyed The Walking Dead. I think some of the character scenes were a bit long, but maybe I’m jut used to zombie games where action is the main thing. Fringe has gotten a bit weird, so I am hesitant to continue watching that, but I will eventually. House and Cuddy being together has completely turned me off from the show, why bother?
As far as games, I’m still playing the shit out of Killing Floor, and have started playing some Team Fortress 2, I am not big on shooting other folks, but the sheer amount of choice in TF2 characters and the item system have me pretty much hooked. I have been waiting for a game called Dungeon Defenders to come out on Steam, but it got pushed into next year, so I was excited to see it show up on the iOS store. I purchased it immediately, and tried to take a sneak peek at it in-between TF2 matches....Bad idea, the game refuses to run now, starting up, the Game Center welcome banner comes up...then it takes me back to the homescreen. I am going to update to the 4th generation Touch soon, I really want the camera, so hopefully it will work better on there, the premise of the game, Action RPG/RTS has me excited. I suppose I could wrestle the iPad from Terry if I really wanted to play it though!
Not much else going on around here, the kids are all home for the Holidays, Terry only has a few days left to work, and she’s off until the 2nd week in January (I think) and everyone is pretty excited, hell, we’ve even seen snow twice already this year, it normally doesn’t snow until January, and only once. Very happy that we moved before the heating season this year, not only does everyone in the house get their own space/room, but there is Heat Pump heat in this house, we would have had to fill up the LP tank twice in the other house already, at a minimum, that’s a $1000-$1200 bill I am happy to avoid, it also leaves more more for Christmas presents and toys for me!
No picture this time, I’ve not taken any lately
I went back to work in a Limited Duty capacity, trying to keep my Rural Carrier job, went so far as to have the Dr. write that I had no restrictions other than time, so I could try to keep doing my job the way it always was. I was unable to, stopping on the side of the road some days and just having to rest/cry/hurt, so I asked the Dr. would he lower the restrictions, which he did. I was eventually called into the office because of Post Office politics, I did not have a CA-17, which is the Post Office version of a sick note, that was current I did have sick notes, which the rest of the world takes! My Dr. at the time refused to fill one out, so he had me do what’s called a FCE, or Functional Capacity Exam, which is a general test that is supposed to dictate how well you are doing. The test was complete crap, I did nothing that I did at my job, mentioned this to my lawyer and Dr. and he said I should get another job. Back to the called to the office for politics bit, it eventually ended with me being told to go home until I got a CA-17. I originally thought this was the PO calling my ‘bluff’, which I though was funny, it’s not up to me to fill it out, it’s up to the Dr., who would not fill one out. I have since come to believe that I was sent home because the PO is crying they do not have any money, and that way the Dept. of Labor would pay me. I really have no idea if any of this is true, it’s all speculation on my part. I was also ordered to do another FCE, got the call the night before! My truck is pretty much broken beyond repair, I don’t trust it to drive to Raleigh, it only goes in town or to the trash dump, and the motorcycle is too painful to drive, so I had to get Terry to move some of her work schedule around, what a PITA. I am still here, still getting paid a portion of my salary from the Dept. of Labor, and still pretty bored.
As far as doctors go, I am seeing Dr. Lam at the REX pain clinic, he’s tried just about everything, from trigger point injections to therapy and most recently, Epidurals done under an X-Ray into my neck. So far nothing has been successful. The less I do the better off I am, but I can’t do jack shit forever, as good as that sounds when you’re working, it quickly becomes boring. Perhaps if I were completely healthy I would have a different outlook, but I am currently unable to do the things I enjoy outside, motorcycling and fishing, things I used to do damn near year-round. I have been referred to a surgeon earlier this week to see if there is anything that can be done by cutting, Dr. Lam states that there is clearly something going on in the neck area around C3-C4, as seen on a CT scan, so who knows. I have enough friends with back issues that I am a bit leery of operations, not only for the risk of paralyzation, but for the recurring problem possibility.
Other than that I’ve been catching up on my television shows, the Sons of Anarchy was very good this season, the fact that the club knew Jax was ealing with the ATF lady was surprising to me in the end. I also enjoyed The Walking Dead. I think some of the character scenes were a bit long, but maybe I’m jut used to zombie games where action is the main thing. Fringe has gotten a bit weird, so I am hesitant to continue watching that, but I will eventually. House and Cuddy being together has completely turned me off from the show, why bother?
As far as games, I’m still playing the shit out of Killing Floor, and have started playing some Team Fortress 2, I am not big on shooting other folks, but the sheer amount of choice in TF2 characters and the item system have me pretty much hooked. I have been waiting for a game called Dungeon Defenders to come out on Steam, but it got pushed into next year, so I was excited to see it show up on the iOS store. I purchased it immediately, and tried to take a sneak peek at it in-between TF2 matches....Bad idea, the game refuses to run now, starting up, the Game Center welcome banner comes up...then it takes me back to the homescreen. I am going to update to the 4th generation Touch soon, I really want the camera, so hopefully it will work better on there, the premise of the game, Action RPG/RTS has me excited. I suppose I could wrestle the iPad from Terry if I really wanted to play it though!
Not much else going on around here, the kids are all home for the Holidays, Terry only has a few days left to work, and she’s off until the 2nd week in January (I think) and everyone is pretty excited, hell, we’ve even seen snow twice already this year, it normally doesn’t snow until January, and only once. Very happy that we moved before the heating season this year, not only does everyone in the house get their own space/room, but there is Heat Pump heat in this house, we would have had to fill up the LP tank twice in the other house already, at a minimum, that’s a $1000-$1200 bill I am happy to avoid, it also leaves more more for Christmas presents and toys for me!
No picture this time, I’ve not taken any lately
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Took the boat out...
May/23/10 04:20 PM Filed in: Fishing
It only cost about $350 to get everything back to usable shape, as the tires had dry-rotted and flattened, even breaking the seal on the rim. I replace tires on the trailer every 3-4 years anyway, keeping one of the older tire/wheels (I buy them as a set, only a little more, would cost the same, if not more, to have the tires changed!) to use as a spare. I think I may have to buy another tire and/or wheel to use a a spare this go-around, as the boat sat since about 6 months before the wreck. Next up was a set deep cycle batteries, I had three, and when I parked the boat only 1 was worth trying to save, so I just bought 2 new batteries.
I had been buying Interstate batteries mostly for the boat, but had switched to the Wal-Mart brand, which didn’t seem to hold up as well. The Wal-Mart batteries have a heck of a warranty, though, so I guess it balanced itself out, with the trips to have them checked to see if they would pro-rate or replace them. I normally used 2 different size of batteries, a large Group 27 for the power hungry trolling motor in the back, they usually had anywhere from 180-205 reserve minutes. I replaced this batter with a Stowaway brand with a 182 min reserve capacity that I got from Tractor Supply. I originally went there to get trailer wheels, but they didn’t have the size I needed, so I figured I would give this battery a shot. The front trolling motor battery I always used a Group 24. Sure it ran more stuff, but the front motor usually never goes above speed 3 unless we are ‘blasting off’ or moving from spot to spot. I ended up with a Group 27 from Wal-Mart that had a smaller footprint than the Stowaway, so it would fit in the battery box I made for it, and has a 160 minute reserve capacity.
Next up was a replacement seat for the passenger, Tanner, in this case. The last seat I bought was plastic framed with a small cushion for the back and seat. The chair looks better and weighs less than the standard padded boat seat, but the standard one is more comfortable, and almost 1/2 the price. A fair tradeoff, I think, considering they don’t last as long. Comfort is where it’s at, though!
The rest of the money was spent on odds and ends, such as a few tubes of grease for the bearing buddies, a new plug, as well as other odds and ends that make life simpler while out on the water.
The JBFC (Jon Boat Fishing Club) was having a 2-day tournament out of the Longwood ramp at Kerr lake, so I decided to take Tanner up there this morning to see the guys, catch some fish, then watch the weigh-in. Sadly, due to having to work yesterday, and a new medicine I jut got, I overslept by a factor of 4 hours! Oops.....We still soldiered on and went up there, stopping by Bobcat’s Tackle Shop before hitting the lake. Having missed most of the morning bite, but was still cloudy, I took a chance and tried some topwater while Tanner threw his frog and got accustomed to his new rod and reel. I had one blow up on the Pop-R, but ended up spending much of my day explaining fishing basics to Tanner, tying on his lures and getting him out of a few messes, such as leaving his worm in the water and deciding to take off! Thank goodness for that prop wrench I carry, there was a lot of line wrapped around the motor.
We only caught one fish today, I would like to think I could have caught more, but it’s OK, teaching Tanner how to fish is going to be way better in the long run than catching a few more, that’s for sure. Hopefully I will have a permanent fishing partner. The one fish we caught was hanging out under a Willow Tree. I was fishing a Bubblegum wacky rigged stickbait. After feeling the fish, I set the hook, made sure the fish was still on and handed my rod to Tanner so he could fight the fish, he did extremely well despite trying to hold and maneuver a 7 foot rod! The rest of the day was spent learning trolling motor mechanics, learning to not leave your line in the water while learning how to drive, and playing on the playground.
I had been buying Interstate batteries mostly for the boat, but had switched to the Wal-Mart brand, which didn’t seem to hold up as well. The Wal-Mart batteries have a heck of a warranty, though, so I guess it balanced itself out, with the trips to have them checked to see if they would pro-rate or replace them. I normally used 2 different size of batteries, a large Group 27 for the power hungry trolling motor in the back, they usually had anywhere from 180-205 reserve minutes. I replaced this batter with a Stowaway brand with a 182 min reserve capacity that I got from Tractor Supply. I originally went there to get trailer wheels, but they didn’t have the size I needed, so I figured I would give this battery a shot. The front trolling motor battery I always used a Group 24. Sure it ran more stuff, but the front motor usually never goes above speed 3 unless we are ‘blasting off’ or moving from spot to spot. I ended up with a Group 27 from Wal-Mart that had a smaller footprint than the Stowaway, so it would fit in the battery box I made for it, and has a 160 minute reserve capacity.
Next up was a replacement seat for the passenger, Tanner, in this case. The last seat I bought was plastic framed with a small cushion for the back and seat. The chair looks better and weighs less than the standard padded boat seat, but the standard one is more comfortable, and almost 1/2 the price. A fair tradeoff, I think, considering they don’t last as long. Comfort is where it’s at, though!
The rest of the money was spent on odds and ends, such as a few tubes of grease for the bearing buddies, a new plug, as well as other odds and ends that make life simpler while out on the water.
The JBFC (Jon Boat Fishing Club) was having a 2-day tournament out of the Longwood ramp at Kerr lake, so I decided to take Tanner up there this morning to see the guys, catch some fish, then watch the weigh-in. Sadly, due to having to work yesterday, and a new medicine I jut got, I overslept by a factor of 4 hours! Oops.....We still soldiered on and went up there, stopping by Bobcat’s Tackle Shop before hitting the lake. Having missed most of the morning bite, but was still cloudy, I took a chance and tried some topwater while Tanner threw his frog and got accustomed to his new rod and reel. I had one blow up on the Pop-R, but ended up spending much of my day explaining fishing basics to Tanner, tying on his lures and getting him out of a few messes, such as leaving his worm in the water and deciding to take off! Thank goodness for that prop wrench I carry, there was a lot of line wrapped around the motor.
We only caught one fish today, I would like to think I could have caught more, but it’s OK, teaching Tanner how to fish is going to be way better in the long run than catching a few more, that’s for sure. Hopefully I will have a permanent fishing partner. The one fish we caught was hanging out under a Willow Tree. I was fishing a Bubblegum wacky rigged stickbait. After feeling the fish, I set the hook, made sure the fish was still on and handed my rod to Tanner so he could fight the fish, he did extremely well despite trying to hold and maneuver a 7 foot rod! The rest of the day was spent learning trolling motor mechanics, learning to not leave your line in the water while learning how to drive, and playing on the playground.
Back from the river!
May/20/10 01:28 AM Filed in: Fishing
So I’m back, and finally have the energy to write this, a few days or ‘working rest’ is all it took! I didn’t get the Monday after the trip off, so it’s been a pretty tough week. The trip was a blast, it seems to have renewed my interest in fishing, enough that I’ve taken steps to get my boat back in order, which will be around $300 all told, and that’s before and inevitable, but unwanted, unexpected problems crop up.
Nobody seemed to remember to set the alarm Friday night, so we got up late, to the sound of Don beating on our window. Oops. We were not actually late for the tournament, but we didn’t have any wake up time. I caught my first fish within ten minutes of arriving at our first spot, right outside the lili pads on a Pop-R, that felt good! Sadly, that was it until later in the afternoon until I coaxed a fish out of a stump by some pads later in the day. I take that back, I caught some non-keeper fish, but I wanted keepers!
The second day we caught fish almost all day long, sadly none were large enough to keep, but it sure was fun. I set the hook on two of them, one on a Fluke, another on a Jig, so hard that the poor fish came flying toward me out of the water, that’s how small they were. The total weight that won the 2-day event was 10.4 pounds, the winner actually had 5.2 pounds on both days, with 2 fish on Saturday and only 1 on Sunday.
Can’t wait to go back!
Nobody seemed to remember to set the alarm Friday night, so we got up late, to the sound of Don beating on our window. Oops. We were not actually late for the tournament, but we didn’t have any wake up time. I caught my first fish within ten minutes of arriving at our first spot, right outside the lili pads on a Pop-R, that felt good! Sadly, that was it until later in the afternoon until I coaxed a fish out of a stump by some pads later in the day. I take that back, I caught some non-keeper fish, but I wanted keepers!
The second day we caught fish almost all day long, sadly none were large enough to keep, but it sure was fun. I set the hook on two of them, one on a Fluke, another on a Jig, so hard that the poor fish came flying toward me out of the water, that’s how small they were. The total weight that won the 2-day event was 10.4 pounds, the winner actually had 5.2 pounds on both days, with 2 fish on Saturday and only 1 on Sunday.
Can’t wait to go back!
To The River!
May/13/10 06:04 PM Filed in: Fishing
This weekend is our yearly trip to the Chowan River, can’t wait! I’ll have more details later, once we get back from the river. The first time I ever went down, I won the big fish pot on the first day, which paid for my entire trip. Not had much luck since then, or as good luck as that trip, I should say, but I still really enjoy fishing it regardless, especially the lily-pads.
More Doctors
May/06/10 06:49 PM Filed in: Life
So I’ve had several new ailments crop up since the wreck, most notably and recently, the top of my right foot, up to my shin, has gone numb...I am still able to walk, I’m just worried it may spread to the bottom, them I’m gonna be pretty useless. I went to see our family doctor, who referred me to a Neurologist.
I went to see the Neurologist today, he ruled out a few things, and ordered both a blood test and a nerve study. The blood test was done today, apparently the lady who works at the receptionist desk is a jack of all trades, as she signed me in, took my blood and signed me out! The nerve study is set for next Monday. I was supposed to see this same Dr. from things happening from the wreck, but this appears to be unrelated. He did give me a name for the problem I have been having with my hands getting cold and losing circulation, but I forgot! The fix, however, is to wear gloves....I don’t like that at all. This wasn’t a 100% answer, we spoke of it in passing, so I will need to follow up on it, having my fingers go numb every time my hands get cold is annoying, to say the least.
I am still waiting on the work readiness test as well as the pain management people who will hopefully give me some comfort from my shoulder problems. This may all be over, at least in regards to answers, then, I can’t wait!
I went to see the Neurologist today, he ruled out a few things, and ordered both a blood test and a nerve study. The blood test was done today, apparently the lady who works at the receptionist desk is a jack of all trades, as she signed me in, took my blood and signed me out! The nerve study is set for next Monday. I was supposed to see this same Dr. from things happening from the wreck, but this appears to be unrelated. He did give me a name for the problem I have been having with my hands getting cold and losing circulation, but I forgot! The fix, however, is to wear gloves....I don’t like that at all. This wasn’t a 100% answer, we spoke of it in passing, so I will need to follow up on it, having my fingers go numb every time my hands get cold is annoying, to say the least.
I am still waiting on the work readiness test as well as the pain management people who will hopefully give me some comfort from my shoulder problems. This may all be over, at least in regards to answers, then, I can’t wait!