Taking a Long Walk
Today, after the morning session of LDS General Conference, Nina took her first walk outside after the knee surgery.
This wasn’t her first time outside … she’s been back to see the surgeon for a checkup and we went out to dinner last night. But, neither of those involved doing much walking. This walk was different. Out the front door, down the sidewalk to the corner, turn left, go to the next corner, and walk back. This picture was taken at the turning-around point. By the time we were back home, both tennis balls in the walker were worn through (have to go buy a couple more, they’re about $1 apiece).
Today is warm … and quite windy. We’ve had little snow and plentiful wind this winter.The grass up here is just starting to grow. Buds on the trees are starting to show. Spring is definitely here.
We had a lovely walk. Now she’s in her chair with ice on her knee. It’s a great day!
Trying Out the New KneeOn Thursday, March 15th, Nina had her left knee sliced and diced, chipped and scraped, and came out of the operating room with a new knee.
Later that afternoon the physical therapist (who happens to be our niece Jennifer’s home teacher) came in and Nina stood up on her new knee for the first time. She was pretty happy!
She was released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and has spent the past ten days recovering and doing everything that the doctor, nurse, and therapist have ordered. The recovery is going very well … enough so that I was able to go back to work today.
The knee is very painful. Worse than childbirth, she says (and based on the past week, I believe it!). But, each day is an improvement over the previous day. In two or three months the other one will get done and she’ll get to do this pain routine all over again. Everyone we’ve talked to says it’s worth it. I believe that, too!
It’s only a small beginning, but never the less, an important one. Today I transitioned from being on contract at the Idaho National Laboratory to being an employee. Not much changes about my job … I’m still in the same office, at the same desk, using the same computer … and still managing the project I’ve been working on for the past 18 months.
Like most companies, the laboratory has a time limit on how long a contractor can work at the same job. That’s pretty much dictated by the IRS and 18 to 24 months is pretty much the limit before the IRS decides that the person isn’t on a contract, but instead is an employee. The IRS cares about this because it makes a difference in taxes. Employees garner more tax revenue than contractors do.
I really like my job. I really enjoy the people I’m working with. This is a good change. What an incredible difference from how my career seemed to come to an end at AMI Semiconductor.
We’re having a very quiet Sunday evening after a fairly hectic day today and yesterday. We’re in New Wilmington, PA at our daughter Dawnmarie’s house. The event was granddaughter Jillian’s baptism.
We arrived last Tuesday evening. We drove down to Heather’s house in North Salt Lake on Monday evening and boarded a flight for Houston, Texas early Tuesday morning. After a short layover in Houston (which included a gate change to a rather distant gate) we continued on to Cleveland. Very uneventful flights. The car rental place at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport is quite a ways away from the terminal. Hopefully I’ll be able to find it without much difficulty tomorrow evening. We rented a Chevy Alero and drove to Dawnmarie’s place where we’ve been since then.
We’ve had a great time visiting with the family. Granddaughter Kate is the lead actress in a children’s playhouse adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen”. We attended one of her seven performances and were literally blown away by how well she performs. She’s quite the natural actress!
Our son Daryl drove over from Downingtown in eastern PA on Thursday. Our oldest son James drove up from Covington, KY on Saturday, so we had a good family contingent here for the baptism today. It started snowing yesterday and looked like it might yield bad roads this morning, but fortunately the snow has been a non-event. Both Daryl and Jim drove back home this afternoon after the baptism and I’m happy that weather didn’t play a role in their travels.
The baptism this afternoon after Church was delightful. Jillian looked rather angelic in the traditional baptismal dress. All of her sisters have worn the same dress at their baptism. There’s one more daughter Olivia to be baptized in a couple of years.
Tomorrow morning after the grandkids go off to school, we’ll pack up and go over the Kirtland to visit with Nina’s sister Pam for the day. We’ll probably stop over at the Kirtland Visitors Center to see their nativity display and visit with an elderly woman Nina has been corresponding with. Then we’ll turn the rental car in, spend Monday night at a hotel near the Cleveland airport, and catch a very early flight on Tuesday morning headed back home. Just in time for the next round of family visiting over Christmas.
We had a very normal Thanksgiving dinner on a somewhat non-normal Thanksgiving day. We didn’t have anywhere we needed to go, so it was just the two of us. Normally, Nina goes up to the Pocatello Womens Correctional Center on Thursday afternoons for a craft class. We decided that since I was home and we didn’t need to be anywhere else that day, I’d go with her up to the prison and she’d do her usual craft class. The women there that attend Nina’s class are delightful and we had a fun two-hours with them as they made cards, recipe books, and picture albums, all to send to their families. They were delighted that we’d spend time on a holiday with them. I was delighted to spend time on a holiday with them. Definitely helps the feelings of being thankful!
We have a busy December. Shouldn’t think this is anything new, though. We always manage to pack the month full of things to do. This year we’re flying out to Pennsylvania for our granddaughter Jillian’s baptism. It’s just too dang expensive to fly two people out and back over Christmas so we’re going out on the 13th and back on the 20th.
Two days after we get back Jared is flying in from Seattle to spend Christmas with us. It’ll be fun to have him here … well, not exactly always here. He gets in around 4 pm on the 22nd. We’ll go to Soda Springs to visit my mother on the 23rd before my favorite brother picks her up so she can spend Christmas with them in Green River, Wyoming. Saturday (Christmas Eve) we’ll go down to Heather’s where we’ll be until Tuesday when Jared flies back home to Seattle. So, he will actually spend two nights and less than twenty-four total hours in Pocatello. Nothing against Pocatello, though. We’re just pretty boring compared to all that goes on down in North Salt Lake!
I think I’ve finished up the last of the tests that my Veterans Administration doctor wants me to do. Today I had an upper GI scope test done right after getting a shingles vaccination. The test is one where they put you almost out and stick this huge thing down your throat and down to the stomach to inspect everything. Nothing out of the ordinary was found. The primary reason the Doc’s having all these tests done is to establish a complete health baseline. That’s all motivated by my repeated exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. During the eighteen months I was in Vietnam I had generally every other day off. We’d fly a reconnaissance mission every other day (and these were Very Long Days) and have the next day off, rinse and repeat. On my off days I’d look for “fun” things to do … particularly if it had anything to do with flying. One opportunity always available was to catch a ride on one of the Ranch Hand Operation flights. These were airplanes that sprayed the Agent Orange on the jungle to defoliate the trees and uncover the Viet Cong. So, I’d volunteer to fly and help manhandle the 55 gallon drums of this stuff. Obviously, there was never the thought that this stuff might be bad for anyone other than those bad guys on the ground. I probably flew on twenty or so of these Ranch Hand flights….
Nancy Friend Recipe and Admonition
Nina’s been working her vast collection of letters. Her mother (Nancy Friend) saved all of Nina’s letters and, of course, Nina saved all of her mother’s letters. So, Nina has been gathering all of these letters together and getting them into binders in chronological order. Some of the letters are hilarious and definitely show how Very Young we were Way Back When. This one is particularly interesting. Obviously this wasn’t the first time Nancy had sent along this particular recipe!
All else remains pretty much the same. I’m still serving on the High Council in the Pocatello Stake, but my assignment changes next year to the Arbon Branch. That unit is located on the other side of the hills to the south of us and is about a 40 minute drive (on a good day with dry roads). It’s also a great assignment and I’m looking forward to spending a couple of Sundays a month out there with these fine folks.
Can’t think of much more. I think I’m still a bit addled from the procedure this morning…. But that’s probably not new, either.
Fall arrived in style. The trees in our neighborhood have definitely put on their colors. Last night was the first hard freeze of the season. I see the motor homes headed south on the freeway and understand completely their motivation to go south. I’m already tired of being cold!
One interesting thing has happened, though. Nina’s body temperature has dropped! For most of our married life she’s been the “hot” one … as in, it’s too warm, turn down the thermostat. She’s actually encouraged me to turn up the thermostat a couple of times! Will that last? Only the shadow knows….
I’ve made a couple of trips to Salt Lake to the Veterans Administration Hospital for tests. There’s no particular reason (that I know about, anyway) other than my VA doctor here in Pocatello is putting together a complete baseline. He’s a good doctor! In my last visit with him he spent 45 minutes with me going over a whole bunch of things. I can’t remember ever having a doctor spend that much time with me on a routine visit. I’m definitely impressed.
The VA Hospital in Salt Lake is very well equipped. It’s a large facility (and growing larger as there’s a major construction project underway there). There are a lot of veterans working at the hospital, many Korean War veterans and a few Vietnam veterans. They are all interested in helping out, giving directions, and being of assistance. While not all VA facilities are the same, I’ve been very well treated both at our clinic in Pocatello and at the hospital in Salt Lake City. I’ve got one more trip to make in a couple of weeks for an upper GI series and then I think all the tests will be finished.
I’m still working at the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls. I’m managing a huge project to replace their old email system with a new set of applications. It’s a lot of fun, I work with a group of very intelligent people, and the project is very interesting. After the extremely sour taste in my my mouth from how my time at AMI Semiconductor ended, this is a delightful experience. The only downside is the long commute each way. I get up at 4:45 am and leave the house at 5:45 am to drive to the north side of Pocatello where I join a van pool for the drive to Idaho Falls. I get to my office about 7 am. The van pool leaves at 4:30 pm and I get home about 5:45 pm … a full 12 hour day. Today that has felt like a very long day! They pay me very well and it really is worth it. The project I’m managing should wrap up around May of next year and I’ll decide then how much longer I’ll continue working. Being debt free would be an excellent thing!
I subscribe to the Caribou County Sun, a weekly newspaper published each Wednesday in Soda Springs, Idaho, the little town in southeastern Idaho where I grew up. A while back I posted about my name being in that newspaper. Today’s edition in the Pages From the Past section had this paragraph:
50 Years Ago — Sept. 14, 1961
The Soda Springs High School Marching Band under the direction of Brent Covington, band director, journeyed to Blackfoot on Tuesday, September 12th [1961] to participate in the Eastern Idaho State Fair Parade which was held down the streets of Blackfoot.
Approximately 40 members of the band attended and were sharply dressed in the new band uniforms. There were 105 entries in the parade, 19 of which were bands.
I remember that trip … now that it has been called back to my memory. I was a junior in 1961. We did indeed have new band uniforms, a product of light bulb sales the previous two years. The band members went door to door through the entire city of Soda Springs selling light bulbs. That became our annual fund raiser for the rest of my high school career. My first sales job: door to door selling light bulbs.
The uniforms were a bright Cardinal red (after the school mascot) and were made from wool. Very hot, very sweaty, very dehydrating wool. The parade seemed to be very long. I played the bass drum, which was a new, quite large drum attached to a rotating spindle in the middle of my chest (another product of the light bulb sales). I could spin the drum by the way I hit it with the drum sticks, which were on leather straps so I could twirl them in the air. For the first few blocks of the parade, I felt pretty spiffy: new uniform, new spinning drum. The last few blocks of the parade I was sure I was going to pass out and die, or something. The drum section consisted of two snare drums and me … and we three had to beat on those drums the entire distance.
That’s the only time I remember that we went to Blackfoot for the State Fair as a band. I did go one other time a year earlier to play the snare drum for the drill team as they marched in the parade. That time I didn’t wear the band uniform (we didn’t have any uniforms, yet) but a pair of slacks and a white T-shirt. Much better. Plus we stayed overnight. One guy (me), a couple dozen girls, and some adults. Nothing happened at all. I was too shy. Or maybe it was the lecture from mother, followed by one from dad…. My memory isn’t all that clear.
I have a mobile ham radio in my car which is capable of receiving the Idaho State Patrol radio communications. Last evening on my way home I heard this exchange:
Control: Traffic complaint, southbound I-15 at the 69. Child endangerment and speeding. Gold colored van, license plate xxxxxxxx. RP (reporting person) is following.
ISP 531: 531 in the median at 67. Have the vehicle in sight.
Control: 531 … 17:40
A few minutes later:
ISP 531: Control, this is 531. Vehicle operating normally and in control. What was the child endangerment?
Control: 531 … just a minute.
Control: 531, RP states the driver was breastfeeding an infant while driving.
ISP 531: Breastfeeding isn’t an offense. Is the RP certified for speed measurement? 531.
Control: 531 … Just a minute.
Control: 531, RP isn’t certified. She’s quite upset.
ISP 531: I’ll pull over at mile marker 58 and can talk with the RP.
Control: 531 … I’ll let her know. 17:52
A few minutes later…
ISP 531: Control, clear with the RP.
Control: 531 … 18:05
I love what I hear occasionally on the radio. Reality is always better than television! They can’t make these things up.
