Hi Everybody:
It's been three weeks since my last update and much has happened. Most of it involves personal hygiene, but some of it involves travel and "living small". I'll spend most of this email explaining the hygiene part....
Here's the personal update:
Food: Everything tastes great. I was beginning to crave kerosene-soaked-cardboard, but seem to be over it. I do have a craving for chipmunk teriyaki, though...
Pain: Other than the ongoing chest "discomfort", especially after exercise, I feel really good. I'm planning on having a kidney removed to see if I can recover from that without any pain medication at all. I hear I can get upwards of $50 for a good kidney in Mexico.
Alcohol: A glass (or two) of red wine every day is good for you. So I'm going on the assumption that four or five must be REALLY good for you. Unfortunately, $4 wine now tastes like $4 wine. I'm now forced to drink $6 wine.
Exercise: Haven't tried to run since my last update ... it hurt too much. I think I'll stick to synchronized swimming for now.
Scars: The "Dermatix" has worked wonders on my chest scars. I don't scare small animals or children anymore. When I had my stress test (see below), the nurse thought the scar would be a thin, almost invisible line in a couple of years.
Attitude: I've always had a bad attitude. It's back.
Concentration: I forget what I was going to say about concentratkdfdkjfweru.
And here's the other news:
Laura and I have been living full-time in the Airstream since August 20th (so a full month now). It's really going well; neither of us has visible knife or bullet wounds, and the cast iron frying pan only hurt while I was conscious. Really - it's remarkable how well we've gotten on in such a small space. The trailer is really comfortable for the two of us, but it's a bit crowded when one (or both) of the kids come for a visit.
We spent two weeks in an urban RV park in Vancouver, which was really convenient but quite sterile and unfriendly (mostly German tourists). We then travelled down the Olympic Peninsula and stayed in Port Townsend, WA for about a week before returning to Vancouver. Port Townsend afforded the opportunity to look at lots of sailboats, so I'm hoping Laura's experience living in a 25'x8' trailer will be good training for living on a 30'x9' sailboat. Wish me luck.
We're now camped out in a rural suburb of Vancouver (Anmore), in a mostly-empty campground that's very quiet. On Saturday, we'll head over to Vancouver Island for 10 days to visit with family and friends. After that, it's back to Whistler for Canadian Thanksgiving with the kids and my brother (Rob) and his family. Then, finally, four months later, we head south.
Kath and Dave are both now back in school and living together in a basement suite in Kerisdale - very handy for both of them. Kath is in her final undergrad year at UBC and Dave is doing his second year of university at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Kathryn will get her History/English Bachelor's Degree from UBC in April, so that's our new "must get home by" date. They're both going to meet us in Los Angeles on December 22, and we're going on a 7-day cruise to Mexico for Christmas. Dave is working at Starbucks, and Kath is working as a nanny for a few hours a week as well as writing for the UBC paper. They've done really well during all this stress ("my parents are unemployed and live in a trailer"), and really stepped up when it counted. I hope they know we're coming to live with them when we get back.
On Monday of this week (Sept 18) I met with both Dr. Bonet (cardiologist) and Dr. Karim (surgeon). I had a stress test, passed it, and left with no restrictions about returning to work (or in our case, play). We were at the bank today setting up automatic payments for everything, and with a couple more things to handle (like North America roaming on Laura's cell) we're good to go.
Agilent has been great during all this upheaval. Not only has everyone I worked with kept in touch, but the administrative side of things has been handled with real compassion. My leave was put on hold, and I've been on short/long term disability since May 30th. Laura and I were in Seattle on Tuesday and Wednesday this week as guests at a district meeting for my old territory ... it gave us both a chance to say "hello", "goodbye", and "thank you" to many of the best HP/Agilent people we've met in my 22 years there. On Monday (Sept 25), I officially "go back to work". What this really means is I "start my accrued vacation". Once that's all chewed up, I'll start the 6 month leave-of-absence. The net-net is that I'll be off work until the end of May 2007. That will be a full year away from work. A lot longer than I first thought, but we didn't plan on the curve ball.
So ... we're finally on our way. In 20 days we'll be heading south. I'll keep these updates coming from time to time, and might even attach a picture now and again.
Platonically,
Doug