Both of my sons have had bouts of sciatica, Kevin having it the most seriously for the past ten years. Well, now it’s my turn. Started with pain in my right hip on Sunday that is radiating down my right leg. Nothing seems to help the pain other than pain killing meds. I’m taking ibuprofen during the day while working and have popped a vicodin each night for the past two evenings. Sleeping is fine, but it’s hell getting up in the morning. And work has been difficult as the pain seems to last all day in different degrees. I’m trying some exercises recommended by Vanessa, but nothing is doing a lot of good right now. Apparently the pain eventually goes away, only to return when least expected at a later date. I’m ready for it to go away soon.

It’s 1 pm on Saturday and I am ready for my houseguests. The house is cleaned, the guest bed is made up with fresh sheets and the food is ready. I still need to wash off the table out back, but it is just too damn hot to go out there right now! I’m impressed that I got all the cleaning done since I just really started last night. The house wasn’t in bad shape really, so it didn’t take all that long thankfully. And it’s great to have it looking so nice since we’ll probably be inside a good portion of the time due to the heat.

I do hope Mickey and Carol are bringing swimsuits since the pool is in great shape…and we’ll really need it to get some relief from the heat. I’d love to get in right now, but think I’ll wait till they arrive. So where are you guys?! Let’s get a move on it!!!

The temps have reached over 100 degrees for two days now and it doesn’t look like there will be any let up anytime soon. Clouds formed over the mountains and I could hear thunder out the back door. But no rain here. I’m sure there was rain to the east and the news clips on tv are mentioning fires triggered by lightning. I’m hoping it stays far to the east.

Not going to be a good time for my brother to be riding across the desert on his Harley. He’s due to arrive sometime on Saturday and it doesn’t look like the heat is going to let up by then. And who knows about the storms and lightning. I’m still planning a cookout on Saturday, but we’ll have to see how it goes. We may be eating inside.

Besides dealing with the heat, I’m really tired after being back at work for two weeks. I have to take a bit of a nap when I get home as I can barely stay awake for more than an hour or two. And then it’s hard to get to sleep when I actually do go to bed. Also am finding it difficult to do much around here other than watch tv or get on the computer for awhile. So tomorrow night will be a marathon of cleaning to get things in order for Mickey’s visit. Oh well, I do better with short deadlines.

I guess this is the year for visitors from around the country. This is a good thing since it will be awhile before I will feel like doing much traveling anywhere!

Tomorrow my sister-in-law, Mary, (Tom’s wife) will be here for the evening on her way home from visiting her grandmother who lives a few hours north of LA. I’m looking forward to seeing her again and getting to spend a quiet evening just visiting. Wish she could stay longer, but glad she’s able to stop by since her home in Wisconsin is a long way from me.

My brother, Mickey, and his wife, Carol, will be here in a week and a half on the 17th for two days. They are driving/riding across the country for 4 months, starting from their home in North Carolina and going through all the 48 states. Mickey is riding his Harley and Carol is following him in the car. After coming across the desert, I think they’ll be happy to spend a few days lounging in my backyard around/in the pool–especially Mickey!

Not exactly a visitor (more of an upcoming resident), Vanessa will be moving to Pasadena sometime during the last two weeks of July. She’s rented a duplex about 5-10 min. from my house and is very excited (to say the least!) to move in and begin decorating. I’m looking forward to helping with at least part of it!

Finally, Kevin, Chrysoula and Robin will be visiting sometime in September! I’ll be taking vacation time while they are here so that we can (of course) take Robin to Disneyland! We may try to go to Legoland as well and will probably take him to Kidspace, a children’s playspace/museum here in Pasadena. Since they are coming in September, the pool will still be nice and warm and I’m sure he’ll want to do lots of swimming.

So it’s going to be a busy and fun summer. Nice to have lots to look forward to!

Decided to write this post tonight since tomorrow may be too busy to do any updating. Patrick and Veronica will be over for a cookout and swim tomorrow afternoon and I’ll be busy in the morning get things ready outside and making potato salad. I went to the grocery earlier today and picked up a little of everything–steaks, burgers and brats–so we can cook whatever they are up for eating!

Tomorrow night I’ll be dogsitting Floyd while Patrick and Veronica head to the beach for fireworks. I don’t mind staying home (really don’t want to go all the way to the beach) and am happy to keep Floyd from going berserk when the booms start up at dark. We really don’t have much noise here since fireworks are illegal in Pasadena, but we can hear some of the Rose Bowl show. Let’s hope Floyd stays calm.

Just got off the phone with Charter…ALL their services are officially canceled!!! The service rep asked me why I was canceling and I gave her a brief description of my problems and then told her to check my service record. After that I had no problem getting everything stopped! And I’ll be getting a refund since I just paid the most recent bill which was through 7/21 plus I have a credit on my account of $45 for the service call for which I should not have been billed.

DirecTV is working great with absolutely NO problems, and both my phone and internet connections are flawless! I still have to turn in all the Charter equipment at their local office, but want Patrick to review everything to make sure I’m not turning in something that is mine. I own the TiVo and the wireless router and need to make sure I keep all the cables/power cords that belong to both of those pieces of equipment.

I spent the morning updating any email addresses where they were listed under the Charter account. I’ve finished most of the important ones with only a few remaining that I can deal with later. At least all my bank accounts and bill-paying accounts are directed to something other than the Charter email address.

So now I can relax and do some stuff around the house. Four days until I go back to work full-time…gotta make the most of it and get things done around here while I can!

Yesterday proved to be very productive even though I didn’t really do anything all day. The Verizon installer showed up mid-morning and hooked up my phone/DSL line. And the technician from DirecTV was here mid-afternoon to install my new satellite dish and DVR. And Vanessa helped last night in getting my internet service online as well as setting up wireless access. I will be calling Charter tomorrow to cancel ALL their services!

I had hoped to cancel the cable stuff today after I got home from my 1/2 day of work, but wound up working until 4:45 pm. Just had too much to do at work and couldn’t get out early. So I’ll be using less sick time than originally planned for this week. The good thing is that I am fairly well organized now to begin working full-time again next week…although I’m sure that won’t be the case once I get back!

And I’ll be off work now for 4 full days!

I went through the channel guide on my new TV system tonight and scheduled TONS of movies to record! Most are from Turner Classic Movies and American Movie Classics. Still have to check out Cinemax, Encore and Starz which I’m receiving free for the next year. No doubt I’ll find lots of movies that I’ve never seen since I rarely (read “never”) go to out to see movies. Now I’ll just have to figure out how I’m going to watch everything I’m taping!

Went to work today for 1/2 day. I specifically decided to go in today since Tuesday is the day we always hold our weekly staff meeting. It was great to see everyone again and they all cheered and clapped to welcome me back! It felt great to be there. I got a lot accomplished (in between visiting with staff members) and got enough finalized so that I don’t have lots to deal with for the rest of the week. I’ll be going in again on Thursday, but don’t expect to have to do any additional work from home for the remainder of the week. Yay!

On the way home this afternoon I stopped at BofA to deal with some financial stuff resulting in setting up new checking and savings accounts with BofA. Because my mortgage is with BofA (as a result of Countrywide going under), I get everything under the sun for free from them–free checking, free checks, free cashier’s checks, free safety deposit box, and no fees for anything! My checking is currently with Citibank and I recently received a notice from them telling me that I’ll be charged for checking starting in January 2011. So I’ll be gradually switching all my online bill paying and direct deposits to BofA. I never really loved Citibank, but they bought out the bank I’ve been with for years, so I didn’t get much of a choice. Hope BofA works out. Not sure any bank is all that great anymore, but all the freebies (plus a $50 bonus for opening a new account) made it worthwhile for me to try them. I do feel good getting this process started.

And Vanessa is coming over tonight to spend a few days here! She’s moving back to LA to finish school at Cal State LA and is apartment hunting for her move in early August. We’ll be going to dinner tonight and spending the evening visiting–lots of fun!

Finally, I’m super excited to be getting rid of Charter tomorrow! Verizon will be here between 8 am and 12 noon to set up my new phone line and DirectTV will be here in the afternoon to set up my satellite TV system. All I’ll have left to do is to hook up my new internet connection. I have all the equipment, but just need to wait till the new phone line is connected. And then I’ll be able to call Charter and tell them to go fuck themselves! A BIG YAY!!!

While I’m a bit tired tonight after all that activity, I think the adrenaline rush from the sense of accomplishment is keeping me going…and I don’t have to go to work tomorrow!

Between yesterday and today, I have worked 14 hours on office work. I found out yesterday that the Board at work needed a financial report for May in time for their meeting Tuesday night. While I had already done some of the work required, I thought I had until late July to finish up everything from May and June. Surprise, surprise!

So I started in yesterday afternoon (working from home) and finally finished everything at about 9 pm tonight. Since it’s just too much for me to work hours on end without a break, I’ve had to stop after 2-3 hours just to rest for a bit. Tomorrow I’ll be going into the office for 1/2 day and doing the same on Thursday. Beyond that, I’m done with working for the rest of the week. Since I start back full time next week, I really do need to rest before diving into full days of work.

I am unbelievably exhausted tonight. Glad I’m not going in until 10 am tomorrow.

Nate has decided that killing lizards is his most favorite pastime these days. So far I have found three dead lizards in the house and just rescued the latest live one that he was carrying in his mouth as he ran inside. He doesn’t want to eat them, just play with them. I mean, how great for a cat to have a live toy that runs around as he chases after it! Unfortunately, they eventually die as he sinks his teeth and claws into their bodies.

Since Nate is not very big at this point, I don’t expect he’ll be catching rats anytime soon. Yet I’m sure that will happen eventually. I hope he puts on some weight before then since many of the rats I’ve seen over the years are about the same size as him which doesn’t give Nate much of a fighting chance. Let’s hope he sticks to lizards for a while. They’re also much easier to remove from the premises!

Went into work today for the first time in five weeks. Arrived at 10 am and planned to stay for four hours. Time got away from me and I wound up staying until 3 pm–longer than I should have stayed. I was exhausted when I left and spent about two hours napping/resting when I got home. I really didn’t think I would be so tired.

I brought home lots of work and will work from home for the rest of the week as well as on Monday. While I’m sure it will be tiring to work from home every day, it will be much easier than going in every day. I can at least work for a few hours and then take a break. Also, I can sleep later in the morning!

It was good to see all my coworkers again and to get back into the swing of things again. I have lots to do to get caught up, but it’s going to feel good when I’m at the point where going to work everyday is the norm.

Today was the Lakers victory parade in downtown LA. While it would have been great fun to have been there, my body is not yet ready to get shoved around by thousands of other bodies, I could never have done all the walking that would have been required to secure a viewing spot, and standing for hours on end would have been impossible. So I was content to watch the festivities on TV even though it wasn’t nearly as spectacular as seeing everything firsthand. Now that all the hoopla has ended, I’m kind of glad. I’m drained and am glad to have basketball over for a few months.

Tomorrow I see the surgeon for my followup appointment. It’s been almost five weeks since my surgery. Time flies when you’re having fun! I really thought I would already be back at work at this point, but I can tell that my body is still not quite ready. So half days for about a week and half–and then a long holiday weekend–should make the transition to full-time doable.

I’m very ready to have my body back to 100%. Staying home has caused me to see LOTS of projects that need to be completed. I’ll be off for two weeks in August for vacation and plan to stay home and (hopefully) knock some things off my “to do list”. Now if the weather will just cooperate and not give me 100 degree temps while I’m off…

I have to take four weeks vacation this year (work requirement) and am not sure how I’m going to do that after being on sick leave for 5-6 weeks. Maybe two weeks in August, one week in September, and Fridays here and there throughout the fall. No doubt I’ll be happy to have time available for Christmas decorating and shopping come December!

Well, I probably did too much today, but it is nice to have it all finished. I went to CVS, then to the car wash, then to PetCo, then to Trader Joe’s, and finally to Albertson’s. Whew! The worst part was hauling everything in from the car since I had to limit the amount of bags so that I didn’t carry too much weight at one time. I did leave the cat litter and the 24-pack of water in the car with the hope that Patrick will stop by sometime this weekend and bring both in for me.

I was out for about 3 hours total and am pretty tired now after putting most everything away. Had hoped to spent a bit of time doing dishes/cleaning in the kitchen, but think I’ll put that off until tomorrow. Also need to do a bit of laundry but that, too, can wait.

Glad I got lots of shopping done today since I’ll have a busy week next week. Monday is the Lakers victory parade for a good chunk of the day so I’ll be in front of the TV for all of it. On Tuesday I see the surgeon for my followup appointment, and on Wednesday I’ll go back to work for the first time. I’ll only be there for about 1/2 day, so it shouldn’t be too tough on me. For the remainder of the week I’ll work from home for 1/2 days. The following week I expect to go in for a couple of days (1/2 days once again) and will work from home for the rest of the week.

I’m feeling so much better over the past few days and I think I’ll be ready for work next week. If I hadn’t felt so miserable most of the time, it would certainly have been great to have been off for 4+ weeks. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a fun time off and I’d much rather have been at work feeling healthy. I am looking forward to feeling good for the rest of the summer though. And how nice to see my stomach shrinking in size!

What a great game! I was worried most of the game, but the Lakers managed to pull it out and beat Boston for their second NBA Championship in a row! I am totally thrilled!

Well, right now in LA there really isn’t much other news than the Lakers game tonight. I am a nervous wreck and can’t wait for everything to get started–and for the Lakers to win! Two more hours until the TV coverage starts and it seems like forever! I won’t be answering the phone tonight or doing anything other than sitting in front of the TV. I’m wearing my Lakers shirt and have all my Lakers flags flying. I’m so excited for this game!

Earlier today I drove for the first time since my surgery and all went well. It’s been 4 weeks today and all the websites I’ve checked indicate that you should be able to drive after 3 weeks. There was a big sale at Michael’s and I wanted to get some silk flowers to use in my backyard hanging baskets for 4th of July. I went out early afternoon so that I wouldn’t hit much traffic and the only problem I had was dealing with a dirty car with dirty windshields! May try to get my car into the car wash tomorrow. Going to try to run a few errands tomorrow to the grocery and drugstore now that I feel comfortable driving once again.

Am really starting to feel almost back to normal today. Haven’t taken any pain meds for a couple of days. Still taking it easy and not doing much in the way of physical activity. I did finally vacuum the family room yesterday and had no problems with that. Am being careful to only do one or two somewhat strenuous things each day so that I don’t have problems. Vacuuming yesterday, driving today, maybe some cleaning tomorrow depending on how tired I am after grocery shopping.

It certainly is nice, though, not to have to rely on Patrick to take me to the grocery or to pick up my Rx’s. He’s been so good about helping me out, but I’m grateful he can go back to his normal routine–and so can I! I really don’t like having to ask for help.

And now, GO LAKERS!!!

I finally got fed up enough and called Verizon today. I am switching my phone and internet service to Verizon and my cable TV service to DirectTV. Unfortunately, FIOS is not yet available in our area. The only bad part is that my new TiVo HD won’t work with the DirectTV service. The TiVo will work with FIOS, however, so I may just hold onto it to see if FIOS happens sometime in the relatively near future.

I’ll be saving about $60/month and will be getting totally reliable service for everything. No more dropped phone calls. No more internet shutting down. No more not being able to watch HD channels because…well who knows why. This was triggered today after my TV service turned to garbled mush yesterday for hours on end. Then today, I got my cable bill and saw where they charged me $45 for a service call last month when my phone service went out for an entire day. I got them to reverse the charge after spending 20+ minutes on the phone with someone in their billing department. Come on, though. I shouldn’t have been billed for this in the first place!

Ah well. Only 2 more weeks and I’ll be rid of Charter forever!

It’s been overcast and chilly for the past two days, known by So.Cal. weather forecasters as June Gloom. And it’s supposed to be the same tomorrow. I’ve felt really yukky all day and took lots of naps. I just couldn’t get motivated to do anything and my incision area has started to feel kind of sore as it heals. So I spent today just laying around. Guess that’s okay since I’m really not supposed to be doing much anyhow.

I let the cats outside twice today, and both times they said “no thanks” and came back in after about 5 minutes. I guess they don’t like the overcast, cold weather either. They were both more than happy to curl up on the couch with me for most of the day. Tonight they spent awhile emptying out their toy basket and chasing each other around the house. Now they’re asleep in their beds, probably for the rest of the night.

I sort of wanted to do a bit of trimming in the backyard today. Perhaps I’ll feel a bit better tomorrow and will do it then. I guess there are going to be days like this when my energy level is just not up enough to do much. I decided to start taking my vitamins again today, but that didn’t seem to make any difference. Maybe it really does have something to do with the sun. Good thing I don’t live in Seattle.

Well, sort of…and it actually felt kind of good. Logged into my work computer from home via “LogMeIn” software and was able to post all the A/P and A/R journal entries from the past few weeks while I’ve been away. It was good to do something productive on the computer other than browsing FB and the web. I actually am looking forward to getting back to work once again. I know that I’m not yet ready since I’m very much looking forward to a nap this afternoon, but it was good to get back into it once again. Within a few more weeks I think I’ll be able to do it.

My plan is to stop in at the office the day after I see the surgeon (6/23) and he clears me to drive. I’ll pick up miscellaneous backup materials and head home. Then I’ll work from home for 1/2 days for the rest of that week. The following week I’ll go in for a few days part-time and continue working from home on the other days. July 6th will be my first full day back. I think this is very realistic and I won’t go in “behind the eight-ball” on my first full day back. It will also mean that I don’t use up all my sick time and will have time available for doctor/dentist appointments (or the occasional cold!) for the rest of the year.

I am definitely ready for the day when I feel good enough to be working again!

The Lakers now lead in the NBA Finals 2-1 against Boston after a great win tonight in Boston! Kobe played a great game, but it was all Derek Fisher in the fourth quarter. I really had to contain myself to keep from getting too excited and jumping up from the couch! Game 4 on Thursday.

In other news, I visited my G.P. today and she feels I’m healing well. I have to start taking fiber supplements to get my insides back to normal. Otherwise, all seems to be great. I’m still really tired mid-afternoon and in need of at least one nap. That’s the hardest part right now–my endurance level is so damn low! All I did today was go to the doctor and then stop to vote and I needed to sleep about 2 hours this afternoon. I do now understand why it takes so long to recover from surgery.

Am feeling good tonight after a lovely Sunday spent with Patrick and Veronica, enjoying a cookout and spending the day out back at the pool. I still can’t get into the water but dangled my feet in the pool which felt great! Patrick did his usual marvelous job of grilling chicken breasts, filet mignon and sausages and everything tasted fabulous!

I’m amazed that just a week ago I was in the hospital being rehydrated and unable to eat anything. And today I was enjoying barbequed chicken and potato salad. How great is that?! Everyone kept saying that I really would start feeling better in a few days, but I was having a hard time believing it based on how bad I felt last weekend. But it did actually happen and the end of the tunnel is growing closer everyday!

In other news, Nate decided last night to “start feeling his Cheerios” as Kevin put it. I’ve been trying to be sure that both cats are inside before it gets dark every night, knowing how difficult it is to locate black cats in the dark. Last night I blew it and forgot to corral Nate before it got dark. Now Hayes is never a problem in that he never goes anywhere except the backyard. Nate, on the other hand, loves to wander. So far he hasn’t gone very far, just to the yards behind me and to the side of me. And he usually shows up when I call him. Not last night. I called and called for hours and he was nowhere to be found. I walked all around the backyard and front yard with a flashlight calling his name and no Nate. Finally, at about 11 pm, I decided to give it one last shot and went out back again. I felt something brush my leg and there he was! I’m not worried that he won’t come home, just worried that he’ll cross paths with a coyote. Tonight the doors were shut long before dark.