Our Newsletter of Current Happenings

July 30, 2004

It's been a while since updating the newsletter and I figured I better get with it. Since the last update we've had leave (vacation) from the Post Service for two weeks in May/June. We decided this year to stay home and rest. Seems like too often we take our time to renew and regenerate and end up rushing round like the proverbial "chicken with it's head cut off" and end up anxious to get back to work to rest up from our "vacation."
This time we decided, "Not this time!" Originally it appeared I would be headed to Barcelona, Spain the end of June as part of a MAPS team. However, with the uncertainty following the Madrid train bombing we thought prudence dictated we should postpone that trip to a later date. Then having found myself totally exhausted the past year plus, we thought this would be a good opportunity to let my body catch up with itself.
The first week was spent doing just that, chilling out, and taking it easy. No schedule, no plans, nothing necessary to do. Just rest. So while Karen nursed a nasty cold I read, messed 'round on the 'puter, napped, got started walking again and towards the end of the week I hung the porch swing my folks got us for Christmas. I'd been waiting so long 'cause I needed some hardware and lumber and was waiting for the new Lowe's store a few blocks away to open. Naw...I was just too tired to tackle it after working all day, six days a week.
With that up we could sit back on and look out over our "postage stamp" backyard and realized it needed to be finished. It's only been just under 2 years since moving in and while patio stones, a water garden and some plants had been put in on the Florida room side, the other half of the yard was bare. Now that we could sit out back comfortably, something had to be done about it. So with a little plan and a lot of serendipity we set forth on the project.
After 'bout three days, a bunch of wall blocks, a lattice panel, a veritable forest of plants, various hangers and some transplanting of existing flora our masterpiece was complete. We sat back and enjoyed it the last few days of vacation and when it was over I can honestly say I didn't want to get back to work. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time away from "the office."
One of my more recent projects is to help my brother-in-law revamp his businesses web site. It's been a learning experience, with more to go, but another week and it should be live. I've both enjoyed and been frustrated by the project, but have learned some new techniques and overall it's been good. Most likely next week will signal not the end of the project, but merely a momentary break before tackling more projects relative to the site. I've got several ideas and more are coming.
Karen is returning to the workforce after 3 1/2 years enjoying making a home. The librarian at First Assembly Christian School, where Karen held that position before we were married, called and asked if she would be interested in coming back as an assistant. Karen had really enjoyed her time there and had left only after the load of working both the library and on the church staff got to be too much. At the time she didn't have the option of working one or the other, so with our getting married it seemed a good time to take a respite.
Now she's ready to go back and tackle the rigors of organizing and maintaining the stacks so starting August 3rd she will be employed again. I think she's looking forward to it, yet in one sense with reluctance. Apparently there is a huge task before her, with patience, organization and setting priorities, she'll do fine.
Wednesday, July 28 found me awaking with my lower back aching with promise of it continuing and increasing in discomfort through the day. There was a time when it happened so often I wouldn't have given it much thought. But it's been a while and interestingly enough, it chose that particular day to rear it's "ugly head." Wonder if it had anything to do with that being my 50th birthday? Naw, these aches and creaks aren't sentient beings, are they?
As we head into the late summer Karen has the pleasure of looking forward to her 2nd annual September trip with her mom and sis. They had so much fun in Branson last year they decided to reprise that experience and take in a few more of the shows and attractions.
I know historically these tomes have gotten a bit lengthy, but I'm gonna cut this one short, yeah, right. ;-) Till next time...bye!

March 9, 2004

My mother-in-law informed me the other day that it has been since Christmas that I updated our newsletter. Heavily implied was that I needed to get with it. So here goes. Since Christmas we've naturally been busy. The Postal Service has me going 6 days a week and until recently 10 hours daily on many of those.
Obviously, from the look and development of the website, I've been busy with that and will continue to migrate the site to the new look. It'll take some time because I'm working on learning HTML (basic code of web page building) as I make the changes to the site. I'm also doing some things to help simplify some changes in the future.
Karen has found a ministry in using her creative talents creating greeting cards to minister to and encourage our friends and family as well as other folk who she feels led to send a word of encouragement.
I'm in the process (along with everything else) of bringing online another computer put together mostly from parts on hand with a few new items. I plan on loading the Linux operating system on it rather than running on Windows. That's an open source system you can obtain either free or at little cost compared to Windows (really good) while the nature of the system is that it tends to require a bit more work to get it up and going (can be good or bad). I'm looking forward to the challenge.
On the health front, last year I was diagnosed with hyperparathyroidism which is a condition where one of the parathyroid glands goes into over production. Some of the effects are increased serum calcium as the excess hormone draws calcium from the bones, kidney stones, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, and heart failure if the calcium levels get too high.
Currently I've had the stones and hypertension for 3 years that we know of and was recently diagnose as osteopenic which is the early stages of osteoporosis. The stones and hypertension are under control and the osteopenia can be reversed when the underlying parathyroid problem is eliminated.
The problem is, despite two scans, we cannot locate the offending gland. The nature of the parathyroid are that they can be anywhere in your body from the neck (by the thyroids) to the chest (near the lungs). Sounds like a small area, until you start trying to find a pea sized organ amongst all that stuff in there. The doc says an exploratory could turn it up in 20 min., or 5 hours, or there's a 75% chance he wouldn't find it at all. That along with some disconcerting potential problems with that kind of surgery and we currently think it best to wait a while and retest to see if the offending gland will show itself.
But we can't wait too long because of the osteopenia, which if it goes into osteoporosis may not be reversible. So what's a person to do? Trust God, that's what.
In other news, the church sent a MAPS team to Bogota last month and that ministry went very well. We weren't part of the team being in the midst of the parathyroid thing. However, another team is going to Barcelona in May and I'm considering being part of that.
We'll keep ya posted on that and other things here, and I'll keep my ranting in florida ramblings, but for now, bye!