Thursday, December 29, 2011

It is Thursday , December 29 and I am still at the status quo. My health seems about the same, but I got a good hike in the morning, shouting to all the trees the good news that they won’t be cut down. I e-mailed Kate yesterday about it and she wrote back a very supportive e-mail. It is my great accomplishment, perhaps the greatest of my life.
I was able to check the solar history yesterday and in the past 20 days I got very little sunlight, probably averaging about .7 kilowatts a day, not even close to covering my usage of over 2.7 a day. I have had to use the generator here and there but I am already getting more sun so things should get better.
Even though it was only in the mid 40s, I went to play golf and shot a 47, and my driver worked pretty well.
This evening I went for a walk with Rob on the Tom’s Creek Trail and caught up. Rob is now officially divorced and he is comfortable with that. Raechel and Noah both were thankful for my gift checks and Rob was glad of that.
My dinner yesterday with Cathy was a lot of fun. We met at 6 and finished at 9:30 so it was a good chat, mainly about Carla and Claire.

Monday, December 26, 2011

I had a pleasant Christmas day visiting Rob and his relatives, then taking a nice walk along Tom’s creek. Later I drove toward Roanoke and stopped to ride my bike in the Food Lion parking lot. After a solid ride I drove on to visit Jeff and Rachel and had a tasty meal there and played a lot with Benjamin. I left about five, drove home for a nap and then went back to work on my article about the easement.
On Monday I did a few things around the house and after setting up and appointment with Diane Green, I had to drive to Radford to get some of the materials she needed. I am not exactly sure how my taxes will be affected but I know I will get about 46K in tax credits and I will probably have to sell some of them before I retire. Diane is going to charge about 500 and that is perfectly fine. I will also have her do my taxes next year.
I dropped my bike off at Dick’s to have the back wheel fixed and the entire bike serviced. It should be done next week.
I don’t feel any better or any worse so I am not sure what the test on the 11th is going to find out.

Friday, December 23, 2011

It is the evening of my second day at Wild Dunes and it has been very relaxing and productive. I have worked on my Muir / Burroughs paper and I finally got a lot of information from the DEC. I should be able to work on the DEC article tomorrow and I have till January 3 to finish it.
Yesterday I rode my bike around wild dunes, went and played 18 holes of golf (just making it before dark) and shooting a 96. I took a quick walk on the beach and then had dinner at the restaurant in the Boardwalk Inn. Later I had dessert and started writing. I was exhausted and my feet ached but it was a great day.
Today I wrote in the morning and finished grading my exams, had a nice lunch, rode my bike, walked on the beach, napped, walked on the beach again, had a great dinner at the Boardwalk (crab crusted grouper), walked to sit by the beach, went to the weight room, and had dessert and coffee and worked on the Muir paper. It is nice to be able to write some and to not be bothered with medical tests and bothersome questions.

Saturday was another productive day, with writing in the morning and 18 holes of golf on the Links Course, which I had never played. It was more expensive than the Harbor Course, but I have to admit that the back nine was very impressive although not as stunning as Banff or Jasper. I played very well and ended up shooting a 93, which for me was rather an accomplishment. That night I had a gout attack in my right ankle (all of the rich food I had been eating surely contributed) and I had to take some ibuprophen to reduce the pain. I didn’t want to go back on the prednisone so I had a fairly rough night.
On Sunday, my ankle was a little better so after my writing I went for a walk on the beach and began to get ready for my Charleston visit. I planned to see Kelly’s half brother Patrick perform at High Cotton at six, but I wanted to walk around a bit and see the overhyped game between Denver and New England so I got into town around two. The game was a blowout by New England. Patrick has charisma and intensity, although his guitar solos are rather mundane and his singing rather scratchy.
Monday found me driving over to my Aunt Theresa’s house and dinner with her and Joyce and Marv. Marv had a great story of bringing a sailboat from Trinidad to Florida and I encouraged him to write about it.
On Tuesday I played golf with Marv and I shot a 44 on the front nine from the forward tees. On the back nine I shot from the gold tees and shot a 58. I was tired and it was a very hard course but I enjoyed myself.
After two more relaxed days (I saw three movies, Sherlock Holmes, Mission Impossible, and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the last the best of three good movies), I finally got word on Thursday afternoon that the easement was done, that the new deed had been recorded. I went to a mediocre sushi place to celebrate not knowing that there was a PF Chang’s a couple blocks away.
I got up early on Friday and stopped at a state park near Columbia to ride my bike and then, after a late lunch at PF Chang’s, played golf at an odd little course near Mt. Airy. I got to my office just before dark and finished one outline and three rules and copied them all. Then a took a nice walk around the deserted campus.

Friday, December 16, 2011

It is the evening of my second day at Wild Dunes and it has been very relaxing and productive. I have worked on my Muir / Burroughs paper and I finally got a lot of information from the DEC. I should be able to work on the DEC article tomorrow and I have till January 3 to finish it.
Yesterday I rode my bike around wild dunes, went and played 18 holes of golf (just making it before dark) and shooting a 96. I took a quick walk on the beach and then had dinner at the restaurant in the Boardwalk Inn. Later I had dessert and started writing. I was exhausted and my feet ached but it was a great day.
Today I wrote in the morning and finished grading my exams, had a nice lunch, rode my bike, walked on the beach, napped, walked on the beach again, had a great dinner at the Boardwalk (crab crusted grouper), walked to sit by the beach, went to the weight room, and had dessert and coffee and worked on the Muir paper. It is nice to be able to write some and to not be bothered with medical tests and bothersome questions.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

I have talked to someone at DEC public relations and I hope they will get me some solid info.
My two finals were done today and I will be off to Charleston tomorrow. I went home after playing nine holes (46) and got some stuff ready and it shouldn’t take long to pack the truck in the morning.
I had an uncomfortable incident with a student in my office. She wanted me to accept her late journal and I wouldn’t but she kept on about it even though I was giving another student the final. Later she e-mailed me a reasonable apology.
My tiredness continues and I think I am pretty much over the prednisone withdrawal. I guess it is my low blood. I hope the iron supplement helps a bit.
I made my Amtrak reservations for my month long trip in mid-July. I will be staying over a night in Chicago on the way out to Denver and I will be at Canyon in Yellowstone for three nights. It should be a fun trip.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

A good weekend even if it didn’t go exactly the way I expected. I had wanted Mark Burnette to come out and cut the trees by the orchard and the ones by the satellite dish, and then to clean the gutters, but he was a no show, hanging me up by the gate for a half hour. For some reason he emailed Lou to tell him he wasn’t coming and Lou didn’t get the message for several hours. I stayed calm and decided to cut the trees myself and though I twisted my knee a bit, I got all the trees cut and cleaned the back gutter. I called Mike and he agreed to come over on Sunday to do the front gutter. I was pretty happy with myself being able to do so much and I also saved at least 100 dollars.
On Sunday morning I finished up the last of my papers and then practiced and rode the bike. Mike came a little after twelve and he cleaned out the front gutter in about 20 minutes. I then showed him the will I had set up for him and explained what he needed to do. I also advised him to get a living will and he said he would.
I drove off to play golf (shooting a 48 on the front even though I three putted 3 holes), then I went to Applebee’s and watched Tiger Woods finally win again by a stroke over Zach Johnson. I felt really glad for him. Following that Rob and I took a good walk on the trail .
I am still having stomach problems but my stomach is better today. I hope it settles down soon.

I finally got the approval letter from Stellar One yesterday. It was only about 10 days late (Jessica Miller had told me the week before that the easement had been approved). I was getting pretty upset but there wasn’t much I could do except call Sanda Chaffin a few times and hope something would happen. I am leaving for my trip on Wednesday so there is no chance I will be able to meet with the CPA until after I return around the 24th. That means that I will not have the tax credits for this March. It shouldn’t make that much of a difference but I would have liked the chance to use the credits in March.
I charged the batteries all day and I want them pretty full before I leave so they won’t run down in case we get some cloudy weather. I also ran the farm tractor for an hour, getting the leaves off the road and evening out all the ruts from the big rain last week. I also dug out the big culvert which was covered with leaves but didn’t wash across the road. I also trimmed around the house with the shears, and got in a nice hike up to the orchard.
I went to see Dr. McCoy on Wednesday and he, thankfully, didn’t think I needed the bone marrow biopsy, at least right now. He said that if my white cells and platelets were down, he would have sent me for one, but since it is only my red cells, he wanted to wait. He did want me to go on the Prilosec since the endoscopy did show some irritation and there might be some microscopic bleeding which could explain my condition. He also put me on an iron supplement (hemaplex) and told me he wanted to check my blood in six weeks so I am free from any tests for six weeks. Rob wasn’t sure of McCoy’s diagnosis but he thought it wouldn’t hurt to wait the six weeks. He thinks I have some sort of inflammation that may be causing the bone marrow to not make red blood cells.
I picked up my citrus last night and I have eaten about 8 oranges in two days. I hope the acid doesn’t hurt my stomach.
I saw Jim Gray for the first time in a while and we had a good chat. I think he is going to quit Kronos in January and start his own business. I think he will do well.
I have two finals to give on Tuesday and then a difficult semester will be done. I have really had to fight the tiredness all semester.
My proposal on Burroughs and Muir was accepted at the CEA conference in March in Richmond, so now I will have to write it. I also have to write the fishing for people with disabilities article but Bill Rudge is not being helpful. I will have to press him on Monday.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

A good weekend even if it didn’t go exactly the way I expected. I had wanted Mark Burnette to come out and cut the trees by the orchard and the ones by the satellite dish, and then to clean the gutters, but he was a no show, hanging me up by the gate for a half hour. For some reason he emailed Lou to tell him he wasn’t coming and Lou didn’t get the message for several hours. I stayed calm and decided to cut the trees myself and though I twisted my knee a bit, I got all the trees cut and cleaned the back gutter. I called Mike and he agreed to come over on Sunday to do the front gutter. I was pretty happy with myself being able to do so much and I also saved at least 100 dollars.
On Sunday morning I finished up the last of my papers and then practiced and rode the bike. Mike came a little after twelve and he cleaned out the front gutter in about 20 minutes. I then showed him the will I had set up for him and explained what he needed to do. I also advised him to get a living will and he said he would.
I drove off to play golf (shooting a 48 on the front even though I three putted 3 holes), then I went to Applebee’s and watched Tiger Woods finally win again by a stroke over Zach Johnson. I felt really glad for him. Following that Rob and I took a good walk on the trail .
I am still having stomach problems but my stomach is better today. I hope it settles down soon.

Friday, December 2, 2011

I am having some stomach problems right now and they have caused me some rather extreme bathroom problems. I am supposed to go see Jeff and Rachel tonight but I am not sure that will be a good idea.
I heard from Stellar One that they have approved the easement so things should be finished within two weeks, I believe.
I played golf and shot a very nice 46 on the front nine after hitting very poorly on the first three holes (though I scored okay).
My classes are going well and I have ten papers to grade this weekend and that will be the major crunch, not too bad to be sure.
I have been hiking almost every day and that is a great comfort. I don’t know how much time I have left in the hollow so I am doing well to enjoy each hike.
The house is in very good shape, and Mark Burnette is coming tomorrow to clean the gutters and cut some of the smaller trees I can’t reach. It shouldn’t be too hard.
It is unclear what Rob is going to do with Rachel. She is not doing her work in High School and she may not be ready for JMU.
I am very tired but Rob attributes that to my withdrawal from the prednisone. I should recover within two weeks since I will be off the drug on Sunday. I want to have my energy back for the Charleston trip.