Status:Shift number two bites the dust, i am ready to go to the hotel and get some rest. Tonight went well, learned a lot and so did my partner.
Plans:Get some breakfast, take a nap, return my rental car and get some groceries.
Narrative:Drive to hotel was uneventful and breakfast was very good. Took a small nap and I am headed to the gas station and then to Avis to work out the details of my rental car. It is a little complicated because they scheduled this transfer for tomorrow.
Car swap took about an hour n half, he had to modify the start and end dates of the contract. We also haggled about the insurance for a bit, still i ended up with a brand new SUV for the guys.
Back in my room I updated my “Linux Mint” computer before heading back out again.
We went to Wal-Mart and picked up some groceries for tomorrow before I headed down to the bar for dinner and a beer.
I headed back up to the room, took a shower and made a cup of coffee to sip on while I work on my blog.
The wife has hooked up with a good friend and they’ve been spending some good time together. These trips are hard on her too.
Tomorrow:Eat breakfast and be prepared to dig into preventive maintenance. Then stay on site for one of my last four shifts with the company. I have a hard time setting clear goals when i’m stretched as thin as I am down here.
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes Did I DMBT be happy? Yes Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes *Did My Best To Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status: On site, babysitting the equipment for 24 hours.
Plans: Do everything I can to keep the equipment running today and find out why it failed last night.
Narrative: Slept pretty well, woke up a couple of times with congestion. Alarm woke me at 05:40 and i joined the team at breakfast.
breakfast bar
Drove out to the site and relieved the current team. Weather is clear, warm and windy.
There is Costa Rican coffee always brewing here, it doesn’t need creme or sugar. I put a touch of sugar in mine this morning, but I’ve drank it black as well.
Lunch was a couple peanut butter crackers and a few M+Ms. Dinner was a rotisserie chicken today, it really hit the spot. I also has a can of corn with the chicken for Dinner.
I took a nap so that I could be more alert during the difficult time frame with this system. It was a good hour and half and I woke rested ready to go.
It is 10PM and the system hasn’t burped, very similar to my last shift on Saturday. We’ve spent almost all day looking at the circuitry and how the entire process works so that we are prepared if something happens.
Tomorrow:Deal with the rental cars, maybe. They’ve slated the rental return on Wednesday at 9AM.
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes Did I DMBT be happy? Yes Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes *Did My Best To Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status:Assisting a remote team operate a system in Central America.
Plans:Stand my watch, eat breakfast and go to bed.
Narrative:Slept on site for about 4 hours. Broken sleep, but i feel much better having been here for 16 hours. Radar is running good so it has been an easy shift. I slept about 4 hours but I forgot my pillow that would have made me much more comfortable.
Another issue we ran into is when the Guard folks want to sleep when the site personnel are sleeping. Normally it is not an issue with two people on site, only one is sleeping.
I am struggling with my circle of influence. I feel like my time at work and at home with the Wife is 80% of my daily life. Add church activities and children i usually reach my limit for the day. I am not really good at breaking the momentum of something i like to do for something I need to do. I am looking forward to having the time to get closer to my extended family and visit them occasionally.
I took a pictures at night of the antenna that is sitting on an stacked 20′ ISO container.
radar antenna
First sunrise on shift at the remote site.
Morning Light
It is pretty cool to come down here to one of these remote sites. It’s on us whatever happens during our shift.
Back in the hotel with THREE cell phones, Local, Company and my personal phone. Had a good sized breakfast and I am headed for the shower to scrub off the 24 last hours. Coffee is always been good down here, today was no exception.
Today is Sunday and I forgot to let the guys know that they needed to put out the cones this weekend and next. Oops!
Apparently I’ve left my charging cord for my heart monitor in Atlanta and it seems i didn’t take the spare. (Which I bought just for this trip. ) I’ve got about 2 nights of charge in the one I have if I need it.
The housekeeper appreciated my tip and made me a swan.
Housekeeper Art
Went to the store and got some Rotisserie Chicken and other supplies for tomorrow. We walked across the street and picked up a couple of Burger King Whoppers for dinner. (Hey I had Salmon the night before.) It’s true that last nights dinner was a couple of peanut butter crackers and two cans of corn.
Back in the hotel for the evening, Whopper was really good, the Fry’s were so, so. But still it was a familiar taste from home.
Sipp’n on a can of beer updating my blog for the day. I only had one “cold one” in the fridge, it is happy hour at the bar.
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes Did I DMBT be happy? Yes Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes *Did My Best To Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status:On a remote site for the first time in years, it feels very familiar. Generator powered with a very small manning requirement is the trademarks of a MASS GBR.
Plans:Keep this system running and have a little fun doing it.
Narrative:Got up VERY early at 4:00 and took a shower. Finished packing for the trip to the site and sent my coworkers a message I was ready to take them.
05:45 and four bags stored in my room we’re headed to the airport.
Stored Bags
Dropped them off and I drove in Costa Rica for the very first time. I’ve been here maybe eight trips and we always got a driver with the vehicle. Arrived at the hotel without incident. Finished last minute packing and headed down for breakfast.
This hotel has quite a spread for breakfast, it is $23 if you had to pay for it. Eggs made to order all kinds of breads and several versions of fruit.
Trip to site was uneventful, takes like 10 minutes. Radar performed pretty good overnight so it should be a good shift.
I setup the VPN to the house without much fanfare and checked my company resources. We took pictures and a video of the departing team’s Delta Aircraft. i’ll have to find a way to transfer that large file from my phone and share it.
Feeling words: Confident, Capable, Guarded
Tomorrow:SLEEP, buy a rotisserie chicken and have a good dinner!
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? Yes Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? Yes Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes Did I DMBT be happy? Yes Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes *Did My Best To Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status:A day of rest and preparation. I’m in a Hilton hotel for the day. I have to pack what I need to operate the system for a 24 hour shift.
Narrative:I managed to get my room configured so that all my data flows encrypted to Atlanta. My cell phone connects wirelessly and the laptop is an Ethernet connection.
Had an awesome breakfast and logged into my company E-Mail. No issues thus far using Linux Mint for my corporate requirements.
Updated my blog and sent links to the family. It has been a while since i blogged. Choosing what to write about and how much detail to go into is a challenge for me. A time blog is also pretty boring, still this is to keep me close to my lovely wife.
I had a good dinner with the departing team members but I stayed up too late which made getting up a bit harder.
Tomorrow:Operate a remote site for 24 hours and repair it if necessary.
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes Did I DMBT be happy? Yes Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes *Did My Best To Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Status:Flew to Liberia Costa Rica and got a room at the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport.
Plans:Recover from the previous day and get caught up on what the team is thinking.
Narrative:Had a really rough day, it started when I woke up at 3AM still feeling the effects of the pill i took yesterday.
I finished packing my bags for the trip to Liberia today and i started feeling sick to my stomach. I ended up having dry heaves because the nausea was so bad.
Do I go, or stay a day and recover? (That was my question i wrestled with all the way to the airport ticket counter.)
Limo driver was on time and no issues getting to the airport at 06:00 in the morning. Checking my bags was also easily accomplished even though one of my bags was overweight at 51 Lbs.
No issues with Security or getting to the gate, i was a bit early being there 07:00. I did not feel good enough to eat without risking getting sick on the plane. I bought a $3 coke and a bag of plain M+Ms just in case I had to eat something in the next seven hours before I get to the hotel.
Boarding was uneventful and i managed to catch a few Zs during the flight. Customs and Immigration at Liberia airport was also uneventful.
The guys took us to the store and we picked up some odds and ends to make our stay comfortable. I wanted a rotisserie chicken but they looked overcooked with blackened skin.
Back at the hotel things didn’t go so well. The fridge was warm, the Internet wire did not work and the phone was also out of commission. I had to walk my happy butt down to the counter to get them fixed. (TWICE)
Finally got enough nerve to eat a meal. I headed over to the bar, ordered a beer and Salmon dinner that i had gotten on a previous trip. It was good, i enjoyed the dinner and the two Guard Folks with me.
Headed back to the room and the fridge was working. I loaded the cokes I bought and started working on the Internet connection.
There is a wall Internet Ethernet connection in this hotel room. What I failed to observe is that the wire i was using was connected to a non functioning port on the wall. No issues with the Wireless the GL.iNET routers. Nor did I have any issues with the VPN back to the house. I fought the Internet Wired connection for about half an hour before I realized it didn’t work at the wall. Plugged the router into the other port and I was good to go.
Hotel VPN Network setup
My primary travel CPAP did not work when I powered it up and I had an A.S. moment because I hadn’t tested the backup travel CPAP in years. These are not optional, i’ve tried! The CPAP rolled off the bed while I was breaking out the backup. When I powered up the backup it worked! The primary also worked after getting bounced on the floor.. Good do go, sheesh
Took a 4 hour nap and started writing in this blog. Took a minute to get reacquainted with WordPress and the format, but i’m back in the saddle. I was looking aroung for something to sip on and found a small coffee maker. Okay, no instructions and three tries later I had a hot cup of coffee. M+Ms go very well with hot coffee.
Engineering: Downloaded new Open VPN files to configure the GL.iNET routers so that they reach into my home network.
Tomorrow:Catch up on where the team is and where they are headed. Breakfast at 06:30 and i’ve not gotten enough sleep yet.
From the book “Triggers” by Marshall Goldsmith Did I DMBT set clear goals for the day? No Did I DMBT make progress to those goals? No Did I DMBT make my wife feel loved? Yes Did I DMBT help my wife today? Yes Did I DMBT fix something today? Yes Did I DMBT improve something today? Yes Did I DMBT be happy? Yes Did I DMBT be fully engaged? Yes *Did My Best To Injuries: Arguments: Exercise: Feeling words: Travel: Noteworthy: Accomplishments: Purchases: Project: Theme: Engineering: Repairs: Pi News:
Almost 132,000 men moved against Germany today and over 3,000 of them lost their lives fighting against one man's army.
We let go of the reins today to Dad’s brother PJ. Dad’s health is considerably better than when we first came out here a little more than a week ago. There’s still a long road ahead for all of us. I think they are a little shy of the resources needed to continue without help. I think the tall pole in the tent for the two of them is mobility.
For me and my wife we’re more convicted than ever about reducing the clutter in our lives and having a plan for our departure. It’s not fair for our loved ones to figure out what to do with all the “Stuff” we’ve piled up on our property. (Especially if we are physically separated.)
Important paperwork needs to be gathered and organized for our designated loved one.
Our last full day in Pahrump NV, we’ll stay in Vegas tomorrow night.
Dad has a reverse osmosis under the sink and they are buying bottled water because it tastes bad. It’s ok for coffee, but it needs service. Also there is standing water underneath the sink that needs looking into.
Swamp cooler status is a complete changeup since my post earlier. I pulled the cover off the unit tonight and the overflow extension was removed from the drain to winterize it. (So no water is allowed to build up inside the cooler.) I replaced the overflow and it filled up properly. It seems to be running properly although there is a significant amount of particulate in the bottom of the unit that needs to be cleaned out.
The idea of leaving the scooter at the hospital didn’t pan out either. (The hospital may change his room at any time.)
Dad’s gas card and credit card was given back to P today after filling up the white van.
One of the two chargers for the scooter is in the sewing room under the piano/keyboard. The other one is in the garage near the door on the floor. (Not sure if it works.)
P has the red four wheel walker with her for her trip to the doctor.
We are carrying a small suitcase with clothes for Dad, we may carry the travel bottle of oxygen as well with us tomorrow.
All of our belongings will be in the white van at the hospital. We are planning on being there a little after 09:00 AM.
We didn’t know as of today whether the electric bill has been paid. (It’s online, but may not be autopay.)
Dad has received his last dosage for this round of Chemo tonight. They will check his blood and clear him to go home if he passes the physical stress test of walking.
Dad looked better today, he ate good. Completed long conversations and didn’t fall asleep in his chair.
Dad is having an issue with his hip, when he walks on it, he is in considerable pain.
P has a list of all his medications. That list has been moved out of the brown envelope and I don’t know where it ended up.
All three of us were awfully tired at the end of the day today. P is limping pretty badly and looks in pain.
We’ll leave almost a full bag of Dominican Republic coffee. All the beer in the fridge has expired. We just bought the little plastic bottles of coke but I would check anything else in the fridge before drinking it.
The basket in the baby fryer on the counter was dirty and she wanted to soak it. The fryer is full of soapy water.
None of dad’s three thermos’s have been opened since we got here a week ago. So beware…. The coffee pot seems ok unless it’s not closed properly, then it leaks all over the countertop.
Truck keys are on the fridge
There is a 6 port cell phone charger on the kitchen chair next to the wall, although the wires feel awfully stiff. They do work rather well.
The large box next to the kitchen wall is recycling.
Dad’s O2 was 94 today without supplement Oxygen, so I don’t know why they bother during the day. At night he wears the O2 strap.
Bringing P home every day has lengthened the days significantly. (Since we’re heading to Vegas right after breakfast and stopping by the store on the way home.) It also means that I post the last update this blog close to midnight EDT.
It is a little frustrating that he still had not received his Chemo treatment after five days in the hospital. The whole reason for going into the Emergency room was to speed up his first treatment and stop the cancer from eating up his organs. Going into IMU may have been the cause of the delayed treatment. (They apparently avoid traversing zones of care, floors.)
Nothing worth repeating about breakfast or the trip to the hospital this morning except maybe the parking lot was completely FULL today.
When I got to dad’s room he was receiving his second Chemo dosage. He had good color and his temperament was about normal, so the Chemo didn’t seem to affect him much.
We went for our lunch break about 11 like we have for the last couple days, they had Taco’s and I pigged out. I had four of them. We headed back up to dad’s room and he got his lunch a short time after his Physical Therapy session. (Taking an assisted walk.)
The coolest thing I’ve seen in days was watching my dad dig into a meal and enjoying it. I am not sure but I think my dad could taste his food for the first time in months! He was eating feverishly until his hip started bothering him. The pain got so bad he called for some pain medication. By the time the doctor showed up he was writhing in pain. The doctor prescribed 4ml of Morphine. It was another 10 minutes before the nurse came in with the syringe. As soon as she administered the dosage dad started drifting away. It wasn’t 3 minutes and dad was sound asleep. S came to visit an hour later and dad was still sound asleep. As a matter of fact dad was still too groggy to follow a conversation at 5PM when we left for the day. S and the nurse requested the doctor change the dosage to 2ml from now on.
Talked to his brother and we confirmed the travel plans for Thursday. P is driven to her appointment at 7 am by a neighbor. M + K packs their belongings and drives the van with the scooter to the hospital at 8AM. Brother rents a car and drives to the hospital at 10AM. P arrives with neighbors to visit Dad sometime after 10:30. We visit with Dad until about 5PM and his brother takes us to the hotel for the evening. He and wife drive the two vehicles and P back to Pahrump. M + K flies home on Friday.
Scooter notes; P’s GoGo scooter is a super piece of equipment. It’s fairly light, it turns on a dime and it’ll easily out run a good jogging pace and not need a charge at the end of the day.
F’s brother has gotten tickets for the 6th of June around 10AM and our tickets are currently for tomorrow (Tuesday.) I am loosely thinking we should plan to stay in Vegas Thursday night and fly out early Friday morning even though it will be more costly. *If we can get seats. That way we can spend a day with his brother on Thursday. He can drop us off in Vegas before leaving for Pahrump on Thursday evening. I am 50/50 on his brother renting a car right away. We are driving F’s car that has to be returned to Pahrump sometime Thursday. It would also work flying home on Saturday morning if the flights are crowded. The tall pole in the tent is K is still quite ill with Vertigo and she will have strong opinions about which flight to take home. (We should choose them before seeing F today.)
Dad has Med-port installed and dad had a good hearty lunch. We are waiting on a transport technician to bring us to the 6th floor for Chemo. That should happen today, although it is getting rather late. (It’s 15:30)
So, now that we know dad will still be in this hospital on Thursday, it simplifies things just a little. The tall pole in the tent is that we’ll bring our bags with us to Vegas on Thursday. We need to be dropped off at the hotel Thursday before everyone leaves for Pahrump. We have an early morning flight that will require us to be up at 03:30 on Friday.
Dad is now on the 6th floor and is waiting on Chemo treatment. We left the hospital shortly after moving him to the 6th floor. One thing we noticed is that dad has very small bumps that have showed up on his right side and back. The nurse said that he didn’t think it was anything serious, the nurse on the 6th floor didn’t have a chance to look before we left. I didn’t see them on his chest or his left side, the nurse was loosely thinking some kind of sensitivity to his surroundings.
The hospital sent someone up to gather his meal preferences for the next couple days. (But he was in IMO on the third floor. ) It remains to be seen whether they transfer the requests to the sixth floor. Hope so…
Got a couple laughs, a few more smiles and smirk’s today, so he seems in good spirits given the situation. They checked his weight and I think it was 147 Lbs.
