Tag: House

Updates

Updates are called for;

  • House:
    • The basement floor project is still in a holding pattern. Last word was that everything should be in place to have it done by the end of the month
    • The new plumbing leak is also in a holding pattern. There is slightly better news than I expected here. Not good news, but not as bad as it could be. The leak was from the seal on the toilet in the bathroom upstairs. It was fast and (relatively) inexpensive to fix. We are waiting on hearing back from the people who are going to come and fix the floor and/or ceiling to find out exactly what is required there.
  • Work:
    • I’m going back to work on the unit starting next week. With the most recent covid surge settling down, Employee Health isn’t as busy as they have been and don’t need as much help. There are certainly other things I could do for light duty but the fact is I’m probably recovered enough to just go back to work. I’m never going to feel ready and the only way to find out if I can do it is to do it.
  • Health
    • Health is also in a holding pattern. No news has been good news.
    • Mental health is honestly as good as it can be under the circumstances. The previous post announcing the bathroom leak is typical of how I’ve been reacting to new difficulties recently. I’ve been feeling very brittle; when something hits I kind of break into a thousand little pieces and can’t see anything but crisis and my brain does everything it can to persuade me that things are as bad as they can possibly be and they will never be fixed. This is a known issue. I haven’t had much luck moderating my initial, disproportionately negative, response but I have been getting better at pulling myself together again.

The fact is, in spite of everything I, right now, today, I feel pretty good both physically and mentally. There is still a lot on my plate and I’ve been ready for all this shit to be done for about 6 months or so, but the struggle can continue.

Yeah, this is about what I’ve come to expect

Remember, a couple of times now I think, I mentioned how everything suddenly got much worse right after I started feeling like I was getting a few things off my plate? Well the basement floor is almost done (just ignore that it is still “almost” done after two months of wrangling with the floor people), I’m on a term break from school until the end of the month, I’ve got a three month break from cancer treatment, and I’m still, for the time being, working from home. Things are settling down and maybe, just maybe, I can come out of crisis mode for a while.

Yesterday, I found this in the downstairs bathroom –


That would be a leak in the plumbing somewhere in the ceiling. The bulge was not there two days ago and as for the (what are hopefully) patches of mildew (and not black mold) I couldn’t say how long they’ve been there. I don’t routinely inspect my ceilings because I am a shit homeowner, apparently.

The plumber is supposed to arrive in about fifteen minutes and then we get to spend a few thousand dollars and FSM knows how long having at least one bathroom destroyed (maybe both bathrooms if our usual luck continues) and then we get to spend another few thousand dollars and FSM knows how long getting it put back together again.

We made a big mistake when we bought instead of just continuing to rent.

Two days until round 2

Time for some brief updates on everything.

I had previously decided that I was going to take a short break from school during the month of October and that has gone through, been approved and is all taken care of. I’ll be back to working on my degree in November. I’m not terribly excited about the delay, but I think it will allow me to get enough other fires put out that when I do go back I will have a much easier time focusing on schoolwork, so I think this will be a good thing.

The basement is frustratingly close to being done. We have been wrestling with the people who are going to replace the bits of the floor that are missing since the second week of August with almost nothing to show for it. Supposedly they’ll have all the flooring tiles, adhesive, baseboards, etc. this week and the installers are tentatively scheduled for Thursday. If everything goes well. Maybe. It’s not certain.

I’m trying to remain optimistic that the floor will be done by the second week of October and then The Great Unpacking will commence. The Great Unpacking should only take a few days, a week at most, and then the basement will be done.

Side effects; the fatigue is way better. I’m still not 100%, maybe more like 75-80%. Just in time to get scoped in two days and start round two of treatment. Round two will not necessarily kick off right away, but this is what is going to set the schedule. I am hoping that with only three treatments instead of six, maybe I’ll only be half as fatigued afterwards. Time will tell.

Work; I will confess to being somewhat anxious about work, likely for no good reason at all. As previously mentioned, My doctor wrote me a note authorizing essentially indefinite light duty and I plan to take advantage of that. I don’t think there is anything that my employer can legally do to pressure me to return to my usual job but I also have to wonder what kind of reception I’m going to get after slacking off for 2-3 months. Time will tell.

Events may be aligning such that I will only have to deal with work and treatment during the month of October which will almost be like a vacation compared to the last six months. Of course the last time I said something like that we ended up having a global pandemic, the country elected one of the top three worst presidents in the history of the United States, the basement flooded (again) and I changed jobs three times.

I’m keeping my mouth shut this time.

Basement Demolition: Complete etc.

The basement demolition is, as stated in the title, complete. We have a pump now that I have been assured will keep the basement dry during anything short of a Biblical flood. I’m trying to be optimistic about that.

The reconstruction will be in three phases. The first phase is wall reconstruction and painting which will start in about a week and take probably 5-7 days. Second phase is floor reconstruction which will take place at some point after the wall reconstruction and probably won’t take more than 2 days (if that). Third phase is unpacking which will start after the floors are done and take as long as it takes. I’m hoping that everything will be done by the end of October.

In other aspects of my life, the fatigue from my treatments is running roughshod. Last night I slept until I couldn’t sleep anymore and I’m still exhausted. I went downstairs to survey the wreckage and start making preliminary plans for reconstruction and that took all the energy I had. It’s really a good thing that I only have two more of these weekly treatments. I’ve missed two days of work this week and I’ll just have to see how I feel tomorrow.

It is enormously frustrating. I take stock of all the activities I’ve done over the last two days and the list is not long. At all. Somehow, though, I don’t have enough energy to do anything more and, while one part of my brain knows what is going on and understands, the other part of my brain will not shut up about how lazy I’m being.

As I believe I’ve mentioned, sometimes my brain is not particularly helpful.