Hubby-Man
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My poor hubby. He's so tired. He's doing upgrades at a bunch of branches. All last week he visited different branches at 9:00 pm (closing time) and did hands on stuff; then he came home and stayed up 'til sunrise checking data flow and writing programming code.

To be honest, I don't know what he is doing, but it involves 2 monitors and streams of text running up the screens. When the text stops moving, he types. Sometimes he stops the text mid-flow and types alot.
He seems to enjoy it.

When he's done, he goes to bed. He gets up around 1:00 pm, goes to Corporate and does his regular work. He comes home at 5, takes a "power nap" until dinner; then the whole thing starts over again.

Last night (Monday morning), something went wrong. He had to visit the offending branch at opening time to reboot the system or something. The branch opens at 5 am and is 35 miles from here.
Since 5 am was only 2 hours away, he just stayed awake. By the time he got home, he'd been awake for 22 hours. So he left a message with his boss explaining that he wouldn't be at Corporate today. At 8:30 his cell phone rang. The part-time IT guy needed some help. So my groggy hubby-man gave him tech support and went back to bed. A while later the phone rang again. I think it rang a third time. I'm not sure. I do remember my hubby saying, "Can't you put it on hold? You'll have to put it on hold. I've been awake for 22 hours. It will have to wait."

And my hubby almost never makes IT people wait. He's been there himself. He knows how much it sucks to have some higher-up tell you it'll have to wait because what they're doing is more important than what you're doing. Especially when the IT department consists of a handful of people.
There's the President of the IT department. The AS400 Goddess and Hubby-Man, Grasshopper (You learn quickly, grasshopper... Soon you will be a master), and one part-time guy. These 5 people (and any assistants the AS400 Goddess has) are the glue that holds the network together. A network of 20+ branches and a resort/summer camp. Although the resort does have their own IT person on an outside contract.

The hubby-man has another week's worth of upgrades, and the whole house has switched to his sleeping schedule. I stay up 'til the birds sing; fetching drinks, rubbing his neck, and just sitting next to him so that he isn't working alone. I suppose that makes me a nice wife; but really, I couldn't see it any other way. Of course I'll be by his side. I fit there nicely.

So I've been told I have to blog...

I have so much to say, that I'm not sure where to begin. Consider this a catch-up entry.

After much heartbreak, we withdrew L from CBC. It's a fabulous school. It was his home. And he didn't step up and work for it. He failed his favorite class All year long.
It breaks my heart because the school was such a perfect fit for him. And he couldn't or wouldn't turn in assignments. He had real friends. For the first time ever. Not just acquaintances. I'm so sad.

We really broke our budget paying for CBC. Because I'd cut my foot, I was temporarily disabled. The made me really depressed. It took an act of intervention from my friend Amy before I saw it. Gee. No wonder I wasn't getting hired for the jobs I applied for.
By the end of the school year, our credit cards were maxed out - we were bouncing checks every pay period - and I was on anti-depressants.

Don't get me started on the anti-depressants. I hate unnecessary medicine. But you know what? My periods have become regular. I feel like myself again. And best of all, my mitral valve prolapse symptoms have decreased dramatically. That alone makes it worth it.

Now if only I could finish regrowing the nerves in my foot. Which leads to the story of how I almost killed 3 people.
I get sporadic random pains in the "numb" part of my foot. This is because the nerves are growing and making connections and testing themselves out. The sensations aren't always pain (sometimes it tickles or feels like warm water trickling down my toe) but they're always intense. Sometimes overwhelmingly so. When this happens, I kind of fade out of reality. I keep going, my brain isn't recording anything.
So there I was, driving down the highway... There was construction up ahead. I knew it was coming in a couple of miles. And then there was pain in my foot.
And then, there were all these construction vehicles and a cop car 500 yards in front of me. They weren't moving, and I was cruising at 60 miles an hour.
I slammed on my brakes and stopped about 50 feet from the cop. Screeching tires and everything. The cop signaled for me to pull over. Which I did. Thinking, "I'm so busted. My driver's license is expired. The tags are out of date. I haven't even paid for the inspection. I wonder what jail is like?"
The cop was just as rattled as I was. I had no explanation for phasing out like that, and I was in shock over the thought that I could have killed my son, a police officer, and (oh yeah,) myself too.
I gave the officer my expired license and my up-to-date insurance card, and he let me go; telling me to pay better attention. He didn't even say anything about my license or tags. Like I said, he was rattled. I feel bad about scaring him.

Now, about my hubby. He has degenerative disk disease in his c6 and c7 vertebrae. He has chronic pain. He takes percoset and valium to help. Normally, he refills every 6 months (when he could refill at 3) and gets rid of the old stuff. But this spring, he almost ran out before it was time for a refill. So he talked to our doctor and got a tens unit. It's an electrical stimulation device for therapy.
Oh. My. God. It works so well! AND it works on my foot! When the nerve pain is excruciating, I put a lead on the ball of my foot and another on my heel, and it completely blocks the pain! GONE! Until I take the leads off.

Also, the hubby-man had a little zit on his face. A few days later, it was a mole. Within a week or so, it was a mole with crusty white stuff on the end, like dead skin. Only it was hard like a finger nail.
It wasn't a zit or a mole, it was keratoacanthoma. Cancer of a hair follicle.
Let me say that again, because I know it sounds insane. Hair follicle cancer. A single hair follicle can become a tumor. Wow. Who knew?
He had it removed by a plastic surgeon, and there's no worries. Apparently, people with heavy acne scarring or sun damage can get this. It happens more in men, and it usually happens after a trauma -like nick themselves shaving. Weird.