So I had an appointment at Craig in a couple weeks, but they called and in the process of the "waddya want to do / need while your here" questions the "Do you have any pressure sores?" came up. I told of the dime sized one on my ass, and instantly they did not want anything to do with me. Why? Because I'd be up alot while there and there was a definate possibility of making it worse. Nevermind sitting in the car without a cusion for 16 hours to get there, and 16 to get back. That would prolly screw me up more than anything else as that long without a cusion under an already unhappy ass would definately cause problems.
So I'm going out on the 19th of December. Be there for a week, yup, over christmas, but holidays haven't ever meant much to me as I was usually working or playing or something on them instead of going to a place where I could pay someone to pray for me. (See if you can find the link to the "secret" archives...)
Anyway, they say there's less people there, and that's fine with me. More attention from the re-eval folks when they're not all harried trying to get a zillion people through the door. Prolly lotsa traffic tho, here and there... And apparently no place to stop in Glenwood Springs anymore either. I am planning to stop at The Memorial however as I believe I have a connection to those guys. Be nice to have a walk around, but it's not the first time I've wished that. Prolly going to freeze my ass off but the van (so I'm told) has a heater. Haven't tried it, been too busy usin' the ass outta the AC here the last few weeks. Only got to 85 today, but I still didn't go outside.

Made a "pooperscooper" thismorning for Tina (yes, the one who looks like Jool) to use over at a wildlife preserve when cleaning the wallaby cages. I think a wallaby's a small kangaroo, but I haven't ever seen one. They're kept in a building there and there's 2 steps on it, effectively keeping me out. Anyway, the design called for a flat mouth shovel with the blade cut out and replaced with a 1/2" grate of 1/8th inch steel round stock. So I used the plasma cutter and my welder to make one. Welds totally look horrible, but they'll work. I'd been playin' around trying to weld aluminum and had to change the machine back over to steel.... I think if I do that too many more times I'm just gonna get another gun and cable setup for the machine as it's kind of a bitch to change the liner. (The liner's where the welding wire goes, and if I use the same liner for Al and steel, the Al wire will get contaminated and not work well, so I have to change it out every time I switch. Takes about 20 minutes.) If I have another gun and cable, it's one thumbscrew and an electrical quick-connect, change the spool and I'm done. Much easier, but is it worth the (prolly) hundred bucks? I dunno. We'll see if I can afford it once I get used to morgage payments. I hope to god the electric bill goes down in the new house... It's gotta, as here it was $250 this month with the big (whole house) AC set on 80 and my little bedroom one set on 76. Aaaaannnnnd a few computers prolly pulling a kilowatt-hour all together. Who knows really waht the bills will be over there tho... It's not like I can call the fix-it dude every time something breaks and it's free anymore.
Oh yeah, that place doesn't have a fridge, so donations will be gladly accepted.

So I move here in a month or so. Still don't know how the hell I'm gonna pull that off... A few friends have offered to help, but it's pretty much up to me to pack up all my bullshit. An added chore in movin' into a house 1/3rd as big as this one is to get rhid of all the chaff... So the garbage pickers are gonna be happy as I'm gonna chick some usefull if-I-had-time type stuff, or those things I've been hangin' onto coz they're cool but not really useful for anything but decorating an ecletic wall. I dunno how I'm going to do it all, go to school, and heal a sore that I sit on when I'm up... Can't get up I can't move, get up and perhapse get a stage 3 or (cringe) 4 decubitus. Now's the time I could really use some "paid around the house" type help, but OWCP will pay, one way or another. $200 a month for help, or a one time fee (this time) of $75,000 for surgery if this thing gets worse. What would you pick?

So I try to do what I can. Unfortunately the local Safeway(s) have gotten wise to my milk-crate "liberation" schemes... They used to stack them behind the store in a location where it was "drive up service"... I could reach right out the window and get as many as the van could hold. made it a little exciting getting out of the thing when I got home, but I got my crates. Now however they park a pallet of crap in the way... I'd have to get out and make all kinds of noise, prolly get caught, and get fined $200 for each "non milk-guy" type use of a crate. With as many as I've got, that might get a little expensive. So that's best avoided. I don't really have the time for a search of the town for a 'nother source of crates, but I may have to do such a thing in order to get enough easily portable things in which to move all my ... things. 'Cource if I didn't have the couch propped up on 9 of the things I could use those, but then the kids would be likely to fall 'sleep under there and it's quite a bitch to get them out when they don't come when they're called. Baby was famous for that stunt, hence the crates in the first place. That couch may go to Goodwill however s it's a futon, and the "cusion" isn't cushy at all, and I think filled with lead. The frame's cool, but without the cusion it's useless... And i'm not able to make my own cusion. I think a nice sectional would work well, something that's soft and I can stretch out on. Can't spend all my time in bed relaxing and trying to heal. At only $2,000 it will be quite a while before one graces my house tho. Still, I'd rather one of those than a futon, as I only use the one I have to hold up papers and stuff.

Lotsa stuff tho, and only me to move it around. Nikki's in Flight Attendant school, and won't be home for 2 to 8 months. Her duty station is Baltimore right now, and we don't know when she'll be able to get a bit closer. Oakland, SF, Sacramento, Reno.... All would be easy as Alaska flys out of town here and they and Southwest are "friends" so she fly's free. But she's gone now so it's all on me. I told her it would be $300 to move all her stuff and $150 a month for storage, but she wouldn't go for it.

The kids are happy in their new cage, and I'm alot happier as well. They now run to the bottom and leave me "presents" rather than to the litterbox in the corner of the room... Makes them alot easier to clean up after. Now if I could just convince them that "looking" in the trashcans is ok, as long as you put everything back in after your done throwing it all over the place. Plants are another story... They REALLY like to dig, so all plants must either be secured or kept out of reach. I left a few Ice Cream Bean seedlings out a couple days ago... Thought hey'd be safe atop a milk-crate, and they were for a day, but then they were found by Reubin (I suspect, he's the new 'most devious' one) and the dirt was soon all over the floor. 5 minutes of digging = 30 minutes of cleaning for me. Yeah, I was a little pissed, but not knowing who the culprit was, I can't really punish anyone. Winter's going to be a different story as I'll have to bring in my Passiflora Quadrangulari, as they'll die if exposed to below 50's temps. There will be some lessons to be had as obviously digging those guys up will not be allowed.
Herbie doesn't live in the cage- he's got his own "house" as he's too old to do any damage to anything save tipping over his water dish. He scared me a few days ago... I found him passed out in the hall. I got some pedialite in him and some sugar (he's got hypoglycemia and can die if his blood sugar's not kept up) and he's doing well again, happily following me around the house like a little dog. He likes to sleep in discarded clothes and plastic bags so I have to be carefull when doing the laundry. He wouldn't make it to the washer, but it's easy to drop him out of a shirt if I pick it up too quickly. He absolutely luvs frosted mini-wheats tho so it's easy to get some sugar into him.. Just give 'im a "treat". He thinks it's because he's being good or something but in reality it keeps his sugar up and him alive a little longer.

Ok, time to roll over and get the pressure off my ass for 3 or 4 hours while I sleep. It hurts alot, but it's better than an itch I can't scratch.