I've missed ALL OF YOU more than I can say, I honestly have. You never realize how much you miss people, dear friends even though you've never actually met them in the flesh face to face, until you're cut off from 'talking' to them. I can truly say I've thought about each and all of you just about every day if not more.
Quickie update, One Woman's Life Chapter MCXXVIII:
When last reported, I was still working at Laytonsville Vol. Fire Dept. as Office Manager, or trying to despite multiple physical conditions, even though the working (i.e. sitting at a desk 8+ hrs a day, plus the crap I'd get from some of the Board members, my "supervisors") only made the physical parts worse. Finally I went down to the Montgomery County Govt. Human Resources & filed for Disability Retirement, this time for good. For some reason - perhaps a sense of panic, perhaps a sense of escaping - I went home & never went back to my office again. Just boom! Gone, Baby. Excuses were not a problem, as I had some 5 specialists to take my pick of as far as medical orders to stay home were concerned, not to mention my Primary, so I just called my boss & told him I was going to be Out for the rest of my life. Ciao. What could he do?
Of course, for the two hours I'd been in early in the am that day, I did try to put some order to things to help as much as possible. But then, I didn't try too hard, because after all, Geoff the Treasurer (nominally my direct supervisor, although he couldn't balance his way out of a paper bag, let alone a checkbook & budget) had gone about bragging some months previously that he'd "learned [my] job in a few hours one day", soooooo...I let him have it.
Oh yeah: and before I left for HR & Freedom, I re-programmed the department's new Minolta copier so all the words in the various operations & frames were in Chinese.
Not that it altered the sequence of the things to push, those stayed the same, but if someone didn't remember, or got thrown off by the Chinese instead of legible English choices, well ....
See? I do have a sense of humor after all. I haven't asked, but I do wonder how long it took them to figure out how to reprogram it back to English, or whether they had to call the tech out to do it for them since even the simplest operations involving our copiers have always stymied them flat for some reason.
Since then I've been preparing to move down to Bristol, TN sometime in the future, when the MC Occupational Medical Board has weighed the 700-odd pages of medical records I submitted & passed judgement on my fitness for Disability Retirement. I also appealed my Soc Sec. rejection (I hadn't been out of work - at home sick, that is, for the requisite 6 months) & have a date sometime in the upcoming future with the Judge of Disability Appeals in Baltimore, which means I'd better get me a lawyer. I've been 'helped' along in this by Montgomery County abruptly announcing that effective Dec. 30th all Admin positions for all the fire depts. (which are technically tax-supported but independent corporations) were being riffed. The County DFRS Fire Chief announced this on Dec. 24th, then skedaddled for Xmas so there was no one for the unwary Admins in the other corporations to call or get details from. A weeks' notice for them. Nice, huh? Happy Holidays from The Suits.
I had seen it coming. After all, the County had been trying to eviscerate the corporations & bring them to abject heel for the 21+ years I'd been there, if not well before I started. In any event, having filed for Disability previous to the announcement, I'm the sole exception. They can't do anything to me until the Occ Med Board decides my case or I run out of leave, whichever comes first. But I do pity from the depths of my being the rest of us who weren't so lucky as I am. I sent a very emphatic email to the county exec & council pointing out that this action only punished 20 decent, innocent, hard-working men & women whose only 'crime' had been to be working for the LFRDs (corporations), and who had not been the parties involved in various political opposition issues, etc.; that they weren't partisan - they couldn't afford to be - they just kept their heads down & did their work while the LFRDs waged Issues war with the Exec.; yet those who had opposed the Exec's proposals, the LFRD Boards, were untouched except for a little political humiliation, but they still had their own private jobs, houses, incomes, and this was biting off the noses of the Admins to spite the faces of the Boards. Needless to say, it wouldn't do anything but piss them off, & they'd be back, stronger & more determined than ever, while the poor Admins were the ones who would suffer. It is unjust, unfair, unethical, and just plain not right. I called on him/them to do the right, decent thing, consider it from the point of view of decent human beings, and either rescind the directive or find these people places elsewhere in the system, not just toss them out on the streets because they had the bad luck to be working for the LFRDs, although paid with County tax funds. I pointed out their familiarity with County reports, the Budget process, administration, etc. & that they were all very valuable resources the County could ill afford to lose or jettison, they were versatile, and could easily make the transition to other departments and positions within the County. I even offered if it would help to go down to the Exec Suites, get on my knees, & beg or grovel to their hearts' content if that would help my unfortunate fellows. Haven't heard back from the Exec or Councillors yet, but then, it's only been a few days - not quite a week. I'm sure I will, because knowing How Things Work, I also cc'd said email all over the County, to every department, every level, as well as to the Admins themselves & the LFRD Boards, not to mention the Washington Post, Gazettes, and WTOP News Radio. Just for good measure, you understand, to ensure my message didn't get 'lost' in various Junk Mail sections of the principals' emails.
After all, whad're they gonna do - fire me?
Anyway, I can always flourish the RIF order at the Appellate Judge as proof that while I may not have been off work for 6 months, I certainly will be in future, which hopefully will create an exemption from the 6-month rule. If not *eh* I move down to Bristol & re-file again from there.
Somebody up there loves me, though: when I discussed the matter of finding a condo or one-floor small house to buy, Cindy (my ex-roomie who lives in Bristol whose family has 'adopted' me) told me her mother said she'd sell me her condo. OMG! This condo is a small 2-BR 1.5 bath on the ground floor of a small 2-floor building, on top of one of the highest hills (mountains?) in Bristol. I park in front & walk all of 6 feet in to my front door. If I keep on walking, through the minute hall entranceway & decent sized living room, I emerge onto a deck that overlooks the Tennessee mountains, while off in the distance I get to hear the sound of cows, roosters, etc. Wild turkeys stalk the brush & woods below the deck. The ground at the back of the building falls away steeply - I mean, like, down, as only the hills in them there parts do (if you've ever seen them, you know what I mean; for those who haven't, the hills of Eastern TN are sort of sudden. They abruptly rise out of the ground, kind of like Dolly Parton's boobs). The condo fee is a pittance compared with my condo here, & covers trash & water as well. I'm already very familiar with the layout, etc. having stayed there many a time in years past.
I should be able to buy it outright & then some when I sell this condo, which should get far more than the other condos in this area, because when my unit was being designed, I had several very unique features custom built into the floor plan, the biggest selling point being a 12 x 8 walk-in closet lined with shelving & clothes hanging poles, hidden behind what appears to be a double built-in bookcase (it really does hold books) which is actually a pair of swinging doors classically framed in white moulding if you know where to pull to open them. Very few people ever realize it isn't a bookcase - until I open it, when they generally jump at the unexpected storage room like it was a snake. As far as I know, this is the only condo in the entire world with storage space. Planned storage space. And hidden. I should be able to also pay off my car, have vinyl faux-wood flooring replace the carpeting (I have cats, remember. Vinyl is way easier to clean), get new to-the-ceiling, glass-fronted cabinets with an over the stove microwave installed in the kitchen, & still have a bit left to buy a new Captain's bed (the bed base has drawers along it's whole width & length), TV & cabinet for the living room, and possibly a faux fireplace with gas-burning fire & 'real' logs. Oh yeah: and replace the tub with a jacuzzi. Just climb in & turn into melted butterrrrr.... Being HP, I may have difficulty getting out - but that's OK, I'd rather stay immured in the jacuzzi anyway. Who wants to get out of a hot, relaxing jacuzzi? I don't. Best of all, this condo is only 1.5 miles as the car crawls from where Cindy & her mom live, about the same from her cousins (& also my friends) Susan & Clyde, slightly more to her Aunt Penny's, Aunt Reveley & Uncle Carl my rook-playing buddies, and so on, while her other uncles & aunts (her mom was one of an old mountain family of 12 kids) over in N. C. are only a few hours' drive, & also know me well enough I can drop in for a visit if I want, tho I usually go with Cindy & her mom since I do NOT do mountains while driving if I can at all avoid it.
Well, they do say God takes care of fools & innocents. I may not be the latter, but I surely qualify for the former.
So I'm busy culling out books, clothes, pots, pans, etc. in between lying back in the recliner keeping my feet up per doctors strict orders (such a hardship!) watching my DVDs & knitting, crocheting, or making doll stuff. I've just finished sorting & packing in their rolling plastic storage towers all my yarns & fabrics. Good Lord! I could open up my own branch of Joanne's. And I got a parting gift from the career personnel (not the volunteers I nominally worked for) I worked with at the station every day of a generous gift card to Joanne's Fabrics, so I can go stock up even more before I go, because down there they have no Joanne's, AC Moore, Michaels, & Gawd knows no G Street Fabrics. It's a wasteland fabric & yarn-wise, that I know of, and coming back up here to stock up is sort of a long commute to go shopping for fabrics, being an 8-hour drive. In good weather & no tie ups in traffic along Rte 81, even.
Other than that, I've lost another 40 +/- lbs. My clothes hang most deliciously, & I'm enjoying it before I break down & buy new ones before the old ones just fall off. My two eldest kitties have terminal renal failure, but the vet told me 2 years ago they were terminal & they're still chugging along. Some days as with all of us, me included, are better than others, but they seem to be handling it pretty well, eating, drinking, even jumping up on the bed or counters so I'm not ordering any caskets yet.
The Girls (my Limwha Bella & Supia Ollie) are not talking to me, since I've been too occupied to make them anything significant to wear, and they've already been seen in the tacky old rags they already have. The guys are more laid back & less demanding, especially now they've got their shoes, jeans, & various shirts & sweaters I knitted them. I think perhaps I may start selling off some of the Girls' wardrobe. I had to move all the outfits out of my master BR closet into the big walk in closet, there were so many. At least I have someplace to put MY stuff nowadays. This is the problem when your kids - my Girls in my case - are spoiled rotten & insist they can only wear an ensemble once or twice, then never again because it's "passe"; last season's rags. Jeesh!
So that's it for the moment. More than you ever wanted to know, but I haven't been able to communicate online for some time, so forgive the length & nattering on & on. I won't ask forgiveness for future natterings, since that's my nature.
Whatever, I'm SO glad to be able to 'talk' to you all again. I love you dearly, & missed you sorely. It's good to be back again.
PS - Happy B-day, everybody I missed while away, & esp. Zirc Mmd.
It's good to have you back!! <3<3<3
