Traveling for work this week. So far Windsor looks like the inside of every crummy hotel I have ever stayed in. See, e.g., this post. Outside, I crossed a 4-lane road populated almost entirely by semi-tractors to pick up the copies for the meeting this morning. (I volunteered for this duty; at least it was a walk.)
If you were talking with me on skype this afternoon -- before the hotel internet started blinking in and out -- this is what you saw. Minus the phone of course; and occasionally minus the smile.
Tonight at dinner Liam said, apropos of nothing I could fathom: "Mommy, do you know what I used to think you did at work all day?"
"What did you think?"
"I used to think that you were at your desk and you moved a lever back and forth all day." (Imagine Liam, in his chair, holding both hands out in front of him and pushing them out and back vigorously, like he is rapidly operating a stubborn railway switch or something.)
"Well, what do you think I do now?"
"Oh, you know, you read your email, and type on your computer, and talk on your telephone, and go to meetings."
That about covers it. Although days like today the lever idea doesn't sound too bad. Imagine how cute my upper arms would look in sundresses?
How I love that child and what a privilege it is to see him unfold.
He had a big day today, one of the other school parents, a neighbor, brought him home from school because I was at a meeting for work and couldn't be here to pick him up and turn him over to the late-afternoon babysitter like I usually do. His first time ever going somewhere with someone who is not mother, auntie, or grandmother/grandfather. Ever. He was so very nervous about it and he did so very well.
He needs a lot of reinforcement to make sure he knows exactly how it will work. For a week we have been reviewing: Mrs. G will take you home, Kiley (the babysitter) will be here, Mommy will be home for dinner just like a regular day. But if I can help him prepare and work through his fears ahead of time, the actual event can be a non-event. Worth remembering.
Monday: power outage for16 hours. It started sometime Sunday night. For some reason the alarm on Will's oxygen concentrator didn't go off. It's supposed to alarm (it is God-awful-loud) when it loses power because, well, you know, it can't deliver oxygen anymore and it needs to notify someone to DO SOMETHING. Well. It didn't. I woke up around 2:30 AM to Liam crying "it's too dark; it's too dark" and was snapped out of my stupor when I realized what had happened. Tear ass downstairs to switch to the big back up tank. Do this first. Then check on Will. He is fine. He had woken up and hooked up the small tank I put in his room in case the power ever were to go out while I was at work. Jeeze. I don't really need that much adrenaline at 2:30 AM. It also took forever to calm Liam down. By Monday at 4:00 PM we finally packed up the dinner we had planned to cook at our house and took it to Will's parents house to cook there. I remember the guacamole and forget the chips. Really. I drive to the store. Again.
Tuesday: I was still grumpy from the power outage. Really. Couldn't. Quite. Shake. Grumpy. Liam has a fever (this actually started Monday night), runny nose, and is developing a head-turning cough. He is grumpy too. We are grumpy together and with each other. No one is sleeping well. Work is full of drama that I could do without.
Wednesday: Liam is sick. Will is getting sick (sore throat). I have to drive 300 plus miles east of the mountains for work. Luckily there is no snow. I am the biggest cry-baby about driving in the snow. It is embarrassing. Will's father is traveling and so am I, so there is no obvious person to drive Will to the hospital in case he gets sicker and has to go. It is good to have extra things to worry about.
Thursday: Killer-long day of work with a group that takes a lot out of me. Then, the drive home. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful in the mountains. I start to think I might calm down some and salvage this week after all. Will doesn't get a fever and decides he has a little cold but really doesn't feel much worse than usual. Okay. Liam develops a cough that sounds like he is a seal with TB. But, we think his fever is gone and he'll be able to go to school on Friday.
Friday: Liam has a fever and so can't go to school. He goes to Will's mother (again, she is a saint). I work. In-between trying to get just one thing done I have to have 3 separate phone calls with the oxygen delivery people. Why this is so hard to arrange I will never understand. The delivery truck finally arrives just as I am running out the door to get to a call with clients. The O2 man wants to discuss things. I about lose it. Then, I drop my laptop face down, like a pancake on the kitchen floor and destroy the screen. (Data, thank God, turns out to be fine.) I leave the O2 man to figure things out on his own. I call the office and explain to the person I work on this project with that I need the call-in number because I can't see my calendar anymore because my laptop is destroyed. I call our computer person and explain it to her. Everyone is nice. Then, I drive up to the city to attend our yearly post-holiday-work-open-house-party-thing because, you know, it is what must be done. And I have to pick up my new laptop anyway. Will's mother keeps Liam.
Today: we sleep in a little. It is sunny (thank God). We do Liam's favorite outside chores: pick up dog poop ("There's poop right there Mommy. Right there. Right. There.") and fill the bird feeders. Red winged blackbird in the yard today along with the usual assortment or sparrows, chickadees, and the hummingbirds. I take Liam to the doctor and am told that his lungs are clear (thank God again), and he might have a sinus-type infection, and antibiotics are probably a good idea, but don't worry. Liam is so well-behaved at the doctor’s office it is a thing to behold. After the doctor listens to his lungs, Liam says "thank you."
So, we’re on an upswing. I am amazingly behind at work and will have to figure out what to do about that. Will has pulmonary clinic on Monday, so that will be another day mostly off to drive him there and go to the appointments. We’ll figure it out. The days are longer now. We gain a little bit of light, just a little, every day and it is enough to notice it now.
As I came over the mountains east to west on Thursday night I chased the setting sun. It would duck and drop behind the ridges, but then I would come up around a corner and the horizon would open up just a little and there would be the light again, sky pale yellow-green-blue moving up to deeper blue, pale gray clouds reflecting the somewhere sunset with a pink-orange fringe. I followed it all the way over Blewett Pass, down Snoqualmie, and it wasn’t until I was over Tiger Mountain and back into the city that it got well and truly dark. Tonight we had alpenglow on Mount Rainier bright enough that Will called it out for me to look at.
It is reported that Liam had a good day at the zoo with Grandpa DH and Will, although some of the animals were on strike and couldn't be seen. Particularly owls and polar bears. Luckily Liam already knows all about polar bears as documented here and here.
This is the photo in which Liam looks like his daddy:
This is the photo in which Liam looks like his mama (who also can get pretty excited at the prospect of ice cream):
I will spare you a photo of my new crappy hotel room. One airplane ride and 300 miles of driving and. . .what appear to be exactly the same atrocious drapes as the last place. Oh well, at least Wenatchee offers the prospect of bringing home crates of fresh cherries and apricots and who knows what else on Friday evening.
Will reports that he feels "significantly" better. Will is the understated type, especially when it comes to good news, so this equates roughly to shouting from the rooftops, I think. He was up before 8AM this morning and done with his breathing treatments and out working on the patio by 10:00. Tomorrow he and his father will take Liam to the zoo. (I hope they take pictures, and if they do I will post some.) This is wonderful and we hope very much that it lasts, well, forever.
My work travel is what it is. Today Hanford, tomorrow Hanford then Wenatchee, Thursday and Friday Wenatchee, and then Friday night home. Many miles to smallish towns in not so many days: it's what I imagine working in sales is like, or something. I am tired tonight and unhappy because we lost an important bid today, and even thought we lost it (I think) based in part on the competition having recently hired a former political appointee and all that blah, blah, there are always excuses, still, damn, I need to win these things.
I leave you with a photo of my crappy hotel room. I think this is exactly the same crappy hotel room I had when I was here 2 weeks or so ago. Same desk light that doesn't work and same phone message light that is broken (flicker, flicker, but no message). While I'm sure it's has some nice features, and the work has merit, on balance, I really don't like Richland; it's the city my father died in and I hate coming here. Tomorrow -- on to Wenatchee with no more whining, I promise.
He spent today with Will's parents and Will's mother reports that he crept up very carefully to the bird feeders and gently touched a pine siskine on the tail. (It hopped to a different perch.) Something about this must have made a big impression on him, because when I got home from Hanford today he told me "buh, buh" which is his "word" for bird. Sweet baby, I love it when he tells me about his days.
Will is sicker and has said he will call the doctors tomorrow. He had another fever today and his oxygen saturation and lung functions are down. Hopefully it won't lead to hospitalization.
My work week: regular office, regular office, Hanford (14 hour day), regular office, Hanford.
Next week: regular office (or maybe Seattle), regular office, Wenatchee overnight, Wenatchee then home (14 hour day), Bellingham (14 hour day).
After my lovely trip to Ephrata on Tuesday, I got to go to SeaTac on Wednesday (for a meeting), and (joy!) to Hanford today (via SeaTac) (for another meeting). That's about 650 miles of driving (plus the airplane ride!) in 3 days, for those keeping score on their own.
I'm very happy to be safe at home with Liam tucked into his own bed for a change, and looking forward to my more typical 2 mile "commute." And some sleep. Photos tomorrow, I hope.
Ephrata is a small town in Eastern Washington that I drove to today (for work). Two hundred and fourteen miles (give or take) each way. That's 424 total. It wasn't a bad drive, I like being up early. I was glad the sun came up when I was just over the top of Snoqualimie Pass because it was snowing to get all out and daylight made that a lot easier. But, that and the deadly and nervous-making Highway 18 was the worst of the driving, the rest was easy. And the work part went fine too.
I brought the camera to take a picture, but it ran out of batteries immediately, so, no photos. This picture is from the Chamber of Commerce page (and by Bill Carrell).
Liam's cold/ear infection/eye infection all seem to be on the mend. He's still really stuffy (and pretty dry too, we have the humidifier turned up to full tonight and started running it in his room before his bath); I think he'll be back to full-tilt soon. Will thinks he is getting a cold, or something. He had a small fever this afternoon and feels congested and sore-throated. He's considering starting Colistin, just to keep anything bacterial at bay while his immune system works on whatever virus he has. At least neither of us has pink eye, yet, knock wood.
Liam seems to be on the new-word-a-day plan. Today's words were: "Ollie" (from these delightful books), "Abby" (name of my parents' absent cat, he says this perfectly), and, maybe, "egg." There is no rhyme or reason to it. I've noticed that as he's become more interested in talking he gets really frustrated if he's trying to say something and I don't understand it and repeat it back wrong---which is the case 25-30% of the time. This happened today on the way home from my parents' house and resulted in screaming, fist clinching, feet kicking, turning red, and throwing the music toy across the car. Lovely.
let's see, where to start. Monday, honestly, I can't even remember a single thing about Monday, except going to the grocery store at 9:30 PM after Liam was finally asleep to get milk because we were out and needed it for the AM. And Will made pea soup. Tuesday Liam spent his first morning at the nanny-share family. I guess it wasn't a total disaster, but close. Liam cried all morning. For 30 minutes straight after I left at 8:30 AM and then on and off until I arrived to pick him up at 12:15 PM. (He was sniffling when I arrived.)
So, the nanny-share family is a little put off, I guess, by us. Today Liam had his second morning there, and Will went with him to try to ease the transition. Will said Liam cried some, but also played pretty well with the other child and the nanny. They were supposed to go back tomorrow, but I got a phone message from the nanny-share family mother about what a hard day Liam had had and how she thought we should take tomorrow off. So, it remains to be seen whether we have been un-invited from the nanny share. I guess I'll call them later.
Tomorrow is my all day mandatory work retreat in Seattle. It's pouring down rain and has been for about 24 hours; can't wait to see what that does to traffic!
I tried to capture Liam experimenting with what he can and cannot do on the stairs. Besides working on going up and down (this is the only circumstance in which he will voluntarily hold hands), he will get on his knees and put his hands out and then wheelbarrow out, put his feet down, then back up, then go backwards. I used to take pilates back when I had a life of my own, and I think that kind of stuff is pretty hard. Liam seems just curious about it. What does the nanny-share family know, anyway; we think he's fine just the way he is.
Will was nice enough to take Mollie and Liam to the park for about a hour this morning during one of our sunny patches. I've been getting my butt kicked by a bid/proposal at work (hence posting at this hour after sending the almost final draft to our co-proposer who happens to be in Seoul this week which is, I've learned, 18 hours ahead of Seattle. (I think the easiest way to figure this is add one day and then subtract 6 hours from whatever time it is right now.) Grandpa DH and GG are very nicely taking Liam for most of tomorrow so I can go in to the office and finish the bid (let's hope!) and catch up all some of the stuff I was supposed to work on Thursday and Friday when I was working on the bid instead.
all fine; just a very hectic few days. I had to be up north 2 days in a row and that's always a mess because I have to leave early and it usually means I'm in the type of meetings that I have to be cleaned up and prepared for, and I get home late. On Monday, Liam and I left the house at 7:00 for a quick stop at my office to rescue the computer, then to Grandpa DH and GGs house to drop Liam off, then into traffic for me. I got to the office at 9:30, left at 4:15, had an incredibly frustrating stop at Costco to pick up a cake for today's meeting, got to Grandpa DH and GG's (late, I hate being late) at about 6:20ish, and home around 6:50ish or 7:00. (With dinner from GG; thanks! We really will forget how to cook around here.)
Liam decided to refuse his first bedtime and played and ran around until 8:20 where after an epic battle and 20 minutes of rocking, he finally went to sleep. He was up at 5:30 this morning and told me (by making the baby-sign for milk) that he was hungry and so had half a bowl of cereal, half a piece of toast, grapes and milk all before 6:00 AM. After that, it was pretty much the same schedule minus the trip to Costco. Meeting today was in the meeting rooms at REI. Man, there is a lot of really neat camping and hiking gear out in the world; a person could spend a lot of money buying that type of stuff. The meeting rooms at REI are really pretty as these sorts of things go, the cake was just fine, and Liam was asleep by 7:30 tonight. Everything is starting to wind down towards a normal schedule day tomorrow. . .thank God.
Will reports that he's still not feeling well, although he did go rowing today. (It sounds like it wasn't much fun, though.) His air compressor thing for his nebulized saline treatment melted down on Sunday, so he's working with the transplant team to try to get a prescription for a new one. And, of course, there's the whole CMV thing looming. . .hopefully when he gets blood drawn next Monday we'll find it's getting better.
PS---And I still haven't finished the tomatoes or got the Halloween lights up. Oh the hazards of starting anything these days. . ..
My company takes everyone to a baseball game once a year, so Will and Liam and I stopped by last night. Liam was good with all the new people and with the crowd, very smiley and happy to be the center of attention. He wasn't much interested in watching the game, which is strange because he so likes to throw things. He slept in the car both going to and going home -- so that was perfect. I was happy Will decided to come with us, often he's not wild about crowds and lots of people (not to mention public food) because of his immune suppression, but so far so good, no fever or anything this morning so all the hand washing must have worked! Don't forget, Will turns 40 next week. He'd probably love to hear from you on this remarkable and unexpected birthday!
Head to toes, not sleeping. All cleaned up, bathed, in PJs, fed, teeth brushed and rocked, but 8:00 pm and not even close to sleep. We'll try again later. Will took care of Liam for the better part of the day today, in the morning while I worked in the office upstairs and this afternoon while I worked in the office downtown. They went for a stroller walk all over downtown and visited a park and fountain. Liam is fascinated with other children -- his most reliable baby sign is the sign for "baby."
Most of these were gifts, honestly. Although I do admit to some sort of unusual and (must have been) hormone-driven buying spree shortly before Liam was born and then again right after I went back to work full time when Liam was about 6 weeks old. What a post to follow the sermon on the "Story of Stuff" from Saturday. We try, but are far from perfectly thoughtful consumers, especially where Liam is concerned. Most of the toys I bought are just now getting any play time, having been, generally, way too much for a 6 week old, let alone a newborn! Maybe I'll try to take individual photos of some of the favorites soon, if my picture taking ever gets any better.
We sucked it up and finally made a decision about our company insurance this morning. We decided to continue, basically, with what we have and just shoulder the cost increase for 1 more year. This gives people time to explore options for switching doctors, and make arrangements for their ongoing care, before we go to a single-provider this time next year. (Right now we offer employees a choice between Regence/Blue Cross and Group Health plans; next year we'll choose one or the other, or a different provider, and we'll all be covered under the same plan.) The good news is that Will can keep all his doctors and that the substance of the insurance isn't changing much; our amount of coverage is decreasing (again) from 90% covered to 80% covered, and the deductibles and the out-of-pocket maximums are all going up too, but the basic system remains the same. (Between the higher stop loss and the higher deductible, I think it will be about a $2000 annual increase in exposure for us, if I'm doing the math right.)
Either of the single-provider plans we were considering would have put us in a bigger pool, would have been significantly less expensive, both out of pocket and for the company, and would have provided more coverage; but we have people who are facing serious health situations (besides Will) who were committed to seeing things through with their current doctors in one plan or another. So, we buy another year and face this again next summer. Either way, I'm glad to have this decision made and behind us, since the stress and anxiety over it was starting to really get to me. The answer that was clearly right for my family was just as clearly wrong for other families who also are in complicated situations -- it felt like an impossible choice. Even though it will mean the company will have to cut spending in other ways next year, I'm glad we were able to see our way clear to stick with two plans and keep all the employees with the doctors and insurance company they trust, for now.
Please, please -- as we move into election season, think about health care when you vote. We pay so much for so little in this country compared to others, it's remarkable. I'm far from an expert on this, but according to the Congressional Research Service, which looked at information from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), we spend more money per capita on health care than any other OECD country, generally, more than double what other countries spend. For this huge investment, we consume less actual care, we have fewer average hospitalizations and many fewer than average doctors visits. And, we don't have any significantly better health outcomes, in fact, our life expectancy is slightly lower than the average of OECD countries and we have the third highest rate of deaths from medical errors. Get the actual numbers here. (The OECD is a collection of 30 democracies generally the wealthiest countries, so the US, Japan, most of the European countries, etc.)
Long days at work this week and numerous evening dramas and commitments already. In the good news department: Will had an uneventful appointment with his infectious disease doc on Monday, his blood was retested and the white and red counts are both back in the normal range. So, that's good for now. We'll see what the virology shows when it comes back next week. In the meantime, this is Liam and Will during slower days, about this time last year. My Liam has grown!
I'm traveling for work this week -- all week. We're lucky that I have a good job, and we get a lot of help from our parents taking care of Liam while I'm working, but it's crummy to have to travel. On the bright side, I've finally given in and begun to use one of those rolling suitcases. What a difference. I always, always carry too much work stuff -- papers I think I might want to read, computer, extra battery, etc., etc.. So much better to be dragging my rolling suitcase instead of carrying my (way too heavy) work bag AND another bag. I got my rolling suitcase second hand from my mother. Thanks mom!
I've been having airplane woes lately -- late flights, delayed flights, you know how it goes. Also more frightening stuff. One small plane hit a bird a few months ago and had to return home and land (I missed that meeting). A big plan I was on last month had to do a "go around" on landing (which means some kind of really steep take off just when you thought you were going to---finally---be on the ground) because there was already a plane on the runway it was meant to land on. Last nights' little plane took the strangest route I've ever seen to this place (I'm in Eastern Washington) and then went over and all around the little airport and then turned and turned and finally went in for a bumpy landing. (Maybe they had to go to the other side because of wind, but it didn't seem that windy.)
It's been a knock down, drag out week at work for me, but I hope to catch everyone up on all the news this weekend. In the meantime, all the crafty, designy, parenting-type blogs I tend to look at seem to have posted photos of strawberries lately, so I thought I'd post mine. We ate a huge number of strawberries over the past month and put even more in the freezer for winter. Will loves strawberries with Brown Cow whole milk yogurt. Liam loves strawberries any way he can get them. Of course, strawberry season officially ended here last Friday and we're (almost, any day now!) on to raspberries. Typical of my hectic life that I get my strawberry pictures up when the season is already over!
Will is still feeling crummy and is more and more congested, so he may be headed back to the hospital for more IV antibiotics in the weeks to come. Or, back to the colistin (which he hates). Or something. We are hoping he starts to feel better soon. Hoping, hoping, hoping.
This is the photo in which Liam looks like his mama (who also can get pretty excited at the prospect of ice cream):
