T Minus 12

WARNING: Graphic images.  Don't look if you don't want to see one really fucked up person.

Despite the fact that I'm sure I'll never make it, I'm posting 'before' pictures anyway hoping I can post 'after' pictures.

I know - how dramatic.

I'm so scared.

It's like climbing up the high dive for the first time.  There's a line of kids behind you so you can't go back down.  And you don't know what's going to happen after you jump off the board.

And you HAVE to jump.

Anyways.  Here is a 'before' picture.  Please disregard the sagging breasts.  I breast fed my daughter and just turned 49 yesterday, so I have somewhat of an excuse.

This is me, really trying to stand straight.

Really. 

I've been on a crutch resisting this surgery for 4 years.  I finally gave up.

Tomorrow at 9:15 I will receive two new knees.  Each knee will take approximately 1/2 hour to replace.  This Doctor only does spinals, and I can be as awake as I want.  I'm taking the amnesia pill.

For all of you who truly know me, if you post a comment, please keep any personal information about me to yourself.  If I want my million blog fans to know something about me, I'd like to be the one to let it out.

Like the fact that I have saggy breasts, I'm 15 pounds over weight and can't stand straight.  I'm removing nearly every shred of dignity to help just one person out there who might be as terrified as me and waiting WAY TO LONG to get this done.

Wish me luck.  I hope to post soon.

All I Want For Christmas Is Two New Knees Please

Surgery is December 5th.  Yikes!

It won't be Tree stuff, but I will try to blog about my progress for my family and anyone else out there who may be contemplating the surgery and wondering what happens.

Warning - pictures will not be for the faint of heart!

A Shelter For Easter

It is fast getting hot in Florida, so on Wednesday Retro Man decided to head up alone to Tree Ring to finish the Shelter.  

For all of my new blog fans (I know you're out there), here are some links showing the progress of the Shelter.

2009/12: We Need A Shelter 
2010/01: Off to the Woods - Finally! 
2010/02: The Camper's Final Resting Place 
2010/03: Tree Ring Time! 
2010/05: Another Small Step To A Shelter
2010/06: The Shelter Gets Some Legs 
2010/06: It Must Just Be Me 
2010/10: The Shelter Gets A Head(er) 
2010/12: We Have A List. We Just Have To Check It. 

To give you some perspective, here is an aerial view of Tree Ring.  The red dot marks the spot where the shelter is located.

Retro Man arrived around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, unpacked everything, and then it hailstormed for 3 hours.

Typical.

Wednesday night was filled with Chuck-Will's-Widow calls until 2 in the morning.  Turn your speakers up and check it out.

Note to self:  Put earplugs on your Country checklist.

On Thursday morning, instead of getting started, everything had to be dried out first.

 

Thursday night, the coyotes were howling.  This also lasted into the wee hours of the morning.  Check out Coyote1 on this page.

Friday, the Purlins went up.

Friday night was blessedly quiet.  The Sheriff must have written tickets to the critters for violating the noise ordinance.

**SNORT**

Saturday, the roof went on, and this is our new Shelter.

Nice.

It's 20 degrees cooler under there.  Just like we wanted.  And it's nice and dry when it rains too.

Retro Man had expected to return yesterday, but because he lost a day drying stuff out, he just came back this morning.

Red as a lobster.

He put up the 3x18 foot roof sections all by himself.  Heck, he built the entire thing by himself.

He is so awesome!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter.  Mine was great in so many ways.

Why Would You Ever Need 3 Chainsaws?

When 2 get stuck in a tree.

And that, my friends, is why we call it Tree Ring Circus.

This happened two weeks ago.  The method we used to free them is another blog.

New Beginnings

As some of you may have noticed, it seems as though I've dropped off the end of the earth.  I've been occupied with life-changing events.

City Girl got accepted to Roanoke College, and will be starting there in 5 months.  She will have a brand new beginning in a beautiful town at a wonderful school just down the road from her grandparents.  

She turns 18 in June.  Unbelievable.

I decided 2011 was a good year to start anew as well.  I chose to leave my company after 24 years.  I gave my two weeks notice yesterday.

Sometimes things just really get stale.

Actually I was really stale.

Despite the crippled economy, I've been fortunate enough to find a different job with better pay and will be starting in two weeks.  It is a small company with less than 25 employees.  24 years ago I was employee 129 at a small company that, over the years, got acquired a few times until I was one of 65,000 employees.  I want to go back.  Smaller companies are more risky, but can be so much more rewarding to work for when people see and acknowledge the work you do.

Alongside all of this, I also chose to try a new therapy for my knees called prolotherapy, which appears to be helping quite a bit.  I have moved from a crutch to a cane and don't look quite so ridiculous any more.

With all of this change, I just haven't been able to concentrate on blogging.  It seemed like all I wanted to write about were things that couldn't be made public.  Hopefully, I won't be so preoccupied and will be able to concentrate on Tree Ring a little bit more.

In my next blog I hope to show you the progress Retro Man and I have made on our trail.  The path around the back 10 is complete, and now we are focusing on widening it.