Lots of stuff going on since I last posted.

First, Hubby's surgery is scheduled for Oct 16th. Quadruple bypass and close 2 ASDs(Holes in the heart). Pretty scary stuff, but we've known that was coming up for a while now. It was actually supposed to happen back in June but there was a little issue that got in the way...

Okay, strike that. Huge nightmarish thing! No kidding! We've named it "The Great BugWar". Somehow or other, we managed to acquire bedbugs. We still haven't figured out how, although our most likely suspect is the hospital when dealing with preparatory surgery and other prep. Trust me, that is not something you ever want to deal with. Voracious little buggers that seem to regard humans as a fine meal... You know its bad when you notice a bug and look at it, then think to yourself "Oh, its only a roach!"

They ate us up so badly that it wound up postponing his surgery, the surgeon didn't want to risk infection from all the little bites that turn into welts and then scabs if you scratch them. Perfectly reasonable, after all he'd gone through getting the remains of his teeth extracted for exactly the same reason. Still, it meant that I had to get this problem dealt with before things could proceed, so I opened the first offensive in "The Great BugWar" with a chemical oversaturation attack. For the square footage in my little house, 2 cans of bedbug fogger was the right amount. I used 9 cans, plus direct application everywhere I could actually see them.

It knocked em down a bit for a couple of days, then they were back up to full strength and gaining, so I repeated, this time with more and deeper cleaning for prep, extensive use of direct spray everywhere and another 9 cans of fogger. After 2 more repetitions, I gave up on that tactic and realized I was going to have to get truly drastic in my approach. Toward that end, I purchased a heavy duty steam cleaning unit, 40,000 sq ft of shrink wrap plastic and a heat gun.

Everything that couldn't be steamed got shrink wrapped. Beds, chairs, sofas, all clothing bagged airtight to be washed. Steamed the entire house, literally top to bottom and repeated with fogging. Its still not finished but at least its down enough to let him heal up and to enable the green light for surgery. He'll be in hospital for around 10 days, so I plan to complete my Stage 3 assault while he's in and have him return to not only a bedbug free house but to a brand new bed as well!

Now into the middle of all this drops another monkey wrench in the person of "The Werewolf" AKA our landlord. This guy is a complete jerk, tried to evict us once a few years ago over the late fees he had charged for being about 15 days late on the rent(The rent itself was paid). At the hearing the judge came down on the landlord, telling him she'd better not see him in her courtroom again for something like that. This time he has suddenly decided that I no longer get to use the garage that's attached to my house since he wants to move all the stuff from a storage unit in there.

No big deal, except that I've got a car and clothes washer/dryer set in there. I think I've got space in the kitchen for the washer/dryer, although they will remain inert since there is nowhere to connect either of them. I'm holding onto them because we will move from here to somewhere I can use them, and because I carefully purchased very durable heavy duty machines that I can easily and cheaply repair. In the meanwhile, subsisting on laundromats and hand washing really blows chunks.

The car is a bit of the same story. I haven't had a license for about 5 years, but I held onto the car(1991 4 door Geo wagon) because its paid for and runs well, not to mention being easily repairable. It doesn't hurt that its specced for 59 mpg HWY and 48 city. It was in the garage because otherwise Code Enforcement would come by and harass me every 6 months or so, making me start it up and move it, etc to prove it wasn't a derelict. It does need a little work, but its stuff I can do. I have to replace the clutch assembly and front brake calipers, and of course all fluids, etc(Basic tune up).

That leaves me with a workable car, but still no license. That's its own issue and a pretty fair chunk of change that I have to shovel at the DMV for reinstatement fees. That part I can manage but the next obstacle sorta has me stymied. I have to take the tests(written and driving) just as though I were a completely new driver. The thing is, I don't happen to have any friends locally who drive! Oh well, I'll figure a way around that...

One thing I can't figure a way around is having to get my license with the old name. If things go according to plan I'll be getting my license a month or 2 before I can legally change my name. I could have made the name change happen before that but I wanted to make certain that I'd be able to vote and with the shenanigans around voter registration and proof of same this election cycle, better safe than sorry. So it looks like I'll still be explaining whenever I have to show ID, at least for a while. No worries, I've gotten used to it but it will be nice to not have to do that.

Our housemate will likely be going in to get a trans jugular shunt sometime in the middle of all this, she has cirrhosis from an unfortunate combination of drinking way too much and too much Tylenol(Paracetamol to some of you). Basically its to provide more blood flow to the still functioning portions of her liver since she has to get paracentesis done about every 2-3 weeks, even with 2 diuretics. That's a procedure where they go into the abdomen with a huge needle and extract excess fluid. They usually average around 20 liters of fluid from her, which is humongous given that she's 5 feet and 150 pounds before the procedure. Hopefully that will help and I'm trying to find out why she seems to not be on a recipient list for transplant or even considered as far as I know.

I think that's about it. Just a few things to do...

Thanks for reading yawl!

Abby