Health updates this week (which covers two weeks) are thin on the ground, as no real challenges, of note. The back was under strain during the final phases of the building shut down / clean up, but to be expected.
Regarding this Blog and the fact that it is aimed at being a health blog, I have a quandary / question for you all. The overall health situation has pretty much settled down into back pain and rusty fingers, with nothing else of real note - at the moment. I am becoming increasingly conscious that the Blog is covering more day to day aspects, rather than health updates (although some of those are directly health related). The question is, are you interested in reading the evolving day to day, with less health updates, or not.
I will then decide the frequency and what to include, as I do not want this being a mundane update, but that that is informative and helpful; so, over to you all - let me know your thoughts.
The main focus for the past two weeks has been to get the final pallets loaded up with the last of the heavy shelving, desks, chairs and other remaining items. The project that we begun two months ago, has worked very well, with just Martin and I. We have completed that project ahead of time and delivered some excellent solutions to a variety of challenges. The building was locked on the afternoon of the 30th of April and Martin has decided to move to the new location, which is great for him and his current needs.
For me, the decision to stop working and not move the 3 miles to the other location, was based mostly around the health situation and what Sandra and I felt would be best for my remaining time and how to spend that. I ceremoniously locked the building for the last time, then gave Martin the keys, as they may still need access to check the building, until the new lease holders take over. It was a strange day and turned out to be far more emotional that I had anticipated. To know that I was not only deciding to leave the company itself, but to actually stop working full time, was a lot to process. Although I made that decision, immediately after the locking up and driving off, I felt a little lost / directionless. The rest of the day was spent doing tasks around the house, to deliberately keep me distracted - although I ended up overdoing things, with the knock-on impact on my back pain.
A unexpected health related situation arose on Friday. We went to see a musical (Shrek), with Alanna and Jameson. The show was enjoyable and he had plenty of laughs during it. The unexpected situation was upon my back and upper body pain. The theatre seats are not known for their spaciousness and over the course of the show, I became more and more uncomfortable and the pain levels increased. That rolled over into the following morning and it took until Saturday evening for things to settle down. The conclusion, from both Sandra and I, is that it appears that shows like that, in normal seats will have to be a thing of the past. Or, we have to seek different seats with more room; we’ll see. Another surprising development within this overall situation.
The remainder of last week was busy with pre-planned items, but it will be this new week that will show what my new life looks like. I do plan to balance things out with physical and mental tasks. Although I thoroughly enjoy the book writing, it is not something to be done every day - it is too intense. I am currently occupied around 1-1.5 days a week on consultancy tasks, with two key book projects to finish off in the short term (aiming for a summer release of those). Thankfully, I have always been a self-motivated individual and I have a long list of tasks that I plan to cover off. The unknown of the new routine is a weird concept to begin to formulate - all as a direct result of this disease and the terminal prognosis. Tied to that, is the sorting of my pension plans, with me taking a whole day to read through and understand the complexities of that minefield. The outcome is that we have some clarity around next steps, which I will follow up on this coming week. One of those ket, later-life, aspects that takes time to understand and aim to get right, as the decisions made, have a lasting impact, whether you get them right, or wrong.
The car swop took place on just over one week ago, with the sale and handover of the Audi, quickly followed by the purchase and pick up of the replacement vehicle. Seamless and nice to be in a car that better suits my health-related needs now, alongside styling and a bit of performance to add enjoyment. Driving it around a bit now, it was absolutely the right choice and is a smooth and very comfortable drive, coupled with some performance, which is what I am used to. Relatively small, but key, change like this, make notable differences to how the impact of the side effects can be mitigated; the right choice, at the right time.
Over the past two weekends (and some time in between), we have spent time with Alanna and the grandkids, albeit not the usual routine or durations. Now that the weather has begun to improve, we had a Nerf gun target practice session in the garden, with everyone ending up being targets! We also had a nice visit from Karl and Rachel, who came for lunch. Always enjoy spending time with the family and nice to spend quality time with them all. Normal visits like these take on much more importance than previously.
I managed 2 significant chunks of progress with one of my book projects, over the past week or so. At the moment, on target for when I plan to complete that one. I also located two more rare signatures for my private collection and they will be combined birthday / father’s day / retirement pressies to myself. Nice to feed the passion for my personal collecting spheres, but also flesh out the creation of new projects for other fellow history enthusiasts.
