Day 152 of the journey - Garner, NC

Overview:  warm, weekend, jello plans again?

It's been in the 40s and 50s lately (and 20s and 30s at night).  Today it reached 75 degrees (going back to the 50s for the rest of the week).  Unfortunately, it was very cloudy so I wouldn't say it was a gorgeous day.  In a way that's good because I had a LOT of work -- many deadlines to meet with my 2 steady clients and 1 potential one before the holiday.  I'm taking 1/2 day on Wed to get the place back in shape, and all day Thurs (Thanksgiving) so I only have today, tomorrow, Wed. am and Fri to get all this work done.  Not complaining - work is a good thing.  So I didn't feel too bad looking out the window and wishing I was outside.

On Saturday, we had a guy scheduled (3 weeks ago) to power wash the CoW.   We didn't go to services so that we wouldn't miss him.  He never showed up!  It's kind of my fault for not having called to confirm on Friday.  Today he gave me lots of excuses: every sentence he gave me a different story:  he apologized and said he got very busy and forgot; then he apologized again and said his van was in the shop and he couldn't get here, then he apologized again and said he was planning a trip out of town and had a lot on his plate and couldn't make the time and that he looked and looked and couldn't find where he wrote down my number to call me.  Then after the last apology, he had the gall to say he actually tried to come over but couldn't find my site!!!  After all that, I'm really glad it fell through -- who knows what kind of job he would have done.  Plus, after paying the bills yesterday, I was left with about $35 in the account until we get paid (pension check comes in next week) so it worked out because we couldn't have afforded it anyway.

On a more positive note, I spent Sunday out shopping (mostly for Thanksgiving ingredients, including the kosher turkey at Trader Joe's) with Jessica while Mitch finished working on the wiring job at the house.  Unfortunately, he didn't finish until about 10:00 at night. 

And jello plans -- nothing set in stone yet but it's something we'll need to keep at the front of our minds.  His knee is really bothering him again (it's been almost a year since he's had his shots).  He's already talking about trying to find another occupation as being out in the field is getting a bit taxing.  He's also thinking of having his knee replacement surgery sooner rather than later - mostly because we've already met our out of pocket expenses for the year, so we won't have any copayments.  If it's next year, we'll have a $2500 deductible, then 80% of about $50K in hospital, doctor and rehab bills (to add to all the medical copays I have from my 3 hip problems and surgery this past year).  So financially it makes a lot of sense to do it in December.  He has an appointment with an orthopedist in Myrtle Beach the day after we arrive down there (Dec. 2nd).  I guess we'll see what the doctor has to say.  If he does proceed with the surgery, we'll need to see if he'll be able to do stairs when he gets out, otherwise that will be a huge problem.  I'll also have to do all the driving.  It may mean staying in Myrtle Beach longer than planned, possibly even giving up all our Florida visits in January and the rally in Feb.  Again - just in the thought phase at the moment.  We'll know more and make a better decision when he sees the doctor.

Meanwhile, gotta stay on top of these deadlines, look forward to seeing Doris (Mitch's sister, coming down from NYC) and spending the holiday with the kids (and probably the last time seeing them until we return in the spring).  Next weekend it's packing up and getting ready to hit the road again after 2 1/2 months.  Not sure when I'll have a chance to write again.