Knock, knock, knock - am I welcome back here?

Sorry for my lengthy hiatus - I've had a difficult few weeks. Nothing major, thank God, but a bunch of stuff all at once that kind of overwhelmed me.

My dad's birthday was April 6 and the 2nd anniversary of his death was April 14th. It hit me alot harder than I expected this year.

On the bright side, I am only a few weeks from the end of the spring semester, and I can be done with Inorganic Chemistry 2. My on-line communications class is a piece of cake, but chemistry has kicked my butt this semester. I got behind as a result of my surgery at the beginning of the semester and I've just had a hard time catching up. Some parts I know and understand really well, but others....I understand the concept, but when faced with a word problem, I have a hard time remembering which equations and methods to use for the different types of problems. They all run together in my head.

I hate it, because I don't usually have this difficulty with technical subjects. It makes me think that maybe the fibro fog is making my brain function deteriorate, which scares the hell out of me. But then I remind myself that the best way for me to combat this is to keep stretching those brain cells and keep them active.

One of the folks on my work team has some personal problems and has been out of work for the past few weeks and we don't know for sure when she's coming back. It's a day-to-day thing, which makes it hard to plan work. I wind up doing her job as well as my own. We are understaffed to begin with, and since I am Lead it is up to me to manage workload. We did bring a new person into the office this week and she is supposed to be able to work in my area about 40 percent of the time, once she gets trained. Unfortunately, I was so tied up in meetings yesterday, I never got a chance to meet her!

Here's the bright spot: we are seriously contemplating getting a swim spa at home. It is a combination aquatic spa therapy for me, and a lap pool to allow George to swim (against a current of jets) for exercise and stress relief. It will be a project to get the backyard set up (new stone decking) for installation, but it is looking very promising. It is something we've been thinking about for several years now, and researching, and we are now talking to contractors.

Neither of us wants a real swimming pool - the upkeep is too much, the water is too cool for my muscles (even here in Texas), and George is so tall, he could only take a few strokes per lap in a backyard pool anyway. We've put off doing any landscaping in our back yard until we figured out what we wanted. I think it's time to move forward.

I am thrilled with the idea of being able to do my aquatic therapy exercises at home, every day if I want, and also have the benefit of hot-tub jets on my sore muscles when I need it. Also, I could probably get into the swimming thing as well.

We are so blessed to be able to afford something like this. Yes, we've been saving towards it for quite a while, but I am extremely grateful that it is a possibility for us. It is a luxury, but I think it will be an improvement in our quality of life (exercise, relaxation, together-time) as well.

Plus, it's going to be damn fun!