Some Big Changes

I apologize to all of you for taking so long to write again. You must have thought we fell off the earth. We have been sick – me with some kind of 48 hour flu and a three week long cough, and Gary with a fever, aches and pains and a cough that he is right now having a Dr. look at in the nearest Urgent Care. Of course, because of his radiation, he sees a Doctor EVERY DAY, but no, he has to go to an Urgent Care and pay another Doctor. There are quite a few Dr. bills coming in on a regular basis, and with our thousand dollar deductible with Blue Cross, it seems like we should have met that already. A call to them tomorrow just to check it out is in order.

Other than that, the weather is not cooperating. It has been down to freezing temperatures here in Kissimmee more than once, and is planning to dip to 27 tonight. The forecast for today is thunderstorms and 25 mph winds, so I took our little Christmas lights down off the awning and put it up. The winds are already pushing 19 mph, and it’s getting colder and the sun had gone behind huge dark clouds. Oh, joy.

Yesterday we decided to drive to St. Pete to return Michelle’s car and then head over to Sarasota for my most favorite thing: Girls Club. Michelle was getting ready for the Historic Candlelight Tour of Homes in her Old Northeast neighborhood. It is a beautiful old area that schedules a tour of willing homeowners asked to open their homes to people on the tour. Sounds labor intensive – especially with five kids and a newborn. But that’s Michelle. We arrived while she was putting the final decorations on the outside of the house. I would have taken a photo, but all the packing boxes were still all over the lawn. Inside, Brian was busy putting an electric train ON the Christmas tree. I never saw one that went around the middle of the tree, but he did it and it was adorable. (should have taken a photo). I hope it goes well for her tonight.

Then on to Sarasota to see all my dear friends. I missed the last meeting, so we had a lot to catch up with and, of course, the food – red beans and rice, jalapeno cornbread and brownies a la mode – was delicious. Thanks to Jean. We exchanged our little gifts to each other, had our photo taken by Gary at the end of the evening, and I drove back home as Gary was still feeling puny.


Now, for the big news. We have been deliberating this for a couple of weeks. Basically, Gary is unhappy in his job. He was mis-cast, and has let Disney know on several occasions and to several people this situation. No one has helped in the least little way. He felt trapped, and overwhelmed by having his face look so bad, being in pain and having difficulty with his vision. When he got sick this past Tuesday, that was the last straw, and he has been calling in sick to Disney everyday. We sat down and talked about it and, sadly, we have decided to end our jobs there. It is too difficult, and we really are treated not quite like slaves, but with no consideration. We have always had jobs where people cared about us, and we feel just like a number. Also, there are some people our age, but most are young college kids or in their 30s able to work long, hard, late hours. So, it is with great regret to say that our jobs at Disney just didn’t pan out. But, at least, we can say we worked there, if just for a little while.

Friday, Gary decided to put in an application at Publix which is on 4 miles away and 7 minutes, instead of an hour each way. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t pay better, too. Even though it is open until 10 pm, that’s better than 2 am and an hour commute home. So we’ll see if that is more to his liking. Our friend Debbie has been working there for a couple of years, and she loves it. I’m trying to get hired by the campground, or at least get a couple hundred off the monthly rent as it goes up by more than two hundred dollars next month.

Well, Gary just called to say he needed to go into hospital as he has pneumonia. Oh, joy. I’ll be updating soon as I get more information. Later….