Starting on Basement

Well... we've finally committed to finishing our basement. I've held back for a long time, thinking we didn't need the living space, and liking the access to pipes and wires down there, but it seems it was just a matter of time, before we got around to customizing the space into something livable. The framers came on Monday, and started out by helping us move the last of our "precious possessions" upstairs into the PODS container and other nooks and crannies around the house. For a moment around noon, we had a completely empty basement - something we haven't seen since 1995. We're very excited about the possibilities the new space will bring.

My sister Otamay arrived last Sunday night, just in time to ride home from the airport in a delightful little snow shower. We've been enjoying taking Mandy with us on some walks on the local trails, the past few days.

MV332 Launch!

We successfully launched MV332, a Delta II rocket carrying the GPS 2R-19 payload, this morning at 2:10am Eastern time, less than 48 hours after our first West coast Atlas V launch, and the same day (well, night, actually) that I got back to work in Denver, after my trip to support the AV-006 launch. That's a lot of excitement (and not much sleep) in a short time period!

AV006 Launch!

We successfully launched AV-006, an Atlas V rocket carrying the NRO's L-28 satellite this morning at 3:02am Pacific time, from Vandenberg AFB. I usually support the launches from Denver, but I was onsite for this one, so I was a little surprised at first, and then thrilled, to hear the rumble of the rocket engines through the ceiling of the launch control center, shortly after liftoff. This was our first Atlas V launch from the new West coast launch pad, and a major milestone for our new ULA company. We're all pretty tired here, after a very shifted work day, but ecstatic all the same.

Missed Opportunity

We were awakened at 5:54 Saturday morning, by a phone call from the University of Chicago. They were calling about a possible match for a kidney/pancreas transplant. K's feet are healing, but the wounds aren't closed, which disqualified her for this opportunity. This is so disappointing.

We spent the day packing up more stuff in the basement, and filling up the crawlspace, as well as starting to fill up our temporary PODS unit. After hours and hours of work, and many trips up the stairs and out the garage, we did make some progress, but looking at the basement, I have a bit of a sinking feeling that we hardly made a dent. K disagrees, and is trying to get me to see that we really did make a huge impact. I just see all the stuff that is still to be done, and it's very daunting.

POD People

I went with K to the wound care person on Thursday afternoon. She doesn't think the wounds need more than the superficial trimming that she was able to do, at least for the moment. All the wounds were smaller than they were the last time she saw them, which helped relieve my anxiety a little.

We spent Friday afternoon packing up stuff in the basement, and taking rubbermaid storage bins out to the PODS container that's now sitting on our driveway. Well, actually, K was in dialysis, while I and our very helpful neighbors Ken and Freddie helped me pack up the Christmas stuff and move it into our recently fixed up crawl space. Then after I picked up K from dialysis, Ken and I started carrying the boves out to the POD. We only got one line of boxes in place at the far end of the POD, about 3 boxes high. It was a lot of work, but the result isn't very impressive. The basement doesn't look very much emptier, either.

Holding My Breath

K tore a big deep chunk out of the bottom of her foot yesterday morning, when removing the bandage to change it. The other older wound isn't looking that good either, in my non-medical opinion. She's trying to get in to see somebody about it, but as usual personal logistics are getting in the way. The wound care person wasn't available when she called. Her PCP doc could only meet with her at 3:15, but today's 10:30-3:30 dialysis schedule pretty much squashes any chance of her getting there on time. She's got a scheduled appointment with the wound care person tomorrow. I'm holding my breath waiting to see how things work out. *Update* K got in to see the doc after dialysis, and he set her up with oral antibiotics. He wasn't certain the old wound was even infected. The wound care person is supposed to evaluate it tomorrow, and determine if surgery is indicated.

PSL Transplant Class

It was cold and windy yesterday, and this morning we have a few inches of snow on the ground, with more drifting down. We spent the better part of yesterday afternoon at Presbyterian Saint Luke's (PSL) introductory Transplant Class with our neighbors. We learned some new things, such as transplant recipients are about 100 times more likely to get some kind of cancer, often skin cancer, which is easily treated if caught early enough. Ugh. In about 10 days, K will be on their kidney recipient list, which will give her a 2nd possible source of an organ replacement. After all that excitement, we decided we needed (!) to have dinner at the Spaghetti Factory.

CA Trip

My trip to the West coast had some travel (delayed and canceled flights) and business (delayed launch) hiccups, but the family part was pretty perfect. I was *so* looking forward to seeing Dorothy in her mostly-recovered state, and wasn't disappointed. I got hugs, went on errands, and went for a night walk around the lake with her. I even sat contentedly on the couch between her and Tyler as they played Eternal Sonata. I got to play Frisbee golf with Bob, something I've sorely missed since the last time we played over a year ago. My original return flight was canceled, because the pilot broke his leg getting off the plane at a previous stop. So I used my two free hours to scramble up Mt San Luis with Bob and Mikele and the dogs. It's a nice easy hike, and there's such a delightful view from up there! We flew through some snow showers on the way into Denver, which was sufficient warning that I wasn't surprised by the cold blast when I walked out of the airport terminal. It figures that this time I had to wait inordinately long for a cab, in a T shirt and light jacket, but at least the ride home was uneventful.