A Return to Work and a New Perspective

After my follow up on Monday, my doctor released me from any restrictions. He supported my request to ramp in the work hours for the next couple of weeks. So I returned to work on Wednesday. I worked Wednesday-Friday 4 hours each day. With some of the aliments still lingering, I wanted to see how I would hold up. The answer? I held up ok. Some pain in areas but not too bad overall. Next week I go to 6 hour days so we will see how that goes.

 I had plenty of people welcome me back and mentioned that I looked so much better. Of course, that always makes a person feel good. 

 Now I start in a new area. I have a person that does the mold setting and other things, so that will let me focus on my actual supervisor responsibilities. This leads to a new perspective. Things like, how can I make this area better?  What does the team want to accomplish? How do we stand out as one of the top bays in the building? 

 This gives me a chance to utilize my years of experience and make a difference. It has to be done in the right way. 

 There is a lot of mistrust with management right now and seems like morale is low on the production floor. To lift morale in my bay, I need to earn the trust from my team. They need to see that I will go to bat for them whenever possible, stand my ground with management and hold them accountable when needed. Management needs to walk the walk.

 I may lose some battles, but I will make a lot of noise doing so. At least, in my own sensible way. 

 From what I can see, getting management to walk the walk will take time. What I can have a direct impact on is how I go about my business. Organized, clean and attention to detail. It starts just by picking up, wiping machines down, sweeping the floor, responded to quality issues in the appropriate manner, etc. 

 That is all I have on this right now. I could go on and on, but it would be redundant and boring. I'll update as I get more settled in. 

Country Road.....

 Tonight, is an overcast night with a temperature of 76 degrees Fahrenheit. My wife and I decided to take the dogs for a walk. 

Tucker and Timber

Don't let this picture fool you, both dogs love their walk. The route we go is pretty quiet after 6:30pm. Tucker will get pretty ramped up when vehicle's drive past, so we have to make him sit. Timber is pretty calm all of the time so walking him is a breeze.

 There is a large field just down the street from us. We pass this barn on our walks. 

The Barn down the Street

We have some our best conversations and our most quiet moments on these walks. It gives us time to step away from the day, no matter what it threw at us, and  lets us decompress. 

The Road one Block Over

Sometimes we will see deer or turkey's hanging out in the field. Heck, sometimes they come through our back yard but that's another story.

But the walk, it will end up 1.5 miles. So, get out there and walk. Its easy, helps with stress and clears the mind. I also hear it can help with creativity. Which is why I need to take more walks. 😁

Turkey

Deer

 

A Father's Day Dinner Worthy of High Regard

 We decided to have T-bone steaks with potatoes, onion, rolls and a ice cold Coor's Light. Sunday morning, I got up at 6 am. Got the coffee going and took out the thawed steaks. I put the steaks in a large Ziploc bag and added Dale's Steak Seasoning (liquid form). Pulled them out of the bag at 4:30pm and added a bunch of salt. 

Threw them on the Weber Grill. 

Steaks

At the same time, I heat up the Blackstone Grill, put down some oil and get the onion and potato going. I could've started the potato sooner because they did take longer cook. But hey, The steaks needed to rest anyway so all good. 

 Potatoes

 Cooked the steaks to about 160. 

                                Potatoes are done:

      

Dinner is served:

 With Dale's Seasoning and some butter added while on the grill, these steaks came out great. My wife said they were "gas". (New lingo from today's youth, it means great) They had a ton of flavor. The Coors Light just topped off and paired really well. 

                   

A Saturday Morning Breakfast

 My wife, Melissa, loves to send me new ideas for breakfast, or dinner. I am learning to cook, especially outside. This is one of those ideas she found on Tik Tok. 

First, I fire up the Blackstone Grill. Let it heat up, throw down some oil and/or bacon grease, then get them hash brown's cooking. I gave them sometime because they take the longest.

Once them hash browns start to brown. Then I get some eggs going. Slap that bread down in the egg. Give it a minute. Flip the bread with the egg over. Once the bottom of the bread is lightly toasted, add ham, cheese and maybe some bacon.

Don't forget to add the hash brown's. Next you add the top piece of bread and BOOM!!!!!

You got yourself a very filling breakfast sandwich. 

This was a fun cook to do. I really enjoy using the Blackstone grill. I'll do this one again.

A Lot to Catch Up on Part 3

.....Just after the struggles with the appliance, I had a follow up appointment with my surgeon. Remember when I said I had to record my fluid output? Well, it turns out, I was severely dehydrated. My kidneys almost shut down. Though I was drinking my fluids, it was just coming right back out. Emptying the bag got really old, real fast. Just so you know, the maximum output for a day is 1500 fl oz. I was over that almost every day. I felt like crap, but I thought it was surgery related. I ended up staying in the hospital again for five days. 

We get the appliance right; I get rehydrated with a much better understanding of what I am supposed to do. We go home armed with Imodium and Lomotil to help slow things down. 

Mid-March, I finally got to a point where, I could change out the appliance myself. I figured out that French fries really slow things down. We started to find some humor with the situation. I have to say this....it is very hard to be intimate when that dang bag is rustling around. If you take a plastic bag a crunch it up, it kind of sounds like that....what a turn off.😬

May 2, 2023 time for the reversal to reconnect and put everything back into its home. I will have a wound that looks like I took a bullet to the stomach. Everything inside is functioning properly. I should be able to return to work next Wednesday. There's one more minor detail. I now have to figure out why my hips and knees ache and aren't working properly.

 We now have a good plan in place to stay on top of this issue. The battle is not over and with Crohn's, it never will be.