Hello There...

Been a bit, and we've had a fair amount of stuff occur around here.

Right up at the top, yes, I have another new job.  This is a good one, which starts next week.  It's a work from home job, pays more than the job which laid me off in January, and a job which I know how to do well.  It's also going to be a reunion with some former co-workers, so I'm looking forward to that.  I'm NOT looking forward to letting go of the Grocery store job I just got, but it's not something I am going to be able to do.  The physical demands of running around on concrete floors and dealing with 300-400 degree ovens and fryers just aren't something I can do at this time.  No, it's not the work, it's my body's reaction.  

I was not aware of one thing which is a bit of a major issue.  I am an old fat man who takes blood pressure control medication.  This does mean I am also wearing what are called "compression socks".  These are basically knee-high socks which use elastic to squeeze my legs, preventing blood and other fluids from collecting down there.  Something I'm taking is also having an effect on the skin on my legs.  I'm doing what I can to keep the skin moisturized and as healthy as possible (eating protein, etc), but occasionally, spots just open on my shins.  Especially my right shin.  A few weeks ago, a spot the size of a nickle opened up in the skin on the front of my right shin.  I learned to cover them lightly, if at all, and leave them alone.  And in this case, it worked.  The scab formed and then washed off in the shower.

That was the good news.  About an inch to the side of that spot, right on the bone of the shin.  It grew to about the size of a quarter, and was having some difficulty healing due to the elastic sock pressure.  They tend not to move on my legs, but when I have to shower the socks come off, and that means sliding down my legs.  So if my leg sticks to the sock, any healing goes when the sock comes off.  Unfortunately, what I had not been aware of was that, over the last six years, my legs have gotten worse.  They did not tend to burst open when I was working in retail during 2012 to 2018.  But they did, and they continued to leak fluid, not blood.  Not an incredible amount of fluid, but enough leaked out and dried at the curve of my ankle to the top of my foot.  When I got home and decided to shower because I had gotten rather specially messy, I pulled off my socks.  When the right sock came off, it took a chunk of skin off me too, so I have a wound about 3 1/2 inches wide by an inch and a half tall - or the maximum dimensions are about the size of a 2x4.  

So if that keeps happening, I'm not going to be able to work on my feet.  That's disappointing, but I do very much appreciate the new job which brings both a raise and a reunion.  So the moral of the story there is to stick to it.  I'm just incredibly thankful that I didn't have to wait a couple years to find a job.  It starts next week, so I'm engineering a few height-adjustable monitor bases to move my monitors up to the same height as the other monitors, so I can keep things aligned.  That's part of the fun, next comes labeling the cords to make life a little easier.