Personal

Graceland was interesting. It's not as big or majestic of a house as I would have expected. Additionally one must remember the 70's styling. Some places had shag carpet on the walls and floor. Shortly after entering my camera, of course, ran out of battery juice so I didn't get that many pictures.

Oh he did add on to the house and there were like 13 acres of property. There was a room that they converted and added all of his gold and platinum records and his jump suits. I was struck by how hard of a worker he was throughout his life and how he had so many awards from not only Rock but Country and Gospel too.

I guess another thing about the house that was a little disappointing was that it wasn't really in an area that would might consider majestic. All around the house was just regular and poorer neighborhoods.

I also say his auto collection and took a tour of his two airplanes. There were also interesting. One must bear in mind however that these were the 70's - not the 21st century! His jet, the Lisa Marie had two phones, both chorded. One rang up the pilot and the other allowed him to call anybody on the ground. Also they had the then state of the art quadraphonic system and, of course, eight tracks!

I hear stories that one day Lisa Marie said that she never saw snow, so Elvis fired up the jet and they fly to Colorado just to play in the snow then flew back.

I also bought a CD, The 68 Comeback Special. I liked that one because of the "unplugged" section. I was struck, as a musician of just how much of just a plain singer Elvis was. He was first and foremost a singer. I also learned that he didn't write many, if any of his hits or other songs, opting instead for other, professional, song writers to write for him. Regardless he always added his touch, had a very good vocal range and dexterity singing anywhere from gritty to ballad like. I wondered if he didn't die then how would he have adapted. It would have been interesting.

There was a memorial garden where Elvis, his mom, Gladys, dad, Vernon, his grandmother, Minnie and his stillborn twin brother. I didn't know he was 1/2 of a set of twins.

It was also interesting to know that Elvis, worldwide known, didn't do tours around the world. According to All About Elvis:

International Acclaim

Elvis Presley’s trophy room at Graceland is filled with gold and platinum records and awards of all kinds from around the world. Some of the countries represented are: Norway, Yugoslavia, Japan, Australia, South Africa, England, Sweden, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

It is interesting to note that, except for a handful of movie soundtrack songs, Elvis did not record in other languages, and, except for five shows in three Canadian cities in 1957, he did not perform in concert outside the United States. Still, his recordings and films enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, popularity all over the globe, and he is known throughout the world by his first name.

I also learned that he was a very charitable man.

The 70's were known as the Concert Years where Elvis toured extensively until his death in '77. At the time of his death they say he weighed in at 350 lbs! I've looked at some youtube.com footage from his '77 tour and he didn't look that fat.

Posted by Andrew DeFaria at 10:44 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Nelson, Bill wrote:

Andrew,

Been a few days and I thought I would drop you a line. How are things going? Are you enjoying the weather? I have been down with a cold - still coming into to work but it is dragging me down. Luckily I have not had to get too close to anyone. A number of other people have been staying ome.

Sorry, I saw you're message this morning but I had cardiac rehab today then went out for lunch with my brother. Then I got sleepy...;-)

Hell, I get to take naps now so I took advantage of that!

I'm still doing good. Like I said I'm doing cardiac rehab. Did a 2 hour walk at Whiterock Lake Tuesday. I think that might have been a bit much though as I got a cramping like pain under my left rib cage. The pain has been moving around my chest a little bit. The nurses at cardiac rehab said I may have done just a little to much and to take it a little easier so I am. They said there's a lot of nerves and tissue that are banged around and traumatized from the surgery and sometimes people feel such pains for a while.

Did you get to see your doctor this week? Did he give you a “go back to work” pass? A week from next Monday is 6^th. Will be good to have you back.

I saw the surgeon last Monday. He just checked out his handiwork and asked how I was doing. I asked him what he saw when he was in there. He didn't seem to have a very good "bedside manner" nor was he that talkative. He said they just went straight to the heart to do what was necessary. I asked him if my arteries were constricted. He said yes, as he expected. He told me to keep cleaning the incision and applying the cream they gave me. I asked him if it were true that bypasses last only 10-15 years and is my best shot to just try to be as healthy as I could. He said yes that was the best I can do and didn't really put a length on how long a bypass will last.

All in all I got the impression that surgeons only care and know much about the surgery itself. Sorta like asking the break repairmen if my car will perform better and him answering "Well you'll stop better!".

I see my cardiologist on Monday. I'm getting the impression that the cardiologist is the man when it comes to after surgery advice. For example, I haven't had my cholesterol checked and I'm curious what it has come down to with me taking cholesterol medicine for a month now. I suspect also that the cardiologist is also the man with both the back to work pass and the now you can drive pass. I don't know what I'm gonna do when my brother leaves Saturday and I need to go to say the grocery store if I'm still not allowed to drive.

Posted by Andrew DeFaria at 07:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Home Recovery Continues

Cindy arrived and as usual the girls started to gab more and more. Meantime I continue to recover. It's great to have good home cooking and people to take care of me. But I concentrate on getting better, doing my walks. Being on the 3rd floor here means my walks are confined to the 3rd floor level. Back and forth, back and forth and getting boring. Slowly I added a flight of steps occasionally. Eventually I am able to go down and up all 3 flights of steps.

Now I can go down to the bottom and walk to the apartment office, check my mail, etc. Tomorrow I'm gonna try the treadmill in the workout gym by the office. My initial goal will be simple - 3 1/2 minutes at least. I gotta be doing better than before the operation! Maybe I can work that up a little to 5 or 10 minutes eventually.

Meantime I've caught a little cold - a sore throat - which sucks because coughing is still very difficult. Slowly my pains have been getting smaller and confiding themselves to my chest incision. Immediately after the operation I felt like my chest was in three separate places at once. Now I feel a lot more whole in my chest than before. Still they much break the breastbone to get in there and they tell me I have metal rods and screws holding things back together. I guess getting through airport security will be problematic for me from now on

Went out to White Rock Lake Park the other day and it was nice to get outside. I can walk pretty good and pretty far on flat levels - good thing Texas' is largely flat! - but I still get winded going up the stairs. Additionally, with this chest cold my lung capacity is diminished somewhat. I try to keep doing my breathing exercises to keep my lungs going well. Hopefully this cold will pass soon. A lot of Texas right now is getting the flu and I have not had flu shots (generally I don't get them) as flu shots were not a good idea to do with surgery. Hopefully I will not get the flu.

Work's still not an option and I haven not seen my surgeon nor cardiologist yet - that's next week. Texas Instruments requires that I'm out at least 4 weeks and, like a little kid, I have to return with a note from the doctor. It's interesting because TI actually deactivates my login ID to prevent me from working. I guess it's all for the best. Jeff, my boss, says that they've extended me until May, which is good but what happens after that? I mean I just got a couple of large bills to pay.

Posted by Andrew DeFaria at 10:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

EKG and Stress Echo

After feeling winded or out of breath for a while I finally got into the doctor to have it checked out. First I had what they call a resting EKG on January 17, 2007 and then Dr. Ton scheduled me for a Stress Echo the following Friday. You've seen them all the time were the man is walking on a treadmill hooked up to all kinds of wires. Before that though they take another resting EKG with you lying your side while they give you an ultrasound of your heart. I joked with the doctor asking whether it was a boy or a girl.

As for the treadmill portion I barely got 3 1/2 minutes done when the test was stopped and I was put on the table again to do the ultrasound thing again. Dr. Ton said that the test was positive and he wanted to get advice from a cardiologist, Dr. Allen Anderson. Of course now I was getting more and more worried.

They now wheel chaired me to the cardiologist. Dr. Anderson explained to me the working of the heart and that when I get stressed or exert myself my heart was not pumping correctly, particularly the lower front portion, thus my windedness. He explained that he wanted to do a Cardiac Catheterization.

Cardiac Catheterization

This procedure is where a small tube called a catheter through an incision in the groin area up to the heart. Then the doctor can use the catheter to inject ink and take more pictures of the heart or perform angioplasty where a balloon is inserted to stretch apart a partially blocked artery or insert a stint.

Dr. Anderson said that we should do this soon like next week. For some reason I was relieved that they were allowing me to go home for the weekend. We scheduled the procedure for the following Monday and I went home to deal with the shocking news I just received that this would be more serious as I had feared. I remember getting a pizza and a six pack of bear as all I wanted to do was to go home and spend the weekend on the couch. I also called Mary-Anne and Bill and Jeff from work to tell people what was happening. This started the grapevine working and I spend time on the phone with all of my family members.

Cardiac Catheterization -> Double Bypass

Eventually Monday (January 22, 2007) rolls around and catheterization procedure was actually quite easy however I was still quite uneasy with the troubling prognosis to date. During the procedure yet another cardiologist was called in to look at the results of the various tests including the ink test (which feels weird as warm ink is injected into your blood stream at your heart. Otherwise you pretty much cannot feel the catheter as it snakes through your veins).

The result was that one of three main arteries leading to my heart was 100% blocked while the other was 90% blocked. Basically not good! I was wheeled away to a staging area where the doctor explained the results to me and said he wanted to scheduled a double bypass for the following morning. I'm certain that I was given some sedatives to help me remain calm through the catheterization and afterward. Later nurses and other people came by and I recall signing a lot of documents and the like. Needless to say I was pretty much in shock. Part of this blog entry is to try to recapture the events/timelines as things moved pretty quick and/or times were hazy in my mind largely due to shock, stress or medications.

I believe I called Mary-Anne again to give her an update at this time and was wheeled to a room on the 6th floor of the hospital. I think Bill and Kent from work stopped by and Mary-Anne and Danielle arrived later that evening. I took a shower with antibacterial soap and a nurse shaved my entire body - odd feeling but my thoughts were much more about the major operation that I was scheduled for shortly

Bypaass Surgery

Mary-Anne and Danni got in late and back to the hotel late. It's really quite something when I think of how quickly they came to my aid even through between the shock, sedatives and worries my mind was occupied. On the morning of the surgery Mary-Anne was having difficulty finding the hospital again and barely made it before I was headed for the operating room, but they did make it.

It's at this time that things really get fuzzy in my mind. I do not recall entering the operating room nor being given any anestectic - not even the commonly talked about gas mask with the "count backward from 100..." thing. The next thing I remember was waking up in ICU.

ICU

Waking in ICU was strange. Of course I was sore and disoriented. I remember that Mary-Anne and Danni came in to visit and I believe Bill and David this time from work stopped by, although that doesn't make any sense as they are not family and I was in ICU for a few days because there was no space back on the 6th floor. Hey, I told you this part is still hazy to me.

The Breathing Incident

I remember in ICU having to do breathing exercises as an operation like this leaves the lungs with much fluid and you need to re-expand your air sacks in the lungs. These breathing exercises were done for 15 minute, 4 times a day and continued until I left the hospital. But the early ones immediately after the surgery were, of course, much more difficult.

At one time I could not properly breath. Taking a breath made me "wheeze" somewhat which caused me to cough and gasp for another breath. Let me tell you - you don't want to cough when your chest was just literally cracked open hours before! I could not catch my breath and the gasp/cough, gasp/cough continued. It is very frightening when you cannot breath! It is very frightening when you cough after such a surgery! Plus I was clutching my chest and tightening my chest muscles in such a way that the ICU nurses were telling me not to do that yet there was no way that I could see to stop doing that and get any air at all! Now during the operation you on a breathing tube and if need be I knew they were reinsert it. But I could not stand the thought of having that happen and me be awake!

An ICU nurse, a guy who's name still escapes me, helped me get up to a chair and sat and rubbed my back calming me down. That dude saved my life! - thanks dude!

After that scare I believe I was given some more pain meds. Now there was also a breathing apparatus that I was supposed to practice on on my own every hour. This one was powered by my own lungs whereas the other one forces air into your lungs as you inhale. Needless to say I made it a mission of mine to practice as much as I could because I damn sure did not want another incident like that one!

ICU Nurses

The ICU nurses are amazing. Nurses come in levels - levels of knowledge and personal care. The ICU nurses are on the top of the pack for sure. There was one named Amy (I think - geeze this is why I want to get this down) who was with me throughout the day. On the day after The Breathing Incident Amy really worked her wonders. Another things these nurses know are their pain meds. Amy gave me a couple of Percocets which really helped. I was able to get some sleep and afterwards felt great! It was at this point that I finally felt that I would "make it" whereas last night I thought I could easily have died.

I spent the next few days in ICU, not that I necessarily needed ICU but rather the 6th floor was filled. No matter, the care here was great. Pain meds, drawing of blood, draining fluids, breathing tests and practice and pulling of some of the tons of wires and tubes stuck in my chest was the order of the day here. I'm sure Mary-Anne and Danni visited a few times though again, order of events are still very hazy for me.

The 6th Floor

Eventually space freed up on the 6th floor and I was moved there. I received flowers from my sister, Cindy, as well as a fruit basket and nice card from my current client, Texas Instruments. I believe Bill and David visited as well as my older sister, Roxanne who arrived on Friday, visited. Each day I grew stronger. Breathing tests continued as well as breathing practice. Blood drawn, daily chest XRays, drainage of fluids, pain meds, diurects, monitoring of blood sugar, potassium, magnesium as well as potassium and magnesium IV drips, etc. were my life at this time. I also had a physical therapist that would help me take walks both in ICU and later on the 6th floor. Eventually I would just get up in the middle of the night where I could not sleep and do a few laps around the 6th floor.

We were still targeting for a release date of Saturday or Sunday and with Roxanne in we were set. We were still worried how I would survive at home with a set of 3 stories of steps to my apartment as well as be able to do the walking that was required while at home.

I must also say that I have had visits from various doctors including Dr. Ton, Dr. Anderson, Dr. Eckerson (the surgeon) and a few others. I got the feeling that not only the ICU nurse cared but the doctors did too.

Homecoming

I was released on Saturday, January 27, 2007 to go home. Mary-Anne, Danni and Roxanne were there to help me up the steps and I managed to get up them with a rest or two and to plop down into my newly bought recliner (Recliners of a Right of Passage for men. If you don't have one don't wait for open heart surgery to get one - they're great!).

Mary-Anne and Danni had a flight home for the next day and visited me in the morning before leaving. Roxanne would remain with me for the next two weeks. Again my strength was gaining with each hour. At first I took walks back and forth across the 3rd floor landing later adding going down only one flight of steps and back up. After a few days I added a few more landings. Now I'm going down and walking to the apartment complex office.

Being home is great. There's a sense of normalcy, comfort and familiarness that no hospital can give you. On the other side I do have to walk up a flight of steps to shower and showering, while refreshing, was exhausting at first but now pretty much a breeze. Having a nice recliner and access to the TV remote, access to my computer and entertainment of my own choosing is great. However I am growing restless and quite frankly want to get busy or productive again soon. I mean I typed all of this at midnight on February 2nd basically because I'm not sleepy yet. Plus as a contractor I don't get paid for not working. But Jeff, my boss at TI, insists that it's TI company policy that I sit out at least the required 4 weeks. I guess I should...

Super Bowl is coming up and Cindy's due to arrive for that so I'm looking forward to that. Tina, the middle sister, is coming a week after that followed by my brother Ray. It's nice to see all of the family again and I really appreciate them coming to my aid at this time.

Posted by Andrew DeFaria at 09:11 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Some do because they are cheap... Some because of the thrill of it. But occasionally some people do out of sheer frustration. Case in point...

Recently I got a PPC-6700 phone from Sprint. Along with the Pocket PC phone came software for synchronizing with Outlook, to be precise Outlook 2002 is contained on the set up disk. I've been having problems with this to no end probably because I don't have Office 2002 - I have Office 2000 (I hate Office but that's a whole nother story).

The phone will not synchronize with Outlook 2000 so it requires that Outlook 2002 is installed. So I'm in a weird situation where I have Outlook 2000 and 2002 installed and, of course, they don't like each other.

So I decide to completely remove Office 2000 and this Outlook 2002 then reinstall Office 2000 sans Outlook and Outlook 2002 from the Sprint installation disk.

But up comes a "Please enter your Product Key" dialog box. Well the Product Key is nowhere to be found after my recent move to Texas. So you think all I need to do is call up Sprint, explain my situation, and get another Product Key.

For 35 minutes I'm asked stupid questions from supposedly helpful tech support people who obviously do not have a clue. 35 fucking minutes of completely wasted time!! While I finally got through to somebody who had 1/2 a clue as to what I needed he just said that I have to locate the flimsy CD case that contained my key - that there was no other way for me to get the key (save perhaps shelling out $200 for a copy of MS Office)!!! Meantime, while on hold I decided to crack through a copy of MS Office. Man I told that guy off - I mean 35 minutes of wasted time and he started telling me that I'd have to contact some other company to go through a process of obtaining a code. Fuck 'em! I hacked it instead.

Moral of the story? Screw licensing - just hack it. You can try to do it the legal way (and I do legally own a copy) and spin your wheels. Sometimes people steal software out of pure frustration!

Posted by Andrew DeFaria at 06:52 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Well I have been blogging my status over on my status blog but I think it's time for a few entries over here.

I've been growing increasingly disheartened by Ameriquest. Yeah I know it's a typical "business" environment but usually I can get by by just ignoring all that. Unfortunately Ameriquest is more like the military than just a bunch of confused manager wanna be's.

Anyways, I made the mistake of talking to the lady who runs the PMO web site asking about the capabilities of the web server, which, of course, totally confused her. When I mentioned that I have been developing an application to capture a user's Clearcase information and to assist them in reporting problems she just about steamed up and told me in no uncertain terms that such an application must be OKed (code for you ain't doing it unless you get a mandate and you will do it our way) by the higher ups. This combined with the fact that I simply wanted to use my preferred email client and other software has been coming to a head such that Babu finally told me to remove all those useful utilities.

So Cygwin, Mozilla, Thunderbird, Trillian, et. al. are all gone now. I'm left with a totally crappy environment and quite frankly just a bad attitute and taste in my mouth for Ameriquest. Standard is better than better and don't you dare do anyting useful are the mottos of the day. OK fine. Then I'll just sit on my butt trying to think of the appropraite point and click madness necessary to acomplish simple tasks if that's what they want to pay me for. Mean time it's time to look for another job. This one sucks - big time...

Posted by Andrew DeFaria at 06:59 PM | Permalink

Today was the Case Management Conference but before that Stan asked me to stop by his office. When I got there he was eating lunch. As is apparently Stan's nature he was chewing on a granola bar and pondering something. He told me that he would really like to get a settlement completed and proceded to his computer to bring up the Martial Settlement Agreement. I suggested that we review the community property spreadsheet and told him that I have updated figures.

We mulled about that spreadsheet a bit and Stan asked me what kind of a settlement do I envision would be fair and that he knows what will probably happen. So I asked him what would probably happen. He said that I should probably offer something smaller like $750 for 4 months (which is effectively $3000 instead of the $1500 for 3 months which would be $4500). Sly but not exactly what I had in mind.

I told him that Olga is basically removable as charged and should just go home and that I did not feel it was right for me to have to support somebody who is unlawfully present and is removable. I think that surprised him but after telling him about INA law and the fact that she cannot adjust status in anyway I think I convinced him.

We then went to court. Since we were both going there he hitched a ride with me. During the car ride I explained more about why I feel that I should not be required to support Olga and that she should just go home. I told Stan it's not revenge I seek it's justice! Olga is probably scamming the next guy and the INS supports the notion that people who are criminals should not be allowed into this country.

At the court we sat there for about an hour. Stan and Olga's attorney, Tracy, sat up front and were talking most of the time. I believe that Stan was showing her my spreadsheet and other supporting documentation. Unfortunately I could not read Tracy's face.

After court we went outside to discuss the issues. I quickly excused myself to use the rest room and when I came out Stan was there. To my surprise he stated that we should offer that I forgive Olga's debt to me and she forgos the spousal support. If that's not acceptable then I can offer the spousal support but that gets deducted from Olga's share of community debt, but she'd still owe me the rest (roughly $20K). Personally I believe that if I forgive all the debt thus losing $20K in the deal then I want at least a letter from Olga saying that she will comply with the INS and voluntarily depart the US.

Stan mentioned that we'll need statements for all of these numbers. I was just waiting for that! So I whipped out my 50 some odd pages of supporting documentation and said "Already done".

We then walked out of the court house with Tracy towards the garage. I was sort of suprised that Stan did not offer Tracy our supporting documentation so I mentioned to Tracy that I have all the supporting documentation already and we'll be able to get them to her in no time. I also mentioned that if Olga wants the Eclipse she can have it - just take over the payments!

I think I might have finally gotten the lawyer on my side! Geeze the work you need to do as a client! Did I say this before? Lawyers Suck!

Posted by Andrew DeFaria at 05:55 PM | Permalink