I am glad 2017 is gone, it has easily been my most trying year. I started with a cut from August of 2016 that would not heal and close. It took a skin graft, a minor surgery, taking three weeks off from work, not going to the coast all year, and tons of patience. The wound finally closed up in the start of the summer, which was great, but it was suggested to maybe wait until the fall to get in the hot tub. It is now December 31 as of me writing this, and I still don't see me getting in the hot tub. The skin is closed, but it is a weird dark purplish color all around the injury, it being so low on my legs doesn't help. Apparently, I have been checked about 3-4 times for diabetes and I haven't shown that I have it, I do have slow movement of blood in my extremities from my gargantuan size. I need to just put my head down and start exercising, but every time I try and start, something happens. When I restarted going to the gym, I think was too aggressive with the dumbbell curls and I gave myself a bit of tennis elbow which only slowed my progress again.
By far the worst thing this year personally, was going back to work after those three miserable weeks of bedrest and finding out we had a layoff and a reduction in pay. Three people were laid off from a group already under twenty and the rest of us took various cuts in pay. I was screwed the hardest for reasons I still don't understand. Not only was I given a fifteen percent pay cut because I had "volunteered" to go help chemistry since they were claiming they were so busy people were working insane amounts of overtime and everyone was burned out from it. I took notice of this and thought it would be great to be in that position, but management used it to say that industry wide engineers get paid more than chemists and since you are now a chemist, we are adjusting your pay accordingly. While I was curled up on the floor from that kick to the balls, they both climbed up on the top rope and did a flying kick to my wallet and just randomly decided that the night shift would now only pay 5% extra instead of the 15% it has always paid. Altogether, I lost 25% of my salary while others I talked to lost 5% to 15%, talk about fair. This had a cascading effect of we either lose the house or I give up my truck. I decided to sell my truck to Carmax, luckily, I walked away with like $3400 which helped me pay off the RV and maybe another small bill. This cut $1100 from my expenses and then we had a couple of roommates which added more income coming in which helped a lot.
Girlie has moved on to her own apartment in a confusing "I have to be a grown up now!" moment. I could only wish her well, I didn't like the way she behaved on the way out, so I wished her well and have cut ties with all of them. You can only do so much for people before it feels not only like helping them but hurting yourself in the process. If this is how appreciation is shown, I say thanks, I was already down, so it's not like I lost much. It was time, so I think it was good, I can focus on just helping my two boys now.
Wife was tempted by what seemed like an excellent job opportunity, when she first applied, it was going to pay her in the $110-$120s in the spring, but by the time they interviewed it was brought down to the $70s, still that was in the range of her current pay. When she found out she had the job and received the packet of what she would be getting, she found out it was going to require her to automatically put 16% of her money into retirement and 401k accounts. This would have been great if I hadn't just had my huge pay cut. She had to turn down the job after flirting with them for almost 5-6 months. She has yet to talk to a person in that organization that is happy working there, so maybe she did the right thing.
As bad as things are, they were not devastating. If I had been laid off, I might have been forced to move down to Crystal, since Wife is working down there and that would completely suck my soul from within, and this has NOTHING to do with y'all MOM! I love you all, but I belong in a big city. There is a chance I could have looked and found work in the refineries in Corpus Christi, Wife and I still think if we retire, it would be nice to head to the coast.
My leg did eventually heal and luckily for as long as it took, I didn't lose any functionality, and the injury never really hurt, so how lucky is that? Wife is still learning her role and I think she needs to learn not to jump on all the little fires, she is more important than that. When an idiot parent shows up at closing time and you have a three hour drive ahead of you, don't entertain the fools that let Mija out of the house in slutty shorts. You can't override a principal decision, just tell them to come back at the proper time the next day and talk to the principal. She will learn these small things, valuing her time, much like all her superiors have always done, then she will be ready to move up and be a real leader. Leaders don't put out fires, they have firemen who know how to handle those fires. In due time, she will get her chance, hopefully, sooner rather than later, she can head back. People that know she has left want her back on their teams, so I think it is a matter of time before she gets back home and with the pay she deserves. I hope my company can continue and improve a bit. If Wife does well, I am fine, even with the pay cut, I still make a decent nickel, but Wife will probably pass me at some point.
Like I said, it was bad, but we didn't lose the house, I still have my Excursion, Boy should be graduating in a couple more semesters, he just passed a class that was kicking his ass all semester, he has to be running out of classes to take if he keeps signing up for 15-18 hours. I would like to see him get to where he pays for his vehicle, but I am being patient. Javalina was slouching a bit right before the Christmas break, but Wife caught on, shook that boy hard to remind him who he was, and he spent the last two weeks at morning and after school tutoring to get himself back into the A's and B's he needs for the Einstein Jr Program. It was nice to see her whip him into shape from so far away. I always tell him "it's up to you, you fail, they kick you out of Einstein, you end up in another school, or possibly back in Crystal City." I am not going to give myself headaches, but Wife will. All in all, it was a challenging year, we look forward to climbing back up from a hard spot. Chemistry could still get a couple more customers and I could find myself in the middle of an overtime storm which I am ready for. I have been trained and I like what we do. So, much like the planet we love so much, let's keep doing our little dance and see of we can get back here in about 365 days. Happy New Year!
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