Grandpa, late meeting, later shopping

Yesterday was largely uneventful for me. Catching up to the paperwork generated by the two classes I had taught. Mama, however, had a busy day with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa saw the cardiologist yesterday afternoon. For once he was very honest about some of the episodes he has had recently. At one point during the visit, his heart rate was 40 beats per minute. the doctor got to see that firsthand. Even the most athletic person will have a heart rate well above that. Grandpa is not athletic. A low heart rate barely profuses the organs in the body. While it will give minimum oxygen circulation throughout the body, it will not give enough for the body to function well. Thus, Grandpa’s recent episodes of weakness accompanied by an ashen pallor. Very frightening for both Grandma and Grandpa. He was given a heart monitor to wear for one week. That information will be evaluated when the monitor is given back to the doctor. I do not know if Grandpa is a candidate for a pacemaker, but that would be the most obvious recourse to keep his heart rate high enough to keep him feeling well. Whether his heart is up to the required surgery or the external influence of a pace maker will be determined by the doctor.

My most important meeting of the day took place late in the workday – at my normal quitting time. It was the third attempt to get with an old friend – a fellow board operator from New Jersey – to discuss some issues he was having with a new reactor system. We chatted a few minutes to catch up but got to the central issue of the call quickly. He is not a person to dally about. After I assured him, he had done the right thing in several areas to get past the issues they had been experiencing, I corrected a couple incorrect remembrances that had caused some of the problems to linger. He tentatively offered me a job, albeit a temporary post. Two to four months contract work. I politely declined. I am not in a position to speculate financially and I have no flexibility with work hours in my current role. In other works, I cannot split my time between the two companies. My current employer would taka dim view of that.

I did offer to get him started in the direction he and his company need to head with training the individuals working at the problematic unit by building a skeleton training program from which they could develop a full training program. An outline of what I consider a good training regimen. A remote working gig while I maintained my current duties. What will come of it is in the Lord’s hands. Am I interested in contracting in that area of production again? Mostly. Would it pay better? Definitely. Would it require a lot of time away from Mama? Clearly. Therein is the dilemma. Mama and I are praying about what will come next. I will have some sort of answer next week after he talks with his board of directors about using me to develop the operator staff at their new venture.

The meeting made me quite late getting home, but I was arriving at the farm just after Mama, Grandma and Grandpa got there. Mama had wanted to doctor the little bucks that had their surgeries last week, but it was a little too late, much too cold and way too wet. We opted to move that chore to tonight. Instead, after Mama was in her pajamas and Victoria was drinking her evening cup of tea, I talked the two of them into going to Walmart to look for the appliances we had discussed buying with Victoria’s extra 15% off coupon. She already gets 10% off, so we were looking at getting a total of 25% off the total of items she and Mama had decided we needed to upgrade our countertop appliances.

Unfortunately, Walmart did not have what we were originally looking for in stock. Fortunately, we did discover an appliance that we had not really given any serious consideration. Upon further inspection, we decided that it was our first choice. It is a pressure cooker and air fryer combination unit. With two tops for the same base to allow the conversion. So, rather than buying two units for those functions, we can purchase one unit to serve both applications. For about the price of one of the appliances. Save space. Save money. What a deal. However, after searching the entire store, the staff could not find any in stock. But Sam’s has five at the store in Denton. We know that because Mama called while we were in Walmart waiting to see if they could locate one to verify the item was available and that the price was as advertised. She will go there today to get one. This weekend, I will go through our pantry and throw away or give away redundant items.

That was my goal all along.