Tamara Unleashed

It was supposed to be a cloudy, rainy afternoon. I thought about putting sunscreen on before I left but then got distracted. The sun broke through for about 30 minutes. I guess I should have put sunscreen on. It doesn’t hurt. It may peel in a few days and it will be gone. It is not that I have not had this experience before. I never seem to learn. When April hits, wear sunscreen.

Craig has tons of experience making protest signs from his Postal Service union days. He spent several hours yesterday designing our signs for the Hands Off Protest in Nashville tomorrow. Hopefully rain will not deter participation. I bought 20 rain ponchos and will take extras to hand out.

Craig and one of his signs ended up on the front page of the Tennessean in 2017. Getting arrested protesting in DC is on his bucket list. We will start with Nashville and go from there.

I opened my Health at Vanderbilt this morning to make sure I had any upcoming appointments on my calendar and this popped up. I have an upcoming visit at the Emergency Department today.

I of course wondered if the Universe knows something that I do not. I called Vanderbilt IT and shared this image with them. It did not appear in my profile when the IT person pulled it up. She suggested I call the ER. I told her I was not spending any more of my time on this and certainly not the ERs, but that something was not quite right in the My Health system.

Curious. But I am being very careful with knives today as that is how I usually injure myself.

My weight after returning to TN was essentially like my week 2 weight on the same scales. I guess all digital scales are not alike. I lost 5# in a month. I started on double the dose for the second month. Thus far I have not noticed much difference in terms of side-effects.

I don’t really crave food anymore so I have not noted any difference there. I am satisfied with smaller meals and an occasional sense of slight nausea after eating.

The journey continues.

Craig was driving from Kingman AZ to Prescott AZ with Dan following a visit with Bill when he got the notification of my interest from Match on June 26, 2023. He was looking at my profile (obviously distracted and absorbed) when Dan asked him what he was reading. Craig said he got a “new interest” on Match from a woman with purple hair. Craig had already decided he was “done with Match” so this came in just under the wire and in spite of his reservations he responded. I had indicated interest a day or two earlier and was surprised to hear from him. I was in DC visiting Mary when I got his response. So Craig had Dan and I had Mary on our sides as we began our tentative communications.

The purple hair photo was taken at a “wig” Christmas party in 2022. I had just gotten my new glasses. I included it to make it clear I was not the usual Southern woman and had a sense of humor. It was NOT my primary photo. Craig’s first comment to Dan was “This chick with the purple hair has probably got some kind of real kinky shit going on.” While it almost stopped Craig from responding his curiosity about my particular form of kinky won out.

Craig had been in TN for 10 years when I met him but most of his life stories were not from here. I had taken Craig down my Iowa memory lane 6 weeks into our relationship. I was curious about what more I could learn about Craig from AZ where he had spent most of his adult life. Moving Susan to Prescott afforded the opportunity to walk down Craig’s memory lane and see him reflected through those people who had known him much longer than I had.

Craig had shared with me the importance of Dr. Cameron McKinley (and his wife Anne) in his life. They established a peer-led PTSD support group at the Prescott VA and eventually a free-standing Vet Center. Visiting the new Prescott Vet Center and knowing that it has survived and thrived was moving for both of us.

Dan was our host in Prescott. He has a lovely view from his deck that gives the sense of being in a tree house. Early morning coffee wrapped in a Navajo blanket is a lovely routine. Craig and Dan worked together for decades in the Prescott Post Office as letter carriers. When relations between the Postal Service workers unions and management in Arizona were cratering Craig became Union President for the letter carriers and Dan became the Steward. There were separate unions for the city letter carriers, the rural letter carriers and the postal clerks who processed mail and staffed the Postal Service counters. They brought the 3 groups together for joint negations; established customer service and productivity goals and were able to negotiate contracts that were the best in the nation. I had the opportunity to listen to Dan and Laurie, another letter carrier who dropped by, share war stories about those days. For the life of me, I am not sure why there has not been a sit com about postal service workers. It is a very eclectic group of individuals. It was gratifying for Craig to learn that the Customer Service-centered labor/management philosophy they established has remained alive and well in Prescott since the nearly 15 years since he retired.

Music was the other big part of Craig’s life in Prescott. Unfortunately, the places he used to play no longer exist but he was persuaded to give an evening concert on the deck with a borrowed guitar. I love watching people respond to Craig’s performance. He does not really understand how much people enjoy his own music and the songs that he covers.

I am not sure I learned anything totally new about Craig, but my understanding was enhanced and some black and white images are now in full color.

We left Phoenix airport at 415 PM PT landed in Indianapolis at 1030 PM ET. We got to our car with luggage about midnight and drove the 4 hours to Springfield, TN arriving at 3 AM CT. Craig drove first 2 hours and I took the second 2 hour shift. We did not unpack the car – just fell directly into bed. Craig slept 14 of the next 17 hours and I slept about 8 but was recumbent most of the day. We did unpack and get laundry started. I drove to Nashville Wednesday night for early doctor appointment on Thursday. I saw Natalie and James and returned here late afternoon with enough groceries to get us started. Craig is getting a massage and I will get mine on Saturday morning. Tomorrow I meet with my trainer and get back on my exercise routine.

Susan is overjoyed to be back in AZ and I got a chance to meet in person some long term friends of Craig and start the trip down his “memory lane”.

I suspect we will take a few more days to get fully rested. That was a big undertaking for old farts but it was the best thing we could have done for our mental health.

We turned the truck and trailer in this morning in Camp Verde. We were very happy to no longer have responsibility for this rig.

This is the small amount of space for feet on the passenger side. My legs ached a lot the first night but surprisingly they seemed to get used to it.

From Camp Verde, we drove the 20 miles to Sedona and had brunch. We spent a short amount of time at Tlaquepaque in Sedona looking at some local art. Then we drove up to Jerome, an old mining town sitting at the top of a mountain and then down the other side back to Prescott. It gave me a very good idea of this part of Arizona. The rocks are beautiful and there was a little green along the way but not much. The light and air are wonderful. The lack of biting insects is very appealing but I don’t think I could live here full-time. Craig does not want to move back here but it would be a great place to visit in January and July/August.

We fly back to Indianapolis tomorrow – arriving at 1020PM. By the time we get the luggage and our car we will get on the road back to Springfield between 1130 and 12. I think between the two of us, we will be alert enough to make the 4 hour trip home. We are looking forward to sleeping in our bed.

It has been a great adventure and I will have more reflections on it later.

This was a very different week with spurts of activity but a LOT of sitting so I had no idea what to expect when I weighed in yesterday morning. I managed my snacking in the truck pretty well and my hunger does seem to have diminished.

I lost 5 pounds this week which really surprised me. I don’t want to lose weight any faster than this. I have another month at this dose and then I may have to double the dose for insurance to continue to help pay for it. I guess their thinking is to pay for as few months as possible BUT I think they would be better off allowing the weight to come off slower giving people more of a chance to modify lifestyle in ways that allow them to keep it off.

I am hoping that the injection pens will allow injection of a half dose but I am not willing to run the risk of wasting half a dose trying it out. Time will tell.

When we arrived at Susan’s yesterday morning, she was all smiles. She had completely set up her computer work station and was even able to print. Craig set up her TV; Dan broke down boxes and I unpacked her kitchen. She is now fully functional in her new home and can take her time unpacking and organizing.

Susan is with Bill and his brother Phillip on the right . Susan met Bill decades ago when Susan worked for the organization that provided Bill’s first service dog and they have remained great friends since. Bill is the person who called Craig in mid February and said, “We have to get Susan back to Prescott”.

Karen used to work with Bill in Kingman AZ (where Bill still lives). She subsequently moved near Prescott. When Susan relocated to Prescott in the early oughts, Bill connected them and Karen was her first friend. She came over to Susan’s yesterday to welcome her back to Prescott and re-establish their friendship.

Susan is Craig’s 4th wife and he met Bill through Susan. Early in our relationship, Craig shared with me that he had a close friendship with Susan that he hoped I would be OK with. He offered Susan as a reference and I talked to Susan a couple of times. It was clear she and I could become friends as well.

Craig and Dan worked together for decades at the Prescott Post Office and led the local Postal Service Union. They have great stories about their union work that greatly improved the working conditions, morale and productivity of the Prescott Postal Service. Dan met Susan through Craig. Once the idea to get Susan back to Prescott was mentioned on one of this groups periodic Zoom calls, Dan quickly identified the perfect home for Susan and interfaced with the landlord.

Craig and I volunteered to manage the move and the group was able to work through Susan’s resistance to the move. She agreed it would be good for her to get back to Prescott, but couldn’t imagine how she could do everything that only she would need to do. She initially wanted a few months to organize the move but everyone knew she needed to get out of Lafayette as soon as possible. I told Susan her movers were available the last half of March and she agreed to the accelerated timeline with me as the Project Manager. We unloaded her furniture one month later.

Susan has transformed over the 5 days she has been back in Prescott. It has been such a positive experience for all of us to know that our group efforts have been able to make such a profound change for the better in a friend’s life.

It was so wonderful for me to be able to meet Bill and Dan in person. Craig and I now have a couple of days to explore the area before returning home on Tuesday.

Craig had mentioned he wanted to stop in Winslow but as the day was getting longer and we were still over 2 hours from Prescott, I was surprised when we exited at Winslow. The entrance from the east was pretty dismal – mostly closed businesses. I was pleasantly surprised when we hit the small downtown and it appeared vibrant, fully embracing the fame the song has brought to them. It was sunset and there were just a few people still taking photos.

We filled up with gas and fully intended that Winslow would be our last stop, but as luck would have it the gas station’s bathrooms were flooded. There was a Rest Area a few miles down the road built amongst the big rocks. They don’t make rest areas like this in the midwest.

Susan’s new home is absolutely perfect for her. She is in a cul-de-sac of duplexes that are mainly occupied by single older women. It is QUIET. A dramatic difference from her recent residence in Lafayette. Susan’s move was planned and executed in 4 weeks which was a very fast timeline for anyone. I asked her Thursday if she had any regrets and she said “only that I didn’t do this sooner”.

The contents of the truck were exactly as Craig had expertly packed it. Unloading took 90 minutes. Craig hit a wall after we the heaviest pieces were unload. Fortunately the recliner was easily accessible. After resting and hydrating, he was able to construct the shelves. The truck was empty, the crew is happy and the bed is set up. The afternoon was one long nap.