Paging Robspeed

[72Golf]

Rob,

Good to see you are posting. Give us an update on how you and all are doing.

We care.

[robspeed]

Rob,

Good to see you are posting. Give us an update on how you and all are doing.

We care.

Just got home from another weekend with Jenna, trying to chill out and get to sleep. As I mentioned before, they put Jenna into her own apartment so she can further develop autonomy and work towards becoming more and more independent. Before she was in a group setting with at least three other "participants" and two full-time staffers to watch over them. Once she kind of calmed down (mostly the result of being on the right medications), she really began to benefit from all her therapy and now is in her own small apartment, with kind of arms-length supervision with stop-in visits about once per hour to check on her but mostly her just by herself. It is from there that she will transition home and ONE giant circle will close and we will be a "normal" family again all under one roof seven days a week, instead of only on weekends.

Which brings me to: On top of the benefit of the autonomy-building and all that being in her own apartment symbolizes about and for her continued recovery, that she is in her own place means we can stay with her for free when we come for visits. This of course means that we go every weekend instead of every other weekend when we had to pay for our own hotels on the second visit each month. The Center would pay for one visit, and then we'd pay the second one, plus meals. Now, we stay with her, and just buy food to cook in her place (mostly anyway), so its just gas and groceries and overall much more affordable on a dollars and cents level. Its a little exhausting on every other level since Im not around here to do the normal weekend stuff everyone normally does on the weekend, so it has to happen after work if its going to happen at all. Plus my normal inability to sleep like a normal human being in general leaves me generally exhausted most of the time. My mom and Jenna's mom keep warning me about burning myself out but the time with Jenna is the most relaxing part of the week since all we do is hang around her apartment and maybe go to the movies. Its been really hot lately which also tends to keep us relatively motionless and indoors. Actually this weekend was extremely beautiful and I was kicking myself for not bringing our fold-up canvas chairs so we could go to Cooper's favorite location, the Boo Rachman castle park. (google it if you must ). It is so stupid because I had the chairs in the trunk for weeks and weeks and just took them out for use when we had some visitors (new apartment still a bit light on furniture)....

Which brings me to: The new apartment over here in Terre Haute is extremely nice for what we are paying. It has its quirks but for a three bedroom with a garage it is paradise to me right now. One of the quirks is with the layout. The "master" bedroom is basically a converted living room so it doesnt have a closet or a bathroom, and is the access point to the garage from inside the house. I love it tho as it has a giant bay window and a big sliding glass door, both of which let in a ton of light, which is nice. Garage has an electric opener, and is roomy for a one-car setup. Cooper has his own room and there is another smallish bedroom we are using as an annex to cooper's room and has my desktop computer setup in there.

Again, MANY MANY MANY thanks to everyone who helped with the motel bills between our ejection from former-roomate's domicile to here. We had enough left over to help with some moving expenses and start-up costs if you will.

It is about a 3.5 hour drive to Jenna from here, with a stop or two and not really pushing it, which isnt all that bad. I can make it in 2:45 if i motorvate and dont have to stop. Illinois state police are pretty aggressive with enforcement sometimes so generally I just take it easy and relax. Plus I dont want to push the e30 with 186,000 on it. I know it may easily go to 250k or more, but I try not to tempt fate with it. The rear muffler fell off a few months ago, and was really swiss-cheesed for a long time before that, so the m20 really WAILS under full throttle past about 4krpm. This makes it extremely difficult to drive it gently because all it wants to do is run to redline and bark and wail and raise the dead. I bought a muffler for it from Rob Torres (Sebring!!) but just havent had the time to get it installed (see above about weekends)...

With everything thats been going on I havent been checking in on the FAQ much. I just got the cable internet turned on last week so I will be doing so more often tho. Gotta get the COTM contests back up and running for one thing! I may do a couple of contests in parallel to make up for lost time. I am looking at Jim Gerock's envelope with his sticker and Sislane patch RIGHT NOW in fact. Just dug it out of one of the rubbermaid moving tubs and need to get it into the mail tomorrow!

Generally, things are good. I am extremely lucky to have a kid as sweet and smart as Cooper and the oven he popped out of is doing very well also. She will be home for her birthday weekend starting on the 22nd and i'll be taking a few days off from work just to be with her as she acclimates to the new apartment. When she comes home finally permanently, we hope to have her here basically by herself so this will be kind of a warm-up lap for that. The goal is October but it might be sooner if Indiana medicaid cuts off her funding earlier. I came full circle on wanting her home as soon as possible once I realized we would not be able to replicate the therapy schedule she is now participating in over at the center where she is now. Now that she is able to benefit from the therapy, that is the best place for her to be for the time being.

It just turned 1am and I really should be asleep. More later!

[Tommy]

Great to hear that we were able to help over the hard time. Group has the power. Jenna has made a great progress during last year. I really wish there will be easier times for you Rob in near future.

Tommy