Craziness...

I guess you could say I've been really pushing the limits these last several weeks. After doing a full move up in Michigan then driving down here to Florida to do another full move with repairs and renovations mixed in at both places makes me a pretty tired dude. My back is completely torched and I have to drive back up to Michigan starting tomorrow to make my 2:20 appt. with Dr. Ramchandran on Monday. I've decided to take the Bimmer up as it doesn't have air and it's getting stinking hot down here. I've got a couple of guys in the hood back in the D that do work on it for me and another guy in Windsor Canada and I think I'm going to have them fix the air ;) Anyway, I hope the car makes it once again... It's been making some pretty strange noises lately although don't think it's anything serious. We'll see what happens...

So, as I said, I'm finally out of my old condo down here - permanently - thank God. That place has been nothing but trouble ever since I bought it in 2005. I knew it was going to be trouble after what I went through with my first two tenants. I was pretty new to renting back then and decided to take a chance on two guys just out of rehab (nothing against recovered addicts btw). The thing is, one of the guys didn't last very long in his recovery (unbeknown st to me) and his roommate moved out, breaking his lease after the first two months. The guy who apparently relapsed, Chuck, brought in another guy (again had no idea) to live with him and this guy had some serious problems. In fact, when they finally moved out and I came down to check the place out and clean it up, my neighbors told me what happened right before they bolted. I guess Chuck's new roommate went on a crack binge, went nuts, stole a car and drove it back to my place. Of course the cops showed up (I had nosey neighbors) and it was a major scene (like 5-7 cop cars I guess) and all the while, I was living out in Socal going about my business totally oblivious. Turns out, the guys were so paranoid that they bolted plywood up to the screen porch so no one could "come get them". As Whitney Houston says, Crack is Whack, haha.

I had a couple more interesting characters living there too (none as bad as Chuck and his gang thankfully). I guess one couple were running a massage business (legit I think) out of the place. It was when the last couple bolted on me (when the economy was in dire straights) that I decided to move in to my crib at Town and Country Estates. I guess I wanted to be part of the history, haha. Who would've guessed my contribution would be almost burning down the entire building, holy cats! As far as I'm concerned, that place is haunted. To make things even more interesting, the HOA board were a bunch of tyrants with the lead tyrant, Mr. Adrienne Barbe. Talking to this guy was like being a fresh army recruit taking orders from his commanding officer. Things got a little better but I won't miss dealing with all the bylaws and all the politics. This new place is so much more chill and so much more quiet. In fact, my place backs up to some rare Florida "Scrub" (13 acres of natural area made into a nature conservancy) which I guess is one of the remaining 2% in Palm Beach County. The only bummer is the train tracks that run parallel to the Scrub! Oh well, you can't have it all right?!

Amongst the craziness of the move, I was able to get down to Key West to visit some friends for a few days. While it was fun, there was some drama involved that took a little bit of lustre off the trip. Overall though, it was still fun. It's almost impossible not to have a good time in Key West!

When I returned back to Delray, it was right back at it trying to get this place together. I had no power or water for the first 2 days, very interesting... Just like I don't take anything regarding my health or physical/mental well being for granted, I will now never take things like electricity (it was basically a sweat box in here for two days), running hot water or running water period for granted. At night, I went old school and burned candles (donated by my neighbors) for light. I did get the water turned on after those two days but unfortunately the hot water tank was shot and it took me two or three days to get it going. I tried to bring the tank over from my old place but it lasted two days then died on me. I then went and bought a new one from the Home Depot and in a major bonehead move, plugged it in before it was filled with water. Luckily all I had to do was replace one of the heating elements but at that point, I had enough of the water heater situation, especially having to work in cramped space with a messed up back. I'm hoping this is why I'm having so much pain right now and it's not the cancer. Truthfully, it's probably a combination of the two that will get better once I hopefully start the trial and I have time to heal a bit. I don't think I'll ever be right with herniated discs but perhaps there's a way to make things better than they are now... I'm planning to search for a good Orthopedic Doctor who accepts Medicare in Detroit or South Florida if anyone knows of such a person. My Mom told me she has a guy so hopefully he can fix me up because I definitely need it.

I've got so much to talk about but it's starting to get late and I need some sleep before having to drive all day tomorrow.

I feel satisfied that I've pushed myself to the limits both physically and emotionally (dealing with some shocking issues this week) and made it out a stronger man in both aspects.

I'll finish by thanking my awesome former neighbors Harry and Marguerite. I feel lucky to have made friends with these fine folks. Marguerite did some Reiki on me at the pool today and it was the first time I've ever had it done. I became a little skeptical of "energy healing" but have to say, after the session, I am now a believer. I don't know what she did but while she was doing it, I got really emotional and had tears running down my cheeks that I couldn't stop, even as hardened as I am from all of this. I mostly had my eyes closed but when I opened them, there was a beautiful bird hovering above that seemed to stick around for a large portion of the session. It was almost as if I felt elevated or something, hard to explain. The emotions are real though and have never been moved to tears by someone placing their hands above my head. I hope to someday pay it forward like you mentioned Marguerite if you're reading this :)

Goodnight everyone, will update with my game plan after I meet with Dr. Ram on Monday.

Chris