I started a post last November, but was too discouraged to continue..... until today! Rob, you told me this afternoon that you've started reading again, some nights before bed. I am so relieved and feel like a window is opening to let fresh air into your life. You feel better, though not great. Of course, you're reading an interesting book on themes that inspire you - Black Flags and Windmills: Hope, Anarchy and the Common Ground Collective. Here's the book description from Amazon.
When both levees and governments failed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, the anarchist-inspired Common Ground Collective was created to fill the void. With the motto of “Solidarity Not Charity,” they worked to create power from below—building autonomous projects, programs, and spaces of self-sufficiency like health clinics and neighborhood assemblies, while also supporting communities defending themselves from white militias and police brutality, illegal home demolitions, and evictions.
Black Flags and Windmills—equal parts memoir, history, and organizing philosophy—vividly intertwines Common Ground cofounder Scott Crow’s experiences and ideas with Katrina’s reality, illustrating how people can build local grassroots power for collective liberation. It is a story of resisting indifference, rebuilding hope amid collapse, and struggling against the grain to create better worlds.
It's been a difficult time again.
In September last year, you dropped two classes you were taking at LCC, quit your job at Sabatini's and for a while didn't seem to know what to do next. You said you weren't having at least a couple "good" days per week to focus on schoolwork. In October you applied and were hired almost immediately as a seasonal worker at Target, near the Wyoming Valley Mall. You were feeling optimistic, however on your 3rd day at work in early November you were in the stockroom when a large box from an upper shelf fell on you (another person was working one aisle over may have somehow pushed the box over?). This Target store, at least, didn't provide any new hire training or information about working safely in the stockroom. Anyway, the box landed directly on you head. Although you didn't lose consciousness, you did have head & neck pain with some other symptoms which included tasting blood in your mouth. I got a call from you, and took you to the Geisinger ER where you were seen quickly and a CT scan showed no obvious injury. So it was called a 'mild' concussion. It has taken a long time to get over this - you still had symptoms in December - pain behind one eye, also when out in a car (either passenger or driving) you often got dizzy spells and motion sickness. At that time you still weren't driving. The hospital release paperwork says it can take weeks, months or longer to recover from a concussion.
By early February, the concussion symptoms had improved a lot with time and some physical therapy recommended by our favorite neurologist who you are seeing once more, Dr. Garg. You were released to go back to work without heavy lifting. You started back to Target on a Monday.... You were trained for 4 hours on a new job, then were called into HR and fired because you had been hired as a temporary/holiday season worker. This whole Target thing was a bad experience all around.
On the up side, you've switched from a pediatrician to my family doctor, saw a rheumatologist who was not especially helpful and soon after saw a sleep doctor who was helpful. Your main focus now is on eating a low-fat diet and changing sleep routine, to help alleviate significant fatigue. Some other medical tests are being done. One more good thing - as part of a remodeling project, spots of mold on the ceiling of the "boys" bathroom here were treated so in case you are allergic to mold spores that aggravating factor has been removed. And the next couple months will be geared toward getting active so we are ready for vacation in Scotland (!!!)
This situation is not funny, but I can't help but think of one of my favorite cartoons - Wile E Coyote and the Road Runner. Seriously, and with my love & prayers, here is to steady improvement through 2023.
