If this is Tuesday night then it must be the Salt Lake Valley

Well, yesterday, Monday was the last day I will have sat at my desk at my job as City Surveyor for the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada. Technically it's still my job for another 1 day and 17 hours (4:00 Thursday), we are in the Salt Lake Valley and will be until Sunday morning when we travel back to Las Vegas. The last week has been kind of, no pretty strange, I spent most of last week trying to get ready to clean out my office to take my piles of "stuff" home, Hello, my name is Bart and I am a junk collector, and I had collected almost 20 years of junk. Anyway, I kept getting interupted by work and well wishers so I got almost no cleanup and packing done until Thursday when I managed to put 90% of my stuff in boxes, unfortunately by the time I got it in the boxes, I was totally worn out and wasn't about to carry it out to my truck in 105+ with humidity, so I postponed the carrying until fairly early Saturday morning when it wasn't quite 95 degrees when I finished. A weird thing happened when I loaded the truck with the second and final cart of "stuff", I got in the truck and started it, but it took me a while, probably a shorter time than it felt like, but I really had a hard time putting the truck in gear to drive away. I guess it finally hit me, or it became very real at that time, I am leaving, I don't work here any more. I'm still trying to get use to that. It will probably take some time. The people in Public Works used my leaving as an excuse for a very good pot luck lunch on Wednesday last week - which was very good and I couldn't begin to try everything that was brought for lunch - somethings I couldn't try because it was very hot and spicy and my current situation is not very condusive to hot and spicy - especially the spicy and anything with a tomato based sauce - I don't know if there are enough TUMS to get me through the night anymore when I forget that rule. Then after the pot luck lunch - which was by invitation - they had a cake open house for me when the rest of the building could come down and say Hi and good bye, it was quite nice and a few people that don't work for the City anymore came to see me it was very nice Randy, JoMar, Patti, Chris Z. and some others that work at the City but I don't get a chance to see on a regular basis. Yesterday on my last "working" day I took our little Survey group out to lunch, it was a small group compared to the group we had just 5 or so years ago, I have always been grateful for the very good people that I was fortunate to work with at the City over the years, and was very grateful for the quality of all the work they did and still do, it gave me peace of mind since my license was dependent on their good work. I do have to go back to City Hall next week Monday or Tuesday to pick up my last check and turn in my keys, ID badge, and other City issued items. I will be a visitor then so I will have to most likely have to sign in at the information desk before I start harrassing the workers. OK, enough about that. We are up in Salt Lake for a couple of reasons, tomorrow - Wednesday - I start my interviews and tests with LDS Hospital in preparation for my sutologic stem cell transplant that I have talked about before. On Wednesday I check it, get a physical and give them my medical history and then meet with the Doctors from the BMT (Bone Marrow Transplant Clinic) on the 8th floor of the LDS Hospital where I spent a good portion of the spring of 2011. On Thursday I get a full body Skeletal survey (X-Rays) including chest x-rays to see how the insides are doing and to check for any additional myeloma caused bone problems that thankfully up to now have not been very apparent and have not be any problem to me. On Friday I get a Pulminary function test, I get to give that a bunch of blood and other fluids, and then to finish off the day, I get to have another Bone Marrow Biopsy performed. They always save the best for last. It takes 7-10 days for some of these test to mature to see what is really happening, so not sure when I'll have word on how fast they want me to return for the transplant, hopefully around the first of October, that will give us time to get the logistics in place to leave Patty with full support at home in Vegas. Based on the second transplant I had, I anticipate this time will take 6 week +/- of which I will be up here alone most of the time other that some weekends and maybe when I first get discharged to find a motel with a kitchenette so I can remain somewhat isolated for the first few weeks, those who saw me when I first got back last time noticed that I wore a mask and didn't touch anyone for quite some time. The second reason of course is to celebrate the wedding of Liz Robbins and Chris Dickman. We are very much looking forward to all the good times that will be had on Saturday. Then we will have another long day on Sunday getting everyone back to Las Vegas to get on with the next chapter in our lives. Many, many thanks to out to Donna Arnold, Patty's good friend for agreeing to come with us to help this week, we are very happy she is here and hope to have a good time up here with here. I promises to be an interesting week and I'll give more information about it after it happens. Well, until next time