Mary Did You Know?

Mary started working for me in 2006.

To this day, she remains one of my favorite employees.  We lost touch after she moved back east.  I was thinking about her  yesterday as I was roofing.

At the time I hired her, I  was looking for one laborer.  She met all of my qualifications but one…

Needed to be able to carry an 80 pound bundle of shingles up a ladder.

We talked about that at the interview. She thought she could probably do it.  She told me her last job as an archaeological assistant  was very  physical. She liked working outdoors, in all kinds of weather, wasn’t afraid to get dirty.  In the end, I hired her and young man named Brady.   I knew Brady could handle the shingle lifting.

Like I said,  Mary came to mind yesterday as that Christmas song Mary Did You Know  was  flitting through my brain…

Couple of quick stories about Mary.

First week she came to work, she cussed like a sailor.  I didn’t say anything. Figured she just wanted to make a good first impression with a bunch of rough construction guys.  I used to cuss like a sailor myself, so I didn’t think too much about it.  About the 3rd day she came to work, she brought the cussing  up.  Seems she and her day care lady were talking about her new job working for me….(whom I kind of knew)  The day care lady went on and on about what a “good Christian man I was.”  (yea right)  so Mary  told me she was sorry about all of the “f bombs.”

I laughed.  Told her not to worry about it.  To my ears, they were just words.  I noticed a change  after that conversation. She became more relaxed and  genuine.

Few months later, we were heading to work one morning.  She told me to pull over, quick….  she was feeling sick.   Lost her breakfast next to a telephone pole.  (sorry)  When she got back in the truck, I asked her if she (quoting now) “Had one in the oven?” 😉

“Absolutely not!  It was probably a greasy salad dressing I had the night before.”  She said.  Well, me, having watched my wife go through pregnancy  four times  wasn’t convinced.

The time of day was suspect. The fact she didn’t have the flu made me suspicious.

In the end, I was right. 🙂

As we got closer to Christmas that year,  I could tell she was under financial stress.

No family in the area.

Pregnant…

My heart went out to that young family, 1000 miles from home.   I mentioned something briefly in an adult Sunday School class I was a part of.

“Wouldn’t be fun to pass the hat  in the spirit of Christmas?”   I told the class I would have to come up with a way to present it to her, because she was not a mooch.

There is nothing quite as much fun as being able to help someone out who really needs it, and who is not expecting it.  We ended up collecting  about $300 as I recall.   I gave it to her that next Monday morning before work.

She cried.

Said she couldn’t accept it.

Can’t remember now what I said, but eventually she  did.  The following week, more money trickled in…

I had to apologize and tell her I had more money for her.

It wasn’t my fault.  Someone else had heard about their situation and wanted to help.  I think I got a hug out of that one. 🙂

I’ve tried to track Mary down a few times since she moved but she’s fallen off the radar. She reminded me a lot of my eldest daughter Angie.

I’ll close with Pentatonix’s version of Mary Did You Know.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone’s generosity?

Have you ever had the chance to be on the giving end to help someone out?

Tell me your stories!

I want to hear about it!   DM

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Assertiveness Training

Wanted to share with you the latest 16 second assertiveness training exercise I came across.

Watch it daily, preferably  several times a day until it begins to seep into the soft tissue of your brain.

Don’t argue with me, just do it. 😉

For me, watching someone role model a behavior sticks better than just reading it out of a book…

Would love to hear your stories about standing your ground in the face of overwhelming odds.

Here’s that clip:

I know you probably think I am joking, but I am  not.

Have a good weekend! DM

In case you ever wondered what they look like…

This will have to be short…

Monday I got a call from Don. There is no doubt in my mind Don is a millionaire.   Don is a regular client of mine and asked if I could stop by his farm house  and take a look at some windows that needed “tweeking.”    After I got the key from him, I grabbed number one son  and away we went.

The first thing I noticed when we walked into the kitchen was the smell of dogs.  Then I remembered the last time I worked there, there were two or three ankle biters running around outside.

Ankle Biter:  Small dogs that don’t stop barking.

I changed the furnace filter, grabbed a busted storm window sash, made some mental notes and headed home.

We were no more than two or three minutes down the road, when number one son said something about a small bug on his coat.   He grabbed a piece of duct tape and caught it before it got away. Minute later,  he got another one, then a third. Son has this thing about spiders anyway, so I wasn’t paying too  much attention….He did something with his phone and announced those small bugs were in fact fleas.

While I had been switching out the furnace filter and a window pane, he had been on his hands and knees checking out the carpets.

When we got back to town, I texted Don and suggested the first thing he needed to do was call the Bug Man and fumigate the house. His house had fleas.

Ten seconds later my phone rang. It was Don. There was a momentary pause on the other end of the phone…then Don said to me..”That explains it.  I had several bits on my legs this morning when I woke up.”  (Don had spent quite a while at that farm-house earlier in the day assessing the situation.)

I suggested there was a very good chance he had hauled some of those fleas home with him..and they were “probably” in his bed.

More silence on the other end of the  phone..

“Do you think I should tell my wife?”

That’s your call, I said, but would definitely change the bedding.”

Being the ever thoughtful person I am,  I sent him the following picture:

Flea under electron microscope

Image compliments of google.

Never did hear from Don.

Makes me wonder if his wife knows….

Later!

PS In case you were wondering where things are at, my biopsy has been rescheduled for 1 PM December 28th.

Merry Christmas to me. 🙂

 

Circling

Wednesday I got a letter in the mail from the Hospital where I am (was) scheduled to do a saturation biopsy of my prostrate.  Hospital wanted to give me the heads up it would be just over $12,000 for their cut/ I could get a 20% discount if I paid it up front…bringing it down to under $10,000.  This does not count the Urologist’s fee nor the anesthesiologist.

Just as soon as I opened the letter, I called the phone number. I have interacted with  (4) different people in the past two weeks on the phone, all connected to the medical billing/financial aid, etc. In every case, they have went above and beyond what I would have expected.

Like many of you we have a high deductible ($10,000) and are currently on a monthly payment plan for (3) other medical related thing-a-ma-bobs…. and there is no more wiggle room in the DM discretionary fund for another payment plan for a medical bill.

Nada.

It suggested I could put the bill on a credit card.

Not going to happen…

or take out a loan.

Not going to happen.

 

A saturation biopsy is where the urologist takes between 20 and 50 core samples of the prostate checking for cancer. The only 100% sure way to detect cancer of the prostrate is a saturation biopsy. (I’ve already had an MRI and 2 in-house biopsies, all coming back clear…and yet now my PSA number doubled in the past 6 months…something is afoot.)

If you’re a regular reader, you know I’ve had something like this done in the urologist’s office twice already,  first with 8 samples and the second with 12.  Not fun but I’m sure not as painful as delivering a baby with forceps.

When it comes to prostate cancer, it’s all about early detection.  Once it breaks out of the prostate gland, you better have your affairs in order.

I woke up Friday morning and realized I just could not go through with the test, not knowing where we stand in terms of financial assistance with the hospital.  (I submitted the necessary paperwork as soon as I found out I needed this procedure, but it normally takes 45 days to a decision.)

So I called Stacy,  one of the nice people I’d already met in the hospital financial aid department.

She heard my story, got on the phone with their main office and asked because of the sensitive timing nature  of this, if my application could be sped up.  Bless her heart.

Yep.  So now I wait to hear whether or not I qualify for a break.  If not, I have just one other option to explore…see if the Urologist has any pain killing tricks in his bag, that would enable me to do a saturation biopsy in his office…

His cut in this whole thing was $910.00

A thousand dollars/ maybe $2000 I can handle..but more than that…not happening.

I was on-line late last night doing some reading/ research….sounds like it “might” be possible.

+++++++++++++++++++

Writing this out, I’m not sure who in  my blog audience is interested in these types of posts?

I hate to bore you with medical stuff..but I got to get this stuff out and on paper….Do you think  I should start another blog or sit tight and wait to see what happens in the next few weeks?

I’ll close with a couple of pictures I took yesterday of some milkweed going to seed….