Tuesdays at Forty: Eight Months Into Military Retirement

...And I'm still adjusting.

This month feels like it's going to be one of just kind of treading water--not drowning but not making any big headway as far as paying for the big bills.  I received a gift last month that enabled me to go visit my fella and I think that visit did us both some good.  I *do* wish I was still there, if only so that he had someone he could decompress with after work, but we're making do.

And, just a day or so ago, I decided to go ahead and take advantage of some cheap airline rates and I'm heading to Florida for Spring Break.  Never gone on a Spring Break vacation before so I anticipate some good fun.  I plan to visit one friend whom I haven't seen in many years.  We worked together, here at Dover, and gave each other a lot of shit back then.  We've given each other less shit, nowadays, but I think that was because we kind of lost contact.  That situation was remedied a few weeks ago and I'm hoping that our friendship becomes one of those that deepens in time.  Good friends are hard to find.

After I visit him, I'll be heading over to the other side of the state to visit another friend (and his family).  His place was a stayover during my trip through the south last spring.  We've been friends for more than a decade now.  I count him as one of my closest male friends.  He's married but I keep telling him "If you were in an open marriage and poly..."  lol.

More fun in my life: Physical Therapy.  Last fall, it was for my shoulder.  This time, it's for my IT Band across my left hip.  It hurts after I run which then makes it difficult to run again and I enjoy running--aside from that pain--so I need to get it fixed.

And, finally, the "best" fun in my life: Waiting for the VA to get through with my disability shit.  I called them yesterday, three weeks after they got the last little detail that they needed from me, to see about my claim.  Estimated time for claim completion: December 29, 2017.  It's February 2nd today.  Now, I realize that others have been waiting eons for their claims to get processed and I'm not minimizing their shit.  It's unacceptable all around!!  For anyone to have to wait a freaking year is ridonkulous.  I can understand a month or two; maybe three but almost a year.  Stupid!!