Assaulted - One of the Hazards of His Job

Chuck came home from work early on Tuesday because he had been assaulted while on the bus!

 

 2019

 

 

He drives for Metro here in Seattle and he had pulled up to a bus stop where a guy was waiting to get on. He didn't stop to pay the fare, just went to the back of the bus and sat down. Chuck wondered if he had just stolen all the unbagged food he had in his arms.

 

Thankfully there wasn't anyone else on the bus.

 

He drove off to the next stop but the guy got up and yelled at him to pull over. Chuck pointed to the next stop and told him he'd pull over up there.

 

The guy crawled under the barrier at the front of the bus and punched him just above his right eye! 

 

He was able to pull over and open the doors and the guy took off. Chuck called his supervisor and a few minutes later a fire truck and aid car pulled up. They checked him out but he felt fine and didn't want to go to the hospital. He gave his supervisor a description of the guy. Plus, those buses have cameras everywhere so they'll have videos of him.

 

He's had a few close calls with riders but had never been physically hurt. Until now. He went to the doctor the next day and nothing is broken. They did tests on his eye as well and everything is okay. He took the rest of this week off and will go back on Monday. Halloween. He's going to wear his Seattle Kracken jersey, they're our hockey team. 😄

 

You can see the progression over the last few days. The huge bump above the eye on the day it happened. Then the swelling went down pretty quickly and the bruise appeared.

 

 

Thankfully he hasn't had any pain, although the area above the eye is pretty tender. I'm so grateful nothing was broken!

He Tried To Get Breakfast To Go

Chuck went back to work last Thursday. He went from not working at all for 2 months, straight into 13 hour days! Two good things though: 1. he's got the stamina to do it and 2. he's racked up enough overtime this week alone to be able to take a short, last minute vacation the first part of August!

  

Taken in 2019  

I officially started back to work last Thursday as well but today the entire staff was there. We had a staff meeting to talk about what things were going to look like the next few weeks and we were sitting so far apart from each other our pastor had to use a microphone! The new normal for 2020.

I looked out the window the other day and saw something laying in the driveway.

Diana used to have a Westie and that's kind of what it reminded me of but when I got closer I could see it was a bird, it looked like a seagull. It was big so I called the Department of Fish and Wildlife but it was the weekend so I was only able to leave a message. 

Then yesterday morning I'm sitting at the table and I hear a huge flock of crows just making the loudest noise, there must have been a dozen or more and I jumped up thinking they were all fighting over the bird.

Instead I saw this:

A bald eagle had picked it up and was trying to fly away with it! The crows all attacked the eagle so it dropped the bird and flew directly toward my window!  

We've lived in this house more than 19 years and this is only the 2nd time I've seen an eagle this close! I kept watching to see if it would come back but it never did. At least not then. When I got up this morning the bird was gone!

We had our first official church service this weekend. We could have 50 in the Sanctuary and 100 outside so the custodians and I worked on Friday to prep everything and get it all ready to take outside on Sunday morning. We had racks of folding chairs and masks and disinfecting wipes and kleenex and trash cans... there was a long list of things we had to comply with. But we did it and it was so good to be back together. Although I use the word 'together' somewhat loosely.

I can't wait for the day when we're ALL in the Sanctuary!

So what are you looking forward to the most once this social distancing ends?

Have you ever seen wildlife up close?

Email, Scans and Life At Home

A couple of months ago Outlook stopped working for us so we've had to go to hotmail.com to see our email. But we have 4 different email addresses (work, blog, etc.) and we couldn't just log out of one and into the other one. We had to wait 10 minutes or the previous email address would come up again. So I haven't been able to get your posts through email! Not very easily anyway. It's been so frustrating! Well today Chuck got Outlook working again! And of course it's one of those things where he can't tell me what he did. You know when you click on the same button you've been clicking on, only this time it worked?! Ah, technology. But now we have access to all of our email - woohoo!

Well, tomorrow Chuck goes in for his PET scan. The oncologist told us that because the cancer is on his scalp, it will drain into his lymph nodes and the scan will show how much it has drained and to which nodes, by the ears or in the neck. The ones in the neck are easier to get to and the ones by the ear have a facial nerve that is in front of the node and it needs to be moved to the side before they can do the surgery. It sounded like there was quite a risk. As of right now the surgery is scheduled for April 14. 

Chuck drives a metro bus and I've been concerned that he's still out driving when his immune system is compromised. But he got the okay yesterday to stay home! Plus he's got enough time built up that he'll still be getting paid. That whole situation is an absolute answer to prayer. A direct, without-a-doubt answer from God! 

God is so good!

In the meantime Beth and I been hunkered down at home. I only go out when I need to go the grocery store. Does anyone else feel awkward getting into your car? It's almost like I have to remind myself how to drive it every time I get into it!  

We have been trying to go for walks every day. There are a lot of people with that same idea!

 How are you coping?

I hope you're doing well. 

Stay safe and healthy!

Metro Rodeo

Chuck drives a city bus and every year they have what they call a Rodeo, where the drivers can take the buses through an obstacle course. A few weekends ago we sat outside on bleachers and cheered and moaned as they ran over cones and others just barely squeezed through tight spaces.

Then they took a break and we all ate a free lunch from Famous Dave's BBQ food truck. Oh it was so good!

The sun came out, they had a car show, free drinks... Chuck and I don't do stuff like this very often and we really had a great time!

They had a very old bus parked out there and we got to go in and check it out. 

 

The comparison between the old and the new was amazing! 

 

 

It's definitely not a desk job!

 

In the drivers seat of a 60' articulated bus.

 A clever play on words!

Chuck didn't participate this year but he's thinking about it for 2020!

 

 Ooops!

 I don't know how they drive those things! I was nervous just watching them!