Big Boy BooBoos Big Time

Working on a tug boat is hard. It's hard mentally, because you are away from home and family for an extended amount of time. You are gone half the year, which means that lots of holidays, birthdays, school plays, recitals and sports events get missed. (Did I mention the Superbowl? No???? Yup. He missed it. The sheer horror.........missing the Superbowl in the deep South where football is religion!) Butch hasn't been home for Christmas in 8 years. He has missed almost that many Easters and birthdays and even (gasp) Valentine's Day and our anniversary dates. And Halloween, not that we celebrate it. Most every Saint Patrick's Day too, he is motoring up and down the river, spraying green tinted water for the drunk tourists and locals as they party it up on the day that EVERYONE in the city is Irish.

It is also hard physically. There are a lot of heavy lines to pull and lift, lots of sanding, grinding and painting. Lots of boat washing to get the salt water off and protect the paint, lots of window cleaning to ensure good clear visibility for the Captain, lots of deck work to be sure things aren't slippery when wet and lots of lines to repair when they part. Lots of work and little sleep.

So, after a few years of this, it takes it's toll on the body. Enter Butch's latest boo-boo.....a torn meniscus.

I didn't know the human body had a meniscus, much less where it was or what it did or how bad it could HURT until I saw my man crumple in pain when he moved wrong. First, we saw our family doctor who injected the knee with Kenalog and prescribed Prendisone to help healing, suspecting arthritis or just a wrong move was the culprit. When those treatments lasted only a couple of weeks, an MRI was ordered and it showed the real issue....a torn meniscus.

It was a routine procedure, done as outpatient surgery. Butch came home the night before surgery so he could rest. I shaved his knee for him (SO THANKFUL Butch isn't a furry gorilla man) and fed him well before the imposed midnight fast began.

The next day we arrived at the hospital bright and early. Notice I did NOT say bright eyes and bushy tailed. I am neither of these before noon. If you want bright eyed and bushy tailed pre-noon, I suggest you go find yourself a squirrel.

Since we happened to know the head surgical nurse, she allowed our daughter to help with the prep before surgery. (The Princess plans to go into the field of Sports Medicine)

After he was scrubbed up, he got drugged up.....

And then surgery. It went very well, and the doctor was able to do the surgery exactly as he had planned. (There was a suspicion that the tear may be worse than seen on MRI, and that some plastic hooks and screws may have to be used. Praise God, they weren't needed.)

He came home and rested fairly well that night, but the next morning......drama. He couldn't feel his foot and his knee and calf were very swollen. We went to his doctor's office where they immediately drained 58cc of blood and fluid from the knee. Ew.

My poor man :(

After that, healing was easier. He lost almost a month of work, but he is back at it now. His only restrictions are not to kneel in water and to not dig at his incisions, lest they pop open. We've been blessed by so many friends, family members and church family during his time off work.  We are hoping he can work all week and not have any difficulties, so please keep us in prayer!

Perks of the Life :)

Some days it is hard being a tugboat wife. Some days, it's hard being a wife at all, but add in the adventures of river life, and you've got a whole new ball of wax! I kow it's hard for Butch too, he is away and misses a lot of holidays, special events, birthdays, school events, etc. Living with 3 other men half the year in a small confined place isn't a piece of cake by any means, I am sure.

But some things make this life all worthwhile! Since Butch works a week, and then is home a week, we are afforded a small luxury. It's called......"vacation when you want it".

Being able to get away for a few days is wonderful, but most people have to do it on weekends. That means, you leave for vacation tired and you come home tired and then go right back to work. It also means you travel on peak days and pay higher weekend rates at hotels. Not so for us!

Lat week, Butch whisked me away to the mountains of North Georgia and North Carolina to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary.  He knows the secret...take this Lowcountry girl to the mountains and you've scored MAJOR brownie points :)

Ah......this made it all worthwhile......definitely a BIG TIME PERKS!!!!!

Here's Butch and me, enjoying our day :)

 If you find yourself in the North Georgia Mountains, GO VISIT Crane Creek Vineyards! You will be glad you did!
http://www.cranecreekvineyards.com/

Eeeeewwwww......

Our Tug Florida needs some mechanical work and will be going to the shipyard. In other words, Butch's home away from home is experiencing some drama. (Boats and ships ARE female after all! Drama is ok here and there!)

In the days leading up to her vacation  imprisonment stay in the shipyard, some work has to be done prepping her up. While Butch usually gets quite dirty working on the deck, he's been helping out a lot in the engine room this week. To Butch this is a challenge and a change of pace. For me, it means Butch is destroying his clothes with grease, diesel fuel, oil, grime, dirt, and other such icky substances that I don't normally come in contact with. I can assure you he is happier than a pig in mud, because it seems that men, at least my kind of man, actually enjoys getting nasty, sweaty, stinky and greasy. Me? Not so much.

Let me clarify this nastiness by saying that I think normal people have two distinct sets of clothes. They have winter clothes, and they have summer clothes. But in our tugboat world, Butch has five-count 'em-FIVE sets of clothes. He has normal summer clothes, and he has normal winter clothes. But let's not be boring and ordinary and stop there...OH NO!

He also has boat clothes. Let me specify that these stay on the boat or in a sealed Rubbermaid bin in our closet because they have boat funk. Boat funk is a term I use specifically for items Butch wears or uses at work.  The boat funk is a unique fragrance scent aroma stench that emits from such items and cannot be washed out. No amount of laundry soap, fabric softner, Oxy Clean or Gain Fireworks can remove that special stench. They are clean after I wash them, but they still have that funk. Now you understand why this blog post is entitled "Ewwwwww", because that is what I say as I duck and run for cover.

Therefore:
He has Summer boat clothes, which consists of cargo shorts, muscle shirts and thin  t-shirts which can be any color except navy blue or black because he gets too hot in them. These attractive ensembles also require low cut socks but not footies, because he still has to work in heavy work boots with a 6" shaft. No flip flops or tennis shoes allowed! The accessories to complete this look include  bandanas to mop up sweat and wear under his hard hat and his fragrance of choice is Avon's Bug Guard bug spray in the green aerosol can. (The silver can doesn't provide as much protection it seems. Or maybe the bugs here just like the taste. And the "pump" bottle is just too much work)

Then he has his Fall wardrobe, which consists of the same t shirts from Summer,  along with a few darker colored ones just to mix it up. He keeps a couple pairs of cargo shorts, and adds a few pair of jeans. He keeps the short socks, to wear with cargo shorts, but adds in a few tall socks to wear with jeans. Butch will not wear short socks with long pants. Nope. Not this guy. Accessories still include the attractive bandanas, work boots and bug spray.

Then comes the Winter Wardrobe. Although living in Coastal Georgia it stays pretty warm compared to the rest of the country, temperatures drop down in the low twenties and teens with a wind chill on top of that. Let me also mention that my man is a little popsicle and naturally cold natured. Therefore, Butch has Winter boat clothes, which consist of flannel lined jeans, flannel lined cargo pants, thermal underwear shirts, long sleeved t-shirts, thick tall socks, flannel long sleeve shirts, hoodies and the aforementioned work boots. He also has an extensive collection of skull caps, waterproof gloves and this contraption I found him that is like a band of Polar Fleece that Velcros around his head and keeps his ears warm. It's like a girl's stretchy headband, only not stretchy but Velcro-y instead and not girly at all. It fits more snugly under the hardhat than a skull cap. Bug spray is kept on hand but rarely needed.

When Spring arrives, Butch basically edges back into the Fall wardrobe, but by then the t-shirts have usually all been replaced with new ones that are not sun bleached and paint covered. And bust out another few fresh can of the bug spray.

Now for home wear, the man has the same sets of clothes: the Fall/Spring ensembles, the Winter line and the Summer Collection. Then he has his church clothes, which are suits, dress shirts, shiny dress shoes, undershirts, ties, pocket hankies....oh wait...maybe I shouldn't say "pocket hankies" on my blog. Some other rough and tough tug boat dude might find out. Oh well. Too late :) Besides, I am a sucker for a man with a pocket hanky! He also has separate work clothes for yard work.

WAIT A COTTON PICKIN' MINUTE HERE!!!!!

That's.....EIGHT sets of clothes! And only one set is them is kept on the boat at a time! No wonder I don't have any closet space! This is totally unfair.....

I'm going shopping! ;)

Rough Seas at Home

Every notice how, when things seem to be going really well,

all of a sudden.....

something happens....

like this:

No, luckily that isn't Butch's foot.
If it were his foot, there would be lost days at work, no sicktime, no paid vacation......and oh yeah. The cast would be much bigger :)


Sadly, it is mine.
My foot.
My boo boo.
My owie.

So what happened you ask? Well, I stepped backward off my driveway. My heel went down and my toes went up and somewhere in the middle twisted. And I saw stars and nearly threw up. So glamorous is this life I lead.

The ER doc said I had broken my 5th metatarsal or my cuboid.  He was not impressed that my left side of my foot was numb and that I could not move my 3 smallest toes. He gave me Vicodin, which made me cry and sleep a lot. Butch and the Princess say I mumbled and spoke incoherently to myself. (I prefer to think of it as conversing amongst myself.) He also put me in a worthless foam Jesus sandal looking velcro shoe and gave me crutches. (Enter the Vicodin reference...I couldn't use those crutches to save my life. Who could use them, when they are asleep, nauseated, and talking amongst themself?)

I was referred to an ortho surgeon, because the ER doc said I had broken a bone in my foot and damaged some ligaments or tendons. The ortho doctor said the ER doc was crazy. My foot had no breaks anywhere. What I did, was damage a nerve somewhere in that whole "twisting my foot in the middle" part.

He gave me the stylish new Fall boot seen above, told me to stand up straight and wear a good fitting running shoe on my good foot and go home to rest, ice and elevate. WHAT???? A good fitting running shoe? I am SUCH a flip flop girl....but alas, I followed his advice.

So how does this all fit into a blog about being a Tugboat Wife? Largely because this accident occurred while Butch was home, BUT NOW HE IS GONE!!!!!!!!!!! Waaaaaaaaaaah! Who is gonna cinch up my boot for me? Who is gonna wrap my foot in the compression thing? Who is gonna pick up things I drop because I can't squat or bend without tipping over? The Princess of course! She is a HUGE help!

It's hard to be a Tugboat wife in times like this, when I am supposed to be keeping everything going smoothly at home. It's hard to be strong and say it doesn't hurt all that much when I want to scream and kick something with my good foot.  It's hard to accept that my 16 year old is runnig our household this week.

I am blessed. I have church family that have brought food, and my Mama came today and took good care of me. But for the most part, it's just me, the Princess, and the cats. I gotta heal.....and quickly!!! You can't lead a Tugboat Life as a Tugboat Wife who can't even walk!!! But we keep on...not exactly full speed ahead, but limping along the coastline, doing the best we can.

Ah yes...a familiar scene on the river. These tugs are pushing the giant ship to the dock to be unloaded. It is still amazing to me, after all these years, that these tiny tugs and push those giant ships into place with seemingly little effort. Butch says it's all about the twin screw blah blah prop blah blah blah propulsion blah blah things. I just nod and smile like I understand, and he seems satisfied that he has properly educated me :)

Ask me a question!

What would you like to know about our life? What can I share that you would be interested in?

The life that God chose for us...

I get asked a lot "Why did Butch choose this job?". The answer to that is quite simple. He didn't choose this job for our family. God chose it for him.

Eight years ago Butch was working at a local grocery store as a butcher (hence the nickname). The
grocery store used to fill all of the grocery orders for the tug company once a week. When Butch inquired about the orders, he was intrigued.

When it came for the groceries to be picked up, Butch found himself chatting with a really nice guy who enjoyed telling Butch all about the company and what they did. Butch was really interested!

There are several things I should probably point out about Butch, and here they are, in no particular order:

• Butch served in US Navy right out of highschool.
• Butch is hyperactive very active and could never sit still at any type of desk job
• Butch will talk to a post. (Hence chatting up the man with the groceries)
• Butch has had several careers since we married, but each job move has been a move UP!
• I don't know a man who works harder than Butch. He will tackle any job, and if you tell him he can't do something then you had better just sit back and watch while he does it.

The company that Butch works for now has two types of employees....full-time and relief list. The relief list guys are the guys waiting for a full-time spot to open up. They work on a call-out basis when a deckhand is needed due to sickness, injury, or the need for a personal day off. At this point there are about 6 guys on this list and some of them have been waiting for full-time work for 6 years.

When Butch was chatting up the man with the grocery order, he didn't realize he wasn't just talking to anyone. He was talking to a member of management in the office. Mr. Manager guy told Butch if he was interested to come talk to him. He liked that Butch had prior maritime experience with the Navy and probably also noticed that under the white meat coat there were some fairly nice guns produced by cutting meat, which would come in handy for a deckhand!

We discussed  the job  that evening when Butch came home. He went and talked to the company that week.  He put in his two week notice at the grocery store and began training on the boat on his off days.

SO......how do we know this was a God ordained thing???
Because Butch was hired immediately. In a full-time capacity.
Because in the Navy, Butch was certified in shipboard firefighting. (Did you know tugboats fight fires? That's another blog post!)
Because the job paid several times more than his current job.
Because it gives him JOY.
Because it gave us PEACE.
And because we know that God has a plan for us.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".  Jeremiah 29:11