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 |  Life Is A Roller Coaster, Help!
If life is a roller coaster, where's my lap bar? |
Life if full of ups and downs, ins and outs, and steep, 90 degree turns. That's what I'll write about in my blog. I'll talk about every day events as well as those life changing decisions that alter the course of all things that follow. I have been around for quite a while and have much to say. You may agree;you may not. Whatever you think please become involved and let me and other readers know how you feel. After all, what's it going to cost you?  In the words of a famous tracker, ", "Everything you do as you make your way through a desert, forest, or life leaves a mark. For good or bad everyone who follows knows where you've been and what you've done." A big thanks to ShellySunshine   for presenting me with a Birthday Merit Badge!!![Merit Badge in Birthday
[Click For More Info]
Let the Good Times Roll!!!
Happy B-Day!
Michelle](http://imgs.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Birthday-210.gif) |
| And Life Goes On |
| Mom was dismissed from the hospital on Monday night. It wasn’t because she was much better but because their insurance, Medicare, would not pay anymore. The doctor said because everything checked out physically there would be no more funds coming from Medicare to pay for a hospital room. He did emphasize that he didn’t see any danger with her going home. Once there she seemed to perk up a bit and show some understanding that she had been in the hospital for a few days. She slept well that night and yesterday I spent the day with them, mainly to observe. To say the least, she is not herself. Today I’m staying home in an attempt to get some things caught up. I called this morning to check on them and everything seemed to be in order. So, it’s back to the business of life, doing those things that we do every day that give life meaning. I guess in some way it’s the mundane, balancing the checking account, changing sheets on the bed, writing a blog, that adds substance to life. After all, where would we be without those daily tasks? I’m guessing you’ll all answer vacation.  Until I need a break from the commonplace and sneak away to a warmer climate I’ll embrace the everyday tasks that bring meaning and order to life. Until next time.  |
| Ageing Parents |
| Mom is still in the hospital and the doctors are still not sure how she arrived at the level of dementia she is at now. The only things they have found are an abnormal EEG reading which indicates slowed brain activity, low vitamin B12 levels, and a low muscle fiber count, can’t remember the medically correct name for that one. I’m afraid the long days are getting to me. Anyway, they are basically saying they don’t know for sure what’s going on. The treatment for now will be B12 shots and an antidepressant. Their thinking is that sometimes depression can bring about dementia. One of the sadder aspects of this ordeal is watching my dad. He is in complete denial at the moment. He just can’t accept that his wife of 56 years may be changed in a way that he will never be able to hold a normal conversation with her. Each day when the doctor leaves he will only talk about the possible recovery, that the shots and the pills will make her like she was before. While this is a possibility, it’s very doubtful. Our family is now having the difficult conversations about what happens when she goes home. Currently she can’t dress herself, she can’t go to the bathroom by herself, and she has to have help doing the simple things that make up daily life as in brushing her teeth, and combing her hair. My aunt called the hospital after I left Friday night and spoke to my dad. She said he was depressed because he couldn’t talk to my mom. Now I feel I need to be at the hospital as much as possible to try to keep him in good spirits. So, with that in mind I need to head back to the hospital now. I’ve been lucky up to this point with my parents. Now it looks like the hard part begins. Until next time. |
| Another Bump in the Road |
| Yesterday was another bump in the road for 2010. My mom, who is 75, was taken to the emergency room by my dad, who is 87. She was then admitted and is still there. The doctor is still not sure what’s wrong but it seems to be some sort of delirium or dementia. The hardest part was watching my dad as the woman he’s been married to for 56 years was seeing things that weren’t there and talking to people who were totally in her mind. Although she still recognizes us it takes her a moment to get it out, very hard to watch. This is a short entry today because I’m off to the hospital. Until next time. |
| Snow, Online Banking, and Mrytle, the Trifecta of Doom |
| I sit here quite content as the dreaded doom of 5 inches of snow marches in my direction. I’m content because I have groceries and my wife will work from home on Thursday and Friday. So, unless the weight of the snow crushes my house I’ll be okay. The frigid temperatures are another thing. I hate cold weather. When it’s hard to stay warm inside the house, it’s too cold. When I have to wear socks to bed, it’s too cold. Have I mentioned lately how much I HATE COLD WEATHER? In the continuing saga of the overdrawn checking account, I’m at a loss. Today, Bank of America, my mortgage holder, told me it could take until February 2nd to refund the extra payment I sent them.  I was dumbfounded. How, I asked, could it take that long when my bank gets it from my account to yours in one day? What, I asked, would you do if I paid my mortgage payment that way? Both of these questions were at first met with silence followed by an, “I’m sorry, sir.” If I ever make this mistake again I should be shot at dawn without a blindfold.  Last night I received a call from Myrtle. She started prattling on about her new neighbors down in Florida. “Florida,” I asked. “I thought you were in Memphis?” “I couldn’t find any real men in Memphis,” she answered. “Without any real men to keep me warm I had to move south.”  I shivered, not at the thought of being cold but at the thought of Myrtle cuddling up to me on a chili, Memphis night. Let’s just say, there isn’t enough Tennessee whisky in the whole state to make that happen. All I could manage to say was, “Oh.” That was soon followed by another involuntary shiver.  “I could always come back to Ohio,” she said.  That’s when my own screaming woke me up. Maybe in a later blog entry I can describe Myrtle to those of you who might be new to her, let’s call them, quirks. Now I’m off to drink one of those bottles of Tennessee whisky. I hear it acts much like Whiteout does, but for the memory. |
| A Metaphorical Pot-Hole |
Well, today I hit an early pot-hole in 2010 which put a hold on the dream that the troubles of 2009 were behind me. I woke up this morning, unsuspecting. Brewed my cup of coffee and sat down at the computer. As I do most every day I logged on to our bank account to balance and make sure everything was as it should be when I see a huge negative balance. Of course, I dropped a load in my shorts, got sick to my stomach and got light headed. After a few minutes of shear panic I see that my mortgage payment has come out of the account twice. While I pride myself on making payments on time, I don’t do it when there isn’t enough money in the bank. After calling my bank and digging a little deeper I discovered it was my fault. I had scheduled the payment twice. Who wouldn’t have thought that online banking wasn’t idiot proof?  To make a long story short, my mortgage company will refund the payment when it shows up on their books, which may take up to 48 hours. On top of that my wife called. We had snow last night and the roads were pretty messy this morning. Her washer fluid wasn’t working and the antifreeze in the radiator was low. This was surprising because I just took it to one of those oil change places where they check and top off your fluids. So, she had to buy antifreeze and wiper fluid and then put them in to their prospective spots in the car. I hope she got it right. To say she was not a happy camper was an understatement. I was upset with this early turn of events in 2010. Not the way I wanted to start the New Year. After thinking about it for awhile I’ve convinced myself this may not be a bad thing. The odds have to be with me that things will only get better from here, right? I guess only time will tell. On the bright side, it’s not snowing now and everything, except the streets, are coated in a fresh blanket of pure white snow. I’m not crazy about snow and like the cold weather even less but I have to admit, when everything is covered in a quieting blanket of snow the world is a magical place. So, when I’m finished writing I’m going out into this magical, snow covered world and make a wish that I could have a mulligan on this New Year. |
| The First Step |
Well, it’s finally here, the beginning of the first full week of 2010. I am looking forward to the new year expecting it to be much better than 2009. I believe that home values will rebound, unemployment rates will drop, and banks will start lending again. Call me an optimist but I believe it’s going to happen this year. Enough of the pep talk rhetoric; it’s going to happen so there.  I did it. I stepped on the scale and received the bad news. There’s some weight to be lost in Dougerville. Today is the first day of the new diet and I’m already starving to death. Okay, that may be a little dramatic but that’s how it feels. If the truth were known I could probably go a few months without eating and not suffer any bad health effects. I’ve taken the first step and that was getting on the scale. I also realize that losing weight isn’t the hard part. Keeping it off is where the real work begins. So, I know I’ve got even more fun to look forward to.For those of you who are counting today is blog number four in the New Year. My New Year’s goal is safe for another week. Until the next blog, stay safe and try not to get hit by any crashing New Year’s resolutions.   |
| Health and the New Year |
| With the New Year now fully in bloom I’m forced to look ahead at my health and concerns that I have in that area. In 2006 I began to have problems with memory, confusion, and my health in general. In August of that year I was standing at the mirror one morning getting ready for work. Suddenly the room was spinning. I stepped from the bathroom into an adjacent, carpeted room just as I went down. (this noodle of mine really didn't need another sharp blow) Shortly after that an MRI confirmed I had a stroke. Two weeks later, while on the phone with my dad I had another, more severe stroke. This time it affected my balance, memory, feeling on my left side and strangely enough, my ability to do math. After months of testing it was discovered that I had a blood disorder called Lupus Anticoagulant. This disorder causes the blood to clot which is odd considering its name. As soon as they found this I had to begin giving myself shots of blood thinner in my stomach, hard at first but it soon became easy. Along with the strokes came neuropathy in my legs and arms, weight gain, muscle pain, and Type 2 Diabetes. I’m also on a lifetime blood thinner regiment, high blood pressure medication, and now my body doesn’t process vitamin D. Even with these problems I consider myself lucky. The results of the stroke could have been much worse. This past year, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I had an experience where I thought I was dying. The doctors were trying to manage my pain and I had started two new drugs. A reaction left me fighting to breath, confused, and unable to stand. This prompted my wife to call 911. Fortunately I recovered quickly and did not need to spend any time in a hospital. The drugs were stopped and the problem solved. Still, I have lingering thoughts of that night and how I thought I was leaving this world. At the time I was unable to communicate so, unable to tell my wife goodbye. With this in mind I’ve decided to try to work on a few things. The most important of which will be my weight.  Since I’m unable to exercise due to muscle weakness and pain it will most likely be difficult and slow but I believe, in the long run, it will be worth it. Tomorrow, January 4th, will be my weigh in and the first day of the remainder of my life. I’m not sure if I will reveal my weight since it is somewhat embarrassing but I will announce how much or how little has been lost. I’ve gained 100 pounds since the first stroke and really look forward to being able to announce that those unwanted pounds are behind me, figuratively. So, until tomorrow, remember that each day is a building block for the remainder of your life.  |
| Like an Unwanted Guest |
| I own a PlayStation 3 which I love. It’s both a game system and a Blue Ray DVD Player. My problem with the PS3 are the games that are available for it. Recently I purchased a game called ‘Uncharted 2, Among Thieves.’ The game is rated 10 out of 10 by Game Informer magazine and several other sources. I began playing it and first noticed how great the graphics were and then the game play. The next thing I noticed was the language. When I converse on a daily basis I don’t curse. Occasionally, when I mash a finger,drop something, or get really mad, I may fling a @#%$ out but that’s it. Afterward, I feel bad about loosing control. This game, which is rated “T” for Teen, has the characters cursing with almost every other word. If I had a visitor come into my house and they talked like that around my kids and grand kids, I’d ask them to either leave or clean up their language. I’ve always viewed cursing as a sign or symptom of a lack of intelligence. I can’t think of anything to say that will move the conversation forward or I can’t get a grasp on adjectives and adverbs, so I curse. No, I don’t live under a rock and I do understand that many people do sling the F word around like french fries in a fast food restaurant. But come on. Why put it in a game? It makes no sense to me. The only thing I can think of to do about this is to stop buying the games. With that in mind I’m trying to convince my wife that I, we, need a Wii system.  I know there are probably games that are made for the system that use questionable language but from what I can tell, most of the games offer clean, family fun. Of course, I’ll keep the PS3 around so I can watch those Blue Ray DVDs.As far as I’m concerned, the characters in in those games are like unwanted guests in my home. So, since I can’t make them stop I’ll just have to ask them to leave. Either that or I play it when I’m the only one at home. But that feels really hypocritical. So, until next time, I’ll be wrestling with my moral convictions and my wife, trying to convince her of the need for a Wii in the house. |
| Hello, New Year |
| I’d like to salute the new year and new year’s resolutions. I only mention resolutions because one of mine is to write in my blog at least four times a week. Everyday would be a better resolution but who am I kidding? Trying to blog everyday would be, for me, like trying to climb Mt. Everest in my street shoes. Of course, even if I had the latest in mountain climbing foot apparel, I’m not going to be able to climb Mt. Everest or any other good sized slope. In other words, four days a week is the best I can hope to do. As Mark Twain said, “New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.“ Only time will tell if I can keep this resolution or if it ends up on main street in hell. On the bright side I’m sure I know a few people who have a permanent residence in hell. If my “good resolution” ends up lining the streets of hell maybe those folks will say, “Hey, I know that guy.” I’m sure everyone in hell needs a little distraction and I wouldn’t feel too bad about doing my part. Moving forward I hope to include life’s little nuggets, as I see them, news, television, health, and maybe even chart my other resolution, weight loss. I think that next year I might make a “good resolution” to try to focus my train of thought. Until next time, Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man,” borrowed from Ben Franklin. |
| Still Cold, Still Snowy and I'm Still Alive |
| It is still cold, still snowy, and, of course, still winter. I had to sit on my hands to get my fingers warm enough to type this short blog entry. It is supposed to warm up to around thirty degrees by Thursday. I can't wait. Until then I hope everyone else stays warm. |
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