Forgetting.

Well this morning has me a little un-nerved. I went to the normal place I keep the coffee and there was none. So I get a shower and get ready to run to the store. My brother is telling me you got coffee last night, and I said no that was a day or so ago. He gets up goes into the kitchen and lifts a bag with two containers of coffee in it. I’m saying where the hell did that come from, and he said you got it last night.

Now I’ve been sitting here trying to remember when I went and got the coffee and I don’t have a clue. When I went out and feed Tom this morning, I saw the car was moved from where I remember parking it. But I don’t remember any of this. I think I’m too young for Alzheimer's, but I’m not so sure.

I’m used to forgetting little things, but dammnnnnnnn! That’s a lot to forget.

Eating Before Bed.

Mil s-I-l made this baked taco salad she makes last night. It’s very spicy and not for the faint of heart. It didn’t get done until just before my bedtime, and I knew better, but I had a big plate of it. It was good, but for me eating something like that before bedtime is something that is always bound to make a hard night. I won’t even go into the strange stomach noises and all. But it did bring on a few nightmares. I’m not sure why the worst nightmares always have my X in them, but they do. However, I’ve been able to tell myself sometimes that this is just a nightmare and to wake up. The nightmares I really hate are when something horrible is going to happen, and I have no voice. As hard as I try to yell or scream, no sound comes out.

Luckily I haven’t had a nightmare in a long time that was so bad I couldn’t forget it once I woke up. It’s those nightmares that you think of for the rest of the day and when you’re ready to go back to sleep that night, you hope the same one doesn’t come back. Those are the ones I hate.

Anyway I relearned something. Don’t eat that spicy taco salad right before bedtime. This got me to wondering this morning though. If the spicy taco salad can give me nightmares, then is there a food that can give me the dreams you wake up from thinking that was excellent. If there were, I would be more than happy to stock up on that.

Does anyone have any foods that they consider promotes good dreams?

A Person Of Routine.

It appears my sleeping has been thrown off again, if only by a few hours. For the last four days I’ve been waking up at around 1:30 am and just going ahead and getting up. Now a lot of you may think this comes from taking too many naps, but no. The family’s radar has been out and just about the time I’ll start to drift off to napdom, they have something for me to do. So if anything, I’m nap deficient. The sleeping will level out soon enough, but I do hate to be thrown of my routine. It seems I’m a person of routine. When I was younger it didn’t matter that much, but the older I get I just need that routine.

Does anyone else get really thrown off when their routine is off?

A Different Perspective.

Have you ever had one of those “wake up” moments. One that I’ve never forgotten was while watching the Wizard of Oz. Now of days they show it all the time and you can get it on DVD. When I was a kid, it came on TV once a year and it was something you didn’t miss.

Well I’m at an age that black and white TVs were common when I was growing up. It wasn’t until I was older that the Wizard of Oz came on, and I sat down with some people to watch. We all know when Dorothy gets to Oz everything turns to color. I never knew this, and when I saw it, I was amazed and started asking when they changed the film and how good it looked.

OK it isn’t a huge “wake up” moment, but isn’t it strange how seeing something from a different perspective can change your outlook. I had seen the movie many times, but I had never seen it in color. All of a sudden it was like a new movie to me, and I watched it more intently than I had in years. I felt comfortable with black and white, but Oh Mama when color came through.

Morning Song.

A nice song to wake up to.

Israel Kamakawiwoʻole - Somewhere over the rainbow what a wonderful world.



Enjoy.

Thanksgiving At My Brothers

Well we had Thanksgiving yesterday at my brother’s house and it was good. Only 18 showed up this year. Had a lot of nieces and nephews that spent the holiday at their spouse’s relatives. That’s OK because I think everyone will be here for Xmas.

My brother has me jealous now. He had his basement finished out and besides his office he has a media room. He calls it a den, but he has a 56 inch HD TV, a Bose sound system, DVR and other stuff. There are very comfortable couches down there in front of the TV, so I sort of think of it as a media center. He also his office, a bathroom with full walk in shower, a small work out room and his garage down there. The weight room I could do without, but the bathroom I’d love to have.

I did spend some time on my brother’s computer. His son accidentally downloaded something that put a program in his start up menu. What it does is as soon as you turn on the computer, it call up internet explorer and start sending in pop-up after pop-up. At first I thought it was a pop up problem and downloaded a pop up stopper. Then I figured out it was a program that was doing this and deleted it from the start up menu and start up folder. I thought that would fix it. It didn’t. It kept reinstalling itself in the start up menu and folder. The pop-ups come so fast and take so long to get off that you basically can’t use the computer unless you unhook it from the internet. I told him he would have to carry it someplace to get it fixed.

Other than me having to drive and hour and a half both way to my brother’s house, this Thanksgiving turned out pretty good.

Hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving.

Oh I forgot to add. The day before T'giving all the neighbors were out mowing their lawns and getting leaves, pine cones and pine straw up. Their yards looked great. FMom was hinting for me to go out and do ours. I told her nope, that next day they would look like nothing had been done because high winds and rain were expected. Yesterday when we left the house, every lawn looked like ours. I feel so vindicated! :)

Off To Grandma’s House We Go.

A lot of people dislike the holidays, but I’ve never been one of them. As a kid I used to look forward to them from the beginning of the year, and I always felt that they couldn’t get here soon enough. Our holidays were always spent at my Grandparents house. Although through the many years of traveling these trips and the many different vehicles the one I remember the most was the station wagon.

FDad would pack it as much and tightly as possible with just leaving enough room to get himself, Fmom and us six kids into it. It was a 260-mile drive from where we lived to our Grandparents house and with all of us in the station wagon; the trips would go from singing and laughing to sibling arguments and battles. I mostly remember those trips as being good with the anticipation building with each mile closer we got to my Grandparents house. FDad always had the certain places he would stop on the trip. When I was that young, I didn’t remember the stops by town or the gas stations, but by what FDad got us. It was usually only a couple of stops, but I remember them as one, the barbecue sandwich and coke stop and two, the root beer float stop. Of course he always had his strategic bathroom stops for FMom and my sisters, but for the male part of the family it would be a pull over to a wooded area and run out there and get right back in. For the very youngest of the brothers, out of diapers and who couldn’t wait, it would be an empty coke bottle. I know, gross, but I wonder how many other families have done that too. Also you have to remember this was before 4-lanes were everywhere, and some gas stations were far and few between.

The trips were always good, but getting to Grandma’s house was the best. We were usually the last to get there and my Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and cousins would all be waiting for us. In my family we all loved each other, but I guess just as importantly we all liked each other. I can’t seem to recall any member of the entire family that wasn’t glad to see each, and ready to talk and get caught up on what’s been going on with each other. Of course we kids were ready to get caught up and tear through the house and outside looking for adventures. After everything had settled down, Fmom and my sisters would head out to the kitchen with Grandma and my aunts to start getting as much completed before the T’giving meal the next day as they could. We kids were oblivious to anything that needed to be done, because we happy to see our cousins our age and knew there would be nothing but fun and play this entire trip.

The next day, the entire mindset was the food. Grandma was always a great cook, but it seemed that each year she would outdo herself. At our holiday meals it just wasn’t the immediate family either. Whether it was friends of my Grandparents or elderly relatives whose children couldn’t be home with them, or friends of my aunts/uncles/parents we would always have 5 to 10 extra people eating with us. Grandma always had the best food and plenty of it. No one would come away from her table hungry.

Now Thanksgiving was just a build up to the most wonderful of holidays for a kid – Christmas. We had gotten to see everybody, but we knew that in one month we would all be back together again and this time there would be………wait for it………..PRESENTS! Oh how I loved and still do this holiday season.

Whether you have family coming to you, or you’re going home. I sincerely hope you have a joyous family filled holiday.

A Little Virus

It appears a virus has hit our house and Fmom and I have it. Thankfully Fmom doesn’t have it too bad, and what I have makes me so worn out that just taking care of Fmom feels like a monumental task. I don’t think I turned on the computer for two days, and really haven’t felt much like commenting when I have gone to my usual visits. I think I could take the malaise, but the (trying to be delicate here) regurgitating is really getting to me. If there’s anything I can be thankful for, it’s catching the virus now instead of around or on Thanksgiving. I’m hoping Fmom and I will be done with the stuff by then.

I haven’t forgotten ya’ll but I don’t think I’ll be posting for about a week, or until this is over.

A Heart Bypass I Don't Remember.

Awhile back FARfetched had been surprised that I had had bypass surgery, and I’m not sure I’ve written the whole story about that, so here goes.

One night while trying to sleep I woke up with the most horrible pain in my chest, neck and arms. I had had gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and gone through endoscopic surgery to correct it. So I thought this was just the GERD coming back. The pain became so intense I had to have my brother take me to the Emergency Room (ER). Once we got to the ER I was taken straight into a treatment room and hooked up to all sorts of monitors. The doctors were asking me questions, and I was also given a good bit of pain medicine. I would say half way through my stay in the treatment room my mind decided to check out and take a walk. I don't remember anything after that. It was decided I would stay in the hospital overnight for observations. Now I want you to understand that I made all these decisions. I said yes to everything suggested to me. However, as I said my mind had checked out and I don’t remember talking to any doctors half way through my time in the treatment room.

My sister was there the next morning with me. She said I talked to the Cardiologist and other doctors, and I was asking all the right questions. She said I seemed perfectly in control. Don’t remember that. It was found that I had two arteries that were 90% clogged and I was a walking heart attack waiting to happen. We came to a conclusion that I would have bypass surgery, and I’m sure I had input and had to sign papers for this, but I don’t remember it.

The next thing I remember is waking up and my back was killing me. I found out later it was from where they pull the ribs back to get at the heart. I’m trying to sit up again, and I realize I’m in a recovery room. More pain medicine and I’m on a walk again. A day later I’m move to a room. My Cardiologist and Surgeon came in the next morning and told me what had happened, and that I was doing fine. Now if you remember the mind went for a walk in the ER and to me this is the first time I’ve ever seen these guys. I was in the hospital for a total of 5 days. I must have gotten used to the pain medicine because from the time I was in my room, I remember everything. By the third day I was up walking all over the floor I was on, and I was thinking why does everyone say this is so bad, it not that bad at all. Oh was I wrong. I was still pumped so full of pain medicine that the getting up walking and moving around seemed like a breeze. One thing happened that I still think is funny. One night my sil was staying at the hospital with me. The nurse had just come in and given me something for pain and sleep. This was the first night they had given me something for sleep, so both effected me kind of funny. My sil said I sat up on the side of my bed and I was petting George and his brother Henry. I knew what my surroundings were and that my sil was there, but I saw George and Henry. Obviously George wasn’t there and Henry had passed away long ago. My sil got scared and asked me was I all right and did I know the dogs weren’t there. It was like I snapped out of a waking dream, and I told here yes I knew and not to worry. I then went ahead and went to sleep. I remember that entire thing. I remember seeing and petting George and Henry, but I also remember once I talked to my sil, that George and Henry were gone. It’s amazing what modern medicine can do for you.

After I got home, it was a very long recovery. Simple tasks such as taking a shower felt like it drained every bit of energy from me. The walking that seemed so effortless in the hospital now felt like I was dragging 100-pound weights. Oh and the breathing, the breathing was a killer. If I could have stopped breath until my chest stopped hurting, I most definitely would have. I’m not even going to bring up coughing or sneezing.

Well it took about 8 months for the pain to finally go away, and it’s 8 months I’ll never forget. During that entire time, I kept thinking if I had known beforehand what was going to happen, then it would have been a resounding no to all questions. I did find out though, that once enough pain medicine was given I’m still functional, but I don’t remember anything. Another funny thing about the whole episode is Fmom told me of all of her children, that she’d never thought I would be getting a bypass. The funny part about that is I thought the exact same thing.

So ends the tale of the bypass I don’t remember.

I Miss The 70’s.

OK I put this up in the café yesterday, but for some reason I’m listening to it again today. There are only a few songs that will get me to moving, well moving as much as I can/will now of days, but this is one. If you listen to it, high volume is advised.



Enjoy!

Oh and for you that want to know everything about your armpits, drop over to Nancy's place to read Death on the Armpit Express.

Just A Little Quirk.

Everyone has his or her little quirks. I’m no different from anyone else, and I noticed a new quirk yesterday. It appears when I drink milk; I drink it out of one glass, the same glass, every time. Even if it’s dirty and needs to be washed, I’ll pull it out of the dishwasher and wash it to drink my milk. It doesn’t matter that there is a clean glass in the kitchen cabinet, I always use that one. OK I know, very weird, but I just like that glass. It’s actually my nephew’s glass. When he was small it was one of those promotional things at a fast food place. So I’ll keep using my glass for milk when I’m eating my cookies, and one-day, I might graduate up to the grown up glasses.

My ET glass.

On to good news – I put Fmom’s cell phone together last night and it works! However, Fmom did scare me a little when I gave it back to her. She reminded me of Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. “Ahhhhh, my Precious.” I never knew it meant that much to her.

On to news of the weird – I refused to set my bedroom wall clock forward an hour earlier this year and thought I would wait it out. Extreme slackatude I know. A couple of days ago with the time change, it finally showed the right time. Yesterday it stopped. I need to put a new battery in it. Damn!

Accidents Happen.

Well Fmom is all up in the air. Last night when she was going back to her room to go to bed, she was carrying a glass of water and her cell phone. She started to set down her water and somehow the cell phone dropped into the glass. She got it out right away, but when she bought it to me, it was dripping water from the inside. I opened it up and used canned air to blow it out, and told her that we would have to wait until it completely dried out to see if it still worked. I told her to lets give it a couple of days to let it dry.

Now she’s beating herself in the head for letting something happen like that. I keep telling her accidents happen, and although this one rates pretty high as a weird accident, that she shouldn’t beat herself up about it.

Of course you know I’m never going to let her forget this though.

Some More Crazy Stuff.

I was watching the news yesterday and they showed a story about a passenger jet that was scraped by another and the tip of the wing got torn off. They de-planed the passengers and inspected it. The airline company said it was OK to fly, and the next day put the passengers back on the same jet. They showed pictures and it just wasn’t a little piece torn off. They said of all the people on the plane, only seven raised hell about flying on it.

Only seven people? I can only speak for myself, but if I see part of a wing off the jet I’m flying, I’m not taking anyone’s word that it’s safe to fly. I was going to post a picture, but I’m not sure on pulling it and copyright. So here’s the story with pictures. Torn Wing Story

I’m not a big fan of flying anyway, but I do think I would have to draw the line in this case.

Judging Crazy.

Everyone has their favorite TV shows, but some I just can’t handle. Fmom has her daily routine of shows she’ll watch. I don’t know why, but she’s hooked on the Judge shows. Judge Judy, Judge Alex, Judge this and that. She’s gotten to the point of when the people walk into the court that she picks out who is guilty. Oddly enough she’s right most of the time. At least she’s right in who the Judge will pick.

I guess I’m a sheltered person because I never knew that Judges and courts were that way. I never thought a Judge would go off on the people and call them stupid and all sorts of other names. I guess that’s what makes these shows so popular. Seeing the Judge get angry and acting worse than the people being judged.

I will admit that I am amazed sometimes on how well these Judges catch people lying. But the biggest thing I can’t understand is why people would go on national TV to air their dirty laundry. I’ve seen parents sue their children and the other way around. I’ve seen people come in and say I’m the king or queen and I take what I want. I’m honestly amazed at some of these people and wonder how someone that stupid has gotten by for so long.

I’ve always known there are crazy people out there, but to parade how crazy you are on national TV is just beyond me. Then again, I guess the Judges take up the slack on acting crazy too. What people will do to get on TV.

That Damned Cat!

Cat is on my list now. She hasn’t done this in a long time, but I guess to get my attention while I was asleep, she decided to use my bed as a litter box. I woke up feeling something wet and thought I’m too old to be doing this, and I’m not in the geriatric group to where this would happen. I didn’t even know she was in my room last night. She must have sneaked in while I was up last night. While I’m struggling to wake up and find out what happened, Cat is sitting on the edge of the bed just staring at me. I figured out real fast what happened, and Cat is now an outside cat.

I’ve already got the bedding in it’s second wash and everything else cleaned up, but that’s one hell of a way to wake up in the morning. To say I’m mad this morning is an understatement!

Our University.

I’m a prideful kid of guy. I’m proud of my county, all the people in it, my town and most especially the college in my town. Why am I prideful about it? Well just because it’s there. It was founded in 1832 as a Women’s Training College. It’s now a part of the Alabama University system. In my lifetime, it has gone through three name changes. From a teachers college, to now a university.

There are a lot of little towns throughout the Southeast, but I’ve always liked mine because of the college. We’ve had our problems as any little town, even southern towns would, but the college has always been here. It’s right in the middle of town, so there’s no missing it. I’ve always felt our college has made our town special. It has bought so many different people here. From the professors to the students there’s always something different that a normal little town wouldn’t see.

I remember back in the early 70’s we had an influx of students from the Northeast. Just about every one of them was of the hippie persuasion. Just about the entire town took to them from the beginning. The year they were seniors, the college annual had it usual section for the Greeks, but that years they added a section called Freaks and pictured all of them. We still have one living here who is a painter – houses and art. One year the city hired him to pain all the dumpsters in town. He painted all of them to where the whole town looked as if Peter Max had dropped by. Now those were the good old days. He’s a damned good artist too by the way.

I think the biggest thing the college has bought to our town is tolerance and understanding. I don’t know, maybe I’m living in my own little world, but I think the college has bought a lot to this little southern town. Plus it’s always fun to see what stupid things the new load of college students will do. [Insert smiley face]

Oh BTW, we’re finally getting a coffeehouse down by the college. I wonder how that will go?