ATTENTION, ATTENTION, ATTENTION.

Hell has frozen over. That can be the only explanation I can find for this. But believe it or not Andi has opened a blog of her own. I was just over there and it appears that everyone has fallen out of their chairs to the floor they were so surprised to see that Andi has a blog.

The name of her blog is:

40 Acres More or Less

You can get to it by clicking on the name or it's on my Blog Roll to the left.

She has just started it, but I can see it’s going to be a very visited blog. When you get a chance, go over and join the rest of us laying on the floor in total surprise.

More Of The Same.

I called the dental school yesterday and told them I’m still having trouble with the extractions they did last Wednesday. The people there said I had to come in and see the dentist before they could do anything for me. So this morning I left on a five-hour round trip to see the dentist. I get in B’ham and the parking garage I usually go to is full, so I finally find a place about two blocks away. It has a parking meter that is only for thirty minutes, but I say to hell with it because two blocks is way too far for me to walk anyway. After having to stop walking about five times so my leg would stop hurting, I finally make it. Luckily I’m not waiting for long before they call me back. I tell the doctor what has been going on, and I tell him I would have thought by this time the pain would have stopped. He looks at my mouth and the extraction sites and told me he didn’t think there was any infection. I told him I had a dry socket about thirty years ago and I didn’t want to chance one of those again. I also told him I had been taking Advil for the pain, but it wasn’t doing any good plus it was tearing up my stomach. So the doctor gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and a mouth rinse I’m supposed to use three times a day. He said that for the pain to keep using Advil and the antibiotics should take care of it in a couple of days. I do the same walk and stop back to my car and luckily there is no ticket on my car for the meter expiring.

So I came away from this with some questions. He said he saw no infection, but he prescribes antibiotics. I tell him Advil is doing nothing for the pain and tearing up my stomach, but he says to stick with the Advil. I sort of feel like I made a five hour round trip for nothing. If anything I felt pretty patronized. I’m back home and my mouth is still hurting. I’ve taken a lot of Advil and I’m drinking glass after glass of milk, so hopefully my stomach will be OK. I’m just hoping that in the next couple of days those antibiotics will do whatever they’re going to do and stop my mouth from hurting.

I didn’t get to see the Cardiovascular Surgeon on Monday because he had a family emergency. So I’m rescheduled to see him this coming Monday. So I’m looking at in the next month or so, I’ll be able to eat normally again and walk more than twenty yards without stopping.

I usually try to come away from things with a positive attitude. So for today I’ll say I’m happy I made it up there and back without an accident, car trouble or anything else happening. I’ll say I feel lucky I found a relatively close parking space and I didn’t get a ticket. I’ll also say I feel lucky that I got into to see the doctor pretty fast and didn’t have to wait hours and hours.

Now that I think of it, damn I’m one of the luckiest people in the world!

Hope everyone is doing fine this week and take care.

FM

What’s Going On Around Here?

I’ve got rels at the house for the next week or so. It’s my brother that’s had two by pass surgeries and now arterial neck surgery. I’ve been doing more running (hobbling) for he and his wife in the last four days than I have for myself in the last month. I’m glad to see them, but if I had known I would have had to do this much errand running, I think I would have told them to stay with their kids.

George is in continuous bark mode. As I’ve said before, I got George as a puppy from this brother and sil, but George hates and is very afraid of this brother for some reason. My brother has never done anything to George, but that’s just the way George is. I’m sure by the time they leave both George and I will be in need of a long rest.

On Monday I go to see a Cardiovascular Surgeon. It has gotten to the point with my right leg that I can’t walk more than twenty yards without having to stop because my leg will hurt so badly. A Cardiologist explained to me that when my leg hurts, it was from a build up of nitric oxide and that the muscles weren’t getting enough oxygen. So the Cardiovascular Surgeon will determine what has to be done to get more blood flow into my legs and feet. Actually I didn’t expect stuff like this to start happening for another ten to fifteen years, but when you have by pass surgery at fifty years of age, what can you expect.

I’m still trying to get over that dental work done last Wednesday. The people at UAB Dental School did an excellent job, but instead of extracting (pulling) a couple of teeth, they had to dig. It still hurts down into my jaw to the point of my chin. I definitely look like a chipmunk after gathering up a ton of acorns. I’ve decided that if this keeps going the way it is on Monday after I see the Surgeon, I’ll call the dentist and see what can be done. On the bright side, I do think I’m loosing weight.

OK enough doom and gloom. What’s been going on here that upbeat? Well it feels like summer is here. Everything is green and the lawn is mowed. Of course it’s not mowed by me, but it’s done still the same. I’ve gotten to the point of putting new batteries in my camera and I just might make it out the door with the camera. My brother that’s here said he’s going to have someone come over Monday and do all the flowerbeds and get the rest of the lawn looking good. My sil said she is having someone else come over and give the house a complete going over inside. I told them that’s more than fine with me, just as long as I could be my usual slackerly self and do nothing.

Well the brother and sil have called and ordered some food, and I’ve got to go and pick that up for them. So I’ll say, “See Ya”, until next time. I do hope everyone is doing well, and I hope everyone is having an enjoyable w/e.

Take care

FM

W and His Parents.

When we lived in our second house in Arkansas, I thought I had moved to the city. The first house we lived in had no one around except my uncle’s house and a few others. No stores - no anything except cotton and soybean fields and a gigantic pasture with trees behind our house. Our new house had a store next to us and another one about 100 yards away. All of a sudden there was cokes, and candy and cakes – Oh boy! That’s not what I remember the most about living there though.

A lot of the houses and stores were built up. It had to do with the 1927 Mississippi River flood. The store next to us was three stories tall. The bottom had a dirt floor, and was used more for a storage/shop area. The second floor was the store and where the D’s lived. They ran the store and lived in the back. The top was the attic, which could have housed another family.

The D’s I remember most specifically. They were my grandparent’s age and they had a son – W. W had been married and doing pretty good. He was in a car wreck and became a quadriplegic. From what I could gather at my age back then, his wife found someone else, divorced him and W had nothing left and no where to go except to his parents. His parents loved him very much and in the back of their store, in the small area they had to live they had a small room for W.

W was one of the first people I ever thought of as a hero. I was only about 8 or 9 at the time, but I became friends with W. I can remember his room right now. It had two windows facing to our house and yard. He had a TV and books. He had a hospital bed that he always was in except when his parents got him up into his wheelchair. When I got to know him, his arms and legs were very thin and he didn’t seem that big. I know he must have been a very big man at one time because I always thought of his father as a giant. I look back now and think, W was a good man and his parents were exceptional.

Anyway I used to go over to see W everyday. I would climb up the back steps to the second floor where at the back of the store they lived. I would walk right into the house since no doors were every locked there and knock on W’s door. It was usually around the same time everyday and W knew it was me and he would yell my name and come in. W and I would always talk for a long time or we would sit and watch TV and sometimes we would sit and not say anything for a long time. I think the not saying anything times were the ones I like the most. It’s like when you have a good friend, you know you don’t have to talk, you can enjoy just being around them. W and I were good friends for a long time, then one day his parents closed the store and moved back to their original home. W explained to me that his parents were getting to old to take care of him by themselves so they were moving back home to where they had family that could help out. Of course I missed W and his parents very much. I didn’t get to see them again for about 10 years, but they seemed in good health and happy too.

You can’t really appreciate something like this until you get older, but I feel privileged to have known W and his parents. W taught me about living through adversity and about attitude. His parents taught me about love and sacrifice, most especially between family. Sometimes when you’re young, you are given gifts in the way of life lessons. W and his parents gave me these gifts just by living their lives as best they could, and letting me become part of their lives, even for a short time.

Two Stories About Two Uncles and An Aunt.

I can remember from when I was a kid two stories my family told about the uncle I was named after. The uncle I was named after was my grandmother’s brother. He was already an old bachelor when I was born and he was Fdad’s boss. He owned a large farm in Arkansas and once WWII was over and Fdad got out of the navy, he moved Fmom and my oldest sister to Arkansas to work for my uncle. Uncle N had a large wood frame house and his sister and her husband, Aunt H and Uncle D, lived with him. Uncle D had some serious health problems that kept him from working and Aunt H took care of both Uncle D and Uncle N.

By the time I was born and growing up to around eight or nine, we lived about a quarter of a mile from Uncle N’s house. By that time there were four of us children, my two oldest sisters and my older brother. Since we only got to see my grandparents once or twice a year, my two great uncles and great aunt were more like our quasi-grandparents. Uncle L was more of a stricter grandparent type while Uncle D and Aunt H were the spoil them rotten types.

We lived on the farm way back from anything. We had to drive around 8 or 9 miles to get to a paved road and then the nearest town (pop. 48) was another 8 miles. The nearest city to us was around 32 miles away. It had a population of 8000-9000.

The first story is about the time Uncle N was driving to the city. There was an old metal bridge going over a river that was about half way to the city. It was a narrow bridge where when two cars met on the bridge they would slow down so as not to hit each other or the side of the bridge. Well Uncle N had driven onto the bridge and was about half way over when a big semi trailer truck came onto the bridge also. Obviously neither one could get pass the other and Uncle N just sat there. The trucker got out and started yelling at Uncle N that he had to back up so he could get by. Uncle N told him he was on the bridge first and the trucker would have to back up. The trucker kept yelling at Uncle N and Uncle N got mad. He grabbed his keys out of the car and told the trucker if he wanted the care moved, then he would have to move it. He then proceeded to throw his keys into the river. From the way the story goes traffic backed up, the state police show up and finally a wrecker shows up and moves Uncle N’s car. Fmom told me Uncle N was mad for weeks about it because he thought the wrecker should have moved the truck.

The second short story about the time Uncle N and Uncle D went down to Florida to visit relatives. The part of the story I never understood is how when they were getting ready to come home, something happened to both of their glasses. I don’t know if they lost them, broke them or what, but they had to drive back to Arkansas without their glasses. Fmom told me that all the way back Uncle N who was driving would watch ahead and make sure he didn’t go over the lines in the middle of the highway. Uncle D would watch on the right and make sure Uncle N didn’t get to close to going off the road. Now I don’t know if this story is true, but from remembering Uncle N and Uncle D, I wouldn’t put anything like this past them.

Although I loved both uncles and aunt, I never did get to know them as well as I wanted to. By the time I was old enough to appreciate them, Aunt H and Uncle D moved to Florida to live with their children. Uncle N made Fdad the foreman for his farm and we moved to a different house about 7 miles away from Uncle N’s house. About a year after we moved to the new house Uncle N passed away from a heart attack. I was told the night he passed, he was leaving a poker game and pulled his car over to the side of a dirt road he was on. The people who found him said it looked like he was trying to get his bottle of nitroglycerin pills out of his pocket.

It’s funny how when you’re young you don’t have the time or interest to get to know the older people in your family. Just as now I feel lucky to have had time to be around Fmom these past years and listen to her stories of years gone by, I wish I had been old enough and patient enough to listen to my uncles and aunt. I wish that since they played such an important part in my early life, that I had gotten to know the people they were.

The Dental and Other Appointments.

Well I went to the dentist and it didn’t turn out as I expected. They did less than half of what they told me they would be doing. Plus I was totally disappointed with the Nitrous. I thought it was supposed to me you not care and a little happy. I was very nervous through out the entire thing and I kept thinking to myself that this is the same as when I’ve had other dental work. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought they were giving me straight O2.

So after I left there I went to my brother’s house and stay for a couple of hours. There was hardly any bleeding and I wasn’t hurting that bad, so I came on home. Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to the appointment I have on the sixteenth.

Over the last month I’ve been moving all my stuff from my old room in what was Fmom’s room. At first it was kind of odd being in there, but I’ve gotten used to it. Plus now I have twice the room I had and a full bathroom. My biggest problem is since I put all my junk in boxes and plastic bags to move it over, now I can’t find a damn thing. I haven’t sent my taxes out yet and it took me a week of digging through stuff to find my papers and everything – most frustrating.

It appears this coming month is filled with doctor’s appointments. The one I’m looking to most is an eye appointment. I haven’t had my eyes check in years and the glasses I wear are at least 15 years old. The newest pair I had broke on me a couple of year’s back and I dug through all the old glasses I had and found these. Although they’ll do, I have noticed that I see clearer looking through the bifocal part. So needless to say it will be nice to be able to see far off again. Heck just to see the TV without having to tilt my head back to look through the bifocals will be good.

It has turned kind of cold down here, but I see that a few of you are still lucky enough to be getting snow. I know ya’ll would be glad to trade, and I would be glad to trade ya. Come July and August I’ll be more than glad to trade you the hot weather we have.

I hope everyone is doing well and take care.

A Long Night.

I don’t know why I do this, but sometimes when I have an appointment in the mornings, I’m not able to get to sleep. Then when it only three or four hours before I had planned to wake up, I’ll start worrying that if I go to sleep now, I won’t hear the alarm and I’ll over sleep.

So I have a dental appointment in B’ham this morning and in a couple of hours my alarm clock will go off to wake me up. Obviously I’m not even going to try and catch a nap now. In two hours I’ll start drinking coffee and start getting ready for the trip. If the appointment were in my town or even thirty minutes away, I wouldn’t worry about it. But I have to drive up past B’ham to my brother’s house. He lives about two and half-hours away from here. The reason for this is they’re going to give me Nitrous for these extractions. So I have to have a driver to take me home. My brother has taken a day off from work so he could do this, and I’ve thanked him over and over for doing this.

So after the oral surgery is done, I won’t be coming right back home. My brothers and sister have insisted that I spend the night at my brother’s house. My sister told me that in case I started bleeding or something happened that they wanted me near the dentist in B’ham, not two and half-hours away. I’m usually the most logical one in the family, and I hate it when logic is turned back on me. However, I’ve been thinking, and I’m just not looking at this the right way. This is the way I should have been looking at it.

When I get back to my brother’s house, I’ll be in a lot of pain and after being up all night, well I’ll need people that will wait on me hand and foot. I can see it now. I’ll call for my brother to bring me a glass of ice water. When he gets there with the ice water, I’ll tell him that there’s not enough ice in the glass and would he go and put one more cube in. If he starts to complain, I’ll just put my hand on my cheek and moan how bad it hurts. Then I’ll remind him of each and every single thing I’ve ever done for him in his life. Although Andi tells me that I don’t come close to the guilt trips her mother can do, I still think that through the haze of pain I might have a good time today. :)

Well it’s time to start drinking coffee and getting ready for that long trip. I hope everyone has a good day today.