Peace and Quiet!

This weekend all the family will be leaving for Orlando, but I’ll be staying home by my own choice. I figured I would do better with some peace and quiet here at home than going down to FL and going through all that. Plus although a lot of stuff would be taken care of by my younger brother, I figured all the money I would have spent down there would be better used and saved for upcoming doctor and dental appointments.

I’ve had my older brother, sil, and great niece and her friend here for almost two weeks. George has been in a constant bark mode, and I’m basically worn out from all the noise and mayhem around the house. I will be more than happy when everyone clears out and it is nice and quiet around here. Also I’ll be happy to have some locked doors in the house. For some reason all of them thinks it’s just fine to leave every door unlocked all night. I got up last night around 12:30 am to get some water and I glanced at the patio door and it was cracked open. I thought what the heck and went over and closed and locked it. I thought then that I had better check all the doors and not a single one of them were locked. As I said in an earlier post we have been having a string of robberies around here. Last week the city hall was broken into and when I got the local weekly paper today they had down the city hall had been burglarized again. It seems that things go in cycles around here and if things go as usual, the robberies will slack off for a year or two and then start back up. What can you do except keep things locked.

I got a call from my sister across the street this morning and she asked me a favor. I told her I would do as she asked but I would not be responsible for the outcome. She has four big ferns that she wants me to water everyday while they are in Orlando. I told her I had never had any luck with plants and I had the opposite of a green thumb, but I said OK. Although I will water them everyday I keep getting this picture in my mind of four pots of brown dead ferns on her return. What ever happens, you can’t say I didn’t warn her.

Well I hope everyone’s week has been going fine and I hope you all have a good weekend coming up. I know I’ll have a good weekend that is once it gets quiet.

Everyone take care.

FM

Ten Things

FAR got picked by his friend Wolly to say 10 honest things about himself, then FAR had to pick seven people who had to say 10 honest things about themselves. My buddy FAR picked me to say 10 honest things about myself. Oh lucky me. It has taken me a little while to get these up, but here they are.

1. I’m stealing one from Wolly and FAR where as I don’t tell it all on the blog. I try to tell the good stories about my family because they might run up on my blog someday, and I never blog about my marriage or divorce because that’s once crazy assed woman I divorced.

2. Only through the kindness of my brothers and sister do I have a roof over my head at the moment. That all could change in the up coming months, so I don’t know if I’ll be here or somewhere else.

3. Since I’ve retired from the military, I’ve really become a very lazy person.

4. Although I grew up on a farm, I hated farm work. I couldn’t wait to get away from the farm and into the city.

5. I’m the most liberal person in my family.

6. I learned when I started college that if I worked really hard I could get good grades. I just didn’t work really hard.

7. I think the military was probably the best thing that could have happened to me. Without it and my retirement insurance I probably wouldn’t be alive right now.

8. This is an old one that everyone knows, but I really do love my family. However, they are a pain in the a** many times.

9. I go to political blogs a lot of times, but I hardly ever comment in the political parts. Mainly because even after all these years I feel I don’t know enough. Also because the first time I ever commented on a political blog I was called stupid. So I just keep quiet and read.

10. I think actually in my opinion I don’t look as old as I sound. While I was in the military when asked my age I was always told I looked 10 years younger than my actual age. Now that I’ve had over 10 years of retirement, it might have swung around the other way to looking 10 years older than my age.

11. I just thought of this one so I'm adding this one in. It goes back to #9 about the political blogs and it might be kind of long. I have yet to understand how people can go to these blogs, regardless if it's left or right, and sometimes thought to be taken seriously. When I read a post or comments where the writers are calling their opponents names, giving insults or worse I sometimes think I'm back in the school yard listening to little kids yelling "My dad is better than yours." I've been to many political blogs where I see just pure hate spewed out. It has gotten me to thinking that no wonder our political system is screwed up. If people on a blog can't sit down and have a thoughtful conversation about a subject without hurling insults or hate then what more do we expect from our elected officials. Just a thought.

A Boob Job For The Teeth!

Things are changing! I drove to the city to see the dentist today. I guess I’ve been going so much lately to the city it was a pleasant drive until I started to get off the interstate. Traffic backed up and some lady misjudged her speed and had to go to the right almost in a ditch to miss hitting the back end of my car. Luckily she didn’t go into the ditch and both cars came out unscratched. I finally found a parking space and hobbled to the dental clinic. When I went to check in they told me my appointment wasn’t until tomorrow the third. I told them I was supposed to have some extractions and then an upper denture put in today. So they sent me to the fourth floor (Dental Surgery), and they told me the same thing about my appointment being the third. I then went back to the second floor and talked to the student/doctor coordinator. She set out trying to find my student and after waiting around for about forty-five minutes she finds my student and I was right. It is today that I was supposed to be there. There was some mix-up in scheduling, but they got that fixed. So back to the fourth floor I went for the extractions. The worst part, as usual, was the needles and novocaine. The whole thing lasted about ten minutes and zap they were gone. Then they put the denture in and took me back to the second floor. The student bought her teacher in and he looked at the denture and the fit. He told me there were only a few teeth that came out and that the fit was good so there was no problem and nothing to worry about.

Even with the mix up in scheduling and other things I was feeling pretty good about everything until the teacher started talking “Dentist Speak” to me. Usually after any type of surgery or extraction they’ll tell you it might be a little “sensitive”. What they’re really saying is “This might hurt like hell, but I’m not going to tell you that. I don’t know if it will hurt or not, but since I told you it would be sensitive, you’ll think of yourself as a big wimp and put up with the pain because it might be a little sensitive.” But he went past sensitive straight to no problem and nothing to worry about. In “Dentist Speak” this means, “Man oh man, I wouldn’t be you if they promised me the world”. Along with the no problem he told me to keep the dentures in until they saw me tomorrow morning. In “Dentist Speak” again, it meant that no matter the pain, they had to stay in or the gums would swell and they’d never get the dentures back in until much later. So as he was leaving he told me to go home and take some Advil and that should, I repeat should, take care of it. That’s when the bubble burst.

With my dentures in and sounding like Daffy Duck with a heavy Southern drawl I told him to stop right there. I told him if he thought I was going to drive two hours home and wait to see if Advil would take care of it that he was wrong. I told him I was already doing one four-hour round trip, and I didn’t plan on making another one on the assumption that Advil should take care of it. Once he finally realized I knew “Dentist Speak”, he prescribed something stronger than Advil. I can say right now without a doubt, I was right. At this point in time Advil wouldn’t touch what is going on in my mouth.

So I’m at home, just my mouth and me when I get a call from the optical shop in the city. My new glasses are in. I obviously can’t drive to get them so I get my brother to drive me to the city to pick them up. This is to the near city so it’s only a little over an hour and a half to get there and back. We get back and that’s when I look in the mirror and I see myself with my new teeth and glasses. I start thinking to myself, with the new teeth if I didn’t have that big nose and big ears and generally the face I have, I could be a handsome dude. But if all else fails, I do have handsome teeth, even if they are false. Now that I think of it, I feel like I just walked out of a plastic surgeons office after getting some silicone injections. Go figure.

Fmom, Aunt K, Andy Griffith and Me.

One summer Fmom received an invitation from some very old family friends (C & A). They were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and wanted the family to come to it. Since most of the family either couldn’t get off work or were busy with other things, it ended up that Fmom and my Aunt K were the only two that could go. Aunt K and Fmom still drove around town, but for long trips they had to have someone drive them. As you might have already guessed and by the title of this post, yes I was picked as the driver.

C & A had lived about a half a mile down the road from our second house in Arkansas. He was a farmer like Fdad and his land abutted our land. C & A had three children and their oldest daughter was in the same class as I was. C & A were also good friends with Aunt K and her husband Uncle L. So to say I’ve known them all my life is sort of a given. Once they retired they decided to move away from the farm, dirt roads, constant dust during the summer and mud during the winter. They had decided to move near the Ozark Mountains in Northeast Arkansas.

A week before the Anniversary both Fmom and Aunt K were started to get excited about going. Honestly at that point in time, I would have preferred not to go. This was about three months after I had broken the vertebra in my back and riding for long periods was very painful. However, Fmom and Aunt K were so excited about the trip I couldn’t turn them down. Aunt K had already told me we were going to use her car and there were no two ways about it. She had a Ford Contour that was in good shape with the exception that the driver’s outside mirror had recently been broken and she hadn’t had a chance to get it replaced yet. She fretted over this a good bit, but I told her not to worry because even with a mirror present that I always glanced over my left shoulder when I got ready to change into the left lane.

So we set out from Alabama to Northeast Arkansas. Aunt K and I set up front and Fmom set in the back. Now Aunt K was a joy to ride with. She never said slow down, speed up, turn left or turn right. She reminded me of a little kid that loved just looking at the scenery and enjoying it all. Since my back was giving me trouble with all that riding and glancing over my left shoulder when changing lanes, we would stop a good bit so I could get out of the car. Aunt K would get out every single time and had to walk around and see everything. Anytime I stopped for gas, she would have to go in the store and look at everything they had. Sometimes I felt like the grownup telling her to come on we had to go. She would give me a look and say in a minute, in a minute I want to see this. Fmom had told me before that when Aunt K had gone on vacations with her and my younger brothers that she always seemed to get more out of the vacations than anyone else. She just enjoyed seeing new places and things.

About half way through the trip and after we were past Memphis, we decided to get off the interstate and take a more direct path there. Now you might be wondering where the heck did Andy Griffith come into the picture. Well Aunt K was playing with the radio until she came on this station that was play some of Andy Griffith very old comedy albums. Yep back in the 50’s he put out some comedy albums that were very popular. Aunt K started reminiscing about what she was during back in the early 50’s and about the comedy routines Andy Griffith had made. Being the dutiful nephew and son I was, I listened to Andy Griffith for about 50 miles. I have to admit that some of it was fairly good, but Fmom and Aunt K seemed to really enjoy it and I guess that was enough for me.

On the way to the anniversary we passed some very beautiful country. I know Aunt K and Fmom had been there before, but they would have me stopping all the time just to get a better look at something or so they could take pictures. It was one of the few times I didn’t bring my camera that I wished I had. We finally got to the town and we had rooms reserved for us. Outside of our rooms was a very big patio with swimming pool and at the end of that was a large meeting hall/ballroom. This was extra convenient because that’s where the anniversary party would be held.

With all the driving, walking and every thing else I had done my back was pretty much killing my by the time we had to walk over to the ballroom. I finally told Fmom and Aunt K to offer my apologies, but I didn’t think I could make it over and would stay in bed. About an hour later C & A, their children, Fmom and Aunt K came to my room to check on me and see if I could get to the party. I told them I was feeling better, but didn’t know about walking over. Someone said that there were enough people at this party with walkers that someone could spare one for awhile. I finally said OK and for everyone to clear out so I could get ready. After what seemed a lifetime, I finally got ready and got over there. I felt like I was the guest of honor because everyone was clearing out of the way for me, finding me the most comfortable chair and bringing me all sort of stuff to eat and drink. I ended up having a pretty good time and enjoyed getting caught up with a lot of people I used to know in Arkansas. I particularly liked getting caught up with C & A’s children. Their oldest girl was a higher up in some computer company and was married to some guy from Canada. They now lived in Atlanta and she kept telling me I should move up there. Their second daughter was just as sweet as could be, married with children and seemed very happy. They son who was always talented and artistic was a musician and playing professionally in a band in Memphis. He gave me the name of some place on Beale Street he played at and wanted me to come by. I told him if I ever got a chance I would. All in all except for my back it was an excellent trip.

We ended up staying an extra day to give my back a little extra time to heal up and then we set off back home. Where as going up there we were on the interstate about half way; we decided while going back to stay off the interstate as much as possible. This was one of our better decisions. We hit some very beautiful countryside and some very nice little towns. As usual Aunt K wanted to stop just about everywhere and with each stop she just seemed to enjoy herself more and more. BTW on the way back we found another radio station that was broadcasting some of Andy Griffith’s old comedy routines. So I got to listen to Andy going up there and coming back. Oh the joy. :)

I guess the thing that made the trip for me was seeing how happy it made Fmom, but most especially Aunt K. She just seemed to light up once we were on the road. I think back now and wish we had taken her on a lot more trips because she did love to travel.

The only thing I can come away with this story is that if you’ve got an older relative to just grab them up from time to time and take them for a ride. Even if it’s a short ride or a long ride, I’m sure they would appreciate it, and they’ll appreciate you taking the time to be with them.

Take care,

FM

Added: For those of you that have never heard one of Andy Griffith's comedy routines, I found this one in mp3 format. It's been so long since I've posted something like this I hope it works.

What It Was, Was Football