Flashback #2

This month's Flashback is going WAY back. I mean way back to 1964. In 1964 I was only 4 years old, you do the math...Yes that's it 42 years ago. You get an A.

My family at the time consisted of myself, my mother and my father. My father during those years was not one that was ready to deal with responsibilities of being a father or a husband and was in and out of work. So for some reason, he decided to move to Texas. His brother was stationed there in Amarillo, Texas to be exact so we headed West.

Now you would think that only being 4 years old my recollection of our trip and time in Texas would be to say the least, very vague. Actually the opposite is true. I remember parts of it vividly.

1. The heat: It was always hot there. I can not remember any time there that I was not hot. We stayed with my uncle and his family (Three girls) and also my aunt and grandfather went with us. All of the girls were older than me but one who is my cousin Barb. She was barely a year old at the time. Now imagine a boy of 4 living in a home with 3 older girls who loved to antagonize little boys. To stay cool we would take showers. Myself and my aunt who was 13 at the time, and Barb's two older sisters who were 9 and 7. We would don our swimming attire and jump into the shower. Why we didn't have a wading pool like most people is beyond me.

2. The Spiders: Oh my God, they were HUGE. And of course being afraid of them my cousins and aunt would terrorize me with them. They even had me believing that the tumbleweeds (which were of mass quantities there)were huge giant boy eating spiders. This would cause me to go running and screaming from them to the nearest adult for protection.

3. Water Towers: Amarillo must have had an abundance of water (the daily showers) as there were many water towers around where we lived. But to me I thought (thanks to my cousins and aunt again) they were actually alien spaceships that kidnapped little boys for testing. So of course I rarely wanted to go outside.

4. The Red Dirt. This I remember more vividly than anything else. The color of the dirt was so different from what I was used to in Ohio. It was literally red. I know why now of course, but then I was told that Texas was closer to hell, and that when my cousins and Aunt were making mud pies and digging into the dirt they were actually digging to the devil so that he would come and take me to hell with him. Again I would go off screaming for my mother.

After that experience it is a wonder that I came out somewhat normal.
You wonder why my cousins and my aunt loved terrorizing me so?
Jealousy, pure jealousy!!

Weekend Update

Another weekend has come and gone. They come and go so quickly. Why can't we just work on the weekends and get the week off? That would work for me!

Not too much to tell as this weekend was a work weekend for both DJ and myself. He is working for his mother on Saturday's to pay off a loan that he got from her, so the weekends he is not working for me, he will be working for her. But you got to do what you got to do.

Sunday however we had a family day. DJ's cousin K and her husband Hillbilly bought a new home a few months back and invited DJ & guest (yes that would be me) over for a family cook out. We ate and ate and ate, and we played some cornhole. For those of you that are not aware, cornhole is a corn toss game, so get your mind out of the gutter. This game has grown even bigger than I imagined. It has it's own web page and there is an American Cornhole Association, which was founded right here in Cincinnati, Ohio.

We were also introduced to a new game. I named it "Wrap Your Balls". Each player gets three sets of two golf balls attached to one another with a foot long rope. 30 ft away are the bars that you must toss your balls onto to wrap around, earning points for which ever bar your balls wrap. (see photo) 3 points for the top bar, 2 for the second and one for the bottom rung. First player/team to reach 21 points wins.

I actually became quite proficient in wrapping my balls.

But highlight of the afternoon was a balloon rocket game purchased for the sole purpose of keeping the children under 4 entertained. A balloon game with a pump, in which to pump the balloons, and upon release the balloons would fly up into the air in all kinds of directions while whistling sounds were expelled from the flying balloon rocket. I don't think the children got play with that too much as the adults were more engrossed in it than the children. The best part was finding all the reusable balloons afterwards...in the trees, on the roof, in the neighbors yard and even in the street.

Of course as they do, the weekend ended and it was back to the regular weekday routine.

Read the Signs

What is this? Anyone have any idea what this signal is for? Cities across the nation and the world spen hundreds of thousands of dollars to place these on corners and intersections. But for what purpose? Are they just for decoration?

I know I have ranted about this before, but this morning I almost hit someone while they were trying to cross the street. A very busy commercial area with four lanes of traffic. This young man darts across the street, not even a half a block from a crosswalk, in front of oncoming traffic in both directions. I had to slam on my brakes from hitting him, and then HE GIVES ME THE FINGER! And behind me, Ms. Thing on her cell phone starts blaring her horn, as she was not paying attention and almost rear ended me.

I'd say 80% of pedestrians in this area where this happened do not use the crosswalk. They would prefer to walk out in busy on-coming traffic and take their chances. And what ever happened to look both ways before crossing the street. And god forbid if you are in a college town, because no one uses these nice little signs that light up indicating that you can cross the street safely. I guess when you are trying to get a college education, those things are not important.

Granted the buttons you push as a pedestrian that are to enable the crosswalks to allow you to cross do not really work, as traffic signals are timed for optimum traffic flow for vehicles, not pedestrians, but why walk fifteen steps further up the street away from the crosswalk and cross at no intersection, in the middle of the street???

I think there is a word for that isn't there? Jaywalking, is what they used to call it, and when I was a kid, the police would actually ticket people for jaywalking. I heard in Florida that Jaywalking is a felony.

Here it's just common practice.

Inhumane

Over the past week I have had several mind opening experiences. Becoming a grandfather can do that to a man. But one thing that not only opened my mind, but shocked me was something that I experienced over 45 years ago. Not that I remember it mind you, well maybe somewhere in my deep subconscious. What brought it back to my memory, or at least the thought of it, was Friday while visiting my new grandson, Rylan at the hospital. As we were there admiring the little beauty, the nurse came in.

"We will be performing the circumcision tonight, there are a few things I want to go over with you about the procedure."

Just the word made me wince. But then of course, the new curious mother wanted to know the details of what was going to be done to her one day old infant.

"Well we begin by placing him in straps and then we will insert three needles into his scrotum to numb him..."

All four of the men that were in the room bent over and made groaning noises.

"That is not as bad as it used to be, back just a few years ago we didn't numb them. But don't worry the baby won't remember it."

When I returned the next day, I got to change my grandson's diaper for the first time. When I pulled back the diaper and saw what the doctors had done to him, I winced again. His mother, who was so proud of her macho newborn says...

"The nurse said he only cried when they gave him the shot to numb him and he just laid there while they did the actual cutting."

I had to let someone else finish the diapering.

Back to Reality

Well now that the reality of becoming a grandfather has sunk in, I'm back in the "rut" of things. After a three and a half days hiatus from work I was back at the mad house today. Nothing has changed. Not like I really thought it would, but one can wish, right? Overall the day was actually good. Atilla the Hun was not there for most of the day, so I had the office almost to myself the biggest part of the day. Most of my customers I enjoy, and I got to show off Rylan's picture and hear all the oohs and ahs. The weekend was great, I saw all of my kids on father's day, and shared a good portion of the afternoon with my three youngest. The boys were to stay a few days, but they opted to go stay with their sister for a few days and I will get them back later in the week.

DJ called in the afternoon and shared a little bad news, financial bad news, nothing I really want to go into here. But it is nothing that we can not weather, we always do. Just makes things a little tighter than what we already are. But what is money? Just something to make us stress out about. We don't really have much of it so why let it get me down? I am sure it will in a few weeks when things begin to come due and we can not pay the bills, but for now I will stick my head in the sand and avoid reality like I normally do.

See, I told you it was back to reality. Well my reality anyway.

And yes, I will have more pics later in the week of my grandson.

Father's Day 2006

This year is a special Father's Day,






I will have two new grandbabies before the year is out and an opportunity to spoil them rotten! It is something I never even imagined. Being a grandpa that is. It's like being a father without all the responsibilities and frustrations! It's great! Here are some more pictures of the new baby. I know you are going to get tired of seeing his picture posted like every other day, but her I'm entitled!

Also Happy Father's Day!

The Joy of Being Grandpa

I became a grandpa today. Officially at 6:59 p.m. EST, Rylan Justice Wyatt came into the world at 6lbs. 14oz. and 21 in long. Blonde curly hair and blue eyes, and of course the most beautiful baby in the world.

Mommy and baby are both doing great, as well as Daddy. For grandpa, the joy has just begun!

1938

1938 was sixty-eight years ago, and it is hard to believe what was going on in the world just in that short of time. Action Comics issued their first comic book with the Man of Steel on the cover. Howard Hughes flew around the world in record time; 3 days 18 hours, and 9 minutes. 1938 was also the first year it was required by law to obtain blood tests to receive a marriage license. In February Snow white and the 7 Dwarfs was released. Other movies released in 1938 were Marie Antoinette, Boys Town, Love Finds Andy Hardy, and the Adventures of Robin Hood.

DuPont also promoted their first nylon product, a toothbrush! Elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Crystal Bird Fauset becomes the first African-American female to serve in a state legislature and FDR begins groundbreaking on the Jefferson Memorial.

Also in 1938, on June 14th my grandparents gave birth to their first child, my mother.

Sixty Eight Years, not really that long ago.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Progression

To progress should be a good thing. You progress towards a goal to gain many things; experience, financial security, maturity, etc.

Well in my case progression was not a good word yesterday.

I spent my afternoon at the neurologist. It seems that my MS is no longer in remission and it is progressing quite rapidly. The lesions are growing and have now moved from my brain stem to my spine. He has warned me that I probably will begin to experience symptoms that I have not experienced before. They are aggressively treating the disease, but with MS there is no cure yet. All they can do is treat the symptoms and try and retard the progression.

He also has begun steps to file for partial disability, to try and see what he can do to alleviate some of the stress in my life. Personally, not being able to work or even the thought of it REALLY stresses me out. The doctor has suggested that I find something that I can do from home. Yeah right. That won't pay the bills. He has also suggested that I see a therapist to deal with my emotional pain and depression that I am experiencing as he stated it will probably become worse as the disease progresses.

But to look at the other side of the situation, I may very well go back into remission and not have any further problems, just the effects of what has already been damaged.

Maybe I can progress towards that end.

Stop the Madness

Another weekend is upon us and of course it's cloudy and raining. But I'm not working today so that is one plus. Especially after my meltdown yesterday at work. I went off again. I do not know if I can continue this much longer. I'm loosing my mind. After going off I shook for about 15 minutes then went to the bathroom and lost my lunch. I became physically sick afterwards. Then of course for the rest of the evening I felt like crap and was even feeling guilty for going off.

I know that I have to get out of there, but I have no options open to me. I have no takers on my resume and nothing even remotely interesting on the job front at all. Money is getting tighter by the week, and again we are in a financial pinch, which makes me even more irritable and depressed. DJ is working hard on getting his business going, but it's slow and it feels like we are just falling deeper and deeper. I have grandchildren coming any day and I want to be able to give to them, but financially that is not possible. And again, the insomina is creeping back. I was up until 3:00 a.m.

Something has got to give.
Soon.

One Out of Ten People

Yes, it's true.
One out of ten people!
Do you believe that?
That's like 600 million people.

Yes, one out of ten people live on an island! Don't believe it? Check here and get the facts.

Not sure why I felt the need to share this information, maybe I've finally lost it.

Anyway, now that, that is out of the way, let's get on with the posting for today.

First I want to say,

HAPPY GAY PRIDE MONTH!!

And to George W. I would like to say, we have much more important issues facing this country George than whether or not gay men and women can be married. Gas prices for one, the war in Iraq for another, and your impeachment. The only reason he is even bringing this constitutional amendment up is to take away the focus on the real issues, and the poor excuse of a president he is. It didn't work the last time George and it's not going to work now. So get over yourself and be the lame duck you've been since taking office. We will all be better off.

Today is 06/06/06. I've been hearing this for days now about how today terrible things are to take place, as today is Satan's birthday. Well the day is about finished and so far it's been a pretty damn good day. Atilla the Hun, (otherwise known as my employer and DJ's grandmother) was actually nice today. Her psycho son, who normally stays around wrecking havoc, left at noon today. And I got to leave at 2:30. So as far as the workday went, mine was fairly nice and uneventful.

I checked the web today to see if anything of circumstance ever happened on June 6, '06 before and found nothing. However on June 6, 1966, 1966 - Claus Von Bulow & Martha (Sunny) Crawford wed. I'm sure that was a day she wished she could take back. But other than that nothing. So for all those superstitious folks out there afraid to come out of their house today, sorry.

As for my weekend, the boys were here and we had a good time with them. I always enjoy having them here. Hopefully in a few weeks they can stay a week. Maybe I can get a vacation and we can actually do something this summer. We did go over to Silver's on Saturday and had a cookout, and then Sunday spent the day at Mama D's lounging by her pool.

Well for now, I'm out of here. I hope you've enjoyed this rambling post, but I had to post something it has been almost a week. I didn't want anyone to think I had forgotten about all of you!

Deadlines

I set myself a deadline, and today was the day that I was to have a new job. But here I sit in the same chair, at the same desk, at the same mental ward that I have been at for over two years.

Every day that I am here I seem closer and closer to the edge. The edge of my sanity. Working for family is not something I would advise anyone in EVER doing.

Now the work is not hard. It's easy. Hell the job is the easiest job I've ever had. It is the shit I deal with on a daily basis from the man that DJ calls "his mother's brother". This guy is psycho. Just Tuesday he spit and threw things at his mother. And he is 42 years old!

He is not the only one, DJ's grandmother, that we refer to Marge Schott, because she looks like the late Cincinnati Reds owner, is the reason he is psycho. She feeds off his insanity. Neither of them are EVER wrong and they will argue until punches are literally thrown. I can not deal with that kind of emotional upheaval continually. It's enough to drive one crazy.

So I've set another deadline. Another 30 days. If I can handle it. I continue to post my resume on monsterjobs.com and follow leads that I hear about or happen to run across. 30 days. That's the deadline. Hopefully I will have more success in the next 30 days than I did in the last 30.

I've also set another deadline. One to transfer my blog host to another server. It is a little more complicated that I had hoped, but I will give myself 30 days on that too and will keep you informed on the progress.