Monday, October 31, 2016

Evan McMullin or Gary Johnson

No to Trump and No to Clinton but possibly Evan McMullin.... He has some class and a chance to win Utah at least. I want to say at least I voted in this election.

Both Johnson's running mate and McMullin make sense when they talk unlike Trump.
https://www.evanmcmullin.com/

Vote McMullin or Johnson but VOTE.

Monday, October 17, 2016

From Gary's Reflections

Posted: 16 Oct 2016 12:00 AM PDT
Barack Obama met with the Queen of England.
 
He asked her, "Your Majesty, how do you run such an efficient government? Are there any tips you can give to me?"
 
"Well," said the Queen, "the most important thing is to surround yourself with intelligent people."
 
Obama frowned, and then asked, "But how do I know the people around me are really intelligent?"
 
The Queen took a sip of tea. "Oh, that's easy; you just ask them to answer an intelligent riddle." The Queen pushed a button on her intercom. "Please send Tony Blair in here, would you?"
 
Tony Blair walked into the room and said, "Yes, my Queen?"
 
The Queen smiled and said, "Answer me this please, Tony, your mother and father have a child. It is not your brother and it is not your sister. Who is it?"
 
Without pausing for a moment, Tony Blair answered, "That would be me."
 
"Yes! Very good," said the Queen.
 
Obama went back home to ask Joe Biden the same question. "Joe, answer this for me. Your mother and your father have a child. It's not your brother and it's not your sister. Who is it?"
 
"I'm not sure," said Biden. "Let me get back to you on that one.." He went to his advisers and asked every one, but none could give him an answer. Finally, he ended up in the men's room and recognized Colin Powell's shoes in the next stall.
 
Biden asked Powell, "Colin, can you answer this for me? Your mother and father have a child and it's not your brother or your sister. Who is it?"
 
Colin Powell yelled back, "That's easy, it's me!"
 
Biden smiled, and said, "Thanks!" Then, he went back to speak with Obama. "Say, I did some research and I have the answer to that riddle. It is Colin Powell!"
 
Obama got up, stomped over to Biden, and angrily yelled into his face, "No! You idiot! It's Tony Blair!"
 
And that is what's wrong with our government.. 

Friday, October 14, 2016

What to do now??????

For me, blogging is like doodling in the margin. But when life becomes full, or something happens to you, the margins shrink and blogging is one of the first things to go. For the past couple months my creative passions have been consumed with more prescient concerns.

I have been thinking, and thinking, and thinking. My brain has accepted the fact that the school job is gone. Now I need to think more about what other things I might try. I have thought about this that and other jobs I might look into. I have also looked at the fact that I need to 'see' myself as 'handicapped' and I stop thinking that way QUICKLY.

Since I had my mini stroke, I have refused to look at myself as handicapped but I have realized that there are things I used to do that I can no longer do. I don't want to die thinking "If I had....". I still want to live as long as my dad did are as long as my Father-in-Law has.

Therefore, brain, get back to thinking what if I try....

I will just be GLAD when this election time is over so I can get back to my real Facebook.........

Monday, October 10, 2016

Brain vs Body - final chapter


After being told about the AmHist job at the school I have always dreamed of my brain just could not stop thinking about it, dreaming about it, praying about it. It was just heaven. My brain just would not stop, Days went by.

But my brain was dealing with "wanting the JOB" and my body was dealing with "what if I fall in the classroom". It slowly became a slugfest - Brain vs body. One side really wanted to win the other struggled with the idea of losing. Winner takes all.

I had dreamed of this job since I started teaching in the very early 1990s. I just WANTED this job. God, please help me get this job. I can survive. It was only 'one step away' from my beloved teaching of Louisiana history. It is teaching at the same school I started at when we moved here in 1965 and one of my former student teaches at. I want this job.!!!!!

My body was telling me, reminding me, 'what if...',. It is still over a half-year of falls. 'What if...'. I know the stories. Then I opened my mouth and said 'should' to my wife. She came back with "I have been thinking the same thing".

It suddenly became an unfair fight. The winning side just became more one-sided. My dream just melted away.

Over night, my dreams just became nightmares as I thought more and more about the job. My drop foot issue became more prominent more pronounced.

The more I thought about it, the more I realize my life 'in a since' is over. I need to look into doing something else. My brain had lost and my body had won.


Today, I started to think more about my "trike" and the riding I can. Things are getting a little better in my brain. I rode it around to my sister's this morning, and I hope to ride in more each day. I went out to get a odometer to add to by trike so I can keep track of the mileage I ride for the doctor.

HOPE being the key word here.

Body 1, Brain 0.

Weight was down a pound this morning. Hoping tomorrow will bring better results.


Brain vs Body part two

My second step in this journey was taking the info the third doctor accidently mentioned. I took that info back to my own doctor and she said she was sorry, thinking I already knew the info, or that someone else had told me.

I now knew but really did not tell anyone around me. My brain just made excuses, so my "illness" went on and on. I told everyone what I wanted them to hear and I went on thinking about teaching, coaching, subbing, doing keeping things I used to do.

As it went on the doctor was making my appointment every six months then every three months. She was checking on my every movement. What I had to eat, my snacks, my medications, etc.

I was still "walking" the dog time  but I was cat-napping more and more during the day. It helped that my wife was napping during the afternoon too.

Then came the time I tripped and fell. I tried to crawled across the concrete but it hurt my knees. I had my phone and called my wife.
She could not help me so she called my sister, but she was out of town, She gave us a phone number of a neighbor who came and helped. Between the two of them I managed to get back on my feet. I told them that I tripped on a board at the bottom of the steps and twisted my ankle. I now watch that last step very carefully just to make sure.

Then came the next fall. I was trying to put up one of these campaign signs, you know, the ones with the wire stands. The ground was super hard and my foot slipped off and down I went. But this time at least I was in the grass. I crawled to our front porch, reached up to grab a spindle and worked to pull myself upright.

Won't try to do that again. It became just another mistake to "hide". when I went back to my doctor, my wife went with me, everything I tried to tell the doctor, my wife interjected. My doctor believed her, not me. From my weight to my glasses to my blood pressure to my walking/exercise.

I got out of there barely with my life sort of. My wife decided to buy me a trike - a three wheel bike now that the weather is getting cooler. I spray painted the back basket to match our town's team colors and our university team colors. I have ridden it some but decided
I needed to get a foot strap for the left petal. Now I am ready to ride around the corner to my sister's house. I haven ridden over there twice without them being home. our dog rides in the back basket just fine, He actually loves it.

This weekend I went out to our country house to swap the battery and cut the super high grass. It has been so wet, rainy, and then I had a dead battery also. But I got it all working and tried to mow 'some' of the grass. It was going well - sort of - til I hit a section that killed/chocked the mower. As I got off I was going to walk back to the car try and tow the mower when my foot got caught in the very high cut grass - hay of sorts - and down I went. I crawled thru the grass back to the mower and "pulled" myself up. My wife saw me fall. Finally she went an got the car to pull the mower.
It is still setting under a tarp out next to the old barn. I will get back to it sooner or later.
 
As we came home we decided to run to Walmart to pick up a few items for this
week. Found out that didn't have 'em. My wife suggested we run to Kroger's and we did. While there we ran into a lady we both know well who is now the Social Studies Coordinator for the school system.

She told me that our neighborhood school was looking for a 7th grade American history teacher NOW due to the fact the previous teacher was promoted to Asst. Principal.

My brain went racing. It's at the  school I have been trying to get for years and years and forever! It was my own school, the school I attended, my sister, brother, daughter, son, nephews and nieces attended.

More in the final chapter.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Brain/body debate


I have had a BIG brain vs. body debate for the last three years but it finally came to a 'head' yesterday. I guess I should begin from the beginning to be able to bring you up to speed. Three years ago I had a mini-stoke, a TIA, as it is known. It happened while I was helping clean up during construction of our new bathroom. Nothing major happen by I could just tell something happen. I 'tried' to finish what I was doing but just couldn't. I had to go up and sit on the porch.


I figured if I just sat for a while my problem would go away. Little did I know what had happened to me. The next day I decided to go to my own family doctor since I was still not feeling well. Her receptionist put me off and gave me an appointment - for a month later. I still did not know what happen, why I was feeling this way, nothing.

I got back in my car and headed home but stopped in at the office of a doctor my wife had used before. I sat for a good while, then visited with the doctor but got no real idea. As I was walking out to the receptionist I felt my left knee sort of give way a bit but nothing major again.

I paid my visit bill and start out the door. As I got to the curb I stepped of it with my left foot a dropped to the concrete. My first sign. I got up made it to the car and came home - bruised by ok.

Things did not get any better but I still manage to get some things done around the job site. But there were things I could not do. Basic, I made excuses that I wasn't feeling well, I over-heated, I got sick, etc.

The job got finished by the carpenters, tile mason, plumber, etc. All while I just watched. Still having no idea what had happened to me.

Months later I went back to my own doctor and told her my story. She checked me out and said I should have "been more forceful with the receptionist" but she did not really say what happen.

She sent me to the hospital physical therapists where they put me thru all types of testing. I could feel/see what they were doing but no one was telling me anything. I was begin to think the worse but still hopping for the best. I was still 'walking' around like normal - sort of, like normal.


This went on for a month or more. The exercises felt good but I could tell things were not getting better. But since NO ONE had said anything I just kept hopping for the best. It's all I could do.

Finally, I went to a third doctor for a x-rays and a consultation. There he made the mistake of telling me what my own doctor had never said - " a mini stroke. Months after the fact. Test, PT, visits, on and on.

Stage 1 - TIA
Stage 2 - TIA


Part two - tomorrow





 

Saturday, October 8, 2016

"trike" fixes and prayers

I spent time tweaking my trike this past weekend. I got my bike flags, order new 'flag' triangles do I could put new HS and college logos on them, ordered a foot strap so I could help keep my left foot on the pedal, and bought a mirror so I can see what's behind me.

I along painted the basket so the colors match my schools.

My wife says I should just "go" in the morning while she is still sleeping. and I guess I will. I would rather wait but she sleeps to late. By the time she gets up she says "it's too hoooooot!" then she won't go - or later it will be "too cooooooold!" and she won't go.

Once I get all my 'fixin's I will just walk the dog then take off. I have a phone, I'm in touch.

We did go pick up a battery for our country mower yesterday which is good. Hope to go out there and do some work Saturday morning.

We then when to Walmart without finding what we needed and then headed to Kroger's. While there we ran in to an old teaching buddy who told me of a 7th grade opening for an American history position at a school 3 blocks from the house. It would be my SECOND favorite teaching position. One it is at a school I have wanted for the last 27 years, a job that I have taught for years, an sometime I have been 'praying' for for years. The ONLY thing better would be to get the Louisiana history job at that school. Was it meant to be?

God, could you be talking to me?

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Got a "trike" yesterday

I got a "trike" yesterday, a Sun royal blue, three wheel 'trike' ,so that I can get a little exercise. I have to modify it just a little. I plan to spray paint the basket a yellow so that it matches my high school team's colors and my university team colors. I have ordered a couple of bike pennant flags to put my teams logos on them I can ride it around looking a little more in style than just an "old, handicapped guy".

Our dog seems to love riding in the basket. He enjoyed my practice run yesterday as I rode him over to my sister's and back. He never even tried to jump out, only banged at dog on her street.

I have adjusted the handlebars just to make it feel better, it has a large seat - almost like a tractor seat, which is cool. I hope I can get better at riding it this coming week. It still takes some effort going up a slight incline. It does not pedal backwards and only has one hand brake.
It has a low step-thru so that I can get on it with little effort. It carries my weight just fine. I am not wearing a helmet but that's okay in our neighborhood. Now that the weather is getting a little cooler I will want to get out more. My wife said it was my Christmas gift.

Ten things I am thankful for today

It does not take a lot of time to tell you what I am thankful for - not today or this week or.... 1. I am happy because my wound care doc...