Hi folks,
Just getting ready to head into another weekend. Last weekend, I got to spend it with the gal pal... that was so much fun. We went to a fish fry and I got a small lesson in gratitude. I usually try to be a humble sort because trying to be something that you're not is usually a boot to the butt waiting to happen. My gal pal is in a wheelchair, I don't mind that at all. She is just perfect to me as she is. She inspires me everyday and I'm crazy about her... I went into the fish fry and even though I don't like fish, I sat and ate way too much other food. My tummy was overloaded on everything else there was to eat. I sat with my gal pal and some of her friends. It was neat cause they don't see me very often so they pepper with me questions from time to time. I met a young guy in a wheelchair who suffers from cerebral palsy. He was adopted by a lady who has a couple of other kids who are healthy. She chose to adopt this little guy knowing that he'd be a handful. I was amazed at the patience she showed in taking care of and loving him. I swallowed the lump in my throat cause as patient as I'd like to think that I am... this woman just put me to shame. Her boy is 15 now and is getting too big for her to take physical care of. But she's determined to make a go of it as best she can. I was thinking how unfair it was that he suffers from that disease. I mean, I do wish he was healthy. Absolutely I want him to be happy and to know what it is to live life to the fullest. To know what it'd be like to play sports. To have a girlfriend. To drive a car.... all these things that we all take for granted. Then I looked at my gal pal and she put it in complete perspective for me. She has the attitude that she was chosen by God to be afflicted with her ailment so that He could use her to touch other lives for Him. Looking at the relationship between this mother and her disabled son, I got a big heaping helping of gratitude that I got to meet him. His joy was pure innocence. His life and his infirmities are being used to touch other people's lives. It really made me realize how truly blessed I am. I looked back over at the gal pal... I fell even deeper in love with her watching her eat a piece of cheesecake. I am so grateful for her... just as she is. I wouldn't be the man that she thinks that I am without her...
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Cables, Wires, and Chops... Oh My!!
grrrrrr.... I have such a love - hate with electronics... I took today off to go over to see the girls and since they got a new flatscreen HDTV.. They had everything but the cable hooked up... I figured it would be about five minutes of work and the afternoon to hangout and see how they were doing. Six and a half hours later and a few choice words for the cablesystem later, I still hadn't figured the dang thing out. After several calls to the cable company, it turned out that I wasn't the problem (for a change), but rather, the cable box was not functioning properly and they are going to come out with a new one and install it for Terri at no charge. I should be happy about that, but I'm still frustrated from having spent all day banging my head (figuratively and literally) against the wall. I didn't need the headache, but you know how it goes some days.
I was reading something in my local paper (in the obits of all places) that brought me back to a small, brief, innocent part of my youth. I was reading that a guy I simply knew as "Chops" had passed away. I hadn't seen him in years (decades), but for some reason, he left a permanent mark in my head from that time. Chops was a grill cook at a local little hole in the wall restaurant when I was a little boy and my dad used to take me in there because you could pig out and it was soooooo cheap. The place had booths whose seats were usually torn. Not exactly a Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel (If your table had matching glasses, you were lucky.) But the funny part was that for some reason, the little dive of a eat 'em up joint had some of the best food I ever ate. On the very rare occasion that my dad would let me pick the restaurant we could eat at, I always picked there... My dad liked it cause it was cheap. I loved it cause the food was good. City officials would eat there all the time. And then there was Chops. Chops would be involved with three or four different tables full of people in some spicy conversation (the restaurant was very tiny) and have everyone in stitches. He could weave in and out of different conversations without missing a beat. I wanted to be like that when I was a kid. I always thought he was cool. He was a very large man. Later in life he lost over 140 lbs. and stayed behind the grill at the Green Lantern restaurant till 1994 when he retired because of his health. I hadn't seen him since I was a kid, but when I read that he passed (he was only 55), I felt like a small part of my youth went too. I dunno, I had all of these memories come flooding back from when I was a kid. Going to the Green Lantern. Listening to Chops crack jokes on food, girls, politics, life... you name it. I don't even think the Green Lantern is open anymore, but it will always hold a special place in my heart... A double Gooper burger and free entertainment courtesy of Chops. And for an eight year old kid from a tough neighborhood, that was as good as it got.
I was reading something in my local paper (in the obits of all places) that brought me back to a small, brief, innocent part of my youth. I was reading that a guy I simply knew as "Chops" had passed away. I hadn't seen him in years (decades), but for some reason, he left a permanent mark in my head from that time. Chops was a grill cook at a local little hole in the wall restaurant when I was a little boy and my dad used to take me in there because you could pig out and it was soooooo cheap. The place had booths whose seats were usually torn. Not exactly a Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel (If your table had matching glasses, you were lucky.) But the funny part was that for some reason, the little dive of a eat 'em up joint had some of the best food I ever ate. On the very rare occasion that my dad would let me pick the restaurant we could eat at, I always picked there... My dad liked it cause it was cheap. I loved it cause the food was good. City officials would eat there all the time. And then there was Chops. Chops would be involved with three or four different tables full of people in some spicy conversation (the restaurant was very tiny) and have everyone in stitches. He could weave in and out of different conversations without missing a beat. I wanted to be like that when I was a kid. I always thought he was cool. He was a very large man. Later in life he lost over 140 lbs. and stayed behind the grill at the Green Lantern restaurant till 1994 when he retired because of his health. I hadn't seen him since I was a kid, but when I read that he passed (he was only 55), I felt like a small part of my youth went too. I dunno, I had all of these memories come flooding back from when I was a kid. Going to the Green Lantern. Listening to Chops crack jokes on food, girls, politics, life... you name it. I don't even think the Green Lantern is open anymore, but it will always hold a special place in my heart... A double Gooper burger and free entertainment courtesy of Chops. And for an eight year old kid from a tough neighborhood, that was as good as it got.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
A Dog-gone Busy Day...
Hi y'all,
I am beat right now... but it was worth it. Spent the early part of the day over at the girls' to see how they were and they corraled me into taking apart the entertainment center as they're getting a new one. So I took it apart (well, actually took all the components of the audio and video stuff out of there and then took the behemoth out of the house and put it out for someone to take if they could use it. I took the TV that was in there and since the girls are getting a new one, I took the one that was there (a heavy 36 inch beast) up a very narrow and steep flight of stairs for my nephew to use. Ugh, that was no fun. After doing my imitation of "Two men and a Truck", I hooked up the tv and vcr/dvd set up so my goofy nephew could watch a bigger screen than the 12-inch screen he was using before. I had to move some of the equipment out from the front room into Terri's room so that she could have a setup in her room too. By the time I got all of this done, I had to get going to work. But of course, one small fire to put out... my kid sister was feeling sick and was mildly scared about it so I stopped over there on my way to work and assessed the situation and she wasn't in any danger... just a little anxiety on her part. But the good news was that I got to spend time with my dog Penney. Oh it was an understatement to say Pen was so tickled to see me and of course, I abslolutely flat out LOVE that dog. I never used to like mini-daschunds... Not until her... I used to say she was the only woman that I ever both loved and trusted. Of course now with the gal pal in my life I can't say that any more... I don't want to get my butt kicked... ;) It was so funny, when my little nephew came up to hug me, Pen got up on me and wedged herself between me and Dyl... Territorial little cuss isn't she... Can't wait till the first time she sees me and the gal pal snuggling... that'll be a hoot.
I am beat right now... but it was worth it. Spent the early part of the day over at the girls' to see how they were and they corraled me into taking apart the entertainment center as they're getting a new one. So I took it apart (well, actually took all the components of the audio and video stuff out of there and then took the behemoth out of the house and put it out for someone to take if they could use it. I took the TV that was in there and since the girls are getting a new one, I took the one that was there (a heavy 36 inch beast) up a very narrow and steep flight of stairs for my nephew to use. Ugh, that was no fun. After doing my imitation of "Two men and a Truck", I hooked up the tv and vcr/dvd set up so my goofy nephew could watch a bigger screen than the 12-inch screen he was using before. I had to move some of the equipment out from the front room into Terri's room so that she could have a setup in her room too. By the time I got all of this done, I had to get going to work. But of course, one small fire to put out... my kid sister was feeling sick and was mildly scared about it so I stopped over there on my way to work and assessed the situation and she wasn't in any danger... just a little anxiety on her part. But the good news was that I got to spend time with my dog Penney. Oh it was an understatement to say Pen was so tickled to see me and of course, I abslolutely flat out LOVE that dog. I never used to like mini-daschunds... Not until her... I used to say she was the only woman that I ever both loved and trusted. Of course now with the gal pal in my life I can't say that any more... I don't want to get my butt kicked... ;) It was so funny, when my little nephew came up to hug me, Pen got up on me and wedged herself between me and Dyl... Territorial little cuss isn't she... Can't wait till the first time she sees me and the gal pal snuggling... that'll be a hoot.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
Tuning In...
Well, I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend... Right now, everything (thankfully) is status quo. My gal pal's grandfather is home from the hospital and feeling a whole lot better. They thought is might be that dreaded 'c' word, but thankfully, it was a severe infection and he was horribly dehydrated. So they fattened him up a bit with meds and fluids, and he's home again. Thanks for the prayers and good wishes. They worked.
Terri is hanging on. I went to see her and Lou and they were both in pretty good moods. It was a typical household as Terri was working on a project for my nephew Dylan, Lou was playing backgammon, and Dyl was over visiting... well, at least in theory. As a 12 year-old, he doesn't go over to his aunt's to visit. He goes because she has cool toys ('Rockband' for X-box) and he gets spoiled and gets to eat whatever he wants. Oh, when life was so simple... I miss those days. When I was a kid we didn't have X-box, Wii, or even Nintendo for that matter... If I remember, we had four channels on tv (well, actually 8 because with the help of rabbit ears, we could pick up a couple in Detroit and one or two from Canada)... and we had outside. Me, I spent lots of time with the tv (because of the neighborhood I lived in... it was pretty rough) and I also spent a great deal of time with the radio. I fell in love with rock-n-roll, but also with listening to radio stations on the AM dial from far away places. As a kid from northern Ohio, I used to get all jazzed when I could pull in WOWO-AM from Fort Wayne. Or WCCO from Minneapolis. WABC from NYC... or WBZ from Boston. Every once in a while I'd get CFRB from Toronto. That was a whole other world for a kid from Ohio who never went anywhere. I even remember picking up KMOX from St Louis and WBAP and KRLD from Dallas... all the way up in Toledo, on a beat up old AM radio... now that radio stations can be picked up on the internet from anywhere in the world, it's not such a big deal. But to a little boy with no life... that beat up old AM radio was an escape to other places and in my mind, other worlds! I wouldn't trade those memories for ANYTHING...
Terri is hanging on. I went to see her and Lou and they were both in pretty good moods. It was a typical household as Terri was working on a project for my nephew Dylan, Lou was playing backgammon, and Dyl was over visiting... well, at least in theory. As a 12 year-old, he doesn't go over to his aunt's to visit. He goes because she has cool toys ('Rockband' for X-box) and he gets spoiled and gets to eat whatever he wants. Oh, when life was so simple... I miss those days. When I was a kid we didn't have X-box, Wii, or even Nintendo for that matter... If I remember, we had four channels on tv (well, actually 8 because with the help of rabbit ears, we could pick up a couple in Detroit and one or two from Canada)... and we had outside. Me, I spent lots of time with the tv (because of the neighborhood I lived in... it was pretty rough) and I also spent a great deal of time with the radio. I fell in love with rock-n-roll, but also with listening to radio stations on the AM dial from far away places. As a kid from northern Ohio, I used to get all jazzed when I could pull in WOWO-AM from Fort Wayne. Or WCCO from Minneapolis. WABC from NYC... or WBZ from Boston. Every once in a while I'd get CFRB from Toronto. That was a whole other world for a kid from Ohio who never went anywhere. I even remember picking up KMOX from St Louis and WBAP and KRLD from Dallas... all the way up in Toledo, on a beat up old AM radio... now that radio stations can be picked up on the internet from anywhere in the world, it's not such a big deal. But to a little boy with no life... that beat up old AM radio was an escape to other places and in my mind, other worlds! I wouldn't trade those memories for ANYTHING...
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