Posted on

Behold the approach of the seven warning signs of Christmas

For the past several weeks I should have looked out for them. But today was when it really hit. I am talking about the seven warning signs of Christmas.

Now I’m not sure what all the signs are. But here I am on “Black Friday” — Really a horrible name for a day that is supposed gold for merchants who may finally get their books back in “black” — and here I was walking in Kroger earlier only to hear:

“Just hear those sleigh bells jingling,
Ring ting tingling too
Come on, it’s lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you … “

Such a wonderful song to hear where it has been cold enough to wear a sweater and a coat the last few days, only to get the shorts ready for another day or so.

Other signs abound. Commercials with Christmas music on TV. Santa Claus appears, though not ready for his IFR ride across the planet, at least the jolly fat man gets his lists together and gives them an initial once-over. Fat f***, I bet he doesn’t have Type II diabetes either. Ho, ho, ho.

Folks are out, shopping ahead of the crowd for their fake Christmas tree. As if the supply of faux spruces and firs will disappear, just as, did the old growth longleaf pines that once majestically stood over our deep pineywood lands in East Texas.

I can’t remember ever having anything but a real tree for Christmas when I was growing up in a small town in the boonies of Southeast Texas. Back in the day, property wasn’t all posted off to keep everyone away. The way things worked was that you went on the big forest tracts, most owned by the big timber companies, and you found a little tree to cut. It was the same as going hunting for squirrel, rabbit and even deer, when I was a kid. I’m not sure when it began, that the timber companies began leasing their land to sportsmen. That is, the land where they didn’t cut trees. And you just didn’t want to go on the timber company land for a tree anymore. You started worrying about things like trespassing. Or being hassled by a range rider, a private dick for large landowners who normally would just shoo you off the property on which you were trespassing. Some would hold you for the law. Some nuts would even shoot you.

My Daddy never had a chain saw. He always cut a tree with an ax, or a hatchet. I imagine if I went for a real Christmas tree, I would fell it with a chain saw. I’m too damn old and achy to cut down a tree with a hatchet

I am sure I will have to make a trek to some of the area shopping cities for work. But I have no interest in doing such for my own fun.

Anyway, the tell-tale signs are here. Can hear what I hear? Can you see what I see? Oh yes.

I had fun that one time I got to play Santa in a mall for a newspaper story. You know, a first-hand account, behind the scenes, an undercover account, the man behind the suit. But in the end, I had to go back and write a story about it. Ah, the damned quid pro quo again, taking me on a ride.

Oh well, ho ho ho. We’ll see more of these warning signs. Get ready for them. Have a good time. While you can

Posted on

What’s in a name? Let SSA fill you in.

This has been a very long, hard, cold and rainy day although I really intended to write something once I came home from work, something perhaps to warm the heart and stir the soul. Well, that ain’t gonna happen. Here lately I have come to write somewhat less frequent than in days past. It isn’t that I have lost interest in writing, rather it seems as if my energy has been zapped.

Whether this lack of energy has surfaced due to workload, aging, perhaps physiologically based or by part or all the reasons stations, I couldn’t tell you. Which reminds me, I need to take my monthly B-12 shot shortly. Not that it’s any big deal. Perhaps it is a bit of an ordeal. It takes only a few minutes. The biggest inconvenience is getting all that “juice” to drip, drip, drip into my syringe. From there, you just stick it right on in the arm.

Having re-established contact with an old friend who now goes by her given name rather than her nickname that she used in college made me look into her, seemingly common name. It is all too involved for me to take this on as a a topic this evening. SAW-ree! Perhaps another day. But take a look at this handy site concerning popular American names that is published by none other than our own Social Security Administration. Check it out.

Find out about your name, your mamma’s name, your grandma’s name and what you named that little one. By the time you figure it all out, you might even remember your own name.

 

Posted on

Boys will be bullies. And, what does Gary Kubiak have in common with Larry Dierker?

Over the past several years I have become somewhat of a listener to “sports-talk” radio. For those unfamiliar with term it literally “is what it is.”

The sports-talk listener fits a certain demographic insofar as it is used for audience and sales revenue purposes. Yet the listener, the typical one at least, is not a guy like me. Who is me am I? Unfortunately, we don’t have the time to discuss that.

Many people who tune to sports radio are hard-core sports fan. They are fans of men’s sports and mainly team sports. One will hardly hear a story or talk about women’s sports unless there happens to be a sex angle involved. Apparently, some listeners also like to gamble on sports. A lot of discussion is often heard about the “line” and the “over and under.”

So you probably know where I am headed with respect to the huge story about Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito. The veteran and Pro Bowler is in the center of a controversy with another player, Jonathan Martin. Incognito has been accused of leaving phone messages using racial slurs and threatening Martin.

Martin left the Dolphins, saying he had enough of the hazing-gone-wild in the Miami locker room. Incognito has been suspended. Many hard core sports fans and some players say boys will be boys.

Some forms of hazing is prevalent in NFL locker rooms and only rises to a mild form such as rookies carrying shoulder pads or getting drinks for the veterans. As one who has worked in several all-male environments — naval ships before women were allowed and likewise for firefighting — the presence of some meager forms of hazing wasn’t a real surprise. I only experienced such behavior during my ship’s crossing the equator ceremony. Some sailors fresh from boot camp, at least during my time, may have found themselves scurrying off to find some ridiculous item ordered by a more senior enlisted. For instance, hunting for “relative bearing grease” or waiting for the “mail buoy.” I was never exposed to such, nor knew much of it happening on my ship. I would only venture to guess why was perhaps that I came onboard as petty officer with almost three years of service. Likewise, I heard of some tepid hazing shenanigans occurring “back in the day”  as a firefighter but never experienced the like.

I was bullied by several fellow students during some of my school years. One little bastard used to act if he was going to hit me with his small car while I was walking home. I also received verbal abuse from several people. The only actual violence was when a kid in junior high punched me in the nose for no reason. I can’t remember any particular reason why I was targeted, perhaps because in my late elementary through junior high days I was a fat kid. I later slimmed down and grew out my hair. Of course, I was targeted for my long hair. No one actually did anything although one girl I went out with said her dad would shoot any long-haired boy who brought her daughter home.

Now I can’t claim to know what all is happening with the Richie Incognito story. You have those who reward bullying, as long as he is a fierce competitor. Incognito is, by all accounts, a tough competitor. He is also known as one of the NFL’s dirtiest players. So we will see what happens with that story.

In good sports news, it was heartening to hear Houston Texans coach Gary Kubiak went home from the Methodist Hospital (home of my first spinal surgery) after nearly collapsing on the field during halftime of Houston’s narrow loss to Baltimore. Doctors said Kubiak had a temporary ischemic attack, or TIA.

TIA, also called a mini-stroke, usually lasts a few minutes. It involves a blood clot but it normally dissolves in the body soon after it cuts off blood flow. A TIA usually does not cause brain damage. However, a TIA can be a warning sign of an impending stroke. There is no word on who will take the reins of the troubled Texans.

Kubiak was not the lone leader for a Houston professional sports team to be carted off to the hospital due to an interruption of blood flow to the brain. Houston Astros manager Larry Dierker was rushed to the hospital during the eighth inning of a game they were winning 4-1 over the San Diego Padres. Dierker, a beloved Astros pitcher and later broadcaster, suffered what doctors said was an “arteriovenous malformation.” He suffered a two-part seizure known as “Grand Mal” because a group of blood vessels to his brain tangled. Dierker recovered following surgery to remove the small clump of malformed vessels. The game was suspended until the next time the Astros played the Padres. Too bad that didn’t happen for the Texans. Of course, they might have also blown that chance as well.

Posted on

A cig-free 13 years. EFD don’t preach.

Here I am burned out from the week, waiting for the local TV news. I don’t know why. But one thing I do know. I am not smoking cigarettes, or anything else, for that matter.

This is my 13th anniversary of a smoke-free existence. I am not here to preach nor to teach. Folks smoking don’t bother me. I decided that when I quit smoking I wouldn’t be one of those “holier than thou” ex-smokers. And I haven’t been, as far as I know. Yes, a lot of people together smoking can get to me, but if it bothers me I can always get up and leave. I’ve seen such silly behavior of ex-smokers.

No miracles really came about from my smoking cessations. Well, maybe the ability to better enjoy the smell or taste of food. I see how some people get fat from quitting. That isn’t why I got fat. It’s really too complicated to explain. I’ve also smelled bad things much easier than when I was smoking.

It was funny how, when I worked as a firefighter, my co-workers and I would all pull out a cig after extinguishing a fire. Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette.

But I tell you this: if cigarettes didn’t have the great number of negative effects, I’d pull one out and light one up right away. If you couldn’t discern five or six different flavors when you eat a really great meal, I’d sure as shootin’ smoke one just afterwards for a post-meal cig.

Yeah, yeah, cigarettes will give you all kinds of diseases. So will life. My best friend died of cancer at the age of 43. It was from anal cancer. He smoked every now and then, but not nearly for the years I did. He didn’t, as far as I know, stick a cigarette up his butt either.

So why am I not preaching to you about how cigarettes are so bad? If you smoke, and you don’t know that already, then you are pretty much an idiot. That’s why.

 

I

 

Posted on

Get me outta here! Home from the hospital

It is good to be back home after nearly a week in the Houston VA hospital.

Here, where I call home for the time being, I don’t have someone coming in every couple hours checking my blood sugar. I don’t have someone coming in three or four times a day checking my vitals. I don’t have alarms going off on my CPAP machine or from an adjacent room. I can take my medicine on my routine and not that of a nurse. Although I can’t adjust my bed to make it and me sit in an upward position, I do have a bed that is not the world’s most uncomfortable. Likewise, I don’t have an attending physician followed by a flock of some half-dozen residents taking their time feeling and handling things of mine that I would rather they not handle. Oh, and even though the VA had some really nice people who bring your meals,  I now can get a meal myself that tastes good or at least is not tasteless.

I also know that diseases such as strep and staph infections can be found just about anywhere out there in the world and they can be a pain in places worse than the butt. But hospitals these days are breeding grounds for infectious diseases. It would come as no surprise to me that this infection, which I hope is now on the down side, came from that very hospital. It seems I have to go there for something every month or perhaps twice a month.

One of my doctors said what is the best circumstance was to get the treatment I need and get out of the hospital as soon as possible. He was referring to the additional infections to which I could become exposed. I said it sounded like good advice.

So here I am. It may not be the best circumstance overall but it is the best one I can think of at the moment.