Personal

Show and Tell – Dad goes back to school

Six years ago I posted this video on YouTube and on B&P.  I know the young man doing the presentation as I was a good friend of the subject of the presentation, his dad.  His dad died of cancer and now the son is fighting colon cancer and has been for last year or two.  Break.com has posted the video recently, unfortunately without acknowledging its source,  and it’s received over 130,000 views.  For those that haven’t seen it before, here’s my friend Tommy doing a Show & Tell for an oral communications class at a local junior college.

 

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My first flight

My first airplane flight was a trip my brother and I made from St. Louis to Indianapolis Indiana on Ozark Airlines. Ozard covered about a dozen Midwest cities.  I was about 13 and my brother was about 16.  Why our mother let us do that I have no idea.  We stayed at a hotel in downtown Indianapolis and did the tourist thing for one day. We flew home the next day.

 The plane looked a lot like this one, a DC-3.  You walked out onto the tarmac and up the rollaway stairs and boarded at the rear door (the only door) and had to walk UP the aisle to find your seat on the prop aircraft. There was no TSA and/or baggage inspection in those days.  That trip fueled my love for air travel. 

Ozark Airlines had a special one summer where you could fly anywhere they served over the weekend for $30.  A friend and I charted out a trip starting on a Friday and had about a dozen stops until we returned on Sunday evening. We spent one night in Minneapolis and I can’t remember where we spent ther other night.  I think I was about 15 or 16 then.  I still love the travel by air even though it is a lot more trouble to do so.

 

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Putting the labor in my Labor Day weekend

We worked all weekend putting down pavers and a brick border in the back yard.  The brick border reduces the need to trim when cutting the grass.We also put in a flagstone path to our backyard shed/garage. We added a new fire pit also.  The weather was hot. I think it got up to 96 on Monday.  Of course, a storm rolled through with a cool front Monday evening.  Temps the rest of the week will be in the upper 70s to about 82. I have places that ache that I didn’t even know I had.  I think I may have mentioned this before, but I’m too old for this sh!t.
Click image to enlarge.

 
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Kicking my way out of a fight

I had this younger acquaintance that just kept bothering me one day a few weeks ago.  He just seemed like he wanted to start trouble with me.  He argued with everything I said and found fault with everything I did.  

Normally I would go out of my way to avoid a confrontation, but It wasn’t long until I had had enough of his bullying attitude.  He started insulting my family and we got into a scuffle.  A little push here and a little tug there and after a few cutting insults it wasn’t long before we were all hands on. With me being an old man and him quite a bit my junior I was surprisingly holding my own as we wrestled to the ground.  I kept trying to get away and he was trying to pin me down.

At one point he had me on my back and his knees were almost pinned to my shoulders but I was able to push him off balance and he fell backward.  I was struggling to get back onto my feet and he kept grabbing at my legs hindering my efforts.  I was sort of on my right side so I pulled my left leg up towards my chest and gave my opponent a decent kick, or push trying to force him away.

I awoke suddenly to the thud of Gus landing on the floor obviously wondering, ‘what the hell did I do?’,  as the fleeting image of my opponent quickly faded from my mind as I exited dream-state. Gus had been sleeping at the foot of the bed and got the surprise of his life a moment before.  I jumped up as soon as I realized what had happened.  He was just standing on the floor with a puzzled look on his face. I felt terrible!  Horrible!  Awful!  I checked him over and he seemed fine and he got back on the bed, but he did more over closer to the other side.

He was quick to make up with me and we’re best buddies again.  He was right back to sleeping at the foot of the bed the next night.

 

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Farmer Jonco

It’s been years since I had a garden and was hoping to have a small one this year but the landscaping and room renovation made that difficult.

So, this spring on a whim I purchased a tomato plant in a pot at Home Depot. Looks like my $15.99 investment will bear three tomatoes,…so far.  No sign of other buds yet.  I hope they taste good at $5.33 each.

I’ve been watering it every day trying to keep these 100°+ temperatures from frying it.  I’ve done nothing else to it.

 

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An update on my kidneys… and the rest of me

It was one year ago yesterday that I posted about some problems with my kidneys where my blood tests showed signs of kidney failure.  I was advised to stop taking anti-inflammatory drugs for the DJD (Degenerative Joint Disease) as those drugs could be causing the kidney problems.  I was given a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine to use if needed.

 I’m happy to report that I have only taken the Tylenol with Codeine a couple of times in the last year.  Some days I ache more than others but it hasn’t been nearly as bad as I thought it might be.  I do take regular Tylenol a few times a week for headaches but not really for my joint problems.

My blood tests have been pretty good since then.  I go back for my next 6-month blood work-up next month.  I have gained about 10 or 12 pounds in the last few months and now weigh right at 200 pounds.  The most I’ve ever weighed is 207, so I need to eat a little better and start exercising.  Getting motivated to do that is hard though especially when you’re achy.

 

 

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