I realized two nights ago that I had become a cat bed.
Now this did not happen over night, but it did seem to happen in a blink of an eye. You see ten or so years ago this little fluff ball of a kitten kept showing up at my wife's work. No matter what she did this fluff ball kept coming back to her and even sat on the tire of the car so she could not drive off without her.
After some time she called me from work to come get this cat and take it home because she was afraid that it would get killed on the highway. Now you have to know something about me. I am not nor have I ever been a cat person. I don't like them. I prefer dogs who are, no matter how long I have been away, always happy to see me. Cats just look at you with that attitude of, "Well it's about time you got back now where's my food. Oh, by the by, my litter box needs cleaning out. Do I really have to remind you of this every day?"
She is not even a good mouser. She prefers to play with them until they are exhausted and then leave and go somewhere else to lay down and rest again because as all cats know being up for over 15 minutes is such a hardship. She relies on the dogs to finally kill the mouse like that is beneath her dignity to do so.
Oh, she does seem to like me. No she really does. As do all cats. I can sit and ignore them all day long hoping they get the message not to come around me but they wind up in my lap and purring. If that doesn't work the head butting begins. Hey look at me I'm sitting i your lap and purring the least you can do is pet me. If I break down and pet her I wind up with a lap- or handful of cat fur because she sheds. Not just once a year or so. Every day of the year. Maybe, if the stars align in the Milky Way and form the Cat Head formation, she will take one day off a year from shedding. I guess that is what she does.
Getting back to the other night. She came into the bedroom and on the bed where I am surrounded by the dogs. She slowly creeps up on me while I am laying on my side plops like only cats can plop on my side and promptly........ fell.......... asleep.
That is how I became a cat bed.
Until next time.............
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Things That I Am Thankful For
With everyone posting on Facebook what they are thankful for each day in November I thought I would do the same but on this blog. So here goes...........
I am thankful for ALS for it has shown me what is really important in life and taught me to cherish the little things that so many of us take for granted.
I am thankful that I can get up each day for there will be a time I will not be able to get out of bed.
I am thankful for the pain because it reminds me that I am still alive. Without life there is no pain.
I am thankful for pain pills that make the pain at least tolerable.
I am thankful that I can still swallow my pills as that is a small victory to be celebrated daily.
I am thankful for the friends who have shared their life with me. Without friends none of us would survive.
I am thankful for my life with my Bride of 35 years. She has made my life so much richer and rewarding. I don't know what I would do without her. I need her now more than ever.
I am thankful for my beautiful daughters and handsome son-in-law. They have given me so much pleasure and joy in my life. Makes me glad I didn't kill them when they were teenagers or shoot him when he first started coming around.
I am thankful for my grands as they let me see the world through their eyes and realize how wonderful the world really is.
I am thankful for the nature that surrounds me when I am in the woods. It rejuvenates me and calms my spirit, putting everything into a better perspective.
I am thankful for my family that gave me such a hard time growing up and shows me much love now. Without them I would not be me. Without me they would not have had anyone to pick on.
I am thankful for my puppies for each and every day that show me just what unconditional love really truly is. If you have never had a dog you don't know what I mean.
I am thankful for knowing a very special lady, Aletha Arnold. Next to my mother she was the most caring and compassionate woman I have ever known. RIP 11-17-2015. I hope you're dancing with Clifford.
I could go on and on but it would get to be tedious for you the reader. Think of what you are thankful for. Not just the big things, but the little things. For those are often the things that enrich us more than the big things.
Oh and don't forget to tell the ones you love that you do indeed love them. They can never hear that enough.
Until next time..............
I am thankful for ALS for it has shown me what is really important in life and taught me to cherish the little things that so many of us take for granted.
I am thankful that I can get up each day for there will be a time I will not be able to get out of bed.
I am thankful for the pain because it reminds me that I am still alive. Without life there is no pain.
I am thankful for pain pills that make the pain at least tolerable.
I am thankful that I can still swallow my pills as that is a small victory to be celebrated daily.
I am thankful for the friends who have shared their life with me. Without friends none of us would survive.
I am thankful for my life with my Bride of 35 years. She has made my life so much richer and rewarding. I don't know what I would do without her. I need her now more than ever.
I am thankful for my beautiful daughters and handsome son-in-law. They have given me so much pleasure and joy in my life. Makes me glad I didn't kill them when they were teenagers or shoot him when he first started coming around.
I am thankful for my grands as they let me see the world through their eyes and realize how wonderful the world really is.
I am thankful for the nature that surrounds me when I am in the woods. It rejuvenates me and calms my spirit, putting everything into a better perspective.
I am thankful for my family that gave me such a hard time growing up and shows me much love now. Without them I would not be me. Without me they would not have had anyone to pick on.
I am thankful for my puppies for each and every day that show me just what unconditional love really truly is. If you have never had a dog you don't know what I mean.
I am thankful for knowing a very special lady, Aletha Arnold. Next to my mother she was the most caring and compassionate woman I have ever known. RIP 11-17-2015. I hope you're dancing with Clifford.
I could go on and on but it would get to be tedious for you the reader. Think of what you are thankful for. Not just the big things, but the little things. For those are often the things that enrich us more than the big things.
Oh and don't forget to tell the ones you love that you do indeed love them. They can never hear that enough.
Until next time..............
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Sounds
Sounds can be a most powerful stimulus of memory. Just hearing certain things allows us to go to another time and place in our heads, to enjoy pleasant memories. Such as:
The sound of a screen door slamming takes me back to warm summer days and running in and out of the house and being told not to slam the screen door.
The clatter of silverware on plates takes me to a time of a full table shared by my siblings.
Notes played in a certain sequence and rhythm. Yeah, okay so a song. Two come to mind, White Christmas because that is what my Mom always hummed during the holidays when she was making Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. The other I cannot remember the name of but is by David Bowie that played a lot on the radio when I was called up for Dessert Storm/Dessert Shield. It takes me back to a time in the barracks waiting for, well just waiting.
The tinkle of a bell for no reason. In the movie It's A Good Life, Clarence works to get his angel wings. He explains to George that every time one rings an angel gets their wings. Clarence has been waiting a long time for his bell to ring and George is his last chance to get his wings. The last scene of the movie shows a bell ringing for no reason and you know Clarence got his wings.
The sound of a shotgun in the woods reminds me of hunts of years before when life was so much easier and simpler. A pocket of shells and a string for the squirrels and off to the woods. Maybe never even seeing one but having grand adventures battling the bad guys from the seat of the Overland Express Stage.
A child laughing and giggling. We all, who are parents, know this sound. The sound of unqualified and complete joy escaping with a burst of energy unmatched any where on this earth.
The ticking of a clock on a still afternoon when sleep will not quite come. That state of not wakefulness and not sleep where it is so still and quiet that the clock is the only sound that you can hear with its slow methodical ticking. Modern electric clocks are just not the same.
These are just some of the sounds that hold special meanings for me. I am sure you have some of the same and others that are uniquely yours. That's as it should be. For memories are held dear by the individual and shared with the collective of mankind, but only if we have to.
I hope that each of you store up memories in sounds, and that they are as comforting to you as my memories are to me.
Until next time.............................
The sound of a screen door slamming takes me back to warm summer days and running in and out of the house and being told not to slam the screen door.
The clatter of silverware on plates takes me to a time of a full table shared by my siblings.
Notes played in a certain sequence and rhythm. Yeah, okay so a song. Two come to mind, White Christmas because that is what my Mom always hummed during the holidays when she was making Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. The other I cannot remember the name of but is by David Bowie that played a lot on the radio when I was called up for Dessert Storm/Dessert Shield. It takes me back to a time in the barracks waiting for, well just waiting.
The tinkle of a bell for no reason. In the movie It's A Good Life, Clarence works to get his angel wings. He explains to George that every time one rings an angel gets their wings. Clarence has been waiting a long time for his bell to ring and George is his last chance to get his wings. The last scene of the movie shows a bell ringing for no reason and you know Clarence got his wings.
The sound of a shotgun in the woods reminds me of hunts of years before when life was so much easier and simpler. A pocket of shells and a string for the squirrels and off to the woods. Maybe never even seeing one but having grand adventures battling the bad guys from the seat of the Overland Express Stage.
A child laughing and giggling. We all, who are parents, know this sound. The sound of unqualified and complete joy escaping with a burst of energy unmatched any where on this earth.
The ticking of a clock on a still afternoon when sleep will not quite come. That state of not wakefulness and not sleep where it is so still and quiet that the clock is the only sound that you can hear with its slow methodical ticking. Modern electric clocks are just not the same.
These are just some of the sounds that hold special meanings for me. I am sure you have some of the same and others that are uniquely yours. That's as it should be. For memories are held dear by the individual and shared with the collective of mankind, but only if we have to.
I hope that each of you store up memories in sounds, and that they are as comforting to you as my memories are to me.
Until next time.............................
Thursday, November 5, 2015
A Brief Time Line Of the Last 3 Years
Some time in December 2013 I had a mild stroke in the right parietal lobe of the brain. Don't know exactly when it was as I only noticed a tendency to be very emotional about things and a slurring of my speech. Did an MRI and compared it to another that I had done a year or two before that. Sure enough it showed an old stroke.
It did not bother me much at all and I was already on the medicinal regimen that would be prescribed to me for a stroke so we did nothing for the time being. That was in January of 2014.
Now fast forward to about March and I am in the hospital again with chest pains. My doc comes in to see about me and he is alarmed about the speech problems I am having. He gets me into speech therapy and I go off and on for nearly a year seeing a wonderful lady at least twice a week for speech and swallow therapy.
In the mean time I am loosing more and more speech ability and start seeing a neurologist. The first one was a waste of good oxygen. Judging from her I could have been a doctor. Any way I finally got in to see a good neuro guy and he confirmed what I had felt for some time and that was this is something more serious than a stroke.
More tests and referrals and on January 27, 2015 I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS, or better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Typical life expectancy is 3 to 5 years after onset of symptoms. I have roughly 2 to 4 years.
The good side to this is ALS is considered a service connected disease and I am now 100% VA disabled. Thanks to a very knowledgeable and compassionate person at the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Mr. Clyde Reed, I was able to get that disability in about three weeks time.
I now spend as much time as I can and as I feel up to it, doing the things that I love to do and what I missed out doing before for whatever reason.
If there is a silver lining to all of this, it is this; I am now more appreciative of the things that I can do and the people in my life.
If only we all were this way.
Until next time......................
It did not bother me much at all and I was already on the medicinal regimen that would be prescribed to me for a stroke so we did nothing for the time being. That was in January of 2014.
Now fast forward to about March and I am in the hospital again with chest pains. My doc comes in to see about me and he is alarmed about the speech problems I am having. He gets me into speech therapy and I go off and on for nearly a year seeing a wonderful lady at least twice a week for speech and swallow therapy.
In the mean time I am loosing more and more speech ability and start seeing a neurologist. The first one was a waste of good oxygen. Judging from her I could have been a doctor. Any way I finally got in to see a good neuro guy and he confirmed what I had felt for some time and that was this is something more serious than a stroke.
More tests and referrals and on January 27, 2015 I was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, ALS, or better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Typical life expectancy is 3 to 5 years after onset of symptoms. I have roughly 2 to 4 years.
The good side to this is ALS is considered a service connected disease and I am now 100% VA disabled. Thanks to a very knowledgeable and compassionate person at the Paralyzed Veterans of America, Mr. Clyde Reed, I was able to get that disability in about three weeks time.
I now spend as much time as I can and as I feel up to it, doing the things that I love to do and what I missed out doing before for whatever reason.
If there is a silver lining to all of this, it is this; I am now more appreciative of the things that I can do and the people in my life.
If only we all were this way.
Until next time......................
Ramblings
Some times it is hard to come up with something to write about as any author can tell you. There are, though, rambling thoughts that flash through my brain that some how sticks around for more than a nanosecond. Here are some of them.
Are male Lady Bugs upset that they are called "Lady Bugs"?
A bowl of Fruit Loops have all sorts of different fruit flavor donuts in it that we would think of eating together if it were real fruit but taste amazing when eaten together with milk.
Should we start a movement to ensure the rights of male Lady Bugs not to be called Lady Bugs?
The number of leaves on the ground is in direct proportion to how long the burn ban has been in effect in your county/state.
If you wash your car in the Fall to get the tree rust off of it, it will inevitably rain and make the rust stains ten times worse.
Nothing says Fall like the smell of leaves burning. That is definitely a Southern thing.
Maybe we should start a #freemaleLadyBugsfrombeingcalledLadyBugs.
Some thoughts just get stuck in our heads that are really trivial, but the really important ones you only remember for a few seconds and then you spend days trying to figure out what those thoughts were just so you can talk about them.
I am not scared of dying but of leaving my loved ones behind.
No one looks good sitting in a darkened room with their face lit only by the glow of the computer screen.
Pain is a good thing. It reminds us we are still alive and can feel.
Why not eliminate daylight savings time and just adjust working and school schedules to take advantage of the available daylight hours?
I bet some of you will set up a mirror and try to see how you look sitting at a computer in a darkened room to see how you look with your face lit by the glow of the computer screen. Admit it. You thought about it.
Until next time..........................
Are male Lady Bugs upset that they are called "Lady Bugs"?
A bowl of Fruit Loops have all sorts of different fruit flavor donuts in it that we would think of eating together if it were real fruit but taste amazing when eaten together with milk.
Should we start a movement to ensure the rights of male Lady Bugs not to be called Lady Bugs?
The number of leaves on the ground is in direct proportion to how long the burn ban has been in effect in your county/state.
If you wash your car in the Fall to get the tree rust off of it, it will inevitably rain and make the rust stains ten times worse.
Nothing says Fall like the smell of leaves burning. That is definitely a Southern thing.
Maybe we should start a #freemaleLadyBugsfrombeingcalledLadyBugs.
Some thoughts just get stuck in our heads that are really trivial, but the really important ones you only remember for a few seconds and then you spend days trying to figure out what those thoughts were just so you can talk about them.
I am not scared of dying but of leaving my loved ones behind.
No one looks good sitting in a darkened room with their face lit only by the glow of the computer screen.
Pain is a good thing. It reminds us we are still alive and can feel.
Why not eliminate daylight savings time and just adjust working and school schedules to take advantage of the available daylight hours?
I bet some of you will set up a mirror and try to see how you look sitting at a computer in a darkened room to see how you look with your face lit by the glow of the computer screen. Admit it. You thought about it.
Until next time..........................
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