The shadow of a.....Life!

Good evening and thank you for stopping by. I'm happy to see you. Grab a seat and I'll fix you something to eat. (yes, I'm a good cook) Now just enjoy your meal as you read this post. ( :-D )
Something was said to me a couple of days ago that started me thinking. I don't particularly agree with what was said but I was very flattered to have it said to me. The line of thought the statement provoked was this: How big is the shadow that I cast? A funny thing to wonder, huh? By that I mean, as I go about my life day by day what do I leave in my wake? (a wake, for those that might not know, is the trail left behind a ship) Does what I leave behind me make life a little brighter for the persons left there? Whether we know it or not we all make a difference in our world. Maybe the difference is subtle, maybe it's very visible. I was working at the professional building of a hospital today and decided I was going to give everyone I met a smile and a polite "Hi" or "Hello". I was pleasantly surprised with the response. Even though there were things that didn't go well, and some even went downright badly, I continued my quest to smile and cause smiles. It was fun. Along with all of that I've been giving a lot of thought to my world. The questions I ask myself is: Are the people in my world better off and happier because of my being in their lives? Another one is: are the people that I see each day in whatever capacity going to remember me to any degree? Will they immediately forget me? Or will the memory of my cause a frown? Or will the memory of me bring a smile? Or will their memory of me be that of indifference? In other words, what is the size and shade of the shadow I cast in my world as I go about living my life? I shall be pondering this question for a while and have decided to ask the questions often of myself. It's a way of holding myself accountable. Can I recommend that each person that reads this do something along the same lines? Maybe we cannot change the world and how it's operated, but we can change the part of the world that makes up where we live. ..............And so it goes.............

Wrestling with.........Whatever?

Good evening. It's nine fifteen p.m. in the Heart of Dixie, sweet home Alabama. I have, it seems, survived another birthday. I suppose that's to be expected since I'm going to live till I'm one hundred and one years old. That would make my death occurring at some point after the middle of July in the year of our Lord two thousand and fifty. ( :-D ) Let me interject here that I'm looking forward to every day till that time. Ok, enough of that. Let me now relate an event that happened somewhere around the beginning of the decade of the seventies. My friend, Mike Swartz, with whom I was serving in the Navy with at the time was working in a shop in Attack Squadron eighty six. The shop He was working in was called QA. Nope, that doesn't stand for question answer. It stood for Quality Assurance. Mike's job, along with the other guys in the shop was to do periodic inspections of work performed on the aircraft to insure that the work done met the standards set by the Department of the Navy. Enough of that that though. There was in that shop with Mike a guy (I can't recall his name) that was into professional wrestling. Maybe it would be better to say that he was obsessed with it. He not only didn't believe it wasn't fake, he'd pretty much fight anyone to prove that it was absolutely real. He of course had his favorite(s) and followed each "fight" with great interested. It was also his favorite thing to talk about. Maybe that's the reason he ate lunch alone so often. ( :-D ) Anyway, I digress. This sailor one day began asking Mike to attend a wrestling match at the civic center in Jacksonville, FL. On a particular night. Maybe 'asking' isn't the right word. The better word would be badgering. After a week or so of this Mike finally told him that ok, he'd go with him but only this once. As it turned out once was all that was available. From this point on I'll relate the facts as closely as I can recall Mike's telling of them. After arriving at the civic center they entered the area in which the aforementioned match would take place. Having arrived early they obtained seats on the floor and on the aisle and about 10 rows from the ring in which the 'fights' would be held. After a wait of almost an hour the announcer finally took the microphone and announced the order of fights and the participants of said fights. Ok, to make a long post a bit shorter I'll go straight to the good part. It was about the third or fourth match that Mike's friends favorite wrestler was scheduled. This particular wrestler happened to be the "good guy" persona wrestler and badly lost the match, the "bad guy" persona winning by an landslide. Oh yeah, He won by "cheating". Mike's friend, having seeing all of this, was by the end of the match in a total rage. At that point in time the favorite was laying in the ring groaning. (chuckle chuckle) Here came the bad guy winner strutting down the aisle toward his dressing room. As he approached Mike's seat, the friend, not being able to contain himself any longer, jumped to his feet, grabbed the folding chair in which he'd been sitting, folded it and hit the unsuspecting 'wrestler' on the head. I know, I know. Wrestlers get hit with those chairs all the time, but this time this particular guy was hit across the forehead with the edge, not the flat part. Now, I don't want to sound bloodthirsty but blood did go everywhere. The friend was "wrestled" to the floor by security and eventually taken to jail. The wrestler, it turned out, had a severe concussion and a fractured skull. He was out of the ring for several months. Our skipper (commanding officer) had to go the next day and get his sailor out of jail. He was able to "wrestle" jurisdiction from the civil authorities and exercised discipline himself, part of which was being forbid ever going to another wrestling match as long as he was in that command. Oh the woes we bring on ourselves. Needless to say, we never let Mike or the friend live down the event. .........And so it went..........

A Celebration of life.....

Good Evening. Yep, I'm back to evening posts, at least for a little while. At least I'm posting and that's a lot. My grandson, Brendan, ask today why I hadn't been posting. I didn't know what to tell him except that I'd been extraordinarily busy with life. Some good stuff too. Very soon I'm going to begin once again taking some trips. I have a passion for traveling. I love to see new places, meet new people and experience new things. It's just plain fun. I'm thinking of buying a pull behind camper and taking some camping trips. Wow, what fun! Ok, Ok, on to something else. I did attend the funeral of my uncle as a pall bearer. It was tough but I made it through ok. Watching the grief of those attending the funeral I was reminded of just how precious life is. Whether we know it or not and admit it or not it certainly is. I find myself at this point in my life looking forward to life each morning. Looking forward to learning something, or making a new friend, or having a brand new experience, etc. Wow, what a chance to live! What a chance to impact someone's life in a positive way. What a chance to bring some happiness to the lives of those we love. After the bring of that happiness we can go about our own lives with gratitude and thankfulness for having had the opportunity. A for instance is, I had a chance to give Maggie (a granddaughter) a stereo. It wasn't a super one, it wasn't "state of the art" but it's very pretty and functions very well. Oh yeah, it has a great sound too. She is, to put it mildly, ecstatic. What a joy to me to have the opportunity to bring some happiness to a life, even though it's already filled with happiness. Anyway, enough of tooting my own horn.
My point is....Keep a vigilante lookout at those in your life for an opportunity to enrich it. Don't, in the process of life, miss the chance to do that same thing to someone you don't know and may never see or meet again. Ok, enough. Oh yeah, one more thing. I just today celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of my twenty seventh birthday. ........And so it goes......

Having the answers but not knowing the questions....

Good Afternoon. Yes, I'm actually posting this in the afternoon (a little after five pm actually). This will be a shorter post than usual so I won't offer you anything to drink but you are welcome to sit and relax.
I received some news this morning that changed some things, such as my schedule and my plans, but mostly my line of thought. My uncle (my Mom's sister's husband) passed away last night. He being quite a bit older I never knew him very well but his children and I are about the same age, thus we were playmates when we were young. I was doing ok until they ask me to be a pall bearer. Of course I'm going to. Being ask though, brought back so very many memories. I was talking to a very good friend and found myself saying that I'd been to far too many funerals in my life. The most detestable memory I have in that regard is of serving on the "firing squad". It's not what it sounds like. It's being a part of the squad that fires the twenty one gun salute. No matter how many times I did it I never got accustomed to seeing the grief of so many people. My heart would break for them.

Then I began remembering the ones that I'd called friend or family. I stopped because the list became too painful. It seems that with each funeral I lost a bit of my heart, a part of myself. Enough for now. I have to pack so I can take my Mom to her Sister's house to spend the night and be with her. As implyed by the title, I've learned some of the answers over the years I've lived, but I still don't know what the questions are. ..........And so it goes.........

P.S. .........

Good evening everyone....Just a quick update on something. I've been ask quite a bit about how my cancer screen came out last week. I received the final phone call today and am assured by all doctors involved that I have nothing to worry about. An area of concern that has to be looked at again in December, but again I'm assured that most likely it's nothing to worry about. Good news, huh? Anyway....please carry on, just wanted to let everyone know now that I 've heard from the last test. .........and so it goes..........

One thousand and ninety five days ago.........

Good afternoon to the multitude of faithful readers out there. I'd invite you all for a cook out today but that would mean that I would actually have to cook out. ( :-D ) Instead, I'll offer you something to drink while you read this post. I have milk, chocolate milk, tea and wine. The other stuff I won't mention here.
I know you're all thinking "what an odd title". I'm referring of course to the title of this post. It was that many days ago exactly that we were in a car accident. Actually the exact time was 12:10 pm. I'll recount some of the events as they've been related to me. It was at that time that an elderly gentleman (I won't mention his name) while in the process of having a heart attack crossed over the center line and into the lane in which I was driving. We hit head on. The gentleman was driving a Ford F150 pickup and we were in a Mitsubishi Galant. I'm told that we were both going about the speed limit, which was sixty miles per hour. The other driver, I'm told, was the first one air lifted because of his heart attack. He'd broken both of his legs I'm told. My wife (ex) had been struck a very hard blow to the head and consequently had to have surgery on her brain to remove some blood clots. She and I were cut from the car I'm told, a process which took about forty five minutes. Brittney (my then step daughter) had multi fractures to her face. I'm not sure that I've ever heard how she was taken to the hospital, though I think it was by ambulance. Brendan was the only one coherent I'm told and was able to give the police the information they needed. He had a broken arm, some broken ribs and numerous cuts and abrasions. Maybe some more stuff too. I don't remember all of it. My ex's granddaugher, a twenty two month old blonde cherib was killed instantly. I had, I'm told, twenty five broken bones in sundry and various places. I know my right ankle was broken, both knees, my jaw in two places, my collar bone, my left shoulder and of course my left elbow. The elbow couldn't be reconstructed so I now have a brand new metal one. I don't remember anything at all about it. Brendan does and sometimes we talk and He fills me in on some stuff. That day began an extensive hospital stay. It was after Christmas of that year that I was able to have some semblance of independence. That was, to my knowledge, my latest and hopefully last brush with Mr. Grim reaper. So when I say to people that "I'm proud to be here" I'm saying that with all sincerity. It's been said to me on numerous occasions that I'm here because God isn't finished with me. I believe that and try to live everyday accordingly. I have lots to do and am truly the most blessed man in the world. ........And so it went......

Just checking......

Good evening all. Well, I'm back to my old routine of evening posts. It's much too late to offer you anything but a sleeping pill and that you'll have to supply on your own. ( :-D ) I was ask why I hadn't posted in a while. The truth is, I'd thought of deleting my blog, then I decided against it. The truth is, I've had much too much on my mind the last couple of weeks to be able to post anything coherent. Well, coherent for you normal folks. The scary part is, it would make perfect sense to me. I've tried a few times to post something but usually just sat staring at the screen wondering how I was going to pull this off. Then I'd get discouraged and sign off. It has been a tough couple of weeks. The kind of weeks in which you feel alone even though you know you're not. I have faith though, that I'm going to get past this stuff. I have that faith because I've gotten through much worse many times. Sometimes the bad stuff just kind of gets together and gangs up on your mind. That kind of thing. On a lighter note though, I do feel better. Jerry, my brother, is spending the weekend with me and we're doing stuff together. That's fun. I'd forgotten how amazed I usually am at how much he can eat. (and he's thinner than I am) Oh well, at least He doesn't have my dazzling good looks. ( :-D ) ...........and so it goes............