It's Been a Week?

I can't believe it's been a week since my last blog.

I'm much better now -- except I'm tired a lot lately. I went to bed at 10pm last night and slept until 6am and still woke up tired. I had like zero energy last night. I came home, ate dinner, played Frizbee ® (except it wasn't a real Frizbee ® but a cheap imitation knock-off we got for free from a bank and it broke, so I need to go buy a real Frizbee ® brand Frizbee soon), visited my mom for a few minutes, and watched t.v. like a slug.

I held Bekah while watching t.v. because I wanted to keep her "contained" as Barb and Brittany were out doing stuff and the boys were upstairs playing computer games and stuff. We watched Japanese anime on the Anime Network On-Demand channel -- girl anime. Bekah enjoyed up until I tried to turn on the "Large Robot" Anime. Then, I had to go back to "Girl Anime" -- which was fine by me.

We watched something called "Madlax" which is kind of hard to say if you think about it. Madlax, Madlax, Madlax. Sounds like some kind of medication you'd take if you were angry or constipated.

Then, we watched Noir -- which is even harder to say -- "No-oir." Actually, I don't really know how to pronounce Noir. I just wing it. "I'm watching something French, I think" I might say, but I'm actually watching Japanese anime dubbed in English.

English translations of Japanese anime tend to be a bit "off" from what I understand, but I don't know really because I'm not fluent in Japanese. How could I really tell? My son, Ben, however, assures me this off-translation stuff is in fact the case. I don't know how he knows though. I'm guessing he's getting his opinions by reading other's opinions and taking them as his own opinions.

Ever notice how opinions are contagious? Let's say, for example, you have no real opinion on whether or not John-Claude Van Dam is a good martial artist or not. You don't even know how to spell Martial Arts let alone know much about them. Then, I with my black belt in Chang Chuan Kung Fu, tell you that he's full of baloney as far as martial arts go. Will you take my opinion as your own now or keep your opinion?

Probably, if you trust and respect me and my opinions, you'll take my opinion. Then, you'll find yourself saying, "While I like John-Claude Van Dam as an actor, I think he's not really a true martial artist." like that's something you came up with on your own but in actuality, you'll be remembering our conversation on this topic and your opinion will be a proxy opinion of the one I gave you.

And, I may have gotten my opinion on John-Claude that same way.

We could have, in reality, one person somewhere with one opinion that told someone about it and everyone else now has that opinion. Well, it's likely we have two opinions: Those who think John-Claude is a terrific martial artist and those who don't. Two people exist somewhere with diametrically opposed opinions and they're the only ones who've actually considered all the facts, etc. The rest of us are just spewing what we've heard from others who heard from them, etc.

For the record, I think John-Claude is an acrobat. Jet Li is a real martial artist. Now you know what to think....

I had a TON of things to write here but I've forgotten them all. I need to carry a notepad with me to write down all my ideas.

Let me just say, my wife's parents are coming to visit us Saturday night for like a week. My wife is a wreck. She can never have her parents visit us without going bonkers first. Oh well.

Later all.
---Dan---

Strep Throat

I have strep throat. I felt my throat getting sore yesterday evening at about 5pm'ish.

Normally, when I get a sore throat, I have other symptoms like a cough, nasal or post-nasal drip, and often hoarseness. This time, though, things were different. I just got a sore throat.

I also felt very slightly nauseous. And, my stomach ached. You know how it is when you have a stomach ache -- it feels as if you're hungry. Then, you eat and eating doesn't help much. I had a slight fever too.

I don't know if I had a headache or not because the primary pain in my head area is my throat. It's like if you had a small pain covered by a larger pain.

My throat got more and more sore. None of the pain medications even hardly touched the pain. Late last night, I emailed my boss and one of my co-workers and said I suspected I had strep.

Since I've never had strep before, and I've never had these symptoms before, I figured I probably had strep. Sure enough, I made an appointment, they took a throat culture, and the culture was positive for it.

Now, I'm on antibiotics and Darvacet for the pain, but the Darvacet doesn't seem to be doing much. Nothing is. The pain is rather annoying. I feel into a feverish sleep earlier, but now I'm up. I wish I could just sleep until I'm well again.

The doctor said I'd be contagious until 24-hours after my third dose of the antibiotic. Hence, I'm going to stay home from work again tomorrow. I didn't feel much like doing anything all day today.

Whenever I get sick like this, I always think about what would've happened if I'd gotten sick 100-years ago when they didn't have antibiotics. Would I have been bed-ridden for a week or longer? Would I have died?

They didn't even have good fever-reducing medications back then. It's hard to say, but I suspect if we were at the medical technology of 100-years ago, life would be much, much more tragic for us. Sicknesses that are simple to cure now would be devastating then.

I'm thankful I live now.

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One of those things happened today that you never want to have happen. Background info: My mom is on home hemo-dialysis for a genetic kidney disease she has called polycystic kidney disease (or PKD for short). I do *not* have this disease, but two of my sisters do (one other sister does not).

Since my mom's husband, my step-father Ralph, recently hurt his back (and kept doing stupid things to re-injure himself), I was cleaning my mom's dialysis machine (weekly) and setting up her bicarbonate solution (three times a week) -- "doing her water."

Of course, since I have strep, I was going to avoid my mother all day today. I wasn't sure if I had it or not this morning, but she called and I explained I was staying home from work, etc. Someone else would have to do her water tonight (my wife did).

My wife took my mother to Albany today to meet with a friend and have lunch. She wanted to get some house-hold items before the lunch, so she went out to Wal-Mart and picked up some things for the house. While she was away, my mom called:

"I've fallen and can't get up."

I swear, that's exactly what she said, word for word. I'm like, "Are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Is Ralph there?"

"Yes, but his back is still hurt." (NOTE: Ralph is not a big guy, he's 67 years old, and he severely injured his spinal column a couple years back.)

"I'll be right there!"

Now, I live all of 1 to 2 minutes from my mom's house by car -- five minutes or so if you're walking. I got in my car and rushed over there.

So, here I am with strep, not wanting to infect my mother and intending to stay away from her all day, driving over there to pick her up off the floor of her house.

Sure enough, I go there and Ralph had put out a blanket for her to make her comfortable. Apparently, she didn't really fall. She slipped out of her easy-chair when bending over to get some pills she'd dropped. Good. The fall didn't hurt her.

I hate to say it, but my mom's no cream-puff light-weight either. She's heavy, but I'm a big strong guy, and I've been working out lately. I was able to get her off the floor. I'm certain my wife wouldn't have been able to do so.

Kind of interesting how I had to stay home today, of all days, and my mom had to fall today. I'm really glad I was there for her.

Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day. My wife handed me two cards: One for her and one for my mom. I wrote to my wife, "How do you like this card I picked out for you?"

Of course, she's the one who purchased it. When she handed it to me, my wife noted, "What you write is what's important. Not what's already on the card itself."

The truth is, I spend about 20 seconds looking for a card. I just want one that's appropriate for the occassion and not offensive. What's pre-written is not very important. I mean, do you folks actually read what's pre-written on a card when you receive it? I know I don't.

I'm looking for: A. Cash. Did I get any cash? (checks are okay too). B. Hand written notes. If there's not a hand written note, then I'm a bit disappointed.

Of course, Cash (or a check) without the hand-written note is okay too.

I didn't give my wife or my mom any cash or checks in their cards. I'm not that dedicated to either of them. I did write nice notes, though. If I do say so myself.

As a side note: I did once send cards to two of my sisters for their birthdays. I was so proud of myself because I got the cards out into the mail ahead of time. I was pretty pleased until they both called me and asked me why I sent cards with nothing (not even a signature or who the card was for) written inside of it.

While it's important to get a card in the mail at the appropriate time, it's also important to remember to actually write some text in the card as well, like, for example, the person's name and who the card is from.

Hence, my wife and mom both got good words in their cards from me (with no money). I'm pretty pleased. I didn't give them blank cards.

Today's My Deceased Father's Birthday

Today's my dad's birthday. He'd be 66-years old if he was still alive. He died 5 years ago -- almost to the day. He died on May 12, 2000.

I thought I'd have more time with my dad. At least, more time than I had. I visited my dad less than a year before he died, so I did get some time with him. Likewise, I'd visited him on and off over the years before that. Still, there are a lot of things I never did concerning my dad.

For one, my dad had never seen any of my four children. I'd always figured I'd get them out to visit him when they were old enough to travel well. My wife and I kept having another baby every four or five years, and we never seemed to have a convenient time to visit. When my dad died, my youngest wasn't even 2-years old yet.

My dad lived in Colorado, and I lived in North Carolina. Always, in the back of my mind, I considered one day I might go and live in Colorado for a while, near my dad, and get to know him better. One day.

I spoke to a gentleman today on the bus ride home who also misses his dad. This gentleman told me how his dad wrote him a letter, affirming his son and how proud he was of his son. I didn't receive anything like that from my dad. Partly, I think, because my dad's cancer metastasized quickly into his brain, and his death was rather sudden.

I could write a lot more about my dad and thoughts I have concerning him and my relationship with him, but I'll leave that all for later. I miss my dad, and I miss the lost opportunities I may have had with him.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Screaming into the Phone at the Wrong Time

Last night, my 18-year old daughter was on the phone "waiting for the beep," so she could let a college know she's going to defer enrollment for a year.

While on hold, she was in the bathroom. Since none of our bathroom doors lock in the older home we live in, I habitually knock on closed bathroom doors. I had to use the bathroom, so I knocked and started to open it.

My daughter screams, "I'M IN THE BATHROOM. I'M IN THE BATHROOM." just as the message is about to begin recording.

Hence, it's very likely someone in this college's admissions department will hearing a very interesting phone message soon.