Good Intentions

I started this blog with the best of intentions. Was going to post to it every 2 to 3 days, at most. It is really amazing how things take on a different priority when one really doesn't know how much longer one will be chained to this Earthly existence. My main priorities, for now, are to forge an even stronger relationship with my wife, to share a hundred and one facts, figures, and bits of information with her in the hope she will find them somehow helpful, to bring to fruition some of the ideas that I've held, till now, only in my head, and to have a little fun.

Here it is, nearly a month and a half since my last post, and I've managed to do some of all of the above. After nearly ten years in the same house we are going crazy planting rose bushes and developing a real flower bed from land that had lain empty for about three years. We are finally fertilizing the lawn, too. It had gotten so bad that there was more brown than green, and what was green was as much weeds as grass. Hopefully that will soon change.

As for fun (and education) we've recently come back from a week at Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown. There is so much to be learned about Virginia and American history in these three places it boggles the mind. I especially enjoyed meeting Colonel George Washington in 1774. He does not, of course, favor taxation of the colonies, but he does think that as gentlemen we should be able to reach some civilized agreement with the King. Needless to say, things don't work out quite that way.

Perhaps there will be less time till my next post.

What should we make of it?

In the Roanoke times, on Friday, May 11th, it was right at the top of the front page, but few people appeared to be paying much attention. The real good parts were the names, but they were hidden on page 8. Probably even fewer got that far into the article.

For the record, here they are again:
MICHAEL FRIEDMAN - President and CEO
HOWARD UDELL - Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer
PAUL GOLDHEIM - Former Executive Vice President of Worldwide Medical Affairs

These three men were responsible for the deaths of some 200 people in Virginia alone. Nationwide, how many deaths took place as a result af the actions of these greedy men? Thousands, no doubt! Add to that the families, the addiction, the crime, the children uncared for, or without fathers, or mothers and you have a crime of unspeakable proportions.

Nice to know, isn't it, that for these crimes these three men served not a single day of time in prison. Even though they completely deserve to spend, not a long time, but a life time, behind bars for what they did, they will serve not a single day! To add to the injury to all that is right and good about America, the fines levied against the three must have amounted to chump change for them. I am sure they have not been taken down to Beanie-Wienies.

On Sunday, Dan Radmacher told us, in his column in the Roanoke Times, what we owe to our troops. We certainly owe them everything Dan said. Don't we also owe them an America where people, especially really bad people, pay for their crimes, not live in the lap of luxury.

A quick post

Today was Mother's Day, of course. Everybody knows that. I called my Mom, who is 86, and happens at the moment to be in the hospital. Her spirits seem good, and she is talking about going home tomorrow.

Then we headed into Roanoke to take my wife's mother out to lunch. It was a beautiful day, and it was wonderful to be out and about. It is quite extraordinary what a few simple things mean when so much that most of us take for granted are taken away.

Time! Is there ever enough?

It started innocently enough! I was mousing around on my PC when I began to notice that my right little finger had something of a mind of its own. It was beginning to tremble and move in and out. I called my doc, because I was trying to reduce some medication, and thought maybe the wayward pinky was a side effect of doing so.

I don't remember exactly what he told me, but I do remember him saying if it wasn't better in two weeks to come in and see him, which I did. Once I got there, he recommended an MRI of the brain. "Yeah, right!" I thought, "Like there's anything wrong with MY brain."

After the test I went back to hear the obvious answer; that there was nothing wrong with me, except perhaps getting a bit old. Imagine my shock when the doc told me I had a tumor in my head and it was already starting to put pressure on some vital arteries and other important parts. He asked me if I had a preferred neurosurgeon. At that point it was like he was asking me "Smoking or non?", like he expected me to have an answer. But I didn't have a name right handy. Go figure! And thus life was changed in an instant, from "normal" to anything but normal.