Follow Up

Ok, the total of Jack Johnson songs played during a 8 hour weekday . . . 5. Today in the first 30 minute . . . 2. Ok, I am done here.

Pandora

At work, I like listening to music. I like it to fill the background as I try to be creative (with the key word being 'try'). I found this site called Pandora where you type in an artist and then they build a 'station' for you with supposedly 'like' artists and also play that artist that the station is based on sprinkled into the playlist (I know it sounds very confusing, but it really isn't). Anyway I made a Jack Johnson playlist, but the thing is, there is no Jack Johnson. Now I know this is a very petty complain, I am getting music for free and they are providing me a free service, but come on just give me one Jack Johnson song. For example, this morning I have had it on since I got here 8:15 a.m. and I have heard one Jack Johnson song in the past 4 hours. I have heard over 5 Dave Matthews songs. At least play one an hour. Is that too much to ask! Ok, now it just seems like I am whining over exactly how much free stuff I get. Ok, I will relax, but I am going to keep it open all day and will let you know the final talley on the Jack Johnson songs.


(God, I re-read this and I sound like such a baby, and what is with the single quotes, oh well no one is reading anyway.)

Soccer Saturday

So we signed Owen up for soccer. It is the “pee wee” variety where they practice a little, play a little, warm-up a little and get drinks often.

I find it hard at times to understand the thoughts of a 4 year-old and how they can get bored so easily. If there wasn’t something going on, Owen was headed in another direction. I swear he has the attention span of a hummingbird.

They (meaning the instructors) asked all the kids what their favorite part of soccer was. Owen says having his mommy, me-mah, and daddy watch him . . . he is such a glory hog. Once he finds out that by scoring a goal will not only make his family happy, but the families of everyone else on his team, there will be no stopping him. I can see it now, Terrell Owens type celebrations . . . soaking in the adulation.

We will see how soccer goes, we have shin guards (even thought his shins are only about 6 inches big) and a new soccer ball. At least he seemed more interested in group play this time as compared to basketball last winter. He actually kicked the ball a few times, which is good progress. Now if only he can make it through a practice without 12 water breaks.

Very Late and Kinda Feelin' It

I spent the last few moments reading Trent's blog (at this point in the evening and with the rum and coke I am not going to attempt to link you there, just check on the right side of the blog) and then read Adam's blog and realized he had a link to mine . . . May 29 . . . my last entry . . . geez, talk about taking the summer off . . . . HA is there even anyone still checking this?? Then Renea just came in to ask me what I am doing and I answer "I don't know, blogging??" Seems like a funny answer at the time. Who knows what prompted me to write this late about absolutely nothing, maybe jealousy that Adam had almost 10,000 visits to his site, or that Trent is on top of things so much to add videos every week, or maybe it is just the rum and coke, who knows. I guess I just felt like the first time in a long time like writing something . . . even something meaningless. Ok, sleepy time now. For all you loyal readers (lke there are any, and I have a feeling even my own mother has dropped out of this list) I will attempt to write more often. Maybe. That's my goal. Who knows . . . Good night!

The Detroit "D"

First I must admit that I am a bit of a sports uniform/logo junkie. Not that I collect them or anything, but I am just interested in the intricacies and details of uniforms. Well the other night when I was channel surfing and the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians were playing it brought to mind one of the biggest uniform discrepancies in all of sports, the Detroit “D” issue. As you can see from the photo, the “D” on the jersey and on the hat for the Tigers is completely different. After doing some research, the answer to this issue can be found here and here and basically what they are saying is that MLB has standard logos for print and web but no standardization for the product used on the field and that this isn’t just an issue for the Tigers, but a few other clubs as well (Yankees and Cardinals).

Now this may bore you or it might interest you, but I thought I would share with you some of the crazy stuff that goes through my head when I watch a ball game. Some things that I notice completely distract me from the game (like when Oregon broke out these for their bowl game.) It is a curse.

Cheryl, Freddy, Avril and Trent!?!?!

I watched more Dancing with the Stars than American Idol. Actually I watched the first few weeks of AI and then stopped when they got to Hollywood. I caught Dancing with the Stars in the best way possible . . . on DVR, so I watched only the dancing, and not all of the extras (which made a normal 90 minute show about 7). All I have to say after this season of DwS is that Cheryl Burke, 2-time champ, is HOT! >>>>>>>
(Yea Renea knows about my infatuation with Cheryl) and that if Apollo isn’t dating his partner (Julianne), then he needs slapped up-side the head.

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Watching the Pirates game today, twice I saw Freddy Sanchez hit sac flies to score runs from third, only to have the runner on third hit home plate then walk right into the dugout without even acknowledging Freddy. I mean I know you feel like you did most of the work to get to third in the first place, but this guy just gave himself up to score you, the least you can do is wait for him and give him high-five or a fist bump or even a slap on the ass before you walk to the dugout. He’s just coming back from first, sixty feet away. Just give the guy a little love will yea . . . geez and they wonder why in a Post-Gazette poll 65% of the fans said the Pirates have already given up on the season.

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Also a second thought to the “showin love” to a teammate, I think the fist bump may be on its way out. I am seeing a trend in celebratory hand gestures and I think we are heading back to the high-five. When the fad trickles down to golfers fist bumping caddies the fad is over.

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If you get a chance read Trent’s blog about the lyrics to a Carrie Underwood song. I am not sure what is more funny, his interpretation or Kelly, my sister-in-law, in the comments calling him Grandpa Simpson.

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Another thing to admit to: I like Avril Lavigne’s new album and I like her new song . . . There I said it, so if you see me in the car singing “Hey, Hey, you, you, I don’t like your girlfriend,” you will know why.

LOST

Renea and I are big LOST fans. We have been from the very beginning. Every episode, every crazy plot, every mysterious character, we are hooked.

Last Wednesday was the season 3 finale of LOST (which I have watched twice already), and just a few weeks ago they announced that they will be doing 3 more seasons with the story being completed in 2010. Also next year lost will move to a “24-esque” format where they will start in February 2008 and go for 16 straight weeks. I was a big fan of that format, but now that I am faced with the 8-month hiatus until it starts again I am not so much a fan.

I am finding with LOST that there are very few people to discuss the show with and to pick each other brains about what is happening. Some friends just watch it for entertainment and don’t really think too much about where the plot is going and what some of the underlying stories are, and other friends watch, but mock the different directions that the stories take and their plausibility.

I find it very fascinating and totally different than anything else on TV. The show Heroes is close, but the mysteries and levels of depth of what is happening to these characters is unmatched.

My recommendation, if you have never seen the show, would be to rent Seasons 1 and 2 and try to watch them back to back, then watch Season 3 when it comes out in the fall. This is an excellent show that actually will make me want to buy the DVD’s of the seasons. I have never seen myself as a TV-DVD guy, but after this episode I want to go back and relive the beginning experiences all over.

Positive Reinforcement

To my mother and all the mothers that may stumble upon my blog, Happy Mother’s Day.

This is a story that will make my mom and the mother of my son happy so consider this Mother’s Day presents extra-credit.

As a parent, you aren’t always sure how you are doing. How things you are teaching your children are working (It is far easier to tell if they aren’t), but every once in awhile you get a little something out of your child that makes you realize that you are doing ok and that your child might actually turn out to be a pretty good egg.

Today Owen and I went to Parkersburg to return a movie and it happened to be about the same time as lunch so I decided we should stop at McDonald’s to get lunch. We went in, ordered Happy Meals (yea I got one too, the Mighty Kids meal is pretty good and ends up being about the right amount of food for me) and then sat down. We were enjoying lunch and Owen was playing with the Shrek figure that came with the Happy Meal when he said to me, “Daddy, thank you for bringing me to McDonald’s.” I know it’s not much, but it speaks volumes to me about what kind of little guy we are raising. I have been told by both his grandmothers and others that he regularly thanks them and tells them that he loves them and is overall pretty appreciative, and he had done that both with Renea and I.

I just guess that it hit me today that he is “getting it” and that to me that is a huge deal. It is nearly impossible to get that, “Hey dad, you and mom are doing a great job raising me,” from a 3-year-old, but this was about as close as it is gets.

#2

Who would have ever thought that potty training would be this hard? Especially with a 3-year-old boy who if I don’t say so myself seems to be relatively intelligent.

Owen has been sleeping throughout the night for months without a diaper on and he has been going without a diaper for a looooong time now, except when it comes to doing #2. Every time he wants to go #2 he heads for the drawer where we keep the pull-ups, pulls one out and asks us to put it on him, or sometimes he will put it on himself (like I said, he is too smart to be still doing this).

So in an effort to get him to go on the potty (and as a parent you just fall in the habit of calling it the “potty” which makes it difficult when telling the same story verbally to friends) we decided to go the ole bribary route.

I took Owen to Toys R Us and let him have his pick of toys not really telling him what I was doing until he finally settled on one. We parked (and he knew right away it was Toys R Us) and we walked in. I showed him every toy.

“Look here Owen, look how cool this is.”

I was prepared on spending a bundle. I figured what ever it would take to get this #2 diaper thing over was worth it. We walked around and came to the MatchBox car isle, and there are things on this isle that are very expensive (like tracks that have dinosaurs and breath fire) and obviously some that aren’t (like the actual cars). While I was pointing out everything, I saw a box of metal planes and showed them to Owen. He was hooked.

“Daddy can we get the BoxMatch airplanes?” (yea he calls them BoxMatch, not sure why)

“Yes Owen we can, but you know what you have to do in order to play with them?”

“Do I have to go poopy on the potty?”

“Yes. (and to make sure he understood the deal I explained) “Owen, I will buy these planes for you to play with, but only if you go on the potty. They will stay in the box until you go on the potty, do you understand?”

“Yes, I will get my BoxMatch cars when I go on the potty.”

I even try to tempt him with other toys on the way out, but he clung hard to those planes, I thought to myself, “What a bargain. If this works it will have only cost me $10.”

We head home and Owen is excited and ready to open his planes. I remind him, not until he poops on the potty.
We get home and go inside and explain to Renea the deal. Owen wants to try right now to go on the potty. This is great! He heads into the bathroom with his planes and Renea sets the planes on the sink as “inspiration.”

I head upstairs thinking, “This is good. He will try a few times then get used to it and we will be in the clear. He certainly won’t pull this off tonight.”

I make it to the top of the stairs and Renea yells for me to come back down. I get to the bathroom and there is Owen with pants around his ankles yelling, “I did it! I pooped in the potty.”

I go make sure before I hand over the loot, and two of the smallest, tiniest, pieces were in the toilet. He surely pulled a muscle trying to push those out but alas it was what we wanted, and in return he got his planes.

We were amazed and shocked. We explained how easy that was, and how he didn’t need a diaper anymore, and we also explained that if he reverted back to his old saggy diaper ways we would take the planes away. Agreed on by all parties. A breakthrough.

Nope. Next day back to diapers, planes are in the hanger and put on top of the hutch to collect dust. I have given up. He has worn me down. I am going to let him move at his own pace, but we have decided on one thing, no new toys until he goes. God I hope it is soon.

My Brick

One of the coolest gifts I have ever gotten was the brick at PNC Park with my name on it for my 30th Birthday from Renea. Every time we go to PNC Park I look for my brick, which if you are ever there it is seven bricks in front of Willie Stargell's left foot. So it was nice to see the picture above on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette web site of them cleaning the snow off of it. Lot of perks come with owning a brick at the ole ballpark.

Ahhh reminds me of my youth

Check this video out. Very funny. I love it when Ms. Pac Man puts the "spin move" on Blinky. She's still got it after all these years.

Rite of Passage

Well it finally happened. One of those things that usually happen to people whom own older homes built in the early 1900’s. We had a pipe burst.

With the cold weather and our lack of basic knowledge of how to open doors and keep the cold spots warm in the house, so something like this won’t happen, last night we had a pipe rupture and cause chaos in the house for at least an hour.

There are a few very important things to be thankful for . . . 1. It broke during waking hours, which means we didn’t have 8 hours of water running in our basement . . . 2. It happened in an area of the house that is “in between” the outside door to our basement and our actual basement, so nothing was damaged . . . and 3. I have a neighbor that can literally fix anything, this guy puts Bob Vila to shame and we are very lucky to be living next to him and family. Seriously, if we ever move and Chris and Christy still live beside us, that will be a major selling point with this house.

“Um yes Mr. and Mrs. Jones, the house is slightly over-priced, but did you realize the man next door can fix your wiring, your plumbing, your cable, and build a garage door opener out of 2 sticks of gum, a hair and a paper clip?

Owen found the leak; actually he heard it in the bathroom and asked, “Daddy, what’s that noise.”

I initially thought it was the water coming back on cause the pipes had been frozen, well I was right in a sense . . . the water was coming.

After trying to get Renea’s attention (she was on the back porch chit-chatting on the cell phone), and turning every valve we had downstairs to the “off” position, I realized that I was going to have to go directly to where the water was coming from. Another good thing, the valve was right next to the leak and once I saw the valve, which was hard to do with the pipe doing it’s best backyard sprinkler imitation, I was able to get the water under control.

Because of Renea’s strong belief that I could control the situation, in about 5 minutes she had called the neighbors, her mom, and two family friends to head over and see if they could help. At one point we had 6 people in out basement looking at a two-inch crack in the copper pipe and they too were turning every valve we had.

Believe me, I was not the least bit ashamed to have these folks over, I have no idea what I am doing, and it was nice to know that I had some back-up.

Chris volunteered to come over and help me fix the pipe (and when I say “help” I mean he does all the work and I watch, although he did let me handle the blow torch). We had the pipe out and fixed in no time (and when I say "We" I mean Chris) and he also brought over some insulation to put over the other exposed pipes in that area.

So needless to say (for the time being, and knock on wood) the crisis has been averted, and Renea and I are taking Chris and Christy to dinner next week. Maybe then he can show me how to make a fork out of a zipper, some lint and a penny.

So I went to a funeral today

Tim and I drove up to Perry, Ohio (you go to Cleveland and hang a right towards Erie, PA) to attend the funeral service of our friend Andi (see Closing Time below). The best thing in the world to help me get over this sore spot in my heart was to drive these 3+ hours with my friend Tim who was closer to Andi than I. We knew her at the same time, and we shared stories and memories of the Andi we knew. We laughed a whole lot and it really brought her spirit back to me. It brought her sayings and mannerisms to the forefront of my mind. He smile and her laugh, the joking way she would say “Good DAY Sir!” like Willie Wonka (in the original) and how she would pretend quit five times a day.

The funeral was touching and sad, to see her younger twin brothers, her mom and dad and sister and nieces, and people who were strangers to me, but friends to Andi, moved by the service and taking their opportunity to say good bye. I have to admit, a few times I almost broke down, but the thoughts of Andi and memories shared with Tim on the way up there just made me smile instead.

It was a long drive and a long day, but oh so worth it.

Hallway Update

Passed a student in the hallway today. I got nothin. I was prepared to give my head nod and "what's up," and I got the fake "picking something out of my eye and I don't want to look or acknowledge you" move.

Long Hallway Etiquette

There is this hallway I walk down every day to go to the locker room at the gym. This hallway is massive, easily 100 yards and most of the time is not occupied with other people, except of course when I decide to walk down it. Inevitability when I go down it, there is someone walking towards me, at the other end. Now my question is, when do you acknowledge that the other person is there? I mean it isn’t like you yell, “Hey what’s up?” from 100 yards away, but you have this awkwardness of walking towards each other. It’s where you both see each other, but are too far away to say anything. So you keep walking and walking, until you finally get close enough to acknowledge the other person. What if you don’t know the other person? I mean you have to at least say “hi.” I mean you have shared this 7 to 9 second walk together (which feels more like 10 minutes) from the opposite ends of this hallway; you have to say something right? Maybe a head bob at the very least to acknowledge the other persons’ existence, or a “what’s up.”

What happens if you know the person? Do you try to start a conversation that neither of you can hear because it is echoing off the walls, that you end up stopping and waiting until you are a few feet apart. Well then that brings up even more awkward silence between friends as you look at each other for 50 feet.

Where do you look? That is my other question? I mean if it was a movie and you hated the other person this hallway would be great for one of those movie-type stare down sequences. But otherwise you have to look everywhere BUT at the person coming at you, you have to, you have no choice. I usually choose about 10 feet in front of me with an occasional quick dart up to see when I need to give the head bob “what’s up.”

Now you can’t give the head bob “what’s up” to everyone. I work on a campus, so that is my student response. If it is a friend I will ask, “How’s is going?” and if it is a neither a student or friend I use the, “good morning.” as my main go-to greeting.

The sad thing is is that this enters my head every time I walk down that hallway. EVERYTIME. I think I have hallway issues.

Closing Time

Working here you get involved and know the lives of the students that work for you. It is just the way it is. You are involved. Their classes, their friends, and their families at home, their boyfriend/girlfriends are all things that they share with you. They look up to you and they look to you for advice and guidance. You become a mentor, you become family, and you become a big brother.

I can hear her so clearly, in her best 12 year-old boy going through puberty voice, Andi would sing the words to “Closing Time” by the group Semisonic.

Andi Parhamovich worked in my office as a student writer for almost 2 full years and instantly she made an impression. She was an outgoing go-getter and reminded me of a female Alex P. Keaton. She was determined and focused and knew what she wanted to do, but she could also be shy, vulnerable and insecure. She liked to put up a tough façade, but we knew she was a big softy. She was someone who you could kid and joke around with and she would definitely tease back. I am not sure I know of anyone who has worked in this office that loved working here more than Andi, and the funny thing is, is after the first year, she hardly did any work. She just liked being here and hanging out. We actually didn’t have enough money to pay her and had to ‘fire’ her, but she still came in every day to just hang. I remember going out to a bar here in town one night and seeing ‘conservative’ Andi hanging out (that was something we never thought we would see) she was drinking and having a good time. We actually did our best to embarrass her (like good big brothers would do) as we danced around her and made her feel the whole bar was looking at her. Her face turned 5 shades of red, but she took it all in stride. She was not a touchy feely type of person, and it was always fun to give her a hug or put an arm around her to watch her squirm a little.

Andi came back to Marietta a few years ago to go to lunch with myself and another co-worker at Marietta at the time, Tim (who was in charge of the writers). At the time Andi was working in NY with Miramax, and when she came to visit she brought Tim and I Cold Mountain CD’s and press kits. At lunch we peppered her with questions of what movie stars she had met and what they were like. She had matured a great deal between graduation and that winter lunch, as most people do and looked more like a professional woman than the college junior hanging in my office.

Andi died on Wednesday, January 17, 2007 in Baghdad when a three-car caravan she was in was ambushed. She was working with a group in Iraq called the National Democratic Institute (NDI) as a communications specialist advising Iraqi political parties on how to reach out to voters and constituents.

There are so many thoughts that run through your head in a time like this. War and the causalities of it always seemed close and real, but now seem more real than ever. A friend was lost today and I am not sure why. Andi was there because she wanted to be. She felt that she could make a difference and I am positive that in the time she was there, she did.

Andi, I will miss you. I will miss knowing that at some random time an e-mail from you might pop up. You left an impression on me and when I think of you I can’t help but smile. God Bless, my friend.

“I WIN”

When told we were having a son about 4 years ago, things go through your mind. The main one is: “I hope he’s healthy.”

When you son is here and you realize he is healthy, a whole other lists of thoughts go through your mind:
“I hope he is left handed.”
“I hope he can hit a curve ball.”
“I hope he is 6’6”
“I hope he can shoot a round of 64.”

And with all of those things there is the underlying hope that he is competitive, because without that, a lot of those sports-related hopes go away. Not only for sports, but also for life. I think you want your sons and/or daughters to be competitive so that they strive hard for what they want and try to get it.

Well there seems to be no shortage of competitive juices flowin in Owen.

One of the big problems we have is that he likes to “race” by beating you to a place. Up the stairs or down the stairs. Into the bathroom or into the bedroom. And the thing about racing is that Owen does NOT like to lose.

Now the funny part is, sometimes the big brother in me (not the father) takes over and I pull him back or even hold him back, just to see how he will react in defeat. Not too well most of the time. If you beat him, he hits the floor and starts a fake (or sometimes real) little fit. Now Renea and I have worked on trying to get him to shake hands, win or lose, so that he knows how to win and how to lose, but that still hasn’t stopped the “I WIN!” proclamation at the top of the stairs, or in the bathroom or wherever the finish line happens to be.

I guess you need to be careful what you ‘hope’ for. I have created a competitive monster and now we are trying to instill the proper way to win and to lose, which for a self-proclaimed sore loser most of my life, it is very hard to do.

Web Find

Just thought this was interesting. If you do it, leave me a comment to let me know which superhero you are. I was the Flash.


Superhero Quiz

I want one!

Man o’ man I want an Apple iPhone. Have you seen this thing? It is a phone, ipod, a video player, a web browser, an e-mail machine and it makes ham sandwiches. This is like the coolest thing ever. I think you can also use it as a bionoculars, a microscope, and to even check your blood pressure (I think it might even fold out into a beach chair). Yesterday it even managed to jump Apple’s stock 8 points. The thing is amazing. I am a little curious though. Apple is famed for giving you little bites of products before giving you the whole pie, and yesterday we kinda got the whole pie. Now I am not one to question Steve Jobs, but I am kinda surprised that the jump was made to the iPhone from the iPod. Now I know that it is not an iPod, it just balances your checkbook and feeds your pets without you asking it to, but with the video capabilities it seems like this is the end rather than the slow progression towards the end we are used to from Apple. I mean it would have made perfect sense to come out with a similar type device (call it an iPod) that just did movies and music but used the touch screen technology that the phone has, then move to the phone in the next version in ’08. I guess they couldn’t help themselves in putting together a product that can play you whole collection of Neil Diamond while watching the “OC” and shining your shoes, as it calls in your dinner reservations.

Gator Food

Real quick thoughts about last night’s “national championship”:

1. After watching all the other bowl games I knew it wasn’t going to be an Ohio State blow out, but I never imagined that Florida would explode all over the Buckeyes leaving Tressel looking as confused as I did taking Pre-Calc.

2. This is to FOX. Go get some decent announcers. I know you paid a lot to broadcast the BCS games, but go back to the jar you keep in the kitchen full of quarters and actually pay someone we have heard of to broadcast these games. (And no Chris Rose from “The Best Damn Sports Show that No One has Seen Before” doesn’t count as a real broadcaster.)

3. The Big 10 (11) is not as good as everyone though. Ohio State’s only game was against Michigan and Michigan’s only real competitive game was against Ohio State and maybe Wisconsin. We (I will include myself in this misperception) believed that Ohio State was far above the competition because they beat a Texas team (that we found out wasn’t very good) and a Michigan team (that we also found out wasn’t very good). That’s it, that’s the list and because they play in the Big 10 (11) and the Big 10 (11) has to be good right?? Wrong. Wrong on all accounts.

4. Crisis avoided. Just think if we had a Michigan/Ohio State rematch? We would have all been under the impression that these were the 2 best teams in the country when it is very clear they are not. It would have been the biggest scam in the history of college football. Can you say playoff??

A losing battle

During the course of almost 12 years of marriage there are battles/decisions that you win and some that you lose. I would have to say that for the most part when it comes to making purchases that Renea and I always discuss the purchases and then come together and agree on a decision. That fact I won’t deny. But then I got to thinking that my wife is the best sales person in the world. She has been able to get me to buy things that I would never decide to buy our whole marriage. It all started with Hoagie our Lab (which we bought in our first month of marriage when we were supposed to be “just looking” at puppies) and continued through to new flooring for the house last year, and now this purchase of a king sized bed which we made last night.

All I have been talking about for weeks was getting a new TV. I wanted a new flat screen plasma TV. That is it, that is all I wanted, and the next thing I know we are shopping for king sized beds. I sometimes feel like I have been in a coma and then awaken 3 days later and decisions have been made. She is smooth; you have to give her credit. She managed to change “getting out of the house for the day” to shopping for a new bed. She also can change her plan of attack; she can just chip away slowly at you. We went bed shopping on Saturday, Sunday she wanted to go back, and Monday she asked if we could go shopping on Tuesday evening. I had managed to fend her off for a few days, and then yesterday I get a call from her at work “Mattress Warehouse is open until 8:30 tonight.” I try to play dumb and ask, “What time is Circuit City open?” She laughs me off. Now mind you I never said I would go, I get home and her and Owen are ready to head out to look at mattresses. We head to Mattress Warehouse that night and get a mattress. She is smooth. Gotta give her that.

>>Photo of Owen with his Pink (Breast Cancer Awareness) Serta Sheep "Mean Joe Green" #75

New Year, New Blog

Yea I know, at the rate I am posting new blogs I should just resign myself to a new blog post per year. Lots going on, but that isn’t an excuse.

I have been sick over the past few weeks (cough, sore throat, nasal congestion) and yesterday I finally gave in and went to see a doctor. I went to one of these “Quick Care” places and I have say, they got the “quick” part right. It has taken me longer to go through the drive-thru at Mickey D’s. Sat down in the examination room (if you want to call it that) then had the nurse test my pulse, took my BP then asked what was wrong, 2 minutes later the doctor came in, asked me what was wrong (probably just to verify what I had told the nurse) check my ears, looked down my throat, checked my breathing, scribbled some stuff on a paper, handed it to me, told me to get some samples from the nurse and I was on my way. Literally it took longer for me to write this down then the actual examination. I am feeling better today, but I will give it a few days before I give them the “care” part.