Jumping into the Garbage Can

I woke up last Friday with a bad case of vertigo. I was so dizzy I couldn't walk without holding on to something. Gagging from the nausea I just sat still and looked straight ahead. Katy stayed home to take me to the doctor. When the clinic opened I called to make an appointment with our family doctor. He had broken his ankle the week before and had to have surgery to have it pinned back together. We went to the walk in clinic instead.

I assumed that Mark, our doctor, had broken his ankle skiing. Hmmm... Okay, Mark likes to ski but still I wondered if maybe he had injured himself doing something else. Having fished together a couple times I have gotten to know Mark outside of the doctor/patient relationship and I guess that made me wonder.

Because of the vertigo and my age (good grief, do that they have to say that?...) the doctor in the walk-in clinic had me get an ultra sound of my main arteries to see if I had the beginnings of a stroke. Swell... I'm thankful for modern medicine; I just don't want modern medicne finding bad things. I have to go for a follow up appointment with Mark, my doctor, on Monday to go over the test results. (The ultra sound technician said my results were "squeaky clean".)

In the process of making the appointment to see Mark next week I asked the nurse how he had injured his ankle. "Was he skiing," I said, "Or was he doing something crazy like cleaning the gutters and walking around on a slippery roof?"

"Better than that," she said, "He was doing some clean up in his yard and had a garbage can filled with weeds and trimmings. He was pressing it down with his hands to make more room but it wasn't going down so he climbed up on his ladder and jumped into the garbage can to really press things down."

Since she was laughing when she told me I felt it was okay for me to laugh too. I still think its funny. His ankle will heal and I imagine his pride will too. Then again, I'm not sure about his pride needing to heal. I just have to go the the appointment on Monday not to confirm the good results of the ultra-sound or to get my perscription renewed but I have to hear Mark tell me about what happened. This man is highly educated, very successful, and he is 58 years old. And he climbed up to the top of his ladder to jump in his garbage can to press down weeds and clippings. When he landed he must have broken his ankle immediately. Did he climb out on his own? Was he stuck in the garbage can and did he have to call his wife Lori? Did he tip the garbage can over to get out? These and other important questions will be part of my appointment on Monday. His pride may not actually need to heal; knowing him he just may be proud of jumping off a ladder into a garbage can. After hearing all about Mark's ankle I hope during my appointment there is time to talk about my test results.

Laugh at yourself. That's good advice. Just don't climb to the top of your ladder to jump in your garbage can so that you can laugh at yourself. Be careful; that's good advice too. But still laugh at yourself.

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally. Enjoy your weekend.

P

Proud to be an American: Part IV

This week Frank Woodruff Buckles died. Frank was born on February 1, 1901 making him 110 years old when he died. He was the last surviving American to have fought in World War I. He was also one of the oldest military veterans in the world. Is that possible? Someone who fought in World War I was still alive last Sunday.

He had to lie about his age when he enlisted. The first few places he went he told the recruiter that he was 18 but since he looked his age which was 16, they sent him away. Finally he went into one recruiter and told him he was 21 and they took him. He served from 1917-1920 in both England and France.

During World War II Frank spent 3 1/2 years as a Japanese POW.

In the seventies and even the eighties when we did Veteran's Day Assemblies at the high school we would have veterans stand and be recognized. Even then it seemed incredible to me that World War I Veterans were still alive. In time there were no more who came.

At this time I have almost finised reading "A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present" by Howard Zinn. I don't know what else to say except that this book is staggering. Before and after World War I there were way more strikes and riots in our country than I ever realized. It makes the sacrifices that people made in the past even more impressive.

I am free, I live under the rule of law, I reap the rewards of my work, and I have almost complete freedom of expression. Thank you Frank Buckles and all those who went before you.

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Enjoy your weekend.

P

Gratitude Attitude: Part I

Life has a way of intruding on itself. At 12:40 AM last Friday morning Katy's sister, Judy, called to say she needed to be taken to the emergency room. Katy took her in and they performed emergency surgery. Judy had a ruptured colon. She has had colitis for some time so her colon was basically useless and consequently all of it was removed. In the process of removing her colon they found cancer. It was on her colon and had migrated to one of her ovaries which was also removed. She was in septic shock. They could not, and still haven't, closed the incision. There was some quesiton as to whether she would live through the weekend. She did and has made good progress. They told her Monday evening that she has cancer and told her Wednesday that it is somewhere between stage 2 and stage 3. The oconlogist is going to meet with her this evening to give her a more complete picture. Katy stayed at the hospital until after 5:00 PM on Friday. She has been spending a good deal of time there. Additionally Judy lives in a third floor apartment in which she can no longer stay. The family is in the process of finding her a ground floor apartment and getting her set up with with a rehab facility for a couple weeks after she is discharged from the hospital.

Judy is hopeful that the cancer is treatable. She will be wearing an ileostomy bag for the rest of her life. The bag is attached to a hole in her abdomen where it collects intestinal waste. Like I said, life has a way of intruding on itself.

Okay then, here is some gratitude attitude for you...I am grateful that my colon is not ruptured. I am grateful that I don't have cancer. I am grateful that I don't wear an ileosotmy bag.

Hmm... Let's see here... Well obviously we are all grateful that we don't have ruptured colons. There is little value in saying that or even thinking it for that matter. I woke up this morning. I am breathing. I can hear. I can see. I can speak. These things are all miracles. I just stepped away from the computer and walked around the bottom level of our home to remind myself what a pleasure it is to be able to that simple thing--move around on my own. A meaningful Gratitude Attitude isn't just about being glad that for things I don't have. A meaningful gratitude is about being thankful for the simplest things that we all take for granted so easily. A meaningful Gratitude Attitude is when I make a conscious and practiced choose to be grateful. A meaningful Gratitude Attitude is about realizing that in so many ways blessings abound.

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally. Enjoy your weekend.

P

Get a Grip!!

About 9 or 10 days ago I ordered some fly tying materials and tools from Cabelas. The order totaled $153 and some cents. I had a $20 coupon so that was motivating me to act. One of the items I ordered was a bodkin. If you click on the link you will see that it cost a whopping $2.99. I do have a bad case of gear lust so when the box came I opened it with the delight of a child. That's not LIKE a child, that's WITH the delight of a child.

But oh look, the little plastic bag with the $2.99 bodkin was empty. I thought about throwing the bag in the garbage and forgetting about it. I called Cabelas and told them I was missing my incredibly important new bodkin but said I didn't want them to waste postage on sending me just one item. I suggested they put it in my electronic cart and ship it to me the next time I ordered something. The gal who I was talking to in customer service told me she needed to transfer me to customer service. "What?..." I was on hold with customer service for a few minutes and then I got a recorded message that said customer service was closed. I thought, "heck it's a $3 item; throw the little envelope in the garbage and be done with it."

I let it sit on my desk for a few days and called back after I ate lunch one day. Someone answered and put me on hold. After holding the call went dead. I called again and I repeated the same story about opening the box and finding the envelope for the bodkin empty. I suggested that they put it my electronic cart and just send it to me the next time I ordered something. This person in customer service told me that she needed to transfer me to customer service. I held for 15 minutes and really had to ask myself, "What the HELL are you doing?" When a nice lady finally came on the line I told her that I should have thrown the empty envelope away and got on with my life. Instead, I was into this for 30 minutes of wasted time and no darn bodkin. The last customer service rep I talked to couldn't find a bodkin in their system at first so she couldn't send me one.

A small part of me thinks its the "principle of the thing" and they should send me the $3 bodkin. Okay, it IS the principle of the thing. Let's see here... Where else in Snohomish County, in Washington State, in the USA, or in the world are there concerns about the "principle of the thing." In Cairo there are millions of people concerned about the principle of the thing right now.

A bodkin? A THREE DOLLAR, stupid fly tying tool?!! GET A GRIP!!! Was I really even a little bit annoyed about that? Sadly I was. I should have thrown the empty envelope in the garbage, not given it another thought, smiled, and thanked God for all of my blessings.
Get a grip! It is the principle of the thing after all and that is that I need to not just count my blessings but feel them!

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally. Enjoy your weekend.

Oh, and feel your blessings too.

P

Proud to be an American: Part III

Two Sundays ago I was holding an open house for a listing of mine in Redmond. The home is just minutes from Microsoft. There were people looking at the home virtually the entire time I was there. Much of the time there was more than one person or more than one group of people. Most of the visitors spoke English as a second language. Throughout the day I heard at least five different foreign languages; it may have been six. At about 3:00 there were three families in the home. One was from Russia, one was from India, and one was from France. They spoke to each other in their native languages. I was the only one in the home who couldn't understand a single word that was being said. It was fascinating and kind of amazing.

How many other places on the planet could this happen? Yes, we have experienced a serious recession. Even now where else is there the economic opportunity for people like there is here? What other country welcomes people of such varied backgrounds? Where else on the earth is there such diversity on so many levels? There could easily be a few countries that have the opportunity, tolerance, and the freedom that we do but not very darn many if any at all.

I am far from perfect as an individual; I have plenty of room for improvement. My country isn't perfect; it has plenty of room for improvement. I stood in that home, listened to families talking in three languages, smiled, and felt grateful to be an American.

Listening Part III: A Man Named Volunteer

Working out at the “Y” sometimes I see a man wiping down the exercise bikes and the elliptical trainers. His pants are hiked up and his t-shirt is always tucked in. His t-shirt says “volunteer” on the back. He looks like a special ed person. He looks like someone who would have attended our Life Skills Christmas party back in the day. Working slowly and carefully he wipes down virtually square inch of the machine he is attending to. In the past several weeks I have seen him 7 or 8 times. I make a point of saying hi to him when I walk by. He looks at me blankly but doesn’t answer. When I am on a machine near him I can hear him either making quiet noises sometimes or possibly saying something to himself. I’m not sure what he is doing. It just sounds like the occasional odd noise to me. He has a name tag on the front of his shirt. It wasn’t until the third or fourth time I had seen him that I could see the nametag. It says, “Volunteer”.

This past Tuesday I walked by him on my way to a different machine. As I was approaching I thought to myself that I think he makes funny noises; I wonder if when I say hi to him he thinks to himself, “That guy makes funny noises." I said hi to him as I walked by. He looked at me and said, “BraaNoo, BraaaNoo, BbbbrraaaNoo.” I was surprised to have him answer me. I asked him to repeat what he was saying. He said it several times and I realized he was saying “Brand new.” I answered, “You are making the machines look brand new?” He said, “LieBraaNoo, LieBraaNoo.” I said, “Like brand new?” He nodded. I told him he did good work and thanked him. Since I had not heard him talk before I wasn’t even sure he could talk.

Sometimes people are listening and you just don’t realize it. I realized he was listening after all and that I just had to say hi several times before he answered. I am going to ask him his name the next time I see him.

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your car carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally. Enjoy your weekend.

P

Listening: Part II

I learned a lot about listening by listening. In 1991, I remember a student, LAJ, coming in after school to talk to me. She had said she was upset and needed to kind of unload. I listened to her talk for 45 minutes; she was crying much of the time. At this point I don’t remember much of what she said; come on, it’s been 20 years. What I do remember is that a couple times I started to open my mouth to give advice. I thought better of it and just kept my advice to myself. I continued to acknowledge that I was listening and that I understood what she was saying. After 45 minutes she paused, took a deep breath, and stopped crying just like that. She smiled and said thanks for listening. She picked up her things, thanked me again, told me it really helped, and headed for home. I thought to myself that I didn't "do" anything to help. Maybe my mouth doesn't have to move much for me to be "doing" something to help. The lesson I learned or relearned that day was that I helped Laura more by listening than I would have by giving advice. Advice works the best when it is requested. I am full of good advice after all but sometimes my good advice accomplishes the most when I just keep it to myself and be a good, supportive, loving listener.

It is the weekend. Please be good. Drive your cars carefully. Ride with people who drive carefully. Treat yourself with respect. Spend time with people who treat you with respect. Treat other people with respect. Talk nice to yourself; you deserve it. I look forward to hearing from you or seeing you. Keep yourself whole physically and emotionally. Enjoy your weekend.

P