Skip to main content
This week is dragging on and the anticipation for the marathon is starting to build. I've run twice this week and both were unsatisfying (Tuesday and this morning). Inside there is this part of me that just wants to the race to be here so we can get on with it already. I guess this must be the nervous energy everyone has been telling me about. If so, I will have plenty to burn come Sunday the 14th.



I have spent the better part of two days writing out Thank You cards to the people who have made donations. I want to thank everyone personally, even those people I don't know. I only have a few left. Today I received a donation from the Andersons, great people from my youth back in North Olmsted. Peg and Dave Anderson were youth leaders in my church and I always looked up to them. They actually challenged our minds when were teens and made us try and think about what God was all about... all in that hour of Sunday when most kids were indifferent or half awake. But I always enjoyed those classes. Peg had been in a singing group with Mom when I was a kid. And when we filling out invitations to our wedding (10 years ago!) Mom Flynn discovered that she, too, knew Peg Anderson from when Julie was a baby. Talk about a small world.



Dave is in remission. I haven't spoken to them in so long. I knew he was ill, and I always expected to hear from Mom and Dad that he'd passed. I am so happy he is recovering. They are truly good human beings who really cared.



I have given up coffee again. After what Jules said to me on Saturday I decided that I really should let it go. And you know what, I sure feel a lot more relaxed. I'm not perfect, but at least I'm trying, eh?



I am supposed to be working on some screenplays, but I can't get my head wrapped around the stories I'm going to write. Can't concentrate is more like it. Again, I believe it's some of that marathon anxiety floating around in my head. I have been reading, though. After finishing "East of Eden" I did something I haven't done since high school... I dove right into another book. This one, "The Corrections", came highly recommended by Steve. So far so good.



My god, have I resorted to this? Have I begun just rambling about my silly existence? I've become one of those self-inflated pop stars who keep a blog to express their personal views to the world. Gag me with a spoon. I don't have that much that is important to say.



Jake has been kind of gunky the past few days. He's having a hard time shaking off this cold. His nose is running a lot. Thankfully, it's all clear. I don't think that I mentioned this previously, but Jacob qualified for California Children's Services. Basically, this state run service will cover almost all of his CF related medical costs for the next year (we have to reapply each year). Today we saved $150! We had to purchase new nebulizer cups and more meds. Of course, the meds weren't ready because the prescription had expired and the pharmacy is waiting for the doctor's office to renew it. And do you think anyone called to let Jules know before she packed up the kids and made the trip to the pharmacy?



I'm not knocking the pharmacy or the doctor's office (not too much, anyway). Both groups of people have been great to us. But a simple phone call to keep us in the loop is all that we're asking. Especially when Julie spent time on the phone with them calling in the prescription. Know what I mean?



All right, enough of my bitchin'. It's the Holidays and everyone should be in good spirits. So on that note, good night. Pray for peace in the Middle East. And as always, pray that a cure is around the corner.



Aloha



P.S. Got off work to get home early and watch that BG/Miami (OH) game. BG got crushed. Bummer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MARATHON FOOTNOTES (for those who didn't think I would really footnote a stream of consciousness thought): Footnote #1 Academy Award Winning Best Picture Films from 1969 to the Present: Midnight Cowboy, Patton, The French Connection, The Godfather, The Sting, The Godfather II, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Rocky, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, Kramer Vs. Kramer, Ordinary People, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Terms of Endearment, Amadeus, Out of Africa, Platoon, The Last Emperor, Rain Man, Driving Miss Daisy, Dances With Wolves, The Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Schindler’s List, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, The English Patient, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, American Beauty, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Footnote #2 Members of the band YES, from 1969 to the present: In 1969, Yes is formed with Jon Anderson on vocals Peter Banks on guitar, Bill Bruford on drums, Tony Kaye on keyboards and Chris Squire playing bass. This group records...
41 comments
Read more

Basement Songs: "Golden Gates" by John Cougar Mellencamp

I’m not sure when my brother, Budd, bought his copy of John (then) Cougar Mellencamp’s “Uh Huh”. The cassette just showed up in the basement on summer, years after its release. Like most of America, I was a big fan of “Pink Houses”, and I was thrilled that now had copies of his other big hits from that album, “Crumblin’ Down” and “The Authority Song.” At this point in his career, Mellencamp was ready to establish himself as a legitimate artist, hence the use of his real name (the record label wouldn’t allow him to ditch the “Cougar” until years later for fear record buyers may get confused….huh?) In addition, there was the radio staple (at least in Cleveland), “Play Guitar”, on side 2, which borrowed heavily from Them’s “Gloria” (Mellencamp often slipped the “G-L-O-R-I-A”’s into his concerts during that number). The rest of “Uh Huh” is filled with more of the same 60’s garage band type of rock that Mellencamp champions, as well as one of Budd’s favorite tunes, the John Prine co-pe...
1 comment
Read more

In Praise of Kanopy

When I was 17, I worked at American Video, a small business housed in the Great Northern shopping strip. My time there was short, as was American Video’s lifespan. The days of the mom-and-pop video stores were cycling out. Blockbuster had just opened in my hometown and within a couple years, American Video, as well as the store where I first fell in love with movies, First Run Video, would shutter their doors. What I loved about these indie video stores was the variety of choices and the limited number of copies of movies each store had. Come in looking for Back to the Future and it’s already rented? You strolled the aisles until you found something similar like Innerspace , or something completely different, like And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python’s first movie. Blockbuster, and its cousin Hollywood Video, may have offered more copies of movies, but they didn’t always have the quality. Maybe your Blockbuster was different.   When Netflix and the stre...
2 comments
Read more