sick again.

It started out as what I thought was a small cold last Saturday. Sunday my head was throbbing and I had a low grade fever all day long. I just could not shake it. Monday, I called in to work. I felt slow and dopy all day long. My eyes hurt and teeth startted to ache. Tuesday I went to work and it was rough. I came home beat and hot. Wendsday. I know I had a sinus infection again. I was spitting up green snot and blood. My eyes and teeth ached more. I went in to work because I had a late appointment. I called in to the doc to have him send a standard amoxcillian perscription to the walgreens. It was all set up when he called in to say he needed to see me. - Ahhhh. My head feels like its going to pop off.  Im crying in my sleep and I can not sleep well. 930 am I have a walk in appt with my doc. I tell him that last night was a very hard night for me. I have a 102 fever that wont break. My neck, back throat, ear, teeth and face hurt. The nurse says its the flu. I correct her and say - I know my body and its not the flu. Wrong type of body achs and no cough or lung issues. The doc confirs w/ me and says my lungs are mostly clear. Again 875 mg amox.... folks thats a horse pill. Not quite 1 gram of pure meds 2x a day for ten days + all the tramidol cocktails I have been making to stop feeling pain and to slow fever every 4 hours.1 tramidol and 3 gel caps or tylenol..... thats allot of pills...

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Well its 2 days on pills after 2 days pure bed rest and soup. the days blur together with a small run out to walgreens to buy real coke and not diet soda. of course i shoveled a but because in chicago when your sick it will snow 8 inched and drop in temp. ... I'm no where near 100%  maby 65-70 % but I feel much better.  I still spit up green snot and blood, but its less green ans less bloody. and the strep I caught early enough not to get too bad.... at one point I woke up at 3 am had coffee a coke a chocolate pie and watched the weather channel for an hour before going back to bed.... my clothes were sweaty even in the cold.....

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folks please listen to your body and go see a doc when you can .....

Happy New Year....

I'm cold and tired. Christmas went well. The kids loved it with nerf guns and plenty of playing with their cousin. Games, cars, darts and bakugauns were scattered throughout the house.  My mother made tamales. She makes less and less each year, but the flavor was there. The spicy pork and masa mix in the husk.  Hams wre baked and ate. Sides were prepared and ate. Even the dogs got new chew bones from santa.  I did my best to keep the kids happy and I think I did well.

 

The snow has made work long and tiring. With all the sonw brushing and plowing i'm physicly beat. 7 years of doing this is wearing on me. My hands hurt, my shulders are not getting better and this year I fell twice. So right now my knees and fore arms are sore.

 

Anyways I'm hoping that 2010 will be better than years past and we as a country turn things around. I think we will have to live with a 10 % unemployment as a norm. Companies will be lean and mean in how they operate. I pray for my friends that have been looking for work and for the rest of us for things to get better.

 

So heres to you and a bright 2010....

more on being a dad....

OK. I was having dinner the other day and my wife and the kids were in the living room. she  came in almost in tears from laughing so hard. She sat down and told me what my oldest son has asked her....."Mom, does dads head weigh allot" he asked.  "I don't know Ry, why do you ask" she responded.  "because mom I think it weighs allot because he had no neck"...... kids will say the truth if you let them..... Every one have a great Thanksgiving......

lies my father told me

Ok .. being a father is not easy for any one. You have to balance being their father/mentor and friend.   During the Summer my son Ry  and I were riding our bikes near the house. There was some road construction going on and ry very innocently asked me if there were cities underground like on TV. I told him that I was not sure , but there were most defiantly C.H.U.D. s underground...... I told him that stands for.... cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers and I then immediately called my friend Hector...... Last night after a long day of Church and going to the Health department for h1n1 shots Ry asked me about poor people living in the sewers. I told him not to worry , there were no poor people living in the sewers, The CHUD's eat them.... Again I immediately called Hector....  one day when he's older i'm sure that he'll kill me......

Psalm

I saw this on line while poking around. I wanted to put it up simply because I liked it.... Thank you.

 

 

Psalm

I prayed to the Lord for Guidance,
He asked me to follow Him.

I prayed to the Lord for Shelter,
He showed me the way to His house.

I prayed to the Lord for Sustenance,
He put me to work for Him.

I prayed to the Lord for Forgiveness,
He told me of my baptism.

I prayed to the Lord for my Soul,
He gave me Holy Communion.

I prayed to the Lord for Justice,
He moved my hand to write
and my lips to speak.

I prayed to the Lord for Peace,
He bade me play a song for Him.

I prayed to the Lord for Wisdom,
He sat my children upon my lap.

I prayed to the Lord for Strength,
My dearest friends held out their hands
and pulled me up from the ground.

I prayed to the Lord for Patience,
He sat down with me and held me close.

I prayed to the Lord for Hope,
We bowed our heads together.

I prayed to the Lord for Love,
He laid three nails in my hand
and told me I still had one great lesson yet to learn.

Me

wood 2

ok, wood can suprise you.....I have been working on my sons long bow and all was fine until it was strung and pulled back... I found a hairline crack. Ive been working gluing and re-setting it. And after re gluing I had to re set it..... It looks good. So far so good.

.... I just got my new long bow..... Its hand Mandy 5'6' hickory long bow with a 55 pound pull...I was dissatisfied with the ebay purchase..... it was as described, but her shipping and lack or email sucked....not a thing you want to do when you want to set your

....This Summer I also had a great chance to work with wood. I stripped, sanded and retained my kitchen table. Its oak and it weights a freaking ton. I sanded and sanded through 4 grits of paper . I finished with a 350 grit. Then I added poly in 4 coats again sanding between each coat. Did it need it? No, but with kids you need several layers of poly to keep the table from being damaged from spills....... I wish I had a few more tools and more space to work with wood. I would love to make youth long bows.... Lets see where this goes....

Peace.

working with wood..

**Its been a bit since I've posted , but I have been busy. I have been busy sanding and restoring a vintage long bow for my son. I found it in eBay and I thought it was agood deal.... if it does not snap on me. It's 48 inches long and made of hickory. I did som re search on the company that made it and I believe it was made in the late 40's early 50's. No warp on limbs and no deep marks. I spent about 5 hours in sanding and removing a lot of age from the bow. The next step was in smoothing. I sanded with a 100, 225 and 330 git papers in succession ubtil it was smooth with out taking off mass.

The next step was more complex ; making a finish for it. I could have used a varnish, shelac or urithane. I chose to be green about this; I made a wax finish out of bees wax and olive oil. It took me a while to get it right so the oil would get in to the wood and leave a good shine. All without being tacky to the touch..... Between thing and his new arrows he's set to shoot.... I'll post pics asap... I'm proud of this.... I just ordered a  flemish string so we should be shooting this week end.

growing older

Well - its official, I'm on the wrong side of 40.....It was my birthday yesterday and it was boring. I read a book, did laundry, cut arrows, took a long hot shower , a straight razor shave, ate hot wings and the kids gave me cupcakes. It was nice but it just seemed like it was missing something. I remember 18,19 ,20 and 21....So many years ago. Now the years just seem to blur together and not have any real defining moments in between. I believe the more you've seen the more you don't notice life  any more.

    5pm I took several arrows that I had as a kid and I cut them down to fit my son. I had them when I was older than he was and now they'll fit him. It's funny these arrows are near 5o years old. The lady I bought them from was a shooter in 1961. If I can get 4 year out of them' I'll be happy. I let my oldest help me in using a pipe cutter and a torch. I think he had a good time in cutting them with me. My next project for him is to modify his quiver in to a back quiver.

   At about 6 pm I took off everything. Rings, necklace and crucifix and took a long hot shower. 30-40 minutes of relaxing water. I then lathered up with my new boar bristle brush and shaved with my straight razor. That took me about 20 minutes. The prep time took me longer; 20 minutes of sanding old rust spots off the blade, 10 minuted of sharpening on a whetstone and 5 minutes of honing. I could have cleaved an electron off an atom if I wanted to. My oldest watched me shave with it. I showed him how to lather and how to hold it. It will be years until he does but at least he's got a good base of knowledge for it.

 

Pax Humana

Lessons Learned

This weekend we had a kids birthday party for my 2 boys. Their birthdays are close together so we have a combined party for school friends and family. This year we were racing against the rain so we set up the piñata a bit early. My Dad brought in a nice hand made piñata of a donkey. I say hand made because most are just pre punched boxes with paper wrapped outside. This was an old school one made from news paper and glue... So the kids knock the bejesus out of it and there is candy and a couple bucks of change all over the yard... My dad gets the idea for my oldest son  to get  the head of the donkey and give it to him. He cleans it out and my son puts it on his head. I found out later that the kids were hitting my boy or as they called him the piñata. I cant fault them , its what you do to a piñata.  He was smacked around a bit but hes OK. So lesson learned kids , the Piñata is in the top 10 worse ideas for a Halloween costume. Or a really good one if you want your ass kicked.

--

9/11 + 8

Wow, its been 8 years since that horrible day. Now its a holiday. Not a happy holiday , but a true holy day.  3000+ people died in those 2 towers, Flight 19 took more lives and the pentagon hot took even more.  It was a very sad day for all of us.

     I remember sitting on the floor in my house and feeling sick to my stomach. I watched tv for close to 13 hours that day, watching the towers fall again and again. I knew it was that start of something bad and I expected a war. I expected a war in the traditional sense. With clear cut bad guys and the American as good guys. This enemy was much worse. They hide among the regular people - they are the regular people. This made me very sour with all mid eastern people.  I clearly remember children cheering and that damn lady in black giving them candy to celebrate.  Eight years later I still carry hate in my heart and if I express it I am considered a racist. 

   Where is the condemnation from the imans? We still have not seen any thing like that from any mid eastern country. We still are in bed with Saudi Arabia. A country who's people still hate us.  Some where in the back of my head I still want to burn that entire part of the country to the ground and remove a generation from the earth. 

   What was the impact of "shock and awe?" What did we do there? Why are we still there? ......

 

Anyways with this hate in my heart it makes it hard to have a cohesive though this morning.