Woke up this morning to find it snowing heavy and 6 inches of snow already on the ground. Waited until it finally stopped around 11am to go shovel while my daughter cleared the snow off my truck so we could go to the store. The plow had not came by my home yet so getting the car down the unplowed road could have been a problem.
Well more freedom than I have had since I fell and fractured my skull back in January. As of my doctor's visit today, my vision is back to normal and I am allowed to drive once again.
You cannot imagine how imprisoned I have felt over the past months. While I do live in the country, I am not that far out, but it is a four mile trip to the grocery store. Forcing me to depend on others to taxi me back and forth for almost everything I needed has been frustrating.
So my recovery from the accident back in January has been slow but steady, although I am still not released to drive or go back to work. Other than the sitting around bored, I haven't let this bother me too much. But today I found something that did bother me.
An update on how I am doing after the accident I blogged about last week.
I still have no memory of the fall on ice, or being airlifted to the University of Iowa's neurological intensive care unit. that morning. I don't remember anything of that morning, going to work, falling or anything. The first thing I do remember is waking up Thursday morning, 2 days after I was admitted to their ICU.
Firsr off please escuse the atrocious typing, it will be explained later. I live in the cold blerry midwest, specfically Davepoirt, Iowa. After our normqal meeting on Skype to let eveyone know what eveyone else would be doing, I welt to get on my car and go to anotehr school building that keeded my attention.
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For thosie not familiar with the weater in the upper midwest of the can be quite bitter. it's not unusual to see it drop to -25 F or even lower this time of year. I apparetly found a very slippery spot on the ice and did not make it to my car.
We’ve all seen the hype and heard of the great dangers of the Covid-19 virus. It seems the talking heads can’t stop talking about the dangers and the need of the anti-virus injections. Every once in a while, we hear someone from the outer fringes trying to tell us that this virus is no worse than another flu virus. Yes it can be deadly, but no more or no less than the flu. Of course the voice of those fringe naysayers are quickly drowned out by dozens of experts any time one rases their head.
I think I can say that everyone had fun talking with each other and participating in this production. Everyone deserves kudos for their great stories in this series but none more than Trish who has not only pulled it all together, she has also created some excellent graphics to go with it!
So early this morning, after firing up my smoker, rubbing down the beef brisket with one of my simpler home made rubs (Brown sugar, Paprika, Himalayan pink salt & chili powder) and tossing that in the smoker, I found myself getting hungry for breakfast.
Finding a small covered plate with the remains of a can of spam in the fridge I decided that would work for the meat part of breakfast. Rubbing the slices down with the BBQ rub I had made earlier I sat a pan out to heat up on the stove.
We had a big storm roll through Monday just after noon. No tornadoes but wind speeds equal to one. Severe lightning, torrential rains and all that come with a bad storm.
I happened to be home when it hit, having taken the morning off for a doctor's appointment and returned home to have lunch. Watching the wind and rain outside reminded me of hurricanes when I still lived in Florida.
The good part was it left as fast as it came in and within two hours the sky was clear. Although it left broken trees, power poles and over 100,000 without power.
Well it looks like I will have the next 3 weeks free to devote to writing. Our school district has officially closed its doors due to the corona virus until April 10th, which means I'm on unpaid vacation for 3 weeks.
As I was posting the latest chapter of Necessity I noticed chapter 11 appeared out of order. So for any of you who missed out on chapter 11 due to that, it has been corrected now and all chapters appear in order.
With all that I have had going on lately, work stress, two heart attacks and a muse that became sick and tired me me being too tired to listen to when I got home from work. I didn't think I would get a Meri Christmas story out this year. I fretting and begged the muse for a week to just give me an idea, any idea for an interesting Christmas themed story. Of course the muse ignored me, payback for all the times I've fallen asleep as she tried to whisper ideas into my ear.
At the title states, Yes I am still alive and kicking :)
Haven't had must chance to get much writing done, only a few paragraphs here and there. Work seems to be an endless catastrophe or reaction rather than prevention. I also made the mistake of saying something about looking forward to retirement and that opened another can of worms as the higher-ups fear that my knowledge will be lost and now among everything else that it seems only I can do, I must train two others in all the crap that I do.
For those that have wondered what is going on with me and my writing...
Over the past years, along with medical issues that happen as we all get older, (back surgery a few years ago and two heart attacks since last November.) Work, which was something I once enjoyed, has become something of a horror story that I come home from and pass out instead of writing several thousand words each night like I once did.
Okay I'm very LGBTQ friendly and have in the past physically defended those that I knew was gay from narrow minded bigots. But this is going way over the line. Parents, no matter what their religious beliefs unless it endangers the kids, have the right to bring their children up in the way they wish. This new law passed in Illinois is just wrong.
First, since this has been asked several times of the couple stories Shadowsblade and I have begun posting in this universe, it is not fan fiction of the Whateley Universe. Yes you will find similarities, but then both are based on fictional worlds that have magic and superheroes in them, there will be similarities due to this
Catchy title huh? unfortunately also the cold hard truth.
An explanation? Back in November I went to my doctor with this feeling of a pulled muscle that wouldn't go away. It wasn't that painful, just a bit uncomfortable at times, it happened to be located in my left chest area. Yeah, yeah I know but heart attacks are supposed to be really painful right?
Answering a comment to my latest installment of Necessity is the Mother of invention, caused me to remember something a friend had said 40 years ago that I thought I would share.
The two of us were sitting in the mess hall, when a bible-thumper decided that the two of us needed to be re-educated by none other than himself. How this oracle of divinity knew that the two of us needed his guidance was beyond my knowledge, but alas he placed his holy book on the table in front of us as he unwelcomely sat down and proceeded to impart his great understanding of life to the two of us.
So to give a bit of the backstory, I come from a family that was involved in Bluegrass music. My uncle was best friends with a legendary (within the bluegrass community) instrument maker and could play anything with strings on it. My uncle taught a lot of us kids how to play various instruments and every Sunday after church we would gather on his porch (or in his living room when it was cold) and play for several hours.
Sorry for the lack of updates to my latest story 'Necessity is the Mother of Invention' for the past few weeks. Many of you know that I live close the Mississippi River, normally about 100 yards from the water's edge, that distance has become much less over the past few weeks. So much less that I became the proud owner of an indoor pool in my basement, yes my water heater and furnace got a good washing after the water began seeping up through cracks in the basement floor to a depth of almost 3 feet.
I've always loved spring, when I no longer have to don a coat, scarf and gloves to go outside. No more scraping thick layers of ice off the windshield, car doors frozen shut (or the latch frozen so it will not shut after opening). Sitting outside on the front porch plucking away at notes on my guitar or banjo while sipping on a cold adult beverage. Although this spring the little one is determined that I should only practice the violin so we can practice together, but hey it's music and fun.
Thought I would drop a note to let those following, Necessity is the mother of invention, to let everyone know that things got "Oh my GOD!" busy for me at work. Of course everything is an emergency and is needed NOW So I've been bringing some home with me at night to work on, on this 'mad-science' experiment I call a home computer.
Necessity will continue as I catch my breath from this latest craziness.
The next part of Necessity is the Mother of Invention is delayed. Not sure if it's due to the time change, new very comfy desk chair (the old one was getting pretty threadbare and the pneumatic cylinder dropping several inches randomly), or that work has just been that mentally exhausting but in the evenings after work when I would normally spend and hour or two on editing, I found myself falling asleep all this week.
Took the little one, okay well she isn't that little any more so let's say youngest, To go see Captain Marvel this afternoon at the theater.
With few exceptions, I've enjoyed most all the Marvel Comic movies although I have to say I think Captain Marvel is the best movie they have done so far for story line. Of course the graphics are exceptional as always.
I almost had this chapter of Necessity done last night, but try as I might life had other plans. I'd no sooner get off one call of someone calling to say happy birthday when someone else would call to wish me the same.
I was even interrupted in the grocery store twice by the phone as I was buying the ingredients to make my Nuclear meltdown Chili. (In my defense I have two friends and one daughter that also think the heat level is perfect too)
Luckily I found this morning free of interruptions and was able to type in the needed HTML and get chapter 3 posted :)
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
