I Really Don't Like Doctor Visits

I dislike them so much that I scheduled three of them today.

First off I made it over to the lab for some wellness screenings (thank you insurance company).Those who know me know that I hate needles. Poke. When Dracula was finished taking my blood, I had to wait a few hours until my next appointment.

A few weeks ago, I developed a nasty ingrown toenail. I was on antibiotics for two weeks to knock out the infection before they could do anything with it. I must admit, the podiatrist I went to was one of the most calming doctors that I had ever been to. It helped that I knew him from when we were both chaperoning a band trip to Toronto. He gave me 10 brownie points the moment he saw me because I was wearing an OSU shirt (he's an alumni). At least before the pokes that I knew were coming, he numbed the toe with some really cold spray. Once the toe was numb, he cut out the serrated knife that had become the edge of my toenail.

The next appointment was set 4 months earlier. It was merely a checkup on my right knee from my orthopedic surgeon. No needles there. (YAY!!!)

I used a vacation day from work today to get all the appointments in. Some vacation.

Flashback Friday # 142

Mr. Carver

Greetings one & all (maybe not all. There is someone who has been very nosey). In last week's post, I mentioned that someone hollered out "Teacher's coming". That teacher would be Mr. Carver (if you are a new reader, I rarely ever use anyone's real name, or the real name of a business, because they don't pay me to advertise.)

Mr. Carver a recent college graduate (I don't know if we were his first teaching assignment). He taught General Science & Earth Science. He may have taught other classes, but those are the classes I had. One of the main things I remember about him is that he called us "gang". "OK gang, I need your attention." "OK gang, turn to page 153." "Hey, gang, Would you please pay attention to the lesson?"

The other thing that stands out is that even though he was a Science teacher, he didn't believe in evolution. He told us that he wasn't allowed to tell us what he believed, but this isn't it. He said that he was responsible for giving us the information and we could do with it as we pleased. He then went on to explain that evolution wasn't as scientific as everyone made it out to be. He gave us the information from the book, but didn't force feed it to us. I liked that.

What is really funny about Mr. Carver is that his son & Lady Lemon graduated together. I ran into him at a football game and he said he was there because his son was in the band (as was Lady Lemon). He had become the guidance counsellor at my school & was applying for the local guidance counsellor job.

And Yet, Another Major Award

Each year, two of my protegees give out "fabulous prizes" on Father's Day. Once you win, You are ineligible to win again. Good thing. I was in the running for at least four of the prizes (1-longest time not washing their car, or in my case truck. 2- Most keys on your keyring. 3- Most pictures in your wallet).

The one prize that I was not only in the running, but was the runaway winner was "Which dad is the biggest packrat?" As soon as I heard the word "packrat" leave the lips of the presenter, I turned to my assistant Sunday School teacher and said "I'm doomed". My "Major Award" was a padlock to put on the storage shed that I will need to keep all the stuff in.

Both of my Parents are packrats. My grandfather ran a trash route in which he kept the good stuff being thrown out. I'm third generation. I am also a professional packrat. Part of my job is to store the leftover materials (known as "tags & centers") from the jobs that I cut. If it can be used again, I'm in charge of it. It really is a "Don't throw it away, it might come in handy" type of job.

This is the third year in a row that I have won one of these prestigious awards. You can read about the first one here.

You can read about the second one here.

Where Did She Go?

If there is anyone out there who is used to reading my wife's blog, and now you can't find it, send me an e-mail. Due to unforeseen circumstances, she had to take the old blog down and create a new one.

Happy Father's Day

A hearty Happy Father's Day to all who stumble upon this post in a timely manner. I did some rummaging and came up with this beauty from many Father's Day ago:

When you a tot, and try to sound out the word "Pop", you get the above word. Mrs. Lemon made this for in Sunday School when she was in Kindergarten. Her teacher was appalled. I've kept it all these years.

Flashback Friday # 141

The Fight

Greetings to all who have stumbled upon these ramblings (You really didn't come here on purpose, did you?). I have prepared a ringside seat for you at this momentous occasion. Many times I had the potential to be in a fight, but due to divine intervention, it never came to fruition.

Since I missed so much time at the beginning of school in my Freshman year I had a few "unusual" seating assignments. The most unusual was in my General Science class. Our teacher, Mr. Carver, was apologetic when I showed up. All of the desks were occupied. The only seating left in class was at the experiment stations, where the faucets and Bunsen burner outlets were. There were tall stools at these stations.

The danger of these stations was the fact that these stool weren't affixed to the writing surface (like the desks) and could be slid out from behind you with ease. I witness this a couple of times during experiments, and came up with a way to make sure it didn't happen to me. If I was standing, I would insert my left leg into the stool legs to keep from being pulled away.

One day, before class, a group of us were at the experiment station looking at a magazine that someone brought in. One kid, Felix Mallard, ran with the rougher crowd. He was good friends with Derrick, who was a hood that I had trouble with before. As we were talking about the magazine, he stealthily grabbed hold of my stool and yanked it away. Since my leg was interlocked with the stool legs, the stool slid all the way up my leg until it could travel no farther (I think you know where it ended). I yanked my stool away from him, gave him a shove and told him to knock it off. He then took a swing at me. Seeing that I had spent my life trying to survive the onslaughts of my brother, I dodged. The blow missed my face, but caught the very edge of my glasses, and sent them flying across the room.

BIG MISTAKE!!! Since I can't read much past my nose without my glasses, and my family couldn't afford to replace them at a whim, I was very protective of them. When they flew off, it was like taking the harness & bindings from a pit bull at a dog fight. The berserker was loosed.

I don't remember what all happened, but I came to my senses when someone hollered "Teacher's coming". Felix was crouched in the corner with his arms crossed over his head. I had been raining blows down upon him like a fierce thunderstorm. Someone handed me my glasses, which were a bit bent, but otherwise unscathed. Felix was very quiet throughout class.

Later in the day, Derrick walked up to me smugly and said "I heard the Felix kicked your ***." I looked at him and said "Oh really? Anytime you want what he got today, just let me know." I think he really knew what happened. Surprisingly enough, I never had any trouble with him, or any of his toadies after that. I also never was involved in another fight.

Game 7 of The Stanley Cup

There is nothing more exciting than game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals (unless it is overtime in game 7). In this years Finals, the home team has won every game. Game 7 was in Vancouver . One would think that it was inevitable that the Canucks would hoist the Cup at the end of the night.

The Boston Bruins had other plans. The Bruins goalie, Tim Thomas, absolutely stood on his head in posting a 4-0 shutout of the Canucks. No other goalie in NHL history has had a shutout, on the road, in a game 7. There have only been 16 game 7 since the NHL began in the early 1900's. Thomas also set a record for the most saves during the playoffs. This record was set in 1942. He also won the Conn Smyth Trophy (Finals MVP). He is the first American born goalie to do so. Only one other American has won this trophy, Brian Leetch, Defenseman of the NY Rangers.

Boston is also one the second team ever in sports history (that' ALL of sports) to win three game 7s in a single playoff. The beat the Canadians in 7 in the first round. They beat Tampa Bay in the Eastern Conference Finals in 7. They then beat the Canucks in in the Stanley Cup finals in 7.

Boston won their first Cup since 1972.

Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated

Thank You Dallas Mavericks!

Ever since last summer, when a certain unnamed player took his talents to South Beach, I have been rooting against the Miami Heat. My favorite team was whoever was playing the Heat.

When the playoffs started, Miami was the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference. They first played the Philadelphia 76ers and won that series. Then they played The Boston Celtics and won that series too. They then had to play #1 seed Chicago Bulls. Again they won and off to the NBA Finals.

They played the Dallas Mavericks in The Finals. I like The Mavericks. Many people have a problem with their owner, Mark Cuban. He is vocal. He is a supporter of his players. He wants to win. He is a fan, not just an owner hoping to make a buck.

The Mavericks were the underdog. Everyone expected Miami to sweep. Miami was destined to win the Championship because they now had three superstars on their roster. All they had to do was throw their jocks out on the court to win. If any team had a sense of entitlement, it was the Heat.

Dallas beat the Heat in six games to win the NBA Finals. They were, by far, the better team. They have been through some difficult times in the playoffs. They came back from large deficits in each series. There were some long time veterans on that team that have never been on a championship team. MVP Dirk Nowiski won his first ring.In fact, everybody on this team won their first ring. He could have whined and left for greener pastures because he had no superstar help like the above mentioned player who will not be named. He stuck with his team and was rewarded with the Championship.


picture courtesy of Sports Illustrated.

Face it, All Men Do It.

My wife tell me that I don't listen. Can anyone else out there say that about their husband? She will say, "I told you about that a few days ago." My response is "I don't rember anything about that." So, in order to honor the tradition, I made this LOL that made front page of ROFLrazzi (one of the Cheezburger network sites).

Flashback Friday # 140

Clubs & Organizations

Welcome again to those who have returned for another helping of re-hashing my past. If this is your first time here, go ahead and make yourself comfortable and click on the Flashback Friday label to see other stories of my youth. They make wonderful sleep aids (just saying).

Being a Freshman in High School means you need to interact with those in the upper classes. How is the best way to meet them? I know by experience that it isn't in the boys room (more on that later). I got to form friendships with those older than me by joining some of the extra-curricular activities offered by my school.

The first club that I joined was the "Media Club". I had some experience with video machines, and wanted to get to know more about the various gadgets available at the school. The Media club members were also student librarians. I can truthfully say that I was there when our school got it's first computer (ooohhhh). This was part of the forming of the inner geek in me.

I also Joined the Spanish club. Being a first year Spanish student meant that I didn't know the language too well, but I had heard that they went out to Mexican restaurants & watched classic movies dubbed in Spanish. Sounded like fun to me.

I took Home Ec. as a Freshman because I didn't want to be one of those guys who wind up with pink underwear when they do laundry or can't sew a button back on. There was also the factor that the class was loaded with girls.This brings me to the other organization that I joined. You may think this is quirky,but it was FHA (That's Future Homemakers of America for those of you not in the know). The year I joined, it added the acronym HERO to the end making it FHA/HERO. HERO stood for Home Economic Related Occupations. There I not only got to meet girls from upper classes, but I got to meet girls from around the county. The guys laughed initially (since most of them were in FFA) but when I explained why I did it, they admired my reasoning.

Since I road the bus to & from school, they only was to get home after a club meeting was to wait for Dad to get home. The meetings were over about 4-4:30. He didn't get home until five. It gave me some time to do what ever homework I had, or watch those in sports practicing.

That's My Boy

My grand son, "The Boy" enjoys looking at the funny pictures on the Cheezburger Network with me. The other day, I received a picture of a funny sign that he spotted.



He's a chip off the ol' block.

Flashback Friday # 139

Student Council

Hello friends. Welcome back for another stroll down memory lane.

Today we delve into the government of our schools, Student Council.I had extensive experience in running for this office. In 7th grade, I lost by only two votes. In 8th grade, I lost by one vote ( The bad thing about that is I voted for the guy who beat me). I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring for another try. The worst I could do was lose again.

In preparing for the run, all applicants had to have thirty of your fellow students sign a petition. The petition was then turned into the teacher who was overseeing the council. The names were then put on a ballot for each class to vote on. The top two vote getters were awarded seats on counsel. All the club presidents were members also.

I collected the required signatures (actually I got 31. A boy signed for his sister so I covered my bases) and turned in my petition. I knew the other two who were running too. I could only hope.

When election day came, the ballots were passed out during lunch. Since lunch was broken up into three time slots, members of my class came in at different times. It was after 1st lunch that an issue arose.

On the Freshman ballot, only two people were listed on the ballot. During 2nd lunch, the boy who was left off the ballot sought out the Student Council advisor. Why wasn't he listed on the ballot, he asked. The advisor told him it was because he hadn't turned in his petition. OH, He forgot. Running to his locker, he gave it to the advisor and asked if he still could be on the ballot. She told him that if he could convince people to put him on as a write-in candidate, he could run. It was already 3rd lunch.

Needless to say, the boy wasn't elected. I was elected, along with a popular girl (who also was a cheerleader). The boy wasn't satisfied. He began a petition to have another election since he had been left off the ballot (due to his own fault). He had the audacity to ask me to sign it. Years earlier I would have. I told him "NO". I won the election fair & square. His petition petered out and I settled in as a Student Council member.

No Paparazzi Please

I took this video the other night. Normally "The Girl" is a charmer for the camera. She must have been in one of those moods. Can you say Hollywood personality?

Feel free to LOL, ROFL or WYL.