Posts Tagged ‘family’
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My son was emphatic, his patience growing thin at the slowpoke ahead of us. Traffic was thick and blowing a horn would do little good but that cuts no ice with the young. I think he may have wanted to just hear the horn. This trait repeatedly surfaced over the years. When I first started using a cane he got a big squeeze horn and attached it. I couldn't really use it since I only had one useful hand. Later when I was confined to a wheelchair he complained about the wimpy horn on the chair. If I listened to my son he would have installed a big aah-ooga horn.
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“Are we there yet”?
The youngsters plaintive cry echoed down the the train's observation car causing more than one head to turn and smile. (more...)
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Twas a rowdy group imbued with raucous laughter watching the black curling smoke lazily ascend into the bright morning sky above that cloaked hilltop mound. Indistinct chants and strange music filled the clear bright air with a fog of curious excitement. Crashing down the forested mound and spilling onto the meadow below the demonic sounds from the obvious debauchery floated across the meadow assaulting those innocents peacefully picnicking at that remote forest service site.
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Sigh...We can't be that old, can we? I guess apparently we are! I didn't think so. In fact I still consider us a young couple but several recent incidents seem to belie that perception.
Grandma Oddball received an urgent call from our youngest grandson (age 6) the other day who wanted to know if we had seen that “new joke” “Who's on first?” by Abbott and Costello.
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Joy and concentration radiated from her while diligently doing what can only be described as a very important job. She didn't know it but important jobs are scarce and she was lucky to have this one. Fortunately it didn't matter because she did it for the pure delight she felt while helping tend the garden.
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They eyed me with a decidedly mean look as I struggled through the barbed wire fence with my saucepan in tow. All eyes rotated in my direction even those that could not see me directly. Nervously I monitored their disposition as I made my way to the small stream that meandered through the culvert under the road. Slowly edging ever closer to me the leaders seemed to tense up as they prepared for action. Clearly they were on the verge of becoming a mob instead of a herd but I had no choice. I had to press forward. We needed the water.
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Lost! I felt terrible. I'd looked long and hard for the perfect toy for our son and now it was lost. How, I wondered, could my wife be so calm, so unconcerned, so almost satisfied in the face of this misfortune?
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A belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everybody (I was out of commission for a few days recovering from an allergic reaction to the contrast dye used in Cat scans). Hopes, promises, and dreams dance inside me to celebrate the promise of another new year and I wish the same to you all. As those of you who read my medical updates know this past year has been filled with some of life's highs and lows before finally ending on a relative high. The family's healthy and I only spent one day in the hospital last week (consider this my latest medical update).
I'd wish you more good fortune but Grandma Oddball has had enough of me for awhile and I have to cut this greeting short ........ I'm alone now as Grandma has decided to run away; at least until dinner time. Just because I wouldn't tell her the outcome of the TV program we were watching before she left shopping she got annoyed and started choking me. Some people. Just can't take a little teasing! I guess it's just the mental trials of a care giver!
Oh well, as I started to write earlier, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and best wishes. Hopefully with your encouragement I'll continue on the road to recovery and be able to continue this blog.
With love and humor and high hopes for 2010
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Or perhaps it's a Christmas devil that's been stealing my memories. Since I've returned home from the nursing home I can't seem to find very many but I have dredged up a few. Some good, some humorous and a few scary but all precious.
One of my favorites is (more...)
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Skeptics! That's what I've produced. Generations of skeptics. I try telling my children and now my grandchildren how we muddled through life and their eyes roll up in concert with with a look of almost pained disbelief. It's almost as if they're blurting out, "Oh no, here we go again!"
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Have you ever tried to sneak up on somebody using a walker?
I can tell you from recent experience it doesn't work. With therapy I am able to use a walker but sneaking around is another ballgame! (more...)
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I'm officially old or so Grandma Oddball tells me. Apparently this also means I lose my sense of humor as well as my youth. This vexes Grandma Oddball no end. (more...)
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Well, perhaps not quite living in the country but we started out not living in the city either and it was pleasant. We had woods on two sides of our house filled with ponds and small wood creatures that our children could investigate. There were places, like "dead man's hill" where the children could stretch their imaginations and dare each other to bike or sled to the bottom as fast as possible. Once endowed with confidence they even built a ramp at the bottom for emulating daredevils. Those were the days but they're now it's all gone. Evaporated for ever, I guess.
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'An epic saga filled with love, lust, danger, adventure, loyalty and betrayal. A family's heroic struggle against the nature's fury in the Sierra Nevada mountains chronicled by those who lived through it and survived! It's the story of .....' Ah, well, not quite I guess. Actually it was our first vacation to Yosemite valley after moving from Moscow (Idaho) to Santa Barbara (California) and I'm writing about it because it was memorable.
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Why do women have this unreasoning stereotype concerning men? Whenever they get together and start snickering and gesturing punctuated by sharp barks of laughter followed by all them glancing knowingly your way then you know they're discussing TV remote control usage or messy diapers or some such topic that illustrate men's deficiencies. I think this is grossly unfair. It's particularly unfair since we try our best to help out by relieving them of some of their burdensome household chores.
Take children and diapers for example. (more...)
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Concentrating furiously on my therapy trying to recover after better than four years in hospitals and nursing homes I had no idea what was coming. The therapy was hard (for me) and I wasn't paying as much attention to my surroundings as I should have or I would have noticed the conversation ensuing between my wife and one of the therapists nearby. My first inkling to the unfolding drama was when I heard the words South Dakota and puddle drift my way. Glancing over I encountered THE LOOK (you happily married husbands know what that means) and it was then I knew what was coming.
read more about the look » -
And it was a extraordinary feeling. My children looked up to me, admired me and believed with all their heart everything I said. I was immortal and knew everything. I vividly remember the time when my daughter asked, "What was Lincoln like?" Such trust!
Then it all seemed to go bad. ... learn how »
