Sunday, November 17, 2013

Been a long time

  It seems like forever since I have last made a post. I originally planned to make this a monthly blog and I apologize to anyone who actually reads my blog about the lapse between posts. Let us play a little catch up...
  Today was my youngest daughter's 9th birthday. Eleven days before was my son's 5th birthday. Now all the November birthdays are out of the way, so it is time to prepare for Thanksgiving and then on to Christmas. We had a great birthday party for them last Sunday after church with many of our friends and many children running around the house in every direction. Thankfully, my balance was intact that day and no children were harmed by my random gravity checks. This is of course a good thing as I don't think many of the parents would have understood why their children were flattened by me at a birthday party where there was no alcohol.
  At the end of October my wife violently killed my precious Chrysler 300C when someone ran a red light and T-boned her. I know it isn't her fault, but I will continue to give her hell for it because it just seems like fun for me. Honestly I am glad for 2 things: 1) it wasn't me that was driving, and 2) other than being slightly banged up she is otherwise ok. I can always replace the car (granted, not with a car as nice and AWESOME as that car) but I could never replace her. Also, since she has a life insurance policy, I would have probably been the main suspect in her death. It's always the husband if we learn anything from crime shows and the news media.
  In October I also received my ordination by the church. I know, anyone who knows me is asking themselves how I have not been struck by lightning yet. I run in zig-zag patterns everywhere I go! Seriously though, since retiring from Fire/Rescue I have done many different things, but I have received a calling into the ministry as a Chaplain and have decided to focus mainly on emergency services as a Chaplain for the needs of fire, rescue, and law enforcement. Don't think that I am going to turn this into a religious "preachy" blog. Just because I became a priest doesn't mean that I lost my sense of humor. Even God has a sense of humor, why else would he have created MS, child birth, sex, or the Dallas Cowboys...
  I have also begun doing a lot of photography. I came into a 1977 Minolta and a 1981/82 Minolta lately along with a shitload of accessories and decided that I want actual photos (not just my digital pictures). I know what you are thinking because I hear it all the time: "you mean they still make actual film?" Yes, and I can even gey it developed in 1-hour which is even more amazing! Besides taking pictures of my family and making a couple photo albums and having pictures to put in frames to hang on the wall (which have been very bare in our last few houses), I have focused my photography skills on the fire/rescue department. I recently did 6 rolls of film for the Madison County fire department when they had their open house. I have also gotten several pictures for the City of Charlottesville Fire Department on various calls both fire calls and rescue calls. The Chief and PIO in Charlottesville have posted several of them on the department's Facebook page.
  Surprisingly, I have found that I am able to hold the camera steady for those precious few seconds that I need to snap a picture or two. However, any other time I need my hands to stay still they completely betray me. Even as I type this I have to make a ton of corrections when my fingers hit the wrong letter or another key that a spasm caused me to press. The most annoying is when I hit the delete button instead of the K, L or M letter that I meant to type. They need to make a keyboard for the MSer much like Google, "Did you mean ______?" Of course, with all the mistakes my hands make when I use the keyboard it would probably just ask me if I meant to use a pencil and paper.

  Well, wish I had more humor today but things have been going well without too many mishaps so I really have nothing more to report. Still awaiting my Social Security disability decision, nothing new there. Still a slave to the medications. But still happy to be here and able to type to you about my life...or at least, something like it...