Coming Attractions

The countdown has begun. Around Feb 20 or 21 I will be making regular posts. I know, I have said that before. This time there is a major shift in my life that allows it. February 11 is the last day I will be working 5 days a week at Taco Bell. I was staying until I got a few debts paid off, and they will be paid off in January. I will be working 2 days a week there, Wednesday and Saturday, when they get their trucks. I enjoy that and it will not put the physical strain on me that I am going through right now. I have to keep reminding myself I am 51 years old. I can't keep doing the things I did twenty years ago. I haven't been posting because I was simply too tired. I also have been re-evaluating my life. I take on too many things at once and I fall flat on my face. Well with the new year now is the time to change that. I am getting myself organized. It did not get messed up overnight, and I won't fix it overnight, but it is happening. I will be posting something here at least once a week until I reduce the Taco Bell hours. I am basically doing 4 consecutive 12 hour days and on those days nothing else is getting done.

Flu Surgery

I am still not feeling well. I am getting better. This is one of those illnesses that will hit, act like it is leaving, then hit again. I think it is almost gone. My days off at Wal-Mart are Tuesday and Wednesday so basically all I have done is rest. i did work 4 hours at Taco bell yesterday, but that was during the period where I felt fine. It hit again after I returned home. I have been very fortunate when it comes to my health. I will get the flu once or twice a year but I usually am very healthy.

The sickest I have ever been was nine years ago when I had what I have always called my flu surgery. At that time I was also working two jobs, then working for K-Mart full time and working part time at Arby's. About 10 minutes before I got off at Arby's I felt like someone had sucker punched me in the gut. It was the sharpest pain I had ever felt in my life. I finished what I was doing and went home. When I got home and told my wife how I felt she accused me of faking it. For some reason any time I got sick that was her response. Why I am not really sure and now I will never know, but that was her. I have a stubborn streak so I told her I would be fine and to leave me alone. I tried to lay down, but I couldn't get comfortable so I went into the front room and tried to sleep in a recliner we had in the front room. I did not sleep that night. The next day was Sunday. My wife asked me a few times if I was alright, and being the stubborn one I can be I said I was fine. I really thought the pain was going to reside. I spent all that day and night in the chair. On Monday morning my wife asked if I was ready to go see the doctor. By then I was in so much pain I swallowed my stubbornness and agreed to go.

My doctor took me right in, checked me out and had me wait for awhile in one of his exam rooms. I actually dozed off on the exam table. He told me he wanted to put me in the hospital and to talk to a surgeon. He felt the problem was my appendix and wanted a surgeon to check it out. I was admitted and couple of hours later the surgeon came in. He told me my white blood cell count was more than double what it should have been. There are no iron clad tests for appendicitis but I had every symptom. 3 per cent of time there is nothing wrong with the appendix, the decision was mine. I felt so bad I was willing to do anything. I said do it. They did the surgery around 8:00 PM. I remember the anesthesiologist coming into my room to give me something to relax me before I went in. That was some good stuff because I went out while he was talking to me. I was woke up in the Intensive Care unit, where they had put me after surgery since it was so late and was told I was being moved to my room. I don't remember anything else until about 4:00 AM, when I woke up. My wife was in the room with me. She was much more sympathetic at that time. A nurse came in, checked my vitals and asked if I wanted anything. I told her no and within a few minutes went back to sleep. My white blood cell count remained high for a couple of days. They were concerned about it and kept increasing my antibiotics. Finally the count went down and I was released.

I was off work for four weeks. When I went back to see the surgeon for a follow up he told me the tests had come back and there was nothing wrong with my appendix. Why I was sick is still a mystery. The main thing is I got better. So now I say I had flu surgery and am back to normal. Of course other people would argue that I am normal, but that is another story.

The picture above is from my favorite doctor series, St Elsewhere. That is William Daniels, who was great as Doctor Mark Craig.

Quote Of The Day
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.
Robert Frost

The Best Laid Plans

I really intended on posting every day. Honest. So what happened? I got sick. I could not afford to take any time off of either job so I basically went to work, ate something and went to bed. I am feeling much better now. I have to work at Taco Bell in the morning but I will only be there for four hours, then I don't have to work again until 10:00 PM Thursday night. I will be working this schedule for six to eight months, then Taco Bell will have a decision to make. I will either work two days a week, or I will work none. That is their call. I have a debt I am wanting to get rid of and I should have it gone in that length of time. My daily posting will depend on how tired I am. If I am too tired, sleep wins, if I can sleep. Lately I have been having some trouble going to sleep. I will be exhausted, lay down, and be wide awake two hours later. I do not believe in taking sleep medicine. I tried Wal-Mart's version of Tylenol PM, but did not like the way I felt when I woke up. After my wife died I went for two weeks on two hours sleep a night. I figured at some point my body would say enough and I would sleep. That is what happened. I went to bed early, slept for about eleven hours and then had no trouble after that.

When it comes to television I rarely watch network tv. Part of that is with my schedule I am only home two nights a week. Another I just don't find many shows interesting. I would rather watch cable. My favorite networks are History channel, Discovery, Food Network, A&E, Cartoon Network, and Comedy Central. Right now I am watching Dirty Jobs on Discovery as I write this. I am constantly multi-tasking. I listen to tv more than I watch. If something interesting happens I will stop and watch. Mike Rowe makes Dirty Jobs a lot of fun. He gets into some areas that you never think about but someone has to do it. It is a fascinating look at what people do. Some of them there is no way I would do them, especially anything involving snakes. Periodically I will talk about other shows I like.

Quote Of The Day
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Mark Twain

Black Friday

Today is Black Friday, the day retail workers dread. I was fortunate. I went in 2 hours early and left at 4:00 AM, one hour before the madness started. People were arriving around midnight. When I left at 4:00 I basically had to fight my way out. To keep people from grabbing the hot items early they were put on pallets and shrink wrapped with black plastic. Employees were going to cut the plastic at 5:00. That is when the madness begins. The store I work at has not had any physical fights, but it does happen. To me, there is no bargain worth fighting over. It also is not worth it to me to even be in the crowd. I was dragged into it last year, but no more. I am sure I will hear some tales when I go in tonight. If any are worth repeating I will tell them tomorrow.

I am now on my new schedule where now through Monday I am working both jobs. Posts will be short, but I am trying to discipline myself to doing this daily. My problem is I am a world class procrastinator. I was voted Procrastinator Of the Year in 1982..........and one of these days I have to pick that award up.

Quote Of The Day
Business is a combination of war and sport.
Andre Maurois

What I am thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. I have already had my Thanksgiving feast. It may seem odd to you to have a feast at 3:00 AM, but I have to be at work at 8:00 PM tonight so I went ahead. I did not have any turkey because I don't believe in cannibalism. It was only me here and I really am not much of a cook, but with the help of prepared foods I enjoyed beef tips in gravy, mashed potato's,(or as Rumpole would call them, mashed spuds) corn, rolls, and of course pumpkin pie. There is even enough left that I can have this meal again.

This is what I am thankful for:

I am alive. Seven and a half years ago I was shown just how fragile life is. My wife of almost 22 years died suddenly from a blood clot. She was two weeks shy of 45 years old. I learned two things from this. First, always let those you love know how much you care. You may never get another chance to let them know. Second, don't sweat the small stuff. We tend to worry about too many things that we can't change. Take life as it comes and react accordingly.

I am healthy. I am 51 years old and other than my "flu surgery" 12 years ago,(more about that in a later post) I not had any major illnesses. I spent 16 years working in housekeeping in a nursing home and two hospitals. I learned to be thankful for being able to get up in the middle of the night just to go to the bathroom. There are people who would love to do that and can not.

I have two jobs that I truly like. I really do like putting items on shelves. The same with my duties at Taco Bell. Both jobs don't require my full attention and I can do a lot of thinking and planning while I work. My plan for now is to keep both jobs, but by this time next year I will either not be working at Taco Bell or I will only be working two days a week there, their choice.

I like living in Georgia. I grew up in Illinois and the only thing I don't like about there is the fact they have winter. It does get cold here but nothing like there. I got frostbit when I was 13 and my hands ache for a long time now when they get cold. I know what you are thinking. But you stock frozen foods. Yes I do and I have a one word answer for that-gloves.

The Captain Comics Message Board. I spend a lot of time there and have made some very good friends there. It is a very friendly place and we do talk about a lot more than just comic books. After all there is a lot more to life than just comic books, but they are a lot of fun.

I am thankful for my family. I don't get to see them as often as I would like to, but I still have both of my parents. My Dad's health has not been good in the last few years but he still is hanging in there. Last year he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but they managed to get it. I am hoping sometime in February to go see them.

There are other things I am thankful for, but I am going to wrap this up. The last thing I am going to mention is I am thankful I am currently alone. I had a relationship that just ended last month. We were together for almost four years. The last year was bad. I am not going into much detail about it at this time. There is still pain there, not from the end of the relationship but the way the ending was handled. I will talk about that later. Right now I may end up saying some things that I will later regret. My plan is to write it out and edit it daily until I am satisfied that I am not too vicious.

I hope you all have a great day. Happy Thanksgiving every body.

Quote Of The Day
Be the change that you want to see in the world.
Gandhi

Why In Purple I'm Stunning 2.0

"I was there, at the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind. It began in the Earth year 2257 with the founding of the last of the Babylon stations, located deep in neutral space. It was a port of call for refugees, smugglers, businessmen, diplomats and travelers from a hundred worlds. It could be a dangerous place, but we accepted the risk because Babylon 5 was our last, best hope for peace. Babylon 5 was a dream given form, a dream of a galaxy without war, where species from different worlds could live side-by-side in mutual respect. Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. This is its story."
This is the introduction to Babylon 5-The Gathering.

Babylon 5 is my all time favorite television series. One thing I enjoyed about it is it was actually one story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It just took five years to tell the story. Another thing I liked is the alien races were well thought out and had intriguing histories, not just the typical science fiction aliens. My favorite race is the Centauri and favorite character is Londo Mollari. On the Captain Comics board we give ourselves titles. Mine is Centauri ambassador and my avatar is Londo.

The title of my blog comes from a first season episode titled The Parliament Of Dreams. The plot is there is a celebration of all the aliens religions. Each gives a demonstration. The Centauri's religion involves a lot of drinking. Londo climbs up on a table, crawls a little and says:

"Did I ever tell you [Delenn] that you are very cute for a Minbari? Even you [Garibaldi] are cute, in an annoying sort of way. Everybody's cute! Everybody's cute! Even me. But in purple.. I'm stunning!" [collapses]

Then Vir and Garabaldi have this conversation:

"Ah! He has become one with his inner self!"
"He's passed out."
"That too."

The 2.0 is because this is the second version of this blog. I tried doing it a year ago but abandoned it after a couple of weeks. I liked the title so when I decided to revive it I went with the upgraded version, or 2.0. I think this one will run longer. One thing that helps is the comments I have received from my friends on the Captains Board. It is nice to know people are reading what you write.

Quote Of The Day
Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
Mark Twain

My favorite movie

My favorite movie is actually a trilogy that I count as one, The Lord Of The Rings. I have been a huge Tolkein fan since I was in high school, was was just a few years ago. I was skeptical when I heard they were making a movie. I was afraid they would condense the story so much it would be bad. Fortunately they did it right. I love Peter Jackson's story of talking to New Line Cinema about doing it. He had condensed the three books down into two movies. The New Line executive told him it was great but there was one problem with it, there were three movies there, not two. Peter and his fellow writers went back and made the expansions. There were a few things that I would like to have seen changed, but they were so minor that it did ruin my enjoyment of the movies. My favorite character has always been Aragorn. I am not sure exactly why, I just do.

I had planned on blogging daily and I missed a few days. I really do have a good excuse. I had internet problems and couldn't log on. I finally got it back this morning. Tomorrow will be a longer post when I reveal why my blog is called In Purple I'm Stunning 2.0.

Quote Of The Day
A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.
Elbert Hubbard

More disgusting foods

This is going to be a short post. I am tired and need to get some sleep before I go to work tonight. Cracked magazine was a long running Mad competitor, but they finally folded. They now have an on-line presence. One of the articles they posted was called The 6 Most Terrifying Foods In The World. A word of warning, if you are offended by strong language, don't go there. Also the pictures are disgusting, but accurate. I would eat that ice cream before I would eat any of these.

Finally, an adorable picture, A future Cubs fan.

Quote Of The Day

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me".
Erma Bombeck

Would you eat this?

Yes I know what that looks like. Yes it is sitting in a miniature toilet stool. It actually is ice cream. There is a restaurant in Taipei, China that calls itself the Modern Toilet. All of their bowls are shaped like toilet stools. Their aim is to appeal to the 15-35 year olds. It seems to be working. There are a few who don't get it but most of their customers enjoy it. Personally, I will pass.

This is a quick post day. I need to get some sleep.

Quote of the Day

I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together.

Steve Smith, AKA Red Green

Oops I did it again

Once again I have great plans and very lousy follow through. I have a lot of ideas for posts and I have managed to get nothing done so far. There are several reasons for this.

1. I don't write things down. When I get ready the ideas have evaporated.

2. Lack of time. My schedule is very hectic at times. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I work both jobs, which gives me 10 hours to get anything done and to sleep.

3. I make my plans too big. I set the bar so high I am bound to fail.

4. I can be lazy at times. Did I just say that? Seriously, I can find too many things to do and then nothing gets done.

So what are my plans now? I still like the idea of daily posts. My schedule will be changing and I will have to work around that. I have been working 7 days a week and am burning myself out. I talked to my boss at Taco Bell today and my schedule will be changing starting next week. I will be off Tuesdays and Thursdays instead of Sunday and Monday. This works out better with my Wal-Mart schedule where I am off Tuesday and Wednesday. I can not take off Wednesday at Taco Bell because that is a truck day and one of my jobs is putting the truck away. The plan now will be longer posts on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and short ones the rest. The short ones will be pictures or links to fun sites, things that I can do in about 15 minutes. I am a one finger typer so it takes me a little longer to get these ready. OK. The game plan is set. Let's see how well I execute it.

Today's quote:
There comes a time in every mans life, and I've had plenty of them.
Casey Stengel

What I am not getting on EBay.

The Sandy Koufax card shown above. I was hoping to have the image under this heading but it doesn't seem to work that way. Oh well. It is not that big of a deal. At some point I will figure out how to do it. I was willing to pay $20.00 for it, but someone else wants it more. I refuse to get in a bidding war. My attitude on EBay is I set the amount I am willing to pay. If it goes for more than that, I don't get it.

What I do

I work full time for Wal-Mart, where I stock frozen foods on third shift, 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM. That is the ideal time to work at Wal-Mart. It may be a little busy until midnight, but you can get a lot more done without being in the customers way or they being in yours. Wal-Mart is not a bad place to work. I will expand on that in a future post. Until two weeks ago my girlfriend was living with me. She moved out. Before she did I got a part-time job. She tried but for one reason or another she was unable to get one. I started working mornings at Taco Bell where I my title is cleaning captain. Basically what I do is clean the parking lot, make sure the restaraunt is clean, wash windows, put the order away when it comes on Wednesday and Saturday, and get things ready for the food preparers. I mainly cut the lids off cases so all they have to do is grab what is needed. I don't need the job now, but I am keeping it for now. It is not real hard work and I like it. The hardest days are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday when I work both places. The other days I only work at one. My posts here will be smaller on those days.

I spend a lot of time on the Captain Comics Message Board. Someone had started a quote of the day thread. It died out but I resurrected it. Here I am going post the quotes here too. I have posted two so far, so I will put them here. Somedays this may be all I post here. On Sunday I will post where the title of this blog comes from. The quotes are:

All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.
Charles Schultz

Humor is just another defense against the universe.
Mel Brooks

Well I need to go to bed. I work tonight.

Test post

This post is only a test. Had it been an actual post you would be rolling on the floor with laughter. After you had recovered from that the next statement would have been so profound that you would be pondering it for a week. Now if you buy any of this, lets talk real estate.