fking

Stroke Survivor - male
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Blog Entries posted by fking

  1. fking
    Many of you know where I been for about two weeks and more. I thank you, my wife Marion, thanks you too. It was very hard for her to loose her mom, they talked every day. Her mom told her she was waiting until she got to New Orleans and she did. They held hands when she passed at the home of her baby daughter and all her children, most of the grand kids and the entire family was right there.
     
    She lived a long life, made 84 on 8 August and passed 16 October. She's in a better place now and all of us have accepted that fact to ease the pain of losing her.
     
    Funerals in New Orleans are a bit different than what I'm used to in Texas. It was like a Jazz time at the church, all the family sang songs and danced while the casket remained open. All the great grand children gave a little speech on how they loved their granny. She was truly the patriot of the family.
     
    You may remember their dad passed 5 years ago just before Katrina made land fall while being moved to higher ground from a nursing home in the lower Ninth Ward which was severely flooded. Some of those people were at her funeral recounting their long years she was one of them.
     
    There were many wheel chairs, walkers, crutches and cane users in the church, I was not alone among those who could not walk very fast. Everything was slowed down so it consumed hours to finish at the cemetery where no cars were allowed inside. The body was carried by the pall bearers from the street to grave site.
     
    Losing a loved one is hard for everyone and especially a mother figure. I guess girls are closer to mom than to dad in some cases. This was one of those cases as my wife took her passing very hard. Each daughter (4) of them got a figurine from the casket to keep forever!
     
    Now, the both of us, got each other as our parents are gone but not forgotten! We have our children and grands to be proud of, and in my case, three great grands too! Life is something we should all cherish and want to live it to the fullest while we are here on earth.
     
    Again, thanks members for your prayers, thoughts and condolences, it meant so much to us! We thank you from our hearts, may God bless each of you!
  2. fking
    I just wanna say to our members, you can vote for our member Stephanie, AKA Stessie. She needs our votes in a contest she entered a couple weeks ago. You may remember she battled Brest Cancer and won. So, she is in the contest for a Beauty Makeover with four other ladies in Cincinnati. The winner, by votes, gets a beauty makeover and many other prizes.
     
    She is so deserving being a stroke survivor and cancer survivor and we prayed so often for her to beat the cancer...Well she did it and this would be a deserving reward I'm sure her husband, kids, and family members would cherish for a very long time to come.
     
    Look on her blog or on the message board, the site is there and here too!
     
    Please vote for our member!
  3. fking
    "No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending" It is unknown who wrote these words! However in my case now the words are so darn true. Just all of a sudden changes are upon me in full force I think!
     
    Well, today was Labor Day and in reading a pamphlet at the outdoor recreation pavilion where many people were celebrating the day, I saw what is believed to be the "Reasons to Celebrate Labor Day" and as a national holiday too!
     
    Americans have celebrated Labor Day since weekend since 1882. About 10 years or so before my mom was born and that caused me to sit there resting, eating and looking at the crowd of people having family fun with their kids and neighbors. What a site to see at a military base activity site near the Belton lake and dam area.
     
    From picnics and parades to fireworks and barbecues, thousands of people all across the United States take time to relax and recreate. While every working person in the nation that Labor Day means a day off from work, most may not know the history behind it and why it is a national holiday. I really did not know the start or beginning of this day and weekend!
     
     
    Now for Christians celebrating Labor Day, it should mean much more than honoring the workers of America. It should be a time to set aside to assess their priorities, both in the working arena and in their personal lives.
     
    Labor Day was instituted as a national holiday on June 28, 1894, a day set aside to honor the working men, women and children who were the industrial foundation of America. Through the efforts of the Central Labor Union, and other trade unions throughout the states, the labor movement successfully established regulations that governed the working world, such as eight-hour days, two day weekends, minimum wage and the abolishment of child labor.
     
    The movement eventually introduced an annual "day off" for the working man, a day to pay tribute to those who contributed to the social and economic success of the nation. But the concept of an official day off work began long before Congress voted it into existence. I suppose that shows the power of Congress and how the government is established by our forefathers in public office.
     
    With unemployment at it's highest rate in a very long time tells us how far we, the people must go to really enjoy what was set aside as a day off so many years ago! Women who were considered the home maker, caring for the children, cooking and keeping the home a family place, are now a real part of today's total work force in every state in the United States. So Labor Day is celebrated in a family way, but with so many people without jobs, the celebrations are not what they once were years ago.
     
    I do hope all of you members here and across the United States had a great four day weekend to celebrate! It also marks the official end of summer, swimming pools and beaches closing at sunset today.
     
    If you have a home pool please secure entry to it as children will try to use the pool without parental permission causing death in the family or another family in the neighborhood!
     
    For me, I must try to relieve more of my pains and get ready to rake leaves in my yard on my scooter! I suppose I'm the yardman now as the grass starts to change colors from green to brown. No, I'm not going to shovel any snow come winter!
  4. fking
    I haven't blogged in a few days and I'm just marking time right now being released from a 2 day stay at the hospital for observations! I'm still a happy person just with a little more pains than usual. That hurts! My wife is ready to put me to work on her computer. I bought her a new one. The last one, a guy sold me, was no good. An update detected that it was not registered for the program it had installed on it! Ain't that something? I had never noticed!
     
    I gotta wait until Saturday for a fellow I know and trust to come over and get it set up properly. These new machines with window 7 home edition doesn't have Microsoft outlook installed. A bunch of downloading have to be done to get window live mail or something like that! So, I will wait cause shops around here want 90 dollars an hour to come to your home. That's crazy to me!
     
    So, you see, I'm just keeping time and trying to save money and keep a happy wife too! I can't win!! Med time, I must sign out and rest a bit now!
  5. fking
    Hi to all,
     
    I been thinking!, I read a book, and now, I really believe I can and all of us can get better from the lowest struggle to the highest stroke survivor, in terms of how we are, what we are, and how the stroke affected our minds and bodies! Sure, we got struggle ahead of us, but it can happen that one day we can walk, talk, see, think, and recover with use of our bodies much more than we can at this moment in time!
     
    We have to believe we can, yes, we have to work at it, both, physically and mentally! By that I mean we are living now and surely we can live better when we be more positive that we can do anything with a positive attitude!
     
    I'm bad about saying, "I can't", "I don't" which is negative! "I can, I will, I do and I will is positive thinking. We all have the potential and success is our way out with the opportunity to heal way beyond where we are now in our recovery process!! I honestly believe that fact. Think about it, we are living now and enjoying what we have and can do mentally and physically too!
     
    Why not acquire the positive attitude and say, I can walk...not fast, not very far but can walk?? I always said I can't walk far, good or at all, which is what I always negatively say in describing how I walk! I'm changing my attitude and my words out of my mouth to be ALL positive and believe I can! Otherwise we hinder ourselves in our progress and success outcome of our strokes.
     
    When we do that, we get depressed, we think more negatively, we feel the world is against us in getting better in our recovery! When, all along it's us that is speaking negative in what we can do. Yet, we say we have a positive attitude...Guess what? We don't!
     
    So come on...Get on board with me, let's ride the Positive train to better health, a better life and live it like no tomorrow!! When I think back over 6 years ago, I was in a WC, I Could make a few steps walking with the chair right behind me...Today, I can walk, drive my car, feed myself and shower!
     
    Granted, we all had different strokes with limitations different from each other even with the same kind of stroke. It affected different parts of the brain. So, sometimes we feel we can't, when in fact we CAN, we just didn't try it yet!! You agree? So, after we try, we say, wow, I didn't know I could do this or that? That's success we made and can get even farther in our MINDS, just think positive! It happens, that's progress, small or large, it's moving forward in our gold to get BETTER!
     
    Look! Strong positive convictions precede good actions in our recovery every time! Real winners keep on winning while the negative attitudes always lose ground and are left behind! Time flies by fast, don't wait, get on board with your recovery. Every step, small or big is progress forward! People don't fail so much, but they just give up easily! Probably why we see that phrase here so often, "Don't give up", never quit trying to be better, be healthier and live longer!
     
    Believe you can, have faith, it can happen, you want to live a long time and do most of the things you've done most of your life! OK, like anything else, this may not apply to every stroke survivor for many reasons and their conditions of the stroke but they can be positive they can get better and live a happy life with their loved ones by their sides!
     
    When God is first in your life things are always better. If He brings you to it, He will get you through it! You can succeed better in a positive mind set and while helping others. Decisions you make to get better and farther away from where you are now is a positive reality. Failures run on negative thinking and words out of your mouth, plus indecision's in knowing what you want to achieve in life! BE POSITIVE PLEASE!
     
    Today was Friday the 13th, So...did you get hurt in any way? Did you think you would?? Are you still here? OK once again, I think you get the idea! Positive thinking and doing out weigh negative thinking and doing any day or night, so just believe you can! You will! I will! We will all do it together! Just look back at where you came from! THIS IS YOUR LIFE!
     
    I just found out you have to click Enable emoticons at the bottom of the page in Blogs!!! :happydance: :big_grin: I'm learning everyday, that's positive!
  6. fking
    Our weather people on every TV channel in our viewing area says we got at least 5 days of triple digit heat starting this week end! So far we been blessed, only two days so far of a hundred or more. We have had 20 and more consecutive days of 100 and more in years past. It's unbearable and the electric bill will be sky high. I hope we all make it through without any deaths of heat exhaustion!
     
    The elderly really has to be cared for and checked on daily. Most of them are home alone except for a pet or two. Their kids are grown and gone but I pray they take the time to call home and check in on them. I ride my scooter in the neighborhood to the houses of the ones I know about.
     
    The other factor people tend to ignore is the skin exposure to the sun for too long a period of time. That causes much skin damage and cancers. Go ahead, get your tans but be sensible about it.
     
    Many of the home gardens will not survive this kind of heat, so be prepared to pay bigger city water bill too!
     
    The neighborhood watch program is in full swing and the police do regular patrols too. If any of you are able to get about in your community, check on the elderly please cause I think it's gonna be pretty hot all across the USA. Definitely here in central Texas!
     
    If it's very hot in your hometown or where you live, just be careful and play it safely, stay indoors in the A/C or go to the big grocery stores or the malls and soak up a bit of their A/C and some fresh fruits too!
     
    I plan on doing just that on some of those hot, hot days!
  7. fking
    Happiness is what life is all about in my book. I think God wanted us to be happy people. He gave man a companion and said he cannot live by bread alone. We will have sad times, bumps in the road, down times, hard times but they should work to make us even stronger people!
     
    I'm so happy I have the companion I have now and a second chance to live more life on earth after this stroke, I just don't know how to express myself. I wish no one ever has to be depressed in a life time, especially with medical problems. But, we are all here as a result of medical problems so depression goes along the same road to recovery.
     
    The more we strive to cast off depression, take medications and have a strong belief that life will one day be happy again we will be looking forward to the trip. I'm in that mode now, the happiest I've been in my whole life. Sure, I can't physically do many things I once did but that doesn't dampen my happiness to live the best life I can worry free and depression free.
     
    I read the comments of members that say how depressed they are now but are alive and doing pretty good! I guess my thing is to not look back at what should have or could have been. It wasn't, and that's that, I don't get bogged down in thinking what I am not, but what I am and my happiness that follows my life now!
     
    The new me and all that goes or comes with that fact is what I pray about and think about daily! I feel that keeps me from having negative thoughts I can't control anyway. Negative thoughts and thinking can bring about depressions in a life. I feel positive thoughts and actions will bring about happiness in our lives!
     
    I just wanted to mention that to the membership of how I cope with life now. You read where I'm just happy to be alive, and I truly am! I don't worry about tomorrow, it's not promised, just the promised land! One day we will all go there! Thank all of you wishing me a happy birthday, it felt great to make it to 69. BTW, if any of you feel the need to contact me, please do so. Send me an email, I'll gladly give you my cell number so we can converse. Some of you already got it and you got my approval to give it to other members!
     
    I just want many of us to be Happy all the time! The others...Most of the time with no depressions, OK? :big_grin: :big_grin:
  8. fking
    Tuesday July 22, 1941 President/VP Franklin D. Roosevelt/Henry A. Wallace
     
    Freddie King Birthstone – Ruby Birth Sign – Cancer
     
     
    Events of the month:
     
    In the United States, President Roosevelt nationalized the Filipino army under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Roosevelt also appoints William Donovan as the leader of the new Office of Strategic Services (OSS)…Later the CIA. The German army receives little resistance from the Soviet soldiers. The German forces push easily through the Eastern Front and are on the verge of seizing the city of Novgorod. Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler announce plans to divide Yugoslavia and establish an independent Croatia.
     
    The Year’s Sports Highlights:
     
    In baseball, the New York Yankees take the World Series in five games over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Stanford defeats Nebraska, 21-13, in the Rose Bowl and the Chicago Bears beat New York, 37-9 in the NFL playoffs. Also this year, Whirlaway, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, wins the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown.
     
    Five-year heavyweight champion Joe Louis beats Buddy Baer in the seventh round on a disqualification. Craig Wood wins golf’s U.S. Open with a score of 284.
     
    Then vs. Now Cost of Living Comparisons
     
    1941 2010
    Gallon of Milk $.34 3.87
    Loaf of Bread $.08 1.40
    New Auto $925.00 24,125.00
    Gallon of Gas $.15 3.86
    New Home $6,954.00 183,300.00
    Average Income $1,231.00 34,327.44
    Dow Jones $110.96 8,635.42
     
    Popular Music:
     
    Back in 1941, the popular songs were:”Amapola” performed by Jimmy Dorsey; “Chattanooga Choo Choo by Glenn Miller.
     
    And of course we can’t forget Pearl Harbor in 1941.
     
    Least but not last, I was born July 22, 1941, the eighteenth child to a 43 year old mom!
     
    Happy birthday to me, I guess I’ve come a long way baby!
  9. fking
    We as people got to believe we can do or accomplish something without saying, "I can't or I won't or it's not possible in my case!" We have to T- R- Y, success will come with will power and determination. Two months ago I said I probably would not walk again without a cane. With proper therapy now, I'm walking without a cane!
     
    This is only the beginning, you must have faith in yourself first then in who is leading the way in your recovery. In my case I put God first, but in all cases you got to want to be better, it's not hard with the technology these days. Therapy has made great strides in just the last few years in their training and how they teach us to get better.
     
    Years ago people with strokes and other injuries stayed indoors, mostly out of sight and we didn't have then the equipment for the handicap we have today. I think back then it was a cane or crutches. Today we have adjustable canes, walkers with wheels and a seat, power chairs, scooters and means to adapt our cars so we can drive again!
     
    The side walks, doorways, restrooms and other places we need to go do business is handicap accessible for the most part. Especially the doors to buildings, offices and many places we conduct our business has a touch door opener, we just walk or ride right on in and conduct our business. No one is needed to help us in many cases.
     
    We must get the will to help ourselves, get up and get out the house! I'm so happy I can do what I do and I believe others can too! Staying young at heart and in mind, try everything twice, don't give up so easily, it probably can be done by you! Grouches can pull you down, keep only cheerful friends, enjoy the simple things like going to the mall, shopping, eating out, take in a movie and make time for you!
     
    Keep learning, about computer, crafts, gardening or what ever suits your fancy. Laugh often, long and loud cause you are alive thank God so live a little. Sure, tears happen, endure, grieve, and move on, it's not the end. Live while you are alive. I celebrate life and my second chance, I'm not letting it slip away! Do what you love, make love, surround yourself with what you love. For me God is in my life, I enjoy going to church each Sunday!
     
    If you have family, pets, keepsakes, hobbies, gardens or what ever, do what you like. Take care of you, cherish your health and what we got left after our strokes. Try to improve all the time, if it's beyond what you can improve, get the help you need. Don't take guilt trips, but do go to the stores, malls and explore! At times we tell ourselves we are shut in or can't do but never tried.
     
    Tell the people you love that you love them at every opportunity. Forgive those who made you cry or sad or gave you wrong information. It happens all the time cause they think they know but really don't. So, you lose time based on their false information and lost time can never be found or made up. Many time they want you to make the decision for them and blame you if things go wrong! Always be kind, everyone needs a friend they can trust.
     
    Remember, you can always trust God, He will never leave you nor forsake you and he's with you even until the end! I been wanting to write this since my therapist started me walking without my cane! I'm happy! I want everybody else to be happy too!
  10. fking

    DADDY'S EMPTY CHAIR

    By fking,

    DADDY'S EMPTY CHAIR
     
    A man's daughter had asked the local minister
     
    to come and pray with her father.
    When the minister arrived,
    he found the man lying in bed with his head
    propped up on two pillows.
     
    An empty chair sat beside his bed.
    The minister assumed that the old fellow
    had been informed of his visit.
    'I guess you were expecting me, he said.
     
    'No, who are you?' said the father.
    The minister told him his name and then remarked,
    'I saw the empty chair and I figured you knew
    I was going to show up.'
     
    'Oh yeah, the chair,' said the bedridden man.
    'Would you mind closing the door?'
    Puzzled, the minister shut the door.
    'I have never told anyone this,
    not even my daughter,' said the man.
     
    'But all of my life I have never
    known how to pray.
    At church I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer,
    but it went right over my head.'
     
    I abandoned any attempt at prayer,'
    the old man continued, '
    until one day four years ago, my best friend said to me,
    'Johnny, prayer is just a simple matter
    of having a conversation with Jesus.
    Here is what I suggest.
    'Sit down in a chair;
    place an empty chair in front of you,
    and in faith see Jesus on the chair.
     
    It's not spooky because he promised,
    'I will be with you always'.
    'Then just speak to him in the same way
    you're doing with me right now.'
     
    'So, I tried it and I've liked it so much
    that I do it a couple of hours every day.
    I'm careful though . If my daughter saw me talking
    to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown
    or send me off to the funny farm.'
     
    The minister was deeply moved by the story and
    encouraged the old man to continue on the journey.
    Then he prayed with him, anointed him with oil,
    and returned to the church.
     
    Two nights later the daughter called
    to tell the minister that her daddy
    had died that afternoon.
    Did he die in peace?' he asked.
     
    Yes, when I left the house about two o'clock ,
    he called me over to his bedside,
    told me he loved me and kissed me on the cheek.
    When I got back from the store an hour later,
    I found him .
     
    But there was something strange about his death.
    Apparently, just before Daddy died,
    he leaned over and rested his head on the chair
    beside the bed. What do you make of that?'
     
    The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said,
    'I wish we could all go like that.'
     
    Just remember God loves all of us, He knows our
    physical conditions, and He knows who we are!
     
    Prayer is one of the best free gifts we receive.
     
    I asked God for water, He gave me an ocean.*
    I asked God for a flower, He gave me a garden.*
    I asked God for a friend, He gave me all of YOU...
    If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it.
     
    Happy moments, praise God.
    Difficult moments, seek God.
    Quiet moments, worship God
    Painful moments, trust God.
    Every moment, thank God.
     
    I love all of you too and you are in my prayers
    for a better tomorrow...Fred! :friends:
  11. fking
    Well, that time of year is here and I think this summer will be like the coldest winter with snow many states had in a long time. The heat will be excessive for a few weeks and the warnings are out on each TV channel about staying cool and hydrated.
     
    Watch out for the elderly too, check on them you know of who's kids may be out of state and they really have no one to see after them. I've cot a couple elderly neighbors who are here taking care of grand kids while the military parents are serving overseas in the war.
     
    A few of the electric companies have announces they WILL NOT cut off power to those folks, some requiring power to run equipment they need to stay alive. I was so glad to hear that announcement!
     
    Also check on your pets making sure they got coverage, shade, water and food. My next door neighbor is putting ice cubes in his dog's water bowl many times a day! So, I pray we all make it through this heated summer while it set records for heat this year.
     
    If nothing else, go to the mall or walmart to stay cool. Don't sit there with a window fan trying to stay cool enough, if nothing else go to a neighbor's house if you don't have a/c! Don't kill yourself, there are too many ways to stay cool in this heat wave!
     
    Don't be hard headed, heed the heat warnings you all! :BashHead: :Beer-Chug: :Nodding: :kicking: :oops: it's HOT!
  12. fking

    "SOON TO BE GONE"

    By fking,

    This may bring tears to your eyes. The sad part is that it is true.
     
    This is well worth the read.
     
     
     
    "SOON TO BE GONE"
     
    By Capt. Steven Ellison, MD
    A MILITARY DOCTOR
     
     
    This should be required reading in every school and college in our country. This Captain, an Army doctor, deserves a medal himself for putting this together. If you choose not to pass it on, fine, but I think you will want to, after you read it.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I am a doctor specializing in the Emergency Departments of the only two military Level One-Trauma Centers, both in San Antonio , TX and they care for civilian Emergencies as well as military personnel. San Antonio has the largest military retiree population in the world living here. As a military doctor, I work long hours and the pay is less than glamorous. One tends to become jaded by the long hours, lack of sleep, food, family contact and the endless parade of human suffering passing before you. The arrival of another ambulance does not mean more pay, only more work. Most often, it is a victim from a motor vehicle crash.
     
     
     
     
    Often it is a person of dubious character who has been shot or stabbed. With our large military retiree population, it is often a nursing home patient. Even with my enlisted service and minimal combat experience in Panama , I have caught myself groaning when the ambulance brought in yet another sick, elderly person from one of the local retirement centers that cater to military retirees. I had not stopped to think of what citizens of this age group represented.
     
     
     
     
    I saw 'Saving Private Ryan'. I was touched deeply. Not so much by the carnage, but by the sacrifices of so many. I was touched most by the scene of the elderly survivor at the graveside, asking his wife if he'd been a good man. I realized that I had seen these same men and women coming through my Emergency Dept. and had not realized what magnificent sacrifices they had made. The things they did for me and everyone else that has lived on this planet since the end of that conflict are priceless.
     
     
     
     
     
    Situation permitting, I now try to ask my patients about their experiences. They would never bring up the subject without the inquiry. I have been privileged to an amazing array of experiences, recounted in the brief minutes allowed in an Emergency Dept. encounter. These experiences have revealed the incredible individuals I have had the honor of serving in a medical capacity, many on their last admission to the hospital.
     
     
     
     
    There was a frail, elderly woman who reassured my young enlisted medic, trying to start an IV line in her arm. She remained calm and poised, despite her illness and the multiple needle-sticks into her fragile veins. She was what we call a 'hard stick.' As the medic made another attempt, I noticed a number tattooed across her forearm. I touched it with one finger and looked into her eyes. She simply said, ' Auschwitz '. Many of later generations would have loudly and openly berated the young medic in his many attempts. How different was the response from this person who'd seen unspeakable suffering.
     
     
     
     
    Also, there was this long retired Colonel, who as a young officer had parachuted from his burning plane over a Pacific Island held by the Japanese. Now an octogenarian, he had a minor cut on his head from a fall at his home where he lived alone. His CT scan and suturing had been delayed until after midnight by the usual parade of high priority ambulance patients. Still spry for his age, he asked to use the phone to call a taxi, to take him home, then he realized his ambulance had brought him without his wallet. He asked if he could use the phone to make a long distance call to his daughter who lived 7 miles away. With great pride we told him that he could not, as he'd done enough for his country and the least we could do was get him a taxi home, even if we had to pay for it ourselves. My only regret was that my shift wouldn't end for several hours, and I couldn't drive him myself.
     
     
     
     
    I was there the night M/Sgt Roy Benavidez came through the Emergency Dept. for the last time. He was very sick. I was not the doctor taking care of him, but I walked to his bedside and took his hand. I said nothing. He was so sick, he didn't know I was there. I'd read his Congressional Medal of Honor citation and wanted to shake his hand. He died a few days later.
     
     
     
    The gentleman who served with Merrill's Marauders,
     
     
     
    The survivor of the Bataan Death March,
     
     
     
    The survivor of Omaha Beach .
     
     
     
    The 101 year old World War I veteran.
     
     
    The former POW held in frozen North Korea ..
     
     
     
    The former Special Forces medic - now with non-operable liver cancer.
     
     
    The former Viet Nam Corps Commander.
     
     
    I remember these citizens and
     
     
     
    still groan when yet another ambulance comes in, but now I am much more aware of what an honor it is to serve these particular men and women.
     
     
     
    I have seen a Congress who would turn their back on these individuals who've sacrificed so much to protect our liberty. I see later generations that seem to be totally engrossed in abusing these same liberties, won with such sacrifice.
     
     
     
     
    It has become my personal endeavor to make the nurses and young enlisted medics aware of these amazing individuals when I encounter them in our Emergency Dept. Their response to these particular citizens has made me think that perhaps all is not lost in the next generation.
     
     
     
     
     
    My experiences have solidified my belief that we are losing an incredible generation, and this nation knows not what it is losing. Our uncaring government and ungrateful civilian populace should all take note.
     
    We should all remember that we must 'Earn this'.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    written By CAPT. Stephen R. Ellison, M.D. US Army
     
    If it weren't for the United States Military, there'd be NO United States of America !
     
     
     
    This was sent to me today. Thought I would pass it on to a broad community who deals with survival and care giving on many levels, even death.
     
    Then, I just got my 100% disability after many, many years of waiting patiently, so this is very dear to my heart after returning from Vietnam with wounds and my life.
     
    It hurts me to see women soldiers return from the war without a hand or arm to hold their baby child or hug their older kids. You can read about it, but that's nothing like being here at Ft Hood at the hospital and seeing it with your own eyes, thinking how lucky and blessed I was to return to my family with a minor wound.
     
    The other fact and reality is there will be war until Jesus comes back again!
  13. fking
    Well, I'm still in the process of learning to use the features we have now. It's not easy for me as I hate to start clicking and pressing buttons. I just tried to use sizes, fonts, and other features to no avail.
     
    I would think when I click on the arrow in the box for sizes, it would drop down and give me choices. Well it didn't, maybe I was suppose to double click?? I even clicked on the sign that says, Insert ink, since my writing seems to be very light.
     
    The only thing I got to work was the yellow icons. I clicked on spell check, it wasn't detected and said go to download, so I hit cancel. There is no telling what I would have downloaded!
     
    I'm glad that when I put the arrow on an item it says what it is, not how to use it. I see some members have figured it out, that's great. I just got my laptop back today for 108.00. Windows had to be reloaded and some other things done.
     
    Now, I be typing on it and look up to see what's happening, it's double typing somehow.
    They told me to bring it back tomorrow and show them what I'm doing and what the computer is doing. In fact I started to post a reply on here but had to stop and get on my desk top.
     
    Now, my pointer arrow goes into a hand with the finger pointing, I click and nothing happens!
     
    I guess I have a question?... When I click on Sizes, Fonts or anything on the line below that, why don't I get something to show, change or something happen???
     
     
    Now, I just noticed above it says, This website wants to run the following add-on; 'ieSpell Core Module' from Red Egg Software. I don't know that site so I X'ed out.
    OH well, one day I'll know all about the computer, by then all we'll have is ipads!
  14. fking
    Well folks I'm still in PT, today being my last session on this referral and approval by Medicare. My therapist tells me I will get another session which is about 9 appointments. That should take care of July, by then she tells me I will be walking without my cane.
     
    So, now I'm looking forward to be dancing with my wife by my birthday! And you all thought an old man can't dance! I was light on my feet and fast too before this stroke, thus, the name, Fast Freddie! Of course, my wife is the star dancer in the family. She has been limited to Praise dance in the Church since my stroke.
     
    I am walking much better now and without the cane in therapy and some at home. The main thing I discovered is the weak leg looses it's muscle strength and need an exercise to build it back up. That is what has happened in my case.
     
    I don't even need the raised seat on the commode now. I can sit in a regular chair and get up without help, so it was all in the leg that needed strengthening again. I'm so happy!
     
    So, now the heat, triple digits, are here and I took my car to the shop to get the A/C fixed, it had stopped blowing out. The doors under the dash wouldn't open up to direct air in the directions you choose with the dial. I'm getting a brake job too while it's there.
     
    I hope my very next Blog is about me walking without my cane, a day I thought would never come. So until then I'm watching baseball and lining up my "member meeting member" trip all the way to Florida, Alabama, Georgia and over to visit members in N.C. real soon.
     
    We are sorta waiting to see how my wife's mom is doing in New Orleans, she is in and out of the hospital daily and asking for her daughter Marion. So we could be going there real soon if we get the word to "come now!" She is 83 on dialyses three times a week and weigh about 110 pounds.
  15. fking
    Well, my PT is coming along or maybe it's going good and I got three more sessions. It's not a whole lot I can do to start with but she thinks I will be walking without a cane soon. My mind (what I got left) is not comprehending that statement she made. So for now I don't even think about walking without a cane. My knees are so bad with arthritis, it takes all I can to stand up and walk with a cane, much less with it.
     
    When you have a stroke and one side is weak, the nerves, the muscles and the mind, then already have a crippling factor like arthritis, it's a load to deal with for anyone older like me. This degenerative arthritis has been with me for 40 years are more. My Army profile was no walking, marching, standing, stooping, crawling and no formations standing in the sunshine because of high blood pressure.
     
    Sure enough, that pressure busted a vessel in my head in 2004 and here I am, unable to live a normal life without a scooter to get about for any distances over 30 feet. That limits where you can go, when and how often you go. Normal functions are out. And there are still so many places not handicap ready for a scooter. All they have is stairs or steps.
     
    Somebody invite you to their home, they live upstairs, second floor of the building with an outside entry way up. I can't leave the scooter downstairs, it'll be gone in 60 seconds at an apartment building complex. Some of our friends live in a home with steps from the street to the yard, their garage is on the lower level of a split level home with more steps.
     
    Long story short, I hope I am walking without a cane but in case I do not, I'm not getting my feathers all bent out of shape. I'm going on seven years now and thought from the beginning I would be walking soon, but now I don't think that's the case. I'm not complaining, but should it be that way, I can operate okay like I am. I often think if I was able to walk, go places and do things, I may end up in the wrong place at the right time and could get hurt for life or worse, lose my life!
     
    I sure don't know how many more sessions Medicare will approve for my therapy after this first one is completed. She seem to think her report will get me more sessions approved. At this point, I sure hope so. You can never get too much therapy in my mind, cause there is no time limit on getting better from a stroke. Recovery never stops!
     
    Well, the weather here is very hot and humid, you sweat indoors under the A/C and we haven't had a triple digit yet, but any day we expect them to arrive in our area of Texas. When they come, they don't know how to stop or take a break. We've had 21 day in a row of 100 and better in past years. That's brutal on stroke survivors for sure.
     
    Another side of my life has finally been approved...The VA approved my 100% disability, but I still got more items to get approved that they are working on slowly. I'm just going to keep on keeping on and take one day at a time. That's all any of us can do anyway! It would be nice if I could go to Florida to visit some of our members as I had planned for this summer. Right now those plans are on hold.
     
    There are quite a few members between Texas and Florida, not to mention NC and SC being so close to Florida. See, I'd be a traveling Dude and walking without a cane too!!!!
     
    I'm calling this, "making a little headway." I just gotta keep living safely!
  16. fking
    Here in Central Texas we are known to have days over 100 degrees, the bad part is they come in bunches, like 21 days and more each Summer. While we placed flags on graves yesterday, it felt like over a hundred but it was not. Many folks keep applying sun tan lotions, I'm naturally tanned from birth, so I stuck it out until the job was done.
     
    We all thought about the hot sun in Iraq and Afghanistan they endured when their lives were lost, so we did our best putting out the flags to Memorialize them on their Day. Some of you probably noticed I was not on the message board for a couple days, that was why I was a no show here.
     
    Like I said many times, in a town like ours where soldiers are the product, a Military Town, everything is about the soldiers, men and women. We have our share of Veterans too, somehow we seem to accept this town as our home after active duty has ended. That makes the big trade here be Real Estate and many homes are build every day to meet demands. Second to that is Automobiles, all kinds. If you are military, active or retired, you can get a house or a car with the worse of credit.
     
    Right now there are so many cars on the road with Dealer plates, Paper Tags it's not funny. We finally had to go from 6 digits to 7 digits on the car plates for Texas. I thought that would never happen. All our wide open fields and areas are now sub divisions filled with homes in every price range. We are a growing city on the move.
     
    Some say they stayed here because of the National cemetery where they can be laid to rest as Veterans along side their kids who were killed in Iraq.
     
    And of course the spouses will be laid to rest too, all free of charge. I really just realized this fact yesterday while out at the cemetery placing flags. Headstone markers for the soldiers and veterans are also free of charge. If you are a 100% disability from the VA, you pay no property tax, your driving licenses is free, so is a hunting/fishing permit. That is true in all 50 states but some just prefer to stay in this city than go back home.
     
    Well, I hope I didn't bore you about Texas, but should you choose, come on down, we'll be glad to have you as neighbors.
    See, then you can get the bumper sticker, It says, "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could." It's a good looking sticker too!
  17. fking

    A Happy Memorial Day

    By fking,

    I do hope all will have a good Memorial holiday coming. Say a prayer in memory of those gun down right here at Ft. Hood last November while preparing to go to war. Then all the veterans and current serving servicemen and women all around the world.
     
    Being here at an Army base on Memorial Day brings so much sadness when you see the young wives, husbands and little kiddos standing there holding the American flags without both parents trying to see the parade and festivities planned each year. We have a National Cemetery here and funerals almost daily. I really don't see how I'm coping. I guess, trying to be strong for the younger troops.
     
    Life does go on and time waits for no one. Being a survivor of a stroke is not easy being here. We don't have any great plans for going out anyplace, just stay home, BBQ and give thanks!
     
    Have a great time everybody!
     
    Added 28May, for Memorial Day 31 May 2010!
     
    We tend to forget the women soldiers of each military service, even from years ago, when they were not in combat roles. However all the military services have women soldiers in combat roles one way or another. As with any war, they are being killed right along side the men.
     
    So let's not forget their services to our country and the young kids they leave behind as a result of their services in the military. Like I said, you have to be near a military post to fully understand the memorial significance unless you have lost a daughter in the services.
     
    There will be several parades in their honor right here at Ft. Hood. We can't seem to move pass the incident back in November last year where lives were lost. They are trying to get the memorial in place recognizing them for their service while losing their lives right here at home not a war zone.
     
    I'm proud to be a veteran of a foreign war and made it back alive. But going to the VA medical facility almost daily lately and seeing my comrade who lost legs, arms and some nearly burned up in an explosion or roadside bomb makes me know I was blessed to have made it back to a free country, home of the brave.
     
    So, it's fitting for all of us to salute the service personnel this Memorial Day and say a little pray. We all gave some, some gave all! Peace to all!
  18. fking

    The Whole Story

    By fking,

    This is a wonderful piece by Michael Gartner, editor of newspapers large and small. In 1997, he won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. It is well worth reading, and a few good chuckles are guaranteed.
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     
    "It parallels my life pretty darn close and it was sent to me a while ago. It made me stand up and think, most people and families during that time in life suffered in ways we only know by being there during that time. Even today after the stroke in 2004, I had the idea I just wanted to live like my parents did. They had nothing but each other in good times and not so good times."
    **********************************************************************************************
    The Story by Michael Gartner, Follows xxxx
     
    My father never drove a car. Well, that's not quite right. I should say I never saw him drive a car.
     
    He quit driving in 1927, when he was 25 years old, and the last car he drove was a 1926 Whippet.
     
    "In those days," he told me when he was in his 90s, "to drive a car you had to do things with your hands, and do things with your feet, and look every which way, and I decided you could walk through life and enjoy it or drive through life and miss it."
     
    At which point my mother, a sometimes salty Irishwoman, chimed in: "Oh, bull----! she said. "He hit a horse."
     
    "Well," my father said, "there was that, too."
     
    So my brother and I grew up in a household without a car. The neighbors all had cars -- the Kollingse's next door had a green 1941 Dodge, the Van Laningham's across the street a gray 1936 Plymouth, the Hopson's two doors down a black 1941 Ford -- but we had none.
     
    My father, a newspaperman in Des Moines , would take the streetcar to work and, often as not, walk the 3 miles home. If he took the streetcar home, my mother and brother and I would walk the three blocks to the streetcar stop, meet him and walk home together.
     
    My brother, David, was born in 1935, and I was born in 1938, and sometimes, at dinner, we'd ask how come all the neighbors had cars but we had none. "No one in the family drives," my mother would explain, and that was that.
     
    But, sometimes, my father would say, "But as soon as one of you boys turns 16, we'll get one." It was as if he wasn't sure which one of us would turn 16 first.
     
    But, sure enough, my brother turned 16 before I did, so in 1951 my parents bought a used 1950 Chevrolet from a friend who ran the parts department at a Chevy dealership downtown..
     
    It was a four-door, white model, stick shift, fender skirts, loaded with everything, and, since my parents didn't drive, it more or less became my brother's car. Having a car but not being able to drive didn't bother my father, but it didn't make sense to my mother.
     
    So in 1952, when she was 43 years old, she asked a friend to teach her to drive. She learned in a nearby cemetery, the place where I learned to drive the following year and where, a generation later, I took my two sons to practice driving. The cemetery probably was my father's idea. "Who can your mother hurt in the cemetery?" I remember him saying more than once.
     
    For the next 45 years or so, until she was 90, my mother was the driver in the family. Neither she nor my father had any sense of direction, but he loaded up on maps -- though they seldom left the city limits -- and appointed himself navigator. It seemed to work.
     
    Still, they both continued to walk a lot. My mother was a devout Catholic, and my father an equally devout agnostic, an arrangement that didn't seem to bother either of them through their 75 years of marriage.
     
    (Yes, 75 years, and they were deeply in love the entire time.)
     
    He retired when he was 70, and nearly every morning for the next 20 years or so, he would walk with her the mile to St. Augustin's Church. She would walk down and sit in the front pew, and he would wait in the back until he saw which of the parish's two priests was on duty that morning. If it was the pastor, my father then would go out and take a 2-mile walk, meeting my mother at the end of the service and walking her home.
     
    If it was the assistant pastor, he'd take just a 1-mile walk and then head back to the church. He called the priests "Father Fast" and "Father Slow."
     
    After he retired, my father almost always accompanied my mother whenever she drove anywhere, even if he had no reason to go along. If she were going to the beauty parlor, he'd sit in the car and read, or go take a stroll or, if it was summer, have her keep the engine running so he could listen to the Cubs game on the radio. In the evening, then, when I'd stop by, he'd explain: "The Cubs lost again. The millionaire on second base made a bad throw to the millionaire on first base, so the multimillionaire on third base scored."
     
    If she were going to the grocery store, he would go along to carry the bags out -- and to make sure she loaded up on ice cream. As I said, he was always the navigator, and once, when he was 95 and she was 88 and still driving, he said to me, "Do you want to know the secret of a long life?"
     
    "I guess so," I said, knowing it probably would be something bizarre.
     
    "No left turns," he said.
     
    "What?" I asked.
     
    "No left turns," he repeated. "Several years ago, your mother and I read an article that said most accidents that old people are in happen when they turn left in front of oncoming traffic.
     
    As you get older, your eyesight worsens, and you can lose your depth perception, it said. So your mother and I decided never again to make a left turn."
     
    "What?" I said again.
     
    "No left turns," he said. "Think about it. Three rights are the same as a left, and that's a lot safer. So we always make three rights."
     
    "You're kidding!" I said, and I turned to my mother for support. "No," she said, "your father is right. We make three rights. It works." But then she added: "Except when your father loses count."
     
    I was driving at the time, and I almost drove off the road as I started laughing.
     
    "Loses count?" I asked.
     
    "Yes," my father admitted, "that sometimes happens. But it's not a problem. You just make seven rights, and you're okay again."
     
    I couldn't resist. "Do you ever go for 11?" I asked.
     
    "No," he said " If we miss it at seven, we just come home and call it a bad day. Besides, nothing in life is so important it can't be put off another day or another week."
    My mother was never in an accident, but one evening she handed me her car keys and said she had decided to quit driving. That was in 1999, when she was 90.
     
    She lived four more years, until 2003. My father died the next year, at 102.
     
    They both died in the bungalow they had moved into in 1937 and bought a few years later for $3,000. (Sixty years later, my brother and I paid $8,000 to have a shower put in the tiny bathroom -- the house had never had one. My father would have died then and there if he knew the shower cost nearly three times what he paid for the house.)
     
    He continued to walk daily -- he had me get him a treadmill when he was 101 because he was afraid he'd fall on the icy sidewalks but wanted to keep exercising -- and he was of sound mind and sound body until the moment he died.
     
    One September afternoon in 2004, he and my son went with me when I had to give a talk in a neighboring town, and it was clear to all three of us that he was wearing out, though we had the usual wide-ranging conversation about politics and newspapers and things in the news.
     
    A few weeks earlier, he had told my son, "You know, Mike, the first hundred years are a lot easier than the second hundred.." At one point in our drive that Saturday, he said, "You know, I'm probably not going to live much longer."
     
    "You're probably right," I said.
     
    "Why would you say that?" He countered, somewhat irritated.
     
    "Because you're 102 years old," I said..
     
    "Yes," he said, "you're right." He stayed in bed all the next day.
    That night, I suggested to my son and daughter that we sit up with him through the night.
     
    He appreciated it, he said, though at one point, apparently seeing us look gloomy, he said: "I would like to make an announcement. No one in this room is dead yet."
     
    An hour or so later, he spoke his last words: "I want you to know," he said, clearly and lucidly, "that I am in no pain. I am very comfortable. And I have had as happy a life as anyone on this earth could ever have."
     
    A short time later, he died.
     
    I miss him a lot, and I think about him a lot. I've wondered now and then how it was that my family and I were so lucky that he lived so long.
     
    I can't figure out if it was because he walked through life, or because he quit taking left turns."
     
    Life is too short to wake up with regrets.
    So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the one's who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a chance, take it & if it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would most likely be worth it."
    ENJOY LIFE NOW - IT HAS AN EXPIRATION DATE! End of the article>
     
    Many of you may remember me saying my mom was born in 1898 and my father 26 years before that. I guess he would have been in big trouble these days while he married my mom at 15 years old and him being 26 years older. As best I remember him he was a strong man, worked hard in the fields all his life. That's all he knew.
     
    No formal schooling or education, born in slavery, escaped, ran away to keep from being killed. Yet he fathered 18 kids with my mom of which 12 lived pass birth or a few months old. I'm the 18th and last child of theirs. I got to finish school and joined the Army. First and only one to graduate college. I got my chance to pick cotton and buy my first and only bicycle before I joined the Army in 1958.
     
    Sure, growing up I had chores, chopping wood for the cook stove, digging a hole for the BBQ pit and taking care of feeding my moms chickens plus gathering the eggs. For my father I dug up the potatoes, picked the greens, feed the hogs and helped can food on the back poach with my mom and sisters.
     
    We didn't have a car, just my bicycle so I made all the store runs for whatever was needed at the house. Everybody doing those years seemed to be dirt poor and farmers. Outhouses, #3 tub for bathing, wash pot in the back yard, ice box for your food. Milkman delivered the milk door to door if you were able to buy it. Yes, those were the days compared to this present time and people live now.
     
    Anyway, long ago came my dream was to "enjoy life no matter what," because one day we all got to go be with the Lord. I'm glad now I learned that cause I'm not depressed having a stroke, a little crazy, but that's from other causes.
  19. fking
    Dating back to the first century, Pentecost, or as it's called in some traditions Whitsunday, is the 50th day after Easter. In the Christian tradition we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church as our Counselor and Guide. The day of Pentecost also has roots back to the Jewish tradition as the feast of Weeks that honored the giving of the first fruits from the Spring harvest and was celebrated 50 days after Passover.
     
    Pentecost is a day of significance for more than the Pentecostals. It's a day on which all believers can celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.
     
    Again, I state that bit of history here today because we, as people need prayer and strong beliefs to say there is a Higher Power that can and does change the outcome of many things we can't control here on earth ourselves. We need help! That's why we ask for prayers, no matter your faith, to bring about relief in our situations as we deal with them as best we can.
     
    Now, in my beliefs in God, I feel where there is one or two gathered together, He is there also. I have faith in prayers, the more, the better. So my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you can depend on me as a prayer Warrior coming to your aide for your loved ones in need day and night. I feel you all will do the same thing for me. Most of all...We all need prayer to get us a safe journey on our road to recovery and a better life ahead!
     
    By all means, if you don't believe, no one can or will hold that against you, it's your right in a free world to worship as you choose or not to worship. How, where, whom and when is an individual choice we all have!
     
    I am in hopes you understand my concern for prayers and those in need! You pray for me, I pray for you! God answers prayers, I know.
  20. fking
    I started PT on the 19th for nine sessions, I go twice a week then get evaluated for success or failure to see if I need more. Medicare is paying so I don't know if any more will get their approval soon. I would like to get OT after this if they approve it.
     
    My concern this time around is how therapy has cut down on the time of each session. I get 40 minutes only. I remember times before I got one hour each session. Maybe this 40 minute thing is new by insurance rules or limitations. Seems like by the time I start, she is saying, "Your time is up." See you next week!
     
    I wonder if this is standard now or is it Medicare limits??? I hope to walk a bit better when I'm done. Right now I can't walk very far at all and certainly not without a cane. I'd like to stand up straight, shoulders back, not slumped over like I am now. Being able to pick my feet up, bend both knees and walk straight is my goal.
     
    That's hard to do with no brain connection to my left side, I have to see and think about it. She doesn't want me to look down, I'm so used to that until it is hard to stop doing that. Maybe I'll succeed when I'm finished! My weak leg seems to be so stiff all the time. I take Gabapentin and tramadol again since a long time ago when I had pain management training.
     
    Too much of that stuff constipates my system. I'm going on 7 years now, I do try to walk better and farther but it takes me a while to walk the length of two driveways on my street sidewalk and they are fairly close together.
     
    My friend Lenny got me wanting to kick it up a notch and walk farther, it's hard for me. At Walmart super centers, you know how big they are, I get a shopping cart in the garden center and walk all the way to the dairy section on the grocery side and back to garden center. That takes me 25 minutes.
     
    I got my scooter for serious shopping if needed, but if the parking area is not too far from the building, I always try to walk. It's hard for me to do.
     
    Well, I hope everyone else is kicking it up a notch and doing great in their recovery process.
  21. fking

    THE WOMAN

    By fking,

    The Woman, a tribute to all Mothers and Woman Hood, especially the caregivers and survivors here at stroke net. In my opinion, those are some of the greatest women I can ever imagine.
     
    When God created woman he was working late on the 6th day. An angel came by and said: "Why spend so much time on that one?" And the Lord answered: "Have you seen all the specifications I have to meet to shape her?" "She must be washable, but not made of plastic, have more than 200 moving parts which all must be replaceable and she must function on all kinds of food, she must be able to embrace several kids at the same time, give a hug that can heal anything from a bruised knee to a broken heart and she must do all of this with only two hands."
     
    The angel was impressed. "Just two hands...impossible!" And this is the standard model?! Too much work for one day...wait until tomorrow and then complete her." (can you imagine survivors here with just one working hand?)
     
    "I will not," said the Lord. "I am so close to completing this creation, which will be the favorite of my heart." She cures herself when sick and she can work 18 hours a day." The angel came nearer and touched the woman. "But you have made her so soft, Lord." She is soft," said the Lord, "But I have also made her strong. You can't imagine what she can endure and overcome."
     
    Can she think?" the angel asked. The Lord answered: "Not only can she think, she can reason and negotiate." The angel touched the woman's cheek..."Lord, it seems this creation is leaking! You have put too many burdens on her." She is not leaking...it's a tear" the Lord corrected the angel. What's it for?" asked the angel. And the Lord said: Tears are her way of expressing grief, her doubts, her love, her loneliness, her suffering and her pride."
     
    This made a big impression on the angel; "Lord, you are a genius. You thought of everything. The woman is indeed marvelous!" "Indeed she is!" said the Lord. Woman has strengths that amazes man. She can handle trouble and carry heavy burdens. She holds happiness, love and opinions. She smiles when feeling like screaming. She sings when she feels like crying, cries when she is happy and laughs when she is afraid. She cries when her kids are victorious.
     
    She is happy when her friends do well. She is glad when she hears of a birth or a wedding. She fights for what she believes in. Stands up against injustice. She doesn't take "no" for an answer, when she can see a better solution. She gives of herself so her family can thrive. She takes her friend to the doctor if she is afraid. Her love is unconditional. Her heart is broken when a next of kin or friend dies. But she finds the strength to get on with life.
     
    She knows that a kiss and a hug can heal a broken heart. There is only one thing wrong with her.
     
    SHE FORGETS WHAT SHE IS WORTH!!! And don't forget the women SURVIVORS here has just one good working hand and a very big heart. The women caregivers have an even bigger heart, lots of Patience and the will to do their very best for their loved ones!
     
    Share this with your women friends to remind them how fantastic they are. And to the men you know and love because sometimes they too need to be reminded!!
     
    My darling wife and care giver shared this with me just today. It made me care and love her for being the Woman the Lord created! Peace and love to ALL women on this Mother's Day 2010.
  22. fking
    You know, many of us here are not computer operators, by that I mean, we didn't grow up with computers. We had manual typewriters, if lucky enough we used an electric typewriter and we could type about 50 words a minute. Sitting here this morning wondering what the heck is wrong with my computer, I admit I am not computer smart. I am now convinced to operate this machine, you need a computer degree.
     
    Here is my life before the computer: Memory was something that you lost with age. An Application was for employment searches. A Program was a TV show. A Cursor used profanity every fourth word out of their mouth.
     
    A Keyboard was a Piano. A Web was a spider's home. A Browser was anyone just looking around. A Virus was the flu. A CD was a bank account saving item. A Mouse was a small rat. A Mouse Pad was where a mouse lived, usually in your walls and ceilings. A Hard Drive was a long trip on the road to grandma's house with the kids asking, "Are we there yet?"
     
    And, if you had a 3 1/2 inch Floppy...You just hope only your wife knew about it, not her friends!
     
    So, now you all know, if all my writing is the same size, color, nothing changes darker or different styles that I am not the computer smart generation like many of you. I applaud you all for having the knowledge. When I click too many times I have to call the repairman. None of them want to come to your house, they want you to bring it to them.
     
    How can a person weak on one side, get a computer downstairs, out the door into the car by himself? No way. So, I suppose I'm not the only one but it sure feels like it at times and that makes me ask the question, "How was life before the computer?" The life I know about, but here I am trying to compete in a computer world.
     
    Perhaps that is why I have to tell jokes, to keep from crying in my soup. At this present time it appears another life after computers in the home will be computers in your pocket like the cell phones are now. Then they will be built in the cars for our use besides the ones they already have to control the car engine operations and trips on the road.
     
    Chances are at my age now, I won't be around when that time is here. Can you imagine the price of cars and trucks when that time comes? OH well, we can say those were the good ole days.
  23. fking
    Another true story the media doesn't like to tell
     
    Communion on the Moon
     
    I love this. How many of you knew????? Too bad this type news doesn't travel as fast as bad news.
     
    Communion on the Moon: July 20th, 1969 (This is an article by Eric Metaxas)
     
    Forty years ago two human beings changed history by walking on the surface of the moon. But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, if only because so few people know about it. "I'm talking about the fact that Buzz Aldrin took communion on the surface of the moon. Some months after his return, he wrote about it in Guideposts magazine.
     
    And a few years ago I had the privilege of meeting him myself. I asked him about it and he confirmed the story to me, and I wrote about in my book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (But Were Afraid to Ask).
     
    The background to the story is that Aldrin was an elder at his Presbyterian Church in Texas during this period in his life, and knowing that he would soon be doing something unprecedented in human history, he felt he should mark the occasion somehow, and he asked his minister to help him. And so the minister consecrated a communion wafer and a small vial of communion wine. And Buzz Aldrin took them with him out of the Earth's orbit and on to the surface of the moon.
     
    He and Armstrong had only been on the lunar surface for a few minutes when Aldrin made the following public statement:
    "This is the LM pilot. I'd like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way." He then ended radio communication and there, on the silent surface of the moon, 250,000 miles from home, he read a verse from the Gospel of John, and he took communion. Here is his own account of what happened:
     
    "In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.. Apart from me you can do nothing.
     
    I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O'Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas I agreed reluctantly.
     
    I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.
     
    And of course, it's interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth and the moon - and Who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the "Love that moves the Sun and other stars."
     
    This was sent to me, very interesting for me to know, at the time of this happenings, I was deep in the jungles of Vietnam praying I would return alive, and bless my soul, I did just that. Wounded, but very much alive, even got the hospital of my choice on the West Coast, Letterman General Hospital, Presidio of San Francisco, CA.
     
    Just another reason I'm very thankful to be alive today and so into God.
     
     
     
     
     
     
  24. fking

    The Power Of Prayer

    By fking,

    We all have need for prayer, it's the power of prayer we ask in God's name just as Christ Jesus did so often. Every one here stands in the need of prayer. When asked, I pray with you and for your needs.
     
    Prayer
  25. fking

    No Gardening this Year

    By fking,

    Many of you know last year I did a brand new garden with my 5-year old grand daughter. Well, this year she has gotten over the excitement of putting a seed in the ground and watch it produce tomatoes, vegetables and flowers. She'll be 6 soon and her attention has turned to classroom stuff, writing, reading and playing music. She loves to hear Beyonce sing and dance. She did really good with her Easter speech in the school play, she wanted to do the Bunny rabbit dance too but they told her next year. She will get promoted to second grade this year. She's excited!
     
    I just finished taking the garden fence down. There were some green onions growing from last year, and some other things I forgot what they were. When the yardman comes this week, he will get it weeded out and ready for some sod grass to make it look like back yard again.
     
    Really, I was glad she didn't want to garden this year, easier on me. Most of her gardening tools, gloves, stool and knee pads are still like new. I did most if not all the work in the garden, can't do that this year, my body says no way Hosea! Even the birds are already back probably looking for the red tomatoes they ate so much of last year.
     
    So, to all you regular gardeners and flower growers, I wish you lots of success in everything you grow this year. After all that record snow in some parts of the country, this summer should be great for gardens. Just imagine, in a couple more months, it will be watermelon time. Most of us need to eat the fruits and veggies. No more strokes! :Nodding: :Starvin:
     
    I got one request!!!! If any of you have success at growing that upside down tomato in the hanging planter...Let me know? I got mine at Walmart last year, cheaper than on line, and they never did grow! Wasted my 9 dollars! I see on TV they are advertising them again this year already. Nobody around here had any luck growing them either. It may be a rip off? Let me know, OK?