Here Are Some Photos to Prove I’m Still Live and Kickin’

To set this up – last Sunday was my 71st birthday. Last Thursday was Grandson Ver 2.2’s 18th birthday. Today we needed brisket to celebrate. Granpa did one. And it was good. I used Zach’s Grilling Spices and Durkee’s Steak Dust for seasoning. Smoked with half oak and half hickory. This was my first hot and fast at about 350 for 7 hours. As opposed to my usual low and slow at about 225 for 10 hours of so. Anyway, food pron pics below. Raw on the smoker, smokin’, ready to wrap, unwrapped, some sliced, Grandson Ver 2.2 dishin’ up granpa’s brisket and potato salad and granma’s beans, and last Grandson Ver 2.2, my old self and Grandson Ver 2.1.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here’s wishing each and everyone who might happen upon this blog today a very happy day. Mrs Myron and I are about to set sail for number 2 son’s home. He has the turkey in the smoker and the potatoes mashed. Baby Boy and his family are on the way also. Baby D-I-L made the candied sweet taters using Mrs Myron’s recipe so we know they’ll be good. We made a couple pies and a cake. But the important thing is we will be with a couple of ours sons and their families. And for that we are thankful.

Back on Track to Get Rid of The Cataracts

Well, we found another good ophthalmologist. He was recommended by a friend. We went in last Monday for an exam. He said if we could get the files he would take a look and see if everything he liked to have was there. I tried to get the files but the late doctors office wasn’t answering the phone. So I just made us an appointment to start over with the new guy. See, they do some tricky measuring of your eyeball to get the lens right. The first appointment we could get was June 2.

Anyway, I got a call last Wednesday telling me they got the records and we needed one more measurement. The appointment was for today and surgery for the first eye is now scheduled for next Tuesday. We opted for the upgrade lens which hopefully will keep us from ever needing glasses again. It works for over 80% of the folks who get that lens. That sumbich better work. A pair of them cost more than our first new car. But that was a ‘62 Comet. I’ll let you know next week if it works. In the first eye, anyway.

Hug The Ones You Love ‘Cause You Never Know

Mrs Myron and I were scheduled for cataract surgery next week. I got a call yesterday from the doctor’s office. He was dead. They had no details but we now know he was found on the bottom of his pool yesterday morning after he failed to come to work. His office manager sent her husband to check on him and the man found him on the bottom of the pool in swim trunks. The poor fellow is disabled so he was unable to try to get the doctor out of the pool. The doctor was swimming as therapy for a bad back. The only known health problem and he was only 60. He was home alone because his wife was in Waco helping their son who had just had back surgery. Fate can be such a bitch.

So, give your loved ones a big hug every chance you get, live every day as a holiday, and have a feast for every meal because you never know when you’ll see the asshole in a black hooded robe carrying a scythe.

Son #2 Did His Civic Duty Last Week

I was conversing with Son #2 last night about this and that and his new HD tv. Mostly his new HD tv. Anyway, we were getting caught up about what happened in Kingwood and Pearland during the last week. Seems he had jury duty last week. He said he answered all the questions truthfully during voir dire but way down deep he hoped to get out. He didn’t and now he’s kinda glad. And disturbed.

See, it was a child porn collector. What made Son #2 happy was  giving the asshole 10 in and 20 probation and registration as a pervert. The state had his computer with all his porn, passwords to about 6 or 8 porn sites and slobber spots on the keyboard. I just added that last part. The perv, or his lawyer, more likely his lawyer, knew he was done so he pled. The jury’s job was to sentence him. And they had to watch some of the filth first. That’s the part that disturbed Son #2. He told me he’ll carry those images to the grave with him.

Well, they get to the jury room. First poll and Son #2 and all the women wanted to max the guy out. Some of the men wanted to give him shorter prison time. And there was one, always is isn’t there, that started talking about just probation. Son #2 asked him if he saw the same photos he had. The guy said yeah, but they’re just photos. Son #2 told him yeah, but they were kids. And they will suffer for that. They have been injured by that. The guy then said yeah, maybe. Son #2 then made it personal. What if it were your kids or grandkids. How would you feel about it? Oh, and did you see the son of a bitch move his chair when they started showing us the photos? He wanted to get a better view. One more good look before he goes away. I guess that did it because the guy came around. And now he pays the piper. Or pipers as it were. I hear the general population kinda frowns on pervs that use children in their perversions. I hope that ain’t just another innarw3bz myth.

Phone Numbers and Unwanted Calls

I know all of you have either received them or know someone who has. A friend just had their number changed because they got tired of giving the hours WalMart was open. Another friend got tired of asking if they wanted fries with that burger. Everyone you know has a telephone story about themselves, a relative, a good friend, etc. Well, here’s ours.

Way back in sittyawttree I was a highly paid, highly skilled chemical plant operator who enjoyed the benefits of rotating shift. Off during the middle of the week which made for great Christmas shopping. One 4 day weekend every month. The only weekend by the way. But it was a long one. Missing all the traffic because not many folks are going to work or coming home around 6 am, 3 pm or 11 pm. And spending the day with 3 (at the time) boys ranging from 2 to 5 years old. And trying to get enough sleep to make it through another graveyard shift that night. At least we only worked 7 of them and then rotated. Anyway, you get the picture.

Now we had 2 phones. One in the living room and one in the bedroom. And they were hardwired to the wall so I couldn’t unplug the bedroom one. I had to turn the ringydingythingy down. So, you can imagine how unhappy we would both get when an unwanted call came in. So, we asked for a new number and wanted it unlisted. Feeling good about that new unlisted number. Now I can sleep.

One afternoon Mrs Myron had taken the boys somewhere and I was sitting there reading the paper. Phone rang. A nice gentleman on the other end asked if I would like to subscribe to the Houston Chronicle. Told him “no thanks. I take it now. By the way, how’d you get this number’?” It’s right there in the phone book he says. Howard on Halifax Street. “Oh yeah. Thanks.” Damn phone company. Another Howard must have gotten tired of unsolicited calls.

I of course told Mrs Myron and we contemplated getting another number but decided to tough it out till that one cycled out of the books. I walked in one night off evening shift and she was grinnin’ like a Chessy. What’s up? “Guess what I did?” I have no idea, sweetie. “The phone rang and some guy wanted to sell us some aluminum siding. I told him it sounded like a good thing. He wanted to come show us and I told him sure, when? And then he asked for the address and I told him it’s in the book.” And he said on Halifax, right? and I said “that’s it.” I was so proud of her. She sent a tin man to try to sell aluminum siding to some unsuspecting folks in a brick house. Damn I love that girl!

Good News From Our Doctors

Down below I told you I had to take a 2 hour glucose tolerance test. Well, got the results back and Doc says not to worry. Guess I just had an overload of goodies the morning my glucose was high. See, I didn’t know there would be a blood test involved in trying to diagnose muscle tenderness so I wasn’t fasting. But it looks like I don’t have to worry about using that new bread machine after all. Hoo boy.

And we went to the cardio dude this week. Mrs Myron has to go annually because she has a bit of a murmur and a spot that shows up on the electrocardiogram.  But all was well with her. No change since last year. Me, I had my 50,000 mile nuclear stress test. And my ol’ pump is still going strong. Guess you’re gonna have to put up with me a while longer.

One of My Shih Tzus Scared the Crap Out of Us Again

Felix, the oldest had another seizure last night. This was his second. The first was about a year and a half ago. That one happened while the outside patcher uppers and painters were making all kinds of racket with power washers, nail guns, etc. The vet gave him Valium at that time. Well, last night it happened again.

Felix had been fidgety and restless most of the evening. Whining and whimpering for no apparent reason. A couple of times he came flying up into my lap and wouldn’t get down. But he would get up and walk a circle and lie back down. I had put them in their crate in the family room about 10:30 or so. Mrs Myron stayed up watching the TV box and I toddled off to bed. About 11:30 I awoke to the most blood-curdling howl I have ever heard. I jumped out of bed and went flying into the family room. Felix was on his side, back bowed, head back, legs straight out and howling. Poor little Ginger was at the back of the crate scared as she could be. I opened the crate and tried to get him out. He was stiff as a board. When I finally got him out, he had urinated on himself also. I let him lay on the floor awhile and then I lifted him up. He started walking around as I was talking to him and petting him and that little tail was curved up over his back and just wagging away.

I sat on the couch and he jumped up with me. But he was restless as all get out. Seemed like he couldn’t get comfortable. I took him to bed and the same thing was going on. He lay by me a moment, got up, got on Mrs Myron’s pillow, got off, sat between our pillows, got up and walked across me to the edge of the bed, etc. I got up again and called the emergency vet for our area.

The young lady said that the good thing was he survived with apparently all his faculties intact. She told me that it may take a while for him to return to normal behavior and the best thing I could do last night was put him in a quiet, dark place with minimal brain stimulation. So the crate went into the bedroom and the dogs went into the crate. He sat up for about 5 minutes or so and then lay down and went to sleep.

Seems pretty all right now. He’s whimpered and whined a few times this morning but he’s napping now.

I did a bit of on-line research on canine seizures this morning. One comforting thing I read was that the vocalizing is involuntary and not an indication of great pain as one would think upon hearing it. This could get interesting. Think I’ll go boil him some chicken and taters.

Ain’t She Sweet?

Please welcome our new granddaiughter Kristen Brianne who arrived on the scene this morning at 9:02. Can’t wait to get my grubby old paws on her. Our travels are somewhat limited now but we’ll probably get there this weekend. And Christmas. Granny’s got some spoilin’ to do. And Gramps too.

 Brother Kellen and sister Katherine are happy to have her in the family.

And that’s my baby boy Kelly holding his baby boy Kaden. And baby daughter in law Amy. She’s the only one in that family whose name doesn’t start with a K. Well, Kelly’s first name is actually Myron but Mrs Myron never liked it so he grew up as Kelly.

Don’t worry kids. Granny and gramps will be there soon.

Worried Mind

It’s been a few days since I posted anything, hasn’t it? Well, just to catch up real quick, Mrs Myron decorated the place for Christmas Saturday before Thanksgiving. Both local sons and families came over for turkey and Grandma wanted the little kids to see her house all ready for Santa. That’s because they probably won’t be back until after Christmas. Granddaughter #2 is due in about 3 weeks. Our 6 grandsons and nearly 2 granddaughters range in age from almost born up to 23. Hell of a spread, huh? And Granny’s really looking forward to having another little girl to spoil. After 4 sons and 6 grandsons she figures she’s due.

And Thanksgiving was great. Smoked turkey, ham, cornbread dressing, 4 different kinds of pie, candied yams, mashed taters, 4 different kinds of pie, and a couple of vegetables. Did I mention we had 4 different kinds of pie?

All of that is well and good. But to the title of this post. You know Mrs Myron has Parkinson’s. Well, the last few months her short term memory is giving her more and more problems. During the remodel, she hid some of her jewelry. And didn’t tell me where. And we almost never found it when the work was done and she wanted it back in the bedroom. And we are watching 2 month old reruns that she doesn’t remember seeing. But she remembers some old Eastenders that she saw several years ago. And almost daily now, I have to show her how to do some things with the Dish remote that she did with no effort a couple of years ago. The latest problem involves her cell phone. We got it last week because she gets in the go carts at Walmart and frequently when I tell her to wait right here I’ll be back in a minute when I return, she’s roaming around. But at least she will go to the service desk and ask them to page me. Anyway we thought if she had a phone I could just call her and ask which aisle she was on, you know?

Well, it’s a flip phone so I set it up so that she just has to open it up to answer. I called her on it yesterday while I was out just to see what happened. She never answered. When I got home, she told me she couldn’t figure out how to answer it. I put several of our family and neighbor numbers in it. I’ve had to show her every day how to turn it on, find a name, dial and then hang up. And how to answer it and then hang up. And then how to turn it off.

Mrs Myron is scheduled for a visit to her neuro in January. But given what’s going on I think I’ll probably get her an appointment with the Baylor College of Medicine Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Clinic here in Houston instead. It seems to me that her PD is well controlled but the memory thing is really beginning to bother me.

There are numerous causes of memory problems such as some meds, PD itself, and thyroid (she’s on meds for a thyroid deficiency) to just to name a few other than the big one we all worry about. Anyway, just needed to get that off my chest. I’ve talked to my sons about the problem also.