holy heck (nothing important, just random)

Wow.  Check this shot out.
http://sports.break.com/hole-in-one-golf-trick-basketball-shot
And he was using a four iron.  That's the impressive part-- that shot was clearly framed for a two iron.

I'm slowly learning that much of the public is composed of good people

Since I've been royally screwed over by people I thought were friends, I've been having a hard time the last few years believing that most people are basically good.  But I got a lesson in that today.


So I was at my gym this afternoon.  Yeah, big deal, I'm there 4 days a week.  Since I wanted to catch the 5:02 bus (class is 3:30-4:30), I was out at the bus stop by four forty-something.  And seeing as how the shade from the trees was way far back away from the road where the bus driver might not see me, I sat in the thin slice of shade provided by the street light wooden pole that the bus stop sign is attached to.  And to get in that thin slice of shade, I sat on the ground with my back against the pole, facing away from the road.  But as I very slowly was lowering myself to sit on the ground (I did just come from my gym, where I always bust some serious butt), I saw a car stop in the turn lane, and the young guy came running over.  "Are you alright?"  "Yes, I'm fine, many thanks, this is my bus stop and I'm just moving slow since I just went to my gym.  Many thanks again, I appreciate your concern very much."  Cool, someone who wants to help others.  Alright, alright...


And then, since the 5:02 bus must have been at least 15 minutes early (grrrrr),  I had an hour to kill at the bus stop with some lady in a wheelchair, that surprisingly rolled her wheelchair right over the grassy uneven ground. So then this high school girl parked across the field next to us and came walking a long way to see if we were alright.  "Yeah, we're fine, this is a bus stop and we're both waiting for the bus."  Huh, people ARE good... that was at least a four minute walk to cross the field.  I mean, if it was only three and a half minutes to cross the field, people are back to be jerks in general, but it was at least a four minute walk.  ;-)


AND THEN, a very cute cop stopped & made sure we were OK.  (she had a boyfriend, I checked, the cute ones always do-- go figure)  I was like "Ma'am, we're just waiting for the bus at a bus stop, why would you get a call?"  Cutesy packing heat: "Someone saw the wheelchair in the grass and was concerned."  Back to me: "Aaah, great!  That's awesome.  And by the way, thank you very much for doing this job."  (it's been a habit of mine the last few years to go out of my way to thank cops, firemen, ambulance crew, anyone in public service, even if it's as minor as a salute while I stand at attention as they drive by-- hey, their job is to keep you safe, aren't you appreciative?)



OK, OK, explanation for the bus being so freakin' late...  I got on the bus and said "Dennis the Menace [he's the bus driver on this route most often], it's 6:05.  I've been here since 4:45!!!  What the h3ll?" (that whole 'no cussing' rule went right out the window, whoops)
"I had a problem with the bus, so while we worked on it, we sent a van instead.  Didn't you see the van?"
"OHHHH, the only shade I could find was to sit down with my back against the light pole, thus facing away from the road."  On asking him later why the van didn't stop for a guy sitting with his back against the bus stop sign, he thought maybe they thought that since I wasn't standing, I was just resting.  Hmmm... I'll buy that, but that tells me the Greenville Transit Authority isn't picking their apples from the highest branch, hmmm...?


OK, well, it's been an afternoon... but this may have been my first lesson (in the last 3.5 years, so I'll say it's the first lesson that I remember) that there are good people out there, it just seems that my path through life, especially in the last few years, has wandered past all the worthless & thieving ones.  If you want anything immoral done in Greenville, S.C., gimme a call, I'm almost positive I'll know just the guy for the job.  His practice warm-up job probably cost me something, be it money or self-esteem or trust.  (even though I'm referencing that some of my "friends" have screwed me in one form or another, I won't say publicly who they are or what they've done (or not done when they should have), as that may cause later problems I don't want to deal with.  I guarantee they never look at this blog, but you never know, so if they do, you know very well who you are and why I hate you, if not then don't worry about it)
Okay, it's 9:11pm & I have yet to shower or eat dinner.  Enough of this blogging junk.  Signing off...

my story gets more "press"-- The Waterline

Yeah, alright, so it's not as big a deal as making the Greenville News, but my sailing club (KSC) has a monthly publication called The Waterline.  A regular feature in there is "Meet a Member", and the October issue features yours truly.  The thing I liked about this one is that it actually printed that she was drunk when she hit me-- something the G-News couldn't man up enough to do by press time. (chickens)  And where the news article wasn't worth a chuckle, this mentions several humorous (and true) bits from my recovery.  Alright, enough yakkity yak, have a gander at pages 5 & 6 of this:
https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B5nKqFuFRFukYzhlODQ2N2EtODdhZi00ZDA5LWFiYzMtMGRmZGM2OTVmYTQy&hl=en&authkey=CJurtc8I

whoops, NEVER MIND about the plank record

NEVER MIND.  Turns out that was due to a massive caffeine overload after I bought an "energy drink" from a street vendor, on top of my daily dose of Provigil, which is a caffeine overload by itself.  I discovered this since my vision all of a sudden got incredibly jittery, and I got freaked out, got a neighbor to verify if my eyes were shaking, talked to dad, and when I told dad about the energy drink, he pieced it together.  After about 6 cups of water and milk and some protein bars, everything returned to normal as far as my vision goes.  Explains the SIX minute plank... and I thought I was all He-Man and stuff.  I think I'll go back to my 2.5 minute planks, on good days.

www.usacyclingchampionships.com & PLANK RECORD

So the USA cycling championship is being held here today.  I thought they'd be going right by my porch, but after sitting here for 10 minutes with traffic still rolling by, I went for a walk.  OH, aha, a block south of here.  So I watch... alright cool.  Well, cool as far as clapping and hollering for 30 seconds then waiting for at least 15 minutes more before another 30 second spurt.  OH OKAY, I'm now sitting on my porch an hour after that, posting to my blog, and here come the leaders.  So in a bit... OK, there's 4 more... waiting on the pack... yep, there they went.  Cool!

But they aren't the only champions today.  So back in my earlier recovery, I made it a goal to get very good at planks.  I was doing them morning and night, every day, for as long as I could hold it.  I know that the owner of my gym holds this position daily for over 5 minutes.  I made it my goal to beat that, did them morning & night for months, and I held it for barely over 5 minutes twice.  But then I realized, "You know what?  I'm in good shape.  Quit trying to push the envelope."  So I stopped doing them for a few months.  Much later I thought "Well, yeah, so I'm not gonna be a superstar, but it's still good to do, when I think of it, just general fitness."  And I've been sporadically holding planks as long as I can for the last few weeks, nowhere near the level I was at.  I mean, last night I only could hold a plank for 2:30, half my old goal.  Yeah, well, whatever, it still keeps your ab muscles fit, works off my milk gut. (which replaced my beer gut)

But then I was bored while waiting for the cyclists to come around again the circuit today, so I found a shady spot on the sidewalk and dropped to my elbows & toes.  I must have been inspired by the cyclists and the disabled cyclists pedaling like mad with their arms and then just being in public probbly helped, because I held it for...

6:01.  Darren, I know you're going to see this because I'm gonna send it to you.  I just owned you.  And I've said that I wouldn't claim I've recovered until I could beat the owner of my gym at his own game.  So I have done what I set out a year ago to do.  God that feels good.  Now, I almost certainly won't do that next time, but still... I've done it.  Next?  (and please don't say 7 minutes)

jobs I do NOT want to do

So early in my TBI-recovery, I was trying to determine what job I wanted to do.  As a part of that process, I listed the jobs I do NOT want.  Maybe I figured a process of elimination would be best.  My folks just found this stashed away, and I just died laughing when I saw it.  Item 4: "...especially not my own"?!?!?  Item 11: "... for the masses?"  What the heck?  Item 19 oughta just be assumed.  Number 29-- "In fact, anything involving..."
(the zoom button is conveniently located in the upper-right for the hard of hearing)
page 1
page 2

Riley is now a canine good citizen!

My folks' pup recently aced the final exam to become a good citizen!!!  She had to pass this.  Step 1 of becoming a hospital therapy dog, and without hospital therapy dogs I would not be writing this-- or any-- blog posts.
YAY RILEY!

interesting: the REAL ‘Stuff White People Like’

Doggone interesting: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/the-real-stuff-white-people-like/