CroMagnon
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Holy crap. President Barack Hussein Obama is putting a cap on executive salaries? The most any executive can make now is $500k/year? Is this legal? Where in the Constitution does it say that the CinC can interfere (I can't think of a better word) in the free enterprise system like this? Yet Congress votes itself over $90k PER MEMBER to use for their "constituents" and no one bats an eye. Is the entire country smoking crack??
¶ 3:47 PM 2 comments 
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
I am a big fan of the right to bear arms. It's in the Constitution; it's the law of the land. Besides, it's a damn fine idea. Like Heinlein said, an armed society is a polite society. However, I don't personally own a firearm. Sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? Let me explain.
Anyone who comes here probably knows what The Better Half and I do. If not, I suggest you read some of the older entries here. Go ahead -- I'll be here when you get back. As you noticed, we foster special needs children and have adopted four as our own. Those children are getting older now, and unfortunately a couple of them still seem to have a hard time differentiating between the real world and the world they see on TV and video games. Let me ask you - if you had children like that in your home, would you take the chance of keeping a handgun around where one of them might find it and use it? If you had any sense, no you wouldn't. And don't tell me to just keep it locked up in a gun safe. You don't know these children; they could break into Fort Knox given half a chance.
Bottom line, I don't dare keep a gun in my house. (And The Better Half is dead set against them anyway. Weird, considering she's a veteran.) However, once the kids get out on their own, and if I'm still around when that miracle happens, I fully intend to get a handgun at least, maybe even a rifle. I used to shoot with my father at the range when I was much younger, and I really enjoyed it. One day I will again.
Anyone who comes here probably knows what The Better Half and I do. If not, I suggest you read some of the older entries here. Go ahead -- I'll be here when you get back. As you noticed, we foster special needs children and have adopted four as our own. Those children are getting older now, and unfortunately a couple of them still seem to have a hard time differentiating between the real world and the world they see on TV and video games. Let me ask you - if you had children like that in your home, would you take the chance of keeping a handgun around where one of them might find it and use it? If you had any sense, no you wouldn't. And don't tell me to just keep it locked up in a gun safe. You don't know these children; they could break into Fort Knox given half a chance.
Bottom line, I don't dare keep a gun in my house. (And The Better Half is dead set against them anyway. Weird, considering she's a veteran.) However, once the kids get out on their own, and if I'm still around when that miracle happens, I fully intend to get a handgun at least, maybe even a rifle. I used to shoot with my father at the range when I was much younger, and I really enjoyed it. One day I will again.
Labels: Gun Ownership
¶ 11:50 PM 1 comments
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Happy freakin' New Year, y'all! I'm a couple of weeks late; sue me.
I saw bigotry in action in, of all places, church a couple of weeks ago. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that it nauseated me.
I've had several people ask me what I do during the day. Let me give you a capsule synopsis of a usual day in my life. I'm usually up between 5 and 5:30 AM in the morning. I have a smoke (I know, I need to quit, don't bug me), maybe a cup of coffee, and I get JT out of bed since his bus arrives at 6:30 or so. I sign the nurse's papers for the night (Sarah gets a nurse at night and during the day as long as she has a trach), then I throw myself into the shower and prepare for my day. By 7:30 I'm heading out the door to take Pat and Mike to school (they go to a charter school, so no bus for them). I'm usually at work between 8:30 and 8:45, and there I stay until around 5:30 - 6 PM. Then I head home for the fun and games. Usually home between 6:30 - 7 PM, eat if it's ready, then watch Wheel of Fortune with Sarah. She can't see, but she loves the sounds of that show, so who am I to deny her a little happiness? After Wheel of Fortune, I start getting Sarah ready for bed, which includes burping her G-tube, giving her her medications through the G-tube, putting her pajamas on, suctioning her trach a few times while I'm doing all this, getting her positioned in bed, and turning on her nighttime music. Then I prepare her bedtime feeding, start and prime the feeding pump, and get her supper going into her. I then get about an hour to myself, unless The Better Half has other plans. I'm usually in bed by around 11 or 11:30 at night. So goes a typical day for me.
This is the seven day a week schedule, so needless to say there's not much time for a social life, going out to eat, etc. I'm not saying that so that everyone will say, "Oh, poor Steve, what a tough life!" Believe me, there are people out there who lead much rougher lives than I'll ever imagine living. I just wanted to put out there what a typical day for me is like, which might explain why I blog so infrequently. Just an FYI. ¶ 9:37 PM 2 comments
I saw bigotry in action in, of all places, church a couple of weeks ago. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that it nauseated me.
I've had several people ask me what I do during the day. Let me give you a capsule synopsis of a usual day in my life. I'm usually up between 5 and 5:30 AM in the morning. I have a smoke (I know, I need to quit, don't bug me), maybe a cup of coffee, and I get JT out of bed since his bus arrives at 6:30 or so. I sign the nurse's papers for the night (Sarah gets a nurse at night and during the day as long as she has a trach), then I throw myself into the shower and prepare for my day. By 7:30 I'm heading out the door to take Pat and Mike to school (they go to a charter school, so no bus for them). I'm usually at work between 8:30 and 8:45, and there I stay until around 5:30 - 6 PM. Then I head home for the fun and games. Usually home between 6:30 - 7 PM, eat if it's ready, then watch Wheel of Fortune with Sarah. She can't see, but she loves the sounds of that show, so who am I to deny her a little happiness? After Wheel of Fortune, I start getting Sarah ready for bed, which includes burping her G-tube, giving her her medications through the G-tube, putting her pajamas on, suctioning her trach a few times while I'm doing all this, getting her positioned in bed, and turning on her nighttime music. Then I prepare her bedtime feeding, start and prime the feeding pump, and get her supper going into her. I then get about an hour to myself, unless The Better Half has other plans. I'm usually in bed by around 11 or 11:30 at night. So goes a typical day for me.
This is the seven day a week schedule, so needless to say there's not much time for a social life, going out to eat, etc. I'm not saying that so that everyone will say, "Oh, poor Steve, what a tough life!" Believe me, there are people out there who lead much rougher lives than I'll ever imagine living. I just wanted to put out there what a typical day for me is like, which might explain why I blog so infrequently. Just an FYI. ¶ 9:37 PM 2 comments
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The demons won.
¶ 2:33 PM 0 comments
Friday, December 05, 2008
Merry freakin' Christmas, everyone. Ho ho frickin' ho. Sorry, not much in the Christmas spirit this year. Too damn much going on, at home and work, not to mention several personal demons that are giving me a hard time right now. I'm trying to get better, but only time will tell.
Labels: Bah Humcrap
¶ 3:49 PM 0 comments
Thursday, September 04, 2008
I know, I know, it's September. Seven frickin' months. I've been busy, okay? Gee, Cap'n Caveman, what's kept you so busy? Alright, kiddies, gather 'round and let the old guy fill you in.
First, Sarah was taken to the hospital in late February. She had a very high fever and was in respiratory distress. After two weeks in pediatric ICU (PICU) she was diagnosed with -- are you ready for this? -- Legionnaire's Disease. Yeah, that was my reaction, too. Apparently old folks aren't the only ones who can get this crap. It's like pneumonia on crack AND steroids. The docs finally got her on the correct antibiotic to kill the mother, but they had to put a trach in her throat to help her breathe, and she had to be on a ventilator. So everything's going swimmingly for a week or so and the docs decide to try to remove the trach. No go. She relapsed big time, and they not only had to reinstall the trach, she had to go on a high pressure ventilator to keep her blood oxygen levels up to normal. To make a long story short, she was in the hospital from late February until early April.
Once she came home, the battle didn't stop. She had a series of pseudomonas infections after she got home, which thankfully antibiotics fixed, but her lungs are going to take at least a year to fully heal. She is still on oxygen and she has an ampi monitor hooked up day and night. Oh yeah, she still has the trach in her throat. We don't know yet when or if she'll ever get rid of that. Time will tell.
So that's where I've been the last few months or so. I'll add more later as I get time. Thanks to all of y'all who have been praying for us and especially Sarah the last few months. ¶ 3:05 PM 1 comments
First, Sarah was taken to the hospital in late February. She had a very high fever and was in respiratory distress. After two weeks in pediatric ICU (PICU) she was diagnosed with -- are you ready for this? -- Legionnaire's Disease. Yeah, that was my reaction, too. Apparently old folks aren't the only ones who can get this crap. It's like pneumonia on crack AND steroids. The docs finally got her on the correct antibiotic to kill the mother, but they had to put a trach in her throat to help her breathe, and she had to be on a ventilator. So everything's going swimmingly for a week or so and the docs decide to try to remove the trach. No go. She relapsed big time, and they not only had to reinstall the trach, she had to go on a high pressure ventilator to keep her blood oxygen levels up to normal. To make a long story short, she was in the hospital from late February until early April.
Once she came home, the battle didn't stop. She had a series of pseudomonas infections after she got home, which thankfully antibiotics fixed, but her lungs are going to take at least a year to fully heal. She is still on oxygen and she has an ampi monitor hooked up day and night. Oh yeah, she still has the trach in her throat. We don't know yet when or if she'll ever get rid of that. Time will tell.
So that's where I've been the last few months or so. I'll add more later as I get time. Thanks to all of y'all who have been praying for us and especially Sarah the last few months. ¶ 3:05 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Still alive. At least I think I am. It's been very busy here the last little while. My little girl has had a couple of surgeries, again. She had both hips operated on right after Thanksgiving to try to get her leg bones to seat correctly in the sockets. So far everything seems to be positioned correctly. She looks so much longer now! If she could stand, she'd be more than three feet tall. My little girl is growing up. Now they're talking about either having to shorten her jaw to keep her tongue from falling back in her throat, or putting a trach in her throat. Her breathing is getting more and more labored, even after having her tonsils and adenoids removed early last year. I worry about her constantly. I don't want her to die, but she's going through so much, and you can't help but think that her quality of life can't be all that great. Then you think about how cheerful she is, what a happy little girl she is, and how she's so thrilled to hear my voice when I come home at night, and it hits you -- this kid is happy the way she is. If only the rest of us could accept ourselves the way we are and be happy with it. I just hope God continues to look after her and keeps her well. I don't want to lose another child.
¶ 11:25 PM 0 comments
