Sick for a month

I’ve been sick for over a month now. It started off with a cough and it developed into pneumonia and a visit to the hospital. This probably goes back even further then one month; since the beginning of this year I’ve had numerous allergy attacks coupled with mild asthma (which I didn’t even know I had). I’m fairly certain my immune system has taken a beating this year. Which probably explains why something as simple as not putting on a sweater on a cold night (which I’ve done thousands of times) will now, take its tow on me.

It’s been a humbling experience…

My doctor has more tests he wants run on me; specifically one that will measure the amount of acid my stomach produces. Apparently acid not only travels back up the esophagus, but it can end up inside your lungs which causes all sorts of problems like that ones I’m experiencing.

Hopefully everything turns out fine and he gets to the bottom of it all. Either way, this will require a life change for me. Everything from being aware that I can’t be close to certain grasses to putting on a sweater at night.

Death Week

What a week this has been! A friend and co-worker died this Tuesday from a hard fight with pancreatic cancer. He was 39 and left behind his wife and 5 kids.

Kai will be sorely missed. It was an absolute pleasure to have developed a relationship with him in areas we both were passionate about……sports, our family, and just the usual trash talk. He had the heart and competitive nature of a warrior. He was so unselfish and would always seek fairness even if it meant a loss for him. It always meant so much more when he did it, simply because he was so competitive. It warmed my heart to have seen the people in production love and respect Kai. That speaks volumes of Kai.

May he rest in peace.

On another note, two actors have died today and one died yesterday. It’s death week!

The first was Ed Mcmahon who was best known as Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show. Never really watched any of his material but he seems to have been well known. He died at 86. I’m a happy man if I make to that age.

The second was Farrah Fawcett who was best known for “Charlie’s Angels” and consumer product commercials. She died at the age of 62 of anal cancer.

Lastly, the legendary Michael Jackson died at the age of 50 at 12:29pm today. No need to expound on his resume. He will go down as the best pop star ever.

All this death really brings to light just how fragile human life is. A small clutter of molecules can bring down a species that invented airplanes, rockets, and nuclear weapons.

More importantly it reminds me just how much one needs to invest in the relationships you have with the people you love. In the end, that’s the only thing you’ll care about in your death bed.

Dominic Dancing

Dominic getting creative with his dancing:

Candles and Prayer

A week ago I got the idea of really embracing the symbolism in Catholicism. Actually, it’s more then just embracing it, but living it. As a start, I bought a candle wrapped with a picture of Christ. The idea was to have it be a tool for prayer.

Of course, there is nothing innovative about this at all. In most of the ancient [and modern] world it has been the natural language of mystical expression. In fact, Catholicism more then likely borrowed this practice from ancient Egypt.

At any rate, it’s been very effective in getting the kids more active in their prayer life. I start off by lighting the candle, followed by a “In the name of the Father…” and then circulate the candle as your turn comes up to pray. The candle seems to help them focus more and give it more of a mystical feeling to it. When it reaches the last person (me), it’s ended with and “amen” and we kiss and hug each other good night.

It’s a good tool for families who either want to improve on there prayer life or simply want something that works well with kids.

Rough Week

It was a rough week. With Jojo breaking his arm in two and Sonia getting an abscess on her gums causing her to get her tooth removed; we didn’t get much sleep.

Jojo fell from grandpa’s Toyota Tundra and his whole weight landed on his left arm. He cried for hours. He did well in the emergency room though. They put a temporary cast on until the swelling would subdue. The days that followed were full of cries because he either moved and it caused pain or it would itch like crazy. A week later it was followed by a clinic visit and he was happy to get a blue cast.

Sonia’s dilemma was a bit more frustrating only because we didn’t know what was wrong with her. Whenever she did manage to stop crying because of the pain, she would simply say her teeth hurt. Evelyn figured it was a cavity but I was really doubtful that her constant pain was a cavity. Cavity pain comes and goes and I just wasn’t convinced a 3 year olds teeth had gotten so bad so quickly as to cause such pain. The motrin we would give her seemed to do little to stop the pain.

A couple days later, we took her to the dentist and they found an abscess on her gums. You could see it as clear as day but we both hadn’t seen it the previous day; so it must have grown over night. They took the tooth out that day. They might have to take more out but they don’t know yet.

Hopefully, next week goes better.

Lukewarm

I've been feeling lukewarm lately. Prayer life has been horrible and I've been neglecting anything spiritual.

I do read catholic literature and pray from time to time, but it feels dull and dry. I haven't had the energy to fight off any old habits or to improve in areas I know I must. I need a reboot or something to get me back on track.

I need to go to confession and pray.

School Board indoctrination

From:
California Resists Home School Ruling

I was smoking from the ears when I heard on the radio that the California school boards have been pushing to create laws that could make homeschooling illegal. For one, it gives one more reason to have fewer teachers on staff and secondly, (and most importantly) the powers to be fear losing control of the hearts and minds of our youth.

If they can’t indoctrinate our youth to worship Obama, be pro-choice, hate America, and make you love and save a granola eating polar bear, then by golly they will become the most intolerant bunch of folks you come across.

Not to mention there tactics of forcing psychotropic drugs on your children to make them submissive, going as far as bias interrogation with the hope of finding cause to remove your children from your care in order to receive federal funding to place your children in their foster care systems……bureaucracies at it’s finest.

Therefore, if you have a subconscious desire to lose your child to the liberal school boards, just send your child to public school and they will be more then happy to make him a drone and drug him up for you.

It’s like something from the twilight zone.

Joe vs. Fido

The possible return of former professional football player Michael Vick has people on an uproar. Justly so, since his torture of animals, but there is a dimension of it that bothers me immensely. I can't help but think that some of the very people getting so upset at him wouldn't react the same at the thought of an abortion, but get absolutely furious of the thought of toturing and killing an animal. There is something wrong with that picture. One should get upset at both, but now it seems there is a growing population that would murder an infant in a second, but protect an animal to the death.

Just thought of it scares me to death. How did Hitler see non-whites? How did Stalin see religious folks? How did Mao see people?

How you view and value the human person matters.

Family Drawing

New family portrait:


Drawn by Dominic with help from mommy.

Uninterested in School

I came down hard on Dominic yesterday. He’s been so uninterested with doing homework and no matter what I said to motivate him, he wasn’t interested. As a parent you start back peddling on what you have done to possibly have contributed to his lack of interest. Do I not read enough to him? Do my daily activities send him a message that school isn’t important?

Whatever it is, I plan to fix it and hopefully have him at least understand that he doesn’t have to like everything he does in school, but he does need to understand that sometimes we need to do things we don’t like in order to get to things we do.