June 1st

 June 1st is shared by serval people and events. Okay, you're thinking, "Oh this is going to boring." Well,  I hope not. 

In 1792 Kentucky was admitted into the Union as a state. And four years later on June 1st Tennessee was split from North Carolina and also admitted. Another name you will recall is Marilynn Monroe (born as Norma Jeane Mortenson) was born on June 1st, as was my mother Lorene Haynes Shell along with her twin sister Irene. Unlike Marilynn, Lorene and Irene were born blonde headed and both had blue eyes. They were both quite attractive. Both married Navy sailors after WW2. They were born in Alabama, the deep south, not like Marilynn who was born in Los Angles CA..

Marilynn died at 36 from a self in dosed overdose of pills, where as Lorene and Irene died well into their later years. Marilynn would have been 100 this year. My mother would have been 102 this year and her twin would be 104. Both sisters died in the same hospital where they were born and also the hospital I was born. 

Eventho there were some similarities with Marilynn, my mother thought Marilynn was a little too risqué for her taste, but did get a few mistakes for Marilynn since they had similar figures and the blonde hair and eyes.

Another bit of my family heritage is in 1750 our Schell (spelled that way then) landed in the new World and settled in western North Carolina, which today is know as Tennessee. So, our SHELL family is one of North Carolina's first families. Some time in the late 1700s the family dropped the 'C' in our last name because unlike the English we were not English but rather Scottish.

Okay, maybe this was boring to some. But I appreciate you reading this anyway. Thanks to some cousins of mine, we are still picking away at our family history finding out we weren't just dirt famers but had some royal blood in our veins. Who knew?

Thanks again for putting up with this. It does beats me bad mouthing Trump I guess. Take care and stay safe. 

 

Stuck in a Rut

 Ever since I have had several medical ordeals for the last year and a half, I feel I have been in a rut. Days are basically the same each day.  Mainly because I have been limited to doing not much physically. And that is not me. Usually I am in my shop building something (it was restoring cars or trucks), or working on a project for around the house or for a friend. Or maybe going to help a friend with their projects, or maybe going to pick up parts for something ... but just GOING and doing something. My excuse statement is, "When I get my back fixed ..." or "When I can walk farther ...".  I told myself I need to lose a few pounds, but this is not what I wanted to do it by losing muscle mass from do doing anything.  I am getting really sick of going to doctors offices and hearing the same old BAH-BAH-BAH, and handing me some pills.

I called the surgi-center that is suppose to schedule my back surgery and they told me, "We don't have you scheduled here, that is at our other location."  "Can you give me their phone number?" "They will call you."  I may have broken
my phone when I slammed it down on my desk. So I wait again.

It seems like doctor's offices have this endless cycle you get caught in, and they are only doorman to let you out. But really I blame lawyers and the shammers. 

Years ago when I helped a couple corporations get started, I wrote they by-laws on one page. Once the lawyers got a hold of it, it turned over to a 100 page book containing words I never saw. The shammers want your identify so they can steal it and sell it on the black market so the medical community hires lawyers to write up all these privacy documents and releases you have to read and agree to before they will see you. Do you really read them before they take you into the back exam rooms? Most people just sign and walk back. It could you just signed over your first born and all of you possessions if you miss an appointment.  I read one last week and my eyes crossed before I got done. Then I waited, sitting on a very uncomfortable chair for 30 minutes before a assistant came our and called my name. When I came out of my boredom comma, I answered, "Right here", and proceeded to follow her like a lost puppy.

The only thing I have fallen in love with is my leather 'Lazy-Boy' recliner. It has been my only comfort since the back injury. It has perfectly molded to my body and never disappoints.  Always supports me where and when I need it most.  It has also served as my bed for 4 months because sleeping in my bed is too painful.

But I WILL get to a good place soon, I hope. For a simple surgery, why does it take so damn long?

Looking back

In my life, I have seen SO many changes, advancements and  failures. Not only in my personal life but in the world. i don't know if younger folks really realize or see the changes that they are witnessing. I guess I did not either until I got older. i always thought my good friends would always be there as we got older, but they did not. the world and friend evolve as time passes. Sometime for the good, and sometimes for the bad. Some people live through some great times, where-as some have a hard life not matter how they try to have a good one. 

I truly believe I was a lucky one.  my life was not perfect by any means, but it was not really bad either. My rough times were when my parents were divorced. I heard it and saw it coming but did not realize what was going on for sure. Fast forward into my 20s, I also thought I found a great wife and believed we stay married until the end, but never thought the end would come in just a few years with a divorce. But then, I met another great lady who has loved me for more than 49 years now. I'll admit, I may not be a easy guy to put up with, but she has, along our bumpy road.

Someone said (smarter than me), "The only constant in life is change itself".  Boy, that so true. Everyday we live, change happens. Whether it to in technology, medicine, science, research or in individual lives. 

If you about me age (79) older or younger, think about all the stuff you have seen change. For example: when I was about 7 or 8, phone numbers were maybe Mulberry 2345. No area code and you dialed on a rotary phone that was so heavy you dare not drop it on your toes. very few cars were automatics. You had to learn to drive a car with 3 peddles. There was no FM channels and TVs were only black and white. Pay phones were usually only in bus or train stations. The original 'Ice Box' was being replaced with refrigerators. If you REALLY want a trip, go into a antique shop and look around at the stuff your parents or you had as you got older. 

And not Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here. Actors that passed years ago will reappear in movies again. It is longer the ag of drink water out of a garden hose or riding you bicycle with out a helmet. Thing have changed and will continue to change whether we like it or not. You adapt and sit around and bitch about it. Not all change is good. But I still drink out of the hose and sometime ride my bike without a helmet. Stay young, if not physically, mentally ... and take care and bitch all you want. 😆

You never know what life is going to throw at you.

 I have met people I thought were so damn lucky in life, and I hate to say I envied them ... for a while until life slapped them in the back of their head and the high life went a way. Such a shame. No one deserves to be hit with a mountain of hardship and tragedy. Whether it is a sickness a loss of home, auto or a loved one. But as people say, "That's life." Some time you can see it coming, but think mostly you can not. And maybe sometimes people think, "Oh, it won't get me". Or, " That could never happen to me or my loved ones." But then it does, and they are devastated, sometime mentally or physically or financially. 

How do you get through those times? Well if you are VERY strong, you can struggle through it and do the best you can. And other time you just don't have the strength to deal with it and fall on your pride of losing the high hill battle. But then there is your support group that step in to hold you up out of the quick sand of loss and not know exactly how to deal with it for a good outcome.

That support group should be, first of all your family, friends and co-workers with level heads and willing to dive deep to help you, no matter how dirty it is. That is a TRUE support group. No someone who says, "Call me if you need help." The true support group should be able to see what you need to get you upright and do it. You all have heard the old story of the Good Samaritan, the people that did not ask, just helped. Some people can be very stubborn and say they don't need help. But when the see someone slipping on ice with no handhold to help them off the frozen pond, HELP THEM.

Our society has slowly become the "Me society" which only thinks about, "I got mine" type of mentality. And sometimes recently I believe the government has gotten some of that too. Trump has presented himself as the president that wants the world the way HE thinks it should be. But that is not what the Constitution is written. You can't just start wars on other countries because you THINK they are making stuff without proof, and the proof has to be truthfully and not speculation because you don't like them. I know, these feelings and thought go both ways. But do you have the suck-punch someone before they swing at you? There are many different views on that too. But you get my meaning.

What I want to peach is when you see someone struggling, reach out with a helping hand, no matter how little it may seem, you are helping them.

Just remember this, "Some days you just a bug, and other days you are that bug on the window shield." 

Take care, stay safe and be nice to others. God loves us all the same.

Getting old sure can suck!

Who in the hell thought up the phase, "The Golden Years". Whoever it was must not experienced aging. 

Yes there are some benefits to age, like discounts theaters and restaurants and maybe seating benefits when you arrive at your plane in a wheel chair. But then you still have to walk to your seat. Fortunately I have never experienced that part of aging. And there are other gifts aging gives you, like listening to your joints in the morning when arise from your warm bed that sound like a bowl of 'Corn Flakes' crunching and soggy. Or that unannounced gas escape while walking to the bathroom. Or looking in the mirror and realizing you have less hair today or how much grayer it has become, or both. My personal great is how much I have to suck in belly to button my pants or tighten my belt. Gravity does SO much for our bodies. Seems like it all starts sagging. It just proves the earth really does suck. 

There are some GOOD benefits from aging and especially when your become a grandparent. You become the free babysitter, the place the grandkids love to come over because you have  the snacks and cookies they love, and you are well stocked. That's only because the parents will not but them.  You can sleep in everyday, if you don't have a job as a Wal Mart greeter that morning, or volunteer at the old folks home. Sometimes people will let you cut in front of them at the store, maybe out of respect for your age or you look like their mother. You don't buy many new clothes because they don't get worn out like they did when you worked. And now you don't have to keep up with the fashion trends. Probably the only time you dress up is for a doctor's visit, or to go out with the guys or girls, or to a funeral or church. 

I believe the phase Golden Years was to symbolize a time when you could remember your accomplishments in life and rejoice in them.  And also watch your children grow into families and parents while they give you grandchildren to spoil and love. Which is all really good, BUT I wish life would hold back on the physical aches and pains of aging. From a guy who has been pretty dog-gone active all my life, my suggestion is to still active, keep you mind sharp. Stay in touch with friends and go out to lunch with them.  Volunteer somewhere, join a book club  or hangout with like minded folk. But most of all, stay active. Take care, and stay safe.

 

I am sorry

I am sorry I have not written anything lately. I am sorry I did not wish you all a Happy New Year. And I am sorry for being sorry. Besides finishing up on my last restoration on a client's car and then getting sick with some stupid virus (of which I am still sick but getting better), mind just has not been as sharp as normal. Of course you could say I have never been all that sharp anyway. Plus my head has been just spinning over some the stuff President Trump has done recently. it is like he has slipped back into his adolescent immature childhood he has never covered up since becoming president.  Like a balling brat in a tantrum when anyone criticizes him, show him disrespect or he does not get his way. Renaming important buildings, events or places with his name. And THEN he has the gall to post photos on social media of very respected people as apes, because they are black? What in the world can he do before some sort of enforcer bends him over their knee and spanks him like the terrible child he is. Will no agent have the balls to punish his jerk? His guy is tearing our country apart and making the USA the laughing stock of the world. I am waiting for him the have a statue made of him to be erected and placed in front of the White House next to his HUGE new ballroom ... IN GOLD!

Again, I am sorry to get back on my political soap box. But more people need to voice their dislike of Trump to their representatives and tell them to impeach the jerk. I have never disliked anyone this much before. Except the bully who bullied me in elementary school, until I punch him in the nose and was sent to the principals office. But it was worth it. 

Believe me, I am NOT talking about any violence toward him or his followers. Just to punish him and rid the craziness he has cause this country and his obsession to name thing after him, like his is some sort of  god or obsessed ruler. In the movie "TRUMP" one person supposedly told Trump when he was younger to "Never admit your are wrong and always blame it on someone else." That is exactly what he does. I never watch the movie, just the previews.

OK, I am done for now. I would much rather talk about happier things than politics. I'll go back to watching the Olympics and reruns of Gunsmoke, MASH and Andy Griffith.  Take care and stay safe.

Some of the things I have learned while global traveling.

Nancy and I have been VERY fortunate to be able to travel to so many countries from Central and South America, to most of Europe, to some old Iron Curtain countries, to the Mediterranean region, to Southeast Asia, to several countries in Africa, and to China. I am not bragging, just recounting. As I said, we are very thankful and fortunate. In every trip and visit to these countries, I have asked one major question to the people we have met, "What is your opinion of the United States and its people." Their responses is generally the same. "America is a great and rich country. The people are friendly, but the government is blind to what the people in our country really want from them as a country. We want a true and honest friendship that we can depend on when the time comes." Obviously, not word for word their replies, but the basic meaning is there. The latest response was, "Why did you elect Trump?" I agreed and explain our election system.

Every country we visit shows us how much of the world we did not know or were taught in high school or college. yes we were taught US history and things about our advancements in technology. We were taught what the government wanted us to hear. Just like a lot of countries have done. Example, in China, very few people know about Tiananmen Square massacre or the man who block a tank with his body in protest. Or in Peru, their Japanese ruler/president wiped Peru's entire history from schools and all books. Or that in Yugoslavia after the Nazis were ran out and Russia took over, living conditions got worse for the people. Or that Argentina and Venezuela invited and harbored many high ranking Nazis after Germany lost WWII. And some of the smaller trivia things like China contributed to the human race was the invention of noodle like spaghetti that Italy claims to have invented. Coffee from Africa and so many more, but I don't want to bore you.

And now, Trump says black slavery education should be taken out of schools? Like the historians are trying to rewrite the actuate US history?  And making a National holiday for HIS birthday? No, he is the one trying to rewrite history, and we can not let him do that. I lived in the deep south as a young child and saw first hand the prejudicial ways black people were treated them, and 'Jim Crow' actions on blacks. 

By traveling to all the countries we have visited, I have learned what good and bad the US has offered me. I love our country, BUT, I do not love the direction to present administration is taking it. We have a president who has been told not to do certain things but still does them, and no one is enforcing the rulings of the courts. Lawsuits can last for decades in the courts meanwhile the citizens suffer with heath care, lack of food and jobs, housing and natural disasters. One more thing. Adding his name to the Kennedy Center? Adding his name in front of JFK is  so wrong!

After all the damage Trump has done, it will take years to bring the USA back to a world power that other countries can trust and feel safe saying we are their ally and friend.

Take care and stay safe.

Make way for a ballroom!