Shall we eat at the Sonic?

Years and years ago I was around 13 or 14 years old. ( My kids didn't believe that simple fact for a very long time) By todays standards I was pretty industrious: at that age, I had a paper route, and mowed lawns, and if I couldn't find work elsewhere I'd work for this little old lady digging up iris flowers and cutting the bulb and replanting for $1 per hour...which was pretty low pay for the work even back then. I got a job at the chevrolet place a couple hours a day that paid $2 an hour...dusting off the cars on the showroom floor, dustmopping the floor, cleaning the bathroom, emptying the trash.

That was a coveted job, I felt lucky to get it. But I also went to work as a clean up boy at the local sonic in that small town. The very first night of my employment I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor underneath one of the work tables when the cook just up and quit. The manager yelled for me to come over there and start "cooking". I told him I needed to wash my hands first...which he did not want me to do because a rush was on, but I convinced him I HAD to use the bathroom...which I really didn't but it was the only way I could get a chance to wash my hands.

Well he quickly ran me thru the instructions of how to make each item on the menu, and fortunately I had a good memory back in those days because he went home very shortly after my quick once thru lesson...leaving me to figure out how to work the little switchboard thingy that communicates to the drivers, and to try to fill the orders as quickly as possible. There was a system where you lay the buns out, then you add this , then that, then that, etc.., package it, send it out.

At the very end of the night, there was a rush I wasn't ready for. And to top it off a guy CALLED IN an order for 8 hamburgers and fries and corndogs and you name it. (Who CALLS IN an order to sonic!). But it was RIGHT before closing and he wanted to be sure to get the order, and he wheels in and picks it up shortly after.
WOW...what a DAY!! By the time we got the place cleaned up and shut down I think it was getting near midnight when I got home. Time enough to finish homework and get a little sleep before showing up to my 9th grade grueling class schedule. (Ya if you're doing the math it appears wrong but I started first grade at 5 years old).

The next day when I showed up at the sonic, halfway expecting some praise for surviving the gruelling night, I was told abruptly that my services were no longer needed. What the heck does THAT mean? That day I found out what "being fired" is all about. Turns out that last call in order of the night where the guy swooped in picked em up at closing...In my haste I had gone thru the procedural hamburger building but had forgotten the meat on several of them. (Starting the Veggie Burger craze that later swept across America). Wow, what an ungrateful pig. Good riddance. But my feelings were hurt. (And when my cherished Aunt and Uncle heard the story they then and there quit eating at Sonics as a sign of solidarity).

Well, over the years I've gone back to eating there. They've added some really good menu items! But tonight...As I starvingly pulled into one in a town 40 miles away, right at 11 I killed the car and reached for the button and they turned the lights out. Dang. Then the car wouldn't start. Double Dang. So there we sat, stranded, starving, and 40 miles from home.

I called my stepson, (he's usually up late and has internet access) to get the number of the wrecker service from home. And $175 later my car was dropped off at the mechanic down the road from me and I'm home at 3:30am blogging it out of my system. Wondering if when they killed the lights at the Sonic if it didn't somehow short out my ignition. I best not tell my Aunt and Uncle just in case they've started eating there after all these years. But I'm VERY hungry now so I'm going to eat a bowl of soup. Thats all for now.

NO PICTURE OF KANSAS

As I pulled into a restaurant parking lot yesterday in a little town in western Kansas...there was a graying wild haired guy standing by his vehicle in the next parking space. The picture here pretty much captures the hair style though this guy still had a little black hair mixed in and most of his forehead was covered too. But seeing him there wasn't quite by happenstance...

My older brother was telling me about a mexican food place and agreed to buy my lunch if I'd meet him there. Well that sounded like a good deal all the way around, get a chance to visit (until I can talk him into leaving that picturesque mountain and getting him a nice trailer house to put out here in the pasture out back here in Okie land...and I aint throwed in the towel on that persuasion idear yet) but until then.. I'll probably only get to visit him on such limited occasions as a holiday a year and maybe a lunch when we can. Anyway...a chance to visit..AND a free lunch.

I brought my camera along but by golly by the time I had passed all the way thru Kansas the picture taking spirit had just been sucked out of me like the drought has done the water in my pond. The problem was, after passing thru that much of Kansas I just didn't have the desire to even get the camera out. I should have at least snapped one of that graying wild haired guy that was standing there giving me a funny look when I pulled into the parking lot...turns out that odd look was on account he was saving that parking space I was pulling into, for his brother...glad he finally recognized me.

Anyway we quickly bounced thru a variety of topics...books, movies, mountain camping site by a waterfall, archery, our unique wives, and we were both in agreement...the 6-7 hour drive to the dinner place didn't seem all that bad (but like the guy swimming out into the ocean, reaching the turn around point...the shore was yet a long ways off).

One memory he brought up was from the backs of comic books when we were kids. (Growing up in a remote forest, in that day and time technology wise, it can't be adequately emphasized what a major part of our perception of the outside world was based on the ads in the backs of comic books!) The one he brought up yesterday with enthusiasm in his memory...was the "build your own submarine". Yeah! I remember that! I looked at that alot and thought about it alot! Interesting that as we age and he looks back and tells me things that caught his interest...how many are the very same things I had daydreamed about too back then, but most of it...back when the picture was "live"...we probably didn't know we shared the interest .

Turns out it there is some fine print involved...while I was dreaming of the uses for such in a big pond, lake or pool...my brother was dreaming of hitting the salty seas with the sucker...as I viewed the ad closer a few minutes ago, I saw the key word "fiberboard"...its a glorified commercially printed/cut cardboard box!! Wow... But hey, we weren't the only ones bro...I enjoyed reading this post in The Adventurer's Club .
There seem to be quite a few websites where people just hash over that kind of stuff.

At one point in time...after we were already a bit older...there was an ad for a zorcom spaceship, not only did ya get a cardboard box already decorated up like a spaceship but you get an audio tape with it of your space adventure to make things more realistic. Wow again. I'm thinking about that post by K about walking around a neighborhood with a box on his head, a space helmet of his own making much more portable and usable than the big one in the ad I read about. Wow, if he had only put in flashing led lights and a sound system and sound track...he would have had something. Come to think of it, that would probably still market well. LOL. (If ya build that "K", for my "inventor idea" share I want one in adult size). Next time if I'm the one waiting around in a parking lot, I'll put on my helmet and walk around in the space I'm saving...that oughta work.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTION

My grandpa was a fascinating man. He was a federal trapper, though that wasn't his official title that is alot of what he did. I learned alot from the man about life and you name it. He taught me to drive before there were even 2 digits in my age. There are alot of stories I can tell...since most every summer I got a chance to spend time with my grandparents and would go out with grandpa most everyday on the job.

One event I'm thinking of I don't remember how old I was, but I would guess under 5 or thereabouts. Grandpa had caught quite a few chipmunks (live) and was taking them to some kind of big event (whether it was a state fair or zoo I don't recall). During a picnic on the way, they got loose and wasted no time getting as far away as possible.
When grandpa discovered it, he was furious, evidently the door was left open on the cage and though chipmunks are surprisingly intelligent, opening that cage door was beyond their ability. I was the lead suspect, and seeing the anger in his stearn face there was no way I had the courage it took to fess up...so i lied.

Which didn't help at all since it was obvious nobody else did it, but still they wanted to know for certain what had happened. A little later, sitting off to myself on a little grassy mound, my wise aunt came and sat beside me and visited awhile. Then almost as if sharing in a secret she leaned down and said "when you opened that door did they RUN?"..and before I knew it a spark of enthusiasm came over me, and the excitement of the event was too much to hold in, as I blurted out..."BOY DID THEY RUN!!!"

THE ZOOM TO DANG NEAR CANADA

Talk about a fast trip full of sights! Let me tell you about a busy day. (Sorry I missed the chance for breakfast Marbella...but I was napping when you called, not to mention several miles away. )

From the Oklahoma City airport, leaving OKC before 7am, stopping in Chicago before 9am, then finally onto Traverse City, Mi. by a little past noon. But I still had to get to Sault Ste Marie Mi. which meant a 3 hour drive and there was no way I'd make my meeting on time. FORTUNATELY, there was a small charter service that flies over the Mackinac Bridge when they aren't in North Carolina and they happened to be at Traverse. (They've got a pretty cool website by the way..and i think thats the very same plane shown on it).
This big Mackinac Bridge of I-75 shown in the pics can't really be seen in all its beauty because the wings were kind of in the way, but it was beautiful!!
Anyhow, there was a municipal airport just outside Sault Ste Marie, Mi. that was quickly in sight. This place is just on our side of the Canadian border, and on the banks of Lake Huron but within minutes of Lake Superior AND Lake Michigan...kind of reminds me of 4 corners where 4 states touch...but not exactly. The ride in the biplane is worthy of its own post. It was plenty cool up there without the ac, and there wasn't any such thing as reclining the seat but it really doesn't cross the mind. Kind of like a motorcycle ride...but without the balance concerns...like i said that would have to be another post.

The meeting went fine. (A Canadian company needing an experienced team to transport VERY hazardous material back and forth across the border...radioactive into the states, class 1 explosives back into their country) Got a chance for a little rest at The Laker Inn which wasn't a big motel by any means but very very nice, (clean, small, quiet, and affordable)...and a very short drive from SOO Locks. And it wasn't very far from Sault Ste. Marie Municipal Airport. The SOO locks are amazing, but you can do your own research on that..big humongous (like nearly 3 football field long) ships coming in and thru... but thats all for now...gotta rest..a whole new adventure starts in the morning...but this one is with my little "Grace Kelly".

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Sorry, I can't...and not even Verizon can help. When I took my hearing test today I was very pleased thinking I heard just about everything just fine...evidently unaware completely of all I didn't hear. When I got out of that chamber I was happy, and told the lady "I think I did pretty good this time didn't I"...she grimmaced...ouch. Apparently there was quite a bit I was supposed to hear that I did not. The scale goes something like this...Normal range or no impairment = 0 dB to 20 dB , Mild loss = 20 dB to 40 dB, Moderate loss = 40 dB to 60 dB, Severe loss = 60 dB to 80 dB, Profound loss = 80 dB or more. I was well within the "severe" range.

That kinda bummed me out, especially when I learned my "good ear" has now almost caught up with my bad ear...so the verdict is in...bilateral, progressive, asymmetrical, sensorineural hearing loss that involves a reduction in sound level, (ability to hear faint sounds), but also affects speech understanding, or ability to hear clearly. Sensorineural hearing loss cannot be medically or surgically corrected. It is a permanent loss.

So now 2 hearing aids are in the works...and the "good news" is, there is a good chance they will help. Though there is a very real chance it will just be turning the radio volume up, but it will still be a little off station, meaning it could mostly just be annoying amplified. Oh well.

At least I did learn something about that constant high pitched noise I hear even out in my silent moonlit pasture...most everybody hears that internally generated "noise" if they are in a soundproof room or totally quiet place...its just that they don't hear it 'ALL THE TIME' because they hear all the other sounds of life that drown it out...and the reason I hear it all the time is ...I'm not hearing the sounds that drown it out. Interesting.

It does make for a most unusual and perplexing world. Most of the time I 'hear' the speaker but misinterpret (e.g. 'pass me the spoon' may be heard as 'pass me the broom'). Just a minute ago I was asked "can you have a pet in the sand sun Sue"...i thought for awhile trying to comprehend...and finally asked for a clarification..."can you have a pet in the Sims 2" ? Kinda explains why lately people have been giving me very odd looks when I respond to their simple questions.

Swimming Hole here we come.

We got this far and laid down the brush. On our way to the swimming hole...me and little Grace Kelly. More later.

Wala! BooHoo!

Weird combination of words...but translated that means...got all the little wires and cables and whatnots hooked up on the computer system I was building and reached over and grabbed the video card (the thing that lets all that data go to the monitor)...and I'll be dad gum if that video card will not work in the AGP revision 3 slot that this new mb has!! You've got to be kidding!! Wish I was. So a bit of delay now till I get a video card to replace the perfectly fine but wrong style video card I already have. :(

Oh well, I did find out a friend of mine thinks he has a couple spare ones and he would donate one to my cause (but he didn't want me to give him mine in swap! LOL..).

Going with Mr. Sam this morning to get the hanging muffler on his car bolted back up, and hopefully check into some apartments. Then I may help him get that queen size bed out of the bed of my pickup that I bought for him the other day when a guy offered to sell me a really cool condition Honda trail 70, with the queen size bed for $150. Couldn't pass that up.

Then I may go check out some prices on some basic video cards that will work just in case my friend doesn't have one. There are sure alot of things in life i've run onto that when ya think you finally got it under control and are ready to proudly say "Wala!"...a fly comes and lands in the soup and ...well, ya...boohoo. (But i'd pitch the fly and eat the soup...can't quite do that in this case).

Tuesday

MAYBE today I'll get Sam moved from that "too good to be true" rental that turned out to indeed be too good to be true...when his room mate was extracted to begin at least a 6 month sentence and Sam learns the house will be foreclosed on tomorrow. Well, once thats done...its back to work finishing off that computer upgrade, its ALMOST built..I hope. Still have alot of miscellaneous wires to connect. (OMG!!)..and a few spare parts (!LOL!)...

NEED TO ALTER YOUR MATE A BIT?

I ran onto this article that is better written than I could possibly write it. If you really want to change the behaviour of a spouse, this is about the only shot you've got as far as I've seen... To me, it was hilarious, and yet extremely wise, it makes sense....if a gorilla or wolf or other wild animal can be trained..why not an adult? Yet..for reasons you will understand at the end, plus reasons she doesn't mention, I do NOT recommend EVER telling the other person what you've been doing with this. HOW TO TRAIN A HUMAN ADULT .

HOW MAY I SERVE YOU?

I love that when I sit down in a restraunt and a person comes up and asks that. On one hand it makes me a little uncomfortable, because I see MYSELF as the servant, so how is it that this fellow servant is offering to serve me? But on the other, I see a young person who..even if it is just for the job's sake...is learning a valuable phrase.

This morning in just a few quick paragraphs I'm going to reveal a secret about life that though I learned it early...I've tested it and observed it for decades and it is true. Ready? In general...show me a person unhappy with life, and you'll be showing me a person who is not very involved in sacrificing themselves for the building up or helping of others.

What!? Well, weve gone thru cycles in this world, there was a day where the common motivation/mindset within a person involved being a good neighbor, a helpful citizen, an encouraging friend to others....from this we've gone to being a neighbor to none, helping only ourselves, backstabbing others if we need to. Now the trend is even more radical...expecting others to be a good neighbor to us, expecting others to help us, serve us, encourage us, feed us, entertain us.

And ya know what...the corresponding level of satisfaction with life has plummeted. Its abysmal today. People are bored and miserable and mad at anybody whose life is in anyway inconveniencing them...ie..How dare they pull out in front of me! How annoying these handicap parking spaces are! Look at that guys yard with the tall grass and the broken mower...someone should call the city thats an eyesore...the list goes on. Its not pretty.

So all i've got to say about this is ...if you want to improve the quality of your life, improve the quality of someone else's instead...yours only gets filled up by overflow. Think being kind to all is easy? It takes years of practice to get even halfway decent at it. Opening doors for people, saying please , thank you, excuse me , and I'm sorry and "no, you go ahead, I know i got here first but you've got your hands full" and "can i get that for you?"...those are the amateur stages but they are a start.

WHERE ARE MY GLASSES?

Now some of the youngsters out there may not relate to this, but I'm afraid if you're old enough not to be carded for id...you probably can tell when this has happened to you. Marbella was telling about the time she was having trouble filling out a form and she had the young man over the counter help her with it since she "couldn't find her glasses". He wasn't very far into that when someone standing by Marbella helped her locate her missing glasses...it wasn't like he went thru her purse though, they were on her head.

I have lost many pair of sunglasses in my hair. More than once I have placed a hat on my head and spent quite a few minutes of my life looking for it. Or searched and searched for a set of car keys, sometimes having to reach into a place to check, but had to lay the keys down so my hand would be empty.

This all makes me think of K's blog about what you're looking for . Could it be that people spend hours yearning for something else...when in reality what they are wanting satisfied is already there "on their head" so to speak? Now if what you are wanting is "solitude"...don't be ticked at people ignoring you. "the glasses are on your head". Thats just one example...but take a look at what you're wanting, you may not have to spend much effort or money to get it, you may already have it and just can't see it.

Then there is the other side of that too. You may be spending your life looking for it in the wrong place. Sheesh i hate when that happens, hours upon hours knowing what you need and where you thought it was...only to find out it isn't there.
Well folks...its almost 2am so you can apply this where ever you can find a place to fit it. I'm going looking for my pillow, and I've got a pretty good idea that it isn't in this laptop.

A BEGINNING OF THE MONTH UPDATE

Negotiations are still underway with the electric company, a workable solution may be reached soon. On one hand we really don't have any desire to sell off 6.5 acres out of our 13...but we would still have land and pond, with no powerlines this time, and we'd be able to finish paying the place off by next Christmas with any diligence. This wouldn't change any of the useful features enjoyed by the visiting youngen's except a loss of alot of the blackberries. Fishing, shooting, etc would all still be fine.

Mrs. Bean's seems to be entering the recovery phase of the whooping cough, as the coughing fits are getting further apart...still definitely a part of her days and nights but noticeably fewer of them.

Sam is now working full time and this week moved into a house with a co-renter. He seems to be managing much better with the val poric acid. It seems he still has highs and lows but on a much more manageable scale. The hard part for people his age struggling with bipolar swings is usually staying away from the local unauthorized pharmacist...the temptation is strong, and if the battle is lost, the results are disastrous. He'll have to continue to learn his mood and what triggers what and deal with them.

At last report Wolf is still not doing well fighting against the call of the spirit water. I can not say I've given up on him...because I have realized and accepted that it just isn't up to me. Its not my fight. The choices he will make come from someplace within that I don't have access to or I'd have fixed him long ago, in fact in this family...if that access panel were reachable, a bunch of us wouldve teamed up and fixed it whether he wanted it fixed or not.


In the morning we make a run to Mrs. Beans folks to hopefully build a fence before the sun gets too hot. Which means we better be done by noon. This has definitely been a hot hot summer. Not the hottest I've endured...but I'm not as young as I use to be. Then again, I'm younger now than I'll ever be again.

I still haven't finished the strawberry shortcake mural i've been painting on Grace Kelly's wall, and the box of computer parts to rebuild Mrs. Beans computer is still unopened for 3 days now...so its not like I don't have anything to do...especially with my work schedule going back to normal within a few weeks. Maybe I'll get my hearing aid dropped off for repair of that little battery door Friday. And then there are cars to get in the shop, and people to visit, and further negotiations to make with the power company, and that dang laptop still needs a new power jack, which means taking it apart all the way down to the motherboard, and all kinds of stuff I'm going to have to get on top of...but thats life isn't it...at least its always been that way for me...way more fun stuff to do than I'll ever get worked in before I die. (I've fought against sleep for many years desperate to squeeze a little more "living time" out of each day).

Attacks of Severe Choking Cough ?

If you know someone suffering from a SEVERE choking coughing fit several times a day and its been going on for several weeks and still going on but they feel fine in between the fits...you probably want to read this, because it is commonly misdiagnosed.

When Mrs. Beans started really having some hard severe coughing attacks we thought it was allergies, then a cold, then maybe bronchitis, eventually thoughts of pneumonia began to seem validated...finally when we came to the doctor he could hear nothing asthmatic or abnormal thru the stethoscope, nor in the breathing machine, nor did anything show up in a chest x-ray, and the blood test seemed fine.

We had to figure up how long its been going on, and realized probably close to 2 months now with seemingly increasing severity. With the medicine she took that supressed the immune system (part of the treatment for R.A. ) the doctor supposed maybe it was a bronchitis that kept reinfecting...since even a run of the mill bronchial infection wouldn't have lasted that long. So a course of antibiotics was run to no avail, and a bit of cough syrup to help with the cough...and a trip to a pulmonary specialist was set up.

After an involved visit with the specialist wherein he listened thru a stethoscope..nothing, ran a new chest xray..nothing, had her breathe in a bit more sophisticated machine...nothing. He started her on a treatment for whooping cough (which he said he did any patient that had an unexplained cough lasting over a few weeks). And prescribed some inhalers for asthma just in case, and some allergy/asthma medicine (singulair).

If we had researched this we probably would have immediately suspected whooping cough. But there was no "whooping" sound...turns out in at least half the cases there is no such sound. But here is what we did learn and if you happen to have a new unexplained severe cough that fits this, you might save yourself alot of grief and just get the treatment for whooping cough, because it may be ancient history..but its going around again big time these days...and that shot you had when you were a kid is only good for 5-10 years...its not a lifetime like thing like many believe.


First 2 weeks...may start with a sore throat, mild fever, feeling tired/unwell, may even be a runny nose like a cold...and a dry , ordinary cough every now and then...over the next 7-10 days the fever (mild if any) goes away but the cough gets a little more persistent and may even produce small amounts of clear sticky phlegm...and occasional INTENSE bouts of choking coughing start to happen.

Next 2 weeks onward...(it is said to be the 100day cough in China)...these choking cough attacks get SEVERE (people have been known to actually turn blue)..lasting 1-2 minutes, can even cause vomiting and the feeling of suffocation...THEN, till the next episode its likely you won't cough at all and will feel fine...till the next episode hits. May be twice in one day, maybe 50 x but the crucial point for clinical diagnosis is attacks of severe choking cough separated by long intervals of NO COUGHING AT ALL.

Towards the end of what ranges from 3 weeks to 3 months...the time between episodes increases as fewer and fewer attacks come on. The slow down can continue for the last few weeks, or all of the last couple months.

The bacteria can't live in the air long so it does not pass so easily between adults, who tend to cough away from people rather than directly over them. (be sure to cover your mouth when you cough as mom always said). It is most infectious in the first 2 weeks when it seems no different from an ordinary cough and cold. Generally after 3 weeks it is very unlikely to spread. So by the time you really realize something has a lasting hold on you, you're getting nearly out of the infectious stage.

Once you've got it..just hang on for the ride usually around 6weeks but severe cases can run closer to 12. Good old cough medicine? Won't really help. Antibiotics? If during the incubation stage (before you know you've got it , it might kill it out), during the infectious stage it will shorten the length of time you're infectious, but after that? At best might help prevent against secondary infections which don't usually happen anyway. Steroid inhalers? Might ease the burden abit but not of any real germ fighting value. Not really much you can do about it treatment wise after you realize you've got it. Cough medicine with codeine seems to help the rest period, which is helpful since its pretty exhausting, but it won't "stop" the cough.

For more information and even sound files that you can hear what its like, visit this link or type in www.whoopingcough.net .