UPS physical today.

Blood pressure was 175 over 100.

UPS has therefore laid me off until I can get it under control.

Suck.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:56 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Many years ago, when the horizons were broad, anything was possible, the sky was the limit and I had not irredeemably FUBAR'ed my life in so many ways, I  worked in a  Chinese restaurant. I did not realize it when I was misspending my youth, but that place was rather unusual.

Golden Fortune, on Olney road in Norfolk, was (and is) a tiny little takeout place, squeezed between a Chinese Laundry and an office suite. It sports a completely nondescript facade, and from appearances could be one of a hundred other chop suey joints in Hampton Roads. The shops menu is actually a bit smaller than most places, but there is one glaring difference....
...the staff cooks EVERYTHING fresh.

They make their own egg rolls, wrap their own wontons, make the soups all from scratch, shop daily between the local produce markets for the freshest vegetables.

Anyway, they rock.

  20 years on they are still there and as good as ever, though I discovered today that their menu has recently had some changes.

  Previously they had a spicy chicken dish, General Tang's Chicken. _{(Who General Tang was I don't know but damn' that guy could cook!)} The dish was a spicy chicken/vegetable medley completely different from General Tso's breaded sweet candy chicken chunks _{(which are also on the menu)} that are a fixture at most Chinese take out places. I gather that this led to some consternation from people who assume that all Chinese generals were alike, and who carelessly ordered chicken from the wrong general.

Today the dish had been renamed Generally Tangy Chicken....

This is not the first time they've had to do this. Some time ago,
Golden Fortune Chicken was given the unfathomably inscrutable designation, Marinated Boneless Crispy Chicken With Chinese Vegetables.

I hope this resolves their customers confusion.



_{I also note in passing that China is well ahead of the US in the international chicken wars with regards to rank.}

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Bob is Always Right

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I spent most of yesterday  very closely contemplating  my diet over the last couple of days....which contained a surprisingly large proportion of Almonds...

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more...

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It is hot.

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Bad day
Bad week
Bad month
Bad couple of months actually...
I withhold judgment on the year for now.


As hopeless and futile as my life seems right now, I'm not here, here, here, or here.

Perspective is not really a substitute for hope...but it is important.

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Here are 4 actual fortune cookie fortunes I've received over the last few months.

Be careful! Straight trees often have crooked roots!

Sure, you have duties, but what about your duties to yourself.

Failure is not final. Just make sure you don't die because of it.

They'll definitely remember all your efforts.

...

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more...

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I've spent the last few days when not at work or school shuttling my mom between their house and the Hospital, cleaning up and generally making the parents house handicapable (a few rails here and there, the big handicapped toilet ect.). The biggest challenge was getting the geometry of the spare room such that the hospital bed allowed enough space for the walker and wheelchair to negotiate the entrance.

This evening my father finally came home and, with some difficulty, my brother in law and I got him upstairs into the hospital bed. He is in the house.

Yay!

With my mother recovering from cancer, my grandmother recovering from a shoulder replacement (due to a fall last year) and my dad very pretty much immobile for a month or more while he  recovers from this surgery, I'm  pretty much  going to be assisting with therapy, cleaning doing yardwork and generally keeping up my folks house for the next few weeks/months.

I'm going to be Super Mister ButlerMan!

...and that always leads to adventure !

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I was off work this morning to deal with the general pandemonium around the Talton household as we packed my dad off to the hospital

I was informed during Japanese class that my father had entered surgery and was expected to  be awake at 1:30. After class I left the school to run by my parents house to check on my grandmother, who is recovering from shoulder surgery. The plan was to meet my sister, have her take me to the hospital and after meeting dad take the van (which my mom is too short to drive) back to my folks house.

At 3:00 I called my mom to find out if he was awake yet.

He was not.

 His blood pressure had collapsed shortly after I had talked to her and they were unable to awaken him. I explained the situation to my grandmother and we prepared to leave for the Hospital. I called my mother again and got no response. 3 more calls and no response.

I called my sister to see where she was. She answered that she had not left the hospital. I asked if there had been any change at all and she said no. I told her to hang tough and that my grandmother and I were coming. My sister then informed me that my dad did not want Granny to come to the hospital. I was antsy about bringing her there myself but if there had been no change and he was still not waking up then I wanted to be by his side and she did too. At this point there was a long silence.....then my sister came back with...."Huh?....Oh yeah! I was supposed to call you when he woke up! Sorry."

Little sisters are such pernicious creatures.

After being relieved at the parents house by my uncle I stopped by the hospital just over an hour ago. I got another start when I arrived.  The room was beset with nurses an alarm was going off and his wavy line machine had flatlined....this turned out to be due to a defective piece of electronic equipment. My father kept asking "Does this mean I'm dead?"

He is in good spirits and doing as well as can be expected for a man who has just had his hips deboned and then reboned with stainless steel. My brother was there when I arrived. As I type this we have just left him to sleep. He should be home Friday or Saturday and I can start breathing (and sleeping) again now.

Thanks to everyone who left their good wishes. They were greatly appreciated.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:01 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 That is outstanding news. I'm glad it worked out OK.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at Tue Mar 25 18:49:26 2008 (+rSRq)

2

*phew* 

I don't have a rosary, so I've been worrying at a set of those little candies on a string... practically wore them down flat!

Seriously, I'm glad he's okay, Muppet. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at Tue Mar 25 19:13:13 2008 (gwUM9)

3 Wow!  That was a scare.  I'm glad to hear things are levelling out for you and your dad.

Best of luck!

MC

Posted by: mostly cajun at Tue Mar 25 20:51:40 2008 (9ZpEP)

4 Your dad sounds like quite a guy.  Glad it turned out well!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Mar 25 21:55:28 2008 (PiXy!)

5 Here's hoping your dad is annoyed by TSA personnel for decades to come. ;p

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Mar 26 04:55:40 2008 (LMDdY)

6 I'm glad everything went well.  Heres to a speedy recovery.

Posted by: Marina at Wed Mar 26 11:08:35 2008 (2Yden)

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My father goes into surgery Tuesday.

He has been putting off his hip replacement for nearly a decade and can barely walk. The doctor, upon looking at his X-Rays last year, was astonished that he could walk at all, people are usually restricted to wheelchairs long before they reach his level of deterioration. He has been muddling along in pain for years...first to reach retirement and then to do the myriad things that have cropped up since. He's not that old, only 65, but a perfect storm of injuries and genes have given him the hips of a 90 year old football player.

   Monday a spanner was thrown in the works.....a fault was detected in his heart. Essentially, his left ventricle is backfiring. This puts him at some risk from the anesthesia. The past week has been spent in interminable tests to determine if it is even safe to operate. After looking over the results the doctor explained that he faces some real risk. However,  he left the decision to my dad due to the pressing fact that my dad is 65 and looking at 30-40 years in a wheelchair in pain without the surgery. So, my father is, understandably, going ahead with it.

Stupidity, circumstances and naivete' put me on the side of a 200 foot cliff with my sweaty palms loosing their grip. I've gotten entangled in debris while diving, found myself surrounded by barracuda and been face to face with a tiger shark as well as a herd of wild pigs. I've been seasick and upside down hanging head first in the bilge of a sinking boat trying to install a spare bilge pump  while seas higher than our pilot house dunked me in my own vomit...and I was scared to death each and every time.

.....but I've never been quite as scared as I am tonight......

I'll know something by noon Tuesday.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:21 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Well, I'm all sorts of bizzy....

 
Last week was Spring Break.
I spent it alternating between UPS, the Coast Guard and the bug that's been going around.

Why did I go in to the Coast Guard on spring break?
...well... here is some background on that....




more...

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Well I did very good on the first Japanese and both biology exams....

Tomorrow I'll be taking the last actual midterm...the Kanji and grammar exam.

Dread is upon me.

After that I jet up to Haymarket to see some friends and next week I will spend my spring break guarding the coast (after work.) As to whether I'll get paid for this that is debateable but I'll hopefully get my qualification for full boarding officer before the March deadline.

Back to studying....

*Gif is a completely accurate representation me worrying about an exam...aside from the wasteline, the presence and color of  the hair, lack of glasses , red eyes, bluetooth headset, stylish outfit, general chibiness and bishonenness it is uncanny.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Midterm Exam Week!

Exams suck.

That is All.

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Work, school, and training for this Coast Guard certification in between the two is keeping me seriously busy.


Rather less sporadic blogging will resume next week.

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Suddenly..... unexpected good news!

My Tuition Assistance appeal was approved!!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:22 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 I don't know what caused the weirdly broken .gifs.
I don't know what fixed them .
But when in doubt it is important to give thanks to the creator.


THANKS PIXY!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Feb 6 18:54:07 2008 (bYYPI)

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...in that you really need to save early and often.

The internet is wonky today...twice now I've lost a half finished post via an "internet burp" (it's not MINX..it affected someone I was IMing at the time to).

I do wonder if it is related to rerouting around the recent cable snaps.

Friday was a day for snappages..my alternator belt snapped. The pickup of peril is now in the shop, in part because the belt is an obsolete type that must be special ordered.

I managed to secure transportation for Monday so school and work are still go.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:09 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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My father goes in for hip replacement surgery in a few weeks, my mother is weak from her medication she's on for the next few months following her successful cancer surgery, my grandmother is in the final phases of recovery  from last years shoulder surgery...so I'm going to be staying at my parents house for at least the next few months to help out. Given both that their house is far more centrally located for my needs and that I'll likely be moving out of country next year I've occassionally considered selling the trailer...though that, as mentioned before, entailes the utter ignonimy of being 38 and living at home...OTOH  paying lot rent and minimum utilities in the trailer is a waste...but frankly I have enough ignonimy in my life....

..to wit...

I've been running around taking care of things during the first two weeks of school...running..studying but not excersizing. Before that I was on active duty with the USCG. However, except for the weekend, the boarding schedule was such that there was virtually no PT....At work I was put into a physically non-demanding slot I happened to have the training for to cover an injured emploee.

Lots of work, lots of exaustion....but very few calories burned. I just discovered this has produced a net result of about 10 pounds gained.

HOLY FRICKKING CRAP!!

Well, that is not going to stand...for one thing my weigh in with the USCG is at the end of April. I'm NOT going to risk getting put out for failing to meet standards.  Health and financial issues aside, there is a deep personal issue for me here. One of the most vile people I have ever known *got put out of the military for that very reason. I will not follow on his footsteps. I have some dignity.

'sides....summers coming up and I'm gonna be buff when I head back to Japan...

*No, not John McCain, you need to scrooll a few paragraphs further...though that post does remind me of another issue with the my tentative...um... er...endorsement...urp....

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1 You'll get there, I have faith in you.

Posted by: Marina at Mon Jan 28 09:19:40 2008 (MpYXu)

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