So Sad...

I, along with the rest of the world, was shocked and saddened to hear of the devastation in Japan.

I am without words to express my heartfelt sorrow.

Wishing my friends and blog buddies in Japan all the best.

On the Job

Kona is a busy, busy boy this week. We've got 6 - count'um, 6 therapy visits this week to do! What was I thinking when I signed up for all of this?


He is such a trooper though, and goes about his merry way, tail wagging the whole time.

Have I mentioned...

...that last week was crazy?

Let's see if I can remember all of what kept me so busy.

Monday - I had an all day fundraiser to do for work about 30 miles from home. While it wasn't very successful, I still got my name out to quite a few people. Networking people, its about networking sometimes. However, before I left that morning, I had an ominous call from Bear. She'd gone in for a normal checkup, and wound up passing out. Now, I'm not talking about getting a little queasy and closing her eyes for a couple of seconds, I'm talking about full-on PASSING OUT from a standing position, straight back, SMACKING the crapola out of the back of her head and getting knocked out cold. We were told that she was completely unconscious for over a minute and according to protocol, the nurses called a "code" on her. Now, I'm not a health professional by any stretch of the word, but I know a "code" is not good. They weren't sure what the heck had happened, and it was better to be safe than sorry. Thankfully she came-to before the crash cart got onto the scene. It was very scary for her, to say the least. After a few hours, and several tests (including a CT scan to be sure her skull wasn't cracked and there was no internal bleeding) she was given the ok to go home. Thankfully, my Mom was able to go and pick her up, since I was 30 miles south. To put it mildly, she had a knot on the back of her head the size of a baseball that was cut in half, and the worst headache ever. Poor girl! The conclusion was that she had a vasovagal response, which is a fancy way of saying she simply fainted.

Tuesday - After Bear spent the night, she actually woke up feeling semi-decent. Forget trying to touch the back of her head though, the knot was the size of her fist, and even moving her hair around (I tried to see if I could see a red spot, etc.) was very painful for her. We decided to get a little change of scenery and grabbed our cameras and headed to the local mountains.

We had a great time, enjoyed the fresh air, and each other's company and finished off the day with a stop at a local casino and a little bit of a win.

Wednesday - Harley went to an eye specialist for some minor surgery on her eyelid. She's had a small growth that we'd been keeping an eye one (pardon the pun) for a couple of months and in the last couple of weeks, it had grown very quickly. It was time to get it taken care of for sure.

She did great, and came out of the surgery swollen but looking so much better already. While she was being worked on, I went to visit Merrill, her "Dad" who happens to be in the VA Hospital for a couple of weeks. I bring Harley home late in the afternoon and she is not happy about wearing her "cone." Gotta do whatcha gotta do though, right?

Bear winds up coming over after just a few hours at work. She has a sinus infection and her allergies are kicking in. She feels rotten and doesn't want to be at her apartment alone. I don't blame her.

Thursday - I got to visit my weight doctor. I'm up just a wee bit from 6 weeks ago, and she is not as much concerned about that as she is with me telling her that I'm stressed for time and not sleeping at all well. Nice. My blood pressure is good though, and for that I am thankful (and surprised.) I promise her that I am going to try to make some more time for myself, stress less about all of my volunteering stuff that I am doing (the new Love on a Leash chapter I created and am the leader of, the Golden Retriever group, etc.) and relax. (What does that word mean?) Bear is still staying with us, and feeling even worse. Later in the afternoon I meet with a printer to get prices for t-shirts & sweatshirts and see the final version of our new Love on a Leash chapter logo. I am happy, and anxious to get things rolling. Bear and I rent a couple of movies to watch for the afternoon/evening. She winds up watching one of them while I work.

Friday - Bear's cold and allergies are continuing to maker her miserable, but it's my Dad's birthday - so she'll try to put on a happy face. My Mom makes a fantastic turkey dinner, fit for a Thanksgiving afternoon. I am tickled not only because I love turkey dinner, but it also means I don't have to worry about what to make for dinner. (While I am a decent cook, I don't particularly enjoy cooking most of the time- it seems to add to my stress I guess.) Before dinner I make my normal Friday trip to the VA for dog therapy. I wind up going without Kona this time, as I am supervising a new team, and with Kona attending we'd be over our limit of 7 teams. I spend a few minutes with Merrill again, and give him the update on Harley. Dinner was delightful, and we enjoyed several family card games. Pops enjoyed the little bouquet of fresh flowers we brought, and a good time was had by all.

Saturday - Bear is finally feeling a bit better, thank goodness! I have a rare Saturday with nothing too major on my calendar. I have a therapy visit at a senior care facility booked, but the activity director calls to cancel because of a virus going around the facility. I take the opportunity to "whack and hack" my emails. My in-box had been hovering at about 420 emails for quite some time. I went through them as best as I could, keeping my doctor's orders in mind to "try to get rid of some of the stress," and whittle them down to less than 100. I think I can feel the stress level go down already.

Sunday - It's early up and out for us, as Hubby and AJ, along with three friends, head out for and early training ride on their bikes. The boys are participating in an event called the Wounded Warriors Soldier Ride, and my Love on a Leash Chapter is sponsoring their team. I leave the house at 6:30am with them, and tag along in the Smart car, jaunting up ahead of the team getting pictures, etc. I follow them until they turn around and start to head back home.

While they ride home, I make breakfast for 5 hungry men, (one of those times when I actually enjoy cooking) and they arrive just as I set the table. They rode just about 30 miles, and quickly devoured the huge pan of scrambled eggs I made, the hash browns, sausage, corn beef hash, and cinnamon rolls. Hubby and AJ are pooped, but there is no rest for the weary....at least not the weary Hubby. I have a large gold party to do up north, and need Hubby's help. Sure enough, the party is a huge success, and I am a very happy camper. We wind up going out for a nice dinner (I have a baked potato,lobster tails and a small fillet) then coming home to (finally) crash in front of the TV for a little while.

So...there you have it. If you ever ask me what I've been up to, and I say "oh, not much...." don't believe me.

Tom Hanks & Tiaras

If you've ever been subjected to watching the ridiculous reality show called "Toddlers and Tiaras" - you'll appreciate this spoof that Tom Hanks recently did on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.

The scariest thing is that there really are parents out there that are like this. YIKES!

Happy Birthday Pops!

Eighty two years ago the world became a better place when my Dad came into it.

We are wishing you the very happiest of birthdays today, and look forward to dinner tonight. (My Mom is making a traditional turkey dinner, stuffing and all, per my Dad's special request.)

If we play cards, I don't want to sit in front of you if we play "Up the River, Down the River" you whoop me....but if we play "Spades," I call YOU for MY partner!

I can't tell you how fortunate I feel to have both of my parents in my life, and living so close. So many of my friends have lost one, or both of theirs.

I am blessed, I truly am, and I know it.

Karma, part 2

While I didn't get many responses posted here, I got some interesting Face Book messages, private messages and emails, etc. and it seems that most of us do indeed believe in the old adage of "what comes around goes around," aka, karma.

So, the reason I was asking about karma, was that I felt it stronger than ever the other day. Here's why....Bear and I went to check out the snow in the local mountains. She had the day off from work, and we like to get out and about when time allows, grab our cameras, and go look for something different to take pictures of. We found just that, visiting Julian, Lake Cuyamca and the surrounding areas.

On the way home, we decided that we were starving and might completely collapse if we didn't find food, and find it quick were kind of hungry, so we stopped at the first place along the way home that we just happened to come by. It happened to be Viejas...which happens to be on an Indian Reservation, which means it just happens to have a casino. How convenient!

Have I mentioned I love to play slot machines? Yep, I think I've mentioned that....

Anywho, first things first. We sit down at their little diner type restaurant and order some lunch. After scarfing leisurely nibbling on the tuna melts we ordered, we got up to pay the bill, and stop by the slot machines for a few minutes before we headed home.

Our bill was exactly $18. We paid with four $5 bills. The nice older gal behind the counter asked if we were club members (which we were, again, how convenient) so she could give us a discount. Sweet! After our discount, the total was $14.40. She handed one of our $5 bills back, then rang in the transaction. She then gave me 60 cents change, and a $5 bill. I said thank you and walked away towards the slots.

Bear and I got about 50 feet away and I stopped and looked at the money she'd given me. I got $5.60 change on a $14.40 bill, which I paid $15.00 on. Wrong. The cashier had over paid me. Now, I'll admit that way back when I would have probably thought, "Wow, thanks very much for the extra moola," and kept walking. But not now...I told Bear what had happened, and turned to go back.

I stepped up to the cashier, told her what she'd done, smiled as she thanked me, and left by saying, "It's all about the karma, right?" I told Bear that the cashier was shocked that I gave her the money back. I told her I would have felt bad knowing that her drawer would have been short at the end of her shift, etc. Again, I mentioned karma, saying, "I could sure use the good karma, right?" We chuckled and walked away.

And that's when the good karma train hit me. Ok, so maybe it wasn't a train, but it was at least a little choo-choo. I put $1 in a machine and on the last $ .25 I hit $50 bucks. Sweet! I hit repeat bet a couple of times, cashed out, and moved on.

Fast forward about 10 minutes. I find another machine I'm interested in playing for a couple of minutes, and I put $10 into it. It was a nickel machine. A few pulls later, I hit this.

It was 1000 nickels, which sounds awesome, but was only another $50 bucks, but who's complaining? I played for about another minute or two, and cashed out again.

That was it, I was happily done. I just couldn't get over that just after having returned a $5 bill that was overpaid to me, I turned around and hit one hundred bucks, in the form of two $50 payoffs.

Boy, oh boy, am I glad I returned that $5 bucks! I don't know about you, but if that's not a great example of good karma, I don't know what is. All I can say is that I hope that train keeps coming my way!

Karma

I'm taking a quick survey...

Do you believe in karma?

The shortest explanation of karma that I know is: 'you get what you give'. In other words; whatever you do intentionally to others, a similar thing will happen to yourself in the future. Causing suffering to others will cause suffering to ourselves, causing happiness to others will result in happiness for oneself.

We all know what it is, we've all heard the word, and what it's supposed to mean. I'm interested, do you believe?

I do, big time, and tomorrow I'll tell you why.