Prayers

Sep 15, 2013

A Few Good Men........

Not your average Saturday night.  Er, for me anyway.
Have you ever just had it and decided to take the bull by the horns?  Sometimes that can lead to kind of crazy stuff.

I decided to go out looking for a few good men, so my friend Katrina and I set out tonight, accompanied by my 1911 pistol Michael, and drove all the way to Kansas City on a quest.

We had to brave the Paseo, and we truly did make some sacrifices, mostly to our adrenalin systems, but we have gotten a fine start.  So fine in fact, it's going to be pretty hard to top.  But take heart, for I always did love a challenge.


When I said a few good men, I wasn't messing around.  

I have proudly supported this man since 2008.  No matter what life has thrown at him, he has stayed the course. 

"You cannot bring a good man down", how many times have you heard that?  However many times it has been, look around, and I am pretty sure you will find that it's true.  Every time.  And when I say "look", I mean actually find out for yourself.

Those with eyes to see in these times will tell you not to lose hope, because we have good people everywhere.  They are there, steadily pursuing the course they have set, undeterred by the ways of the world.  They are aided all along the way by those who volunteer their time or send in whatever small amount they can spare.   

Col. West spoke to us of our history, and asked us to go out, speak up, talk to people.  Many of us have been raised to be "polite", and that is a good thing.  But being polite doesn't mean being silent.  Politely speak what you know to be true.  

The way I look at it, we are fighting a terrifying enemy.  It's easy to feel hopeless about the future, especially if you have children.  But therein lies the key, and it is our greatest strength.  It's not a new kind of drone, it doesn't cost a dime, and everyone can do it.  We are fighting an enemy that does not value life.  Not even the lives of their children.  Frankly, I do not know how they got to that low point, but here in America, to the best of my knowledge, there is no more vicious enemy than one who is defending their child.  

Imagine going to a fight between a large man who believed that if he died in the fight he would rewarded with 72 virgins and a mother who knew that if she lost the fight her baby would be raped, sodomized and beheaded.  I'll concede the fact that the odds would favor the big guy, but I'd still put my money on the mother.  Even if I only had a dollar left to my name, and even if most of the bets were being placed for the big guy.  LOTS of people would, I believe.

I see real leaders all around, despite the results of "elections".  Real leaders.  Leaders that people respect and are willing to listen to and serve, despite any cost.

If you can't think of one right off the top of your head then I seriously advise you to start paying attention.

This world is not going to fix itself.  We've been "at ease" too long.

Oh, and did you know Col. West proposed to his wife Angela at KCI?  Well, he did!


Sep 1, 2013

Impactions and Extractions......And a Bit O' Wisdom

My Oldest Baby, ahead of his 16 years, recently had his wisdom teeth start coming in.

So we journeyed to Kansas City to have them extracted.  He chose not to be put completely out, very unlike his mother. I admired his chutzpa, but my own memories of my own being extracted left dread in my heart.  My wisdom teeth came in when I was about 20 and I opted for the cheapest removal I could find.  I found a willing soul who gave me laughing gas, which made me cry, although I did not feel sad, copiously. My ears kept filling up while the poor dentist alternately used a hammer and chisel to break the teeth into pieces and then stood on the chair, pulling until his poor arms shook, attempting to pull them out.  While this was going on the only discomfort I felt was the sounds this made inside my head, which were incredibly horrible.  The body does not take trespassing slightly, under any circumstances.  Take my word for this. Please.  I spent about a week with a face so swollen I only had a little 0 to sip water or Spaghettios out of and bruising that was almost as bad as the swelling.  But I survived and then, happy day, I found a dentist that I trusted and never looked back.  Sadly, he does not remove wisdom teeth, so I took his referral and hoped for the best.

Looking at my young son laying back in the chair and refusing to be knocked out, all I could focus on was his shoes.  He is a size 13, and his feet looked so huge that it occurred to me that my baby was as big as a man.  This thought has been pestering me like mosquito's lately and my head knows it but my heart keeps fighting it and throwing crying fits about it.

The Dr. seemed to think it would be fine if he didn't get knocked completely out, so I just nodded, still focused on the shoes.

They invited me to leave the room for the second time and I managed to do it with some dignity.  Back in the waiting room I read my book and fought back tears (which had nothing to do with the book) and looked up and breathed slowly and finally went to the bathroom to cry just a little bit and relieve the pressure. I told myself I was being ridiculous and again my head knew this and accepted it but my heart, well, those two are often at odds and I have learned to deal with this somewhat successfully.  Somewhat.

It didn't take more than 1/2 an hour and when my baby came out, staggering slightly in his size 13 shoes and carrying a white envelope I assumed was a pain pill, he went straight to the car.  After I paid I went to check on him.  He was doing fine, but it was his teeth (arg) in the envelope and he couldn't swallow any of the ibuprofen I had with me because he was still numb.  Fortune was with us and he kept from swallowing one of the glumps of gauze that was still in his mouth, but getting it out he leaned forward, causing what seemed to be an alarming amount of blood to just run out of his poor, violated mouth and spill all down his front.  In this, he was also just like his mother.  His mother was now preoccupied with visions of Jack and Shadow stalking the teeth in the envelope, and trying to decide where she could "keep" these trophies without ever having to "see" them again.  Just so you take me seriously, here is what they look like.
EWWWWW!!  These make me cringe.  I have a "thing" about teeth.  NOT a good "thing"......To see this makes me weak but blood pouring out of my child's mouth while I'm driving?  I take that right in stride.  That's just the way I am.

His mother drove immediately to a pharmacy handily located just across the road, went in with a look of panic on her face, and was immediately helped by a woman, also a mother whose daughter had just gone through this.  We gathered baggies, gauze and a bag of ice together, and it turned out she was actually from a town only 30 miles from my own.  I considered that a God wink.

Two hours later we were home and had all the prescriptions filled. We were stocked up on soft foods and every kind of ice cream concoction I could think of, which was quite a lot.

Saturday night the boys felt good enough to stay up late playing their "magic" game (which involves cards instead of video games and which I like very much) and then at 4 am things got really interesting.

I was woken up by My Oldest Baby and his best friend (my fourth son), who informed me that My Oldest Baby thought his heart had stopped in his sleep.  This was not what caused them to wake me.  First, my fourth son had googled all the side effects of the medication and that had scared them enough to wake me.  Now, this is a syndrome that I know all about, thanks to The Beautiful Redhead. Indeed, her entire generation will probably have a syndrome named for them that involves googling side effects and convincing yourself that you are dying.  The way I figure it, it may keep the emergency rooms in business.

So, to make a long story short, My Oldest Baby once again proved that he is my son, and declared he would take no more pain medication, just ibuprofen from here on in, because it just wasn't worth it.  It sounded good to me.  By 6 am we were all back in bed, after having a little snack of Spaghettios. What fun is it to be up in the middle of the night with no snack, after all?

So far, so good today with just ibuprofen.  People always think we have a big tolerance for pain.  It's actually just the opposite: we are allergic to lots of random stuff and usually it's much simpler to put up with a little pain than going to the emergency room because of allergic reactions.  Simpler, cheaper, faster, and less trouble.

He is ready to go to his own bed tonight, free from narcotics and the hallucinations that sometimes come with them.  And his mother?  She has just about accepted that he really is almost a full grown man, able to make decisions and see them through with nothing but the courage of his convictions.

Her heart tells her that this one is going to leave big footprints, and not just because of the size 13 shoes.  Her heart always knows.