The Electric

Today I had an MRI done on both my knees. Why? About a month ago I fell while helping my brother-in-law build his deck and while my knees have always been crappy, the left knee which took the hit still wasn’t doing much better after a few weeks.

So after getting the name of an orthopedic doctor, Dr. Tim Duffey, from my podiatrist, I headed down for the exam. Dr. Duffey’s GP did the first check and noticed that both of my knees made these nice cracking sounds when she tested my range of motion. Next was x-rays in just about every position know to man. After reviewing the film, Dr. Duffey came in and asked shortly after introducing himself if I had ever had an MRI?

At this point I’m thinking the worst thing that could happen is the scope. What I didn’t think of was what came next, the word Tumor.

See my knees are still growing. That’s not a good thing. So here are my odds 98% benign 1% Malignant from a cancer someplace else in the body 1% Rare bone cancer

So I was rolled into an MRI machine to have scans on both knees.

The MRI wasn’t quite what I thought it would be like. I was expecting jackhammer like pounding. It was more like a very long and loud whirling noise. Jean brought some magazines to read to me but it was so steady, I ended up with just the headphones.

The only discomfort came when my left butt cheek started to cramp. But since my head wasn’t in the machine, this is a prefectly fine trade off.

I was handed my films and then the waiting started…

“On behalf of all our crew, we realize you have a choice of bankrupt airlines, and we thank you for choosing United.” - Landing in San Francisco after a United flight from Denver, Linda Gallegos heard the flight attendant’s announcemen

• My left knee is all gone to crap. If I was a horse, I would be shot. Keep that in mind as you gaze at this post.

• I pray that Texas beats OSU so I won’t have to listen to Buckeye fan all fall rant about how they’re #1. Part of the joy of college football has been taken from me by having to live with Buckeye fan for the better part of 25 years. God I wish I was back in Bama.

• Starting to get pissy at work which isn’t a good thing. Makes me wish I could just throw down the “That’s just the way it is.” card as well as have a switch I could throw that would not make me care what others thought. I would be insufferable to those around me but it not like this is ever going to happen… I’d implode from the guilt.

• Question of the week: You try to start a grassroots project with a co-worker That project is then dovetailed into a larger effort involving other co-workers from different groups. You are happy because the scope of this effort could be enormous and needing additonal resources to be done right. In the final project proposal, key things you felt passionately about were pushed into the “to be reviewed” section while other things that you feel are stupid have been moved to the top “do now” section. These stupid things are so stupid, you didn’t even get pissed when you’re name was left off the final proposal. These things could wreck the whole project but you’re not on the list anymore so why should you care but then again it would majorly suck if something isn’t done. Something that made you head down this path in the first place. So what do you do?

Was talking about the events in NOLA with my in-laws over dinner after my mother-in-law’s surprise birthday party.

My brother-in-law talked about Michael Savage’s ‘idea’ of moving the refugees to the military bases on the closure list. Savage. that’s a voice of reason for the masses.

My father-in-law talked about people still in NOLA just want a handout. He also said that he would have shot to kill rioters during the LA riots to put a stop to them.

My sister-in-law said the reason people stayed was so that they could get their welfare checks on Wed.

My mother-in-law praised the folks who self dispatched themselves saying they fed people. Maybe in the other parishes but not Orleans.

All questioned the idea of rebuilding NOLA. I snapped at this point asking if we should have rebuilt Northridge or LA after an earthquake…

Needless to say all of them are Christian, Republicans & Bush backers.

When my brother-in-law joked that he wished Katrina had taken out the Clinton Library, I responded by saying I then have to wish for an earthquake to swallow the Reagan library.

I put John to sleep and watched college football with my brother-in-law until bed. Now, I’m going to head to bed or maybe watch Riding Giants.

When it rains it pours.

As if Bush’s attention wasn’t already distracted between Iraq and NOLA, now the Cheif Justice has passed away.

All I know is Sen.Spector better not die in the next 3 years.

Somebody wanna wake me up now.

It’s one thing to read it but yet another to hear the man’s voice.

God Bless Mayor Nagin and all those who have suffered and lost

Yesterday I talk to my colleague Libbie Crawford about this weekend. Libbie is a Bama gal and the kind of driven and determined Southern woman that books are written about. Where I have memories in the Gulf, Libbie and her husband have family, close friends and history in each of the areas Katrina hit.

“Libbie, I’m going to try and not watch the coverage this weekend. I almost threw my remote at the tv when they started turning folks away from the Astrodome” I said more for myself than anything.

“Yeah, I turned off my news reader. Other than NPR in the car and the paper because I can put that down, I’m not going to watch it.” she said.

So after driving to Cleveland (gas ranged from $2.99 on the low to $3.49 on the high on 71 north) with Jaymes who we had picked up from school for his folks, I turned on the TV last night to catch a baseball score from the pennant race.

Guess what was on TBS, the channle the tv was tuned to when I turned it on.

Forest Gump

I didn’t know if I wanted to laugh or cry (I always cry when I watch that movie as I feel like Forest about 75% of the time). This time it felt like a reminder of what was lost. Yet it had been lost before. rebuilt and will in time be lost again.

Libbie knows Winston Groom from her time at the University of Alabama so I’m sure she’ll get a kick when I tell her about this on Tuesday.

I live 851.4 miles from Mobile, Alabama.

Some of my first memories come from there. I lived in Pensacola, Fla while my Uncle Don and his family lived across the U.S. 90 causeway in Theodore near Mobile. We would take the causeway into Mobile to visit him as well as to see a show like Holiday on Ice. There I learned to love Baseball, Hank Aaron, Alabama football, Brunswick stew & shrimp. While I haven’t been in the state of Alabama nor the panhandle of Florida since I was 5 years old, I’ve considered it a spiritual home in a way.

Those things I remember about Mobile are gone now. If not from the change time brings then the change only a hurricane leaves in it’s wake.

I live 899.5 miles from Biloxi, Ms or what was Biloxi.

I have family in Jackson, Ms on my Dad’s side, his cousin. It’s been since 1988 since I last saw them at the funeral for Aunt Evy my Grandma Leslie’s sister. My family tends to gather around the casket. At least they used to for my grandparent’s generation. But time and distance has eroded even these gatherings. It’s been since then that I last saw my grandparent’s head stone at Brown cemetery in Jackson, Tn. My Dad is buried just outside Columbus near Lewis Center far from his boyhood home and the resting place of his parents. At his funeral my Uncle Don who if based on years and health should have been with Jesus long ago said he wasn’t going back to Jackson. He told his kids to cremate him and that was it. I don’t know where I’ll rest when it’s my time to nap with Abraham.

I live 924.6 miles from New Orleans

Jesus, New Orleans. I visited my Uncle Don when he moved there once. I went to a wax museum about the pirates that worked the Gulf. My Grandpa bought me a bag full of plastic toy groceries along with some chocolate coins in gold foil. I remember eating at a fancy resturant that reminded me like a set on the Lawrence Welk Show, complet with a white marbel staircase and these light sea green curtains.

Folks say it looks like the third world there after Katrina broke the levees. It looks more like apocalypse now or a disaster movie but without the heroic ending.

I saw a photo of a man holding a baby in one arm and with his other lifting a sheet so that the photographer could see the dead man under it.

I saw another photo of a person in a wheelchair pushed to the side of the convention center and covered in a blanket as she had died.

My sister in law asked why didn’t they leave. My brother in law who is a southerner by way of Tampa and Bowling Green Ky reminded her that some people were too sick, too poor or just stuck. Even if you had the means to leave for many there was no place they could afford to go.

It’s gone to Hell there now. People are sick, scared and desperate. Throw in the heat and the utter loss of everything and it’s amazing they didn’t lose it sooner.

Major League Baseball which only has minor league affiliates in the area dropped $3 million in the hat, the New York Yankees throwing down $1 million on the barrel. The NFL, frigging $1 million while they move the Saints to San Antonio.

The President can only do so much but I wonder when he’ll be asked about the levees.

I need to go and pray for the Gulf now.