I am not sure why I really wanted to post this. It really does not have that much humor and it does not have that much storm but I thought it might be interesting to post this. Perhaps if you have any interesting things that have happened to you in the animal department you could relay a response and I will kind of pile up the stories and someday use them in some sort of writing. (I will not use your name). You can tell that if I am writing about this that it is a good thing. Don't have all that much now on the health front and folks let me tell you that is a good thing.
I think of animals right now because I had something new this weekend. I was cleaning up a woodpile at our property up north. At the bottom of the pile was some rotten 4' by 8' piece of pressed wood. I lifted this up to finish the job and underneath was one of the healthier den of blue racer snakes that I had ever seen. One of these things was a really big guy. They took off in true blue racer form. I can first hand testify that they deserve their name. I was not aware that snakes in our state could get that big. I think these things eat mice and bugs so I did not feel a threat but I gotta tell you they did get my attention. Never been that much of a fan of snakes but as pretty proud of myself to not panic. They kept coming back to check if I had put the piece of wood back on the roof of their house but I thought it might be wise to not do that. Always kind of wondered about people that search out these things in the wild. Some of them even to be fascinated by all kind of these creatures but for me they belong in the Bible and pictures and that is where they can stay.
Another pretty good story is about a year or so ago when early in the morning I woke up Deb and there were 3 bears on our back porch looking for a meal of birdseed. A mother and 2 second year cubs. The mother was pretty good sized and the cubs looked like they had consumed a few cupcakes as well. They kind of hung around a while. I am not sure if these things eat humans but I must admit that I kind of think about it when I walk around that property. This mother bear was large enough that one of my objectives to not become a meal. I really do not think they like humans all that much but I have decided to not test the water on this one. I saw some bears again a couple of weeks ago and let me tell you that these things are fast when they go to a run. I think of a bear skin rug in front of the mantle and someone asking, why is that piece of grey hair kind of stuck to the inside of the skin? Not sure they are all that dangerous but my vote is for not taking chances.
Probably the most interesting story I have is about animals, is about squirrels. It is true that I find these creatures kind of interesting. We have a bunch of them in our neighborhood in Holland. Lots of oak trees and lot of squirrels. We had a lady in the area that had one of these lawns that was always in the local news for being nice. The lady of the house could not stand squirrels digging up the lawn
to bury nuts. She bought a trap. When the squirrels would enter the live trap she would try to give them swimming lessons but none of them ever learned how. As the count piled up she kind of filled up the burial grounds around the house and as the ground got harder with winter she started to put these things in a bag in the bottom of her deep freeze. The following spring she asked her husband to dump this bag in the middle of Lake Michigan on a fishing trip he was taking. Only one problem. With the waves, these things started to wash up on shore. People that walked in the spring started to notice. Soon the DNR was called and soon after various theories about about the squirrels on the beach started to appear in our local paper. All kinds of ideas started to surface. One of the locals even suggested that these things were swimming over from Wisconsin and not quite making it. I tried to picture this but was reasonably sure this with all the other theories was not on target. Never did say much about this but always had some confidence that I kind of knew the origin of those creatures. I think it is kind of a thing you do not say much about.
Of all the creatures. I find the humans to be one of the more interesting. I am watching the Olympics right now and I find a couple of things interesting. A couple of thoughts. I am not sure the Queen would get a gold metal in the smiling department. I also find it interesting about how many events there are. Team events, double back flip events. 100 meter double backstroke and then 103 meter double backstroke while holding on to your goggles. Anyway, I hope they have a lot of gold medals. I do find the gymnastics kind of interesting. It seems to me that some of the contestants fall in to the category of being "freaks of nature". As time has gone by I have lost some interest. Not sure why but it is true. I think that the next Olympics I want to enter something. Perhaps "oldest guy to pole fault over 6'. After I win I want to visit the White House.
Well, that is enough for now. Send me your more interesting animal stories. I promise not to use them unless I feel the need. Feel secure in that.
Stan the Man
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Reflections of a year gone and inspections of a life lived
It seems to me that it is about right to post a few reflections on the events of this past year. After all it has been just about a year since we received the diagnosis of Deb's cancer. I think it was August 1 of last year that she started to feel some discomfort in her midsection and it was not many days after that life changed so suddenly for both of us. I can clearly recall in one of the meetings with the doctors one of them saying that Deb had just joined a club to which no one wants to be a member. And I could not agree with that more. One of the requirements of the new club is that you live in a world that is very unpredictable. It is filled with appointments, bills, pain, and somehow lacks the element of thinking much about the future. It is remarkable to me how events and attitudes change so quickly. I think at first it was hard to think very much about any type of future that lasted more than a 3-4 months. As time has gone on though we encounter more people who survive this type of cancer. It seems as though a common denominator of this type of cancer is that you never reach the point of saying "the cancer is behind and solved" instead you seek different forms of treatment and go about the task of prolonging life in whatever form you can, enjoying life.
Deb has done a good job with this. We have taken some trips to business and pleasure destinations. We have been able to enjoy the wedding of Mieke and Aaron. We have enjoyed reconnecting with friends of the past that we had lost touch with to some degree. We have felt the love of many who have given many types of gifts, cards, visits, calls and writings that have had an impact that sometimes for us goes beyond description. Not to say at all that we do not yearn for something else in life. I think if we never hear the word cancer again it will be OK with both of us. When you read in the paper that someone has passed after a battle with cancer it takes on new meaning. And folks this has been a real strong battle and it has been fought with the weapons of courage and hope that Deb has always had in her arsenal. Along with the cancer she had to fight through a life threatening infection that resulted in a 35 day visit to the hospital and rehab facility. For those that were close to this it had at times an amazing aspect to it. And really things have been kind of tougher since that time. Increasing pain and medications that affect the system have been hard to deal with. The long and the short of it is that this has been about all you want in a medical experience. There are times when I become concerned that the reflections in these blogs do not tell the whole story. The fact is that this is difficult situation. Not feeling good most of the time has a impact that only those who have endured it can relate.
So much for reflections and on to inspections. Recently we had the privilege of having the parents of Rumy visit our home. I learned much from their visit. It was their first time on a airplane and their first exposure to our country. Rumy's father was better at English than I thought. He inspected carefully the life we live and it was interesting to me that he took hundreds if not thousands of pictures. It was amazing to me the things that caught his attention. He seemed to marvel at things that I had long taken for granted. The quality of our roads and cars, the abundance of our food, the size of our homes and buildings, the lack of trash on our roads, the nice way his family was greeted and respected by our people, the safety and lack of stealing and crime in our area, and so on and so on, He was a very resourceful person and and one point he said to me that life in his land just seemed harder than anything we experience. It was in his comments that I felt a pride in our country that I had not thought of much before. He said to me once that something seemed to be good about the way things are here. I think we all sometimes take our experience in life to be normal but he taught me that we live in a land that has some things that are really right. After they left I thought about this some more. Since that time my thanks for our system and our government have grown. He was a very smart person and in my exposure to him he taught me to appreciate more some of the things we have here. He was also the king barbecue man on the planet earth. I thought I held this title but I am now in second place. A fine gentleman and a fine family that taught me a lot about life.
Stan the Man.
Deb has done a good job with this. We have taken some trips to business and pleasure destinations. We have been able to enjoy the wedding of Mieke and Aaron. We have enjoyed reconnecting with friends of the past that we had lost touch with to some degree. We have felt the love of many who have given many types of gifts, cards, visits, calls and writings that have had an impact that sometimes for us goes beyond description. Not to say at all that we do not yearn for something else in life. I think if we never hear the word cancer again it will be OK with both of us. When you read in the paper that someone has passed after a battle with cancer it takes on new meaning. And folks this has been a real strong battle and it has been fought with the weapons of courage and hope that Deb has always had in her arsenal. Along with the cancer she had to fight through a life threatening infection that resulted in a 35 day visit to the hospital and rehab facility. For those that were close to this it had at times an amazing aspect to it. And really things have been kind of tougher since that time. Increasing pain and medications that affect the system have been hard to deal with. The long and the short of it is that this has been about all you want in a medical experience. There are times when I become concerned that the reflections in these blogs do not tell the whole story. The fact is that this is difficult situation. Not feeling good most of the time has a impact that only those who have endured it can relate.
So much for reflections and on to inspections. Recently we had the privilege of having the parents of Rumy visit our home. I learned much from their visit. It was their first time on a airplane and their first exposure to our country. Rumy's father was better at English than I thought. He inspected carefully the life we live and it was interesting to me that he took hundreds if not thousands of pictures. It was amazing to me the things that caught his attention. He seemed to marvel at things that I had long taken for granted. The quality of our roads and cars, the abundance of our food, the size of our homes and buildings, the lack of trash on our roads, the nice way his family was greeted and respected by our people, the safety and lack of stealing and crime in our area, and so on and so on, He was a very resourceful person and and one point he said to me that life in his land just seemed harder than anything we experience. It was in his comments that I felt a pride in our country that I had not thought of much before. He said to me once that something seemed to be good about the way things are here. I think we all sometimes take our experience in life to be normal but he taught me that we live in a land that has some things that are really right. After they left I thought about this some more. Since that time my thanks for our system and our government have grown. He was a very smart person and in my exposure to him he taught me to appreciate more some of the things we have here. He was also the king barbecue man on the planet earth. I thought I held this title but I am now in second place. A fine gentleman and a fine family that taught me a lot about life.
Stan the Man.
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