Abandoned

I am watching a video posted to Youtube by a group named RnK All Day. America’s Most Abandoned Gary Indiana. They posted only last week. What is sobering is that they are posting video of an abandoned and vandalized school, the abandoned hospital where Michael Jackson was born, and theatre where Sinatra performed. Gary was a steel town. With the collapse of the domestic steel industry, or that industry segment using obsolete technology, we saw the economic collapse of entire cities, like Gary.

Haunting.

Strange Day

I don’t know sometimes. I did stuff. And felt incredibly lazy. I had a full day to do something. And I made some chicken salad.

That’s about it. I had a spell of shoulder pain for about two hours. I feel that I am improving markedly.

Oh and I took out the trash.

Rain

Four years ago, I had my rotator cuff repair on this day. It seems like ages ago. The surgery was simple, an outpatient procedure. The recovery took about three months, but combined with my spinal fusion in November, I never worked again.

Now I sit watching the rain come down and listening to the drops land on metal somewhere.

The gray skies make the spring colors, especially the greens that much brighter.

J’s lunch is packed.i have had my breakfast. I have found that oatmeal made with steel cut oats tastes good cold, with maple syrup and sliced strawberries.

I’m sleepy again.

Home After Swim

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I slept real late, maybe noon. I decided lying down most of the day might help my neck/shoulder issues. I think it did. The pain is not bad at all. I also thought a swim would help. That too was beneficial. My goal around treatment is to do as much as I usually do using ice and heat, as needed to manage the inflammation.

Every time I decide that over the counter NSAIDs aren’t giving any pain relief, I have a day where they’re working. Go figure.

J is moping around because she has no biological children. I love her. She gets that. Still, with all the over the top Great To Be A Mom rhetoric and displays today, it is hard not to feel left out. I’m fixing dinner. Hope that helps.

Mother’s Day

I just texted my surviving ex-wife, mother of my elder son and wished her a Happy Mother’s Day. My other ex-wife, mother of my younger son, has been dead for three and a half years. I have no ideaof the whereabouts of #2 son’s birth mother .

My wife has been a wonderful stepmother to my 2 sons, especially the younger one.

It’s complicated. When I was a boy at Third Presbyterian Church, a red carnation was worn if your mother was living, a white carnation, if deceased. That was simple. Now we have mothers, stepmothers, surrogate mothers, households with two female parents, households with two male parents. I dunno. Somehow those carnations seem inadequate or incomplete.

Anyway, if Mother rings true for you, Happy Mother’s Day.

Pop

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We called my grandfather “Pop”. He seemed, when we were little, to be a big man and I guess he was.

He was a carpenter, cabinet maker and furniture maker. He made antique reproduction furniture at a company called Biggs Antique Furnture. He also built houses with my great uncle, Allen, his brother. He built two of the houses we lived in growing up. At one of them, he lost two fingers at the second knuckle in an accident with a power saw.

His family called him “Charlie”. His first born son was Charles Joseph , Jr, Dad. They called my father “Junior”. My brother was Charles Joseph, III. They called him Charlie Joe

Pop was a very gentle, almost serene man. He had the ability to calm children down. Once my sister got upset about something. He picked her up, placed her in a chair, and put a cool compress on her forehead. She never forgot that.

He didn’t talk much. Once my younger brother and Pop drove to Florida. He didn’t say much the whole trip. Maybe when it was time to stop for gas, he would say it was time to stop for gas.

He smoked Pall Mall Cigarettes. They were “King size” unfiltered, and came in a deep red pack. The tag line in their Fifties era commercial was “Outstanding… and they are mild.” He smoked cigars, too. Cheap ones. His idea of an expensive cigar was. an Antonio y Cleopatra Grenadier. I still have cigar boxes of the kind he smoked. He smoked a pipe too. I didn’t save any of his pipes. I think I have a Borkum Riff canister of his, but it might have been my elder brother’s.. That was Charlie Joe,

On Sunday, Pop got dressed up to go to Church and stayed dressed up all day. Men did that then. Blue collar men that is. During the week he smelled like sweat, tobacco, and sawdust all combined.

He smelled like a man.

Stand Up Straight

I had a chance to go to the Y before thunderstorms got in the way. And I accomplished the mission, with a 1750 meters swim.

Post swim, I showered, shaved, got to Publix, and bought a Stouffer’s Macaroni & Cheese. At our house, this is the go-to comfort food.

I have been doing the “magic” stretch that Matt The PT showed me yesterday. The stretch is producing results. I’m moving back to life before the pinched nerve. Now, after the swim I have ice on the sore places and my body seems to be responding to the physical therapy, the exercise, and the self-care and aftercare.

I noticed my posture was not helping this pinched nerve heal. I look down a lot, usually at my Smartphone. And when I hold my head up I notice some pain and so I tend to hold my head in a position that doesn’t aggravate the nerve.

As my Dad the Marine Officer used to “admonish” me, “Stand up straight.”

Aye aye, Colonel.

After Brunch

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Discussing Some Sexuality Stuff.

I had brunch today. Alone. At home. I slept til almost noon. Then I read http://ddjennifer Domestic Discipline Jenny Style episodes 311 and 312. She always has an interesting read. Upon realizing I needed to eat, I fixed huevos rancheros, fresh coffee and a fruit salad. It would have been nicer, had J been here, but she is at work and will be til after 8:30.

I’m reading Olivia’s post about toothbrushes.http://oliviasubmits Is it just me? . It is highly interesting, particularly the comments.

I’ve done some stretches, feel better. I enjoyed my brunch. My immediate goal is to finish my coffee before it gets cold. This is not trivial. My finishing a cup of coffee while still hot is about being “in the moment”, without some jive-ass need to multitask.

So I’m posting this, getting my coffee, and watching The Loving BDSM podcast on YouTube. Later. Yeah multitasking again (insert emojis)🎅😀🐭

Therapy Dog & The Silver Bullet Stretch.

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As I sit with my ice pack across my shoulder, I feel encouraged that the pinched nerve drama is entering the final act. As dramas go, it is turning out to be comedy, because there is a happy ending. I’m not going to die and I am keeping all my limbs and their respective functions (insert smiley face) ☺.

What has helped is a stretch. Matt the PT showed me one that stretches the right muscles, restoring the way it ought to be. It is not a “1 and done” proposition, but all I need to do is stretch it every hour or so for ten minutes. I’m working up to that ten minutes.

The other magic aspect of PT wss the appearance of a therapy service dog. She belongs to one of the other patients. Her job is help people chill out, by simply being a sweet and attentive dog. I petted her and she leaned into my legs as if she had known me forever. Just remarkable the difference this dog made.

Super Rant

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Well shucks, I am still awake. I have a cold pack on my shoulder. I’m watching old cartoons on YouTube. I fixed tacos tonight. From a kit. To tell you the truth, they weren’t bad. I fixed J’s lunch. Tuna salad, mixed fruit compote, some snacks, like cookies,store bought, high end Pepperidge Farm.

Every time I watch the Democratic politicians, I see men and women, whose world is falling apart and they have no way to stop it. I am reminded of then Alabama Governor George Wallace, also a Democrat, standing in a doorway to block integration of the University of Alabama. I am reminded of the Soviet military trying to stop the collapse of the Communist dictatorship in a failed coup thwarted by Boris Yeltsin.

I also think of the brave forgotten Chinese student who tried to stare down a tank in Tienamen Square in 1989. Yeah, sometimes raw naked power still wins. And the Communist state survives in China, ironically supported by global capitalists, and the Holy See of Cardinal Bergoglio (Pope Francis).

It is a crazy world and the narratives that CNN or The New York Times, among others, try to promote as fact are failing to gain traction. People don’t accept what they present as fact without question. Scepticism reigns. And as more of the “Russia collusion” story is shown to be a fabrication, the Democratic Leadership is resorting to bluster and gesture, like their deceased forbearer George Corley Wallace.

The Götterdämmerung of American liberal progressivism is happening now. The repudiation of abortion by Millenials, while pro-choice politicians, like Andrew Cuomo, who support third trimester abortions, is one example. Consider,for example, the success of the film Unplanned or the pro-life rally recently held in Times Square. The liberal progressive decline goes beyond abortion, but abortion reflects so much. China has all but admitted that their “One Child Policy”, that has abortion as the keystone, has set the stage for a demographic collapse. In simplest terms, the abortion ethos is a prescription for cultural extinction, if not other iterations .

What is happening in both the United States and the world at large doesn’t fit the globalist paradigms promoted since the end of World War Two. The global deliberative body, the United Nations, or extranational ruling polities like the European Union are declining. National sovereignty has renewed support among many nations in Europe, Hungary, Poland, Italy, to name three.

The rhetoric used to besmirch the critics of globalism, “right wing populists”, for example, doesn’t turn people away from nationalist parties with the power they once did.

Oblivion is a long road. And a slow trek.