A Year of Change

Do you know why they call it Black Friday? Well, here’s an explanation.

The day’s name originated in Philadelphia, where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after Thanksgiving. Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation was made: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss (“in the red”) from January through November, and “Black Friday” indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or “in the black”

Anyhow, did anyone notice in yesterdays post by George Washington how many times God and/or religion was mentioned? Nowadays that’s a big faux pas that results in frivolous lawsuits. Once again, my how we’ve changed, and again, not necessarily for the better.

Oh well, thanks again to our elected representatives. Did you all have a great holiday? We started our day with a walk around the lake with some friends and then went back to their house for coffee and pastries. The kids had some much needed exercise and it was Lori’s first trip out. By last night at bed time she realized she had done a bit too much. I put the turkey in around 11:45 and took it out of the oven at 2:15. After letting it rest while I finished the rest of the meal, we sat down a little after 3pm. It was probably the best turkey we’ve ever cooked. Rachael (Lori’s good friend) gave me a bag with printed instructions telling me it was foolproof and it pretty much was. If anything I cooked it 15 minutes too long on Lori’s advice. I should have know better than to listen to her!

My Mom stopped by on the way home which was nice as we haven’t seen her for some time. I guess dinner at Uncle T’s was nice. Today I’ll be renting the boys some snow board boots and taking directions from Lori on Christmas decorations. We haven’t even thought about buying anything for anybody but I think Uncle T and Ali are all done! You all might just get a hand made card or a photo or a bottles of wine from us this year as times are pretty tight.

On a sad note, has anyone seen the news where groups of teenagers or youth are playing something called the Knockout Game? This is where they walk down the street and try to “knockout” an unsuspecting person just for fun. They then video it and post it on Youtube. What the f#ck is going on? Anyhow apparently no one is safe (they’ll hit anyone, old young, male or female) and this is spreading to many states so when you’re out, be aware! Sooner or later someone is going to get shot as some kid is going to hit, or try to hit, the wrong guy! Half a dozen people have died from falling and hitting their head on the concrete. I just don’t know what the World is coming to when this kind of shit goes on. I’m sure these kids parents are proud.

Oh well, let’s focus on the holiday season and the good things we have in life. Lori just came down and it’s 5:50 am which is way too early for her to be up but she says she can’t sleep. I think her hip hurts the most. She thought her headache was coming back last night but this morning seems to be ok. We’ll have to make sure she lays off today and gets back to resting.

Take care and God Bless.

In honor of today, here’s a special quote for you to read, I wish that more people, (especially our supposed representatives and President) would! Read it all, I hope you enjoy it.

“Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.” – George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789

God Bless,

I woke up early with what I thought was Lacey barking but it must have just been in my head. She barks so much early in the morning, she has me conditioned I guess. Anyhow about 30 minutes later she barked for real. I had no place to put her as Ty and Ben were sleeping downstairs, Mojo was in his crate and Jag in his room. So I hustled her upstairs to our room where Lori and I were sleeping. Lori slept in her own bed last night as we knew Ty was going to be downstairs with Ben.

I was here, there, and everywhere yesterday, finally getting home around 4pm. I did make it to physical therapy and hopefully my knee will be ok. Apparently I did too much and the I T ligament tightened up. Danielle, my 20 something PT girl, really knows her stuff and has me back on the right track, I think. I made the mistake of going to another girl down there when I couldn’t get in to see her. Danielle or Brad are about the only two to go to. Lori has seem Brad before and we’ll make sure when she’s ready for PT, she goes to one of them.

I need to get running as I should be leaving for the warehouse in 18 minutes and haven’t showered yet. I’m cooking a turkey even though Lori probably won’t eat much but I’m hoping the boys will. I also ordered a couple of pies from Dino’s Italian Restaurant where I worked as a kid when I was 14 years old, they used to work me double shifts or 16 hours in a row! How times have changed. Anyhow they have pre-orders for about 300 pies as they do a really good job making them from scratch. Looks like we’ll just be having turkey and pie!

Ty has a birthday party today from 1 to 3 at the trampoline place. I need to coordinate with another dad to see who’ll drive, who picks up and/or who might stay. We don’t trust the supervision there, you might remember that’s where Jag was sucker punched from behind by a 14 year old after sticking up for his friend.

Time to run, I’m late (now have 9 minutes to shower and get out the door) and have to go. I also woke up remembering I forgot to pay a freaking American Express bill due on the 21st, super. Hope I don’t get in trouble with them as we live off of those cards. I’m disappointed in myself as I never am late on a payment, I just flat out forgot!

God Bless.

Yesterday was pretty much the same as the day before for the misses. She’s still sore and we try to keep her in her chair staying quiet and not doing much. The medical bills are coming in already, we have a few 5 figure surprises that arrived yesterday that were not covered by insurance as they consider the tests as diagnostic, super. I’m cooking, cleaning, washing and doing whatever else needs to be done like running here and there. I feel like Cinderella before she turned into well, Cinderella.

The damn dog, Lacey, woke Lori up I think around 5 as when Ty and I got up, she said she’d already fed the dogs. She’s still sleeping in Ty’s room as any little movement in the bed by anyone will hurt her neck.

We continued eating Mrs Rossi’s chicken soup yesterday but I think Lori is still only getting the broth down. I have to try to get some hard food in her today or else make her a bunch of protein shakes.

I also need to run to the distributor, go to an account and then have physical therapy at 3pm. Ben the neighbor kid will be spending the day with us again so his dad can go to work. Three is not really a whole lot worse than two although they do get in a fight every now and then.

Here’s a comment from Aunt Robi, Robi says:

Well it was a heartbreaking loss for the Broncos after a punt by the Patriots hit one of our guys accidentally in overtime and then they kicked a cheap field goal. That’s football, at least Kansas City lost.

I woke up and cleaned the house and kitchen and moved the big chair into the tv room where the misses could park her skinny little self (a by product of not being able to swallow) for the day. She’s doing ok but is understandably in pain. Good news is that it’s mostly neck pain and not her head! She did get a shower in after we switched collars and felt better after doing so. I managed to get all the laundry done (4 loads), went to the grocery store, washed the car, cleaned up the house and made some soup. A big thank you to Mrs. Rossi across the street who made a giant pot of the best chicken soup you’ve ever had. She’s italian and must be in her 80’s and the soup was unbelievable. The misses friend Rachael also showed up with two pans of enchilada’s and stuff including home made minestrone, cookies (super) and salsa. Thank you thank you to them as it’s a big help to me. So now we have 3 kinds of soup in the garage, thankfully it’s cold. I went to Dino’s Italian restaurant and picked up some home made spumoni ice cream for the misses which is what she was craving. She’s still not swallowing all that well which is to be expected.

Ty has been sleeping with me with Lori in Ty’s bed. It’s actually not that bad with only two of us. Today Ty has DI at 9 and I have lots of calls scheduled that I’ll need to stop and start to take him and pick him up as Lori cannot drive. On top of it all, I think I tore something in my knee that I had fixed. It’s weak like before I had it fixed when I move a certain way, I can just tell I jacked it up somehow, I’m so freakin pissed as I probably need surgery again. It’s my own fault for doing too much. I’ll have to wait until Lori gets better before thinking about getting me fixed again, super.

I think we have Ben the neighbor with us all day and maybe for the next 3 days as his Mom and older brother still have school but Ben is in our boys school district and has the week off. His dad took all the boys to the new Hunger Games movie yesterday which was a nice break. I need to get running as I’m sure I have 500 emails, bills to go through to decide pay now, pay later, and try to get into physical therapy for my knee to get some relief.

Take care and God Bless, (parents should have the whole week off too!)

Finally we made it home at 7:30 last night. It was touch and go whether or not we would leave the hospital or stay another night. You see, Lori’s throat was still swollen and she really can’t get much food down as there’s kind of a shelf in the back of her throat. We were told this upfront but don’t want water or food getting into her lungs. Finally around 5pm we decided (after the nurse called one of her docs) that we’d get a dose of steroids, ( to help with the swelling), wait an hour to make sure she was ok, and then hit the road. She does have a small hematoma on her hip as when we took the drains out, the one on her hip was already out just laying there. I’m in charge of all dressing changes (bandages and clothes) so I’ll keep an eye on it. We are going to have to keep her quiet and laying low. I know you all know what I mean as here’s a comment from Annette,

Annette says:

It’s 5am here in Beaver Creek. Jag called out to me around 4:20 from his sofa bed in the living room of our room at The Westin as he was cold. I called him into my room where Ty was fast asleep next to me. Now they’re both wrapped up in down comforters in the Heavenly Bed (Westin’s signature bed).

After running a few errands yesterday morning in Vail, we checked Lori in right on time. She had four doctors of which I knew three. After talking with everyone and getting her all set, it was time to get the show moving. The boys and I took off to run a couple of errands as the surgery was scheduled for three hours. Dr Strahan who was the specialist who would make the initial incision to avoid all nerves, called me an hour and a half later saying his part was all done and everything went great and looked good. He did say he stuck around long enough to see Don (Dr Corenman) pull apart the vertebrae and the disc just fell apart. This is good and bad, the good is they didn’t have to dig it out and the bad means she literally had no cushion or disc in between her bones. No wonder the poor girl was in such pain.

The boys and I went to buy Mom a stuffed bear from Ty and a scarf, from Jag (to pretty up her collar)and headed back to the hospital to drop off a few bottles of wine to Dr Strahan. He was very appreciative. We then decided to go to the hotel as we had two hours to go. As soon as we arrived at the hotel, Dr. Don called and said, “we’re all done”! This was a surprise to me as it was an hour ahead of schedule. Apparently not having to dig the disc out saved time. When I asked about the disc, he said,   “as far as discs go, this is about the worst one I’ve ever seen”. He went on to tell me though that he was 99% sure this had to be the cause of her pain as her bones were out of alignment and the facets (where the nerves travel) were all pinched and blocked. He realigned them so now she has a nice pretty curve like we’ve all seen on skeletons or pictures. I asked about the others discs and he said he didn’t know as they don’t look at them but as long as they aren’t causing pain, we’ll leave them alone.

So we jumped in the car and headed back to the hospital. When we arrived I went to the wing where her room was but she was still in recovery. The nurses were very nice and showed us to her suite (nice name for a hospital room but it was really nice) where I parked the boys while I went up a floor to recovery. I walked in and there she was, all done up in her neck collar, wires going everywhere and still a little drugged but a half an inch taller, which made her happy. Her pain was down she thought but it was hard to tell as her neck and throat were sore plus her hip, where they took a bone for her neck, was killing her. They warned us the hip might hurt worse than the neck! Apparently they take a small bone from the hip and then replace it with sea corral.

20 minutes later we moved her down a floor to her suite, The Peppi Granshammer Suite, named after famous residents of Vail. The boys were all over her wanting to make sure she was ok while the nurses were hooking up all her monitors. We stayed for a few hours and then decided to get some dinner. Dr Don did come by again and said she did great and we should be going home tomorrow. I could tell she was having a hard time swallowing but she did eat some ice cream and we brought her a creme brûlée back from dinner around 8pm. After visiting for another 30 minutes or so, I took the boys and headed back to the hotel. I made sure the nurses had my cell number in case they needed to call me. I haven’t heard from them so everything should be fine.

I’ll let the boys sleep until 7 or so and then probably let them swim and get some breakfast before we head over to see Lori. The doctors will stop by this morning to check on her and then if all’s ok, we’ll head home. I don’t imagine well be out of there before noon, if we go. Rachael, her friend, is making us dinner tonight which is nice and a few other friends have also reached out asking what they can do to help. My phone blew up yesterday with people from all over the country checking on the misses. I left her with her phone but it has to have run out of battery by now if any one of you tried to call. I called Grandma Dixie and my Mom and asked them to call all of you so hopefully everyone knows the good news.

So that’s it, modern medicine is pretty amazing. Of course the big variable is who your doctor is. I’ve had people give me a hard time for coming to Vail for my knee or her neck but I wouldn’t consider going anywhere else except where the best docs are. Thankfully they’re here as if they were in New York, I’d be writing from there right now.

I’ll call everyone when or if we’re headed home today. It snowed last night and was beautiful with all the Christmas lights on the trees all around town up here. The misses won’t be driving or doing much for weeks, maybe months. The docs were adamant about her taking it easy and letting her bones and titanium plate fuse together. I’ll tie her up if I have to, won’t be the first time, just kidding!

Take care, keep praying and God Bless.

Well we all know what day it is. We’re leaving Denver around 8:30 for an 11:30 check in. They are supposed to start surgery at 1pm but yesterday said they have a couple of quick procedures before her so they might get going early, let’s hope so.

I’ll be on my cell and call those of you whose number I have. It’s still cold and icy out and that’s why we’re leaving early.

We need everyone to say their prayers, (even those of you that don’t pray) for the misses to get through this and end up with no pain. I’m not going to go into it as the past is the past and we’re trying to look forward so there you have it.

Take care and God Bless and we’ll talk to you later today.

It’s doesn’t look like the snow will be that deep but it’s icy and cold outside right now at 5:41. They say it’s about 14 degrees and when I used my broom (brooms work as good as shovels if not better for just a few inches) only the top layer came off and a layer of ice was underneath. I was of course out in my boxers and flip flops. The snow needs to be about 6 inches deep or more before I switch to boots! It’ll be cold all day and then dip to the teens or even single digits tonight.

Last night Ty had a basketball game and it started out with him winning the jump ball. He played great all night and had the task of guarding the largest guy on the other team. At one point her ran by me and said “Dad, number 50 just flipped me off”. We were of course astonished and laughing at the same time. The game is pretty rough for 10 year olds with lots of kids hitting the ground. Near the end Ty and the large kid both went down and the large kid rolled right over the top of Ty when getting up. Ty just smiled and got up and ran down the court. We ended up winning something like 24 to 4.

Today we have lots to do to get ready to leave for Vail tomorrow. I won’t go into it all but we’re jam packed all day long. Lori is excited but nervous at the same time as she should be. They said yesterday her headache should be gone instantly but then added she’ll be hurting just about every where else! I think she’ll take it as long as the headache is finally gone.

I just woke Jag as he has inter-murals outside this morning. He’s all excited as he gets to wear his new gloves, whoo hoo! Guess I’ll run, I will post in the morning and then take the computer with me so I can check emails and post Saturday morning but will call everyone tomorrow night to update you on the misses. We need everyone to say a prayer for her that everything will go well and that this painful chapter of her life will finally be over!

Take care and God Bless

Here’s a comment from Annette,

Annette says: