A sleepy man in a sleepless land

I'm twelve years old as I drift down the Finley River in Southwest Missouri. I sit in an old inner-tube, wearing a Star Wars T-Shirt and a bathing suit and some old Chuck Taylor Converse Tennis Shoes on my feet because sometimes the bottom of the river will hide broken glass in it's murky waters.

The day is warm and I'm drowsy as I float along, absently kicking my feet gently just beneath the surface of the water. I pick each foot up, one at a time, and watch the water drip and pour off of them returning again to the river. The waterfall ahead, next to where a mill once stood, rumbles noisily in the distance.

Something looks different about the edge of the falls on this day... where the river should continue beyond the waterfall is a green wall covered with white dresser-drawer knobs, that covers my entire field of vision. "What the heck is that doing there?" I say aloud as I draw nearer.

The inner-tube glides along and instead of going over the falls, it bumps up against the big green wall, again and again and again. I reach up for one of the dresser knobs, and pull myself up out of the water. I reach up, hand over hand and start to climb. I position each foot carefully on a knob and begin climbing up the giant wall that reaches into the sky. Above me, a hawk circles endlessly and calls out to no one in particular.

I realize that I'm now hanging about thirty-five feet above the water and just as I'm about to continue my ascent, the phone begins to ring. After the second ring, I open my eyes and roll over on the bed...the clock reads 3:37...which means I have been asleep for only seven minutes. Funny, it seemed like much longer. I pick up the phone..."Hello," I say. "No, I don't know where Jared is at the moment...I'll find out...Hold on."

"JARED!" I yell. "What?" He queries. "Phone call!" I yell. "Who is it?" He asks. "Who is it?" I ask.
I am informed that it is Robert. "It's Robert," I yell. "I don't want to talk to him..." Jared answers. "He's busy" I lie. Click goes the phone.

I look at the clock which reads 3:39. I roll over. I close my eyes.

The wall is blue now and the river is green. The hawk is now a toucan and Sherry is standing on the inner-tube, balancing on it like a surf board. I am now only ten feet above the water. "Great!" I think. "Now I have to climb all that way back up! Stupid Phone call. Stupid Robert!"

"What are you doing?" Sherry asks, still inner-tube surfing. "Climbing" I answer... "Duh" I think.
"How are you balancing like that?" I ask. "I've known how to do this since I was a kid" she answers, very matter-of-factly. "My Dad taught me!"
"Oh" I answer.

There is a knocking in the distance. I think it is either Sherry or the toucan, but I'm not sure. Knock Knock Knock and then suddenly, the doorbell rings. "Jared" I yell. "Get the door!"
Jared answers "I'm not supposed to get the door when you're asleep!" "Shoot!" I think..."He's right!"

I get up off the bed and trudge down the stairs in my socks, jeans and Royals Baseball T-Shirt.
The sun is awfully bright for a not sunny day. I open the door and Dustin's friends, Ron and John are standing there.
"Is Dustin home?" they ask in unison. "No, he's at a friend's house" I answer. They shrug and straggle off of the porch and down the steps. No wasted small-talk there. I lock the door and head back upstairs. I look at the clock which reads 3:59.

"Where did you get the boat?" I yell to Sherry from my perch, high above. "My Dad built it" she says. I'm starting to wonder how her Dad could build a boat in the time that it took me to go answer the door, but then I think "It's a dream, Dave...go with it." I'm marveling at this amazing boat that Sherry's Dad has built and then I start to wonder Sherry has done with my inner-tube.

"Why are you still up there?" Sherry asks. "I don't know" I answer, but I'm thinking that I really want to get a closer look at this hawk/toucan. I look up at the sky but don't see him. "Where did the bird go?" I ask. "Which one?" Sherry asks..."The owl?"
"Yeah," I answer, thinking that she obviously doesn't know her birds. "He's down here, my Dad is fixing him some eggs." Sherry says.

As I climb down I begin to think about the moral implications of an owl eating eggs, when the phone rings. I open one eye and then the other. It is now 4:11 according to the clock. I pick up the phone and a cheery, robotic voice informs me to STAY ON THE LINE FOR AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE... I do. They try to tell me I need to have my van serviced soon. I hang up. I shut my eyes. I groan and fall asleep.

The owl is sitting at the table inside the large galley of the ship. Sherry's Dad is dishing out some scrambled eggs to him and he sits holding a fork and a knife in each claw. He licks his beak and begins too cut the eggs and then stops. "Hey, do you have any orange juice?" The owl asks. Sherry's Dad silently crosses to the refrigerator an gets a carton of juice out for the owl. Who knew that owls drank orange juice? I think to myself as I watch.

The boat begins to shake violently and I discover that it is only me shaking. Everything else is perfectly still. I awake to find Socks on the end of the bed, scratching violently at her neck. "Dog" I say to her..."This better be real good!" The clock says 4:23...I have it set to go off at 4:30.
I get up, plug in the iron and turn it on. Get out some clothes for work and go to get a drink of water.

Once again, nap time is foiled by the efforts of everyone and everything other than me. I may never again return to the Finley River of my dreams...and I'll never know if the Owl drank his orange juice or finished his eggs; or just how exactly Sherry's Dad got into the boat building business.

-David

Diary of a lazy blogger

I have been so bad about blogging lately that I've dropped from writing several times a week to just about once each month... That is really pathetic! I used to live for writing this blog...but then facebook came along and took all of my spare time and energy away. "DARN YOU, FACEBOOK!"

We've been busy since Christmas with basketball and birthdays. Baseball practice has started now and we're about to get really busy! All this and our Church has started a youth basketball program that I'd like to see Jared get involved with if it doesn't conflict with baseball.

A couple of months ago I started a "Support Group" on facebook.com for people who grew up in Strafford, Missouri...or for people who went to school or even still live there. By "Support Group" I mean a social networking group that allows classmates to reunite online and visit or post pictures...
It's been kind of fun and we now have 136 members online. I've really enjoyed visiting with a ton of old friends and have met some really nice people who came to the town or the school, long after I left...

This Winter has been up and down, weather-wise with days in the 70's followed by days in the 20's. We started out with a bunch of small snows, but haven't had anything significant since Christmas. The main story has been the wind... I don't ever remember a winter quite as windy as this one has been.

Since the new year, we have a new President. I guess he's okay so far, but he's made a few astounding mistakes...although his die-hard supporters are quick to say it's too early to judge him...(I wonder if they said the same thing about Bush... ? The answer: DUH, NO!!!)

TV has been pretty good lately with "American Idol," "SCRUBS" and "LOST" all returning... and let me just say "LOST" has been phenomenal!

Dustin has been busy with school and his music...Jared has been busy with basketball (his team is 8 and 2 for the season). And Sherry is working and working and working... As for me...I'm busy too... my knees have been pretty good, save for the occasional weakness or slight pain in my right knee. God has been watching over me on this and he's doing a pretty good job. (He ALWAYS does a good job...)

I've been visiting some with Klauspeter online and on the phone... That has stirred up my dream of going to Europe again. Sherry and I have talked about this over and over throughout the years and really want to go...but it's never the right time... I'm beginning to think that the right time is getting closer... FINGERS CROSSED.... I'm really wanting to go!!!

I guess I'll keep you posted...

Dave

Okay, it is official... I have no spare time

With my addiction to facebook and trying to figure out Twitter (which I've had for over a year and NEVER used) I am spiraling downward into an Internet abyss that keeps getting deeper.
Curt Schilling, the great Boston Red Sox Pitcher, keeps touting TWITTER as one of his fave things, but I don't see the thrill yet.

Add to that Basketball games, practices, school programs...etc... and then factor in the fact that baseball practice starts this week and PRESTO! You have maximum busy-ness!

On the home front... Sherry has been busy with work...Dustin with school...Jared with Sports and me with all of the above... well, school in the sense that I help the boys with homework when I can...

Dustin's band kind of fell apart, so he's been a bit down about that... Jared's Basketball team keeps chalking up the wins and is heading towards their final game this weekend... hopefully they'll still be at only one loss for the season. They have a tourney coming up in a couple of weeks and then that's it for the year.

Baseball looks different for him this year with the collapse of his old team, the BULLDOGS. Several of the team members, along with Jared are forming "THE WARRIORS" and will start practice this week... I'm excited because in addition to wearing a Billy Butler shirt (GO ROYALS!) and drinking from an Alex Gordon mug (GO ROYALS!) I am a die hard baseball fan who is raring to go for another season of youth baseball! (GO WARRIORS!)

I don't have any recent Dustin pics or Sherry pics, but I do have a picture of the fuzzy-faced, bad breath girl that I woke up with this morning and some basketball pics of Jared's team beating their rivals 18-2... It was a good, very quick weekend....hope the next weekend gets here soon!
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUSTIN...which is coming up this WEDNESDAY!

Have a good week and a Happy Valentine's Day....

Dave

"Have a Blasted Day!" and other misadventures of the Hearing Impaired

I'm assuming most of you reading this know me....and if you know me, you must know my Wife, Sherry. Since a very young age, Sherry has been hearing impaired. This has been a source of struggle and pain for her for most of her life, and yet at times we have been able to find humor in the things that have been mis-heard or misunderstood.

Tonight we were shopping at the dreadful WAL-MART and as we were leaving the cashier said "Have a Blessed day." I said thanks and Sherry and I continued walking out of the store. As we were walking outside Sherry turned to me and asked "What did she say?" And I replied "Have a blessed day." Sherry looked at me and asked "Have a blasted day?" Of course, we both laughed about this even after we got into the van and were pulling out of the lot.

This leads me to think about all of the ways we can help the hard-of-hearing to "hear" us better.
Of course, sometimes if you're walking and talking, just being visible to the person with the hearing loss is a problem. In Sherry's case, she reads lips a lot to get by, so if we're walking and talking, she's probably getting about a fourth of what is being said.

Sometimes when people find out she's hard of hearing they shout at her or they over enunciate which makes them look like they're playing charades or speaking like a puppet. Shouting at her raises the volume, but not the clarity of the conversation and can actually distort what the person is saying.

I try to give her clues whenever possible, but even I fall into the habit of repeating the same words over again...this doesn't help very much because if she didn't hear it once, it's likely that she won't hear it again....so rephrasing really helps, especially on the phone.

Talking one on one with her is best...background noises and distractions are....DISTRACTIONS! Imagine that?!!! If something is misunderstood, keep trying and rephrasing if you have to.
If she misunderstands something, correct her politely...try not to laugh...although, as I mentioned earlier...if you know her well and are comfortable together, sometimes the things that are misunderstood are really very funny...

My kids favorite one is the time that there was a woodpecker outside our bedroom window pecking away at the guttering. It was pretty loud and of course had a metallic "clang" to it, but she couldn't tell what it was. Jared, Dustin and I each tried to explain that it was a woodpecker, but she wasn't catching it...finally she said "How can there be a dishwasher on the side of the house???" The kids nearly fell in the floor laughing.

She used to get really upset with people not being very sensitive to her hearing loss. Mostly people would pick up on the tonality of her voice and say "Oh, I love your accent, are you from Boston?" or they'd ask where she was from. She used to ignore some people, but as you know...as well meaning as people are...some people would persist and then she'd get red-faced and try to explain that she was hard of hearing. It was awkward for her and the person involved.

We once had a very pushy car salesman who was being as obnoxious as possible in trying to hard sell us a car. We were really wanting to buy this car, but not from this particular guy... he was such a stereotype with his gold chains and shirt unbuttoned to expose his chubby, hairy chest. He just kept saying and doing everything wrong and then, in the middle of everything he says to Sherry "Hey, I like your accent...it's kinda funny...like you're from the East Coast or something."

At that point I didn't know if I should duck, run or just scoot way back in my chair. I half expected Sherry to dive over the desk and pummel the guy. For a minute I almost felt bad for him. I asked him if we could be excused while we stepped out of the room to talk. We went up to the service desk and told the manager that we'd like to buy a car, but we wouldn't buy one from them if "Stan" the obnoxious salesman was involved in any way. I'm guessing Stan got talked to a bit after we left.

Sherry asked me early on when we were first dating if her "handicap" bothered me... I answered "What Handicap?" She had grown up looking at herself as a hard of hearing person, while I looked at her as someone who just happened to be hard of hearing. I wasn't about to let her hearing loss define her because she was so much more than that to me.

Since then, she's come out of her shell a lot. She's stuck up for herself in situations where she used to just sit back and simmer about it....she was always kind of shy, but she went on to be the President of the Kansas City Self Help for the Hard of Hearing, and began to see her hearing loss as just a part of who she is....albeit a BIG part, but not the ONLY part.

I teasingly told her once that I loved her so much that I "Loved her guts" (which I thought would be the opposite of hating some one's guts.) She gave me a weird look and asked "You love my Ducks?"

-David

I've got something to say

Recently my friend Gail posted a great blog in which she questioned whether Conservatism was dying (read here http://impoliteconversationwithgail.blogspot.com).

After reading it I thought I agreed with her on about 85% of her topic...but after re-reading it I'm dropping my number down to about 50%. While I do feel that the Conservative movement suffered a great blow during this last election. (Not so much because they lost out to Obama, but more because John McCain was their candidate, and as much as he tried, he never really swayed the hardcore Conservatives to believe in him).

Conservatives are not dying...they're just on a break (and no, I don't mean a "time out.") They have to regroup and decide where they want to go, what they want to do and how they wish to say it. They have an agenda and a system of core beliefs...they just didn't get it out there well enough this time... But elections cycles are just that...cyclical. We'll have 8 good years or 8 bad years, followed by 4 or 8 bad years and so on. These things always seem to work themselves out.

Gail goes on to say that Rush Limbaugh was out of line in spending his showtime on Inauguration Day going after Obama. He may have been over-the-top, but I feel he was well within his rights to espouse whatever he was feeling at that time...after all, it is his show and those who live or die with Rush were probably right there in the trenches with him.

Do I think he could have pulled back a bit? Yes... I too feel that the process of transferring power from one President to the next is a solemn spectacle and should be viewed with a certain reverence. (Although I think swipes at Aretha Franklin's hat were more than deserved...I mean, really...she had SKYLAB on her head!).

Rush Limbaugh's opinions were no more offensive than the parade of onlookers that pelted President Bush's car with eggs or held signs reading "Commander in Thief" or "Not my President" along the parade route for the past two Inauguration days. Seeing those people do that in the name of "free speech" sickened me. While Limbaugh's diatribe was again, "a bit much," I don't think the two even compare.

Limbaugh is being Limbaugh...and if you don't like it, don't listen. Sometimes I find him entertaining and other times he seems (to put it nicely) to be a bit of a pompous jerk. I think he could have set aside or toned down his rhetoric for the day at least, but then again, did the Bush critics ever give #43 that chance?

The historic (and dare I say "Hysteric") events of this week have now been documented for all time. Will we look back on them fondly or will we look back with trepidation? I have "hope" that President Obama really does want to do right for America. I never thought that Bush had anything other than that in mind as well. But of course, we live in a big world and one President, even the leader of the free world, can make mistakes.

I say give Obama a chance...wish the best for him...if he fails, don't we as Americans all fail?
I remember one of my Democrat friends saying after Bush was elected the first time. "I hope he falls on his *butt. That will show all of the idiots that voted for him that they made a stupid choice." I told my friend that what was stupid was her statement... why would you want our Leader to fail? Of course this never changed her mind, but it changed mine... I would never want a President to fail...even if it is one I didn't vote for.

So let Rush vent... let him cool off a bit. He may end up thanking Obama the way that he thanked Clinton when Clinton left office...or, it may challenge him to look at things differently...perhaps even more constructively.

In the meantime I hope that Aretha Franklin buys a different hat in case she's ever called upon to sing in public again.

David