A few weeks ago, one of the members of a Facebook Comic Book Collecting group I’m a member of asked us to post a screen capture of our mobile phone wallpaper. All of those posted, of course, had some tie-in to comic books, comic book movies, characters, etc.
Mine, obviously, was this character.
What’s your mobile phone wallpaper look like?
April was a busy month with a variety of good and bad events, which pretty well sums up life in general, doesn’t it?
We ended March and began April with a trip to Daytona Beach for our 18th wedding anniversary. But we got a hint of what April might bring when we had to rush back a few hours early (no big deal) on Wednesday, April 1st after Cindy’s mom had a bad bout of pain and it looked like she might need to go to the hospital. Since her usual back doctor was on vacation and, unbelievably, doesn’t assign his patients to a fill-in doctor, we ended up taking her to a nearby CentraCare where the doctor there diagnosed it as sciatica and prescribed pain medication.
On Saturday the 4th we found out that a friend of ours (Cindy’s Eola Market “husband”) who lives in Tampa was struck by Bacterial Meningitis when his partner called us to let us know he was in the hospital. We drove down to Tampa on the 6th, even though he was unconscious, to offer whatever support we could to his partner, whom Cindy has known for more than a decade. As you can see from the link, Bacterial Meningitis is a very serious and potentially deadly condition. We made several more trips to Tampa over the course of the month and while our friend eventually regained consciousness, he was also placed on dialysis because his kidney functions stopped completely. In addition to the kidney issues, his legs and arms were not getting enough circulation, causing them to become swollen and black (legs and feet) and blue (arms and hands). The good news is that his arms and hands began to improve in condition and he has regained limited use of them as of today. The sad news is that a few days ago he had to have both legs amputated just below the knees. It would be an understatement to say that this will result in major life changes for both he and his partner, as it would for anyone. He’s been transferred to a rehabilitation facility near Tampa and we’re hoping to get to drive down and see him in the next couple of weeks when he’s feeling up to visitors.
Sunday, April 5th, we had a family party with 25 or so family members present. It just so happened my son was home from his long-haul truck driving job, so it was great to have my daughter and son here at the party together. It’s been a long time since we’ve all been at a family party together.
On Thursday, April 9th, I accompanied Cindy’s parents to her mom’s monthly Parkinson’s Support Group meeting, then they treated me to lunch and my first visit to the White Wolf Cafe & Bar. Food was delicious! Afterward, we went to an appointment with my mother-in-law’s back doctor for the back and leg pain she had been suffering with since the end of March.
Friday, April 10th, found us at the hospital at 7am for my mother-in-law to have an MRI done as her back doctor sought to find the cause of her back pain. When we finished up that procedure Cindy and I drove to Tampa to visit our friend.
On Wednesday, April 15th, we drove to Tampa to visit our friend and when we finished up there we drove over to Clearwater to meet my brother for lunch. That was a real treat and highlight of the month, as we hadn’t seen him in almost a year. We got to spend a couple of hours eating, visiting and walking on the beach before we had to head back to Orlando. The visits are never long enough, but I’m thankful for the time.
Cindy’s son, his wife and our two youngest grandchildren, Jade and Maxwell, arrived on April 21st from San Antonio, TX for a week-long visit. We had a lot of fun visiting and spending time with 5-year-old Jade, who spent the night with us on Wednesday, and 2-year-old Maxwell, who spent the night with us on Thursday. Then we babysat both of them on Friday night while mommy and daddy had a date night. They flew back home on Tuesday, April 28th after joining us for breakfast and a final visit before leaving.
Yesterday, Wednesday the 29th, my 9-year-old granddaughter, Heather, fell off a new and higher-than-she-was-used-to bed and broke her collarbone on her right side. The nurse let her mom and I look at the X-ray before the P.A. came in and it looked pretty clear to us that there was a nice clean break. The P.A. arrived a few minutes later and confirmed the broken collarbone and then they had an orthopedic specialist review it as well, then put her in a sling, gave her some pain medicine and we were out of the ER within an hour.
Even more tragic was finding out the same afternoon that the 1-year-old child of the neighbors who live 2 houses down from Cindy’s parents’ home had fallen into their family pool and drowned. I cannot even imagine, nor do I wish to, losing one of my children or grandchildren.
And then, on this final day of April, after a couple of days of coughing, Cindy took our granddaughter Abby to the doctor and the diagnosis was strep throat and bronchitis. The bronchitis was not surprising, given the cough and sound of it, but we had no expectation of strep throat, especially since Abby has not voiced one complaint about her throat hurting.
So, that’s the month of April in a nutshell. All of the above does not include, of course, the weekly Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday markets that Cindy does with her Mountain Creek Candles brand. Those are a constant, so I almost didn’t think to include them.
So, how was YOUR April?
Today’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to the spring of 2008 when Cindy and I went camping in North Carolina. We were tent-camping at a wonderful campground called Moonshine Creek in Balsam, NC, not far from Maggie Valley and Sheepback Mountain where we had just purchased some property to build a cabin on. We were hiking around the campground area and Cindy snapped this shot of me.
Today’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to April of 2007 when we took Mikey to Universal Studios. He met Spider-Man and Captain America and had a good time all over the park, but this is one of my favorite photos from that day.
Grandma and Mikey at Universal Studios in April of 2007 in front of the Hard Rock Cafe.
Cindy took Ann and our two oldest grandchildren, Mikey and Heather, to Disney’s Animal Kingdom a few weeks ago. Here’s a video I just loved seeing; Mikey having fun and enjoying The Festival of the Lion King.
Back in January, Grandma and I took Abby to Leu Gardens for a short morning visit. I’m finally getting around to looking over the photos I took and I found these six of Abby that I really liked, so I thought I’d post them. Abby is always (ok, almost always) happy to “model” for Granddad so I can try out different shots in different environments and light situations.
I hope you enjoy these shots as much as Abby and I enjoyed taking them.
Abby brought her notebook so she could sketch the various plants and flowers and trees at Leu Gardens. Here, she leans against a tree by the lake as she sketches a nearby flower.
Abby shows her smiling face with Lake Rowena in the background.
Like her Granddad, Abby likes to use her camera to take photos.
Peek-a-boo!
Abby makes friends wherever she goes, even with giant frogs who are sitting and enjoying a cup of tea in the garden.
Abby posing in front of the wooden bridge in the background.
I’ve really come to love Tumblr because I keep finding more and more of the people I’m interested in over there.
Writing, Comic Books, Science Fiction, Photography, and other interests of mine are well represented on Tumblr. My own Tumblr page consists of this blog (auto-post is great!), but it also contains things I find on other Tumblr pages that I reblog to my Tumblr page, so it’s not all just the same material as you can find here.
A couple of weeks back Wil Wheaton, best known for portraying Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation (but he is oh so much more than that single point in time) was answering questions on his Tumblr page.
When she was younger, my daughter had a crush on Wil (she may still, for all I know) and I used to tease her mercilessly about it, especially after she cried in the theater during (no spoilers here, but if you haven’t yet done so, you should go watch it) a certain scene from “Toy Soldiers” on the front steps of the boarding school.
But I admire Mr. Wheaton. He keeps his stuff real, has his head on straight and seems like the kind of guy you’d like to hang out with while enjoying a beer and talking about life. One of my favorite things about him is his mantra, “Don’t be a dick.” People are, and can be, unless you remind them they don’t need to be.
So I had just finished watching “Trek Nation”, a documentary about Gene Roddenberry by his son Eugene, and during part of it Wil Wheaton is having a conversation with Eugene. I wondered if the two of them had kept in touch over the years.
I asked – Wil Wheaton answered.
Below is a photo of Albert Einstein’s desk as it appeared on the day of his death, 60 years ago today.
On April 17, 1955, Einstein began experiencing internal bleeding as a result of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was transported to the University Medical Center Hospital at Princeton, but not before retrieving a draft of a speech he was preparing for a television appearance that would commemorate the State of Israel’s seventh anniversary and taking it to the hospital with him to continue working on.
When advised that he required surgery, Einstein refused saying, “I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”
Early on the morning of April 18, 1955 Einstein passed away at the age of 76, leaving unfinished the draft of the speech he had been working on right up until the end.
Since my own desk looks every day like his did on the day of his death, I assume that the one thing I will have in common with this great mind of the 20th century will be that my desk will look as cluttered and piled with work on the day I die. When it comes to having something in common with Einstein, well it’s better than nothing.
I enjoy the Lifehacker website. They have a wide variety of tech and non-tech pointers that help streamline your life. I make heavy use of their RSS feed in my Feedly reader to keep up with all the good stuff they make available.
One of my favorite features of the site is when they have leaders in various fields (writers, photographers, videographers, programmers, etc.) come in and offer up a view of “How I Work”, which covers processes, equipment, apps and tips they use to get their work done.
I always pick up at least one, but usually more, way to add something to my arsenal of working smarter and better. A lot of times it’s apps, but I have found that I can also adopt a practice or process that has worked for someone else.
The latest Lifehacker “How I Work” by Ed Zitron of EZPR is even more in depth than usual about how and why Ed uses the processes, equipment, and apps he does in his business. It provides a better than typical montage of his workflow. I really enjoyed his insights, and even understood some of them, lol.
Surf over there sometime and see if you find anything helpful.
P.S. A couple of days ago Lifehacker put up a NEW “How I Work” post featuring novelist, comic book writer and TV screenwriter Warren Ellis. It’s a pretty cool look at his process.
In June of 2010 Cindy and I moved to Maggie Valley and in October our friend Liz came up to spend a week with us. One day the three of us hiked to the top of Waterrock Knob, off the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Liz took this photo of us. Good memories!
