Auld Lang Syne

‎6 rented DVD's? Check. Table spread with good food and special once a year recipes? Check. Supply of rum for Peggy's Pina Coladas? Check. Michelob Ultra iced down? Check. Bottle of Asti Spurmante for midnight toasting? Check. Spending another New Years Eve alone with my soulmate and wife of nearly 33 years: Priceless! ‎

My wish to you all for a very safe and Happy New Year.

Bring it on, '11!

Here We Go Again!

Well, last month America went to the polls and voted for a change in Congress. For the first time in two years the Republicans gained control of Congress once again.

It was announced today that nationwide gas prices have reached a two year high.

Coincidence?

Uh, nope, don't believe it is.

This is the change America voted for and is now getting what she voted for.

How quickly a nation forgets.

How quickly will your wallet forget next time?

Where will it end?

And you thought the recession was going to end?

Think again.

It's going to start heading the other way at anytime now.

How's that for change, folks?


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And I'd like to add the following on to this post for those who sometimes wonder how much gas prices have fluctuated over the years. Check out these amazing stats:

Decade Average Price(per gallon)
1950 - 1959 $0.19 to $0.26
1960 - 1969 $0.31 to $0.35
1970 - 1979 $0.36 to a little less than $1
1980 - 1989 About $1
1990 - 1999 About $1.10
2000 - 2009 $1.65 to $4

Wonderful Day

This has been a most wonderful Christmas this year. With all of our family get togethers out of the way before Christmas this year, Peggy and I were able to kick back, just the two of us, and have a wonderful and quiet Christmas here at home for just the two of us.

We started off our day with coffee and opening of our gifts to each other, and followed that with a champagne breakfast. We had lunch mid afternoon and watched Ben Hur and are now just taking it easy and going thru our Christmas gifts and figuring a few of them out.

Not sure what the evening will bring, but I'm sure we'll work a Christmas movie in this evening and have something to eat later on.

What a truly wonderful day this has been, and I hope that all whose eyes read these words have had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Merry Christmas To All

For all of you, my Faithful Few, and those of you who might just happen by, my wish for you on this blessed day of promise, is the same as it always is:

True and total peace on earth.

Am I an idealist?

Probably, but what better way to be one?

I hope the day comes for us all someday, when man no longer kills man and people, regardless of race, creed or heritage can walk this planet of ours in complete and total peace.

Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas and the beginnings of a wonderful and peaceful and prosperous new year for all.

God bless us everyone.

Winding Down

Christmas mailing season at the Post Office is coming to an end, and it has been a busy one, an eventful one and a tiring one.

All in all, it's one I'm thankful for and one I'm thankfully seeing come to that end. Since Christmas falls on Saturday which is my day off each week, my holiday will be Friday, Chrismas Eve. I don't get many Christmas Eve's off, and it's nice to know that this year I'll be able to do just that.

This years season has been a trying one, due to less help at work and the problems I've been having with my neck and shoulder. I haven't been getting a great deal of sleep because of all the pain I've been in, but I've gotten thru it. My therapy sessions have caused some tension with our work schedule, especially since one of our sub clerks has been off this week due to pneumonia. Trust me, I would rather have been putting up with the rush at work than to have had to have gone to these PT sessions, but hopefully they are working. Next week I start two sessions a week instead of just the one I've been going to the last few weeks.

Then the big question: Will Christmas number 32 at the post office be my last one?

Hard to tell right now, but to be honest about it, I hope so. As much as I love my job and as much as my customers and the service I give them mean to me, there are other things that mean a lot to me as well, and I'm thinking maybe it's time for this fat old bald fart to be handing the reins over to someone else's capable hands and for me to hit that time clock for the last time in 2011.

And if I do decide to hang it up next year, when will that be? Also not certain about that, but it would be nice to work a few more months and get used to the idea that retirement is going to be a good thing.

I only hope that when I do leave the post office that someone misses me, even if it's just a little. After all, when you spend over half your life working somewhere and doing it with love and dedication like I've tried to do over the years, you do hope someone will notice your absence when you're gone.

So, I guess the answers to these and more questions will avail themselves sometime during 2011.

In the meantime, God bless you all and thanks for allowing me to serve you once again this Christmas season.

Peace!

Is History Repeating Itself?

I went to my first physical therapy session yesterday down in Greenwood with my former therapist Todd Verity, who hasn't aged a bit since 2001.

I left with my right shoulder taped, in an effort to relieve the pressure on the rotator cuff, that seems to be causing me the most pain, even though the x-rays show my shoulder to be okay.

We are NOT yet treating the C-6 vertabrae.

As I sit here, uncomfortable as hell with this tape on that will stay on thru Monday evening, I have to wonder, is this crap starting all over again on the right side?

To say I'm a bit bummed is a gross understatement, folks.

C 6

First of all, this is NOT an x ray of mine, but it is one similar, and it shows what is actually wrong with me, and NOT my right shoulder. I have a compressed C6 disk, which is causing nerve pain and a weakening on my right side. This disk houses the nerves for the right wrist, thumb pinky and legs. When the nerve is captured by a compressed disk, it causes extreme pain on the right side, radiating from the neck, into the shoulder and down into the bicep.

After visiting with my orthopaedic surgeon yesterday and being examined, x-rayed and tested, the results are that my right shoulder is in great shape, but the C6 is in bad need of help. So, beginning next week, I will start physical therapy and traction at home to relieve the pressure on the disk and open that area up around it so as to free up the nerves.

This means, no surgery, about a month and a half of therapy and traction, and the doc says I should be as good as new, or at least as good as someone my age should be. So, a few more sleep deprived nights and a few more weeks of severe pain and this should start getting better.

Pretty nice early Christmas present, I must say!