Life is Challenging Right Now

Damn, Damn, Damn. Sorry about the cussing but sometimes it is the only way to truly display your emotional state.

The back has been slowly getting better. Very slow, but improvement keeps hope alive that a pain-free life is a possibility. I have to different types of pain:

1) Nerve pain that starts at the lower back and goes down the back of the left leg all the way down to the foot. It is not a shoot pain, just an intense pain coming from a small area (about the size of a string) going all the way down the leg. I also get bad calf cramps and weakness in the leg when this nerve gets aggravated.

2) Intense lower back pain from the L3 - L5. It is the typical muscle pain you get with a sore back, but there is also an intense pain that feels like a bruise right on the back bone. This makes it very painful to walk up and down stairs (remember, I live in a four story house).

For the past several months, my back pain has really been under control. My main issue is that every time I step up my exercises I left leg starts acting up. However, this was soon to change.

Friday night, while playing poker, the pain in my back slowly starting escalating to the point that I put all my money in on a 12% chance of winning just so I could loose and go home. However, Saturday was fine. I actually did some new PT exercises and did some honey-do’s around the house. I felt good most of the day but Sunday night the back escalated higher than normal.

Monday was the same way; my back was sorer than normal but not so bad too keep me away from work. Unfortunately, throughout the day it slowly hurt more and more. By 4 PM I was in level 9 pain (at level 10 I can’t even move my body because it hurts so badly). Friday night I was pushing the limits on the number of pain pills and muscle relaxing I was taking.

Here is it Tuesday and I am spending the entire day in bed with my pay just one step away from incapacitating me. Hopefully, the pain will drop down to a manageable level by tomorrow. You never know, sometimes it heals quickly, sometimes you stay sore for a week.

It is definitely time to start shopping for a new surgeon (my old surgeon no longer accepts my insurance). Lucky for me I have a VERY good physical therapist. Over the years, he has diagnosed me better than some of the doctors I was seeing. I have printed out all the Orthopedic Surgeon within a 30 mile radius that accepts my insurance and physical therapist is going to let me know which ones he feels are the best.

I think it is time to get the L3/L4 and L4/L5 fused also.

Too Old for Children

Tania and I were the last stop on my nieces California tour of their aunts. My youngest brother, Adam, has three girls: Eden, Celesta, and Daniel. Eden, who will turn 5 in a few months, is the youngest of the three. She is a ball of energy and was a constant reminder of how old I’m getting. I’m sure glad we had our kids while we were young. I don’t know how I would have done trying to raise young kids in my late forties.

Eden kept killing me over and over again by shooting me with her finger. When she was shooting me or calling me fart-face she was hitting me with a pillow. One night I was lying on the couch watching TV with Celesta when Eden began plummeting my head with a pillow. I was trying to ignore her hoping a lack of response would make her bored of her antics. Of course that didn’t work. So after about 20 blows, I grabbed the pillow from her hands. After laying still for so long my quick move scared her and she went running to her sister.

As Celesta was comforting her I tossed the pillow in an arch and it landing right in lap. This verified in her mind that I was indeed an evil person and she began crying. Lucky for me Sponge Bob was on next because nothing shuts up a crying child faster than a funny sponge.

After Sponge Bob ended the girls went down stairs to play with dolls with Tania. This gave me a chance to watch some real TV. About a half hour later I heard Tania yell from down stairs but I couldn’t quite make out what she wanted. A few moments later Eden stuck her head out from behind the stairwell then went running back down stairs. Well, pay backs are a bitch – a couple of seconds later Tania comes up stairs yelling at me, asking why I would throw a pillow at Eden when she came up stairs after Tania asked me to get her snack. Before I could explain Tania went stomping off to the kitchen. And some says kids bring couples closer together.

During the drive bringing the kids to their home in Pahrump the girls told Tania that she is their favorite aunt. I think it has more to do with the American Girl dolls and Polly Pockets that we have in the extra bedroom than with anything particular about Tania. But again, if that was true they would have me at the bottom of their uncle list.

I Hate Chase Bank

I had a Chase credit that I stopped using about year ago. I travel to Detriot and New York City frequently for business - at minium, four or five trips a year to NYC and about twice that many to Detriot. I also visit Chicago and one or two other cities. I have been traveling like this for the past five years or more. However, every time I used my personal Chase credit card out side the LA area they would turn my card off because of their fraud alert system. I would understand if it only occurred when I went to odd location, but purchases in NYC or Detriot are not a unique thing for me.

Now I appreciate their deligance preventing fraud, but after more than five years of using my card in NY and Detriot you would think they would get used to the idea that I travel on business. One weekend after a Detriot trip, I went on an erran run. First stop; Home Depot. I can't remember what I was buying but I didn't bring my wallet, just my money clip so I only had the one credit card with me and sure enough - no can use becuase of the fraud allert. I had to get out of line and spend 10 minutes on the phone verifying my two purhases in Detriot and then get back in line again to try to buy them a second time.

Okay, I can deal with that - they do this every time so I am used to it. Next stop, the drug store. Well sure enough, the card doesn't work again. I have to get back on the phone to verify the same purchases one more time. This time, I am a little upset so I let them know that I just verified these purchases and my next stop is at the grocery store and I don't want to have to go through this process for a third in a half hour. "Of course not, sir. Your card will definately work." I don't think I have to tell you what happens at Von's: card no worky again! :( Now I am seriously pissed. I have never used the card again.

Okay, I told you that old story so I can tell you this new one.

My bank, Washington Mutual was purchased by Chase. They haven't closed any location in Conajo Valley, just swichted them over to Chase so it didn't seem like any big deal and it wasn't, until...

I typically only use my ATM card for cash. While I can use my ATM at most stores, I use my credit cards instead to rack up the points. Well, the credit cards have been creeping up so I decided to use my ATM card more to prevent the credit cards from getting out of hand. I just used it one weekend at a couple of stores. A few weekend laters when I needed some cash I went to use my card and got an "unable to access your account" message. What the !?!?!?

I had go inside the bank to talk to a teller. She can't help me, I have to call the fraud allert hotline. That's when it dawned on me - this is the same Chase Bank that owns my credit card that has been hiding unused at the back of my wallet. After a short phone call, I verifed the purchases I made and was able to then get some cash out the of the ATM machine.

That was over three months ago. Yesterday, I needed cash again and low and behold... same message - no cash for you fool. The fraud allert was on agian! For the same purchases I made in May! Even the lady on the phone was surprised it was on hold for purchases made so long ago. I guess this is Chase's way of making sure you don't actually use their card for any useful purpose.

Damn, I hate those guys. Does anyone have a bank they would recommend?

4th of July Vacation

I was slow to post this story because the whole family was there which make up the majority of my readers, but I decided to post now to give you all an update.

Every year my family tries to get everyone together to go camping somewhere. This year we camped near Slide Rock just North of Sedona, AZ. It is a day trip away from the Grand Canyon and is up in the Mountain near Flagstaff so you don't have the desert heat. Unfortunately, we couldn't get into the main camp ground so we didn't have flush toilets nor showers.

Both of my girls are taking summer classes this year so they couldn't come along. Lucky for me Beth and Nathon were able to drive up with us so I didn't have to put my back to the test with a long drive. I made Beth drive while I watched movies with Nathon in the back.

The first day of vaction was spent driving - all day. The second day was spent shopping for food and supplies for the rest of the week and searching around for a Honda dealer to replace a lost gas cap. So the vacation really didn't start until day three. While one group went to the Grand Canyon, Tania and I decided to check out the town of Sedona.

I forgot to mention that the camp ground was located in a canyon so there was not phone survice available. Well, after a few hours of shopping in Sedona I pulled out the phone to call Sherri only to notice that I had five messages waiting for me. Dan (Tania's dad) had a heart attack that morning and was recovering in the hospital.

Well needless to say, that was the end ot the vaction. Tania and I quickly packed up and drove back home. Dan is doing fine now. We woke up with moderate pain in his chest. By bed time it was still there and bothersome enough so he couldn't get to sleep so they went to the hosiptal. His EKG didn't show anything but lucky for him the doctor decided to keep him overnight for observation. Everyone would later learn that the decision to keep him over night ended up being a life saving decision. Dan had a major heart attack at 5 AM. The vein they call the widow maker (I don't know the offical name) was 99% blocked. The doctor said that if he wasn't in the hospital it is unlikely he would have survived.

Modern medicine is a wonderous thing. They blow up the vien with a baloon, support it with a shunt and sent him home the next day. It's been nearly two weeks and he is already back to work (and likely working too much and too hard) and is exercising agian. Dan has always been good about excerising but he has to slowing work up to good long walks on the treadmill. He is 72 years young and this is the first issue he has had with his heart so we are all hoping he will have a good, long lasting recovery.

Father's Day

No pictures for this post. We didn't do a lot for fathers day this year. Amber had to work and summer school started on Monday so she couldn't come down. This year Crystal proved that the best presents don't require a lot of money, just thoughtfulness. She burned me a music CD. That doesn't sound like much does it? Especially if you consider that I already have most of the songs she burned on the disk. However, I think you will change your mind after you read the letter that came with the CD.

To Dad
From Crystal

This is a mix CD of songs that remind me of you. Many of them are songs that you would sing to in the car. Take Me to the River, Money for Nothing, Lullaby, Jewel, etc. Then, of course, there is Diamond on the Soles of Her Shoes.

Some of them are songs that have men with deep voices singing, which makes me think of you for some reason. What a Wonderful World is one of those. Also, I remember it played on the radio one day and after the song was over you said very seriously that you thought that that song is one of the best songs of all time. I always think of you saying that when I hear the song.

Some just have lyrics that remind me of you. Dancing on Daddies Shoes is one of those because of how you’ll often just randomly dance with me. The Killers songs Daddy’s Eyes wouldn’t make me think of you if it weren’t for the line “You know you got your daddy’s eyes.” I have blue eyes like you. The Pink Floyd song Nobody Home makes me think of you because of a memory I have of you pointing out the lyric “I’ve got a strong urge to fly, but I got nowhere to fly to” and saying what a great line that is. I remember I didn’t notice the line when listening to the song, but thinking it was a beautiful lyric after you pointed it out. Now I can’t hear that part of the song without noticing it. The Paul Simon song Father and Daughter makes me think of you because for one, pretty much all Paul Simon songs do, and secondly because of the content of the song. It’s a song about how much a father loves his daughter and how he’ll do anything to protect her. I’m so lucky to have the sort of dad that I can think of when I listen to that song. I don’t even have the words to say how much I appreciate and love you for that.

I should have just handed the letter to Tania so she could read it herself. I tried to read it out loud but could only get about half way throught it.

Dan's Birthday Present

As usual, it took me a few weeks to getting around to writing this post. For Dan’s birthday Jenna decided that Alex and their boys would take Dan to an Angel game. They asked if I wanted to tag along, so how could I say no?



I’m not sure why she thought baseball would be fun. Neither Dan, Alex, nor either of her boys likes baseball. Of all the professional sports to choose from, I think baseball is the most boring. I would even pick soccer over a baseball game, but it is always fun to hang out with the boys so why not? It won't be long before they are too old to want to hang out with their uncle. The Angeles were playing the San Diego Padres which are always good games to attend becuase a lot of Padres fans come up to watch the game. Having a lot of fans from the opposing team at the staduim makes the home team fans cheer even more.
The seats were great. I’ve sat in many different locations at a ball game; high, low and in between. But every time I have been close to the grass I have always been near the in-field. We sat in row K just inside the foul pole in left field. A lot of balls are hit out in left field, so while you are not close in to the pitches and base running it was fun to watch the balls flying in the air towards us and see the left fielder run them down.



It also didn’t hurt that the Angeles rocked them 9 to 2. A lot of action and lot of home runs... I just got a new phone and played around with the vedio camera. I was kind of tricky to figure it out so the this video isn't very good but I thought I would add it any way. I want to try to have more videos on the blog in the future.

What do you know, baseball isn’t always a bore. Here's Alex explaining the in's and out's of the game to Bren.

So what did the girls do while the boys where at the ball game? What else? They took Barbara out for a pedicure for her birthday.

Look at those relaxed, beautiful feet.

A fun day for all.

Weekend Up Date

Tania and I went to the Dance Camera West Dance Film Festival on Saturday night in downtown LA. They have events occurring all month. Friday was the opening night and Saturday night they had a viewing of short movies (4 – 10 minutes). People submitted shorts that were suppose to be outstanding examples of dance on screen. There were two showings, one at 6:00 PM and one at 8:00 PM. It was only $10 so we went to both.

It took place at the REDCAT which is connected the Disney Theater in downtown LA. We decided to get there a little early and walk around, enjoy the architecture and get something to eat before the show.

The Disney Theatre is one of the coolest buildings in LA.

They are trying to revive down town LA. I don’t how you revive a place that was never vived in the first place, but down town LA sucks compared to New York, Chicago or San Francisco. It was early Saturday night and the place was completely dead. Half of the restaurants and most of the shops were closed. The first restaurant we found had appetizers starting at $22. I didn’t even bother looking at the rest of the menu. The second place featured an 8 course meal for $185 – we kept right on walking. We eventually found a California Pizza Kitchen a few blocks away. There were only about four or five other parties there besides us when we showed up, but it started filling up a little by the time we left.

These types of things (Dance Film Festival) always attract the cool, hip crowd – guys with hats, most of which matched their jackets which didn’t match their pants and were always jeans with holes in them. I think I was the only guy there wearing socks. Everyone was overly excited to see one another – greetings were done with a lot of screams and hugs. (omygod! Look who’s here! EECKKKK!)

The fun part of the event was that you got to vote for your favorite film. The bad part was that half of them were completely lame. Someone needed to inform the committee that chose the films that just because a film is weird, and has quirky shots put to music does not make it a dance film. A lot of the films had no dancing at all but the ones I hated the most were the ones with no absolutely no plot or purpose -- trying too hard to be artsy usually ends up being just stupid. However, with film festivals you gotta expect a certain amount of junk, that’s what you signed up for. For that matter, half of the “real” movies I go to these days are junk so why would this any different? At least they were only a few minutes long and not 2 ½ hours of junk.

A handful of films were very enjoyable. But the best part of going to this event is that after wanting to go for years and years (but able to because she worked weekends) Tania finally got to go this film festival and now realizes that this was not something that should have been on her list in the first place… I won’t have to go again.

Then just to keep theme going, on Sunday we went to the Thousand Oaks Art Walk. I happened to notice this was happening on my way to the gym in the morning. (yep I am able to do some short swim sessions). Artist from all around bring in their wares for view and sale. Paintings of all type, ceramics, glass blown art, jewelry and a few music booths for entertainment. The weather was perfect; cloudy with a slight breeze, not too hot, not too cold.

Tania’s primary goal was to find someone who offered classes on glass blowing. She wants to learn how to make glass beads. Her latest hobby is jewelry making and she also wants to learn how to make glass beads because they are expensive. She found a few people who provided lessons and was able to find someone who had just the type of class she was looking for.

Art shows like this are always fun because the artists are usually there and after sitting all day long dealing with looky-lou’s they are bored out of their minds and don’t mind talking to you about their work. Tania’s favorite question to the jewelry artist was “How did you do this?” Some were reluctant to divulge their secrets but most were very nice.

All-in-all, a pretty nice weekend.