Family......

I'm a lucky guy.

Most folks either just get along or barely tolerate their in-laws.

I love my in-laws as much as my own parents.

Just thought I'd share:-)

till later.

What I'm thankful for.............

Let's put this right out there first thing.....the past couple of days have been very difficult for myself, my mom and my entire family. I'd say the only thing that compares to it is when my beloved Aunt Helen passed away several years ago.

So most folks wouldn't be in a very thankful mood.

Me?

Honestly, I am extremely thankful....let me list a few reasons.

-I'm thankful my father passed in a matter of moments...he didn't suffer and he died at home with my mom right by his side.

-I'm thankful that we live less then a mile away from my parents house, I was able to be at the hospital to say my final goodbyes and our pastor was also there within minutes to guide us in a final prayer and to provide us some much needed strength.

-I'm thankful for the fact that my father had previously decided to be an organ donor. The person from the donor agency I spoke to on the afternoon of my fathers passing was fairly certain that his corneas would be able to be harvested. If you're not an organ donor- step up to the plate the next time you get your license renewed and check the organ donor box.

-I'm thankful for my Aunt Betty and my cousin Gail and her husband.....they were able to bring my aunt (my mom's sister) to the house from New Jersey in a matter of hours. Like I've mentioned before-my Aunt Betty is truly a gift from God.

-I am thankful for our family friend Chris Lehman, my mom considers her as part of the family and she was at my mom's side within minutes of hearing about my fathers passing. She is also a very special person-thank you so much for being there for my mom.

-I'm thankful for the ability to not dwell on bad things that have already happened.....I can't change the past but I can have a say on the future. I miss my pop terribly and my mom misses him even more but we have lots of living to do in the future and I'm ready to get to it.

-I'm thankful for memories. Every time I think of my dad....I find myself remembering something we did together and it makes me laugh. Sure, I'm sad...but my old man had a pretty good sense of humor and it would piss him off if he thought we were sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves. After his second heart attack and especially the past few months-he's had some tremendous pain due to his spinal cord collapsing......I don't think I ever heard him complain-he was one tough Irishman. I'm having a ring made with "One Tough Irishman" inscribed on it.....once I put it on-it ain't never coming off.

-I am speaking for my mom here a little bit....but we are thankful for our wonderful family. I couldn't imagine going through this without my wife and kids. If I didn't have my wife to be my rock....man, I don't even want to go there. I can only imagine how my mom feels right now as my dad was her rock.

-I am thankful for a very understanding boss. Rose (my boss) and I have been friends since we were kids and she lost her father during Thanksgiving a number of years ago, so she knows exactly what we are going through.....she has my back and I have hers.....couldn't ask for a better boss-she's good people.

-I'm thankful for all his friends that I've talked to the past two days.....kinda funny, my dad set up an appointment for me at a local service station to pick up some tires for my car on Wednesday- I shared the news of my father's passing with the guys working there (they were friends) and for 15 minutes the 6 or 7 guys at the garage were telling me how many friends he has and what a good guy he was. He sold tires for 50 years in York County to hundreds of service stations and tire wholesalers....he knew a lot of people.

-Finally, I'm thankful for all my friends that have emailed, sent texts and called the last two days. You are all wonderful and I thank you for your kind thoughts. This blog has been good therapy as I enjoy writing out my thoughts...... I know I ain't the next James Joyce, so thanks for bearing with me.

I could go on and on about how thankful I am.....

.....but I think you get the point:-)

till later.

Thank you............

Thanks everyone for your kind wishes.

We had a tough day today getting some of the arrangements taken care of. I'll post more details Friday evening after we talk to our pastor but at this point- it looks like Sunday December 5th we will be having a celebration of life service-time to be determined.

I can share this, as per my fathers request-there will be no viewing or a traditional funeral. After his usable organs and corneas have been harvested, he will be cremated and sometime in the future, we will be traveling to Ireland to spread his ashes.

Just have to say thank you to my Aunt Betty who is staying over for a few weeks to help my mom get through this difficult time.

Everyone should have an Aunt Betty...she is without a doubt the toughest, wisest, strongest person I know and there is no way my mom could get through this difficult time without her. Aunt Betty is a rock and I love her as much as I love my own mom.

Having said that, my wife (who my mom considers as a daughter) and our son Daniel have been wonderful these past two days. Not sure how or why God decided I deserve such a wonderful woman be to be my wife, but I couldn't ask for a smarter, wiser, stronger beautiful woman to share my life with.

Our son has been right next his grandmother for the past 24 hours...he's 17 but he's been a man the last couple days. I guess my wife and I can take some credit for how wonderful and caring he is, but at the end of the day- he's taken it on his own to provide my mom with an arm to lean on. I am very proud of my son and sometimes life deals us some tough lessons on the way to manhood, he's proven himself to be up to the challenge of becoming a man.

Even in death.....I couldn't ask for a better family.

till later.

Rest in peace dad........

I wasn't planning on writing a eulogy for my dad this week.....but my pop died at home unexpectedly on the morning of November 23rd.

While he wasn't in the best of health, we thought he was gonna stick around for a few years, but I suppose God had other plans for him.

He was a lot of things to a lot of people, he proudly served in the US Navy for 6 years, he was a wonderful husband to my mom, he was a good father to me, a great grandfather, he loved being involved with church, he was an active member of the local Lions Club, he loved animals, anything Disney and most importantly........when I was a kid-he helped me deliver my Sunday paper route when it was cold and rainy.

I almost think he enjoyed having me wake him up 5AM on rainy Sundays to help me deliver my route....we'd deliver the papers and then go to the donut shop, order coffee and donuts and shoot the breeze for an hour.

In recent years, we would meet at a local restaurant on Saturday mornings and do much the same.

When I was growing up, my folks didn't have a lot of money, but they always had money for books, I passed my love of reading down to our children and for that- I have my dad to thank.

Out of all his accomplishments, the thing he was most proud of was his grandkids ...Katie and Daniel. My dad struggled in school when he was a kid, and he loved the fact that both of his grandchildren are excellent students....our daughter is finishing up her Masters next year and our son is in his senior year of high school with plans to attend college next fall.

Will we miss my dad?

Oh yeah, he is leaving a huge hole in all our hearts...he wasn't much for public displays of affection....you might even say he came off as a tough guy sometimes. Inside however- he was a softie, and we all knew that underneath that tough exterior- if you were his friend, you had a friend for life-he had your back.

My dad lived life on his terms and lived and died exactly the way he wanted to die, he wasn't afraid of death, only afraid of a lingering death....thankfully the Lord took him in a matter of moments. He was 73 when he died....and well, I'm not sure how anyone could pack more into 73 years then he did.

If he was still here to tell you, he'd say he ticked off just about everything on his bucket list with the exception of riding on a Harley and seeing his grandkids graduate from college. That's something that he's gonna have to do from Heaven..at least he'll have good seats.

Getting a little chilly out.......

Yesterday I probably was out for one of the last rides of the year on my bike/moped before I need to dress like an Eskimo. Since I have no cartilage in either knee, arthritis and no ACL in one knee.....I gotta keep them warm or else I literally can't walk. I'm thinking that neophrene knee braces are a start plus all the usual bike clothing.

If you're new here....I'm sure ya'll have noticed that my bike has a motor on it.

I'm not lazy, just can't pedal more then a few minutes without debilitating knee pain. As I'm not quite ready to stop cycling....the motor on the back gives me a little bit of an assist. On flat ground, it will go 30 mph......ain't no way I'm going to be going 30 mph this winter- I figure that if it's 40 degrees out and I go 30 mph....I'll probably freeze to death in about 15 minutes.

Yesterday it was 50 degrees and I was out in jeans and a sweatshirt....I lasted about 30 minutes before I started to feel my knees lock up....it sucks getting old.

Here's the part of the blog where I shoot my mouth off.............

I normally don't fly, I've only ever been in an airplane 2 times and a helicopter once-so I'm not a guy that flies very much. Been reading about how the TSA has been instructed to frisk people before they hop on a plane.....all I can say is it has to suck to fly.

My next door neighbor is a pilot for a large airline....seeing what he has gone through in the past 10 years since 9/11.....all I can say is that pilots are probably underpaid for what they have to do. It just ain't hopping into a plane and twisting a few dials, too be honest, I can't think of a more stressful way to make a living.

Having said that.....my neighbor couldn't be a nicer guy.

We are heading into the holidays and since I work retail...it can be a stressful time to work in a grocery store like I do. For me.....it ain't no biggie- if I get a rude customer, I turn the tables on them and make sure I act super-nice back to them.

It's really hard for a customer who's acting like an asshole to keep acting like an asshole if the person on the other side of the counter (me) is unfailingly polite. Most of the time, folks chill out and calm down....but about 1% of people get more pissed when you're super-polite to them.

Those are my favorite customers because I like to see how far I can out-polite them before they have a meltdown.

I'm very happy that I've never seen this young man perform. Hell, I've never even heard him speak....and I'm okay with that.

till later.

One update every 2 months..........

Kinda spend most of my time on Facebook nowadays....sorry bout the lack of updates. I've been working 6 nights a week and on computers in the daytime...something has to give and unfortunately....it's this blog that has taken the brunt of it.

I'll leave you with this email my friend Hank sent me......

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again invited readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are the winners:


1.Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.

2. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

3. Intaxicaton: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor ( n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.

The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has gained.

3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4.esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.

6. Negligent, adj. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.

7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavoured mouthwash.

9. Flatulence, n. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle, n. A humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

till later.