Serendipity Do Dah

This past Friday about 7 PM my left elbow felt tender to the touch. As the evening progressed, it worsened, becoming swollen and warm. Through the night I was wakened frequently because of the pain. I began to grouse thinking, “First the double vision and now this, just what I needed.” I began to feel a kindred spirit to Job from the Bible and his many troubles. I decided to make the run to a nearby urgent care center Saturday morning. I knew that I hadn’t injured it at all and thought that possibly I had cellulites. I didn’t want it to progress.

I drove my car to Mt. Pleasant. Yes, I drove only taking the “back roads” and the clinic is fairly close. I had no trouble steering and staying on the road, but when another car approached, I had to close one eye to be sure I was on my side. If I looked with both eyes open, I see two cars and one of the oncoming cars seemed to be in my lane coming at me head-on.

I’m thankful that my daughter was driving me to the hospital emergency department to evaluate my double vision and wasn’t in the driver’s seat at the time. It was a terrifying sight. I’ve adjusted since then. If my grandfather Beck who was blind in one eye could drove with vision in only one eye for over 20 years, so can I.

Returning to my visit to the urgent care center, the waiting area was fairly empty, but I waited for over an hour before I was triaged. A nurse took my vitals, asked about Covid symptoms, my medications, my medical history, and the reason for my visit. Once complete I was escorted into an examining room. I didn’t have long to wait before the nurse practitioner examined me.. She asked, “Have I ever had gout?” I responded, “Yes, in my feet.” She felt that it might be a repeat flair-up or could be the start of a joint infection. She sent a prescription for Colchicine and Keflex to the nearby Wal-mart. Since I had to pick up the medications, I also did my shopping while I waited.

This is where serendipity sets in. After taking the second dose of the Keflex, the images I saw in my double vision came closer. They still aren’t a single view, but are much closer. I believe something I thought was another problem of the painful elbow was a blessing in disguise. I feel my double vision was caused by a sinus infection and the antibiotic is clearing it. God sent a minor inconvenience to diagnose and treat my vision problem. He is the great Healer.

Once Upon a Time, Long Long Ago

This past Saturday we were able to celebrate the 55^th class reunion of the Connellsville Area High School graduation seniors. It was held at the Pleasant Valley Golf Club’s dining area. Our class was the first class where the Dunbar Mules and the Connellsville Cokers were combined to be the Connellsville Falcons. The red and black high school colors of the Dunbar Mules and the orange and black of the Connellsville Cokers was forever lost to the blue and white colors of the Connellsville Falcons. I believe it was a traumatic time for both schools. The turmoil of our senior year was further heightened by throwing 250 students from each school system together in their senior year. Classmates were mixed. Students from the Mules and Cokers were expected to make new friends from 250 strangers.

The friends we’d known, sometimes from grade school were now being separated. The result was that we were going to school with strangers and it was difficult to learn the names of the new people and to make new friends. At our 55^th reunion it was at times awkward to see a face and have no idea of the name to whom I was speaking. What made the situation even worse was the fact that I was suffering with diplopia, for several weeks (double vision.) That caused a blurring of faces.

I was asked to EMCEE the affair giving the welcome and thanking those people involved. I managed to stumble through the opening remarks. I was thankful what I’d written was short. Sometimes I had to backtrack because the words I’d written had run together.

All in all it was a wonderful evening seeing the members of our graduating class, renewing some friendships and getting to know other people who were newly introduced strangers in 1967. I was thankful that I was able to attend and grateful to those people who worked diligently to make it all happen. I will say, “Semper Fi” to the man who thought it was a great idea to have the reunion, then kept pressing to make it happen. This is a thank you to all involved. Thank you for everything that you did.

Lastly, I want to say to those who couldn’t attend because of distance, health, or because they no longer walk among us, we missed you.

 

Shared from my vast library of writings. My double vision limits computer work.

The Three R’s

When most people hear the three R’s, they think of the ones in the ditty song, “School Days:” Reading, ’Riting, and ’Rithmetic, but I want to comment on three other R’s that are of great concern to me and are seemingly being lost in today’s society: Reason, Respect, and Responsibility. Great men of the past have commented on these three ideals, so I will share their words in my post.

There are two others Rights and Religion, but they are God given and should be kept inviolate as did our founding fathers. They listed them prominently as parts of our country’s foundational precepts and were set forth in the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States of America. These people who were much wiser than I am included these ideals to form the foundation of our nation.

REASON is the first R I’d like to address. Edward Counsel said, “Reason is a pillar of the mind.” Sophocles wrote, “Reason is God’s greatest gift to man.” The words of God Himself say to mankind, “Let us reason together.” Scientists say that it is the ability to reason that separates man from animals. Reason tempers emotion to make rational decisions.

RESPECT is the second in the trilogy I want to address. Billy Graham said, “A child who is allowed to be disrespectful to his parents will not have true respect for anyone.” Respect is shamefully absent in much of society today. Laurence Sterne said, “Respect for ourselves guards our morals, respect for others guides our manners.” What has happened to being polite? H. M. McGill wrote, “One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say.” Shouting down another person’s point of view or feeling offended and needing a safe place to hide if someone doesn’t agree with our point of view is the norm in society today.

The third ideal is RESPONSIBILITY. A right without responsibility is anarchy. “A definition of responsibility: a commitment of head, heart, and hands to fix the problem and never again affix blame,” was described by John G. Mills. Robert L. Joss said, “Real leadership is not about prestige, power, or status. It’s about responsibility.”

I don’t know how many will agree with my view on this subject, but as I have said, many men much wiser than I share the same perspective on reason, respect, and responsibility.

 

Another story pulled from my archives of memories at Frick Hospital

Boo Who?

This next story isn’t quite a ghost story, but it is in the same venue and I will tell it just the same. I was nursing supervisor at Frick Hospital in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. I’d just taken the body of a deceased person to the morgue, placed the cart in the cooler, and was doing the paper work in the log, when I heard voices from the storeroom through a vent high on the wall that connected it to the morgue room. It was our maintenance man, Franko and one of the female central supply techs, Niecie. They were retrieving a bariatric bed for a patient. Bariatric beds are oversized beds for the larger clients. The bed had been stored directly beneath the vent.

I moved across the morgue until I was underneath the vent, then cupped my hands around my mouth and made a funnel. I moaned, “W-O-O-O-O-O-O! W-O-O-O-O-O!”

They immediately stopped talking. Then I heard Niecie ask, “Franko, did you hear that?”

When Franko didn’t answer right away, she persisted, “I said, did you hear that?”

Franko said “Yes! Yes I did.”

“What was that?” She asked.

I heard Franko shush her.

They were quiet and I could tell they were listening for more. So I waited. When I heard them start to move the bed in the next room, I again moaned, “W-O-O-O-O-O! W-O-O-O-O-O!”

Niecie said, “Let’s get out of here!” I heard the supply room door pop open and the bed rolled out of the room at a high rate of speed.

Later, I met Franko in the hallway and told him what I’d done. He laughed and said, “I didn’t know what that noise was. I knew the morgue was next door, so I thought at first it could have been a ghost. The second time you moaned, Neicie’s eyes bulged out. She grabbed my arm and almost climbed up onto my shoulders. I think she would have if I would have let her.”

We never told Neicie and if you by chance read this, I apologize.

 

 

Sharing a repeat post until my double vision crisis ie resolved

Burdened Hearts

For the past few months, my heart and mind have been burdened with the heartbreak of my family members and those as close as family members. Sharing these burdens has become so frequent that they seem to rush at me one after another. I think about each individual incident as I go about my daily tasks and each person affected, sharing prayers.

Today as I was mowing, I decided to share these thoughts with my readers, not the particulars, as I have no desire to embarrass people’s tragedies that I’ve held in confidence. I will address things in a general manner with limited details.

I’ve mentioned before about the loss of my cousin, Charlene and much of that burden is for her family and friends, especially her mom who has endured so much.

It seems like so many of my friends and Face Book friends have been hit with illnesses. The most common disease has been cancer. Each one pricks my heart. My wife and mother-in-law died with this malignant disease hidden inside of them.

Some of my friends are struggling with financial problems; making their money stretch, trying to find a place to live, or difficulties with health care. Sometimes one problem bleeds into another.

I am not even sure how to approach my last concern. I’m not sure that it is the most demanding, but it is the most recent. It hit me like a fist. When children stray, it’s like a dagger to the heart of the parent. It is a hard burden to bear, both for the child and to the parent. The incident has ruined the trust between the parents and child and it has ruined the bright future of this child.

It has to be devastating for the family. The parents are close friends and it has hit me hard. I try to help bear the emotional weight by thinking of them and praying frequently. There is not much else for me to do. I am not sure that the parents even know that I understand what is happening in their lives, so what do I do, but wait and pray.

Don’t think I have an Eeyore attitude or am a gloomy Gus, I’m not. I try to make others smile. I try to help in any way that I can. I don’t know if I would be able to help carry this load if it weren’t for the frequent times of release. I like the time I spend talking and laughing with others. Unknowingly, they provide the mental health for me. They divert my thoughts from secrets I hide inside and allow me to escape, even for a few minutes.