Sandwiched in the Losing Season
April 17, 2018
The emotions continue for the whole family recently. I learned from a friend that we're called the 'sandwich generation' and for good reason. We are raising our kids who need us and are helping our parents who need us. We're in the middle. This concept ran through my mind multiple nights, and I hope to have an idea of how I'd like to create portraits of we sandwichers, along with our parents and children--what it is we do that gives us 'knowledge'--maybe 'wisdom' is the better word here.
PAT
Our neighbors recently lost their mother after a year long battle with cancer, which slowly spread throughout her body. I've known this woman since I moved south with my family in 1984. She always was very religious, answering the phone with 'Jesus Christ is Lord' --still the landline phone number. She would always get us to Catholic church on time, later changing her religion to Brownsville Assembly of God. Her Sundays were spent in worship. Not just the one or two hours for church and maybe Sunday School, but 5 to 8 hours every Sunday. Never a bad word out of her mouth, at least not to non-family that I can remember. Living through failed relationships after trying multiple years to make things work. She was very admirable and, although it seems weird, we all looked up to her for her faith, even though it seemed weird at times. Thirty-eight years of my life and now she's gone. Ironically, her faith was possibly her downfall had she gone to the doctor when she noticed her bump. But she waited. For almost 18 months. By then it was too late. The prognosis was that the docs could slow it down as best they could. Once the cancer entered her brain last Saturday, it rapidly took her in 7 days. Pat, we love you and your family. We wish you the best on the express train to heaven. DOD 4/14/18. Her funeral is this Friday in Pensacola. I am a pall-bearer. These fb pulls are how I like to remember her.
HARVEY
We suffered another loss last week. A more feline nature, our nine year old American shorthair we've had since he was born in our closet went missing last Sunday 4/8/18. The fat cat is never further than 100 feet from a food bowl. By day three, we had all given up, after checking basically every nook and cranny in the yard, the house, the garage, the woods behind the house-everywhere. We are all a sad family right now. Especially my son, who was his buddy. Sleeping with the cat, playing 'machine gun harvey' --yes the cat was the calmest ever and would basically let my young son pull the cat back and push him forward like he was a machine gun, then throw him on the couches. Harvey would always come back for more for some reason. He'd even shit in the tub instead of on the floor when we would forget to let him out a night to use the garage litter box. I'm a little bitter that it was he that was taken--If I had my choice, it definitely would have been the one that likes to crap and pee in front of the door, but I guess that's a little too soon. The interesting thing about a missing cat with no closure is the fact that he's hopefully alive somewhere, being fed fancy feast dinners on pillows of white velvet, but I'm pretty sure I know better, as do we all. RIP Harvey. Enjoy the big sleep, wherever you are. We will miss you too.
CAROL
A couple good things that occurred this week was I got to see my god-mother for the first time in about 4 years. My mother's best friend came to town to visit for ten days. I let her meet my friends one Wednesday night while we played Trivia. Got a big kick out of my cop friend/comedian and his girlfriend, who hit it off with the family too. Carol loves the beaches, and we got to spend a little quality time with her at the NLO for a walk/hike and some pics.
They turned out pretty well. Another benefit is that I get to see my parents out with us, which is a total win, especially since she's been rejecting me for trivia for about three years now. Thanks for coming Carol--hope you come back soon.
DOCTOR/DIABETES AND THE KETO DIET
So I've been having what I think is stress fracture pain in my left foot on top (because webMD makes everyone a doctor) and I figured I'd get an appt to see my doctor so I could get referred to a podiatrist and get whatever it is fixed. My Dr looked over my tests and took a blood sugar level. I am pre-diabetic--I have been going on 4 years now, but then he tells me about a couple of websites, and changing my diet is what helps you lose weight (95%) compared to exercise (5%). Checked my feet for about five seconds, then tells me to try the keto diet to reduce my insulin levels, and away I went. I am currently on my 12th day, and although I've gone thru 'keto flu' a few times, I'm pretty positive about reversing this thing. I'll hopefully be able to stick with it for awhile as I'm already down 11 lbs, --the beer stoppage? uh, lets just call that low carb, even though i'm enjoying the shit out of whiskey and eating that bacon!
GT
So my daughter turns 18 and six weeks later, my son turns 14. Fourteen!
He's a basketball fan to say the least, so, as hard as it was, Jen and I booked a trip to NOLA and the best seats we could afford for the Pelican's game. He's been following the Pelicans since we told him we got tickets in January. The stat machine, similar to myself in those days, loves Anthony Davis as much as I love him regurgitating stats on how everyone did on the team the night before, along with the stats, and playoff updates now that they've made it. We ended up having a good time, putting some mileage on the feet and some much-needed time with our son, who has somewhat become a fortnite family member more than our own :) So Happy B-day GT, even though a day early, we still got to eat at the SHED BBQ on the way home, and I got to take a few pics with the XA2. A great trip for a great kid on a coming-of-age birthday. Love ya bud.
CICLOVIA
So a lot happened on my son's actual birthday. We decided to make him go to Pensacola's second CICLOVIA with us and our daughter. Pretty neat event as Pensacola closes all downtown roads to car and truck traffic to make way for pedestrian traffic. Plenty of events going on too. We like to spend about 3-4 hours there. I was a lot quieter than the inaugural year, but it's always to ride the streets, especially Bayfront Pkwy without seeing a car! We rode with our neighbors, and their young one. Good times.
Later that evening we caught a show at the Historic Imogene theater to see John Paul White. This was basically a trip to see if the 310 person theater built in 1910 would be good enough to see and spend $50 to see Steve Earle. It passed the test with flying colors. Some friends showed up that I'd figure we'd never see at a concert again, even though I ask all the time and get shunned due to their activities. The ONE TIME I decide to give up, there they are! Unfortunately we didn't get time to grab a beer after the show as they beat feet out of the city before we had to to ask. Oh well. Guess we'll see em again in 2021 for the next show.
The emotions continue for the whole family recently. I learned from a friend that we're called the 'sandwich generation' and for good reason. We are raising our kids who need us and are helping our parents who need us. We're in the middle. This concept ran through my mind multiple nights, and I hope to have an idea of how I'd like to create portraits of we sandwichers, along with our parents and children--what it is we do that gives us 'knowledge'--maybe 'wisdom' is the better word here.
PAT
Our neighbors recently lost their mother after a year long battle with cancer, which slowly spread throughout her body. I've known this woman since I moved south with my family in 1984. She always was very religious, answering the phone with 'Jesus Christ is Lord' --still the landline phone number. She would always get us to Catholic church on time, later changing her religion to Brownsville Assembly of God. Her Sundays were spent in worship. Not just the one or two hours for church and maybe Sunday School, but 5 to 8 hours every Sunday. Never a bad word out of her mouth, at least not to non-family that I can remember. Living through failed relationships after trying multiple years to make things work. She was very admirable and, although it seems weird, we all looked up to her for her faith, even though it seemed weird at times. Thirty-eight years of my life and now she's gone. Ironically, her faith was possibly her downfall had she gone to the doctor when she noticed her bump. But she waited. For almost 18 months. By then it was too late. The prognosis was that the docs could slow it down as best they could. Once the cancer entered her brain last Saturday, it rapidly took her in 7 days. Pat, we love you and your family. We wish you the best on the express train to heaven. DOD 4/14/18. Her funeral is this Friday in Pensacola. I am a pall-bearer. These fb pulls are how I like to remember her.
HARVEY
We suffered another loss last week. A more feline nature, our nine year old American shorthair we've had since he was born in our closet went missing last Sunday 4/8/18. The fat cat is never further than 100 feet from a food bowl. By day three, we had all given up, after checking basically every nook and cranny in the yard, the house, the garage, the woods behind the house-everywhere. We are all a sad family right now. Especially my son, who was his buddy. Sleeping with the cat, playing 'machine gun harvey' --yes the cat was the calmest ever and would basically let my young son pull the cat back and push him forward like he was a machine gun, then throw him on the couches. Harvey would always come back for more for some reason. He'd even shit in the tub instead of on the floor when we would forget to let him out a night to use the garage litter box. I'm a little bitter that it was he that was taken--If I had my choice, it definitely would have been the one that likes to crap and pee in front of the door, but I guess that's a little too soon. The interesting thing about a missing cat with no closure is the fact that he's hopefully alive somewhere, being fed fancy feast dinners on pillows of white velvet, but I'm pretty sure I know better, as do we all. RIP Harvey. Enjoy the big sleep, wherever you are. We will miss you too.
CAROL
A couple good things that occurred this week was I got to see my god-mother for the first time in about 4 years. My mother's best friend came to town to visit for ten days. I let her meet my friends one Wednesday night while we played Trivia. Got a big kick out of my cop friend/comedian and his girlfriend, who hit it off with the family too. Carol loves the beaches, and we got to spend a little quality time with her at the NLO for a walk/hike and some pics.
DOCTOR/DIABETES AND THE KETO DIET
So I've been having what I think is stress fracture pain in my left foot on top (because webMD makes everyone a doctor) and I figured I'd get an appt to see my doctor so I could get referred to a podiatrist and get whatever it is fixed. My Dr looked over my tests and took a blood sugar level. I am pre-diabetic--I have been going on 4 years now, but then he tells me about a couple of websites, and changing my diet is what helps you lose weight (95%) compared to exercise (5%). Checked my feet for about five seconds, then tells me to try the keto diet to reduce my insulin levels, and away I went. I am currently on my 12th day, and although I've gone thru 'keto flu' a few times, I'm pretty positive about reversing this thing. I'll hopefully be able to stick with it for awhile as I'm already down 11 lbs, --the beer stoppage? uh, lets just call that low carb, even though i'm enjoying the shit out of whiskey and eating that bacon!
GT
So my daughter turns 18 and six weeks later, my son turns 14. Fourteen!
He's a basketball fan to say the least, so, as hard as it was, Jen and I booked a trip to NOLA and the best seats we could afford for the Pelican's game. He's been following the Pelicans since we told him we got tickets in January. The stat machine, similar to myself in those days, loves Anthony Davis as much as I love him regurgitating stats on how everyone did on the team the night before, along with the stats, and playoff updates now that they've made it. We ended up having a good time, putting some mileage on the feet and some much-needed time with our son, who has somewhat become a fortnite family member more than our own :) So Happy B-day GT, even though a day early, we still got to eat at the SHED BBQ on the way home, and I got to take a few pics with the XA2. A great trip for a great kid on a coming-of-age birthday. Love ya bud.
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| this 14 year old showed me how to take continuous pics w/my cell phone #imOldOfficially |
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| Not mine, but a Camaro SS from the late 60s nonetheless #shedBBQ Minolta Xa2 |
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| No funnel cakes so pink cotton candy had to do |
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| outside the Superdome and Staples center. Minolta XA2 |
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| Pick with mama so he could get his dinner |
CICLOVIA
So a lot happened on my son's actual birthday. We decided to make him go to Pensacola's second CICLOVIA with us and our daughter. Pretty neat event as Pensacola closes all downtown roads to car and truck traffic to make way for pedestrian traffic. Plenty of events going on too. We like to spend about 3-4 hours there. I was a lot quieter than the inaugural year, but it's always to ride the streets, especially Bayfront Pkwy without seeing a car! We rode with our neighbors, and their young one. Good times.
Later that evening we caught a show at the Historic Imogene theater to see John Paul White. This was basically a trip to see if the 310 person theater built in 1910 would be good enough to see and spend $50 to see Steve Earle. It passed the test with flying colors. Some friends showed up that I'd figure we'd never see at a concert again, even though I ask all the time and get shunned due to their activities. The ONE TIME I decide to give up, there they are! Unfortunately we didn't get time to grab a beer after the show as they beat feet out of the city before we had to to ask. Oh well. Guess we'll see em again in 2021 for the next show.
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| Happy streets Olympus Xa2 #ciclovia |
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| Ciclovia ride home with Sunburn. Olympus XA2 |
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| John Paul White, Imogene Theater Milton. Olympus XA2 |
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