Get Off My Lawn

Just a few days ago I hit the 2 year anniversary of my humble little blog. Things haven’t exactly been…busy around here, especially during the past 6 months. So many things have conspired to keep the words from flowing out of my brain.

Back around the beginning of the year, I finally decided that the time was right to have a sleep study done in the hope of discovering why I am constantly tired. The result was a diagnosis of sleep apnea, which is apparently the malady du jour since my father and 6 of my friends also have it. It seems oddly disproportionate to know that many apnea sufferers, which is similar to the large number of left-handed people I know. Regardless, once that diagnosis was made I figured that the answer to my sleep problem was a slam dunk – get hooked up with a CPAP machine and sleep well, awakening refreshed and energized for all the things I want to do! Unfortunately my slam dunk struck the rim and failed to hit net. I feel…better, but it’s not where I thought it would be based on the results of others and the one test night I had as part of the sleep study. However there are still many factors that go into getting a good night’s sleep, which may include increasing CPAP pressure after I have my next consultation with the sleep center. I hold onto the hope that things will still get better down the road.

On top of sleep issues, the past month has been a miserable time for other health related issues. It started with a head cold that moved down into my chest, leading to what I thought was a case of bronchitis. I did a 10 day course of antibiotics after a doctor visit, but wasn’t feeling any better. While all of that was happening over the course of about 3 weeks, allergy season arrived – in full force. A second doctor visit resulted in another diagnosis – asthma. Now, several years ago I was told by a pulmonary specialist that he suspected I had a mild case of asthma, but he couldn’t confirm that diagnosis unless I moved out of my house to stay away from my dogs for three weeks. Yeah. That was just not happening, I mean how many people could just up and leave their home for that long? So, no official asthma tag was ever placed on me, but it fit with certain things so I always assumed it was true. Now I have further evidence, as it appears that the head/chest cold and my allergies both aggravated the asthma. After a 5 minute Albuterol treatment in the doctor’s office, I noticed a huge difference. A visit to the pharmacy and many dollars later, I now have 2 inhalers and a 5 day course of Prednisone to get me past my breathing difficulties.

With the exception of my allergies flat out not wanting to behave, I’m actually starting to feel better. I still want to claw my eyes out of my head, but they will fall in line after I get past the worst of the allergy season kickoff extravaganza. Then I can get back to some creative work, and perhaps some day I can grace my horde of blog subscribers with some more fiction (I can still call a half dozen people a horde, right?).

Today is the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that left thousands dead in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. It will be a day filled with remembrance and sadness, when many of us reflect on this and other events that remain etched in our memories forever.

Most of us can recall in vivid detail exactly where we were and what we were doing on that morning. I was at work, and the person in the cube next to me was listening to Howard Stern on the radio. I remember hearing someone on the program saying that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center, and my first instinct was that it was a terrible joke. Then someone else in the room mentioned it. Pretty soon dozens of us were in the cafeteria watching the news, and discovering that is was a deliberate attack rather than a tragic accident.  And then the second plane hit.

The rest of the day blurs into hours of news footage and shock mixed with feeble attempts to get back to work. It was a whirlwind of information that kept me stunned. But it wasn’t until later that I experienced the defining moment of the event, for me at least. While the destruction and loss of life in NYC and at the Pentagon were truly profound, what sticks out more for me even today are the events of United Airlines flight 93.

As the passengers of flight 93 began to learn of the other crashes, they realized that their own flight was destined for a similar fate. With a will that speaks volumes to their character, they rose up and ensured that their flight would not be used as a weapon, sacrificing themselves so that others would live. To this day I have trouble thinking about that effort without becoming emotional.

Between those passengers, the first responders at all of the crash scenes, and all of the others who helped anyone in need on that day and after, an enormous amount of courage was displayed that can never be forgotten.

So today I remember those that lost their lives on that fateful day, and grieve with those who survived.

…it’s been 4 months since my last blog post, AND I completely missed that my last post was my 1 year anniversary! Shame on me. 

I won’t bore you with a laundry list of things that conspired to keep my mind too cluttered and unfocused to be able to write anything. Some of them I freely admit were just excuses. The most recent one, however, was the death of my second cat. It hit me pretty hard, and I’m still dealing with the fallout in the deep recesses of my psyche.

Now all that being said, the words feel like they want to come out once again, and who am I to argue with the words? Besides, I’ve gotten several new subscribers during my unintentional hiatus, and I’d hate for them to think this modest little blog is a stagnant pool of long-forgotten potential! So thank you to those new subscribers, and welcome to the blog.

Keep an eye out, as later this afternoon I’ll be posting a piece of short fiction that I wrote a few days ago. Until then, get off my lawn!