A Not so Happy Mother's Day

Bowie Baysox (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here is hoping that everybody had a very happy Mother's Day.  I would like to say that ours was spectacular, but unfortunately that is not the case.

The day started off well enough.  My wife got up with me early and we went to my new church.  After church we went to do the grocery shopping before we started our primary plans for the day.  Our plan was to pick up our son at school and take him to a Bowie Baysox game instead of our usual visit of taking him to Golden Corral for lunch.

The visit started our well enough.  We picked him up, and he was excited about going to the game.  We got to the stadium, and he wanted a hamburger and french fries for lunch.  He enjoyed the game, but unfortunately our Bowie Baysox lost the game.  When it was time to leave, we stopped by the restroom before starting our drive back to his dorm.

That is when our troubles began.  After my son finished urinating, he announced that he didn't want to go back to school and dropped to the ground in the men's room.  Thankfully, another gentleman asked me if I needed help with him, and I had him go to the first aid station to see if they could help.  He called one of the park policeman working security for assistance.

The three of us tried to calm my son down.  We even tried to get my son into a wheelchair to try to take him out to our car.  Eventually, we had to call the fire department and have them send out a crew with a stretcher to try to get him out to the car.  I got him to walk out of the restroom, but he dropped again.  At that point, the security officer, two paramedics and I carried him out to the car.

Once we got him to the car, he got up on his own and climbed into his seat in the car.  We then headed back to school without incident.  Once we got back to school, he ate the dinner that the had for him.  While we were there, they showed us the technique they use for getting him up when he drops.  I hope we never have to use it, but it was good info to know for the future.

Spread Some Joy--Say Merry Christmas

The Christmas holiday season can be a time of great stress for some people.  I am not immune from the stress of the holidays.  My son has been home from school for the Christmas break since Friday.  I am already stressed about trying to get him back to school on January 1st.

I should explain what happened on the Thanksgiving break with our son.  From the time he got home for that break, he refused to leave the house.  Even though he talked about going to my brother's house for Thanksgiving dinner, when it came time to go, he refused.  We ended up having dinner at home.  Thankfully, I had bought a small turkey that my wife planned to cook the day after Thanksgiving so that we would have "leftovers."

When it came time to take our son back to school on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, it was one of the worst experiences in some time for that task.  We fought him for most of the afternoon before giving up for the night.  He hit me so hard in the ear that my ears rang and I had some residual hearing issues for several days after.  My wife finally got him back a day late but it was a monumental task.

So what has me stressed a few days before Christmas?  You can probably guess from the preceding two paragraphs that so far during the break, my son is refusing to go anywhere.  I offered to take him out to lunch for hamburgers, no luck.  Same thing with trying to get him to go for a ride to look at Christmas lights.  So far he is saying he is going to go to my sister's and my in-laws houses for Christmas.  Let's hope he does.

Sunday mornings is one of the days that I usually use to take care of my grocery shopping.  I left the house to go take care of the groceries and it was pouring down rain.  I got in the car, with everything on my mind and headed to the store.  By the time I got to Wegman's, the rain had slowed to a trickle, so at least I wouldn't get drenched going from the parking lot to the store.

My stress did not subside once I got inside the store.  In fact, it started to increase.  One of the first things that I was looking for in the meat department was out of stock.  It was going to be dinner tonight so I quickly came up with a Plan B.  The store was particularly crowded, and the aisles of the store were stacked with merchandise so maneuvering through the aisles was difficult at best.

As I was nearing the end of my shopping trip, I am sure that my face was not the friendliest it could be.  It was then that I pushed my cart pass another father pushing a car with his little daughter in the seat.  She leaned over and with the biggest smile on her face squealed to me, "Merry Christmas!"

My demeanor instantly changed and the frown on my face melted and was replaced with a smile.  I look at her and cheerfully said to her, "Well Merry Christmas to you too!"  She laughed with delight.  So do yourself and someone else a favor and put a smile on your face and tell somebody "Merry Christmas."  You just might make someone's day.

2013

English: New Year's Resolutions postcard (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, here we are at the start of another new year.  I suppose I should think about making some sort of resolution or such.  To be honest, I usually don't go in for making New Year's resolutions.  The primary reason is that I don't feel like there is anything magical about January 1st for setting goals for yourself.  Another reason is that I feel that I must be mentally prepared to make that change within me otherwise I feel I would be destined to fail.

A case in point for me would be one of the more popular resolutions that folks tend to make and that is the goal of weight loss.  Last year at this time, I definitely needed to lose some weight.  I wasn't mentally prepared at that time to lose weight, so I knew I wouldn't change.  However, some time in the spring I was mentally ready and lost 40 pounds over a five month period.  Sadly, I have slipped a bit of late and lapsed into some bad habits and gained about half back.  Time to get back on the wagon.

That is not to say that I do not have some idea of things that I would like to accomplish in the coming year.  They are more or less some general ideas floating around in my mind and not things that I am 100% ready to commit to with specifics at this time.  One thing that is floating around in my mind are things that I would like to accomplish with this blog, specifically in regards to content and consistency.

Last year, I kind of let the consistency of posting slip from previous years.  In 2012, I posted less than 200 posts for the first time since I began this blog in 2008.  Of course 2008 was basically only 4 months of posting versus and entire year.  I am not sure that I will get back up to posting nearly every day, but I would like to post on a more regular basis, maybe 250-300 posts during the course of the year.

Then there is the content side of things.  In previous years, I posted a lot of political content.  Since the election two months ago, I have been taking a break from a steady dose of following politics.  I have found that I do not miss it at all.  Instead, I have been concentrating on doing more reading and trying to get back in touch with my spiritual side.  I suspect that you will see more posts with a spiritual leaning.  I have been considering a series of posts regarding some of my spiritual journey through the years.

With the start of the new year, as usual, I am concerned about financial issues.  I officially get my first pay check of 2013 on Thursday, but my credit union gives me access to my direct deposit early.  I noticed my deposit was about 3% less than usual which I can most likely attribute to the expiration of the 2% payroll tax holiday.  In two weeks, I should see the results of the 30% increase in my share of my health insurance premium.  Not an encouraging start.

The good news on the financial side of things is that I just closed on refinancing my mortgage through the government HARP program.  It is allowing me to reduce my mortgage by about $260 per month which hopefully will result in a wash when my health insurance premium kicks in.  The other good news is that with the timing of my closing, I will not have a mortgage payment due until March so it will give me two months to replenish my savings account some.

A couple of the nebulous goal thingies that are floating around in my head is to concentrate a bit more on my photography.  I kind of started this a bit last year, but time is a precious commodity and there were not as many opportunities to devote to it as I would have liked.  Another idea floating in my head is to attempt to write a book.  This one is so nebulous that I do not even have a clue what kind of book it would be.  That's why I can't commit to them as "resolutions."

So, in closing, I would like to wish everybody a very successful and happy New Year. If you are of the sort that makes resolutions this time of year, I hope you are able to achieve your goals.  If not, well that's OK too.

Related articles

• New Year's Resolutions - A Good Time to Take Steps To Move You Towards Where You're Going (nategibson.net)
• How to keep New Year's resolutions (wwlp.com)
• You say you want a resolution, well, you know (orestn.wordpress.com)

Happy Father's Day!

II would like to take this opportunity to wish all of the dads out there a happy Father's Day.  Today is my 18th Father's Day as a dad.  I have to confess that I am a little depressed this morning since my son is away at school, and I will not have the opportunity to see him.  We could go out for a visit, but since he is coming home in a couple of days, we decided to wait until Thursday.

One of the things that crossed my mind this morning as I was moping around missing my son was the night that he was born.  I remember it well.  The entire time my wife was pregnant, I was going with her to her appointments.  I couldn't wait to be a father.  On April 6th, 1994, my wife received a phone call around 10pm from her OB/GYN.  He was at the hospital delivering another baby and asked my wife if she was ready to have her baby.  She said she felt fine.

I went to sleep shortly after she hung up from that phone call.  A few hours later, around 1am or so, my wife woke me up.  She told me that she thought that her water broke.  We left the house and headed to the hospital.  On route, we encountered a heavy rain storm and I had to have the windshield wipers on high.  We arrived at the hospital around 2am and headed to the emergency room.  An initial examination confirmed that her water had broken but that our son had not dropped into position for delivery.

They took us up to a room on the maternity wing of the hospital and had my wife rest in bed.  We were told that they wanted to have us wait for a while to see if our son would drop into position on his own, otherwise they might have to induce labor.  After a few hours, they determined that they were going to have to induce labor as my son had decided he didn't want to leave the warmth and comfort of the womb to enter the cold cruel world on the outside.

As they set everything up for the pitocin IV, they asked my wife if she wanted to have an epidural.  She replied in the affirmative.  Shortly after the IV began, she started to have some contractions.  However, they must have set the initial drip too high as she started to have contractions that were much too quick and much too hard.  They slowed the drip down to a more manageable level.  My wife was even able to get a few hours sleep, but I was too keyed up to get any rest.

As evening rolled around, it was time to get serious about the delivery.  Finally, my wife was suitably dilated and was ready to enter the pushing stage.  I did my best to try to be a supportive helper during the delivery.  Like Bill Cosby, I was the cheerleader, "Push him out, shove him out, way out!"  In spite of our requests to not have anybody come up to the hospital since we did not know how long we would be, my entire family was in the waiting room.  Finally, around 9pm, our son came into the world.

The entire time that my wife was pregnant, we did not want to know the sex of our baby.  Every sonogram, they asked if we wanted to know, each time we said no.  I honestly did not care if we had a boy or a girl at the time.  We had names picked out for either event.  Our baby's bedroom was painted light green with teddy bears to be gender neutral.  However, I confess, that when the doctor told us we had a baby boy, my chest stuck out a little further than I anticipated.

After he was cleaned up and my wife was able to rest a bit, my family came in to see us.  My son was the first grandchild of my parents.  After they left, I visited a bit with my wife and son until she was ready to go to sleep.  I headed home and stopped by Grace's Fortune in Bowie to pick up an order of Kung Pao Chicken. Exhausted, I hit the bed and slept.  I have been exhausted ever since, but it has been worth it.

Related articles

• Happy Father's Day! Top 10: Greatest movie dads [SLIDESHOW] (dailycaller.com)
• Father's Day Songs: A Spotify Playlist About Fatherhood For Dad (huffingtonpost.com)
• Father's Day: The 10 Most Kick-Ass Movie Dads (screenrant.com)

Back to the Grind

Well, the holidays are officially over.  I know this for a fact, not because of the calendar, but rather based on the amount of cars on the road this morning.  For the past two weeks, traffic has been almost non-existent on the beltway here in the DC area.  Usually, I have a five mile stretch of the beltway that is bumper to bumper, but during the holidays there was no backup.  It was back in full force this morning.

I also know that the holidays are over because the house is a little bit emptier this evening than it has been for the past two weeks.  Today was the day that my son had to return to his residential school after the Christmas break.  My son gets several breaks home during the school year, but most of them are a few days for long weekends.  The Christmas break is one of a few long breaks home from school.

It is always tough when he has to go back to school.  It is much tougher after the long breaks home.  We always have a hard time getting him in the car whenever his breaks end.  My wife discovered that it is even more difficult when I am home as he knows something is amiss if I am not at work.  Consequently, I usually do not go back to the school with them when breaks end.

The other thing is that we can not tell him right away that he is going back to school.  Then he won't get in the car.  When I left the house this morning, I had to tell him "see you later," rather than "see you tonight."  My wife has to concoct new schemes to get him in the car under the guise of running an errand or visiting someone.  She does those things, but then once back in the car, she heads off to school.

He gets a little upset when he realizes that he is heading back to his school.  He will usually tell my wife that he doesn't want to go back to school.  Then he will sometimes say that "Mommy lied," but by the time he gets back to school he is fine.  He got out of the car when he arrived at school and headed to class.  Then he told his teacher all the things he did on break.

We will probably head out to school in a couple of weeks and see him when we have to go for his annual IEP meeting and to drop off medication refills with the school nurse.  His next long weekend home will be in about six weeks when he will be home for over the Presidents Day Weekend.  Then his next long break of nearly two weeks will occur around Easter, which also happens to be his 18th birthday.  One of our friends at the Bowie Baysox is saying she will have to arrange something special for him.

Also marking the end of the holiday period is the Iowa Republican caucuses that take place tonight.  It is the first in what promises to be a very long election cycle.  I will probably be checking out the results later tonight to see how things shake out.  Right now, I think I am like the 40% of Iowans who are still undecided as to who to vote for the GOP Presidential nominee.  Perhaps more on this tomorrow.

New Year's Eve

Tonight, around the globe, people will be out celebrating and ringing in 2012.  It will be a time of reverie, fireworks, and consumption of a lot of adult beverages.

I will not be among those out celebrating.  Instead, I will be working my part time pizza delivery gig.  I am scheduled to work from 5pm to midnight.  Usually on a Saturday night, I leave the pizza joint around 11pm.  However, with tonight being New Year's Eve there is a good chance it will be a little busier than a typical Saturday night.

I am hopeful that I will be able to get off work close to my normal time so that I can be home before the magic hour.  Not because I want to necessarily ring in the New Year, but so that I can be home safely before the party goers head back out on the road.  To be honest, I can not remember the last time I actually watched any of the New Year countdowns.

If you are among those who will be out enjoying the reverie, please be safe and careful.  Whatever you do, if you and those you are with partake of alcoholic refreshment, please do not drink and drive.  Instead, take advantage of the many sober ride programs that communities will be offering tonight.  The life you save may be your own and others.

This public service announcement brought to you courtesy of Dickster's Random Thoughts and the pizza guy, who happen to be one and the same.  Have a safe and happy New Year.

Related articles

• Bring on 2012 (elizarauch.wordpress.com)
• It's New Year's Eve and New York City is Electric (nygreporter.com)
• Last Minute New Year's Eve Options in the Washington, DC area (fashiongalindc.blogspot.com)

A Visit to Santa Claus

Image via WikipediaImage via WikipediaImage by Getty Images via @daylifeThe Thanksgiving weekend is coming to an end which means it will be time for my wife to try to get our son back to school tomorrow.  It also means that Christmas is right around the corner, actually just four weeks from today.  With such a short break between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it also means my son will only be gone for about 3.5 weeks before he comes home for Christmas break.

I am happy to say that I am basically done with my Christmas shopping this year.  There may be a gift card or two that I have to pick up between now and Christmas.  Yesterday, I received an email informing me that the presents I bought for my son on BestBuy.com were on their way.  I am so glad that I was able to find the items I wanted online at the Black Friday prices rather than fighting those crowds.

I did not hear of any major incidents near me, but there were several prominent news stories about man's inhumanity to man during the Black Friday events.  Talk about the Spirit of Christmas.  NOT!  There was the woman who pepper sprayed fellow shoppers to gain an advantage in getting an Xbox she wanted.  There was somebody who was shot during an altercation during an attempted robbery when the victims left a store with their Black Friday booty.  Then there were other incidents as well.

Today, we were going to take our son to visit my parents before he goes back to school tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they were doing some work at their church this afternoon and were unavailable.  So, we made other plans and took our son out to Arundel Mills Mall to go play some skee-ball and other games at the Dave & Buster's.

After we left Dave & Buster's, we went into the FYE store to get him a new DVD to take back to school.  When we were leaving, we were looking at some of the games available for the Playstation 3 that I ordered on Thanksgiving for his Christmas present.  He confirmed that my decision to buy it and the Madden 12 game was the right one when he told us he wanted Madden 12, a hockey game, and a NASCAR game for Christmas.

We told him that he would have to tell Santa Claus what he wanted for Christmas.  Normally, my son does not want to visit with Santa, but there was no line to visit with ole St. Nick.  My son, who is too big to sit on Santa's lap, walked up to Santa and shook his hand.  He proceeded to tell Santa the list of games he wanted for Christmas.  It will be so much fun watching him open his presents in four weeks.

Related articles

• Yes Tammy There Still is a Santa Claus (socyberty.com)
• Facts about Christmas that are guaranteed to shock you, like the origin of Xmas. (pastormikesays.wordpress.com)

Happy New Year

Let me take a moment to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. The New Year is a time when most people make resolutions on what they are going to do to improve themselves in the coming new year. Not me. No need to (just kidding). Sure, I could use to stand a few pounds, save some money, and be nicer to my fellow man. Who couldn't? However, the new year is sort of an arbitrary time to start what we should be doing all along.

Anyway, a very sincere Happy New Year wish to everyone. If you have made resolutions for yourself in the coming year, I wish you much success. I do hope to do all those things mentioned above, I just haven't formally resolved to do so. At least not yet.

Coming Soon on Dickster's Random Thoughts

I have decided to try to do something special for the Christmas season. I am going to try to do a Twelve Days of Christmas theme. Right now, I think it will be a series of Christmas video/songs, some traditional, some contemporary, and some humorous. Each will start with "On the first day of Christmas DRT (Dickster's Random Thoughts) gave to you..."

A Christmas Story-25th Anniversary

Every family has their Christmas traditions. One of ours is watching the holiday classic, "A Christmas Story." The story of Ralphie's quest to get his coveted "official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle" BB gun. To which everyone replies, "You'll shoot your eye out." Everyone I have ever talked to about the movie always talks about how much they like the movie and watch it every Christmas. They all have their reasons for loving the movie and have certain scenes that are their favorites, whether it is the "major prize" leg lamp, Christmas dinner at the Chinese restaurant, or any scene with Ralphie. We loved them all. One of the reasons that it became such a favorite of our family was the resemblance we saw between the main character Ralphie and my younger brother.

Happy Thanksgiving

Last night, as I was browsing around YouTube to try to find something cute or funny to use for my Thanksgiving post, it occurred to me that Thanksgiving has become just another holiday that has lost it's original meaning. Thanksgiving originally was a time to celebrate the harvest and to give thanks to God for the harvest and for continuing to sustain us. We continue to have a feast to commemorate Thanksgiving, but it has come to mean a lot of other things: a four day weekend for a lot of people, football, and the start of the Christmas shopping season (speaking of holidays that have lost their original meanings.) Not that there is anything inherently wrong with any of these things, but they do not remind of us the true meaning of the holiday.

So, instead of something funny or cute, I decided to reflect on the true meaning of Thanksgiving and post some of the things that I am truly thankful for.

• My son, who I love more than I ever thought I could love someone and has taught me a lot of valuable lessons about enjoying the moment, which I need to be reminded of more than I care to admit.
• My wife, who frequently thinks of little things that she knows I would enjoy, like the two pumpkin donuts I had for breakfast this morning.
• My family and friends, for being there with their love, advice, and support, both emotionally and financially, during tough times.
• My country, which in spite of her flaws is still the greatest place to live and provides us with a standard of living that is the envy of the world.

So this year, when you are gathered around the table stuffing yourself with stuffing and the rest of the bountiful feast, look around you, enjoy the moment, think about all you have, and truly give thanks. Have a very happy Thanksgiving.