On Guns, Politics, Books, and Everyday Life
November 8th, 2009
My wife bought some tofu “bacon”. It turned out to be little flat sheets of cardboard nastiness with a bacon flavoring. Not fit to eat. It basically is like eating a dust brick of gross, with a hint of a bacon tease in the background. Curses on this bacon abomination.
The veggie-sausage stuff is decent though.
Categories: Life | Tags: bacon | 2 Comments
October 29th, 2009
For the last six months or so my job has been on the line. We had massive layoffs late last year and more are to come. Having been here for my entire adult life this has had a huge negative impact on me. I have not been able to blog or read much, or do anything but worry about it.
Monday is my last day here at my current job. I have been lucky enough to find a great new employer that I am totally excited to be working for. Hopefully my life will get somewhat back to normal now.
The crazy thing is I should have done this five years ago! I always felt like I was not good enough to get a “real” job in my field (software development), but that is untrue. My experience is worth a lot more than previously thought, and it will be valuable to my new company.
So here is to life refreshed, and to discovering things that I never thought were possible.
Oh yeah, I hope to start blogging more again. It is very therapeutic.
Categories: Life | 4 Comments
July 9th, 2009
First of all, thanks to all of you who commented on my previous post. It means a lot to us that you care.
So, she went to the doc yesterday and he said she was doing well. The swelling is going down it seems, and the antibiotics are working. Her knee will be a little sore for a month or so and that is about it.
Thank God, it sounds like this thing is going to end as not to big a deal in the long run. Interestingly, he said such an infection is very rare. They see maybe one a year at that hospital, especially with such a young child. We will never know what caused it or exactly what it was. A medical mystery I suppose.
Brooke is going to go back to day care next week, and our life will get back to normal hopefully.
Thanks again for all the kind words. It is amazing, how parents can empathize with each other so adeptly, when one of their children are concerned.
Categories: Life | Tags: brooke | 5 Comments
July 7th, 2009
Last Sunday we took Brooke to the emergency room. Her knee had been bothering her for a couple of days and was noticeably swelled compared to her other leg. She has recently learned to climb on the furniture, and we figured she must have sprained it or something. So we load up and arrive at about noon in the emergency waiting room at Cook Childrens Hospital. This was the perfect time to go, as we had no wait and were escorted straight into one of their curtained emergency evaluation rooms.
After the customary hour or two wait we managed to get her leg x-rayed, which she was none too happy about, and eventually were told that she had a bunch of fluid in and around the joint. After some deliberating her orthopedic surgeon decided to go ahead and take her to the operating room! Our little trek to get some x-rays, maybe some pain medicine, and a ACE bandage just got serious.
We were shocked and horrified of course. We had only brought a single bottle and a couple of diapers with us, and had been discussing where to take Brookie to dinner after she was done at the ER. The surgeon told us that he was just going to use a needle to extract the fluid, a common procedure. If it looked infected they would cut a small hole in her knee, flush out the area, and install a drain. After agreeing to the doctor’s plans, and signing the paperwork, we had to witness the first of many coming heartbreaks. Brookie of course had to get an IV put in and at this point, she had been sitting in this small room for six hours or so.
I ended up having to leave the room while they put the IV in. Nothing I have ever known can reduce a tough guy to a blubbering, sobbing, idiot, quicker than seeing and hearing his baby girl screaming in pain and frustration. Babies have no concept of a stranger trying to help them in this way. They only know that some person is holding them down, and poking at them with sharp instruments. The look of horror and betrayal on her face was more than I could bear.
The surgeon called us in the waiting room twenty minutes into the procedure and let us know that the fluid indeed, looked infected. They then made their incision, flushed the joint, and installed the drain. After a couple of long hours we followed our sedated little angel up to her room. Sometime after midnight she started stirring a bit, so we got the nurse to give her some pain medicine. She pretty much slept through the night, and most of the next day.
We had been told that she would probably be allowed to go home sometime on the second day of her stay, which was Tuesday. Her infectious disease doctor came in on Tuesday and informed us that she would be kept on intravenous antibiotics for at least five days. This was disheartening to say the least. We had hoped to go home on that day, and were told matter-of-factly that we would be staying for at least the week. The same day her orthopedic surgeon came in and checked her wound, and removed the drain. Later that day a new infectious disease doctor came to examine her. He was not happy with the way her affected leg looked, and ordered an MRI for Wednesday morning. The doctor was concerned that she might also have an infection in her femur, which would not have shown up on the x-rays.
Toddlers and MRIs do not mix well, so she would have to be put under again for the MRI. Wednesday was taken up with this procedure. We were told that the preliminary results looked good. There did not seem to be any infection in the bone.
Somewhere on Wednesday or Thursday we were told that the antibiotics they had been giving her did not work. The timeline is a little fuzzy at this point. A new antibiotic was started. This leads me to the worst parts of the entire experience. Brooke was in the hospital for a total of seven days. For the first five days she was on contact isolation. This means she was not allowed to leave her room or interact with any of the other patients. There are activities and playrooms at the hospital, but she was not able to enjoy any of them. Keeping a fifteen month old child in the same room for five days, basically confined to a twin bed, is not a fun experience. Our girl was quite the trooper however, and she handled it better than we did.
Throughout her stay Brooke had seven or so new IVs started. Her little veins just could not hold up to the antibiotics. They collapsed generally after 24 hours or so, and she inadvertently removed one IV that was not properly secured. These times are quite possibly the worst times of my life. After a couple of days in the hospital my little girl went from a smiling and happy outgoing baby, to a fearful and reclusive baby. The worst memory I have happened when they came in one day to give her a new IV. It was her third one probably. The poor little defenseless child saw them coming and hid her hands under her butt to try to defend herself. From that point on, anyone that came in her room was seen by her, as someone there to hurt her. The doctors couldn’t hardly examine her without a stream of tears and screams of fright.
She ended up having to sleep in the small bed with my wife every night, because the hospital crib represented nothing but pain to her. We couldn’t put her in it to change a diaper without her getting upset. At one point a team came in to start a new IV and spent fifteen minutes poking at her and restraining her with no result. They could not get it. At that point the IV team was called up who successfully started a new one. No one else was allowed by us to try after that incident. Thankfully only one more had to be placed before we came home.
Please don’t get me wrong here. Cook Children’s Hospital is the finest medical facility I have ever been in. They actually had me as a patient for around a dozen or so surgeries and illnesses as a small child. The staff are the best, and I could not hope for better treatment for our daughter. At the same time, I have never felt so helpless. When Brooke falls down I can instantly pick her up, and comfort her. At times during her hospitalization, I either had to watch her stare at me with the most betrayed and hurt look that I have ever seen, or abandon her while people hurt her. The fact that they were professional wonderful people simply trying to cure her illness, made no difference to her, and her pain ate me alive every time.
Sunday morning, a new round of blood tests were done. They showed that her septic level had decreased. So the new antibiotic was working. Surprisingly we were told that afternoon that we could take her home and continue the antibiotics orally. I can’t right now recall many times in my life that I was more rejoiceful than this one. The flood of relief that came over both of us was an awesome experience.
Tomorrow Brooke goes in for a followup. Hopefully the antibiotics are still winning the battle and she will not have to have another surgery to drain the infected fluid. If she does, we will take it one day at a time as we did this time. I pray that this will not be the case.
While we were leaving a tinge of guilt came over me. We got to know a few of the families on our floor during this long week. They were not as blessed as us at that moment. They did not get to go home. Their babies were still very sick, and the parents were still full of uncertainty. A week long hospital stay for a baby is a long one, and is something I hope not to repeat ever again. There are dozens of families at that hospital at this very moment that have been there for weeks, and months. Some of them will never leave as a complete family, and my heart aches for them.
Any of you that have read my blog for long know that I have a soft heart for children. Before last week I of course knew that there were sick kids. It wasn’t real to me however as it is now. Seeing a toddler that has had six heart surgeries, or a small child that has lost his hair due to his cancer treatments, made it all too real. I have prayed for God to keep my baby safe every day since we received her, and I will continue to do so in earnest. I will also pray for the sick babies and their poor parents from this point forward as well.
If you have a healthy child, thank God for them as I do, and go give them a hug. Not all parents are as fortunate as we are.
Categories: Life | Tags: brooke | 10 Comments
June 25th, 2009
Our little angel, Brooke, has contracted Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. It is a viral illness that causes blisters to form in the mouth, throat, hands and feet. Fortunately it only takes a week or two to fight off. The poor little one has sores in her mouth, throat, and on her chin. It is obviously very painful as she has not slept well for about five days now. Mama and I have been switching off taking the day off to spend with her.
Yesterday, she laid in my lap for nearly the entire day. You could tell she was just miserable. Last night she slept well, so hopefully we are on the downward side of this thing. All you parents know how aweful we feel when our little ones are sick, and there isn’t much we can do about it.
Categories: Life | Tags: brooke | 2 Comments
June 15th, 2009
I have been busier than a two peckered goat lately.
My career is in transition at the moment. Luckily this has not involved losing my job. I am a software developer by trade, and am transitioning away from Java and into the .NET web development world. All of my spare time has been clogged with reading technical manuals and such.
While I am excited about this new opportunity I long to read something that doesn’t require much thought. A nice western or some such would be very nice. Alas, for now I am relegated to continue forward, with my quest to gain a professional amount of know how on this new platform.
Categories: Books, Life | 2 Comments
April 22nd, 2009
My grandfather, Morris Byrom died last Thursday and we buried him in Bowie, TX yesterday afternoon. Yesterday was a very tough day. I finally realized that I will never see him again in this lifetime. That hurts my soul very deeply. Our Pa, as we grandkids called him, was the best man I have ever known.
I struggle to write anything about him, because I lack the skill to describe not only how much he meant to my family, but what a genuinely good and loving person he was. To say that he was a good man is missing it. He was a great man. A man that spent his whole life serving God, and a man that worked very hard to support his family.
While talking about him over the weekend we all came up with some of the same points. None of us have ever heard Pa say a cuss word, and as far as we all know he never drank a bit of alcohol, or smoked a cigarette. He wasn’t a judgmental teetotaler either. He just chose, at a very young age, to be the best Christian man he could be, and carried through with that throughout his life. He was not a perfect man of course as no one is, but he always strove to be as close to it as possible.
Pa worked for several different Ford dealerships throughout his life. He was a long time parts manager. The man forgot more about automobile parts than I will ever hope to know. Back in the 50s, before computers were available he actually had every Ford part number memorized. If you came in and told him you needed a wheel cylinder for a ’52 Ford truck, he would know exactly what it was and were to find it. Amazing really.
My Pa, worked hard to support his family. He was never a rich man, but earned an honest living, and always did a fine job, even when he was in terrible pain.
He worked as a parts man for his entire adult life. After retiring, he even worked part time at a dealership selling Ford parts, until he was physically unable to do so. Pa was a giant of a man. He was 6’5”, and weighed over 300 pounds. His hands were huge, and believe me, if you did wrong you found out just how huge they were.
The hardest thing for me over the last several years was seeing him in a weakened state. He had diabetes and suffered from many chronic health problems. The last several years of his life were spent in pain, and having to rely on others for everything. It had to have been a terrible experience for him. He spent his whole life being the strongest guy around.
One of his lifelong friends told the story yesterday of Pa playing football with them as kids. He was so strong the only way they could get him down, was to trip him. He would just carry several guys on his back if they tried to stand up tackle him. Pa had been known to lift up ends of cars from time to time, when his jack wasn’t handy in his younger years.
My Pa, was the strongest man I have ever known. He never used his strength to hurt others however. I believe the man would nearly have let you whoop him, before he would do anything about it. Say something to his wife or one of us kiddoes on the other hand, and you would have had a real problem on your hands. Of course as big as he was, there weren’t many that tested him.
As strong as he was, his most enduring and memorable quality was probably his gentleness. He was a real gentle giant. Many described him as a teddy bear. Pa had a very tender heart, which I inherited. He was not afraid to cry in front of others if he was overjoyed or extremely sad. At the same time he never complained about any situation he found himself in really.
He was very, very tender with us grandkids. We knew he loved us, and would have walked through fire for us. We also knew that he loved us enough to discipline us if need be. Of course, it hardly ever came to that. We knew where the boundaries where and didn’t cross them too often.
As a child, everything we did together was fun. He made it fun. I used to ride with him on a delivery route to Corsicana once a week, and he managed to make a boring day of riding in a delivery van fun for me. He always made sure that I was enjoying myself.
Fun came easy for him, because he had a great sense of humor. Pa was a consummate practical joker. He lived for the prank, and pulled them off well. They were never mean-spirited or intended to embarrass anyone though. Always, just in good fun. He loved telling clean jokes, and had great delivery.
His voice, had a great booming quality to it. This, he came by honestly. Our family has been a bunch of loudmouths for generations. You know when a group of us arrives, and we all tend to talk over others if more than one conversation is going on. Eventually it reaches a crescendo, to the point that we have been warned about it if we are in a public place.
Pa used his pipes to sing. He may not have had the best voice in the world, but it was very powerful, and he always sang with a lot of emotion. You could feel his appreciation for our Lord, when he sang songs about Him. He used this talent to lead the singing in many of the churches he attended over the years.
My grandfather, was a mighty man of God. He was a devoted Christian, and walked the walk. He was almost generous to a fault. The man would literally give the shirt off his back, to help someone, whether he knew them or not. There are countless stories of him helping people fix their cars with parts he paid for, and free labor when they could not afford to hire a mechanic or buy parts.
He went to church every time the doors were open, and was a fine example of what a Christian father should be. Pa was more of a man than I may ever be. This brief rambling can’t hope to capture what his life was, and what he did for our family and others, but it will have suffice for now.
I already miss him dearly, and the pain I feel for his loss is something that hopefully time will be able to heal.
Categories: Life | 4 Comments
April 1st, 2009
So some atheists put up a billboard in Dallas like this.
Here is my wife’s response. 
I realize that everyone that visits may not be a Christian, which is your complete right, this post does however line up to my beliefs, and is accurate with what the Bible has to say on the subject.
Categories: Life | Tags: faith | 4 Comments
March 30th, 2009
When possible, I always choose to buy good quality tools. My experience has been that doing so saves money in the long run.
My wife cuts my hair for me. We had been using a cheap pair of clippers from Wal Mart, that were just terrible. They actually burnt out the last time she did it, several months ago. They would overheat, pull hair horribly, and usually required disassembly every time we used them.
So, after several months with no haircuts we decided yesterday it was time to get some decent tools for this. My wife agreed, as she hated cutting my hair with the inferior clippers. So off we went to a beauty supply house, intending to purchase a decent set of clippers and some good t-edgers for cleanup work.
After convincing the guy I was a barber :), he gave me the standard discount and I purchased a set of Oster Classic 76 clippers for $120. I also bought an Andis T-Outliner for around $65. These prices were slightly higher than what can be found online, but my hair really needed cutting. It grows very fast and is extremely thick. There was a 4″ long bush sitting atop my head, and it was time for it to go.
The Osters come with a #1 blade and a #000 blade set. The 000 set accepts plastic guards, so we got a set for $7. The Oster has an entire series of blades, so that guards are not necessary. Later on, we will probably purchase a set of either #2 or #2.5 blades, as they actually cut better than the 000 with a guard.
After getting this all home, I assumed the position, and the wife started cutting with a 1/4″ guard in place. She went from front to back right over the top of my head, and exclaimed “Wow!” instantly. The Osters ate right throw my thick bush of hair and the motor never slowed down a bit.
After a couple of minutes she was done with the basic cut, and I went to look at the results. The clippers did a great even job all over my entire dome.
These are professional clippers based on a tried and true design. They have cut a few corners however, which is to be expected now-a-days. I am assuming the original clipper had a metal case, while this one is plastic. That is probably a good thing actually, as the clipper is a large instrument, and would be heavy with a metal case. I also noticed that the switch on the bottom of the unit is plastic, where a metal one probably used to reside.
Neither of these items affect the performance of the clippers one bit however. The motor comes on smoothly without a hard start, and never got warm at all. The cord is heavy duty, and everything about the set just screams old school quality. The clipper body and blades are also manufactured in the United States.
Overall, I would recommend these clippers with no reservations to anyone interested in getting a set. The cost is a bit high, but is totally worth it. I believe Anarchangel had a post up about this set at one point, but I can not find it now.
After we were finished with the basic cut the wife tried out the Andis T-Outliner. This is a professional unit as well, and is also made in America. It is made in Racine, Wisconsin actually. This unit also exudes quality, with an old school industrial look.
They are hefty, yet maneuverable, and cut fairly close to the skin. They quit working at one point, but a quick cleaning took care of that. It looked like we over oiled the blade, and caused it to get stopped up. It is a very fine blade after all.
My beautiful wife did a wonderful and quick job with her new tools. There was no frustration, and she has agreed to cut my hair every two weeks. These two implements will pay for themselves after ten haircuts or so. We will save about $500 a year on haircuts now, and expect these two devices to last for many years to come.
Categories: Life | 7 Comments
March 26th, 2009
Today is a sad day. I said goodbye to an old friend today. A good friend. A friend I could count on.
We just shut down my Lotus Domino Development server here at work. We have been phasing out Domino for about four years now, and have not built any new apps on it in years. As our department has shrunk recently, we have made it a priority to consolidate servers and decommission unnecessary ones.
So, about ten minutes ago, I entered the final q command in the Domino console, and turned out the lights on good ‘ol DOMINO-DEV. While I moved on long ago, to Java, and now .NET, I still did a bit of Domino development every few months. I would dutifully use my good friend to test my changes, and he never let me down.
I will never forget the day he was built. A shiny new 1-U Dell 1650, all for me. I was the only user that logged onto my little buddy, and as I said, he never failed me, in all these years. We had finally set up a proper environment. I no longer had to worry about crashing a production box, and I could hack to my hearts desire, with no worried, of an angry boss calling, because the website had gone down.
Farewell friend, you will be missed.
Categories: History, Life, Tech | Tags: geekery | No Comments
