My Ramblings

May 14, 2017 Today is Mother's Day 2017. When I woke up this morning, I laid in bed for a while and thought about this day. My first thoughts turned to my own mom by whom I was blessed. She was a fantastic mom who loved her children deeply. She raised four children on her own after our father died in 1968. I was 11 years old when this happened; the oldest of the siblings, three boys, and one girl. I now know that it was not easy for her to undertake this huge task but she did it without complaint. She experienced a lot of heartache with the loss of her husband and then again in 1981 when her youngest son, Kevin, died in a car crash. Mom passed away almost 20 years ago at age 62. I think of her often and miss her very much but most of all on Mother's Day. As I thought about my mom, my thoughts turned to my wife, Linda, who is a champion of mothers (and grandmothers). She is so nurturing and full of love for her kids and their kids. Back when our children were small, I rem

May 9, 2017 Today begins the second phase of my blog. I’ll begin my going back to August 8, 2016. On that day, I was running a low-grade fever and had some blisters on my legs from edema that was escaping through my skin. I was sitting at the computer and when I stood up to go back into the living room, I fell down. Like the two times before this when I fell down I had to call the fire department to come and pick me up off the floor because I was not strong enough to do it myself. This was due to several things including my obesity and the weakness in my legs from not walking to keep them strong. When the firefighters arrived, they checked my temperature and decided that I should go to the hospital for an evaluation. I was fortunate they suggested this because once I got to Kaiser I was immediately admitted. To make a long story short the infection in my right leg was septic and for two and a half weeks doctors pumps five different kinds of IV antibiotics into me to kill it.