Marriage Will Change a Guy

It is quite well known that women from the first moment of history will find a guy and then work for the rest of their life to try and change him into something other then what he actually is. I have found myself changed in several ways, by Judy, that actually surprised me. I figure these changes just crept up because I am not sure when the actual moment of change happened.

This is a short list out of many things that I now do different then when Judy first started her project.

1) I go barefoot outside all the time.... Judy never does but I do.

2) I actually like seafood now. This probably has to do with eating seafood the same day it was caught. Eat at Red Lobster? Never again.

3) I have learned to not eat stuff that you found on the ground.

4) I now take the trash out before things start growing in it.

5) Watching sports is fun and can even be a hobby but it is not a way of life.

6) A good movie does not have to have explosions in it. I still do think that it can even help a chick flick if there are enough car chases, explosions or cool things in the movie though.

7) Muscles (the food) should not need to be stomped on, hammered or thrown against a wall to get them open after they have been steamed.... I ate one and was pleasantly surprised (sarcasm) that a few hours later I could see again everything I had eaten the previous week.

8) Being a Yankee is not a disease but actually there are many benefits to it.

9) Duct tape does NOT fix everything.

10) Having your best friend be your mate for life is the most wondrous thing.... Ok, some of these are not actual changes but they are things I have learned.

Birthday Gift fom an Irish Girl, Potatos?

This last week was my birthday and I have to say I received a very strange gift.

I have no problems naming names on this one so the young lady is Ari. On my birthday she gave me two packages, one was actually a very normal but nice gift and I thanked her because I was appreciative. The second one was a bag of two potatoes that were wrapped in paper as well.

I honestly could not figure it out. I know that she teases me for being Scandinavian and I tease her about being Irish so I assumed it had to do with some funky Irish custom that I had never heard of before. Maybe it had to do with the great potato famine but I was pretty sure that millions of starving people would not be something she would make a joke about.

I stood there after opening the gift trying to look more grateful then puzzled. I looked at Judy and then Ari's sister, Heather, hoping to find a bit of support but they both just looked at me with pleased smiles. I held the small bag of potatoes nervously trying to figure out what to do with them till I decided that a small bag of potatoes must be a weapon. You know, kind of like how the mob uses a bag of oranges to beat people and not leave a mark, I decided that a bag of potatoes must be what the Irish mob would use so I started swinging it around hoping that I got the whole idea right.

I swung the sack of potatoes around for what seemed like an eternity while all 3 young ladies just smiled pleasantly making me feel more unsure about my stupid action more and more as each second passed. Finally Heather stopped me and asked me to open here gift. I put down the sack with a sense of relief and took her gift.

I opened the wrapper slowly hoping above all hope that it was not going to be some kind of bizarre Irish gift that I would not understand. The gift slowly emerged and what I saw finally made sense .... I was given a fantastic potato gun and now I even had ammo for it.

This blog is honestly a warning to my neighbors, if I knock on your door and have a sneaky smile on my face and a hand behind my back you might want to act like you are not home ..... of course I could go coon hunting and shoo the critters away from our trash cans with my new weapon but the stubbornness of those beasts they would probably just think that I was shooting food at them and they would set up house in my backyard.

I am the Pied Piper of Children and Crabs

I love Marblehead, the people, the town, the history, well just everything. The simple truth is that while I may be an Okie, born and bred, I still fit in with at least a few of the people here.

A simple story to show what I mean

Judy and I both of a deep love for the ocean and we go to the beach every time that we have an opportunity. She always looks her glamorous self when we head off to the beach while I look like every kid with a plastic pail and shovel. Now I want to make it clear that I am a grown up so I leave the cheap Dollar Tree pail at home and bring my fancy stuff with me.

We both comb the beach and water for interesting rocks and shells but while she has every guy from the age of 13 to 93 watching her I end up with this rag tag group of kids following me. I never really thought much about it until Judy pointed it out to me today.

There is actually a simple reason for this entourage of kids and it comes down to the fact that when I am at the beach I turn into a big 10 year old boy. While Judy is looking for the delicate shells and slivers of sea glass I tend to become more interested in flipping over big rocks to see what I can find underneath. Many times there are 10-20 small crabs under the rocks and they all go scurrying off to find new shelter.

Having the inquisitive mind of a 10 year old but being able to flip large rocks means that I am a real popular guy for other small urchin that love the idea of getting a bit dirty catching critters that make you scream "ouch" when they pinch you.

I do love my life here and could never imagine living anywhere else.

Internet Friends, Real Friendships or Not?

We all have talked to people on the internet and made what we consider real friends but the question has to be.... can people become real friends if all they have are notes, chats and comments over the internet.

I have found a couple of things to be true, at least for myself. The first thing is that I have found my greatest enemies over the internet, people who would never have come after me if we had no other connection except the internet. Since I can safely say that I have people who hate me because of the internet I should also be able to say that I have found true friends.

I have met people who I truly care about, ones that I am concerned when they have something bad in their life and able to rejoice when something good happens. These are the exact same feelings that I have for real life friends.

I moved to Marblehead because of a person I originally met on Facebook, we became friends, then best friends and now husband and wife. Now that I am in a different state and many of my Internet friends that lived here are real life friends my old friends of become my internet friends.

I will give an example, Thomas is a real life friends who I have known since my school days. He is an important part of my psyche and considering I have not seen the guy for almost two years we have stayed in contact via the internet...... but he is still as real to me via the internet as he was when we would go to lunch together.

The simple answer to the question..... Yes, real friends can be "just" internet friends.

Old Love

I am sure we all have looked back to our earlier selves and wondered what if? What if I had done something different, what if I had not said those words, what if those clams I had last night where caught off the coast of Japan, these are the kind of questions that has haunted humanity from the beginning of time.

Judy and I were at Castle Rock near our home and we ran into a strange little couple. They were strange not because he was a dentist with really bad teeth but because the two of them had done something that few people ever will.

The two ancient people (he was 96 and she was much younger at 94) came up to us and started talking. I am one to always show respect to my elders but this seemed odd to me. How could they know Judy and I were not some evil couple that had decided to take over the work of Dr. Kevorkian? They seemed geniuanly interested in talking to us.

I started to wonder if they were into some kind of cult and they wanted to save our souls or the souls of our cats but they never mentioned anything of the sort. Instead they went on about how lovely of a couple we were and how we looked like we truly were in love. They went on and on about how they travel the world and meet thousands of people but that there are only a few that they have met in their life time that looked like they actually loved each other by the way they moved, spoke and acted.

This couple held hands, and spoke to each other with wonder in their eyes as they looked at each other. The seemed quite wealthy and spoke of their grand kids who were getting ready to retire but said something I shall remember for the rest of my life..... "We have lots of money and our kids are all successful in business and long marriages but our children see our success in how much we have and we see our success with who we have (each other)."

He said that he was glad to see that there where young people (hey, the dude is 96 so I am young) that understood that no matter what happens in the world to be successful at 96 you have to have that woman who you have loved for years loving you back stronger then ever before.

Sappy enough blog for you? If you know my goal in life then you will understand why I found this couple so endearing.......

Evil Comes in Many Colors

I must be a real lucky guy, I seem to get into battles with evil beings of every stripe and color. This is actually good news for me because I love the idea of going to war for really no good reason. I guess this makes me some kind of warmongering evil person myself but I will simply claim that I was born this way so you HAVE to accept me as I am.

Last summer I had the wonderful time of going toe to toe with a ground hog, I am not sure that I actually won the war but it eventually gave up and went home, or most probably just found another home that did not have a raving lunatic as a neighbor. This summer I am facing not one but a whole herd of critters that have set out to conquer my yard and set me fuming over their every action.

Raccoons, the size of a medium dog, have invaded the neighborhood. These creatures are not eating the garden yet but have this wonderful ability to tip over trash cans, strew the nastiest parts of it and then leave the rancid garbage for the seagulls to further make a mess. The simple solution would be to lock the cans up but I suppose that would take the fun away.

I am plotting and planning my revenge on this motley crew with a few neighbors. We have even thought that if it comes down to a life and death situation that we would be able to supply the meat for a neighborhood block party. I guess what I should do now is ask my southern friends for a good recipe for BBQ coon ribs.

I will keep you posted as the battles unfold.

Rootabagga's Rambling's - The rambling's of a single mother raising special needs children.

 

 

Kate is a real life friend, yes I do have friends in real life..........

 

Rootabagga's Rambling's

The rambling's of a single mother raising special needs children. A birds eye view into mental illness in loved ones and how it effects those around them. "I can do all thing's through Christ who strengthens me." Phillipians 4:13

       Everyone knows what it feels like when you have to sneeze, right? You can feel it coming before you actually sneeze. You feel the proverbial tickle in the back of your nose. You sometimes get that "I'm gonna sneeze" look like in the picture above. I have even felt and looked this way for up to a minute before the sneeze actually builds up enough to be a successful sneeze.
       Does a sneeze actually have a purpose? Yes, it most certainly does. It is your body's way of reacting to a foreign object in your system. When it senses that there is something in your airways that doesn't belong there, like pollen, a common reason for sneezing. Your body needs to expel that" invader" in a quick manner. Sneezing is your bodies way to do just this.
       You may have a second or two before you sneeze that you feel "it coming on" and sometimes you have a minute or two. Regardless of the amount of time you have, you don't try to stop it because you know it is going to come eventually, right? I mean we all know what purpose a sneeze is doing so why stop a good thing.
        Like a sneeze, where there is a "force" that is built up and then escapes the body with such force, your whole body usually reacts to it happening, that same thing can be said about bp rages. The individual with bp can "feel" things being built up inside prior to a "rage", yet they have no means to prevent it from coming to pass. There were years I believed I could change their behavior by positive reinforcement with no luck. I didn't understand how they could not control their actions, I mean even when I was mad as all heck, I still have a choice to act or not act.
       That mechanism is not as easy to activate when you have MI as it is when you have no MI. I have stated before how we all have a build it gauge that tells you to run and to stand your ground in certain situations. When you have MI, you can see the signs that things are getting hot. The steam flows from your mouth usually in forms of vulgarity and threats. You can see the "water almost at a boil" by the hands clenching or someone hitting a wall or throwing things.
       When the gauge is broken, there is no "off button" or "easy button", no way to "turn it off" even though you can see it coming to a head. This is one of the many reasons why people with MI have such a hard time with it. They can see it coming but there is nothing they can do to stop it. This however does not mean it has to continue. There are ways to "control" it to a point. Medication slows down the thought process of that is needed to make the upward climb to rage.
      If you can slow down that process so it takes an hour to reach the "melting point" rather then seconds, there is time in which those around them can see the signs and change the outcome. It gives you the ability to get PRN meds into the individual to prevent rages or you can utilize coping mechanisms to lessen the chance of a blow up. We may not be able to totally stop it but we can lessen the blow and effect of it. 

 

 

 

Stop by her blog and check it out....

Rootabagga's Rambling's