sad, very sad indeed

I am in a state of disbelief, belief, sadness, anger, shock, madness, crabbiness, happiness, peace, joy, etc. And that is all I can think of right now. My mind is in a fog right now. It all feels surreal; even numbing.

On Saturday 27 Jan 2007, my Grandma Cannon died. I have done a lot of crying since then. Death hurts like Hell. You know that song that goes "Where O Death is now thy sting?"  Well, I would submit that it has quite a sting right now. Her health had been going down hill for a while now. Finally, we found out on Tuesday that she had a malignant brain tumour the size of a lemon in the right frontal lobe of her brain. In addition, there were too many malignant tumour nodules all over her lungs to count. You see, about 10 yrs ago, she had Thyroid cancer and they were confident that all of it had been removed. Well, the type she had is very resilient to treatment and when it comes back, it shows up in the lungs first before mestastisizing elsewhere. The brain tumour explains why the left side of her body was limp, as well as why she could no longer communicate or make judgement calls. Right side of brain controls left side of body.

It was a blessing to see her go, but still sad. She did not suffer, she was safe, and comfortable. It was the last loving thing we as a family could do for her (allowing her to go peacefully).

I miss her terribly. Visitation is on Tuesday evening from 3pm-7pm at Brainerd Funeral Home in Wausau, and again Wednesday morning at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Wausau from 10am until the time of services at the church. Service is at 11am, with burial to follow at the Pine Grove Cemetary.

Refer to http://www.wausaudailyherald.com for the official obituary.

Currently Reading For Men Only : A Straightforward Guide to the Inner Lives of Women By Shaunti Feldhahn, Jeff Feldhahn see related

Where the buffalo roam.....

So I'm just chillin out here in Buffalo, NY on a business trip. Got into Buffalo at about 4pm eastern time, had some dinner and tried to catch some sleep before working night shift. Well, sleep eluded me. Last night was rough. I went 24 hrs with no sleep. I was a zombie. And it had been 12 hrs since I last ate, so I was a starving zombie, although I knew I wouldn't exactly starve to death as I am no starvin marvin yet. But it was not fun.  I did learn alot at work which was good. I get back to the hotel at 0730am and eat breakfast, read the USA today and pass out at 0830am, only to wake up at 1430. A couple movies later, here I am. Still exhausted but unable to sleep. I hate it when that happens! And its hard to focus my eyes due to being turbo-tired to the 8th power. So here I am at 1622 EDT local time typing this and watching National Lampoon's European Vacation on the tv. There are a couple channels on the tv. What fun. At least there's free internet

On a lighter note, we had dinner at the Bob Evans last night where they have wonderful Banana Bread. I am totally a Banana Bread Junkie. While it was not as tasty as mine own, it was pretty good. And moist. Did I mention tasty???

On a completely unrelated note, I started to read this book called "For Men Only" which is a continuation of the For Women Only series. The first book, called "For Women Only" concerns how women can better understand the man/men in their lives, whether it be boyfriend, husband, or just guy-friends. To all my lady-friends out there, I highly recommend this book to them. The second book is called "For Men Only" and it is targeted at men and teaching them how to better understand and relate to the women in their lives (girlfriend, wife, girl friends, etc). It even has a "Quick Checklist" guide thing which has approx. 6 quick items to help men understand women. I even verified some of them with a good lady friend. She completely agreed with the statements on this list. All the books have a common website: http://www.forwomenonlybook.com/

I just got a call from my car mechanic, and he fixed my car. The windshield wiper motor worked its' way loose from the firewall and was kinda hangin there, hence the resulting irregular behavior. He re-attached it, and reinforced it with washers and nuts, etc. He also fixed many broken wires in the door boot conduit. I was bracing for a $600 repair, and it will only be about $200 or so (3 hrs labor x $65/hr, plus a couple bucks for washers, nuts, wire crimps, etc.) I like this. I don't want to invest more money in this riviera than I have to anymore. My car is the money pit of all cars, besides of course, the infamous Gremlin from the 1980's. Good thing I aint never done owned one of those jaloppies.

New Puppy Dog, amongst other items of noteworthy posting value

So about 3 weeks ago, my brother Jared bought a pure-bred Golden Retriever puppy dog. Puppy is a boy dog, and was 8 weeks old at the time. His name is Scooter. I must admit, I was a tad cold towards this new addition to the household, but then when I looked at him and saw the cutest puppy I couldn't resist loving the new puppy dog. Here are two pictures. I also have an MPEG movie file, but its 50 MB, so I shall not post on this forum. As you can see, the puppy is ADORABLE, awwwwwww.... (yes, I know: I am a softy)

I have not posted since Jan 2006, oops. Work has been kinda boring. I learned how to bust up concrete and how to pour new concrete. Who'da thunk, a BS chemist learning how to break up concrete, take pumps apart, mix big batches of chemicals, and pour new concrete. I tell ya, this is no ordinary chemist job. But thats ok too, I have always wanted to become more adept at using tools and building things and taking them apart.

No word from my wayward brother. I miss all my friends from college (D, T-diddy, D-nuggets, etc.). I have fond memories of good times back then. Memories are priceless, ones that I will forever cherish. I also am almost finished putting in most of my photos into new photo binders. I even have to go buy another one, and a plethora of refill photo insert pages. I have a lot of photos which catalog my life in the past few years.

Oh yes, I splurged and bought $110 worth of DVD's, although I only paid $82 for it all (bestbuy rewardzone gift certificates). I now am the proud owner of (drum roll please...):

• Father of the Bride (part I)
• A Walk to Remember
• Sahara
• Hunt For Red October
• Patriot Games
• Clear and Present Danger
• Bad Boys I
• Apple Dumpling Gang
• Beverly Hills Cop I
• Gone In 60 Seconds
• The Ladies Man

Yup, I didn't really need these items, but I had certificates and bought a ton of stuff I wanted. And yes, I was in a romantic mood when I bought these, as evidenced by the first two titles. Someday when I get married my wife will have no problem at all getting me to watch Chick-Flick softy mooshy-gooshy girly films. Now I just have to find this mystery woman.....   I believe the proper proverb to apply to this context would be the following: Good Things come to those who Wait.  I do miss my future wife, even though I have no idea who she is. God puts a longing in a man's heart for a woman's love and I am certainly no exception to the rule. Some day, some day.

Back at the Grind again

After a wonderful week of comp-time between Christmas and New Years, I had to report back to work on Jan.3. That was tough! Wow. I just had two weeks in a row off of work, and then to go back was a shock. But now I am back into the swing of things. A project has come back to life at work, one that I really do not enjoy. But I am learning to make the best of things. Yesterday, I got all dirty filthy and I was just laughing and smiling. Progress, I say!

After much trepidation and uncertainty, I decided to stop ignoring God's leading me to join a church. Specifically, the one to which I have been going and at which I sing in the Choir. I met with the Elders and the Pastor this past Monday evening, and Tuesday morning I received a call from Pastor Larry that everything is good and I will be welcomed into the membership (officially) on Jan 22. Its pretty cool! I have an official Church Home. Never had one before. I like New Hope Church.

On Jan 23, I will be going on my next business trip, this time to the grand metropolis of Medford, WI. Yes, tiny Medford. Population: 4800 or so. Can you say "Cow-Tipping"? (not really, I don't know how to do that). We will drive there and back every day that whole week. It will be very labor-intensive work too. Not my idea of fun, but I guess one just gets through it.

Not a peep from my wayward brother. I almost prefer it that way, for now at least.

I finally received my company cell phone, 2.5 months after my initial request back in October. Talk about slooooooow response. But its a cool phone. Has Bowling on it. Yay!

Took the puppy dog for a nice walk yesterday. Sure felt like 50 degrees F outside, made me wonder what happened to January, February, and March? :) Felt like April. I would still prefer more snow, however. The more, the merrier.

Hard to believe I have been graduated for over a year now. Crazy how time and life fly by. People gettin married and engaged and such. Then there's me. I fit in neither category. Wait, ya kinda have to have a significant other to even be eligible for those categories. Well that automatically eliminates me. Oh well. Deal with it, would be the appropriate phrase to interject here.

Being salaried is not all its cracked up to be.....

I just worked 60 hours this week, and I officially don't get comp days off for it, nor do I get extra pay since I am salaried. I have worked, slept and ate, that is it this week. Can you say Exhausted??? :)

And my car needed repair: new set of spark plugs, plug wires, and a new coil pack. Total cost gouging at a dealer for this work: $460. Grrrrrr. How do they sleep at night????? Although, they did have to deal with swapping new plugs into the back cylinders, hehehhehehe. They are a Royal Pain. Not as bad as changing the serpentine belt, but no fun either way. BTW, to change the belt, you have to jack the engine up about 2 inches, and remove a motor mount. Even then, you only get just enough room to slide the new belt through. Wonderful Rivieras. :)

So today I was done in 8 hours. Have to work the weekend. I will be very very burnt out by next Friday. Cannot wait until its all done.

On a side-note, I really have NO patience for dumb people. People that just don't think or use common sense. Sometimes I just want to knock some sense into them. But then I realize that I am on the phone and its hard to do that while on the phone!

So that is life in a nutshell. You should listen to the Sound of Majesty, wonderful music. My favorite-est music out there!! Link: http://www.soundofmajesty.org/ 

Check it out!!