Prayers For Milod....

[retrosurfer1959]

Milo had no idea when I swung back in glad to hear your hanging tough and yep age is gonna get us all I'm afraid. It's a good think getting older only happens late in our lives not sure the young ones could handle it. I just had surgery #67 this last week and not a single one was illness. But I'm damn good at trauma and have broken damn near every bone in my body. The last one was on my back where I compressed my spine years before and it's never really worked real well since then. The last year was tough and nerve racking I tore a retina in my right eye and of course I did a great job of tearing it one of the worst the surgeon had ever seen but hey I look dashing in a custom made leather eye patch ;-). Or at least it looks ok to me lol. Just keep on fighting and never give up at least that has worked pretty well for me. And there are ways around the limitations as I've learned from losing a lower leg and losing half a lung and now vision in one eye but attitude is the critical thing, so keep your head up and smile. Your life has been full and magical and that's pretty much all we can ask for out if this thing called life.

 

Thoughts and prayers - Retro

[RevDavidLee]

I wanted to stop in here & read up on the latest and check on the progress of brother Milod and am thrilled to see that he posted recently. I wanted to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving to you & your wife my friend - good God you two have been through it. I miss your sage advice, your outlook on everything and celebrate your healing and recovery. As others have expressed - we miss you. Heal up brother & we'll see you down the road apiece. Take care of Mrs m :)

[milod]

Rev. David...

 

For what it's worth, here's a column I wrote that appeared in the local newspaper Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving.

 

I'm back half time - supposedly only 20 hours weekly but I admit I cheat a bit to do more, regardless of paycheck.

 

My wife, btw, is doing pretty well recovering from her surgery, and I from the stroke, although I do really need to get serious about forcing that left hand to get back to work on guitar. Typing is up to about 40 wpm, but that's still frustratingly slow when you've done 150 before the face-first flop.

 

Luckily too I've been assigned an assistant editor who's supposed to do a full time job so the two of us can approach what I was producing before the stroke and time out for medical leave. She's a very bright and hard-working young woman, so the community is lucky there...

 

We had a great thanksgiving, btw, in Deadwood, SD, with a great prime rib dinner. Turkey's fine, but... <grin>

 

--- m ---

here's the column:

 

Looking at Friday's snow, and then Sunday forecasts for Wednesday and Thanksgiving Day Thursday brought back some memories.

 

It would have been late November of 1965.

 

I was a new "part-time staff writer" at a daily newspaper while still theoretically a college student.

 

The newspaper already had captured me in more ways than one.

 

I was scheduled to work the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving as well as the Wednesday before "Turkey Day."

 

I told my folks I'd not be driving home.

 

Besides, the wind was cold. The tiny snowflakes began Wednesday, and dusted doorways and the curbs on streets.

 

With a $5 bill in my jeans, around noon I headed to the truck stop to eat.

 

That cash covered a hot turkey sandwich and coffee. I think it bought a piece of pumpkin pie, but that's not the chief memory of the meal.

 

It was decently warm inside.

 

I ate slowly at the cafe counter and watched the families and old folks — folks with gray hair in ones and twos — at tables.

 

Some smiled and talked of this or that. I couldn't hear much, but faces told the story of a warm conversation.

 

One family I remember sadly. They marched in, and the kids were directed to seats at a Formica table by unsmiling parents. The kids didn't smile or frown, but neither did the parents.

 

I sat at the counter, my people-watching broken only by a bite of my hot turkey or sip of coffee, a word or two to the now unremembered waitress.

 

I was thankful I had that $5 bill. I had to wait for Friday for enough of a paycheck to buy gas for the big old Chrysler I drove at the time.

 

While I was mostly alone, I was thankful to have a nice warm meal and knowledge some folks had less. I knew I'd have a warm place to sleep and a job I sensed would became a life.

 

It was a good Thanksgiving.

 

But that unsmiling family has been an annual memory.

 

I've wondered then, and down through the years, what made them so unsmiling?

 

Some half a century later I've seen a bit of life, its ups and downs; and I'm still not sure how a day of thanks accompanied by a warm meal could not bring a grateful heart and an attempt to smile.

 

I think most of us have times when we have a problem realizing how well off we might be.

 

If we have health to enjoy a meal with those we care for, or who at least might share a common community, we've something to be thankful for.

 

We all had our ups and downs in the past year, but I think we all can use, and benefit from, a day to realize there's much to feel thankful for, no matter the obstacles along the way.

 

Here's hoping each of us can find a reason to smile Thursday, if just for a moment.

 

-30-

[4Hayden]

Rev. David...

 

For what it's worth, here's a column I wrote that appeared in the local newspaper Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving.

 

I'm back half time - supposedly only 20 hours weekly but I admit I cheat a bit to do more, regardless of paycheck.

 

My wife, btw, is doing pretty well recovering from her surgery, and I from the stroke, although I do really need to get serious about forcing that left hand to get back to work on guitar. Typing is up to about 40 wpm, but that's still frustratingly slow when you've done 150 before the face-first flop.

 

Luckily too I've been assigned an assistant editor who's supposed to do a full time job so the two of us can approach what I was producing before the stroke and time out for medical leave. She's a very bright and hard-working young woman, so the community is lucky there...

 

We had a great thanksgiving, btw, in Deadwood, SD, with a great prime rib dinner. Turkey's fine, but... <grin>

 

--- m ---

here's the column:

 

Looking at Friday's snow, and then Sunday forecasts for Wednesday and Thanksgiving Day Thursday brought back some memories.

 

It would have been late November of 1965.

 

I was a new "part-time staff writer" at a daily newspaper while still theoretically a college student.

 

The newspaper already had captured me in more ways than one.

 

I was scheduled to work the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving as well as the Wednesday before "Turkey Day."

 

I told my folks I'd not be driving home.

 

Besides, the wind was cold. The tiny snowflakes began Wednesday, and dusted doorways and the curbs on streets.

 

With a $5 bill in my jeans, around noon I headed to the truck stop to eat.

 

That cash covered a hot turkey sandwich and coffee. I think it bought a piece of pumpkin pie, but that's not the chief memory of the meal.

 

It was decently warm inside.

 

I ate slowly at the cafe counter and watched the families and old folks — folks with gray hair in ones and twos — at tables.

 

Some smiled and talked of this or that. I couldn't hear much, but faces told the story of a warm conversation.

 

One family I remember sadly. They marched in, and the kids were directed to seats at a Formica table by unsmiling parents. The kids didn't smile or frown, but neither did the parents.

 

I sat at the counter, my people-watching broken only by a bite of my hot turkey or sip of coffee, a word or two to the now unremembered waitress.

 

I was thankful I had that $5 bill. I had to wait for Friday for enough of a paycheck to buy gas for the big old Chrysler I drove at the time.

 

While I was mostly alone, I was thankful to have a nice warm meal and knowledge some folks had less. I knew I'd have a warm place to sleep and a job I sensed would became a life.

 

It was a good Thanksgiving.

 

But that unsmiling family has been an annual memory.

 

I've wondered then, and down through the years, what made them so unsmiling?

 

Some half a century later I've seen a bit of life, its ups and downs; and I'm still not sure how a day of thanks accompanied by a warm meal could not bring a grateful heart and an attempt to smile.

 

I think most of us have times when we have a problem realizing how well off we might be.

 

If we have health to enjoy a meal with those we care for, or who at least might share a common community, we've something to be thankful for.

 

We all had our ups and downs in the past year, but I think we all can use, and benefit from, a day to realize there's much to feel thankful for, no matter the obstacles along the way.

 

Here's hoping each of us can find a reason to smile Thursday, if just for a moment.

 

-30-

 

Amen Milod

 

4H

[Aster1]

Better late than never with a comment and here it is:

 

"Now that's what I'm talk'n about!!!"

 

 

Thanks for the reflection as this is something, as I grow closer to my end, that I want to ALWAYS remember. Ups-downs, aches/pains, could'a - should'a been's, I've been very blessed and grateful. I have more than I deserve more than likely. "To help other people at all time" is one of my favorite parts in the BSA Scout Oath. While falling short most of the time, is one of the promises in the front of my mind to always follow.

 

Thanks again Milo!!

 

Aster