Saturday, February 28, 2015

My-First-Time

How can I ever forget my first time. Maybe your experience was similiar, more or less dramatic perhaps, but new nonetheless.
In my mind I have waited patiently for a long, long time for this day. "No you're not ready" and "you just need a little more patience" was not going to be said to me any more. We have been together for awhile now and we've tried before but never got very far but this so-called 'practice' is for the birds. Now our wait was over. I have gone over these moves time and time again in my mind hoping that these memories I've made will lead to perfection of how to start, continue and finish. I really don't want to mess this up, because who knows, it could be a lost opportunity for lord knows how long if I were to do it wrong. We have a brief discussion, a self pep-talk of sorts, maybe it was my nerves, or maybe it was me trying to act totally cool, but probably both. We were finally alone. It was the perfect time for this special moment. So here I go, my goal in front of me, like a unwrapped gift, a precious award, and a feeling of want and desire all wrapped into one all at the same time. My initial attempt started off great, no awkward feelings or pressure, it felt comfortable and warm and my anxiousness was fading while my anticipation was gaining. I was happy I didn't just jump right in  from overconfidence or gidiness. I would close my eyes to remind myself how I mentally had done this over and over and over. Feeling confident I then open my eyes to this beautiful sight - both visually how amazing everything looked and the physical and emotional feeling in what was being accomplished. The great pleasure I felt was even better becuase I felt them same embrace, as if there was a unique bond never experienced before, sharing what was happening for the very first time and that I for one, was proud, very happy and sure of myself. Although I wasn't quite finished, I could sense the end was near. I tried the best I could to not rush things, savor this perfect time, not to miss a mental or physical step, not to screw this up now as this entire experience has been terrific. I'm hoping to stay as relaxed as possible and allow this to come to its epic and fulfilling end as nature intended. Messing anything up now is not an option becuase I do not want to start over, disappointed, embarrassed, and worse still, not knowing when I could try again. Here it is, one last move, I can do it... YES, I did it, no WE did it, and we did it right! I gave a fist pump to myself and didn't really care if I looked silly or what expression remained on my face. I just sat there for a few extra moments impressed to what I've accomplished and looked down once more at the beauty that lay there. Now it was time..


To put on my other shoe.

Weirdos :)

-Cheek

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

History Lesson - for me at least

So this past summer and into fall I would look up each specific day on-line and then started posting a few daily historical events along with certain famous birthdays, a few deaths and some lesser known holidays and observances on Facebook every day. It was fun to do and along the way I would learn a few things here and there. I ended up stopping posting them on FB but I still try and read them several times a week if not more. Some times I find events that catch my eye and I click on it to read more about it - which may lead to either boring or interesting facts. Yesterday, I came across one of them that I found interesting and read more - and then even more about it. I ended up doing some research on more specific parts about this day, and this person, in history. It involved a man who help shape the Revolutionary War and beyond. So, ultimately I decided to write about it! Ok, sorry if this reads like a class project about writing about a famous historical figure, but I like doing this - especially when I'm not actually IN school :)


For many years leading up to the Declaration of Independence every colony acted independently, some agreeing with British rule and British policy while others wanted to have their own rules. In 1774 during the first Continental Congress it was almost agreed upon that they would agree with and follow King George's rule. America was to become a Grand Council of Britain and a President General would be appointed to represent the King. It was the few radicals like John Adams who wanted independence from British and wouldn't declare loyalty to England, and this was brought into action at the second Continental Congress one year later in 1775. This led to the King declaring America in a rebellion, which, among other things him hiring of 300,000 German Hessian's as 'mercenaries.' These were not what we may think of today's standard mercenaries, they were well trained in warfare and were German soldiers who were bought to help England control the American colonies. The Continental Army was created in 1775 and George Washington was named Supreme Commander, where he requested to not take a pay and soon would become the Commander of Chief of the Continental Army. Over the next couple years America made an alliance with France and then, of course the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The America's were not favoring well overall and needed to step up their military power as well as a lift to the morale of the colonists.

Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrived at the military camp of the American Continental Army at Valley Forge Pennsylvania on February 23, 1778. Steuben, a born German, spoke no English but drafted a drill manual in French where a few people like Alexander Hamilton would translate. These drills were more advanced than those of most European nations and far superior to those of the relatively untrained Americans. Steuben began training of our mainly shoeless Patriots in schooling of soldiers. He implemented rows of and for command before perfecting the actual fighting such as reloading and firing of weapons and combat with their bayonet's which were until then primarily used as a tool or for cooking. An honor guard was formed by Steuben of 120 men and was selected for George Washington specifically. Steuben incorporated many specific standards to assist in the development of the military including separating the 'bathroom' area on one side of a camp, which the waste would travel down a hill, from the food on the other side camp. With Washington's recommendation, Steuben was appointed Inspector General of the Army with the rank of Major General. He helped to write formal books to be kept, which would keep records of things like  necessities of supplies, clothing, men, hygiene and weapons as well as tactics, drills and military disciplines that were used by the new United States until 1812, many of which lasted well into the 1900's.
With the great deal of help from von Steuben accompanied by French and Spanish assistance, the now much better trained, and of course fighting for a higher cause, American's forced the British out and after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, the war was over. Less than 20 years later, Congress agreed upon their first foreign war, as President Thomas Jefferson sent our military over North Africa and the Mediterranean because he refused to pay for high cash demands by these people. These groups of people were also hijacking and enslaving American ships and its men. A group of Marines would help turn the tide in this First Barabry War which would be an enormous boost of morale for our nation as well as the Navy and other parts of the military. I put this part in here now, because a lot of this same type of shit is going on, again, today. One day ago I was going over historical events on February 23, mainly for fun, and over a day and a half later I learned a lot. I don't want this to get into a political rant about what America should or should not do, but I do believe that with the help of our Founding Father's, and even others like Steuben, helped shape and win America, gain our Independence and make the U.S. the great nation it should be.

I have always found history interesting, in particular that of our United States. Growing up, and even later than I would like to admit, I thought that during the signing of the Declaration of Independence George Washington either was, or soon became President of the U.S. When actually Washington became President in 1789, 13 years after the signing of the Declaration and a year after the U.S. Constitution was adopted into government. It amazes me how young we are as a nation. I just hope that we are a smart one as well. Hope you enjoyed todays lesson, lol.

P.S. No not all of this came from Wikipedia, I searched many other places like History.com, as well as two books of reference. I know not everything may not be 100% accurate, which in part is why my dates were years instead of specific dates, and left out, of course many, many events over the time before, during, and after the war.

-Cheel


Saturday, February 21, 2015

ICU

I read a post from a guy this morning that I friended on Facebook about 8 months ago. I say it like this because I never met him, at least not formally. We were once neighbors and my wife and his fiancé became relatively close, be it a short period of time. Him and I were going through some tough times during the same period and neither of us could do much about it. Like me, his name is Mike. You see, neighbor Mike and I were in the hospital at the same time. We were not in for the same reason, and we were both too sick to ever meet. One day as Sarah and her family were on their way to visit me, they were greeted immediately as they reached my floor with emergency 'call blues' for instant assistance. "We have to crack Mike's chest!" was what they were yelling, rushing to his aide. Nine month pregnant wife of mine 'runs' as fast as she can to my room panicking to what the hell happened to me. With everything I had going wrong, my heart remained strong, so this code alarm didn't make sense. It turns out it wasn't me that the staff was running to, but neighbor Mike's. Omg, what an emotional mind screw that had to have been. On her daily visit, Sarah is 'greeted' with unknown orders for jacking up, what she thought, was my heart. She freaked out, and then realizing what was going on tried to console with neighbor Mikes' fiancé. It turned out to be the same day that happened to be my worst day as far as me being sick. Staff had made knowledge of how sick I was stating that I happened to be the sickest person at the U of M. Patients were dying on my floor. My neighbor had to get his heart jumped. my lung collapsed harpers. Mike and his fiancé are now married and he seems to have recovered nicely. I'll never know how he really felt during his time there, but it was great reading his post this morning sharing his love and thanks with those close to him. Sarah and his fiancé became friends through all of this as well. Strange to have a unique connection with someone I never met :)

-Cheek

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Shucks..

Well I had this story to write today about recovering at Bethesda. Not to get into too many details, because I referred with my brother and my wife about the couple of days in which I was thinking about and neither one knew what on earth I was talking about. Shucks! I thought this one wasn't a false memory, I just thought I was really messed up, although I'm not sure which is better/worse. Anyway, it involved things such as: me being in college, taking a class in which the assignment was to make a scary looking halloween deliscious dish for dinner, an argument with my family about times of the day, and a nurse that I thought I knew. Damn. I really thought I was 'arguing' with my brother about his idea about my homework because it wasn't scary enough. I had it in my mind that I had seen plenty of scary movies in my day to have references about. Yeah, really makes no sense when I think about it lol..
Well, there goes that 'memory' of an argument, and an apology. Wonder how many times I said I was sorry and didn't have a reason for doing so? At lease the nurse I thought I knew, who would have been changing my diapers, wasn't really there, because that would be super awkward! Trying to figure out the time of day was an ongoing issue throughout my time in there. About the only thing I got out of this was that I did in fact get upset about the time of the day, because I never knew if it was morning or night. Many times because the curtains were pulled so I couldn't tell from the weather. Sarah ended up getting me a digital clock because the ones in the rooms were just the wall ones with no AM or PM. I believe before long I had three digital clocks in my room to choose from, which actually seemed to make things worse until several more days had passed.
Well I suppose I could have made up a story, but that's no fun!

Today wasn't a total loss lol.
Until next time,

-Cheek




Monday, February 16, 2015

February '13 & '14

Last February we had a few events that help shape the following year. In no particular order because I can't really remember: One was Sarah's baby shower, another was my diaper kegger and the third was our bar taking part in the chamber's mini golf outing.

The Chamber of Commerce had its inaugural 'Cabin Fever Classic' mini golf party where several bars around the New Richmond area and Star Prairie had a golf hole and several 4-person golf teams plus 1 sober driver traveled to each hole (bar) and took turns playing. It was rather bitter sweet because we once had a full 9-hole course, but times needed to change, and hopefully they find success at their new location. Sarah and I worked the bar this day and it was a good time, lots of people. Sarah was about 7 months pregnant at the time and ended up having to go home because she wasn't feeling good at all. I tried getting someone to come help for the evening but it was too late in the day and we were too busy for me to leave anyway. Ben and Jodi stuck around for a couple hours and helped with the golf and I think they enjoyed themselves. Made it much easier for me and was grateful for their help. The 2nd annual tourney is later this month I hear.

Sarah's baby shower was the first event of the month. She had it at Brady's and I happily wasn't there haha. I hung out at my home with my Dad, brother and son and we spent the afternoon togehter. Sarah got a lot of things that have been very useful for Scarlett and are still used every day. Thank you ladies for your support.

The next week I had my diaper kegger at our bar. The boys were to bring any package of diapers for us and along with $5 and could have their full of draft beers. It was a nice turnout and we had a lot of fun. Turned out to be an awesome idea, as we still use these diapers and have yet needed to purchase any. Thanks to my wife for setting this up and sending out the invites, and for working, and thanks for all those who supported this, even if it was their first time buying diapers lol. I remember I wasn't feeling very well that day, and for the next several days, as it soon turned March and the hospital to follow.

Just heard this morning, while waiting for Ryan's eye drops for his pink eye we just realized he had, that this week is supposed to be super cold. Great. I am hoping it doesn't last long and March comes quickly. Ryan hasn't been sick too much this year, hopefully the eye drops kick in soon and gets cleared up before Scarlett get it. I think he'll be able to go to school tomorrow but in the meantime him and I will catch up on some movies :)

-Cheek

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Who is Valentine's for....

Normally on Fridays, Ryan gets picked up at school from his mom. This week, however she needed surgery Friday on a broken heel so I was lucky enough to pick my boy up for a couple hours from school today. His class (and I'm sure the others) did some Valentines Day projects for the day. For one of them he made a folder with a self portrait (before he lost his most recent tooth:) along with a 'love' letter to each of his families. He gave me a folder for me and Sarah as he sat on my lap while I read it and it completely choked me up. I gave it to Sarah after she got home from school tonight, and as we both read it after Ryan was already gone, we both cried. He has been through some things that a sweet child like him should never have to go through and I am ever so proud of him.

I made some spelling corrections, but this short letter is all his.
I'm still having a difficult time keeping my eyes dry even from copying this short, sweet, from-his-heart, letter.........

Dear Dad and Sarah,

Thank you for never lying to me.
Thank you for protecting me for my whole life.
Love you so much.
Do you like the letter?

From, Ryan


How can I not post this!?!
😂

-Cheek



Friday, February 13, 2015

Happy to wake

Didn't sleep well (again) last night although we went to bed early (again) and fell asleep I woke up and was awake most of the night. When I finally fell back asleep, I wish I would not have becuase I unfortunately dreamed that both the kids got Blasto.
Ryan had gotten sick and we took him into the hospital and when all the results came back they said there was an 18% chance that he contracted it from me. I was, of course, devasted. We went home to grab some stuff and then Scarlett got sick so we had her checked out and she also had gotten Blasto. Just about the worst dream ever, pretty sure I cried in my sleep. I would rather go through this ten times then have any of my loved ones ever have to. I have read that two different people have gotten it twice, one was in Canada and another was in Ohio, but never said they got it from a separate incident or just that it never went away and it came 'back.' Like I said last week I'm about a month away from being on schedule to stop taking my itraconazole, so my doctors are happy with my progress. I'm really hoping the weather changes quicker and spring arrives quicker because my feet freeze every time I go outside and walking becomes much more painful. Of course it may not just be the weather as after I shower it's just as bad. Could be a combination of the tub floor, the water and then the cold tile floor. At least the water hitting my feet isn't as painful as it used to be. My insulated crocs have been quite the saver, particularly since I still can't wear slippers because they always fall off on the stairs because it remains difficult to lift my toes. It would be just great to stumble down the stairs while I'm carrying my baby girl. If when you see me and notice a limp worse on one leg, it's true, my left is worse pretty sure because of that is where I broke my ankle 7 years ago. I have two pins in there that have my bone connected. Oh well, things could be worse.
When I run into people around town everyone is very kind and tell me that I look much better, did I look like shit before? Lol. Kidding.. But pictures like this one remind me that I sure did.







Monday, February 9, 2015

Good luck charm

After a few days in the hospital Sarah brought me a good luck charm. While for the longest time I couldn't manage to do anything but open my eyes, where I would see a few different pictures and some warming gifts around my room. The one thing that I remember seeing every day, that I was awake, was this artificial shamrock plant. I didn't know this at the time but one of my nurses freaked out because Sarah brought in this plant, telling her that she couldn't bring in a real plant into my room. From the first time I saw this plant I had this weird obsession with it. Partially because I wanted to drink the water from it as it looked extremely refreshing. Of course there wasn't water in there, but the bottom of the ceramic plant holder always looked wet, like water was forming in the base. I always felt thirsty but wasn't able to drink, at least not that I can remember until well after waking from my coma. I went in right before St. Patty's Day which has always been an important holiday to me so this plant had multiple meanings for me. I hadn't missed a St. Patty's Day in New Richmond for years, I would say for at least 20 years if not more. I was usually working, but it was always fun to work on this day anyway, and to me, it had the best parade of the year. Three years ago it was about 80 degrees and then two years ago we had freezing temps and 4' of snow on the ground and while this past year, well I don't have any idea. We had a little party in our room on this day and I would soon be diagnosed with all my treatments to follow along with my weeks of sedation.

["We might just make it. Did that thought ever cross your brain? Well, regardless, I would rather take my chance out there on the ocean than to stay here and die on this shithole island, spending the rest of my life talking.....To A Goddamn Volleyball!"
This was Tom Hanks' character Chuck Noland in his movie Cast Away talking to his only friend Wilson, a volleyball that washed to shore during his 4 years alone on an island after his plane crashed in the ocean.]



While our situations were different, there was some similarities. While Mr. Noland was stranded alone, and his only companion wasn't a living thing, he had to fight for his life of starvation among other things. I had constant visitors between staff and family, but there were times I did feel alone and wondered if I would ever get out of my bed alive. Every day I opened my eyes, there was always this plant. No, I didn't name it, or have a conversation with it that I knew of, (those were left to other objects in my room:) but it was there, every day. Sarah made sure it came with to each room I was moved to, and to each hospital. It is the only object that we brought home that I see everyday, as it sits on our windowsill. Nice reminder to myself of how such small things can make such big impacts.







I was planning on waiting until St. Patty's to write this story, but I seem to be seeing the plant more and more these days, and now just feels like the time to do so. Hope you enjoyed.

-Cheek


Thursday, February 5, 2015

An actual "View" from Cheek, (Me:)

Since my blog is named "The Views of Cheek" I figure I should start writing about a few more "views" instead of mainly my stories that have happened since getting Blasto. These blog posts will of course continue but probably not forever, so I think I should start adding new topics here and there. A few things on my mind of late: my son telling me he thinks he loves a girl, cooking at home for the family, several things about the Green Bay Packers and thier season as well as thoughts on the super bowl, and my feelings about hockey vs basketball. Well basically I'm not ready to talk about the Packers yet because 'we' are still in a state of shock over how the season unfolded. And yes I say 'we' because I am part of the Packer family :)
So, I decided to start first with my thoughts on basketball vs hockey, in particular college and pro of each sport. (Not kids or high schoolers) (and not men vs women) Sarah and I had a friendly little discussion about this the other night as she asked me to turn the volume down on the Badger basketball game because all she hears is 'sneakers squeaking.' She was doing her schoolwork and I was getting the kids ready for bed so it wasn't a big deal, but it brought up old thoughts about this specific topic..

Background. I grew up in New Richmond schools and I knew nothing about hockey. Nothing. I was born in 1975. As a child, if somebody asked me to name three things about hockey I would probably have said, that it's played on ice, Wayne Gretzky is the only one I know, and I had heard of the Miracle on Ice. (The game, not the movie.) I didn't know the Miracle on Ice game wasn't the Olympic gold winning game for many, many years. Anyway, I think it was about the 3rd grade when I started 'losing' a couple friends in the winter because they were playing hockey. Damn, I don't think we played organized basketball until the 6th grade. Somewhere inbetween there my late grandpa Zig took me and my brother skating. Grandpa taught us a lot of things as young boys such as skiing, golf, bowling, pool, chess, fishing, cards, and now skating. I remember thinking, cool, I'm going to learn how to play hockey! So we get to the rink in town, I'm anxious for my hockey stick, but grandpa says no, we had to learn to skate first, and he gives us each some skates; figure skates. Damn! Well we learned to skate on them, and he eventually had us try hockey skates but it was too late, I was ruined,  nope not my thing. Living in the country, 15 minutes from town, basketball was easy. And well, cheap, I don't think we would have been able to play even if we wanted to, but it didn't matter, becuase we didn't want to. Our first basketball hoop was in our barn, where we could play a good ten months of the year. Our cousin had one in his barn too and actually had a heat generator so we could, and did play anytime of any winter. Our barn was usually full of equipment, tools or some type of tractor or vehicle and even though room was tight and the hoop was about 8 feet high we had great times on that uneven dirt floor. A few years later when we were about 12 my folks put a cement slab down on the dirt driveway in front of the one-car garage with a measured ten foot hoop attached to the top of it. The hoop was screwed in, and had little give, but we loved it and wore the net out every year.

Since then, I never really 'got' hockey. Went to some games to watch friends in high school, been to a handful of Wild games, once this year so far, have plenty of friends involved with or that still play, and actually watch a little here and there on TV but really enjoy watching Olympic hockey. But I can't say much about this sport as far as knowledge of the game. I admire how athletic one has to be and the hand eye coordination while being on skates, and on ice is amazing. The time, desire, and dedication to play is clearly shown. I gained a lot of respect for the game from what I witnessed during my 6 years at Ready Randy's, from all the meetings, team dinners and especially the teaching that was given to the 'kids' from so many coaches I lost track.
On the other side, I really don't care much for NBA basketball anymore, not since Jordan left, the 2nd time at least. I mean if it's on TV, and have the opportunity, I'll watch it. It's become too one-on-one and over the top show boating while players are getting fundamentally worse and it drives me nuts when professionals can't make free throws. This 'street ball' crap is horrible. If people want to play hoops on the streets fine, play, gamble, have a day, that doesn't matter. But this type of play, at least for awhile, was all over TV and there was even a show about it and every once in awhile you would see this awesome move or dunk by someone and then that person was in some teams training camp but can't even make the practice squad let alone the team because they don't know how to play the
game correctly. I personally like college hoops better. (Actually most sports I like college better)
College hoops, March Madness, 64(+) team tournament, it's super fun. Plus I missed everything last year including the Badgers run to the Final Four while I was comatose, so I'm due this year lol.. (Oops, I guess I did talk about  Blasto:)  I played varsity basketball and a bunch of us joined the competitive men's league at UW-Stout which was a blast and continued on playing more leagues in New Richmond for about ten more years. NR has had very talented players from each sport, respectively throughout the years.

Now back to Sarah and my discussion the other night about these two sports. Each sport has their own athletes and are skilled in thier own sport. My point was, and always has been, what do we expect each respective athlete to do? You take this big, strong and fast guy from Canada and the chances he plays basketball is extremely low. Doesn't just have to be Canada, but I hope you understand my thought process. In contrast, you take this taller, quick, and still strong guy who can literally jump over people and the chances are also extremely low that he will play hockey. I did some quick research and the average height of an NBA player is 6'7" while the average NHL player is 6 feet, the tallest hockey player being a mammoth at 6'9" where in basketball you can get every player on the court about that height and taller. My point to all of this is, liking a sport or not liking a sport is basically in our nature and/or at least how we were brought up. The guys playing hoops (or f-tag, and all the other references we know) are most likely playing hoops because they are GOOD at it. Maybe a kid from Europe's favorite athlete is LeBron or even Dirk Nowitski and all he wants to do is play basketball, but he can skate like the wind and fire a puck a million MPH. Of course he will play hockey becuase HE is just flat out good. Or maybe this kid in the U.S. is being looked at by Duke or Kentucky because he stands 6'8" is still growing and has the most talent around and is almost guaranteed to be drafted by the NBA in one year, but his idol is Sidney Crosby and all he wants to do is play hockey. Good chance he follows his talent and not his heart. This may be extreme, but I'm sure happens. Of course you will find some 7 footers who are about as athletic as a great grandma and only play because they are tall. But you also have hockey players who only play because they can give or take a hit. Are they not both part of the game, like it or not? It's like a NFL game coming down to a 120 pound kicker. Part of the game, you need to have that part to be successful. (Almost
talked about the Packers, but not quite:)

I know hockey players are tough. They play injured, bloodied or bleeding, with broken teeth, crushed all game against the boards, from each other and onto the frozen ice. (Of course the ice is frozen, or it'd be water:) They play this while most are actually being forced to wear a face mask while zooming around on razor sharp blades that puts everyone in danger, plus they hold sticks. Basketball is different. Obviously. But it doesn't make it worse, or better, it's just differnet. Nobody wants to watch hockey in shoes or even on roller blades, like nobody wants to see basketball with someone designated to standing in the net being able to do anything to prevent a basket. It's just not right. (Btw, I'm not getting into population, communities, availability, weather, money or parenting. There are thugs and poor sports in every sport at every level, as well as great people in each as well.)

So, there you go, my take on the seeming ever lasting chatter battle between hockey vs basketball.
Like I said. This is my opinion. One of my first posts of such a thing. If you don't like it, well I'm sorry you just spent 6 minutes and $0.00 reading. But since you read it, you must be following me one way or another, and while I'm not the smartest man in the world, I am a man in the world, and that accounts for.... Well I don't know either. Anyway, there are worse things in life, like being a toothless hockey player lol. 😜

Anyway, thanks for your time, comment if you'd like..

-Cheek


Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Amelia Tiger Earhart Woods

As most of you either knew me then or have learned by now, that I used to work at Ready Randy's for  about 6 years. I started working for the company right before the restaurant opened but shortly after the banquet was running, being already in operation from thier years in and at the golf course. While I was sick I had multiple dreams about several things, but not many that involved past employment. But this was is..
-This takes place while I was working at Randy's, although in actuality, I hadn't been there in about 2 years-
It was summer and I was at a golf outing with Chris and Randy at some course that was way to fancy for me. It was somewhere in Minnesota, and it was a very warm day. We were talking some about work, but mainly enjoying our day off from the job and trying to play bogey-free golf, yeah right. Well we only had a couple drinks on the course as we knew we had dinner afterwards and some presentation to watch but can't recall about what. We finished our round and went in to the club house and found our seats. We went to the bar first for a couple cocktails and as we were getting ready to sit for our meal Randy asked if we could talk. Of course I said yes and we went outside, and he had a limo waiting for us in the parking lot. I was a little nervous but mainly anxious to see what we were going to discuss. This wasn't completely out of the ordinary to have talks about the restaurant and things like that, but having this one today did feel a little odd. Well we started talking and things were fine, and then all of a sudden Randy tells me that he was firing me. I really didn't get upset, I was like, OK, but before I had a second to ask any questions, Randy falls over in his seat with an apparent heart attack. I got out and grabbed my cell and called 911 and people from the club house started coming out concerned on what had happened. I told everything that had happened and what we were talking about. Randy was in rough shape but was taken by ambulance in stable condition. Chris, (who was our GM during my time at Randy's) insures me that I wasn't fired, but instead was getting a promotion. A promotion that included being the GM for Randy's new business adventure. I was being transferred with this large pay raise to be in charge of their next, new banquet facility - on a big ass airplane.
Hmmm. Well, here I am, seems like the next day, on this plane. Chris is showing me the ins-and-outs of the set up, and expectations of both the plane itself and the banquet service and food. I somehow apparently learned to cook all this new food since I finished my round of golf. Apparently we soon realized that we were struggling trying to book weddings and other parties on our plane. For one it was a large cargo plane with no seats, and for two, we didn't have a refrigerator for our food and only had a few types of canned beer. (Or maybe because we didn't have an airport:) As it turned out they started talking about making cuts with this business and they were going to start with the pilot. So, I needed to learn how to fly a plane. Ohh-k... Well, sorry, but this dream doesn't last much longer. The last thing I remember was texting a few people to see if they knew how to fly a plane and whether they could help me out. I had sent one particular text to Scott Meyer and he said I should call his brother. No offense, but I didn't lol. For whatever reason the golf party that we were all attending from the beginning of this story was still going on and everyone was still there, including a healthy Randy. It was like the day never ended. Except for me. I suppose you all could finish my story for me if you'd like, but that is how my dream here ended.
Hopefully I didn't try and fly and crash and burn everyone on board !

-Cheek

P.S. I wish I would have kept my scorecard because I'm sure we were under par! Haha

One more month..?

Had  another check up with infectious disease today at Fairview. We are hoping that by my next visit in March I will be able to stop taking my Intraconazole and the allergy pill I take because of it. Been amazing all the different emotions from each separate doctor visit. Really hoping that when I'm done taking these meds it will not make me feel like shit, even if it doesn't make me feel any better, it will be nice to be able to get rid of several pills a day, being able to stop 7 of them a day. But, regardless this should mean that my Blasto is gone which is the most important. I am not sure if he reads my blog but a big thank you to Dr. Sellman who has been caring for me since I (don't) remember and has been great, giving advise and altogether interested in the well being of the entire family. 

-Cheek