Laments of a future expatriate
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "themadsaxer" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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09:54 pm
[Link] | Husker fans are gracious. If you don't believe me go to a Nebraska game, or introduce yourself to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) swoof or huskerlaw The Nebraska Cornhuskers, the actual team, are not usually so generous. Disregard the gift touchdown in the first minute of the Big 12 Championship, as I am willing to do, and what's left was a 14-7 defensive classic. What a great game against a great team against whom I have no grudge*.
* To the coach Calahan of old who was unaware of Osbourne's level of class: Beware the f***ing hillbillies!
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05:55 pm
[Link] | Well, both huskerlaw and I were a little optomistic about the overall quality of our teams, but the Sooners and Huskers do meet in the Big 12 Championship next Saturday night. I initially proposed a friendly wager, but winning would be plenty good enough. It's nice that it's the old Big 8 powers playing here, and it reminds me of happy old times.
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12:33 am
[Link] |
Sneezing with a sawn sternum...
SUCKS. Avoid this at all cost.
The madsaxer is healing nicely. I even saxed a full Sunday service! It was glorious! (My getting to play again, not my playing itself, which was, as usual, a notch or two above mediocre.)
Sick and freakin tired already of eating like a heart patient. Years of moderation could have thwarted the need for this... Maybe sushi with Urkadur would cheer me up?
Love to all my friends.
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05:38 pm
[Link] |
This is going to be easy...
At the Coronary Intensive Care Ward, pain is managed by obliteration with the highest quality drugs. I was expected to breathe in and breathe out, and gt into a chair once a day. I was invited to eat, but didn't. There was no pain. The surgeon came by to tell me how successful my multiple coronary artery bypass graft (designated CABGX6, pronounced cabbage times 6) had gone. But toward the end, the drugs are tapered off, and you start to get the idea of the vastness of the injury. You begin to feel like the human pinata from the congressional hearings of baseball sluggers on steroids. All movement is vary painful, and it is required by cruel nurses. But soon you are transferred to your very own room. Pain is managed with Lortab. The third day is the absolute worst. It hurts less and less as my range of motion improves. I still look like a very fragile and feeble old man.
Your madsaxer is on the mend. Not smoking and proper nutrition are easy choices for me, despite that these go against my usual fiber.
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03:21 pm
[Link] |
Everything you wanted to know about having open-heart surgery...
...but were afraid to ask.
The medical community has invented a great way to defer the dread of the violence impending. (The sawing of the sternum and the spreading of the ribs.) The trick is they make you wait too long. My whole mindset was I wished I'd have had the damn thing over with a month ago. The strongest dread of the unspeakably violent act is reserved for the 11th hour, as my body was being shaved bald neck to toe(Go ahead, giggle.), the vallium cocktail is about to lead to a spinal epidural, about to lead to a morphine drip, while the fentanyl took effect and a machine took over my breathing. Before dread was fully ripe, my shaved body was strapped down and my mindset was best described as random. I was still lucid, but not for long, as I was rolled into the operating room. I got high fives from all of the surgeons' nurses, my surgeon's PA, the head nurse for surgery and several techs. I told them I wanted to see the sternum saw, one tech said I was "sick enough in the head to work with us". Lights out at 9:00 AM. At 2:15 I was parked in recovery. Due to the rock star grade drugs, I woke up several times in relative comfort. First time panicked about mu breathing tube, which felt like it was impeding my breathing. Next time to bawl and tell Sweet Pea how sorry I was I let myself go. Several times to see a few visitors as they shuffled through my recovery area (most only saw me sleeping). Then to watch most of the World Series game 5 which my beloved Cardinals won. To be continued...
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09:55 am
[Link] |
The goodness in people.
If you ever want to affirm that people in general are shockingly benevolent and unbelievably selfless, have yourself a health and financial crisis. It's almost worth it!
The Redbirds are 2 wins away from another World Series championship. Sorry, Motor City. You have great music and car factories, but this one is ours.
Current Mood:  chipper
Current Music: I Love Everybody / Lyle Lovett
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09:55 am
[Link] |
tick. tick. tick.
Time is nigh, and nervousness creeps in.
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03:10 pm
[Link] | Since my first St. Louis Cardinal game in 1971 I have loved my Cardinals as much as my life would permit. From 1982 to 1985, I missed fewer than 100 games on the radio... that's 540+ games listened to in that span alone. I had a kick-ass AM antena and tuner that could usually harvest a signal all the way from KMOX in St. Louis, and a short wave that could catch the Cardinal games simulcast on Armed Forces radio, for those games that were preempted on AM1400 for Sooner baseball and Norman High football. My apparent interest has permanently dropped on three occasions: The death of Jack Buck, the retirement of Whitey Herzog and the onset of fatherhood. But do not underestimate the love I will have for the Birds until the day I die. I am so happy they are in the Series again, and game 7 of the NLCS was an absolute classic.
Games 6 and 7 of the World Series are post surgery. Think they'll let me watch 'em? (They being my surgeon, cardiologist and wife)
Younger friends: Radio is something you listen to, and there once was no such thing as cable TV.
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07:38 pm
[Link] | October 26 is my heart surgery. I feel very good about this!
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11:57 pm
[Link] |
serious as a heart attack
Your mad saxer has found a novel way to get out of work for a month... Yep, it turns out I need at least six, probably eight bypasses. Within a week or so, they'll crack me open and replumb. I am fine for now, at home and resting from my cardiogram, and at small risk for a fatal heart attack. This is your update for now, as I only have use of my left hand due to today's procedure. I'll keep you posted.
Thank you all for the outpouring of love and concern. It really helps me be brave and positive about this.
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09:51 pm
[Link] | This Thursday themadsaxer will be getting a cardiac arteriogram. Seems I had a heart attack of some significance about six weeks ago. I am taking much better care of myself and will after I get stents or angioplasty. And I have a high degree of confidence in my cardiologist. No worries, friends! Just prayers, good karma, lucky bingo trolls, whatever you have for me. I will update you Friday when I'm up to it. themildsaxer loves you all.
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09:05 pm
[Link] |
Please...
Please, just once, in discussing how we are to treat our prisoners in the war on terror, can we NOT consider how our enemy treat our captured soldiers? Our enemy hijacks planes and rams them into skyscrapers. God help us if our moral standards have become this low.
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03:36 pm
[Link] |
This is going to sound wierd...
Bill Clinton fans, frustrated democrats and fans of outright oddities:
FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace, interview with Bill Clinton 9/24/06, is worth searching out. Transcript or video. I was so proud of Clinton's candor of his own shortcomings, his deferral of credit for his anti-terror program to a fine republican in Clinton's cabinet, Richard Clarke, and his refusal to take FOX's BS. (Not to mention, his chutzpah for showing up at FOX.) Chris Wallace, one of the less egregious crap-spewing offenders, was poised. But it was definitely he who was on the hot seat.
And a promising quote from John Kerry I saw in the US News and World Report:
"I am going to kick (the swift-boat critics) ass all the way across the USA."
It's a mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it-anymore tone pretty early in the midterm campaigns, as it should be. If we go down again, fine, but not because our candidates act like a bunch of sweetie-pie milquetoasts.
Current Mood:  refreshed
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08:37 pm
[Link] |
La Quinta. Spanish for...
Your room is 85 degrees.
Thin, abrasive towels.
$10 overpriced.
Don't go outside after dark.
I am in lovely El Dorado, Arkansas after a day of physical labor in Haskell. 25000 miles since February 1. I don't even have the energy to bitch about politics.
But don't get me started about the nickel...
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06:43 pm
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The screaming squirrel
About 4AM, still around 90 degrees, I gave up the notion of sleeping in the tent. I went outside and sat in a chair, half content to sacrifice a full night's sleep to accomodate my insane, but lovely, wife, whose idea it was to camp in Oklahoma in August. The other half was pissed at myself for not insisting that I already knew it was a poor idea while it was in the planning stage. (I stopped at strong discouragement...) ANYWAY, at 5 AM, estimate, I fell asleep in the chair without even realizing sleep was approaching. At sunup, I hear screaming like you hear at the primate display at the zoo; I mean LOUD chimp-like noises like the woods are on fire. I look up at the oak branch I had slept under, and saw a squirrel, staring me in the eye, making all that racket. He'd run up and down the branch, stop, stare me down and start screaming again. I'm sure this is common, but I was more than a little freaked that a very basic assumption based on observing thousands of squirrels, that they are peaceful, easy-going animals, was TOTALLY wrong. That, weemallard, is why it will be a while before I brave the outdoors where bears are known to live
Current Music: NOT Alvin and the Harmonica
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08:43 am
[Link] | Why am I so drawn to celebrity roasts? Is it the unabashed cruelty, where not a second thought is given to self censorship? Is it the low-brow humor, actual jokes with punchlines? Is it the total lack of political correctness that says we can joke about our societal ills and not offer immediate apologies or regrets?
The world would be a horrible place if we were awful enough to conduct ourselves as though we were attending a roast. But having an outlet for somebody else's inner Turret's Syndrome somehow soothes me.
The Comedy Central Roast of William Shatner is very good but not without problems. Why beep out SH*T in a graphic description of sodomy? And while Shatner's career on a level invites a roast, he has made a great living on self-parody. So the topics were stale. But it's worth a watch as Comedy Central inevitably and shamelessly reruns it a thousand times. Especially if you enjoy vulgarity and cruelty in the proper circumstance.
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04:14 pm
[Link] |
Apologies to Pine Bluff
Upon further review, I have unfairly badmouthed Pine Bluff, AR. Yeah, it has high crime, and lacks the topographical beauty of all points north in Arkansas. (Note to Urkadur: It seems that I could not find "The Mad Butcher", but I saw a small supermarket "The Country Butcher".) But it is not a bad small city, compared to Lawton or even Muskogee. My sincerest apology. And my revised ranking of my favorite stores to work in my territory:
1. Oklahoma City. I get to sleep with Sweet Pea.
2. Springdale. A beautiful drive any direction out of town.
3. Pine Bluff. A kindly community in majestic pine forests.
4. Little Rock. Great downtown. One of everything named Clinton.
5. Tulsa. I'm on my way to Springdale, usually. Nice Microtel.
6. Muskogee. Maybe they SHOULD smoke marijuana.
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06:22 pm
[Link] |
GOP: War On _________
It just dawned on me that the Republican presidents of my voting-age life (Reagan-Bush-Bush) have constantly waged a war on something which cannot be defeated with a war, and that almost everybody is against.
The asinine war on drugs resulted in the deaths and arrests of a few drug lords and got Nancy some TV face time and her own catch phrase. The flow of narcotics into the US was constant, and enforcement was a joke (trust me, I am sure...) except that a guy caught with a joint was doing more time than a guy who beat his wife.
The war on terror is more tragic. Until the terrorists move to one place, warfare can't describe how we are to eradicate or curtail terror. In this case "war" is not just an inappropriate metaphor. American soldiers are dead, and a crappy nation to live in is even crappier now.
Both "wars" would be properly "fought" with specialized, dilligent police work. Add treatment for drug addicts, you start to make some headway.
Is the "war" misnomer a way to avoid properly seeking ways to eradicate real problems? Is it a way to keep voters afraid and distracted? It is time for us to declare a war on stale, misleading metaphors.
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04:16 pm
[Link] |
Drop Dead Gorgeous - Loretta
Entry for the benefit of one particular friend.
I recently re-watched the bad-taste mockumentary "Drop Dead Gorgeous", one of my very favorites. (I dare mention it in the same breath as "This Is Spinal Tap".) The trailer trash vixen with a heart of gold who takes over being "mom"... who tries to seduce every young man in sight... who always displays her cleavage prominently...
I almost wasn't able to enjoy the flick. WHO IS THAT ACTRESS? I just couldn't think about anything else until it finally occured to me...
Allison Janney. And I wondered, would huskerlaw acknowledge Ms. Janney's work here with chagrin or great pride? Or has she even seen "Drop Dead Gorgeous"?
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06:52 pm
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Off I go...
A beautiful, rest-of-the-week, trip to beautiful...
Pine Bluff, AR.
Yes, that was sarcasm in the first line. This is my first dedicated trip to the Pine Bluff store, which has survived so far on lip service and day trips from the much, much, much, much nicer Little Rock locale. (No sarcasm this time, although "relative" is operative in describing this relationship.) At least next Monday - Wednesday I will be in wonderful Springdale, truly my favorite store to visit in my territory. With the added bonus of lunch with bretzysdude.
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