Guess who's birthday I just spaced on. Umhuh, I knew an important one was happening but I couldn't recall that today is my beautiful favorite grand-daughter Shelby's thirty second birthday.
She had texted me earlier: "We're at Disney for birthday festivities", intentionally leaving "my" out of the expression, testing me.
Finally, after reading my Life Blog post, and realizing that I just wasn't getting it, she texted: "My birthday is today papa..."
I fell to my knees before my laptop, in humility, and texted her for forgiveness!
Photos of Shelby and Kristin's Disney birthday day are forthcoming, check back tomorrow.
In the meantime, here's a very short clip I found on my little video camera. It was taken as Shelby and I had just sat down to that fancy Tampa brunch, with what's her name.
As I float through early 2024, towards the middle of a decade that I thought I would never see, I've felt that everyday has been somebodies birthday. Some persons I was close to and loved, that I can't even remember their name now, had a birthday on this first week of January.
I am so terrible with names these days, and I have almost zero birthday cognizance. I wish I had started a blog when I first learned to write, along with a Google spreadsheet containing notes and dates about everyone I ever met.
Obviously, the tech wasn't there in the late forties, but it is now. I think it should be every parents responsibility to learn how to setup a blog and a spreadsheet!
Then give each child the gift of their own space to record their life, teaching them how to do it, and why they will love the ability to relive any day, any person, as life moves on.
Each post and spreadsheet update would be completely private and stored in the cloud. If the blogger want's to share a post with anyone, as the years roll by, they can. The rest of the blog is not visible, to anyone, but them.
Give each child a basic phone as soon as they're ready. The blogging platform could be baked in, and all the parents would need to do is customize it for them, and teach them how to use it.
Daniel read the Just Go On post and then, having been born and raised here, gave me the history of Pat's Cafe.
The very nice lady who takes orders on the tablet, and who bought my breakfast this morning, is the owner, Teresa. Her mom was named Pat, and with her step-fathers help, opened the cafe years ago.
Teresa and her two siblings inherited the restaurant, then she bought them out, and the place was all hers. I assume the implementation of the technology is also hers.
Daniel has known Teresa forever, and has a high regard for the family. She and her husband run a catering business and would love to see a responsible transition of the place, to new owners, but they haven't appeared yet.
Pats Cafe is a long block off the main highway, and down a small town road. And every time I've been there, they've always been hopping. Now that I know the history, I understand why.
I drove over to the Park to warm my dashboard up. Then I secured my two main screens with double stick tape. From left to right: Backup Cam, GPS, DC Splitter, and my straw.
This is my DJI Pocket Two mount for driving videos, while down in the corner is my internal radio antenna.
Here's the phone mount, to my left. On the recent Tampa road trip I had both Google, and my Garmin GPS, giving me step by step directions.
When I would deviate off the route, to get gas or whatever, it was comical to hear these female voices trying to get me back on track, in their own way.
Kinda the story of my life...
I had breakfast at Pat's Cafe this morning, and this little place next to the bowling alley was rocking around 1000. Really busy, and I sat at the table in the corner with my back to the wall.
Each table has a number because the ordering system is computerized. A lady walks around with a tablet and takes your order on it, and it's sent straight to the kitchen.
I had eggs over easy, hash browns and a pancake. The food is served by pretty young girls, who wear short shorts in the Summer, btw.
When you're done and ready to pay you just walk up to the cashier and she magically knows what table you were at. Maybe there's a face recognition system that takes a snapshot once you're served, and presents it to the cashier, I don't know.
But today, it skipped a beat with me. She got a puzzled look on her face, then grabbed a small in-house walkie talkie and called the tablet lady up to the register.
My order wasn't there, the system showed that table empty. Then the tablet lady smiled and said Just Go On! I was shocked and said Pat's buying me breakfast? and she said Yea, just go on.
Then I put a nice tip in their jar, and went on. What a great way to start a weekend!
I hate it when Daniel gets home late, so I demanded to know where he was tonight, and he claimed they were fixing a gas leak down in Loretto!
Yea right, I'll bet he and the boys were at the new Lesbian bar that just opened up, down the road in Leoma. I hear they have a couple of poles, and a big warm party room.
Sometimes my friend and neighbor Daniel never even makes it over here after work, because he's hooking up with his wife, or other friends. And I'm fine with that, bitch!
I don't hang out with Daniel's school system, maintenance department, co-workers. I've met a few of his friends, his two sons, and we've all hung out together, for a short bit, at some point.
The bottom line of this Post is, I have landed in a place where I have no family around me. I honestly thought Steph's family here would become mine, but that fell through.
I have a few eclectic friends here that I cherish, but just don't see very often, anymore.
My insides have been blocked up since Christmas. My gynecologist neighbor, Dr Daniel, suggested a bottle of Magnesium Sulfide (or Sulfate). I thought that young pretend clinic doctor I just saw, would have a super prescription cleanse up his sleeve, but he said the same thing as Dr D, buy it over the counter.
So I bought and drank a big bottle Wednesday morning, and the blockage fell apart around 1300. It continued through yesterday until empty, and I'm now putting solid food back in. My gut is cleaned up, and feels great!
I got a message from UPS that Shelby's package had arrived, so I texted her, thinking she was upstairs surrounded by three laptops and working remotely.
No, she was working at her office today, and a few hours from home. But now she's back and the cutting board set may have found it's place.
Shelby's great-great-grandmother's blanket looks amazing in her spot on the couch. It's a beautiful link to her great proud heritige.
My local clinic/primary care place, just told me that they aren't refilling my main Parkinson's drug, because of my enhanced liver enzymes.
So the main drug that I've been taking for years now, which controls the tremors, is being taken away from me, because I drink!
They tested my B/P twice and it remained high. The nurse asked if I was taking meds for this, and I said nope. Hmmm, somewhat disconcerting.
I told the primary care guy that I wanted to see the images from my ultrasound. When he came back he said everything looked fine except for the fatty liver. They let me down today, writing me off as some old fool who wouldn't know what to do with photos if he held them in his hand inside a thumb drive.
I'll hit the hospital next week, where they want ninety one bucks. That should give me the leverage to obtain those photos of the inside of my old abdomen.
It's a cold day here in the South, staying warm, keeping tight. Waiting for a "Package Has Arrived!" message from UPS.
I was thinking tonight, about things I want to achieve this year.
Have a beautiful young sweet friend drop by, picking up cash off the table as she walks with a wabble out my front door.
To find peace with my many demons, embrace and accept them, and take them quietly to my grave, thank you...
To plan my future journeys out into the world based on family connections, not life's distractions.
To be as real as I can fucking be, with a cap on the sharing, but putting the rest of it out right here!
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