This afternoon, after my visit for physical therapy, I came home to read my e-mails. My glasses caused a sharp pain on the bridge of my nose. I pulled the dang things off my face to learn that one of the nose pads was missing, and the metal thingy that holds the nose pad was sticking its sharp edges into my skin. Darn! That means a trip to the eye doctor to get it fixed. No, wait, I’m an engineer. I can fix it.
The first thing I did was to look into the glass case for clues. There in the case was the nose pad, but the screw that holds it on was missing. I looked further into the case but could not find the screw. It is a small thing, too tiny to estimate its size. My mind went into high gear to design a workable solution. I did not have any replacement that small, so I thought I would wire it together with a single strand of copper wire. I pondered a bit longer and went to the Amazon site to find a replacement screw. I didn’t realize there were so many options available. I finally picked one that looked like mine and bought it for $4.95. There are enough pads and screws to fix five pairs of glasses, and it comes with a miniature screw driver that fits the screw. Delivery is free, and they will arrive tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll suffer a bit while I wait for delivery of said parts.
It is hard to believe that the month of April is almost over. The days seem to be flying past, and it is like looking out a high-speed train window and watching the scenery blur past. Our weather here in the Midwest is finally becoming civilized. Yesterday, I actually had to turn on the air conditioner when it became an uncomfortable 79 degrees in the house. Yikes, what a creature of comfort I have become. Not to mention, what a blob of mushy muscleless fat has overtaken any muscle I had left. I should go into a discussion of weight loss here, but the subject bores me. Not only that, but thinking about weight loss only gives me a guilt trip.
Version 1.0.0
Right now, there is a fabulous race going on in nature. Who will win? The weeds or the flowers? A week ago, a friend offered me a contact who is willing to pull weeds for cash. I held up my hand saying that it was still too early to be pulling weeds. Here I am five days later ready to call him to go to work. I knew this would happen when I designed my garden which I labeled the Monet Vision. A very complicated densely planted annual garden takes a lot of maintenance. At that time, I still had the energy and flexibility to bend, kneel, and yank weeds. Today, it is a much different story. What amazes me is how quickly the body has adapted to sitting, and how quickly the muscles forget their duty. When I do finally get on my knees to do something, like pick up something that has fallen out of hand, It takes a front end loader to get me back up again. I am finally beginning to understand what my father always told us, “Don’t get old.” Mentally, I’m still twenty-five, but physically I may be around 110.
As a preteen, I admired old guys like my Gramps and his buddies. They were so cool. They sat under the shade of the giant willow tree while smoking, sippng a beer, and trying to outdo themselves with tales from the ‘Old Country.’ Now, I am the old guy, but I don’t smoke, and I don’t drink beer, and my old country is this country. Even worse, my grandkids are too far away from me to be telling them tall tales. At least I have the memories. I have however recorded many of my memories in a series of books under the title of Jun-e-or. The mistake I made was assuming that these kids would like to read. In today’s world if it isn’t a video they don’t seem to be interested. I’d love to make them into videos, but there isn’t enough time in a day to learn how to do that kind of stuff. I just hope they will find the time to read these stories to their grand children. I learned how to make videos’ back in 1968. Back then they were called movies. Taking super-eight movies was my passion and I even joined a movie club to help me learn how to make interesting films. I know what it takes to make films with interest. I converted some of my films to video and posted them on my Youtube channel. Search for Joseph Rohaly on youtube to find these gems. (see list below)
My biography won’t interest anyone, not even me. That is one reason I keep doing new things and learning new skills: in the hope that one day I’ll strike oil and offer the world something of value. With my luck, by the time I strike oil, the world will have been forced to electrify, and oil will be a dirty, slippery substance that no one will know what to do with.
I look forward to global warming. All my life, I have longed to live in a warmer climate without snow, ice, and blustery cold wind. According to sleepy Joe Biden, global warming is upon us, and I may be too late to enjoy it. The reality of that happening within this century is remote at best. Maybe if Earth experiences a hundred or more volcanic eruptions within a year, the temperature will rise. Except, there will be a period of global cooling after the eruptions. Earth will warm up. again, but no one will be around to know it is warmer because we will have all starved or froze to death during the cooling period.
Well, I have succeeded in ending this fantasy with the same lack of excitement as I had at the beginning, and It’s time to change chairs and find something more interesting to do.
Today, I embark on a ten-course treatment plan to recover my shoulder. Physical therapy brings back many memories from the nineteen fifties. I was fifteen years old and literally a Superman. Nothing could stop me. It was summer, and I played eighteen holes of golf by ten a.m. with my friends, then pedaled my bike five miles to Tumey’s Grocery store in Roseland during ninety-five-degree weather to my job delivering groceries. At 5:30, I pedaled back home in the heat of late afternoon to a waiting supper provided by a mom who never stopped loving me. After supper, it was out to meet the guys standing on the corner to watch the girls go by until eleven, then finally home to sleep. I never got out of bed the next morning. In fact, I had a first class ambulance ride to Contagious Disease Hospital. That is where this Superman lived for the next twelve weeks until he had another ambulance ride to Michale Reese Hospital for physical therapy. That was in a period of time when there was no vaccine for polio, and I had to tough it out with only attention and care from nurses and doctors. The disease damaged my neck, arms, and legs before it stopped to go elsewhere. The physical therapy lasted for two months full time, and another six months part time. The term “no pain, no gain” had to originate from that arm of medicine.
I look forward to this afternoon’s session, as painful as it will be. I know what can happen when a good therapist works you over repeatedly day after day until the pain eventually disappears and is replaced by an attitude of “Is that the best you can do? Bring it on.”
As an interesting experiment I thought I would look back ten years and repost what I was doing then. I am delighted by the outcome. My wife Peggy and I were returning to Frankfort from Arizona. We had spent an extraordinary winter visiting friends and enjoying the magnificent sunshine in the Valley of the Sun.
This was first posted on 24 April 2014.
This morning we left a chilly rainy 65 degree day in the Valley of the Sun. Two hours later we reached the top of a 7500 feet high peak and moved through a snowy white out. The car thermometer dropped to 28 degrees. The weather followed us to our first destination city with two additions, wind, and hail. The wind-chill drove the last spike through my Phoenix warmed heart, ugh. We will follow a major weather pattern across the United States and we might even meet some severe rain storms with possible tornadoes. I don’t need an adventure like this anymore, packing the car was adventure enough.
I often tell friends “in May when I return the weather is colder than the weather I experienced in Phoenix in January.” Another big difference is that in May, Illinois doesn’t have many flowers in bloom, while in January, the valley is abundant in flowers.
Our last week in the Valley had us basking on the patio enjoying 90 degree days. I don’t think I will see another ninety degree day for another three months.
A few weeks ago, I asked my readers to tell me how many readers they have on their blogs. The response was as expected: only a few. What surprised me was the variation in the numbers reported. An even larger surprise was that some of you reported really low numbers, and some reported big numbers. I was feeling a bit low at that time and seriously asked myself why I spent so much time writing something that not many people read. My readership is low and has been low from day one when I began blogging in 2009. Over the years my highest daily average of readers peaked at 73 and is currently 13. It really doesn’t matter much at all, but I am an engineer and I love numbers. Right from the beginning I made a pledge that I would not engage myself in commercialism on grumpajoesplace. I don’t chase followers unless they write stories that engage me. I feel that if someone wants to read my opinions they are welcome to do so, if not, so what?
One thing this blog has taught me is to become a better writer. By writing often, I am forced to make my thoughts more understandable and clearly presented. Since I began using AI (Grammerly) I am learning to phrase things differently. In other words, I am being trained to write like a robot and not like Grumpa Joe. It is not really important to me, I enjoy writing for the sake of writing. If a few people find my blog and decide to read my posts so be it. I hope they enjoy it.
The most positive thing I have enjoyed is meeting people from all over the world. After commenting back and forth with them, they have become my good friends. I only wish that one day, I can meet them face to face over an adult beverage.
