Linda spent all day in a drug induced haze but she *seems* to be a bit better today but I can't tell about the progress of the shingles just by looking at the spots.

NOTE TO SELF: If you have a friend who needs flowers or a gift of some sort, don't send em Edible Arrangements the day after Thanksgiving when there is less than no room in the fridge. While quite attractive and a clever marketing concept the fruits weren't all the tasty - most were actually bland. Well, the ones I tasted were bland. Linda couldn't get near any of the without suffering from intense nausea. It was such a lovely thought, too. When they asked me what they could send as a get well gift (she can't have flowers) I suggested, "A fruit basket or something like that," thinking that a fruit basket wouldn't have to be refrigerated and would last a long time and probably contain a few canned, bottled or packaged goods. Edible Arrangements makes these things that are carved fruit (melons, cantaloupes, pineapples) and they put them all on the end of skewers to look like flowers. Very pretty to look at. Impractical as hell.

Had turkey sammich for lunch and turkey for supper. Tomorrow I make turkey enchiladas and start on the turkey soup. Funny thing is, I'm one of those people who really doesn't mind eating the same thing pretty much every day. Don't get me wrong, I like variety too, but I ate ham and cheese sammiches for lunch almost every day for the whole time Linda made my lunches; we're talking decades here. I'll make a huge pot of chili and eat chili for days and days and days. I LOVE chili and eggs for breakfast. Scrambled eggs topped with a ladle of chili and sprinkled with cheese. Heaven, indeed! But with Linda's dietary restrictions I've had to alter my classic recipe so it's salt free (I cook virtually everything salt free these days) and use ground turkey and 1" cubes of chicken breast instead of beef.This is one Texican who firmly believes chili needs beans but they must be pinto beans and they have to be slow cooked. Cooking a good pot of chili usually takes me most of a day and of course the beans get soaked overnight the night before.

So, anyway, it seems Da Saint is getting a bit better but she's not going back to work anytime soon. Y'all have a great weekend. I missed going to either the Met or the Cloisters for Thanksgiving this year but I doubt they'll change anything soon.

Thanks for all the lovely wishes. I keep passing them all on to her and they're greatly appreciated. And to one special person - Semper Fi! Love ya.

Well, I had mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce, green beans and roast turkey. A regular helping for myself. Linda had a teeny bit of each and only ate half of that then promptly fell back asleep. Cleaned and washed all the dishes, wiped things down, put away the turkey and leftovers and now going to see what's on tonight. I think I'll play my new Dranei hunter for a while.

I'm thankful she's on the mend but this is about the most melancholy Thanksgiving I've ever had. No desert but maybe, later, I'll go down and steal a scoop or six of ice cream.

I can't remember the last time we spent Thanksgiving alone. It's nobody's fault...somedays chickens,somedays feathers.

Bob Van Dillon (CNN Weatherman): There's this thing that puts you to sleep on Thanksgiving...

Robin Meade (CNN Anchor): Tryptophan?

Bob Van Dillon: The Detroit Lions

I keep forgetting to thank everyone but I wanted you all to know that I've been passing on to Linda all the good wishes, thoughts and prayers that you've been sending both here and in private mail. She is gratified and pleased to know so many care about her.

Please don't think you're messages have been ignored I simply have not responded to them individually and I kept meaning to say, "Thank you," in the last two notes and for that oversight I apologize. Your messages of love and caring have not gone unnoticed or unappreciated.

She's spent the day pretty much with no pain so I'm guessing the drugs are working. I've been making her take maintenance doses instead of waiting for the onset of pain and that's going to continue for the next couple of days.

Again, thank you all.

{{{{{HUGS}}}}}

Da Coach

Today is our 37th wedding anniversary! I can not believe that much time has passed so quickly. We spent yesterday back in the ER with them trying to help Linda manage her pain. They've given her dilaudid, morphine and a mess of other meds. I'm hoping they work this time as that last session got taken of the list of fun things to do. Once she's no longer considered contagious we'll get to go on our annual anniversary dinner at our favorite unaffordable dining establishment here in Danbury - Castello. That's gonna be our gift to each other this year, dinner at a lovely place we both enjoy. The owner owes me a drink because I took a fall in his driveway last year because they hadn't salted it and I fell and slid on the ice. You see the driveway slopes at about a 30 degree angle and I was at the top. But I didn't drop the bottle of wine I was taking home. I damned near broke my head but I didn't break the bottle. I was rather impressed by that. Priorities, you know.

One of my veteran's groups wanted pictures from when we were in the service and I've only been able to find a couple of me from those days and none were really clear. Then Linda suggested I use one from our wedding album. So here it is, a picture of me from 1972.

It turns out the cinreased heart attack indicators were due to stress. They ran her through test after test after test and it seems her heart results came back the same as they did last February, so they pronunced her heart healthy. Meanwhile they had Linda in a quarantine room because of the shingles so I had to put on a plastic smock and rubber gloves whenever I went in to visit her. It felt like an underfunded, underimagined halloween costume.

I'm rather worthless as a hospital visitor. I show up, hug and kiss, find the comfiest chair and then promptly fall asleep. Lucky for me Linda doesn't seem to mind.

I think Liam is right, memes seem to have gone out of fashion.

I think my next SCA event is BBM?Bergental Yule. Buy some cookies!

So once again, Linda wakes me up really early this morning to tell me she's in severe pain and wants to go to the ER. This is an old routine for me so I'm dressed and have her in the ER in about 5 minutes. Her veins are in sad shape so it takes them two nurses and 4 tries before they get the IV inserted and running so they can administer the pain meds. All this proves, once again, that God is a iron.

When the results from her blood tests come back they note that something is spiked rather high and it wasn't spiked last week when we were there. It's one of the readings for a heart attack. Protocol says put her in the hospital for observation. Evidently it can be raised by stress and she was under severe stress from the pain so we're hoping it comes down. Meanwhile she's in Danbury Hospital (no, you can't call her there nor will she be listed as a patient if you call - by her request) until at least tomorrow.

I've gotten her list of requested items and I'll be taking them to her, you know, essentials like peanut butter, graham crackers...all the really important things in life. According to Linda, "Man cannot live by bread alone. He must have peanut butter!" Me, I hate cooking for one (me) so I'm gonna pick up some takie-outie and the egg drop/wonton soup I love so much, all from the Great Wall around the corner. Then, once I get back home and feed the kitties I guess I'll spend the evening saving the World of Warcraft from the evils of Lich King.

Add to all this the fact that the folks we invited for Thanksgiving can't make it through no fault of their own, so we'll be alone this Thanksgiving.

I figure I might as well get the good parts of Chinese (the food) cause we got the curse already. *sigh*

Those of you who aren't interested in patriotic ramblings or introspection from a vet might as well skip this. I tried to put this behind a cut but for some reason that option isn't available to me.

The History Channel had a special on WWII in HD. I know I shouldn't watch these shows, but it's like a sore tooth or a scab, you keep picking at the scab, your tooth always heads for that tooth, or the gap where the tooth used to be and, even if it hurts, you can't keep away from it. So I watch and listen to the veterans talk about what they experienced. The pain, the camaraderie, the physical and emotional scars that are so difficult, maybe impossible, to share with those who haven't experienced it. And, as the last episode ended and the credits were running, one of the vets explains that being a vet is something that ties all vets together, and he goes on to talk about his pride in being a veteran. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to explain or convey other than to share that feeling the veteran was describing. And my mind opens and I begin to remember so many things I keep buried in the far corner of the closet I call my memory.

Part of me really wants to forget. Part of me wants to insure that I always remember because it would be a disservice to those who died should I ever forget that (in the words of President Lincoln), "...they gave the last full measure of devotion..." in the service of our country.

So, no, I can't forget, I can't, "get over it," and I really can't let it go. I tried and it didn't work. I've come to terms with it but I won't get over it.

It's been a long, long day for me. Linda was complaining of intense pain in her right side (cramps?) yesterday so she called in at work and I took her to her primary physician who told her to take some Mylanta and follow that up with Pepsid. Then we went to radiology to have pics taken of her innards. We found out that it wasn't kidney stones and since she has neither a gall bladder nor an appendix I beat everyone to ruling those out.

We went home, she took the meds and said the pain seemed to be easing.

She woke me at 4:00AM this morning saying the pains were back worse than ever so off we went to the ER. Of course they all know us there by now so they put her in an ER cubicle and went to work. When we left at noon we had a diagnosis - shingles. The funny part is that everyone was trying to tell me that shingles is brought on by stress and they wanted to know if she's been under stress. Well, yes, her brother just died. But for some reason everyone tends to overlook the fact that she has a compromised immune system because of the anti-rejection drugs she's on and that can bring on shingles, too. That and once you hit your 50's and 60's you're more susceptible to shingles so she's in the right age group, too. Howcum I'm the one who had to tell them about this?

For those of you not familiar with shingles it's an adult form of chicken pox. We went home with a prescription for dilaudid (pain killer) and an anti-viral medication for the shingles and instructions for her to stay home for at least 5 days. So it looks like I'm not going to 100 Minutes after all.

The dilaudid knocks her out!

On a lighter note I just finished Jeff Shaara's final book in his WWII European theater trilogy and really enjoyed the 3 books. In an effort to save money I'm going to reread Gordon Dickson's Dorsai series again.

Time for beddy bye. TTFN.

Had a very quiet day on my birthday but got about a gazillion birthday wishes from friends. Thank you all so very much. She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed made me a cake with candles and everything and gave me a big Yankees World Series Champs mug. The really big present was going to the Star Wars concert last Tuesday. Seeing a concert quality orchestra perform while recording for a film has always been one of my dreams (Yes, I am in fact a geek!) and this was as close to that as you can get. I still can't get over the virtuosity of the musicians.

I once got tickets to see Les Miserables (I've seen that show about a couple of dozen times, no joke!) and the tickets were in the boxes stage right so we were looking down at the orchestra. I watched them more than I did the show. Hell, I could read their music! Hey, that's part of the weirdness that makes me so charming, don'tcha know!

We watched one of Burt Lancaster's early movies, The Crimson Pirate, which is a great popcorn movie as long as you remember that it's a Hollywood fable and forget history. This has nothing to do with history and everything to do with Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat's bodies and their athletic talents.

Next is 100 Minutes War and then our anniversary is on the 25th. Which reminds me, please don't be insulted if I see you and can't remember you name, I'm horrible with names. Ya see this is our 37th wedding anniversary coming up and after 37 years I still call her Sweetie Pie and she still thinks it's a term of endearment. Maybe I should have her wear a name tag.

Y'all have a great week and if you see anybody famous, tell em Da Coach says, "Hey!"

Too many of my friends or family have H1N1 now, and a couple of them are seriously ill, scary ill. When your bride works in the health care industry and has a compromised immune system it is a bit scarier than normal. All of you out there, take care of yourselves. Wash your hands regularly and use Purell or some other comparable product often. Carry a small bottle with you. Don't shake hands as often as you used to and, if you do have to shake hands, again, use that Purell. I don't have so many damned friends that I can afford to lose any more of you!

I got fitted for new, custom orthotics (foot correction shoe inserts) by the man who is more highly recommended than anyone else I have heard about. He swears that they will fix my foot pains and he went on to explain why all the others have failed so far. So I'm gonna give him a shot. I mean, what the hell? I've got nothing to lose here other than a few more bucks and I've been throwing money at my feet for years and years and years with nothing much to show for it. Keep your fingers crossed . Who knows, maybe they'll even help my back problems some.

Went to see 2012 at the matinee yesterday. I enjoyed the hell out of it. More end-of-the-world special effects and a neat twist to the dénouement of the whole shebang. Don't expect anything special in this other than the special effects but it was very entertaining. It's a good popcorn movie but I don't think they'll ever top Independence Day (ID4) in movies of this genre. Danny Glover was great and Woody Harrelson was a surprise. Special effects are best seen on the big screen.

As for the idea of the world ending on 2112 because the Mayan Calendar ended there, it's kinda like saying the world is gonna end because your Quote-A-Day desk calender ran out. The science is thin, very thin.

Tonight's "movie" is the 2003 version of Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Masterpiece Theater). I love that story in all its incarnations.

I had a lovely, laid back kind of day. We (Linda and I) went to lunch at Applebee's in Danbury and I had the bacon burger. (Hey, the rocket didn't kill me!) In retrospect I don't know why but I was amazed by the number of vets there. The server asked to see my ID so i hauled out my Military Order of the Purple Heart life member card. He, teasingly, asked if I had a 2nd form of ID so i whipped out my Disabled American Vets (Life Member), and Veteran's of Foreign Wars (Life Member) cards. He stopped me there. The food was delightful and I enjoyed seeing all the vets from different wars who showed up. Thank you, Applebees!

We went to the mall but suddenly, after about a half hour, my feet and back gave out at the same time. By the time I got home I was hurting so bad that I had to hit the Vicodin which helped me to nap. Sometime during the nap we lost power for a brief period and when I woke up i couldn't get any sound from the BluRay player. I finally got that fixed after dinner.

For all of you who sent Veteran's Day wishes, thank you all. Your acknowledgment means a lot to me. I got so many wishes here, on FB and by private email and phone that I'm not going to try to say thank you individually cause I'll forget someone for sure. Please rest assured that I really, really loved getting them all, each and every one.

And for those of you who thought I might not do my usual Veteran's Day rant: Why is it that the kids get the day off but the Vets have to work? This is the first Veteran's Day I've had off in my memory.

Nothing happening here until a week from this Saturday when I'm going to 100 Minutes to teach a class. Whos going?

To all the veterans and those who are currently serviing and their families (whose service is sometimes the hardes of all) - Thank You, all!

Especially to those who are dear to me, like Jax, Chip, Amy.

BTW - Just in case you didn't get the word, Applebees is offering a free meal to all Veterans and Active Duty personnel from a select menu of about 4 or 5 meals. Show ID, DD214, or membership card with a Vets organization for the meal. Drinks not included. Golden Corral offers a similar deal.

And one for you, John, whom I'll never forget. Miss ya, Man.

Just got home from Star Wars ocncert. AWESOME! I'll be rerunning that concert/experience through my mind for a long, long time. www.starwarsinconcert.com/

Vairavi posted  her Royal Whims should she ever become queen and they were really imaginative.  Then I started wondering...

What would YOUR whims be should you ever become king or queen? One stipulation, it can't be a whim that's commonly done. (Chocolate, coffee, Yoo-Hoo or Mountain Dew.) Be imaginative and semi-realistic about what you might use as a whim or whims. Oh, and I'll even let Alethea play again if she wants to cause I love her and don't want her to feel left out.

Oh, and it's about 15 hours before I get into the exhibit for the Star Wars concert. Not that I'm excited about it or anything.

Start with the boring stuff - I did nothing today but return a blu-ray disk to the library. That's right, sports fans, Da Coach is now a card carrying member of the Beautiful Downtown Danbury Public Library! I never realized they had a loaner section for DVD's and blu-rays. Why would you want to rent em when you can get em for free?!  Oh, the movie was How The West Was Won in something called smilebox to allow for the cinerama process. I won't bore you with details other than to say I saw this movie as a high schooler in Cinerama and loved it. It's one of the first soundtracks I ever owned and still think it's one of the fines movie soundtracks ever created. Alfred Newman (no relation to the guy from MAD) was a genius and a giant in the industry.

Saturday She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed and I went to Simplefare and did nothing! To tell the truth, we walked out to the fighting field and only lasted for about 15 or 20 minutes and I had to go back and drug up something serious. I'm seeing my primary doctor tomorrow. Somehow, someway we have to get my feet and back straightened out.

But we so so many friends, some we hadn't seen in a long, long time. Linda's first event was Simplefare oh, so many years ago. The feast is still one of the best I've ever eaten at. For consistency in quality it always delivers a wonderful and incredibly edible feast (even if I can't pronounce the name of the dessert "soup" which I have always called Rude, Crude, McFood" cause that's what it sounds like. But it's certainly NOT what it tastes like. It's a cream based strawberry soup. OMG! Each and every dish is a delight but that dessert soup. Of course that's all followed up by baklava and an almond based pie. One more time...OMG! I love that event. And it's perfect for taking newcomers to their first event. A bit of everything, fighting, fencing, entertainment, fun, friends, merriment and GREAT food.

There's a lot of nonsense going on over on the EK list about a proclamation made by the king of another kingdom! Why people in the East would get so riled up over a whim by an king from out kingdom astounds me. I must say I was incredibly tickled when I saw that Konrad and Brenwen as well as the K&Q of Aethelmearc just issued the same whim. The biggest dissenter (I almost said loudmouth but that wouldn't be nice) once accused me on the EK list of having no sense of humor because I disagreed with something she took a position on. *sigh*

Well, lemme wrap up: Two doctor's appointments tomorrow; one with my primary physician and one with my sleep disorder physician. Then Linda has taken Tuesday off cause we're going to the Star Wars concert at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport. I am so excited about that I start squirming just thinking about it! And we get into the memorabilia display an hour before the regular, raggedy old general public! How cool is that!? One of the coolest bestest birthday presents I've ever gotten since I got a matched set of Mattel Fanner 50 pistols with double holsters when I was a kid.

Time for beddie-bye. Y'all have a great week. I'll tell you about the concert on Wednesday.

I convinced She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed to go to an event! So we're going to Fall Feast of Simplefare in Manchester, CT, (not NH) this weekend. This is and has been for as long as I remember a special event for several reasons:
1)     It's a pretty laid back event with a bit of everything there - shopping, fiber arts, fighting, fencing, schmoozing and FEAST!
2)     It's a great event for first-timers to attend because you get to see the grass roots of the SCA at an event that's been going on for as long as I've been in the SCA.
3)     It features Salaamallah's Mustard Soup and while the name makes it sound rather dubious as a gastronomical treat, it's something I've always enjoyed immensely and a recipe for which many folks clamor.

I won't be able to move about the site as much as I'd like and, quite frankly, don't plan on moving far from my chair but, again, we'll get a chance to hang out with folks from BBM that we don't often see. My only question is that there's no mention of whether it's a wet, damp, or dry site.

Any body out there going?

Maybe this time I'll even remember my belt.

So I see a huge blurb about Take A Veteran To School day which leads me to veterans.com (offshoot of the history Channel) and decide it looks neat and I want to volunteer on accounta I'm a vet, ya know? So I look and look and look and can't, for the world of me, find a link for vets to volunteer. Lots of teacher's resources and stuff but nothing for us grunts. Go figure.

So if you wanna take a vet to school here I are.

Wow! What a weekend. Bricia showed up late Thursday night just in time to see her Phillies lose and my Yankees win. I was very proud of myself cause I didn't gloat or nuthin'. We packed the car and headed out for iheronimus's place around 9 or so Friday morning, arrived in good time and, since he'd taken the day off, we spent the afternoon tasting wine, watching Mel Brooks's 12 Chairs and half of History of the World.

Dinner with Kaltheen (Mistress Caitlin) who's book on gilding and illuminating manuscripts is going into a soon-to-be-released 2nd Edition. I asked for a signed 1st edition of the 2nd edition. For supper we went to a sushi place where I corrupted another with the delights of hot sake chased with cold Kirin Ichi Ban. Since iheronimus was driving I really enjoyed myself.

Off to Crown Tourney early so we could get a good spot. We got to the site where his_eminencehelped us unload the car and get the pop-up set up about 6" away from a swamp where we were hoping it was high tide cause if it was low tide we were in for a seriously soggy crown tourney. As I was walking to the car for another load I saw and hugged peacockduchesswho promptly "suggested" that I move the popup next to hers. Since I'm quite used to obeying her every whim we all got together and started carrying the popup through the list field, around and over ropes cause we were moving exactly opposite from the spot where we'd originally set up.  Having gotten everything set up we settled back to watch the festivities.

oaken_glenshowed up and handed me a glossy hard back book which contained pictures from her vigil day at Southern Region War Camp. Turns out she'd had two of them made; she kept one and and gave me the other. Trying not to look like a book and cry in front of everyone I took the book and went through it intently until the emotions settled down. I do love that girl. We had a bit of post-peer talk and I again admired her most beautimous Pelican Cloak. It is the coolest thing ever and if you haven't seen it yet, make sure you ask her for a guided tour of her cloak. I shared these moments with alethea_eastrid. Did I mention I love to be surrounded by friends, especially those of the female persuasion?

Friends, friends and more friends. Skipping ahead a bit, vairaviwas recognized with a Kings Order of Excellence during court. Well deserved and possibly a bit overdue. I had a lot of fun teasing her all day in anticipation of that one. I managed to make fun of her name (not that easy to do but I somehow managed), gave her some cookies made just for her and generally enjoyed her company. She's cool people and puts up with me.

The fights were great! Clean, hard hitting and quite chivalrous. Lots and lots of dukes and the one who came out on top, Edward Gray of Lochleven is a first timer king! That is ever so cool. Duke Brion got one memorable hit on Count Gryffith that caused the whole crowd to stop and, in unison, exclaim, OOOOOOOOHHHHHH! Someone said they wanted the video of that shot. I just want the soundtrack.

I'm sure I'm forgetting to mention friends but I enjoyed every moment and, for the most part, stayed off my feet which turned out to be a good thing. Short story: by the time I got home I could barely walk (again). I have an appointment with another back specialist but he's booked until December 1. Till then I try to maintain.

Saturday supper was at a nearly empty Italian Restaurant who hit a grand slam with my Shirmp and Calamari Fra Diavolo over angel hair. YUM! And leftovers, too! The best part was the company. iheronimus, Kathleen, and Bricia. Then back to their place. Everyone but me crashed. I stayed up to watch the Yankees win.

Sunday morning we drove home, Bricia got into her car after schmoozing with Linda while I collapsed. I took some pain meds and vegged for the rest of the day. Watched the Yankees win again, took more pain meds and now am planning on spending the rest of today in a semi-vegetative state. My left thigh is mostly numb, my feet are killing me and (a new development) parts of my left foot have gone beyond pain to also being numb. I am not enjoying this part of the deal.

SPECIAL THANKS: Go to iheronimus. Not only was he an exquisite host but he even lent me a belt and pouch. He's my hero.