BREAK TIME

  I am taking a break tonight from blogging.  I have got to step back and evaluate my blog, again.  I notice I get far more readers when I post about things like the Death Penalty and the F word, and less readers when I do compassionate stories, or stories from the heart.  Let me think this thing through for a night, and I will return tomorrow night with a new blog from the "Science of my Mind." Good night all.  Love.

COMING OF AGE

  I remember the days of school when we didn't have a care in the world.  I made it through elementary and junior high school without any real concerns, maybe a bully here or there, but nothing that really stands out in my memory.
High school was when things got a little shifty for me, I was a very ugly child while I attended high school, not that I consider myself a handsome adult now, but the point is I considered myself an exception to the ugly rule.  I had acne so bad in high school I didn't even want to go.  What would all of the other people think?  I didn't have one of those whitehead pimples every now and then, I had several whitehead pimples on a daily basis.  I would actually set time aside during my school day just to pop them.  I think my acne finally cleared up during my senior year.  Set aside my days of extreme insecurity from more pimples than usual to pop, I ultimatley had a good time during my school years.  I'm blessed enough to still be friends with some of the people I attended school with, and we to this day have some good, hearty laughs.
  So tell me, when is it that one finally reaches that moment, let's out a huge sigh of relief, gives their head a little shake, and realizes that they have finally come of age.  Now, let's think about the last three words of the last sentence.  When did you know?  Do you know yet?  Has it happened to you yet?  Will it ever happen to you?  What the heck is this guy talking about, "coming of age?"  Allow me to give my opinion of what coming of age means to me.  It may differ from your opinion, but that's ok by me, we're all entitled.

  To me, coming of age for me happened just recently, I mean very recently, found it's way into my heart.  It's a feeling of peace, of serenity.  At 53 years old, I have resigned to the fact, that this is about as good as it's going to get for me, and that's ok.  My name is George Kuchenmeister, I'm married to a woman who I feel is the prettiest gal around.  I've got three stepkids that love me, two grandkids that I love, and two of the best dogs a man could ask for.  I've got friends that call when I'm sick, friends that dont.  I've got family I talk to regularly, some I don't and probably never will.  But all that stuff, it's all ok.  This my little world, it's not perfect, but I am much better off than many people, and for that I give thanks.  You see coming of age to me is I've realized, I am who I am, take me or leave me, that's on you.  I no longer have to cast stones at other people to give me strength, I no longer criticize people for who they are or are not.  I've said I'm sorry to all the people I need to , if they accept my apology, or not, that's on them.  Coming of age is when your heart is finally at peace, true peace.  I'm happy with the road I've traveled, I have come of age.

DIABETES--You Don't want it!!!

February 20, 2012

  I have wanted to write a blog on the topic of diabetes for some time now.  I've waited until tonight because I finally decided if I don't just write it, it's not going to be written.  I wanted this blog to be perfect, stats, numbers, blah, blah, blah.  If I would have have waited to write this blog until I gathered all of the statistics I thought I needed, my hair hair would be as gray as my goatee.  I can write this the way I write all of blogs, through experience, my words.

  Look, I'm not going to sit here and claim that I know everything about diabetes, because I don't, all I know is, you don't want it.  Two of the nicest ladies I know have diabetes, and they will tell you the same thing, I'm sure of it.  They say that around 40 million people were diagnosed in 2011 with pre diabetes, meaning all the conditions are right for these people to develop diabetes.  If one little thing that I say in this blog, helps or prevents one person from developing diabetes, then I will be one happy George.
  In late 2005, I started developing the symptoms for diabetes.  My wife would say, "it's diabetes, you need to get checked, go to your doctor." I would say, "it's not diabetes, diabetes doesn't run in my family."  Besides, I asked her, "aren't all diabetics overweight?"  I believed I weighed 138 at the time.  I noticed I had come increasingly thirsty, when I say increasingly, I mean 8 to 10 gatorades every four to six hours.  I was urinating every 10 minutes.  The day I was diagnosed, I was almost blind, everybody and everything was very white and blurry.  January 5, 2006, I went to a doctor, they told me I had diabetes, I was put on insulin injections at that time.  The doctors couldn't tell me why I had diabetes, I had none of the underlying factors for it, they were as puzzled as I was.  It has been an uphill battle since that day.  I'm trying to keep this simple, because if your not familiar with diabetes, some of the terms used may as well be written in a foreign language

  I have uncontrolled diabetes.  This doesn't mean that I don't follow doctor's orders, this means that my body just doesn't react to the insulin I inject and the oral medications I take very well.  One day one amount of insulin might be the perfect dose with a certain meal, another day my glucose levels bottom out and I'm rushing to raise my levels back to normal.  One day, I may eat a slice of wheat bread, my glucose levels stay near perfect, another day, I eat a slice of wheat bread, and my glucose level jumps 200 points---unconcontrolled diabetes.  To assist in controlling my diabetes, I take an oral diabetes medication twice daily, I inject a 24 hour hour insulin every night before bed, and inject fast acting insulin up to eight times per day, usually four to six times per day.  I need an insulin pump, but can not afford one.  If you should have the unfortunate luck of being diagnosed, high blood pressure and high cholesterol come hand in hand with diabetes, so your taking those meds too.  Diabetes is a sneaky disease too, last May I was diagnosed and hospitalized for eight days with complications from my diabetes, my organs had started to shut down because I had an unusually high ketone count.  Thank God for the staff at Theda Clark Hospital. 

  Today, uugghh, darn diabetes, I have damage to my nerve endings in my feet and legs, called Diabetic Neuroapathy, let's just say that some days are better than others.  The doctors tell me that all they can do now is to manage the pain.

  If I hope you went away with anything at all from this blog is that if a skinny 140 pound guy can get diabetes, you can too.  Be more aware of your diet, and if anything feels out of whack with your body, get to a doctor.  I hope by laying out some things I have to experience on a daily basis, maybe, just maybe, you'll take some precautions so that you don't develop this nightmare of a disease.  Any questions, feel free to ask.  If I don't know the answer, I have a diabetes educator that I can ask for you.  Until tomorrow.  Love.

 

 

   

LOVE LOVE LOVE

February 19, 2012

  Before creating this blog I had no writing experience whatsoever, and that I'm sure that shows in the end result.  I tinkered with writing on and off throughout the course of my life, but never dreamed I would actually enjoy it this much, I look very forward to this time of the day when I can let some of the over crowded stuff inside of me out.  I wish the people that read my blog actually knew the extent of how much I appreciate them taking the time to check it out.  Means alot to me. 
  I've often heard that the English language is one of the most difficult langauge's to learn, I don't know that for a fact, since it's the only language I've ever learned.  I believe one of the reasons is that our language has so many synonym's, (example-I SAW a bird---I'm going to SAW a board)  word's that are spelled the same but have different meanings.  To a person who doesn't know our language, I can see that where that would be confusing.  I was never that good in English, except maybe in speaking it, when it comes to the adverbs, verbs, punctuation's and stuff like that, I would pretty well be assured of a C, D or an F. 
  There is one word in our puzzling, difficult language that captivate's my  attention more so than any other word that is not a synonym.  It's a word is that is only spelled one way, but to me has so many, many meanings.  You may have guessed it, maybe not, the word is "LOVE."  I'm only going to capitalize it that one time just to put the extra emphasis on it.  I don't know, maybe you can help me, it may be that "love" doesn't have all that many meanings, maybe it just has different levels, or different degrees of the same meaning, if that's even possible.  To me, there is a difference when I tell my Mother that I "love" her than when I tell my wife that I "love" her.  The "love" I mean for my Mother is a soft, tender, kindhearted, give her a hug type of "love," while the "love" I have for my wife is all of the above but adding a "My God, you're one sexy lady" under tone to it.  I "love" my brother and sisters, but I also "love" my two dogs, same word, but different kind of "love."  I unequivocaly "love" television shows like Forensic Files, but I also "love" my Doctor, same word, but there's no way it can be the same kind of "love." Here's one, I "love" pizza, and I "love" horror flicks, I'll eat the pizza I "love," but I don't like being part of anything that would be real life horror. OHHH, I'm so confused.

  I guess the bottom line of this blog is that "love" is a pretty darn good, sometimes confusing word almost any way that is used, as long as it's in a positive sense.  I "love" tons of stuff, but my family, my friends and my two baby Shih-tzus are the "love's" of my life.  Until tomorrow.  Love.

Rest in Peace

  This blog may go here and there, I'm not sure yet.  I know that I've been sitting here for at least an hour knowing what subject it is I wanted to write about, but not exactly sure of how to translate it to paper.  Here I go.

  My heart and spirit have been weighed down a bit this week.  The home that I volunteer at had two men pass away in the last week, one gentleman on the 13th of February and one gentleman on the 14th of February.  Then I heard about the passing of a former boss of mine, Doug, who passed away on my birthday, February 6th.  Out of these three gentlemen, I knew Doug the longest, but I wanted to honor all of their memories equally, in my own little way.  When I think about their passing, even today, this overwhelming feeling of grief overcome's me.

  The first two men I wanted to tell you about, well, I have to use ficticious names, because of privacy reasons.  Sam, the gentleman who passed away on the 13th, he was the person I knew the least about.  I met him one night while he was being fed.  I would have guessed him to be around my age, 53, 54.  Turns out, his obituary said that he was 71, the man held his age very well.  That night was just a casual introduction, shaking hands and I was on my way out of his room.  Sam was bedridden, and the facility has rules about volunteers staying in a residents room for any length of time.  I was curious as to why someone who looked so young would end in an assisted living facility.  Sam, I was told by his care giver, had a heart attack, then a pacemaker put in.  Sam would not allow the doctors to change the battery in the pacemaker, he was tired of his disability and the burden that he thought he was placing upon his family.  I stepped into the building where he resided the day before he passed, and Sam was crying from the pain that he was experiencing.  Sam didn't pass alone, he was a very loved man, and his entire family was at his bed side when our Good Lord called him home. Rest in Peace Sam.

  The second gentleman, whose passing I think had the biggest effect on me, we'll call him Ted.  I met Ted almost nine month's ago, he never said anything to me, but would nod in acknowledgement when I would say "Good Morning Ted", or "Hello Ted."  I often heard that Alzheimer's Disease was a horrible, painful disease, that causes degeneration of two lobes of the brain.  I sat with Ted watching television about two weeks before he passed away, he seemed in a good mood that day.  Two days before Ted passed away, he was totally blind and no longer knew what to do with food or drink, the list goes on, but I'll end it there.  Ted was 39 years old, and had developed early onset Alzheimer's.  Ted was also a very loved man, and surrounded by his entire family the day our Good Lord called him home.  Rest in Peace Ted.

  Doug, my boss for several years before he retired, was a very interesting man.  He had a business savvy that to be perfectly frank, amazed me at times.  Sometimes he would sit for hours and not say a word, all the while thinking about how something about the business could be improved.  Doug entrusted me to run  a several million dollar per year business, and for that, I will always have respect for the man.  I didn't hear of Doug's passing until a few day's ago, I learned that he had passed from bone cancer three weeks before his 54th birthday.  Rest in Peace Doug.

  I had to take time today and honor a few good men.  It was an honor to have met and known you gentlemen, may you Sam, Ted, and Doug, all Rest in peace.

The "F" Word

  I'm not sure what year it all started to change and to be honest, I'm really not sure whether or not I need to know, I'm sure there's a scholar out there with five or six doctorates in "social everything" that could give you a precise date if you really needed to know.  By now I'm sure a couple of you are mumbling "Olright, what the heck is he talking about?"  I'm talking about the year our society in America started going to heck in a hand basket.  I'm guessing the start of the decline had to have been the late 1950's or early 1960's.  Does it really matter if we know the year?

  For those of you readers that are younger, it may be a bit harder to understand the feelings I'm feeling while I write this, while an older person will probably understand my frustration a bit more.  Believe me when I say that our Culture has been on a steep decline since about thirty to forty years ago.  I simply stay in shock when I hear how SOME of the younger generation today speaks to their elders, and around their elders.  I made it a point to emphasize the word some because I know their are young people that that still carry on the values of their parents or caregivers in a way that is to be admired.  Can a younger person maybe message me and tell me when the "F" word became socially acceptable to use on social networks like Facebook, and when it became socially acceptable to use the "F" word in front of elderly people, ladies and children?  It's a nasty word, and I for one don't like hearing it or reading it.  I wish it was socially acceptable and legal for me to punch someone, if they were of age, in the face when they use that word.  When that word is used, it shows the lack of morals, respect and class of the person saying it, and in a way it shows ignorance for not using a decent word in it's place.  I know there will be (I really could give a poop) those folks out there saying, "free speech man," "nobody tells me how to talk man," "why would I respect anybody man, I don't get any respect."  Well you know, speaking like a maggot infested trash bag in public or on a public forum doesn't win you respect.  If anything, it makes me and I'm sure, others, lose respect for the individual.  I am fifty three years old, I have NEVER said a swear word in front of my Mother, or to my Mother.  I love and respect her too much to speak foul in front of her.  I'm not 100% sure, but I don't believe any of my Mother's five children have ever sworn in front of her.  It's all about respect.

If you don't want to try cleaning up your mouth for me or anyone else, how about doing it for yourself or your children.  Do want your young children growing up speaking like that?  It's sad but true, here recently I heard some young people, I'd say early teens walking on the sidewalk in front of my apartment, a young lady spoke up and said "Joel, give me an "F##K### cigarette, and laughing while she said it, like it was second nature for this young lady to speak this way.  It's so sad!!!  In closing, I want to extend this from time to time so that people that are a bit younger may be able to hear it from someone first hand how much people and things have changed over the last several years.  Until tomorrow.  Love. 

 

        

The Death Penalty--Yes or No?

February 15, 2012

  Welcome to my first night of discussing various topics.  You may not agree with my point of view on certain subject matter, but's that's perfectly ok.  The more you readers comment on my blog, the more we can all learn from it by researching whether or not a comment is factual, or just a bunch of garbage.  On my blog, "Science of my Mind," you can agree to disagree.  Today's topic, the death penalty.  Ever since I was a young man, I've had mixed feelings about this subject.  On one hand, I think it's hypocritical for murdering someone by turning around and murdering the murderer,  I know, I know, I can hear it  now, "an eye for an eye," with that idealogy, if we always used that form of punishment, eventually we would all be blind.  On the other hand, what else do we do with these lowest forms of criminal human life?  Let them live in the luxury of prison, being cared for at the taxpayer expense for so long as they should live?  You see, this is where my mixed feelings come in.  I've also heard of men being executed that were proven later to be innocent by DNA matches.  Here's a few facts, I'm usually not one for graphs, numbers and lists, I do make the occasional exception.

States Without the Death Penalty (Year Abolished in Parentheses)
Alaska (1957)--Hawaii (1957)--Illinois (2011)--Iowa (1965)--Maine (1887)--Massachusetts (1984)--Michigan (1846)--Minnesota (1911)--New Jersey (2007)--New Mexico (2009)--New York (2007)--North Dakota (1973)--Rhode Island (1984)--Vermont (1964)--West Virginia (1965)--Wisconsin (1853)
ALSO--District of Columbia (1981)

States With the Death Penalty--Alabama-Arizona-Arkansas-California-Colorado-Conneticut-Delaware-Florida-Georgia-Idaho-Indiana-Kansas-Kentucky-Louisiana-Maryland-Mississippi-Missouri-Montana-Nebraska-Nevada-New Hampshire-North Carolina-Ohio-Oklahoma-Oregon-Pennsylvania-South Carolina-South Dakota-Tennessee-Texas-Utah-Virginia-Washington-Wyoming---ALSO U.S. Govt.---U.S. Military

  You see, I'm not the only person who has mixed feelings in this subject.  In 1972 the Death Penalty was put on hold because it had been ruled unconstitutional, in 1976 the Death Penalty was reinstated, although the first execution after reinstatement wasn't until 1977.  The state of Texas has performed more executions than any other state since the resumption of the death penalty in 1976, prior to that Virginia had led the nation.  It surprised the heck out of me that hanging is still an option for execution in two states, New Hampshire and Washinton State-WOW!!!  Oh yes, the first execution for 2012 was today at 6pm in Florida, Robert Waterhouse had been on death row for thirty one years for the rape and beating death of a young Tampa Bay lady.

  See everyone, the more I hear and read about this stuff, the less sympathy I feel and the more I want these freaks to fry.  What do you think?

  Last execution in 2011 in America was on November 18 in the state of Idaho.  In 1988, a scumbag by the name of Paul Rhoades walked into a convenience store with three people inside. He shot and killed the two employees instantly.  He grabbed the customer, a thirty four year old school teacher, brought her out to his van and raped her. Paul Rhoades then shot this poor lady NINE times, then he CONTINUED raping her.  Now I'm furious, why, how was this man not toasted instantly by our justice system???   How can we allow a person capable of such atrocities be allowed to live even one minute after conviction?  What if he were to escape?  Lord have mercy.

  I tried to present both sides of the coin here.  I suppose if we don't have certain justice system guidelines in place for everyone, then we could have vigilante groups roaming the streets to dish out whatever punishment they feel is needed.   Like anything, our justice system has flaws, I don't think it will ever be perfect, we'll just always have people questioning why the system we have in place works for some, but not for others.

  Feel free to post any comments or opinions you have on this matter. Until tomorrow everyone.  Love.