Immigration

Immigration is a sensitive subject for most of us. After all aside from Native Americans we are all immigrants. My great-great grandparents came to North America in the early 1860's originally settling in Canada. They moved to the United Staes in the mid 1860's and bought the home farm in 1869. President Obama issued an Executive Order last week changing enforcement of some immigration laws. He did not change the law he simply ordered that the limited enforcement capabilities of the United States government should be prioritized in a diffent manner. His order stated that illegal immigrants who were under 30 years of age, who came to the United States before the age of 16' who had a high school diploma or GED or had served in the United States military and who did not have a criminal record with more than one misdemeanor conviction could apply for a two year deferment from deportation. The deferment is eligible for review if Mr. Obama is still president in two years. Republicans are up in arms arguing that these illegal immigrants are going to take jobs away from American citizens and that President Obama is not fulfilling his obligation to enforce the laws and constitution. My brief response is that this is little different than actions taken by previous Presidents of both parties to address issues with immigration. I must at this point relay my personal experiences with this issue. I worked for the Illinois Department of Corrections for almost 21 years. I personally made arrangements for over 100 inmates to be picked up by immigration authorities for deportation. These were all convicted felons who will continue to be deported under the new Executive Order. I agree that this should be done. They were in the United States illegally and made the choice to violate the law. The consequences should include deportation. I have, however, sat down and explained the process and had inmates sign paperwork to move the deportation process forward. Some, and I admit, not many indicated and there records supported their allegation they had been brought to the United States as infants or very young children. I would advise them where in Mexico, central or South America they were going. Some had no memory of living anywhere but the United States and did not speak Spanish. President Obama is doing his best in this case to be fair. The individuals involved in this program were brought here by their parents. They had no choice. They have attended our schools, speak our language, have served in our military. Don't they deserve some consideration before we deport them while we try to address more comprehensive immigration reform? Republicans argue that President Obama is pandering for votes. They are most likely correct. Mr. Romney is changing his position in an attempt to appeal to Latino voters. Let's just stop the counter charges by both sides and just vote based on the issues. When I sat across from those men and listen to their plight and knew they would be deported it was tough. It was the right thing to do and still is for those who will not obey our laws. When you put a human face on it I would hope your attitude would change.

One Year

Today marks the one year anniversay of a day I will never forget. Carol wanted me to build a rack to hold some of our ever increasing inventory of home made wine. It had rained the night before and my ladder was laying in the yard down at the neighbors. After going to get it I set it up in the garage and climbed up to get some wood from the attic space over our laundry room. Instead of climbing up and down the ladder I was just dropping pieces of wood to the floor. I dropped several then felt the ladder slip just a little bit. When it did I jerked involuntarily and the ladder started to slide down the wall. I remember thinking on the way down that I had fallen in a similar manner a couple of months before and while it would hurt it was no big deal. I was wrong. When I hit the floor I went to push myself up and realized my left arm wouldn't work. I went in the house and called to Carol who was working in the basement. I told her I needed to go to the hospital and she panicked just a bit. She did a good job getting me there although I did get some grief from the ambulance service I volunteer with for not calling them. The emergency room nurse cut off my shirt and when the doctor came to the door he said I had dislocated my shoulder. I got an IV and some medication to ease the pain, then an X-ray to make sure no bones were broken. The doctor came back in and said he was going to try to put it back in place but was doubtful since he was small and I'm large and according to him muscular. He ordered more medication to put me in "twilight sedation". He told me to count from ten and when I got to negative 30 he ordered more medication and asked me to name our grandchildren. My memories for the next several hours are jumbled. The ER doctor made two attempts to put my shoulder back in place, both unsuccessful. I asked Carol what I said during the procedures and she said just ouch a couple of times. I tend to have a rather blue vocabulary and was concerned I had been rude to the staff. I went in and out of awareness and about every five minutes I would ask Carol if they had done the procedure yet. She would kindly tell me they had but it didn't work and the orthopedic surgeon would be working on me later in the day. Apparently I did this for about four hours just like clockwork every five minutes. Is it any wonder why I love this woman? There are times I could aggravate Helen Keller. Dr. Schierer took me to an operating room, had me completely knocked out and got my parts back where they belonged. I was back home by 6 pm with my arm in a sling. I saw Dr. Schierer a week later and then started physical therapy. When that didn't work as planned I was sent for an MRI which showed I had torn my rotator cuff. Dr. Schierer did surgery to repair that on August 30th and after a couple of weeks it was back to physical therapy. I finished physical therapy in January because I had used all the sessions my insurance would cover. It has now been a year. Is my shoulder back to normal? No. Will it ever be? I don't think so. It has been very difficult to regain the strength I lost. It is amazing how quickly you lose strength when you cannot use a muscle and how hard it is to get it back. I am back to my normal activity but some things take longer, more gets done one handed and it often hurts to use my left arm. If you ever wondered about insurance I offer the following. I am in an HMO and my total out of pocket was less than $1,000. I was in the hospital twice and never stayed overnight. The total for those two partial days was over $60,000. That amount does not include the doctor or physical therapy costs. A moment of poor judgment, lots of pain and $60,000. My advice, do what I didn't do, have someone hold the bottom of the ladder. Carol was home and would have done it if I had asked. Stupid Jeff!

Random comments

Several trips past the hawk nest over the past few days have yielded no sightings of the young hawks. The sign that assures me they have left the nest is the absence of the mother hawk when I stop to check. It had been a joy watching them grow up and now leave to take their place in the world. Raccoons have been coming up on our deck almost every night and defecating near our door. I put out a live trap and yesterday when we got up there was a young raccoon in the trap. I took him out back and disposed of him. Last night his mom and sibling came back looking for him. They avoided the trap and I did not shoot them. They did manage to eat all the marshmallows out of the trap so tonight we switch to cat food. I go to sleep every night with the hope that I don't catch a skunk. We had timber harvested off out property four years ago. The last couple of days I have been out in the woods with a tractor and a chain hauling tree tops into the pasture so I can cut them into firewood. The past two years I have had my able assistant Nate working with me. This year I am alone. It has good and bad points. On the good side I get to start and quit whenever I want. I don't have to listen to anyone yammering about anything. On the bad side it is lots more work and I get less done. The last couple of days the temperature has been over 90 degrees and that adds another level of misery. Last year I got my EMT license and began volunteering with the local ambulance service. I dislocated my shoulder and was unable to volunteer. Tonight is my first shift in over a year. I will be on call from 6 pm tonight to 6 am tomorrow morning. There is plenty of nervous anticipation. I hope all goes well and I can handle any calls that come in.

Fathers Day

I felt lucky on Fathers Day. Lucky to have three healthy children. Lucky to have six healthy granddaughters. Lucky to have a wife who was willing to be a mother. I made it clear to her that she was the only reason I was a father. Our children our reasonably well adjusted adults who work and provide for their families. I don't say that to shine a light on me or Carol. We made lots of mistakes as our children grew up. I think that you get closest to figuring out how to be a parent when your last child leaves home. Then you have to sit back and watch your children try to raise your grandchildren trying you damnst not to interfere. They don't want you to raise their kids because they remember you weren't so good at it and they KNOW they can do better. As lucky as I am there are two things I wish for every Fathers Day. Carol and I got married in late 1974. In early 1975 her father had a heart attack and was revived after being without oxygen for too long. The doctors thought he would live a few days. He lived 12 years in a body that wouldn't die that had a brain that did. He never got to see or hold any of his grandchildren. We thought we would have time to do things with him later. We didn't. Every year I wish it had been different. The second thing I wish for is more time with my Dad. He died of lung cancer in 1999. It would be great to talk to him again. The two Dads, mine and Carol's were old school. Hard working, plain spoken, no frills men. What you saw was what you got. You didn't wonder what they were thinking because they told. You were told in no uncertain terms. Nothing was filtered to be politically correct. They are the kind of men you don't see much any more. So while I wish things were different and I could see them both again I count myself lucky every Fathers Day to have had them in my life.

I Knew Better

About 18 months ago we decided to go to the United States Department of Agriculture to discuss signing up for a forestry restoration project. We had harvested some trees on our property and had some acreage that had been farmed in the past. We felt it was too steep and too prone to erosion for row crops and we were not interested in pasturing farm animals. Growing trees and getting some cost share funds from the federal government seemed to be the way to go. Really, what could go wrong? I had worked for 32 years for local and state government. I could speak the bureaucratic language. I understood the need for hundreds of forms that no one cared about or looked at after they were signed. I would fill out my forms, do the work and then latch my lips on the ample busom of Lady Liberty and suck the cash out. I should have known better. Lady Liberty has minions who look over those forms to make sure that all the i's are dotted and all the t's are crossed. It seems to be a problem when the typist stutters and spells my first name Jerrrey and not Jeffrey. Jerrrey does not match the name on you SSI card. Access to Lady Liberty's busom of $$$$ is denied. We have made repeated trips to their offices to sign paperwork only to get a call the next day saying there is another form they need. Well meaning bureaucrats keep trying but are often confused by the tangled web of regulations they must enforce to protect the busoms of $$$$. We were told we didn't have to sign a plan modification in August. In December the same worker called me and asked why I hadn't signed the modification. I explained he had told me it was unnecessary. The response- that's right I remember that now. In March he called again and asked why I had not stopped by to sign the modification. Well, because you told me twice it was not necessary. His response, I don't know why I would say that it MUST be signed. The rule book for the program is a notebook about 4 inches think with three supplemental volumes of about 2 inches each. Do participants get a copy of the rules? Of course not. The rule book holds the keys to the lock that protects those cash filled busoms. So 18 months later, lots of dollars spent to complete work and comply with the plan and no $$$$ back from the USDA. The moral? I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hawks

There are times in life that you just get lucky and are witness to a miracle. This isn't one of those OMG somebody's life got saved or changed, it's about seeing the magic of Mother Nature. We planted about 500 trees this spring down on the meadow at the bottom of the hill. My brothers were over and my younger bother David told me there was a stick nest in a tree part way up the hill. Would I have ever noticed it if he hadn't said something? The honest answer is probably not. It seems that most of the time I have a single minded purpose and intent. Always on my way to do something and doing my best not to be distracted along the way. It is my battle with attention deficit disorder. It is  far to easy for me to go off on a tangent. Look, a rock. Puppies. What's on TV tonight? Squirrel! I like hot dogs. It is my thought process if I let my mind go. Anyway this is my first picture of the nest of a Red Tail Hawk taken on April 4, 2012.

At this point there was an argument about what kind of bird it was between me and my younger brother. He had seen the mother bird and felt the nest and the bird were too large to be a Red Tail Hawk. It seemed to me that since there were very few other birds of prey in the area that built that type of nest it had to be a Red Tail Hawk. When a representative from the USDA was out to inspect my tree planting I pointed the nest out to him. He asked if the bird had a white head. I said no. He responded with good because if it did he would have to restrict my access to the meadow and I could do no work until the baby eagles left the nest. It is little wonder the people hate the government. Fortunately for me on May 14, 2012 Momma Red Tail gave me this indisputable evidence.

                            

It was clear at that point that there were young hawks in the nest that she was feeding. It had been impossible to get a picture of them at this point. It was always a difficult balancing act. Trying to get in the area to get a picture without disturbing her and the babies too much. This picture was taken the next day on May 15, 2012 when I caught this little guy or gal peering over the edge of the nest. We had babies and they were downy white.

Every time I went down to try to snap a few pictures Momma Hawk would circle overhead and screech at me. It would go on until I was back up the hill or moved off in a vehicle. If I was walking around the meadow it would continue the entire time I was down in the area.



Momma Hawk is tough to see in the picture above. She is very camera shy and I am thrilled I got a few shots of her on the nest. She would stay high above the trees keeping a watchful eye on her babies.

The picture above is of the young hawks taken on May 23, 2012. At this point they are noticably bigger but still downy white. The final picture taken on June 12, 2012 shows the young pair standing on the edge of the nest having a look at the world they will soon be flying over. What a handsome pair they are.

A few notes on the pictures. If you go back and scroll through them you may note the foliage has gotten thicker as the spring progressed. The hole I shot the pictures through got smaller every time and the nest harder to find in the trees. The pictures were all taken from over 100 feet away and the nest is about 60 feet up in an old oak tree. My camera is able to zoom to 40X and all these pictures were taken at the maximum. It is extremely difficult to locate the subject and hold the camera still enough to keep them in the frame. Overall I took about 250 pictures. The ones presented here represent the best of the 100 or so I saved. Finally, I love the english language. Everything has a name baby hawks included. A baby hawk is called an eyas. If you have more than one baby hawk they are referred to as eyases. The word is pronounced "EYE-ess". You may now impress your friends and family with new knowledge and perhaps score a point in a trivia game. 

Frustration

When I was a younger man I thought I knew all the answers. I had it all figured out. Now being older I am not sure if I even know the right questions. The answer to today's question is one that has perplexed me for a few years. What is worse? Being Stephen Hawking and having a body that doesn't work. Being Ronald Regan and having a mind that stopped working. Clearly both outcomes are horrors but is one worse than the other. I don't know. I have known people with various forms of dementia. I have never had a close friend who had ALS. Why the question? We recently got back from a cruise on the Disney Dream and it had been my intent to continue that story in today's blog. My mother in law accompanied us on the trip and she saw the doctor today. She has a variety of health problems which she denies. While, to be completely honest, she does not have dementia; she passed the test by one point. She clearly has some cognitive impairment. It is not something that people who have it admit. They never say "I have dementia!" it is always a constant state of denial. I might be normal but if I suggest something to her that doesn't match up with her confused memories then I am the one who is fucked up in the head. She went to have a followup with her cancer doctor last week and Carol and her ended up talking to one of my former coworkers from the prison. My coworker was there to get an iron injection. My mother in law insisted after the woman walked away that she was there for a lead injection. I think I would stay out of that HMO.
My mother in law has smoked for years and from time to time quits. She has started again after being diagnosed with COPD. She has now begun to deny the COPD and claims her death rattle cough is from her allergies and sinus. It was fun riding in a car with her for a 20 hour drive each direction from Illinois to Florida for vacation. Getting to listen to her trying to cough of a chunk of lung butter and then wanting to tell me about it when she was successful. Sorry, don't need those details. We tried to get her to buy some medication to deal with her cough and congestion after she told us she had left those medications at home. Off to a WalMart we went and after looking through all the cold and sinus medications she said they didn't carry her brand at that WalMart. What brand do you take? Hyvee! Well a store brand is a little tough to find when you are 5 states from the nearest store. Can't explain why she thought WalMart would carry another store's brand.
She went to the doctor today and was told she had COPD again and now needed inhalers and a prescription to help her stop smoking if she wanted to stop. She said she did but we will see. Carol tried to discuss her inappropriate behavior with her and she got defensive and argumentative. Said she  did not enjoy the cruise we took her on because it wasn't fun and she claimed she had told us she didn't want to go to the Bahamas.  Said it wasn't like other cruises she had been on and she had enjoyed them. There was too much walking. Food wasn't to her liking. Her roommate kept the room too cold. So here I am going, wow I paid for all this. The cruise, your motel rooms on the way, the gas for the car, the cruise excursions, basically everything. I don't get a thank you I get you didn't have a good time and you are pissed off. We took her on a cruise because she said she wanted to go on one again. I understand you have mental health issues that you deny. You claim we are trying to run your life. From today forward that won't be a problem. When you need something you can call and ask. If you don't ask I am not doing anything. As far as your mental health issues your daughter in Tennessee can handle all those concerns and set up your appointments. If you call we will give you a ride. You can call her and tell her about how your poop looks and what color it is and how you are worried about your liver. I officially don't give a shit about your shit.

Vacation 2

We got settled on the Disney Dream and set out of port about 5pm. Our rooms were on the aft of the ship and we had a large and comfortable balcony. We were happy to let the Captain see where we were going while we enjoyed the view of where we had been. We met our room steward Torino Torino. He was from Indonesia and said his real name was Torino. Disney had a policy that he had to have a last name so they just repeated his name on their paperwork. While he may not have the fame of Cher or Sting he was our single name celebrity for this trip. He proved to be a valued member of the crew and a great help to our group. Carol's mother Jackie suffers from dementia. She of  course denies it and how can you argue with her. She does well in situations that are familiar but this was a huge new experience. We had hoped that being on the aft of the ship would make it easier for her. She literally had the last room on the right hand corner of the ship. Walk down the hall to where it ends and open the last door on the right. Every day when she left the room unaccompanied Torino would find her wandering the hall headed in the wrong direction looking for her room. He would gracefully and kindly escort her back, get her settled in the room, get the TV on CNN and go back about his usual duties. Disney has an interesting system on the Dream. In order for the lights and television to operate you have to put your room key card in a slot by the door. If you don't do so then those things don't work. It is their plan to save energy. You have to have your key when you leave so you can get back in and it insures you cannot leave the TV and lights on when  you are out of the room. Torino showed Jackie this  several times but she just didn't get it. He would come to clean the room and she would be sitting on the deck because lights and TV wouldn't work. He would get everything going and she would go back in and watch CNN. If you want to have an interesting conversation have it about current news events with someone who watches CCN daily and has a mild case of dementia. It is enlightening.

The first evening meal we were assigned to table 30 in the Enchanted Garden. We met our servers Ean and Jose for the first time. They were from India and Columbia respectively. Ean was the head server for us and Jose was his assistant. This meant that Ean took the food orders, placed the plates of food on the table while Jose managed the drinks and removed the used dishes. Little did we know that first night what amazing men they were. Disney treats children like they are minature adults. Ean would get down on their level, look them in the eye and ask them what they wanted for their meal. If they named something that wasn't on the evening's menu Ean would write it down and when the meals showed up what that child  had ordered was on the plate. The first night the girls ordered orange juice, milk and chocolate milk for their drinks. Every night after that when we got to our table the drinks were waiting on them with their names written on the lids. Every night after our food was ordered and delivered to our table Ean would bring us a plate with one of the choices no one had made so we could sample it. On our second visit to Castaway Cay we went to lunch and Ean was working bussing tables at the Cookie's BBQ. The menu was hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken and various fruits and salads along with potato chips. Ean stopped at our table and chatted for a minute or two then asked if we would like some french fries. We should have know better than to say that there were none. After all it was an open kitchen and we did not see a fryer. About 10 minutes later Ean shows up with a family sized plate of french fries and tells us to enjoy them. There were plenty of jealous heads turned our direction has we enjoyed some hot fresh fries.

The picture is of the amazing Ean and our granddaughters Vannessa, Johnnie and Audrey. Disney is a giant corporation and the Disney Dream is a huge ship but the key to the success of both is the dedication and hard work of people like Ean and Jose. They were friendly, polite, considerate, efficient and the  hundred other things you look for in outstanding employees. Their dedication and the hard work of hundreds of other crew members made this more than a vacation, it was the experience of a lifetime. The thing that really helped make it special is that the Dream has three themed dining rooms and over the course of the five day cruise you eat at all of them. When you change dining rooms your servers go with you so you don't have to deal with someone new. It helped us to get to know Ean and Jose and made them better able to do their jobs. It cannot  be overstated that Disney seems to have looked at everything and provides it without the consumer having to ask. It is incredible. 

Vacation

On Thursday May 24, 2012 we set out for the vacation experience of a lifetime. We were a large group consisting of Carol, Jeff, Jackie (Carol's Mom) John, Mandie, Vannessa, Audrey, Johnnie and Crystol (Mandie's Mom). We had discussed leaving on Friday morning but decided to get some miles in Thursday night. We left about 8:30 pm figuring the kids would sleep and it would be a quiet drive. That proved to be correct. I started calling at about 11:30 trying to get a room in Mt. Vernon, Illinois but alas there were none to be had. We ended up in Marion, Illinois at a dumpy Comfort Inn but who cares we were all exhausted. The next morning it was back on the road with visions of making it somewhere south of Atlanta, Georgia. The driving was smooth and the kids reasonably well behaved until we hit Nashville,Tennessee. There was a long backup of vehicles for no apparent reason. When we finally cleared that it was smooth sailing until we got to Atlanta, Georgia the place where all cars go to park. I have never driven through there without a lengthy wait. As a side story along the way we stopped for lunch at a place I picked called Two Purple  Pigs BBQ. The name was better than the food. I can honestly say that the hot dog one of the kids ordered was without question the worst thing I have ever eaten. Really folks how do you fuck up a hot dog? We ended up spending the night in Valdosta, Georgia leaving about a four hour drive the next day to get to Cape Canveral, Florida. We got  there early on Saturday so the kids got to enjoy the motel swimming pool and the adults got to relax. Carol. Jackie, Crystol and I decided to go to Port Canaveral to a place called Grills Bar. Carol had heard the food was good and it was a fun place. We got there and found out it was a 60 minute wait for a table and they were out of pagers. We decided to wait and after several trips to the hostess station I just stood there and waited until someone turned in a pager. We finally got seated and the food was excellent. I took this picture of the place as we went by on the Disney Dream on Sunday.

Please note that the kitchen vent faces the water so the public cannot see the less than appealing grease slick running down the roof into the water. Maybe a little cleaning is in order.

Sunday morning we got up and headed for the Disney Dream. Here is our first view of the ship. She is a beauty.





We proceeded to the port and I will now eat some of my words from a prior post. Disney has absolutely the most amazing customer service I have experienced anywhere at any time. We have sail with the chaos that is Carnival Cruise Line and after this experience never with them again.

Before we got on the ship John, Mandie, Vannessa, Audrey and Johnnie had the opportunity to have their family picture taken with Minnie Mouse. As you can see I think they have already determined this is the best vacation ever and we are not on the ship yet

The next order of business was lunch since no one can go to their stateroom yet. It was a buffet lunch and in all honesty I avoid those like the plague. They are places where you get lots of food that you would rather not eat. This was that one in a thousand exception. All the peel and eat shrimp Forest Gump could provide, proschuitto warpped salmon, roast beef sliced to order and for a fee all the beer a fat man could drink. When you think it can't get any better you see this.

In case you are not sure that is Cinderella. She is not too busy to stop and talk to our three little princesses and see if they are enjoying their stay. She wonders how their day is going. They don't think it can get any better than this, but it does. That however is a story for another day.

Remember When

Today I had planned on writing about our recently completed family vacation to Florida for a ride on the amazing Disney Dream Cruise Ship. Then I looked at the calendar and realized that today is the 4th of June and I had something else that I needed to write about. June 4, 1971 Carol agreed to go out with me on our first date. We went to see the movie Ryan's Daughter. I will confess that I remember nothing of the movie and have never attempted to watch it again. I just remember sitting in the West Theater in downtown Galesburg sitting in the dark holding the hand of the most beautiful girl I knew. If you know me then you know I had a hundred worries in my head. Is my hand to sweaty? Do I have bad breath? What if I pass gas? What if I say something stupid or rude? Damn this is  a long movie. I've got to be home by 10:30. Wonder if I should try to kiss her when I take her back home. Well 41 years later I guess you could say the date went ok. The closest picture I could lay my hands on today this one taken in the summer of 1974.

I think it was taken at her birth parents home in Lexington, Kentucky.  Based on my photograph it is clear I was quite smitten with this woman.

Please note the matching shirt. She had me dressing like her at this point. I should have known how hopelessly in love I was.  I guess I couldn't pull off the white pants so I got  to wear jeans. By the way on that trip I didn't get to pull off her white  pants either.



The last photograph is our engagement picture. I was lucky to get her to consent to be my wife. While there have been many ups and downs over the years we have stayed together and chosen to remember the good times and forget the bad. I could not have asked for a better friend, wife, mother of our children, and the hundred other things she is to me every day. I just look at these pictures now and DAMN we were YOUNG back then. When I close my eyes that is still the girl I see in my dreams.