LOST & MISPLACED A2K people.

I scrolled up after I had written that reply....and yes I do think of you guys very often..how could I not, the wit and wisdom, the sheer amounts of knowledge that many of you carry with you, whether it be from higher learning or just life experiences...all combined it is invaluable.

Listen, shithead, we love you, get over it.

I would be so happy to see you post more.

A lot of us love you a lot.


Ok, enough of that, what's going on?

can I share the bench?

let me brush the muffin crumbs off...

2Packs, I miss your hilarious yarns & I miss you!
Really hoping to see you posting here again before too long.

I guess the easiest way to do this would be sort of a timeline kinda thing.

What I know now, but didn't know then....

Sometime around Feb of 2010, {my grandmother was actually in the hospital having open heart surgery} it seems that I had a heart attack, this is the only time I can think of that I ever had any pains in my chest, but I just thought it was a big burp coming on.

On Thanksgiving Day, later that year, my wife and I were discussing how it would be nice to sort of live in the country, and have one of those big old farm houses. Since I had made up my mind to run for mayor, I did not want to actually leave town. As fate would have it, and these are my exact words to my bride....there just happens to be an old farm house, on the very edge of town, and it is for sale.....It is a very ugly house, inside and out, and was in really bad shape, the kitchen floor had fallen over a foot, they were heating the house with two small wall mounted gas heaters, no AC to speak of...etc.

When I first opened the door, she fell in love with the house instantly....fast foward a bit....mid Jan of 11, and I had won the mayors race, the same day I found out that we were approved for the loan. I had a nice working budget to basically gut the house and rebuild 80% of it or more. Half way thru the remodel, I grew very ill, I am a bit of a hoss, so I just worked thru it...nearly killing myself, or so the dr's say anyway....but finally I let them take me to the hospital, and from there my new life began.

If I can remember how, and my password, I'll post a pic of the house as I first saw it.

Ok!

Good news, sad news, bad news, lots of changes ...
Very good to catch up with your latest though, 2Packs.
It sounds like you have so much on your plate & at time you need to take things a bit easy.
Take very good care of your health, OK?
Oh & I like your new house very much!

Good bones..

Nothing on that house was level, or square anymore...nothing. My best guess is that it was built in 1912, by the types of wood and nails and several clues, once I get back to my old self, I'll go the the court house and research it a bit, but I'm sure my guess is pretty close.

On the West side of the house, which would be left in the photo, there were three rooms, front, dinning, and kitchen now it is just one big room. Not much of the house is "finished" yet, because of my health, but that should change shortly. The house could be a 5 bedroom if I wanted it to be, master downstairs, 4 up, but as the kids are growing up, there is no need.

The first go round with the heart....all attempts to do an easy fix failed, so my two Dr's battled it out for several days, on what to do with me. The night I was supposed to be sworn in as mayor, is the same day they came in and told me that they were going to operate. I won't go into great detail, but I tried to talk them into letting me go home for a few hours, I just needed my boots and hat, and I would tape down the IV cords to my arms, and I would be back by 10PM....nah, they didn't let me go.

The operation went fine, and a few days later I was back home, at first eveything went fine, and I only had a few spells where I had to go back for fluid problems....I have congestive heart failure....in Sep, they put in a defib/pace maker, whether or not the device has anything to do with it....ever since then I just went downhill, I've been in the hospital about a dozen times since then maybe more, we lost count, and often for a week at at time. After my last serious battle, my main Dr decided that he could not "fix" me, so he sent me to St Louis, to Washington University.

I'll post a newer pic of the house, I don't like to write too much, because of the "lost post" thing that has happened to me, too many times.

Oh wow and oh yikes.

I do hope you are feeling better soon. Must have been very hard for you and your family.

Geez, Packs.

On the house - re bones, I meant looks. (I've owned two teener houses).

On your health, egads.
Wash U has been famous in my experience, some friends who were scientist types worked there, and they've also the odd nobel winner(s). My take on all that is that the docs are competetive and want to fix you to win the doctor derby. Some are ok as humans.

(be well)

Yeah, the foundation is solid, actually, there is no "foundation" the house is setting on boulders, then of course 8x8 cypress timbers but they have been there for 100 yrs. The framing style is called "balloon"....different.

The last picture is from Octish of last year, we've done a few more things since then, she let me paint the door and casing black, to match the black shutters, which are up now, and below the siding is finished out with ....well let's just call it brick....from the street it looks like brick anyway. Right now it looks terrible, the yard and trees mainly, as we have had hardly a drop of rain since Feb....we lost so many plants, it makes me sick to think about it, and most of the trees have lost their leaves already....and everything is covered in a thick layer of dust.

One more post should do it, as far as my health goes.

ohhhhhhh

2Packs in a nutshell.

What an ordeal dude, sorry we weren't able to be there to offer what moral support we could at the time. Offering plenty from here on out.

Great to see you.

(And the "after" picture of the house is awesome.)

(And mayor! This is not an "and"-level thing. Mayor! Congrats!!)

There was a movie made in the early 80's called Young Doctors In Love....oddball comedy type flick....there is a scene involving a Texas boy, and if I remember right he was wearing his hat, boots, and hospital gown. May have been a different film, but that is what came to mind first.

Ok, so Tarzan goes to STL....

As Osso said, this is one of the top reasearch and teaching hospitals in the nation....so I was in good hands. After a lot of testing, and many days in ICU...I was very sick at the time, which included some dislocated ribs and jaw, the ribs and jaw were not the result of a fist fight, just from coughing so hard....fluid on the lungs and heart.

They finally decided that I needed a mechanical device to assist my heart, it would take over the functions of the left side of my heart, which for the most part does not exsist anymore. It works great, all my Dr's and nurses were amazed at how fast I recovered after surgery....but I kept reminding them, I'm only 40 ya know, not the typical age for this sort of thing. The record for going home after this type of surgery is 8 days, and I basically tied this....sort of.

This mechanical device....a pump, is just a temp fix til they find me a replacement heart, there are about 100 of us scattetered throughout the midwest with these devices. I feel a great deal better, the ribs are and have been my worst problem....read that as pain, they hurt like sumbitch, but they will heal eventually, spreading them open after they were already loose, is what made them so bad.

Mr Mayor...yeah it's been an interesting year and a half, even though I've been sick so often, I've only missed three meetings, and somehow still managed to get a great deal of my personal projects finished.

....breakfast is ready, so as Arnie says....I'll be back.

...we're counting on it