On Monday after I got home from work, we did our usual episode of going to play tennis. After a few minutes a bunch of teenagers from the local high school came and played next to us. They believed they were a lot better than they really were. Such arrogance really bothers me big time. I tried to ignore them and pretend they were not there, but my youngest son was intimidated by them and sat down and watched us play. We had a good time once we go into a zone and ignored them and their stupid behavior.
The day before our oldest son re-hurt his hand when he drove on the tennis court for a ball. I had never seen do this before, so it was kind of odd. My next to oldest son was with us and was full of energy running all over the court. Maybe this motivated my oldest to expend too much energy and thus hurt himself. His first remark was he would not be able to go in the Army as his hand hurt so much and he could not do push ups! His recruiter was due to come to our house on Monday to check his physical fitness abilities. He was very discouraged and I was kind of shocked he wanted to play tennis on Monday with his hand tapped, but it is a stress reliever for him.
Yesterday we learned that his recruiter was coming to take him to an Army doctor to check his hand. Since he is over 18 and not full time in school, our medical insurance for him expired, so this was nice news to hear. We heard in the afternoon that his recruiter was taking him to the military hotel to wait for deployment to boot camp! That was interesting change of events. He went to get his hand checked so it must have been good enough as to not prevent him from going to boot camp. We got a phone call around 9pm last night that we would find out today if he was of to boot camp.
Today we heard from his recruiter that it would not be final until around 12:30pm as to whether he was off to boot camp or not. We never heard and he never came home to we assume he is in South Carolina at boot camp. We heard they pay them $250 to buy stuff they need as he really took stuff only for Tuesday appointment at the Army doctor, so that is good. He finally has started a new phase in his life. His recruiter told us we should get a phone call in a week. After nine weeks he will be done with boot camp and have a day off to see us. He will them go to Maryland to train as a tank and heavy machine mechanic. We hope this will be best for him!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
amusement parks
We went to King's Dominion amusement park this weekend with our two youngest children. My wife and I went there 25 years ago during the first summer after we got married. I don't remember much, but there were a couple of things I do remember. There was a geodesic dome as you entered the park, where we laid down on the carpeted floor and looked up. A movie was shown flying through the Grand Canyon and that was pretty sickening, even though it did look amazing. The other sickening thing we did was near the back of the park they had a ride where you entered a huge hallow metal drum through a door in the side. You look up and you see the sky as it had no top. You look down and you see a metal floor. There were small seats all around the edge of the drum with seat belts. As you sit down and strap yourself in the music begins, which was Michael Jackson's Thriller. The music gets louder and the drum begins to rotate faster and then the floor drops and you are spinning in a huge centrifuge with your body pinned to the side of the drum. This lasts a couple of minutes until you are so sick you want to vomit. Now that is good times! Actually that is one of the times I have felt the most motion sick in my life. Both of these rides have long been replaced.
Now the "in" thing is very fast metal roller coasters, which the kids really enjoy, but they go so fast it kind of messes up your internal system. While waiting for one ride, the man in front of us had three daughters. We had been waiting for almost one hour, when his daughter started having an epileptic seizure. The man in front of them was right there so he helped the girl's father take the girl downstairs. Somehow they made it through the crowd as it was a very crowded area they had to go through. By the time we got down to the ride, the girl had recovered and walked away on her own, so that is a good thing. I then started talking to the man who had helped carry her down as he looked Indian. The kids had commented about his t-shirt earlier as he had a funny saying on it about pirates and rum. He was upset at me for assuming he was from India as he was from Antigua and Barbuda. He had been in the USA since 1968 and he had no accent at all. Obviously his family hundreds of years ago had moved to the small Caribbean group of islands from India. Trying to insult me, he asked if I were British since my ancestors had come to USA a long time ago, so I understood his point immediately! All of the memorable events happened while waiting forever for this one ride.
Now the "in" thing is very fast metal roller coasters, which the kids really enjoy, but they go so fast it kind of messes up your internal system. While waiting for one ride, the man in front of us had three daughters. We had been waiting for almost one hour, when his daughter started having an epileptic seizure. The man in front of them was right there so he helped the girl's father take the girl downstairs. Somehow they made it through the crowd as it was a very crowded area they had to go through. By the time we got down to the ride, the girl had recovered and walked away on her own, so that is a good thing. I then started talking to the man who had helped carry her down as he looked Indian. The kids had commented about his t-shirt earlier as he had a funny saying on it about pirates and rum. He was upset at me for assuming he was from India as he was from Antigua and Barbuda. He had been in the USA since 1968 and he had no accent at all. Obviously his family hundreds of years ago had moved to the small Caribbean group of islands from India. Trying to insult me, he asked if I were British since my ancestors had come to USA a long time ago, so I understood his point immediately! All of the memorable events happened while waiting forever for this one ride.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
soon to go
We received the final word today on where our oldest son will be going with the Army. He is joining next Wednesday and will doing his basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Because he scored well on the military tests today, he will receive $8000 bonus if he completes boot camp, so that is good news. After that he will be stationed in Maryland as a mechanic. He will go in one rank above the lowest rank if he completes 40 push-ups within 2 minutes and 50 sit-ups within 2 minutes and runs a mile under 8 1/2 minutes within the next week before leaving for boot camp. He also has to memorize a bunch of Army jargon. This is all wonderful news as this will keep him busy and has a real goal for the next couple of months!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
almost in
We heard late Friday afternoon that our oldest son was leaving for Army boot camp this evening, well actually at 3:30am Monday morning. His recruiter came to pick him up around 4pm today, after a whole day of restless family members wondering what was going to happen. We had a bit of a scare when he called Saturday morning for me to come pick him up as he had cut his hand. In his drunken state he was showing off for his friends and jumped off the porch and landed on bike in the yard and cut his right hand. He thought he may need stitches. Immediately I thought it was not really an accident but a ploy to get out of joining the Army for another week or two. Turns out the cut was not that bad and on the way home we bought butterfly bandages to seal the wound. He messed with his cut most of yesterday and today. He woke up at the last minute and wanted to go to church with us and then the rest of the day laid on the couch watched the Beijing Olympics with me. Nothing much exciting on, just hanging out doing nothing waiting for his recruiter. At 6pm I received a call from his recruiter that he had dropped him off, but that he only had to choose his Army career tomorrow and that would determine his boot camp location and start date and completion date of boot camp and length of his service. If we can just keep him home for the week, then all will be well by next Sunday night when he really leaves for boot camp. Just another step closer to him getting out on his own. I think he really wants to go now and will do just fine.
Friday, August 8, 2008
tragedy or triumph
I cannot say that we have had any tragedy in our direct family, but if you watch the news on TV or read the newspaper it sure seems like bad news is all around us. Car accidents taking lives, armed robbery and murder, cancer victims, sometimes it seems like the we are immersed in a horrible society.
I can say that we have had many extremely stressful situations in our family, but when you are in the middle of them they sure seem to make us miserable. I think stress caused me to have heart problems a few years ago when we lived in San Antonio. I went to the doctor for a cough and chest pain as I have been paranoid about coughs ever since I had pneumonia when our daughter was born. The physician's assistant who was on call thought I was having a heart attack, after doing an EKG, so he rolled in the oxygen tank and immediately gave me nitroglycerin under my tongue. I told him I felt fine, but he insisted I go to the emergency room right away. He called my wife since he would not let me out the door without her, as he did not want me to drive. After months of tests, I finally found out that I had a heart aneurysm that is common among Japanese men who run. The only problem was that I am not Japanese; however, no one knows if I have had this from birth or it has been growing with age. I had my weekly check up this week, which was really a waste of $20 as the heart doctor did very little.
Also this week our daughter had surgery on her impacted teeth to help force them to come out straight. Her braces are going to help pull her teeth down into the right place over the next year or so. Sounds pretty nasty to me, but she had no problem with the anesthesia and is slowly recovering. This is another example of you read about people who die from going under, so you can get worried about such things. I think that only leaves our youngest son as the only one in the family that has not been put to sleep for surgery. All of the other kids have had their wisdom teeth removed, so they survived without any bad side affects. That reminds me of why my wife hates dentists as growing up in South Korea, the dentist she went to never used anesthesia. That must have been a lot of fun having cavities filled or drilling into teeth without your mouth being numb. It sounds so middle ages to me, but I guess I am a spoiled American!
It doesn't seem like much tragedy or triumph was shared in this post, but I certainly am thankful for these days of calmness in our family.
I can say that we have had many extremely stressful situations in our family, but when you are in the middle of them they sure seem to make us miserable. I think stress caused me to have heart problems a few years ago when we lived in San Antonio. I went to the doctor for a cough and chest pain as I have been paranoid about coughs ever since I had pneumonia when our daughter was born. The physician's assistant who was on call thought I was having a heart attack, after doing an EKG, so he rolled in the oxygen tank and immediately gave me nitroglycerin under my tongue. I told him I felt fine, but he insisted I go to the emergency room right away. He called my wife since he would not let me out the door without her, as he did not want me to drive. After months of tests, I finally found out that I had a heart aneurysm that is common among Japanese men who run. The only problem was that I am not Japanese; however, no one knows if I have had this from birth or it has been growing with age. I had my weekly check up this week, which was really a waste of $20 as the heart doctor did very little.
Also this week our daughter had surgery on her impacted teeth to help force them to come out straight. Her braces are going to help pull her teeth down into the right place over the next year or so. Sounds pretty nasty to me, but she had no problem with the anesthesia and is slowly recovering. This is another example of you read about people who die from going under, so you can get worried about such things. I think that only leaves our youngest son as the only one in the family that has not been put to sleep for surgery. All of the other kids have had their wisdom teeth removed, so they survived without any bad side affects. That reminds me of why my wife hates dentists as growing up in South Korea, the dentist she went to never used anesthesia. That must have been a lot of fun having cavities filled or drilling into teeth without your mouth being numb. It sounds so middle ages to me, but I guess I am a spoiled American!
It doesn't seem like much tragedy or triumph was shared in this post, but I certainly am thankful for these days of calmness in our family.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
week of change
The family metamorphosis has begun...
We heard that our oldest son has been accepted into the Army, after the Navy and Air Force rejected him. His recruiter told him that the Army is no longer taking new recruits for the infantry, so that is good news. That means going to Iraq and Afghanistan may not be in his future, which is a very good thing. I think he feels relieved to know his future is set for the next couple of years.
We also found out that our next to oldest is accepted in the school he wanted to attend and that my mother has graceously offered to pay for his tuition. He may be her only grandchild to attend college full time! Since the school has monthly start dates, he moved his to September so he has time to work out the financing for his housing. Just the fact that he is going has him excited. He has been playing with a band at local places and last night played somewhere in north Raleigh. He plays base guitar even though he started playing drums, then switched to guitar and now plays bass. He thinks these skills will help set him apart for the others at his school as he knows how to play music instead of just wanting to learn the skill of sound production, he knows what it means.
Our youngest son turned 16 this week, so we took the annual pilgrimage to Wet'n Wild Emerald Point water park. I remember many years going for our first time and he was around 7 years old. He was fearless going down the 76 foot high nearly vertical slide. It was all I could do to look over the edge and go down as I am fearful of heights. This year my daughter went along, so she was my excuse to NOT go down it as she wanted me to help keep her brothers from forcing her to go down it. I willingly obliged.
After spending most of the day at the water park, the only bad thing was I got lost trying to find it, again. I actually turned around in the very same exit ramp where I got lost last year. I hate repeating mistakes a second time, so this really irritated me. What makes matters worse is that I almost hit a car on that ramp. For some odd reason a car just popped out of the other lane and I came within millimeters of hitting that car, just after the car behind me honked at me. I had to thank GOD for protecting me as that reminded me of a childhood disaster... As a family of four, we drove by car to Walt Disney World in Florida the year it first opened. As we were getting off on the ramp to the theme park, a car hit us from behind. It jolted us pretty good as I can still remember it. What was even more disappointing was that we had to use of vacation money to fix the car and we never made it to Disney World. I have actually never been to this day. We have been to Disneyland in Los Angeles twice, but never the one in Florida. So you can see why I was so thankful that I did not repeat history and ruin our son's birthday bash in the sun and water.
Speaking of Los Angeles, last weekend my wife and I went to Lake Junaluska in order to see a couple who are really good friends of my wife's parents, who live in Anaheim Hills, California. That is a wonderful place right in the mountains, just 30 miles from the Tennessee border. It is one of our favorite places in North Carolina. We first went there over 10 years ago for a South Korean missionaries reunion, for those who had lived and worked in that country. My wife's parents live in South Korea for 25 years and my wife was born there and lived her whole life there. Around the lake next to the hotel is hundreds of rose bushes lining the lake. Every different color and fragrance you can imagine. Sunday morning I woke up at my usual very early time and went for a run around the lake. I felt like I ran twice as fast as I do in the humid part of the state where we live. Maybe one day we will be able to live in the mountains. I am a mountain man and cannot understand how people want to live at the beach! That kind of change for us is quite a ways down the road.
We heard that our oldest son has been accepted into the Army, after the Navy and Air Force rejected him. His recruiter told him that the Army is no longer taking new recruits for the infantry, so that is good news. That means going to Iraq and Afghanistan may not be in his future, which is a very good thing. I think he feels relieved to know his future is set for the next couple of years.
We also found out that our next to oldest is accepted in the school he wanted to attend and that my mother has graceously offered to pay for his tuition. He may be her only grandchild to attend college full time! Since the school has monthly start dates, he moved his to September so he has time to work out the financing for his housing. Just the fact that he is going has him excited. He has been playing with a band at local places and last night played somewhere in north Raleigh. He plays base guitar even though he started playing drums, then switched to guitar and now plays bass. He thinks these skills will help set him apart for the others at his school as he knows how to play music instead of just wanting to learn the skill of sound production, he knows what it means.
Our youngest son turned 16 this week, so we took the annual pilgrimage to Wet'n Wild Emerald Point water park. I remember many years going for our first time and he was around 7 years old. He was fearless going down the 76 foot high nearly vertical slide. It was all I could do to look over the edge and go down as I am fearful of heights. This year my daughter went along, so she was my excuse to NOT go down it as she wanted me to help keep her brothers from forcing her to go down it. I willingly obliged.
After spending most of the day at the water park, the only bad thing was I got lost trying to find it, again. I actually turned around in the very same exit ramp where I got lost last year. I hate repeating mistakes a second time, so this really irritated me. What makes matters worse is that I almost hit a car on that ramp. For some odd reason a car just popped out of the other lane and I came within millimeters of hitting that car, just after the car behind me honked at me. I had to thank GOD for protecting me as that reminded me of a childhood disaster... As a family of four, we drove by car to Walt Disney World in Florida the year it first opened. As we were getting off on the ramp to the theme park, a car hit us from behind. It jolted us pretty good as I can still remember it. What was even more disappointing was that we had to use of vacation money to fix the car and we never made it to Disney World. I have actually never been to this day. We have been to Disneyland in Los Angeles twice, but never the one in Florida. So you can see why I was so thankful that I did not repeat history and ruin our son's birthday bash in the sun and water.
Speaking of Los Angeles, last weekend my wife and I went to Lake Junaluska in order to see a couple who are really good friends of my wife's parents, who live in Anaheim Hills, California. That is a wonderful place right in the mountains, just 30 miles from the Tennessee border. It is one of our favorite places in North Carolina. We first went there over 10 years ago for a South Korean missionaries reunion, for those who had lived and worked in that country. My wife's parents live in South Korea for 25 years and my wife was born there and lived her whole life there. Around the lake next to the hotel is hundreds of rose bushes lining the lake. Every different color and fragrance you can imagine. Sunday morning I woke up at my usual very early time and went for a run around the lake. I felt like I ran twice as fast as I do in the humid part of the state where we live. Maybe one day we will be able to live in the mountains. I am a mountain man and cannot understand how people want to live at the beach! That kind of change for us is quite a ways down the road.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
car keys
One last post for today as some strange things happen to me this week. I am car pooling almost every day I go to work. It is over 20 miles from our house to work. I typically have to drive in my car only one day a week, so it is so worth it for me. This week I had car trouble again. This time my car was over heating as I left it running too long in the hot weather. The black electrical tape I put on the key was so hot it melted off the key. When I got home I had a great idea to use some of the extra metallic tape I used on our shed to seal the attic vents. It is extra sticky, extra strong and just right for the job or so I thought. When I got ready for work on Monday, I could not start my car. I have a friend who is a mechanic so I called him. He towed the car to his shop and found the fuel pump had gone bad. It seems like I cannot have anything repaired on our cars these days for under $300. At least I am helping a friend feed his family! Late Monday I called him and he said that the electrical system had reset on my car and that only a dealer could fix it. I had my wife take my spare key to him on Tuesday morning after dropping me off at my car pool meeting location. Later I called him and he said the car started with my spare key! Turns out that with these new fancy electrical car keys, you cannot cover up the plastic part of the key, especially with metallic tape. Problem solved and now my car is running as it should.
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