RIP Captains

Capt. Phil from "Deadliest Catch."
Tonight's episode covers his death.
I have seen the previous two episodes where one of his crew finds him down and Emergency Medical Services is called.
He had a right sided stroke and very clearly cannot move the left side of his body when they first find him.

Made me think about how life would be if we could wake up one day and know that today is it. The end, fini, no tomorrow.
If you knew one morning when you woke up that it would be your last day what would you do?
Cap't Phil died Feb 9, 2010.
Shortly before he has the stroke the cameras film Capt. Phil looking at childhood pictures of his two sons as well as younger pictures of himself.
I later learned that one of his sons had recently disclosed to Capt. Phil that he has an addiction problem.

Ouch...little close to home for me personally. My brother kills himself and two months later my Dad has a stroke.
Cap't Phil's memorial service was April 30th, 2010. My Dad's service was the next day on May 1st.
President Obama was in town for the graduation ceremony at the University of Michigan.
I wasn't able to get up and say anything at my brother's memorial service because I knew that I would break down into one of those crying, choking, can no longer speak episodes.
I was prepared for my Dad's service and was going to get up and say something about my Dad being a life-long Democrat and how honored I was that the President himself would come to Michigan on the day of Dad's service.
Dad's service didn't go quite as planned at least for me. His wife's church pastor showed up and even though I know the guy didn't know Dad at all he did a fair job of talking about him with one big exception.
Something really big.
Dad was not into organized religion whatsoever. Dad was not a highly judgemental kinda cat. He felt that life should be about having fun.
So Rev. Loser finishes his talk with some very pointed comments about non-believers.
I feel a slow burn start inside.
I'm thinking great...when the Rev. invites anyone else to get up and speak I'm going to make my President/Democrat joke and then talk a little about how believer or non-believer makes not an iota of difference. Dad was a good guy who made his way along as best as he could.
So Rev. Jagoff finishes his talk and then just walks out while hugging my Dad's wife.
I had also been thinking about how if I wanted to shame the Rev I would get up and talk about how long my Dad's wife was virtually homebound while caring for my Dad.
The Rev didn't take any time to visit her even though she had been a member of the church for at least 10+ years that I know of.
The Rev finally did take some time to visit her when a member of the congregation made pointed remarks to him about how he needed to go visit her in this time of spiritual crisis.
As no one else was invited to speak I did not get the chance to either make my little joke or talk at all about Dad.
Hope Dad and Cap't Phil meet somewhere to share some good stories of times out on a boat. Hopefully they are having a beer and even smoking a couple of cigs...that just might be Heaven for those guys.

bLOveG/Mormon Woman

That is sort of blog and love all rolled into one. I do love reading them.
There are times when I start searching through blogs and one just leads to another and then another. Then I realize, holy shit Batman, where did 3 hours just disappear to?
Just read one from a mid-20s woman who was a Mormon and did the whole mission trip thing and all. Then came out as a lesbian.
I can only imagine how the patriarchal man centered Mormon religion would feel about that.
Where is a religion that is kind, supportive, empathetic and basically about feeling connected and love for other people instead of trying to direct how they live their lives?
Shouldn't a religion, or a set of shared beliefs be about supporting people for who they are and making connections rather than condemnation?
Jon Krakauer wrote an amazing book titled "Under the Banner of Heaven."
It is mostly about a splinter sect of Mormons who are also known as Fundamentalists.
It also details the history of the Mormon religion that I found to be a fascinating read.
It is also where I learned about the magic underwear.
Gotta wonder about a religion that even dictates what kind of panties you are supposed to be wearing. But maybe that is just me.......
Special drawers....celestial even....who knew?

Prison Nurse

It is an interesting thing to say to people that I work in a prison. Sometimes I can see their eyes glaze over because they really don't know what to say next.
I think so far I have one favorite story. I should probably get the you must be 18 or older warning on my blog for this tale. So..there is your warning that you might want to consider carefully before reading further.
I did not personally witness this situation. It was re-told to me by a person who has worked in a prison setting for many years.
This person was telling me the story of an inmate who came to them with a complaint of hemorrhoids. Apparently a tube of generic Prep H was given out to help shrink the nasty little buggers. Pretty sure that the nurse in this case just thought it was run of the mill ol' hemorrhoids and did not bother to take a peek. When it comes down to looking at assholes...well sometimes you want to just skip that portion of the program.....I know that I would.
I probably showed a bit of my own personal character when this story was re-told to me as well.
Anyway...to get to the point here, so after awhile this particular prisoner comes back and has had no success with the shrinkage of said hemorrhoids. So...in prison always think unicorn when originally you think that you might be looking for a plain ol' horse.
Apparently these little hang arounds were actually anal warts.
Eeeeewwwww.....
How my personal character showed in this situation? I said to the person who was telling the story.....makes you wonder what he really wanted the Prep H for huh?
I will let you, dear reader, decide what exactly I meant by writing that.....

Happy 4th

Summer is lovely...go out there and enjoy it before it is gone.