Speaking of News….

Here’s a couple of stories to file under the “Who Gives a Shit” category:

Report: Lindsay Lohan, Boyfriend Break Up

Report: ‘Bisexual’ MTV Star Tila Tequila Is Straight

Thoughts Inspired by a Viewing of the Green Mile

Last night we had ordered pizza and decided to pop a movie into the DVD player.  Sugar Bear had gone over to my parents’ house to visit, so we were free to choose anything we wanted, including selections from the R-rated section.  We had a large stack to choose from since we had taken advantage of all of the post-Thanksgiving sales at the various department stores where DVDs were on sale for as little as $3.00.  Big D was looking through them and mentioned that he had not ever seen the Green Mile in its entirety, so we decided to go with that.  I have seen the movie several times, including when it was first released in the theaters, but it had been awhile since I last saw it.  Watching it this time, I was struck by something said in the part when the time was drawing near for the execution of John Coffey (played excellently by Michael Clarke Duncan).  Paul Edgecomb (played by the always super-excellent Tom Hanks) realizes that John is innocent (not to mention a living miracle) and asks him if he wants him to let him go.  John says something like, “Why would you want to go do a foolish thing like that for?” and goes on to tell him that he is just ready for it to be over.  In talking about the true murderer he says something like, “He killed them with their love for each other.  This happens all over the world and it happens day in and day out and I feel it and it’s like someone driving pieces of glass into my head.”  I realized that some days I feel the same way when I look at the news.  I pretty much go to some of my preferred news sites to catch up on the happenings of the world every morning and some days I feel that very same way….not necessarily the part about wanting it all to be over, but just being amazed and disgusted at the cruelty that exists in this world and there doesn’t seem to be a damned thing I can do about it.  Sometimes it seems overwhelming to me and the world seems to be a bit too much.  I am especially afraid for my children, knowing someday soon I’ll have to set them free into this cruel world where I will hardly ever be there to protect them.  Sometimes I feel like I should just stop looking at the news but there is just something that keeps me from doing so.  It’s almost like a compulsion….like the proverbial train wreck that you just can’t seem to keep yourself from looking at.

The only way I know to deal with it is to just remember and rely on my faith in God.  I don’t understand how He could let some of these awful things happen, but then maybe I’m not meant to.  I just have to trust in Him that everything will be OK and do everything in my power to protect my wife and kids while they are all still living at home with us.

Tis The Season to Be……Sick

My kids have had some pretty tough illnesses the last few weeks.  First Big D and Sugar Bear had some crazy virus that caused tons of coughing and for them to get ear infections (is it unusual for sixteen- and nine-year-olds to get ear infections?) and then Sweet Pea followed with an ear infection of her own followed by a minor case of pneumonia.  Big D still can’t hear very well out of his infected ear and may end up having to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist and Sugar Bear still coughs every now and again.  Last night Sweet Pea coughed the entire night….including a couple of times that scared the living hell out of us.  She literally coughed non-stop for a few minutes and appeared to be having trouble drawing breath.  Crafty Momma was a heartbeat away from calling 911 when the coughing fit subsided.  I stayed home from work today partly for lack of sleep last night and partly to accompany Crafty Momma in taking Sweet Pea to the doctor.  Turns out that nasty junk in her lungs just does not want to go away……her pneumonia has gotten worse.  So now she’ll be on her third kind/dosage of antibiotics in three weeks.  The month of November has not been a kind one for the GMan household and I’m sure those doctor bills will start showing up just in time for Christmas.

Do Over

I hadn’t written anything in awhile until yesterday and even that was short and tremendously not sweet.  I don’t think I ever had a huge following, but most of those readers that I had have probably grown tired of waiting and just given up.  Most of the hits I get these days are from people searching for the Jenna Jameson retirement story that I posted about awhile back.  I’ll admit that I really didn’t care anything about Jenna Jameson retiring but knew if I posted about it it would probably get a lot of hits.  Yes, I was being an attention whore.  I’d like to go in a different direction now because I think I have been going about this all wrong.  I have been trying too hard to be clever or funny and the toil of trying to come up with something clever and/or funny on a daily or even weekly basis felt like too much work.  I also tried too hard to shy away from politics and other controversial subjects although anyone who really knows me knows that I have strong views on almost every subject.  I just want to talk about whatever pops into my head.  Maybe I’ll try to get creative and try putting out a little fiction or something sometime.  I used to love to write stories when I was a kid…..I don’t know what happened….I guess the fear of not being any good killed my creativity.  Anyway, I’m not going to change the title of the blog because again, anyone who knows me or has seen the pics or videos of me over at Leblanc’s site knows that I will never stop being somewhat of an overgrown adolescent.  I’m just not going to make a roadmap for what I write about or make any rules for myself anymore and we’ll see where this goes.

What Makes a Grown Man Cry?

I guess it depends on the man. For some men, seeing their favorite football team lose makes them cry. For others, only the death of an extremely close friend or relative can bring about tears. Personally, this makes me cry:

Thomas’s MRI results from last week showed that his tumor is back. It is inoperable. We have discontinued chemotherapy.

Read the entire heartbreaking post at the Official Thomas Bickle Blog. Please join me in praying to God for a miracle, because it appears that is what it is going to take in this tragic situation.