Pooh and Piglet

Wish I Had Thought of This

The nerd in me wishes I had thought of this at one time or another:


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Happy Birthday!!

Today is my Sweetie's birthday. We have known each other since since 1975; what is that? Thirty-four years? Sounds like a long time, doesn't it? But, it's not really (unless I try to remember something that happened oh-so many years ago - then it seems like forever).

Happy Birthday Rockandy! You are my Heart and my Rock!

Guam... Ah, the Memories...

When I made a reference to Guam in my last post, Lori (from Hahn at Home) commented that she had heard that brown snakes come up through the toilets in Guam.

Now, I gotta say that that is something I never experienced in the two and a half years I lived there. Not only that, I have never even heard that particular urban legend until today. Eeeuuuuw! Yes, there are sea snakes in the shallow waters off Guam. I lived in an apartment on the beach in Tamuning, and I never saw sea snakes there. On the other side of the island, some friends saw sea snakes and came screaming out of the water. It was pretty funny watching them run all the way in! But, I never saw a brown snake. A shrew? Yup. No snakes. Cockroaches as big as your hand? Yup. Coconut crabs as big as your head? Yup. Never saw a brown snake.

I feel deprived.

But, Lori got me to reminiscing. So, here's a post from a couple years ago on my old blog (Life as a Parent). I thought I might re-post it here because, well, I love the picture of yers truly at around 90 feet! The water runs about 85°. How lovely...

First posted 4/21/2007:

Many, many years ago (I really do hate to think just how long ago it was) I lived on the island of Guam in the Mariannas Islands. Guam is one of those places that causes polarizing opinions. It's a place you can love, or you can hate.

I was fortunate - and I really loved Guam. While it could be said that I didn't like being just on Guam for over two years, I didn't mind taking advantage of being there. I was single, into water sports, and ready for adventure.

Having spent much of my T.V. teen years watching Jacques Cousteau explore shipwreck after shipwreck, I just had to get in the water and do some exploring all on my own. This is something I dreamed of doing, and now it would actually be possible. So, I got my PADI certification and no one could stop me.

The accompanying picture of me was taken along a very steep wall - I am hanging between 80-100 feet below the surface, black fan coral can be seen near my feet. (This was a planned decompression dive.) Not far from here was an underwater grotto where we would dive into the cave and swim about 60 feet (horizontal) to emerge through a large hole in the side of the cave. All around us were beautiful corals and fishes. I was swimming and twirling 360 degrees, drinking in everything. My dive buddy had a camera; I was poor, and did not. Back in the days of film and plexiglas camera housings, I could not afford an under-water camera - Nikonos - or a housing for my Pentax. So, the precious few photos given from dive buddies are all I have from that time and serve to remind me of beauty and youth.

I need to find some warm waters -- anyone for a trip to Cozumel?

(Hey, if you're from Guam reading this, drop me a quick comment and let me know you were here. I'd love hearing from you!)

On the CPM Again, & again & again...

"Back in the saddle again...."

For your viewing pleasure, here is the knee 3wks out. That big ol' honkin' long pinkish-white thing there? That's from the original surgery, 1977, Agana, Guam. No arthroscopic surgery in those days, nosireee! I wore a plaster cast from the top of my thigh to my ankle. I never hated sweat so much in my life! And the itching? Oh, pu-leeeze release me!

This, today my friends, is a cakewalk by comparison.

-- Posted From My "Mobile Device"

ACL Update & Discipline

Peg asks, "How's your knee rehab coming along?" Thanks for asking, Peg!

It has now been 3 weeks since my ACL reconstruction. I am totally pleased & amazed with the lack of pain and the rapidity of recovery. I can bend my knee about 110°, and when I go to PT tomorrow, my therapist said she may let me get on the reclining cycle for a while. Depends upon how much I can flex the joint on my own (ie. my muscles do the work of getting my knee bent, not by cheating with my hands holding it flexed!).

I'm going stir crazy with the limitations - going up and down stairs is a trial in patience. But that's getting better, too. I just have to keep in mind that this is an investment of my time in the health of my knee. I also look at it as a view into the future if I don't do everything to recover 100%. I do not want to be disabled. That, my friends, is to be avoided entirely - whenever possible. Needless to say, I suppose, but I find it helps to articulate it.

I'm working from home right now, and finding focus is hard. O.M.G. I never thought I'd say this, but I think I prefer working at the office! I do have my own workspace at home, but there are so many things I want do that have nothing whatsoever to do with work.

I'll figure it out... Discipline. Yeh. That's it. Discipline.

Have I Figured this Life Out Yet? ...Part Two

So, I've been doing a lot of thinking. This is not necessarily good, but that's what the brain is for, right? It can't help itself. Somehow it just keeps on thinking. No help from the peanut gallery needed. When last we talked about family secrets - here - I mentioned that I didn't have any notion that I had two brothers. Heck, I only knew about one brother - that stinky, annoying turd that was always teasing and picking on me. And now I had another brother??? Older than the first one? Please say it ain't so.

It was.

I seem to have been born into a world of secrets. I didn't know it at the time. Wasn't even really aware of it. Do you know that keeping some secrets can be a betrayal? It's a betrayal of heart, of hopes and of dreams, and truth. Somehow it feels like much of my family life was shaded by closely guarded secrets. Funny thing about secrets. One way or another they do come out. What you've hidden away from others, and from yourself, may fester and ferment, and morph into something totally unexpected. There's no control when you hide something away from your heart.

My half-brother was the first major family secret I learned about as a child. It wouldn't be until I was 50 that I would learn of yet another sibling - this time a full-sibling.

But, I don't want to get ahead of myself. Stay tuned.

As it turned out, I came to consider my half-brother Ron the more trust-worthy of my siblings. He is a straight-shooter, kind-hearted and smart. He always had a smile and hug for me, never selfish. There's not much to say about my other brother. Oh, he was an okay brother to me, but kind of distant. We were relatively close when I was 16 years old and he was leaving for Viet Nam - stationed in Cam Rahn Bay. He actually let me use his Forest Green Karmann Ghia VW while he was gone. That was cool. But, after his tour, he and I never much bonded. It probably didn't help that he was stationed in Florida and has lived there to this day. Still, when we did get together - it was always oil and water.

Life goes on, and I learned to keep my own secret, because my parents were so over-bearing in their world view (can you say "ultra-conservative?"), I could not bring myself to discuss anything of this nature with them. I think I have identified as lesbian since high school. Maybe even before that, but clearly I had leanings in that direction in the late 60's, early 70's. I really had no clue what I was feeling. I just knew that when I dated guys, there was never a spark, and hardly an interest. All my girlfriends were head-over-heels for guys. Me? Not so much. But, I was clueless even when my fantasies turned to the girls I knew and liked so much.

Until college. I lived in the dorm of a Catholic college, while attending a commercial photography school nearby. Ha! My parents must've thought I would stay out of trouble that way. The joke was on them - only they didn't know it. I think Catholic girls are the most risk-taking females on the planet. Sure seemed that way to me. Had my first ever love & crush there. Painfully wonderful. Painfully secretive. Wonderfully involving. Whew!

So my world became Dorothy's Lively Secret. Indeed, little did I see that I was following in the footsteps of my family. Indeed, it was not the healthiest way to become an adult.

Then I made it worse. I joined the Navy. In those days there was no "Don't ask; don't tell." It was more simple than that:

"Hide."

Still, it was amazing how many cool women I would meet in the Navy. It actually was liberating, in a warped kind of way. It was also where I would meet my future wife - in Keflavik, Iceland, of all places...

Does all this make sense? Ask me questions if you're curious about anything.