Death can happen anywhere

So, I watched someone die in the middle of our street last night. No one special, just a father, a husband, trying to make a living. He and his son had a small lawn cutting business, and they were cutting the grass at one of our neighbor’s houses. I saw them out there earlier. I was doing my yard work too.

This was the full works day for me, cutting, edging, trimming, and cleanup. I even did the angle cut to make it look nicer. It didn’t take long before I had that Mickey Mouse sweat stain going on the front of my sleeveless t-shirt. It was another hot and humid day in Goose Creek, and I was trying to get my yard work done early. I figured I’d be done before noon.

I was surprised to see someone cutting the grass at Johnny’s place. I thought maybe they were on vacation, and hoped that nothing was wrong with Johnny. When I saw the two guys working out in the yard, I couldn’t believe they had long pants on. It was definitely not the type of work to be doing in long pants. The Mexican guys that take care of the subdivision are always wearing long pants, but I figured they were used to it. I think Mexicans can handle heat better, part of their heredity or something. I’m half Mexican, and I love the heat. But they’re also half my age. When I was wrestling in high school, I not only wore long pants, I wore plastic sweats to work out every bit of water weight that I could. In the end, that was probably not the healthiest thing to do, but a lot of us did it to be able to wrestle in the lowest weight class possible.

Now, when I’m out in the yard, I wear the least amount that I can, and I drink as much water as possible. I’ve learned in my old age, that it’s important to stay hydrated, especially when you are active and living in a warm climate.

When I was out front edging, the guy and his son were driving by and he pulled over to talk to me. He said, “let me give you some advice.”

I said “what’s that?”

He said, “don’t let what happened to me, happen to you. I just passed out by the bushes. I was working, when all of the sudden I started seeing rainbow lights and my heart started racing, and I passed out.”

“Wow, are you okay? You need to stay hydrated and drink a lot of water. That’s why I’m out here early. I couldn’t believe that you two were out there in long pants. It’s too hot for that.”

“I just wanted to maintain a professional appearance. When I come back, I’ll put shorts on.”

“Are you okay?”

He said he was going home to cool off, and he’d come back later to finish. I told him thanks for the advice, and went back to my work (after chugging some more water). I felt fine, and figured that the guy had just gotten overheated. I saw the grass on Johnny’s sidewalk, and figured that they just had to come back and finish the clean up.

Later, as the wife and I were having dinner, I thought I could hear them working in the yard again. I guess he waited until the sun started going down, to come back and finish.

When we were cleaning up the kitchen, we heard the woop-woop siren of a fire truck coming down our street.  Immediately I said “I hope that guy didn’t have a heart attack!” But he had.

He was lying in the street, next to his truck. One of the firemen was doing CPR. They had cut up one of the guy’s pant legs, and his shirt was open. His skin was pale, and I could see his belly jiggling as the fireman was urgently driving his palms in and out on the man’s chest. The man’s son couldn’t watch. I think he was in shock, and just didn’t know what to do. I said let’s pray for your dad, and quietly prayed with the young man that the Lord would be over the situation and put his healing touch on this man’s father. I prayed that He would be with the family and help them right now.

The EMS people put the man on a stretcher, and moved him into the EMS truck. They would not let the son into the truck with his dad. It was apparent that the father had died, because no one was moving very fast. There were no sirens, and the truck wasn’t racing off anywhere.

It’s not every day that you watch someone die. This could have been my own dad, 40-some years ago. His second heart attack happened at someone’s wedding reception. That would have been a heck of a way to remember your wedding, having someone die on the dance floor. But I’m not sure where he died. My parents left to go to a wedding that night, but my dad never came home. I was 14. I heard this young man tell someone that he was 20. He didn’t seem that old to me. Now, he would have to grow up.

I couldn’t help but feel bad for the family. I also felt guilty, like I should have been smart enough to tell the guy to have a doctor check him out when I talked to him earlier in the day. He didn’t say that he was having chest pains or anything, so I figured he just overheated. Now that I’ve read a little bit about heat stroke on the internet, that could ultimately have been the cause of death.

I still think of what he said. “Don’t let what happened to me, happen to you.” When it comes to death, it just happens. I think it will surely happen to me someday, whether I let it or not.

Show me the money!

Rielle Hunter, the infamous mistress of John Edwards, wants her fair share of the profits from Andrew Young’s book, because he discussed the sex tapes as a media ploy to promote his book. That’s just another sad reflection of our society’s morals. I think it might be more appropriate if she pays her fair share of whatever divorce settlement results in the destroyed marriage of John and Elizabeth Edwards. That sounds as fair as her present legal action against Young, does it not?

No God in the US Constitution?

The recent news reports of the "One Nation, Indivisible" billboard that was defaced in Charlotte, NC, has drawn me into an online discussion/debate about the need for legislation to protect my beliefs. One person asserted that our Founding Fathers "were smart enough not to mention God anywhere in the U.S. Constitution." Part of my response is provided below.

Before the Constitution, we had the Declaration of Independence. In this document our founding fathers acknowledged God in the first two paragraphs of the document.


“WHEN in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.”

“WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

As for our Constitution, I see two references to God, albeit one is inferred.

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Where did the blessings come from that they wanted to secure?

“...done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven...”

I believe that “Lord” is an acknowledgment by our founding fathers of the sovereignty of God.

I believe, whether or not someone else does, that God's hand is in all of this!

Moving Day(s)

Guess I’ve been out of touch here for a while. Last week I went up to Charlotte to help my youngest daughter move out of her apartment. She lived on the third floor and hadn’t moved very many things before I got there. Took us three days to get everything moved, and each day was 100-degrees. Thankfully, there was no rain. That really would have sucked.

She found a duplex in the Central District, which was pretty nice. She’s also moving in with another girl. I was lucky enough to be at the duplex when she arrived with a washer and dryer. I got to help a Vietnamese kid carry one of them down into the basement. We also carried in her couch that was about ten feet long. After three days, I was whipped. I also don’t sleep well with two cats creeping around all night. I slept great when I hit my own bed!

Now I’m back in the routine of searching and applying for jobs. Next week will be nine months of unemployment. Ouch!

Unemployment Check Fopah

Currently, payday is on Tuesday. That’s when my unemployment check arrives. Last week I received a big surprise in the mail. When I opened the perforated envelope, instead of a check, there was a note that read as follows:

“THE EMERGENCY UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION PROGRAM, FROM WHICH YOU WERE RECEIVING BENEFITS, HAS ENDED. NO EMERGENCY UNEMPLOYMENT CAN BE PAID AFTER CLAIM WEEK ENDING JULY 6, 2009. YOUR BENEFIT ENDING DATE IS 10/10/10. A NEW CLAIM TO DETERMINE ELEGIBILITY FOR REGULAR UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS MAY BE FILED AFTER YOUR BENEFIT YEAR END DATE.”

What???!!!

I’ve read that three times, and I still don’t clearly understand what is says. I checked my balance on line, and there was still funding and a record of the check being issued for that week. When I called the unemployment office the next day to ask someone to explain it to me, they said that it was a mistake, and that checks were issued and sent out that morning. Whew! But who messed up? Was anyone held accountable for scarring the heck out of the dependent masses? Oops, just a typo, so sorry.

Bottom line...I need to find a job!

Pentagon spending too much on spare parts?

How much insurance is enough? How many canned goods should we keep stocked on our pantry shelves in the kitchen?

The majority of Americans pay for medical insurance, car insurance, house insurance, and life insurance, hoping they will never need to file a claim. But, in the event that something happens, we take comfort in the fact that we are protected.

Also, if we are fortunate enough, we keep our pantries well stocked with canned goods and dry foods to get us through times where we may be short on fresh food, or if bad weather keeps us stuck at home unable to go out to the local grocery store.

Similarly, the military must maintain an inventory of parts to support equipment throughout the world, in all climates and in all operating conditions. So, when I read the headlines from Reuters that say that the billions of dollars spent by the Pentagon each year is a waste of taxpayer’s money, I get angry that unsuspecting readers will be so easily mislead by reporting that does not offer the complete story.

While there are many methods and formulas for forecasting spare parts requirements for military equipment, “provisioning,” as it’s called, is not an exact science. For example, a particular formula for supporting 100 tanks may call for 20 engines to be kept in the inventory to support repairs that are projected based on the engine’s predicted reliability, the length of time it would take to restock the item, and also what is commonly referred to as “the fudge factor.”

It would be fairly easy to stock parts that would definitely be consumed in a short amount of time, and this would be relatively inexpensive to the “taxpayers.” But when those parts are consumed, we will have equipment that is not operational. That means we have an even more expensive piece of gear that is useless because we didn’t want to spend our precious dollars on “unnecessary” parts. Equipment that sits on the tarmac, the runway, or at the dock, means that we paid for equipment that is no longer protecting our troops or defending our country.

I read that the proposed defense budget for 2010 is about $664 billion. If the spares portion of that is $7 billion, as reported by Reuters, then that means the Pentagon is spending about 1% of its budget on spare parts. To me, that is a pretty low percentage. That would equate to an expense of $300 to repair a $30,000 automobile if a part needed to be replaced. Need I say more?

This is by no means a perfect system, and I believe that the Government personnel reviewing the supply lists that are submitted by equipment manufacturers should do a better job of analyzing what the parts are for, and why they are being recommended as spares. Both the defense contractors and the Government need to be a little more thorough in spare parts recommendations, and offer legitimate justification for each line item on the list proposed for purchase.

It must also be understood, that there are certain parts and quantities that should be kept on hand as insurance items. We don’t want “deadlined” equipment just because we didn’t have a 50-cent bolt on hand that will take a month to order and ship to some remote war zone.

We may not always like it, but it is better for us all to have a little insurance if the time comes when we really need it.

I Voted Today!

I exercised my American right to vote today. I even did it without flipping a single coin. Here in South Carolina there have been some dirty tactics in the gubernatorial race. We have a female candidate, Nikki Haley, running on the Republican ticket. She was endorsed by Sarah Palin. About a month ago, some political blogger had made a claim that he had an inappropriate encounter with Haley. Then, about a week ago, another guy who had worked for a different candidate in the race made a claim that he had a one night stand with her. On top of all that, Jake Knotts, a SC State senator, called her, and president Obama, a “rag head.” I can’t believe he still has his job. I wonder why people think of this as a “redneck” state?

I feel sorry for Nikki Haley and her family, and truly hope that the allegations are proven false. But certainly her character has been tarnished even more than having that endorsement from Sarah Palin (okay, cheap shot on my part, sorry). I’m probably being unfair to Mrs. Palin. Tina Fey has done such an excellent job of lampooning Sarah that I sometimes get reality and TV comedy confused, especially since the media uses both video clips in their newscasts.

In the end, I voted as well as my independent God-fearing, conservative, pro-lifer, Fair Tax advocating, card-carrying Republican conscience would allow. Tonight, I will say my prayers and sleep peacefully. After all, God is in control.