29th Wedding Anniversary

As of Sunday April 12th, 2009 we will have been married for 29 years. I have been so blessed to have Shelli in my life. There has been many great times and memories and a few rough times along the way but we managed to endure. During that time we managed to raise a beautiful family of three lovely daughters who I'm so proud they call me dad! They are all doing so well starting families of their own and I love all three of my son-in-laws and our four grandchildren. I bought these multi-colored roses for Shelli instead of red roses because our anniversary just happens to fall on Easter Sunday this year and they looked like spring time. I love you Shelli and look forward to spending the rest of our lives together and the eternities.

Retirement!

It's hard to believe, 49 years old, 31 years of service, and now I rank among the retirees of General Motors. As of April 1, 2009 it will be official. I accepted the GM incentive package to retire with a monthly pension, vehicle voucher and cash, and full benefits, which was being offered to employees with 30 or more years of service. The decision was a hard one to make. With uncertain times ahead and the fact that in February, I was reduced as an electrician and offered to either take a lay off from Skilled Trades or go back to work the production line. I decided that taking a pay cut of $5.00 per hour and working in production was still better than being laid off. With the possibility of even more cut backs in contractual issues and benefits I said enough is enough. I felt that the incentive offer being given at this time is probably the best it is going to get, so I closed this chapter of my life at GM and retired. I look forward to what lies ahead. I'm currently in school looking to get into the medical field in Respiratory Therapy but I also have an appointment later this week at Michigan Institute of Aviation Technology in their Energy Industry field, possibly in wind power (green energy). I'm very excited about that and with my electrical back ground I think that may be a better fit for me then the medical field so we'll see what happens. I'll keep you posted.

Rt. knee surgery

Well, here I go again. Another surgery, this time I had reconstructive ACL surgery on my Rt. knee. This is the same knee that has been bothering me most of my entire adult life. This also makes surgery #3 on the same knee. I hasd torn cartilage removed in 1978. Then over 20 years later I had an exam on the knee and was told that the ACL was torn. So I had the ACL replace in Jan. of 2000 but for whatever reason the graft did not take and the knee was never stablized. This time I had a new procedure call a Double Bundle ACL implanted which should stablize the knee front to back and side to side. The operation was on Feb 6th, 2009 and so far so good. Physical therapy is going very well and with any luck I'll be good as new, almost, very soon.

Pec Surgery

September 30th, while bench pressing 185#, my right pec partially detached. I had been bench pressing over 200 lbs. earlier that day, when I dropped down in weight is when it blew. I couldn't figure out why that would happen, but Shelli said, that is exactly why that happened, it was just too much of an overload for me. The only silver lining was after 2 weeks, I found I was still able to pull my bow and arrow, but as you read in the other post, without much success.:(
Here I am getting ready to have my surgery. The nurses were nice, the surgery was an hour long, the recovery also lasted about an hour. One big benefit is that I have the "hottest" therapist in town, living with me. It should make recovery alot easier. I have to keep my arm in a sling for 2 weeks, that will make it difficult to do many things, including showering. I may just need Shelli to shower with me....I can hear my girls now, EEWWW, GROSS!!!!

2008 Deer hunting season

Well this was a very interesting and exciting hunting season for me. With the first time DNR has banned baiting in lower Michigan, I had to resort to actually "hunting" instead of drawing them in with bait. During the bow season using calls, and scents, I was able to call in four bucks to my tree. Each one got bigger, beginning with a 3 pt., then a 4 pt, a 6 pt, and finally an 8 pt. Without getting into all the details, unfortunate circumstances caused me to miss my shots (my bow sights being off, shooting around and hitting branches). Unfortunately I did hit a 3 pt during bow season but was unable to find the deer. The arrow was a complete pass through, but the blood trail stopped. Firearms season, opening day, I did shoot a doe. I saw 9 deeer, but no bucks. This was the most miserable opening day since I began hunting in 1980. It was cold, and rainy. Although my hunting suit kept me dry, my 2 pair of gloves got wet, and once my hands were wet and cold, there was just no recovery, I was freezzzzzing. Thats about it. Rachel, I spared you the picture of the doe!!:) What I will tell you is the night before firearm, I had the cutest little fawn buck come under my tree, within arrow range, and thought to myself "I just can't shoot him, he is just too cute". I let him go.

Happy Halloween to all, opps, did I do that!

Presidential Nominee David Mora

A friend from the UAW thought I could do just as good a job or better than McCain or Obama, check out the link. Once in the link click on the video. I can't believe it!

http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=46832&altf=Ebwje1&altl=Npsb