Thanks’ for Coming!

I have been away from blogging as I had nothing new to say or nothing was going on in my life.  Well things have changed.

I am now the president of the Centralia Accessibility Committee here in town.  I joined in the spring and was just a silent member offering my expertise as a social worker.  Over the summer the CAC rode it out as nothing was going on and I was out of town for personal reasons.  When i I came back I became more involved when I found out that the spokesperson to the city council, as they are the body who needs to make the changes in town, the information and responding to asking questions .  The spokesman was asked to step down from the spokesperson and I replaced her. 

I began presetting to the council what we would like to see.  There has been the idea to any change is a thing not needed.  Any change is going to cost the city.  The only thing is that city is breaking the law here in the state and the US. 

We had our first full meeting in the city community room. Having it in the community room was a step towards recognition that we are a serious committee.  A city council member is a member and a reporter (editor) was taking notes for the newspaper.  I think we had a meeting that discussed many issues that were hanging over the summer on what we need to do.   

I have been writing proposal for those in a wheelchairs/personal scooters  can go in the road to get around the town in a protected path. Also, the same path would be a a run/walk/ride path throughout the city with a painted lanes on the side of the road.  It will inform drivers to be aware those in the path have the right of way.  It will allow the city to encourage all citizens to exercise.  It will also provide safety for the citizens for the Centralia disabled as well as the able-bodied. 

So I going to work now.  It is nice to do something worthy of taken time out of doing nothing.

If you are looking for a book to read today you need to read Dan Brown’s “ The Lost Symbol”.

It is another book that has gripped me again.  Robert Langdon is it again and if have Robert Langdon there you will find more information about Washington, D.C. that you may not know.  It is all factual and under our noses.  Langdon will provide you with more information that you ever wanted to know.  Dan Brown is a great storyteller that is with factual information true information setting of the story. 

Take time and enjoy this book.

Quote

 

Now lets see what else is happening today with the all the other teams.  Good luck to whoever you are rooting for.

Update:  i believe that when you are away from blogging you never return, or as i see it i stopped blogging so it is hard to come back!

My hearing has returned back without the need for a tube, YEAH.

Mizzou has won three games (football) and is 3-0.  The new quarterback is great.  he is better than i thought he would be…the tigers is a strong as it has been as 6 seniors are now in the NFL; Jeremy Maclin is end for Philadelphia Eagles. With the NFL channel i follow the Eagles, Jets, and Bears.  if i followed more i would really be a couch potatoe (remember  Dan Quayle?). 

No major news here, still a quiet town with politics bound.  i am back with the Centralia Disability Committee (CDC).  Over the summer and when i was gone individuals from The DBTAC-Great Plains ADA Center.  The office is in Columbia, Missouri and it covers five states in the Midwest.  They are assure that the American disability Act is being followed by states and towns.  it is also a clearing house for all information information regarding disabilities. 

They are working with us and the town in providing everything they need to with the ADA rules and regulations and what needs to be done to assure that the needs and changes need to be made.  Will , the CDC will hold once a month meetings with a representative from Great Plains, commissioner from the Boone County Commission, A member of the city council and And the citizens of Centralia for discussion and their ideas.  WE are in a better shape that when when we started. 

Other than tat no, nothing is going on.

It Monday and the beginning of the work week for wife.  I will stay home like usual.  Do i mind, not right now.  later in a few hours i will.  now that does not mean i will be locked in the house all day but i will be in the small town where i live.  I came from St. Louis and Sue from from Montréal, Canada.  They is where you can spend weeks and not see everything in either city.  Here in Centralia it takes fifteen minutes if that long.  four restaurants, main business in the center of the city which is in the square and that is about it.  After working out it is now what. 

***************************************************

Okay that was yesterday but i began to get a brain freeze and stopped blogging.  Today i am going to my ENT to see if i could get my left ear to improve my hearing.  Yes it is blocked and i can not hear very well.  My right ear began to lose hearing and i have a tube in it to drain liquid in my ear canal.  Still i have lost hearing the middle range and some of my middle range of hearing.  Now with a tube, i hope, being placed in in today it will improve my hearing too.  If not it looks i am going to invest in a hearing aid.  Yes you read it, a hearing aid.  It is either that or suffer.  I will decide after the tube is in and sometime trying to see if conversation is still a problem in getting a full sentence i can hear.  when i currently hear i hear a sentence but i cannot hear a verb and a the subject for the meaning of the sentence.  So if you can see i get the feeling in the sentence somewhat it is not a sentence i can fully understand. 

Now as readers may know i take this in stride.  I do not beat myself up and say what else id going to be the next health related problem that i will have.   I have been through to much, health wise, so i take things in strides.  I currently have a smile on my face. 

I want to know what your feelings are about President Obama’s today’s speech today to school children.  If you have any child(ren) what are your feelings should your child hear the president?  Why?  I think every president has spoken to children at the nation’s school as log as there was cable. 

I think it the speech to the student's is to think and encourage students to think about what they could do personally to improve their time while getting an education.  What they could to and put into action to improve themselves.  At the White House internet site, there is this, http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/lessons/7-12.pdf. this is from the US Department of Education who provides a menu of classroom activities of what teachers COULD do in their classroom.  this was produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education.  This is for teachers who teach grades 7-12.   

I know that the only school in Mid-Missouri not showing the speech is this my town, Centralia, Missouri.  I think that any school can offer the speech and if the parents think that their child should hear it. 

What are your feelings.

It is  Labor day and schools have already has started.

I have been away and i bet you have noticed.  I have no explanation. 

You know it is starting all over again.  what to write, will it mean anything, how to start.  that is how i feel right now.

Its id foggy right now and it was the same yesterday.  I will go into town but not now, i will wait till the fog clears.  When i say i will go into town i mean Columbia where Mizzou to return some DVDs that we took out for the weekend.  If you haven’t seen “I have Loved You For So Long”  you must see it.  It is French but it does have subtitles.  Very moving and a must see.  There are many other French films the you may want tot see and i would like to know what films you have seen that you would recommend.  I love art house films and major films that have come out in DVD. 

Also locally Centralia has opened a recreation . center.  It is great where now the whole town goes to. 

I was going to a locally to a private fitness center but i can the rec center has larger space and offers more than Apex.  

Beside the treadmills, the bicycles, free weights and exercise machines, it has a basket ball court where a full game of basketball can be played  or two small courts where two games can be played at the same time.  Also i the court area when games are not being played they have badminton nets and it appeasers that the are going to have a badminton league set up at night. 

They also have a NEOS room. 

where you can test your response of response to lights.  It is more fun and if you are not wanting to test your vision it is fun and it is a workout after doing it for fifteen minutes.  The last time i saw a machine like that was when i was recovering from my stroke and they wanted to time my response time so i could drive again.  

The rec center also have a room where you can play ping pong, air hockey, a game i have seen all the time but i do not know the name of it.  Also there is a Wii where kids can play their games.

  There is also a room called the Kid’s Zone.  This is where the little one’s can play with windows so the parents working out in the cardio area can where mom and dads can look inside to make sure their kids are okay. 

I hope all a hope that you enjoy your Labor Day.  Have a safe one ……and remember the MDA telethon and if you can donate if you can.

Tomorrow the signing of the Declaration of Independence was signed by our forefathers occurred.  233 years later we take the day to celebrate that day. 

So everyone have a great weekend and a safe one. 

Summer is H*ll. it is hot, storms and high winds, humid; what else can i say?  The summer here drains me.  Then all the news of deaths has not cause me to move, except my emotions. 

I need to move as next week we leave for Haiti and Santo Domingo.  We need to get everything taken care of this week before we go.  I need to move.  Well, it is going 71 degrees and the high is going to be eighty, much better. 

I guess that is why i haven't blogged for a while.  No gumption.  Plus i have nothing to talk about. 

Well, how about this; I wake up, drink coffee, fall asleep (nap) around noon, wake up, get something to eat, etc, etc., etc.  How is that about an active summer?  I am not as young that my mind tells me i am.  Darn it!!

Okay folks, it is hot outside.

It is summer, and I have spare time.

In this heat what is someone to do?

      ?    

 

 

     ?       

 

 

       ?         

 

 

    ?

*

I am dry and i do not mean thirsty. 

 

I mean FRIED!!!  

 

 

My  

 

is .

 

Ergo, nothing to

 . 

We have purchased tickets to Haiti.  This year we will spend a week in Santo Domingo and the return to Haiti for another week.  We will see a different side of C*rl  and D*wn are working with USAID.  Their offices in in the US embassy so I am hopping to meet diplomats of many other countries who have embassies in Pot Au Prince I think that this is going to be a learning and educational experience and i am very excited. 

As we are going to spends time on the majority of the time we went to get some of the items that we could not fins in Columbia.  We knew that the outlet mall in the Lake of the Ozarks.  We find stores that opened up in the mall that ere not there the last time we were there.  A totes outlet store opened up and i wanted to get some foot wear so i could get them wet when i am am at the beach or in the swimming pool (As C*rl and D*nm  have one as they moved to another living compound nearer to the embassy and where others have). I plan to go swimming with C*rl, Jr.  He just had turned four years old last month so we will be there for another belated birthday party.  I asked D*wn not to cut his hair as last time he had a mop of curly, curly hair. 

Doesn’t he make you smile with that mop?  I wanted to see him with that mop before she cuts it the mop off. 

I am going to work put at the new rec center the city  built  for the citizens to use.  I plan to lose twenty to thirty pounds before we take off  next months.  I think that will make me look like a baby whale, not like a daddy whale!  Don’t you think that is a good goal?

A short note. when something personal it is hard to write about it.  I feel fine to blog about it but my wife does not like people that blog.  That is why i asked my question of you.  When i blogged about Br@@n.  She will see this blog entry if I did not edit when she looks for more when looks for more information via the internet, i.e. Bing, My  past blogs shows up.   

She feels uncomfortable about it.  I am going to take here concern to heart and edit my entries.  Two people, two views. 

We are going to see ah th***ist this morning due to the passing last month, or so.  Friday we are going to a group about also. I am sure you all know that it will take time. 

I have my first meeting with the CDC (Centralia Disability Committee) to walk through ht he town with the mayor and the town council and the chamber of commerce and show them how it is to travel the town and enter businesses and show the need for changes to be corrected.  We are going to investigate what assistance is available to the town and the business for appropriate changes needed. 

I hope all is well with all that rain/storm in the northeast right now.  The weather appears not to change, winter, spring, summer or fall.  Take care all.  

Thank to all of you who responded to the last blog.  It was nice to see that you are, all of you, started to blog to beginning to write. 

It has been a busy week.  sue and i went up to St. Louis on Thursday to have a belated birthday gift to my mother.  We took her to the restaurant in the city called vin De Set.  In english translation it means 1717.  1717 is the adress of the resturant.  This is the place were Sue took her frewnch classes for a true french meal.  It was my first time there.  My mom has heard about it also never has been there.   It was a great meal.The french flavor of the meals came through like i never had before.  I smoked smoked crepes with capers (Jen, i believe we need to discuss them again, I had a green round salty , items that i take as capers.  It did not look like herring that i was picturing).  My mom had another type of crepes. Sue had a Monte Cristo .  Each meal was presented in a way that we world receive in France.  Wonderful. 

A new recreation center just opened this week  herein town.  It is not what i expected.  It id better.  Sue and i took a tour before it open for business last week and it provides more that were i am currently going.  I plan to go there today or tomorrow try it out. 

Last week i read the newspaper in town and heard that the mayor has created a Centralia Accessibility committee to enhance the city to comply with the ADA (American Disability Act) for the local merchants and to locate a grant to assist the city and merchants with the cost of the modifications that may be needed.  I have spoken with the original members of the committee and offered my help with knowledge and working with The Services for Independent Living  as a board member as well as my education.  It is in the beginning but i hope to provide go see advancement here in town.