Random Insomnia

As I sit here at 1:30 in the morning I am tired, yet I can not sleep. I've had a lot on my plate as of late and I'm starting to feel the effects. Work has been all over the place, my church has asked me to do a lot and I had a little family situation:

Work Front

I don't know what it is about Raleigh, but nothing interesting will happen for a long time and then all the sudden we have major news events every day. I blame Duke vs UNC for the start of my work stress. As I have mentioned I do not like Chapel Hill and yet JDOG-17 saw it fit to send be there to cover the possible riots if the Tarheels won the game. For the most part the night went smooth... except that I got hit by a car. I had a guy want to park next to the live truck and we put cones up so no one couldn't. Lets just say he started off on the wrong foot with me and I didn't make things easier. I started to move my cones and he guns it and swipes my arm. I am still not sure how he missed my foot. Luckily for me Shawn was there as well as two reporters and an intern. Come to find out later he was running late for a radio interview. That's ass, for nearly running me over so you can go to another media outlet.

After the brush fires, there was an explosion outside downtown Raleigh. Someone tried to take live mortar shells to a scrap yard and two went boom. As the night side crew Boston Stevie and I got to baby sit the scrap yard as the military decides what to do with the other 40 shells. Well the military gets the great idea to start blowing them up on site. Yeah that went over real well with all the locals who had to be evacuated or kept hearing explosions all night long.

One Church Two Locations Not Enough J Dog

I go to a church that meets in a movie theater, it's different, but The Wife and I like it. Since land is getting very expensive here, and we are out growing the current theater, we are opening in a second site. The new expansion is in Wake Forest, so now we only get to drive 10 minutes instead of 30. But there is a catch here, they are not increasing the ministry staff. How is that possible you may ask? That's where I come in, they are currently going to tape a sermon in advance, so I have been tapped to help. I have spent the majority of my off time at the church trying to help them figure out how to make this work. It's not that bad, except at times I feel like I'm trying to move a mountain. They want to save money, yet make it high end; use my skills, but use an editing system I've never touched; try lighting with 5 times the light needed, adjust it to make it work. I don't mind this extra work load, it's that my normal job has started to see a little bit of an effect from it. Hopefully after the opening this week everything will calm down.

Family

I was working Sunday and The Wife called and told me that my grandfather is not doing well. He is starting to have kidney failure. After talking to my mom, I guess it got to the point where she didn't think he was going to make to the end of the week. He's 94 and has led a full life, but he's my grandfather! He lived next door and I would go over every Monday and Friday and stay till my parents got home. When I was young and we moved around a lot. I would stay with them as the family packed. I still haven't gotten over the death of my grandmother and that was 6 years ago. I just can't imagine not having him here. Over the last few years I have taken him forgranted, I hate seeing him in a nursing home, it's just hard and makes me realize his mortality.

He did make it through and is getting better, no longer are we 100% worried (more like 50%) yet I am still shaken by this. I am actually wanting to get back home and currently there is no way to make that seven hour drive and not kill myself even more. With this news we were planning a trip to just Columbus in June and now we may have to include Ironton, just so I can visit.

Enough random ramblings for the night, hopefully I can get to sleep soon.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day has for the most part turned into a nothing more than a day to cook out. As I scanned the newspaper and all the local news for a parade I noticed that, well there wasn't one. It seems the thing in North Carolina to do is have a observation ceremony. I grew up in a town where memorial day was well an event. Back in 1868 the town of Ironton decided to celebrate what was then known as Decoration Day with a parade. Every year since then the town has had a parade rain or shine, which has given the town a the distinction of having the longest continuous Memorial Day parade in the country.

The parade is not why I am posting, since it is a day or remembrance, as I watch Band of Brothers I am remembering my Grandfather Everett Eaches. Just this past week he has turned 93 years old and this will be the first that he will not be able to go to the parade. Back in January as the Chicago Bears found their way into the Super Bowl I call home with joy. My dad seemed a little out of sorts and I asked if I could talk to mom. "She's at the hospital right now." After some prodding I find out that paw paw (as we all call him) had a nasty fall in the parking lot of a tire shop. The worst par was he was having problems remembering where he left his car and how he got to the hospital. This scared me the most, a few years back I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's and the day she forgot who I was still haunts me.

Luckily he recovered, but we had to do something none of us wanted to do, we put him in a nursing home. For paw paw this was the worst thing in the world. The one thing he had left was his independence and now this was being taken away from him. he rebelled as a scorned teenage, but slowly he has started to settle in. I don't think he will ever get us to it, but that is his nature.

He is a man that has done some much with so little. He grew up in the era of the Great Depression and was born in the small blip on the map known as Superior, Ohio. It's so small most Ohio maps don't even have it listed. He dropped out of high school during his sophomore year because a fellow classmate stole his shop project and that was going to make him fail. So he thought, I might as well drop out. Then came WWII, he enlisted and served time in Korea as a cook. One of my favorite stories was about a typhoon that hit and all they had to eat for a week was strawberries and bananas, to this day he refuses to eat either.

After the war he found his way into the local Oldsmobile shop as a mechanic and worked his way to head mechanic. One of the best perks was going to Detroit to see the auto show and look at all the new cars coming out. Then the city of Ironton came calling, they needed a new head of the city streets. He was now in charge of all the streets, the city fleet of cars and trucks and since Ironton sits on the Ohio River he was in charge of the cities flood walls. I still remember a call not to long ago, where the city contacted him because there was no one who could remember how to set up the walls so they called the man who knew them best, mind you he retired back in the mid 70s.

While I was in college I remember my grandfather getting a physical. Something he did every few years. They put him on a treadmill and had him walk. He was suppose to tell them when he got winded or tired. After 10 minutes they ask him if he wants to stop, "No I'm fine." they kept going "Are you out of breath?" "No, I'm still good." as he continued to walk. Finally they made him stop. They asked what kind of exercise he did every week. "Well, I mow the lawn twice a week, I play golf three times a week." For a man in his 80s they said he was fit as someone twenty years younger.

To see this great man no be able to do as he wishes is hard. I know he's 93 and will not live forever, but if one man could I'd say it is Everett Eaches.