Thursday, November 21, 2013

sometimes you win.   Sometimes you lose.

Find a way to win. Losing sucks.


Have a good life, everybody.   Hug your loved ones. Use your powers for good.

One of these days, we will set back and laaaaaaugh...


That's all folks.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The beautiful view from Barnes Jewish hospital in St Louis.  We hope for short visits.---(added later).- Hallelujah!.   Hopefully another year before we see this view.  No offense to the St Louis skyline...I love the contrasts in the centuries old architecture against the newer structures...but we are usually looking at x-rays and such when I get this view.     I...  you know what I mean.     Thank you, Dr. Lenke, for providing the support to keep the strong moving.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Effervescent.  Bubbly and enthusiastic.   I am sure those that know me would agree that is a most accurate description of myself.

"Yes, yes yes. Indubitably so!"  shout the masses.

Can you tell I am working on my sales and marketing.  Does anyone teach a course in Crapspeak?  I need to be fluent in it.

Yesterday I turned down something free, because I did not want to feel indebted to a particular company and on a hook asking for more.  I may have been rude about it. That was not my intent, so I need to improve on my sales vernacular.   Those guys speak a different language than I do.

Well, another mindless social media post in the books.  Fun Fun.

Effervescent.   Soak it in.



--Mark

Monday, November 18, 2013

Well, here it is. Seven AM. I have been up and around for an hour and a half with no pain for the first time in a long time.  My first instinct is to be suspicious. This may be another trick like the last time, and the time before. Lower back and "saddle area" pain, all chronic pain, messes with the thinking.

Should I go change that tire? The donut has been on the other car for a month and a half. Maybe longer.

I could go bowl.
Work?
I could take a whole day away from the computer.
Maybe a romantic interlude?   Seul or avec ma femme?  

Maybe a whole day of walking, not driving.

Experience says that If I move to much I will hurt it again.   If I take a muscle relaxer I will be out for a day and a half.   I have extreme reactions to medications.  The first time I took an antihistamine I woke up at the dinner table in a puddle of drool with mashed potatoes in my hair... 14 hours later.   That is right. I said 'hair'.   It was a long time ago.

For years, I did not take muscle relaxers because I was afraid it would relax the sphincter muscles and I would "defecate" on myself.   How do they keep it from doing that?   Amazing!

I do have a knack for doing things the hard way.  Maybe I will just go find more work. The lack of finances says that is what I should do. I am majorly underemployed.

Tune in tomorrow for another episode of ' as my stomach churns'.   This is where I pretend to whine for awhile and proceed about my merry way, spreading my joy wherever I go. A social media candyman makes the world taste good.  I share my life with you, my friends.

You have been loved,

-Mark Burkenbine



Sunday, November 17, 2013

Thanks to a Social Media  post I am doing something new. I am succumbing to peer pressure.

7 Things you did not know about me.    ( the process)

#1  I was going to start with  'I am not very tall.'   But if you know me , that is obvious. So this is subject to change.

#2  I used to bowl A LOT more than most.  Another "duh".

#3  I drive A LOT more than most.   Another 'duh'.

#4  I've got a great big head and little bitty  ....arms.

#5  Toe hands.    That's correct. I used to practice writing with my left and right foot. I'd pick things up, and throw things with them.  My big toe works like a thumb and I can move my middle toes kind of like fingers.

#6   I can drive all those miles because it lends itself to my biggest strength and weakness. Driving is time to think.  I spend most of my life analyzing and reconstructing things. For example, everywhere I have ever bowled I have picked the tournament directors, the proprietors ,and the mechanics brain.
I ask about the restaurant, the promotions, The numbers. The staffing. The cleaning crew. The family life. The hours of business. ...Then I go home and google populations in the area, figure the demographics.    I like figuring out what makes things work and not work.

I have gleaned information for over 30 years from the best and brightest to the absolute worst, trying to figure out how they see things.

I go through this process with absolutely everything, but the bowling business is my passion.  Playing the  game,not so much. I would rather listen to NPR and sing to the radio than actually bowl.  I used to drive thousands of miles to tournaments just to work a couple of questions in to a few people I knew would be there.

Now.....that being said, this hangup of mine has created its share of problems.  I could have handled my own affairs a little better.(understatement) It has not produced a career in bowling either. Probably because I tend to lack tact when I see many a proprietor and business leader doing things that are obviously WRONG (to me) and costing us bowlers. Or maybe I am just not well liked.  ( life really is like high school. If you aren't one of the cool kids, you need one to like you to succeed.Someone has to like you or your idea has to be accepted by the masses.   Value.)

 Oops, I did it again. I could have said -

#6  I am kinda nuts, but everyone knows that. I was just a bowler. I am either the smartest dumb guy you ever met, or the dumbest smart guy. It  equals about the same thing.  It is like two guys arguing who had the better tournament when neither one cashed.

#7   Where were we?  Oh yes.
#7  I major in the uncomfortable with a minor in useless knowledge.  & I am allergic to red ink.

It's all around us.

 Jules Verne.  Nailed it.