Saturday, March 20, 2010

March 20, 2010

Just over a month since my last post....and as usual, not too much has changed...for the better or worse.

This post is just a rambling of thoughts, ideas and who knows what else...

I guess the first thing...I have my VA appointment next week to meet my new primary doc at the VA. We'll see how much, if any that he knows about TM.
I sort of can't wait for my mental health appointment in April at the VA....I think Dr. Fitzgerald, my psychologist, will be interested to hear about the dream I've been having over the last few months. Not to go into detail, but this dream is pretty troubling and of course related to the TM.

Next on the list, I've begun a new project, well, actually it's almost finished. I'm making a "cigar box guitar". Yep, you read that right..a cigar box guitar. http://reddogguitars.com/
I don't even remember where I first saw them, but obviously I came across it somewhere on the internet and thought they were cool. I then saw a website with some plans to build one and from there I really started researching them.
Instead of buying whatever parts I would need to do it, I put an ad on Craigslist for an old cheap guitar and within a few hours someone sent me a note that they might have what I was looking for.

Well, I went and looked at the guitar and it was the perfect candidate to be scrapped and used for parts. The man wanted $15 for the guitar, which was a bargain considering the parts that I would have needed to buy, would have probably cost me about $40 or more. I even salvaged the neck of the guitar and used it for my cigar box guitar.
A couple more things to do and a set of strings and it will be ready to go...Now, to learn how to play...
What fun this will be...
Pictures to come soon..

Third thing, this has been bothering me for awhile... my old buddy in Erie, that I've been friends with forever, that we get together whenever I get up to Erie, that even drove me back here to Canton last October when I was in Erie visiting my mom...
that I've sent multiple emails to, with general chit chat about things and never got any response back and then the last email I sent I asked if everything was okay and I still got no response.
I can't figure out what's wrong...if I did or said something or what happened..
I'm at a total loss and it really bums me out because as I said, we've been friends since high school.
I just don't understand...

Fourth thing, I went to a wood carving show today. WOW is all I have to say...
There was some amazing work there. Some of it beyond description and words...
The wonderful thing about it though....is that it really inspired me to start getting back into my carvings again and to work on improving my detail. It will take me a long time to get to the level of many of the carvers there, but as I said, what an inspiration it was to see this work and it gives me this desire to be better. I even bought a nice chunk of Basswood there, to use to start a project. I can't wait..!!

Last thing, I've been working pretty hard at the non-profit I'm with, the International Disability Coalition. I've assembled a group of IDC state reps for about 9 states and one province in Canada.
Right now we're working on submitting the documentation to the various state government legislatures to get a state resolution passed for a TM Awareness Day in those states.
If we can get this done, then we're going to work on getting the media (TV, Radio and Newspaper) involved to broadcast the information. Hopefully, this will give us some awareness.
Also, I made contact with a man, Tom Rafferty, who is a retired NFL football player that was with the Dallas Cowboys. He was even with them when they won the 1978 Super Bowl XII. Tom has TM, his onset was one month prior to mine.
Tom has joined the IDC on our Board of Directors.

Well, I guess that's it for now....I'm going to be busy working on a wood project here in the next few days and also finishing the cigar box guitar. As I said, I will post pictures.

So now as usual...to finish off..a little music..
Some good old Johnny....


Till Next Time......