And the last column of my entire career in humor! This one’s really just as bad as the last. Sorry. I’m not real sure if anyone actually read these columns…but if you did, hope you enjoyed the light hearted break from blogging. Soon, we’ll be back to our regular blogging, random and infrequent as usual. :) Peace.
Here’s the 4th of 7 columns…enjoy it, or something.
On a side note, the camping/fishing trip this weekend was great. Caught 8 delicious bass. :) The only thing negative about the trip is that, somewhere along the way, I developed a tremendously painful crick in the neck. I took off work yesterday after seeing one patient, and Amanda stayed home from work to help me get in and out of bed (yeah, it was that bad…I could barely move my head without cringing in pain, and absolutely no position was entirely comfortable). I had a wonderful massage by our friend Christina (thanks again!!!) which gave me some range of motion back and made yesterday evening much more comfortable. Still painful this morning, but I’m trying to stay positive that it will wear itself off (especially with the occasional muscle relaxer I’m taking).
So here’s to checking eyeballs when you can’t move your head. :) Cheers!
This is the post that led me to receive remarks about being crude. Go figure.
We had a great reunion with friends this weekend at Washington State Park, Missouri. It was so wonderful to see you all. On our way back, the TN bound car discussed farms and chickens and cows for probably an hour. (oops, I think we were supposed to be discussing positive things we’ve gleaned from our churches in the last year) I thought, because of that discussion, this next humor column might be appropriate.
For those who don’t know, I grew up on a sort of farm. I call it a sort of farm because it wasn’t a real farm, one used to make the family’s living. It was a privilege farm…one a family with a pharmacist father and homemaker mom can enjoy because they like horses and want a country setting. Don’t get me wrong, I loved our sort of farm and was very fortunate to grow up on one…it was hard work, and I learned many valuable things because of it. Plus it was fun! We had bantam chickens, several horses, almost 40 cows at one point, turkeys, ducks, barn cats, dogs, fish ponds, 54 acres of pasture and partially wooded land, and a big barn where we had the tack room, chicken coop, loft with hay bales galore, and stalls where we’d occasionally keep our larger pets. That’s right, pets. We named all of our thirty something cows…Biscuit, Wishbone, Domino, Ringer, Socks, Guts (she was named after childbirth when her uterus prolapsed) Samson, Betsy, Lucille, etc. Heck, I even rode one…maybe I’ll scan in that picture someday. And maybe I’ll talk more about my awesome farm experience as a kid, one I’m so glad I had the privilege to enjoy.
But for now, back to the humor column. Enjoy. :)
World Vision is a Christian organization that provides humanitarian support worldwide. Great ratings at Charity Navigator, 4 of 4 stars actually. So, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I have to post a funny mistake in their latest publication, specifically in a short article called “Signs of Success”:
“World Vision works in nearly 100 countries, serving the world’s poorest children and families. From emergency relief after earthquakes to sustained development through child sponsorship, World Vision serves nearly 100 million people, including 1.6 people in the United States.”
:)
It’s so nice to see such a large organization giving back to almost two people in its own country! I’m just not sure what that means…does the second person only get 3/5 of a meal? heehee. Anyway, I won’t poke any more fun. Besides, I’ve got to run…I’m going downtown to give someone half of one of my homeless bags.
I’m not sure what we can or can’t say about our upcoming TV appearance. So I’ll just post this straight from the website…
Yep, that’s me in the dumpster (those tomatoes were yummy, by the way). The show will air tomorrow, Wednesday the 27th. Hope you can tune in!!
Madeline did a great job, we thought. Amanda and I felt that we were too scared and shell shocked to really articulate ourselves well, but our hope is that at least viewers can see our convictions in action if not in words. Hope you enjoy. And don’t laugh at my hair…they used a gallon of hair spray and tried hard (though it was quite difficult for them) to make it look like I cared about fashion and appearance. :) Amanda was gorgeous, as always.
Hope you enjoy. We’d love to hear what you think!
We’ve met some cool people lately. Some have been through our involvement with the media. Some have been through random meetings, or conversation with patients.
I had a patient yesterday who was retired, but continuing his 40 year trade of repairing sewing machines. I love the ideas of trades vs. careers/jobs. Anyway, we ended up having a long conversation about the difference in his generation and today…where I guessed that less than 10% of people my age and younger have ever entered a TV repair shop, shoe repair shop, or had their sewing machines repaired. Nowadays, we just toss it and buy the new one…after all, that’s what the good little consumer is supposed to do, right? But we had a great talk, and agreed on how sad it is that trades like his are becoming more and more rare because of our disposable society. Then my first patient today was from Chicago, so we talked about Oprah, and she is interested in going dumpster diving with us! (Hi patient! I can’t say your name due to HIPAA rules. heheh) Plus Amanda and I got to go hang out with friends from our small group (well, not our small group, but a small group from another church) last night and tonight. We played Rock Band last night (can we say addicting? it’s good we don’t have one, cause I’d play it all the time), and Clue / Apples to Apples tonight. Great, entertaining, and relaxing couple of days since we’ve been back…and some successful dumpster diving. It’s just cool that we’ve been meeting and hanging out with all kinds of new people!
But the three people I wanted to write about most were Madeline, Courtney and Lisa.
Madeline is a freegan in New York, and she’ll be on the show Wednesday as well. She was soooo nice. We really enjoyed talking to each other about our lifestyles. She comes at things from a different angle, but is wonderfully living out her convictions. Check out the site she helps run at Freegan.info. We really want to go visit her in New York, as she said (after, I admit, I kind of asked) that we could stay with her. She really impressed us with her decision to take the train from the airport to the hotel and back…declining the free limo service to reduce fuel consumption. It’s great to see people practically applying their words. Thanks for the great encouragement, Madeline, you’re a kindred spirit.
The second was Courtney, a 2-time breast cancer survivor who we met on the plane back to Nashville. From Oregon, she has dedicated much of her life to breast cancer awareness because of her history with the cancer. She was spirited, positive and fun, and actually runs a company that makes really cool lapel pins, PinkWings. She saw our gift bag that had Harpo written on it, and after inquiries led to our purpose in Chicago we chatted the whole way to Nashville. Courtney really wants to get on Oprah to help spread awareness, and I hope she gets the chance! Thank you, Courtney, for giving back in the way that you do. (Hope your conference was splendid!)
Last, but not least, is Lisa Ling. I’ll admit I didn’t know who she was until Amanda told me. heehee. Even though she’s a famous reporter, she remained approachable and extremely pleasant. She made Amanda and me feel very comfortable. I just admire her greatly for her reporting on subjects like sex trafficking, war, poverty, and all sorts of other current day injustices. Her website is LisaLing.com if you want to check it out. We need more reporters like this who are willing to risk it all to bring light to areas where darkness prevails. Thanks for all you do, Lisa.
That’s it for now. Anyone else met any cool people (famous or not!) lately???
This blog, for all you medical personnel, is not about a new intravenous (IV) injection project to take medicine to the needy third world, therefore being termed Just Cause IV.
Now that I have that out of the way, today was a good day. Amanda and I slept a little late, then went to the Chinese church with my mom and dad and their foreign exchange students. After a great lunch, we came back to our apartment and talked and played games for a while. Then we drove / rode bikes to the marina just down the street to view the mighty Cumberland River in all its non glory. It was a great little escapade, though, and sparked some interesting conversation (as well as the title of this blog).
After the fam left, Amanda and I (mostly she this time) cooked some spaghetti, for which we used actual purchased food for everything except the rolls and green peppers! Then we relaxed and learned about deserts from an episode on Planet Earth. A wonderful day of family, good food, fresh air, and no Stupidbowl obsessions in this house!!!
(It’s ok if you want to or did watch the Superbowl, or even if you want to just watch the famous commercials therein. Just please think about both. 2.7 million dollars for every 30 seconds of advertising…do the math. Probably the single most expensive recreational extravaganza today, the Superbowl is an open boil in the history we’re writing when you consider the unspeakable poverty in our world. And just because we laugh and discuss the commercials doesn’t mean they don’t affect us. There’s genius beyond belief in advertising today that knows our subconscious is never turned off, and that we can always be convinced we need _____. Be careful out there, folks!)
So, without further rabbit chasing, back to the title, Just Cause IV!! We all trekked down to the marina and randomly met a neighbor of ours…lives just down the road from the apartments about 5 houses. I met him the other day just driving by. After reading a part in Foster’s book that spoke of getting to know and rely on your neighbors, sharing and receiving, I decided to actually give it a try. Stopped on the way home and introduced myself to this guy and his pal and ended up talking for 20 minutes or so. They told us they owned a boat at the marina, but it had been filed away until we saw them today down at the boat dock. We said hello, and they proceeded to give us the private code to the Rock Harbor Marina gate so that we could go look at all the boats. See, I took the initiative to meet a neighbor, and he’s already said he’d love to take Amanda and me for a ride…forget the community of borrowing the lawn mower and work gloves, let’s take advantage of our neighbors’ ships! :)
We actually got to go inside their boat, a tiny ship compared to many, but still with two bedrooms and a bath downstairs! Just down the way was another boat someone had actually called “Impulsive.” Thanks for your honesty. Next to it was another that we determined later was worth about 500,000 dollars. Can you guess the name? That’s right…Just Cause IV. Someone spent half a million on a boat just because (and it seems as though this was the fourth version!). Again, we appreciate your honesty, but we’re saddened that you couldn’t think of anything better to do with your wealth than buy a big boat. With half a million, how many young girls could be rescued from sex trafficking, or at least cared for while their mothers were servicing their clients? How many AIDS orphans could be comforted? Ironically, how many “just cause” IVs could be sent to hospitals of suffering in nations of war with half a mill? There, three quick ideas of what to do with $500,000, each of them a true just cause.
There’s too much injustice that needs to be made right in our world for us to buy an impressive boat just cause we can.
Four years ago, my family did change
Got a new lil’ brother, but this one was strange
For he came not from mother, or a home on the range
But Big Brothers Big Sisters, did this kinship arrange.
Back then I was bigger, could beat him in ‘ball
I’d wear out his legs, he’d just have to crawl
But I taught him to play, to shoot, dunk, and all
And someday he might beat me, if he gets really tall. :)
He was there at my wedding, he walked behind Scott
On the day that I married my dear Tater Tot
Sleep much that night? No, ’cause of him I did not
Cause ghost stories from Josh sure scare Jon a lot.
I’m proud of my bro, we’ve had some great nights
From movies to cooking to fried pepper delights
Swimming and camping, and associated frights
Glad he’s gotten over his fear of dog bites.
You’re sixteen now, Jon, and a lot you have learned
Another year older, another page turned
But remember this one thing, and we’ll be adjourned
The respect of your “big brother,” you’ve certainly earned.
Love ya, Jon. Happy 16.
Daniel
Quick Update from the Wife!
We got to go to my parent’s last weekend. I went home Friday, then Daniel came Saturday. We had dinner with my dad Saturday night, then went bowling. Last time we all went bowling, Daniel scored a 253 or something crazy like that. So, my dad had to redeem himself this time! They ended up close to even after 4 games. On Sunday, Daniel and I cooked dinner for my mom & John for their Christmas present. We cooked for 3 hours! The menu was: chicken stuffed with ricotta, mozzarella, & proscuitto ham, bacon wrapped green beans, and stuffed tomatoes. It was yummy!
For New Year’s, we had dinner with some friends’ of Josh’s, then went over to another couple’s house for the rest of the night. They had a nice fire going outside, though it was quite windy! We stayed there til a little after 12, then went to Heather & Jonathan’s for some card playing. Fun times.
This week, we’ve been complete lazy bums. We got Lost Season 3 for Christmas, and have watched an average of 4 episodes per day since Tuesday. While I don’t ever want to become addicted to watching TV, it is pretty nice every once and awhile to just sit and relax at home.. especially when it’s freezing outside. (Oh, it SNOWED New Year’s Day.. enough to give the cars a slight dusting. I was excited)
On the dumpstering side… we quickly hit up a “store” on the way home last night.. and ended up having some good finds. There are some things in life that you don’t really need, but would be fun to have, especially if they are free. One is long-range walkie talkies. We got one set brand new in the package, and then one more handset… so I’m sure we’ll come up with reasons to use these! Also, an electronic pepper grinder. Fancy Shmancy. Then, in an obvious voice from the universe that I need to start getting back into shape… a brand new ab-roller thing. It was in the sale paper this week for $20. Don’t know why it was in the dumpster since it was still in the plastic. And the other goodies… a nice knife block with one knife (Daniel is going to look for the others tonight), a transformer toy, 6-7 packages of dog treats, and the ever popular mystery cans. Maybe we’ll post some pics of us using the new toys.
And that’s the report from the Burt household.
