Okay, so May kicked my butt hard...

I awoke, sometime in late April to a bolt of thunder (I know this sounds bogus, but I swear it's true) -- staring straight at my alarm clock, which was reading precisely 5:04 -- and for some strange reason I read this as a warning. I thought "That's may 4th, I'll have to watch that day closely."

May 4th, it turns out, was to be a serious problem. It started out OK -- had a going away party in Cleveland for a Tech friend, and got to hang with some Key people I've missed for a while. I didn't drink -- I haven't had but a handful of drinks since the onset of depression, which I'm fighting and winning, thanks to not drinking and working out like a fiend. I figured that the day was mostly over at 11:00 PM when I got home, and decided to move a sofa back into my living room, which had been recently re-carpeted.

And accidentally dropped the sofa onto my right knee, which it turns out was worthy of a warning. The bottom edge of the sofa had a blunt edge, which cut into my right knee so deeply that I could see my tendon and down into the ... well, it was grizzly, let's just say. It made the most horrible sucking sound as I stood up.

And I realized that my life was about to change. The emergency room people told me that I was "lucky". This was a new definition of the word, one that I hadn't been previously acquainted with (apologies to Scott Adams). The tendon across my knee-cap had been lightly grazed, and would not need surgery. 12 stitches, some local anesthetic, and I was on my way home. Later, after I began howling, my wife would take a trip to the drug store at 3:00 AM in the morning, to get the heavy duty pain killers that I would need to make it through the night. My last sentence that night (morning) went (according to Lisa) "I think it's working *smile*".

I had planned a trip to Missouri for my 25th class reunion. I was going to drive -- 700 miles or so. It was looking like I was going to be bedridden, possibly. The month was already complicated by other relatives in the hospital, and then this, and then two days later I found myself seriously worried about my son. There were two highlights and one more downer.

The two highlights -- one being an incredible 25th class reunion, which went off about as well as could be imagined (I got to see 17 of 25 class members, which is pretty damn good percentage-wise), and one of my kick-ass coworkers joining my team at work.

Now for the big bummer -- kitchen fire. Yeah, smoke damage, the whole nine yards. May kicked my ass, in other words. And, believe it or not, it was fairly minor on the scale of life (which, after the recent depression thing, has been expanded greatly). In other words, it was a suck month, mostly, but compared to recent events, thanks to me dealing with my life changes, it was a mere speed-bump on the road of life.

Life tosses you these things, and the aftermath hasn't been pleasant for either Lisa or myself -- construction people here at all hours, my knee waking me up in the middle of the night -- but it's still manageable. I'm hoping for some slowdown soon. That would be really nice.

My Mustang is almost ready for summer -- two bent rims are being straightened and I decided (thanks to the knee) to pass the torch of the next level of modifications to some neighborhood kids who, near as I can tell, live to work on Mustangs. They were like kids in a candy store with the boxes of parts (Another blog entry there).

Oh, let's hope the ride will be bumpy in the car, and not so much in life. Thanks for listening!
--FeriCyde