Saturday, December 15, 2012

6 months later and what does one say ?

Its always interesting that when you want to eulogize someone, you always start out talking about the man, his character, his life, but inevitably, it becomes a conversation about yourself.
What you feel, what you think and what the man did in your life.

So how does one eulogize the man who taught him everything he knows ?

Now this statement isn’t made to negate the teaching of my mother, but lets be honest here, if it weren’t for him, I would of never learned how to truly listen and learn from my mother.

So How do I, as a son, find the words to give the proper weight and gravity of remembrance to a life that truly deserves it ?

Ultimately it seems, I can’t.

There are so many intangible moments and memories that my grasp of the human lexicon will no doubt fail to properly capture the true essence of my time with my father, and in the end, of him.

I haven’t cried yet.
I find I just can’t.
Which doesn’t mean I don’t want to, or as some have said,
that I never really cared.

I’m just pissed.
Completely, totally and unapologetically, pissed the f&^$ off.

Good men, it seems, are meant to suffer.


Pops would often tell me,

“Joel, Sh^% just happens, doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason, but you can’t explain it and it sure as hell doesn’t seem fair”

Which would almost always be followed with

“But that doesn’t give you an excuse to be an @&^hole. It just means you have to be better than it”

And right there is the closest I could ever hope to properly convey the true essence of my father.

A man who when life was unfair, cruel and
(what appeared to those of us left here now)
a creator that turned his back on a good man…
He never once was an a@#$ole about it.
Never once lost the faith that while there may not be a discernible reason for what happens, but there is always strand of reason in all of it.

I know, its cheap and almost hollow in comparison to the life that’s gone, but it is the closest i can muster with our paltry vocabulary.

Did this happen due to Fate, God, the universe, or simply a random coincidence due to genetics ?

I’ve no idea, and I can’t explain it.

What I can do, is not be an as$%ole and be better than it.

That’s how I’ll properly eulogize.
That’s how he would of wanted it.

So hold the ones you love close and keep the faith,
Joel
aka: Therapy Boy

Monday, June 11, 2012

Wednesday, June 06, 2012


Greetings Crazy Unk-ites !
Therapy boy here with an update.

Unk made it perfectly clear that a funeral was NOT what he wanted, his exact words were
"Funerals are depressing and I'll have no part of that"
So located above is information of a memorial party in his memory
We will have music, laughs, food and good times while we all remember a damn good man
Below is the flyer with all the necessary information you need.

All are welcome and I hope to see as many of you there as possible

Thursday, May 31, 2012


Good Morning fellow YCU readers. This post is from Crazy Unc's better half, Queenbuffness. With wildly mixed emotions I am posting that my favorite blogger in the universe went home to heaven on May 18, 2012. He fought HARD. He fought WELL, just like he lived.

Maybe I will be able to post more about his life and loves later, when my emotions smooth out. Thankyou so much for giving him such joy and challenge and affirmation through your comments and emails.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

New Post at .............

Not What I Wanted to Hear, Doc.

Feeling some better the last few days, but don't expect much output here. Got a bad case of "Narc Stupid" and that ain't helping any.







Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Let Me Explain Why I haven't.........

 Been able to post lately. 
For some reason I can't sit here at this computer for more than 10-15 minutes without my Left shoulder and upper back hurting like crazy. 
Not sure why this decided to behave this way, but it sure has.


It seems to be getting some better the last few days so maybe I can get going again. 
I am totally out of the loop on what's happening out there in the world, but that's bothering me less and less everyday.


Hopefully, I'll get back in the swing of things soon. 


Thanks for all of you out there.


Gratuitous Picture for a Tuesday-
Ok, Blogger won't let me look through my picture files w/o using Picassa. 
Screw them.








 

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Someone Stole the Blogger...............

While I was sleeping. 
I wish they wouldn't do stuff like that, changing everything around for no good reason.
I hope I don't have that awful Word Verification now.

Oh well. Just have to figure it out I guess.

Gratuitous Picture for a Sunday Afternoon- 
Swiped from Pissed.
 

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Strange Signs and Wonders.............

Around the GrumpyUnk Command and Control Bunker lately.

Sunday afternoon I swear I saw a Ford Tri-Motor fly over. I was sitting out in the Garage when I heard this odd sounding airplane. I was a bit slow getting up and to my field glasses so I didn't get the best view, but it sure looked like this-



I don't think I've ever seen one of those fly before and I geeked out a bit. My Brother took a flight in one a few years ago. But I'm not jealous of the lucky bastard or anything like that.

Tuesday, the same thing happened. I got a up a little faster this time and darn if there weren't two B-25 Bombers up there!




I guess there must have been an Air Show somewhere over the weekend and I was fortunate to see a few fly by here.
Nice surprise.

More odd things continued yesterday with the appearance of a Coyote in the field across the road. Now I see them fairly often passing through, but this guy spent the better part of the day hunting mice or some other small critters.

He was bit far away for me to take a shot at him but I kept the rifle handy in case he got good and close.
I don't have a lot of faith in my shooting skills right now so he'd have to be close.

That's basically it. Oddities viewed from my garage perch.
Welcome to my boredom.

Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday Afternoon-




Saturday, April 14, 2012

Fer Crying Out Loud................

It's bad enough that I gotta be sick like I am, but damn. My Brother had a heart attack the other night and got a couple of stents to open him back up again.
This is the guy who never smoked, exercises all the time, ran a damn marathon a few years ago........ Eh, you get the picture.

He's home and doing ok. He sounded good on the phone this morning. Being laid up and restricted on his activity is gonna be hard on him.

Go give him some support-
Shop Teacher Bob


Gratuitous Picture for a Saturday Night-




Monday, April 09, 2012

Don't Tell Me God Doesn't Have ...................
A sense of Humor.

Seeing as I'm sorta stuck around here, I spend a lot of time sitting out in the garage just hanging out.

I put a bird feeder out and have been watching the different birds and generally just farting around.

A couple of days ago 4 big old Vultures showed up & have been flying around. Usually, that means something got hit on the road and their gonna do the cleanup.
Not these 4. They just hang out and stare at me from their perch on an old barn across the field from here.

I have to keep reminding them that I ain't dead yet. I think I hear them laughing once in awhile too.

You think God's just fooling with me for a laugh?
That's my take on it. Because it does make me laugh & laughter is good.

Gratuitous Picture for a Monday Morning-




Sunday, April 08, 2012

Quick Update From the Compound.........

Doing pretty well overall here.
Have been covered up with family for the last week and that's an ok thing.

Working hard on getting enough nutritional intake to regain all the the weight I lost during the last hospitalization.
Surprisingly, that's harder than I thought.

Chemo side effects have been very minimal. That's a win.
Except I want to sleep all the time.
I nod off on people all the time. Oh well.

You all take care and enjoy your Easter.


Gratuitous Picture for the Day-




Thursday, April 05, 2012

Let's Hear it for Judge Hughes.................

He slapped Homeland Security nicely. To bad he just couldn't eliminate the whole nasty outfit!

From Powerline-
United States v. $35,131

There are a whole lot of good quotes. here's the first of many.......

"Judge Hughes spanked Homeland Security for tricking an American family into “evading” their duty to report how much cash they were taking out of the country. It contains some very choice words. My favorite quote: “In addition to overreaching the people whom they are to serve, three officers wasted one-half day watching four others embarrass themselves.”

Yep, to bad we can't just start getting rid of all these worthless Bastards.

Gratuitous Picture For a Thursday-




Good Technology...............

Is always welcome. Via Instapundit today-
First Bedside Genetic Test Could Prevent Heart Complications

"For some cardiac patients, recovery from a common heart procedure can be complicated by a single gene responsible for drug processing. The risk could be lowered with the first bedside genetic test of its kind. The test shows promise for quickly and easily identifying patients who need a different medication."

Interesting article. It's nice to see good news in the science sector and products that will help people.

Gratuitous Picture for a Thursday Afternoon-

Monday, April 02, 2012

Everyday There's a New Way Commie Obama Screws Us or Our Allies............

Doug Ross has the story and the links.

Powerline Blog is all over this here - The gathering storm, cont’d.
Read the links there, too. Highly informative and basically just raise more questions than answers for me.

You should read both the Doug Ross and the Powerline articles to really appreciate just how duplicitous these Slimy Bastards truly are -
"Four senior American diplomats -- most likely in the State Department -- as well as senior intelligence officers appear to have leaked a key military relationship between Azerbaijan and Israel."

And read what "Bill" had to say about this last Friday on the Mark Levin radio show.
Here's the start of his analysis-

"just want to comment on this revelation by the State Department regarding this Israel-Azerbaijan connection. A few years ago, I was writing an article and studying how Israel might go about attacking Iran with the assets we knew they had... "

I've said it before and I'm gonna keep on saying it, All of this crap is part of a deliberate plan to destroy this Nation and any of our Allies that they can destroy along the way to reducing the USA to 3rd World Status.

Honestly, I don't have the energy it takes to Hate these Commie Bastards anymore.

Gratuitous Picture for a Monday Afternoon-

You Decide How Wrong This is..................

From that place that used to be, "Great Briton".
Internet activity 'to be monitored' under new laws

"Under legislation expected in next month's Queen's Speech, internet companies will be instructed to install hardware enabling GCHQ – the Government's electronic "listening" agency – to examine "on demand" any phone call made, text message and email sent, and website accessed in "real time", The Sunday Times reported.

A previous attempt to introduce a similar law was abandoned by the former Labour government in 2006 in the face of fierce opposition."


One can only hope that "Fierce Opposition" gets more Fierce. But seeing as it's a must have in the "Terrorism War", it'll most likely become law this time.

You do know that stuff like this gives, Cass Sunstein a Screaming Hard-On just thinking about how soon he can get laws like this passed here, right?


Gratuitous Picture for a Monday Afternoon-

This Sort of Thing Just Geeks Me out..............

Back on the move again after 70 years: A mighty Tiger 131 is put through its paces for anniversary challenge

"With its huge cannon and almost impenetrable armour, the German Tiger tank struck fear into the hearts of Allied troops.

Although more than 1,300 were produced during the Second World War, this is the only working example in existence.

Tiger 131 has been restored to its original war time specification after a two-year restoration project costing £80,000."





Yep, I love this sort of history stuff. Go read the article and enjoy.


Gratuitous Picture for a Monday-





Sunday, April 01, 2012

I Like it When They Attempt to Makes Us Out to be Morons First................

Like in this article- Study: Trust in science among educated conservatives plunges

I love this part so much I highlighted it-
"Previous studies have shown that climate change, the widely-accepted theory that man-made carbon emissions are causing the world to grow warmer, is very unpopular among conservatives, and especially white conservative males. In 2008, half of all conservatives believed in climate change. By 2010, only a third did, compared to more than 70 percent of liberals, according to a Gallup poll."

You can read the whole thing and then laugh harder after reading this-
In cancer science, many 'discoveries' don't hold up.

"During a decade as head of global cancer research at Amgen, C. Glenn Begley identified 53 "landmark" publications -- papers in top journals, from reputable labs -- for his team to reproduce. Begley sought to double-check the findings before trying to build on them for drug development.

Result: 47 of the 53 could not be replicated. He described his findings in a commentary piece published on Wednesday in the journal Nature."


Yeah, I had to highlight that part.

"THE BEST STORY

Other scientists worry that something less innocuous explains the lack of reproducibility.

Part way through his project to reproduce promising studies, Begley met for breakfast at a cancer conference with the lead scientist of one of the problematic studies.

"We went through the paper line by line, figure by figure," said Begley. "I explained that we re-did their experiment 50 times and never got their result. He said they'd done it six times and got this result once, but put it in the paper because it made the best story. It's very disillusioning."


Yep, and Conservatives are the Stupid ones..........
H/T to Ace of Spades

Gratuitous Picture for a Sunday Night-





Saturday, March 31, 2012

He Really Does Hate Us...................

Yesterday I saw that gas prices were between $3.99 and $4.15 per gallon for plain unleaded. No way that can cause cause any problems for folks budgets, eh?

Now our Commie in Chief has done it again - Obama Kills Atlantic Offshore Drilling For Five Years.

Don't tell me this isn't intentional.

Gratuitous Picture for a Saturday Afternoon-




Good Read For a Saturday Afternoon.............

Everyone has known for years what a good writer Iowahawk is. He has really outdone himself on this one though.

Bringing back memories of my youth of Big Daddy Roth and Drunken Mystery and making it all work was a genuine pleasure to read.

Check it out. You'll really be glad you did - Orbitron Apocalypto


Gratuitous Picture for a Saturday Afternoon-





Friday, March 30, 2012

Eddie the Hyper-vigilant Watchdog................
Started barking about something at 0410 this morning. Now he'll bark at damn near anything during the daytime and I don't think much about it, but he seldom barks at night unless there's something worthwhile to be checking out.

So I'm out of bed checking out the "GrumpyUnk Command and Control Bunker", peaking out the windows, etc and of course finding nothing.
Maybe it was a deer or 2 or some coyotes looking for chickens that no longer live here.
Who Knows?

But I am wide awake and unable to go back to sleep.

It's over a week that I've really sat my ass in front of the computer and seen what's going on out there in the world.
Guess what?
Same old shit and I just don't seem to be able to muster up any enthusiasm about it either.

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments about ObamaCare. This is good. That's a terrible law and another step toward the Commie end game the Left is seeking. I doubt that there will be enough Justices who remember the Constitution to make a difference though.

And WTF is this whole Trayvon Martin thing about?
I seem to have missed the whole deal there.

Oh, and WTF is a "White Hispanic neighborhood watch captain?" White Hispanic. That's a new one on me.

One thing I did see this morning at Green Mountains Homesteading That got me a bit charged was this excellent Bill Whittle Video-



He doesn't pull any punches on this at all. You should watch it. He's always good, this is special.

OK. I'm done for now. That's about all it takes to wear my sorry self out anymore.
Enjoy your day, Kids!

Gratuitous Picture for a Friday Morning-

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

1 Step Forward. 2 Steps Back..............

Got my sorry self put back in the Hospital again.
As always, All Things Cancer Related can be seen at

Not What I Wanted to Hear, Doc

Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday-

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

I Gotta What???????????????

Temperature of 103.4 this morning. About the same as last night.
I haven't even STARTED Chemo yet!

Judging by the volume of sweat, Tylenol seems to be working at knocking it down. Will call the Doc ASAP as soon as the Sun comes up and see what he wants me to do.

I have a fairly good idea of what that will be.
I'll Keep ya posted.
As always check Not What I Wanted to Hear, Doc

Gratuitous Picture for a Tuesday Morning-





Friday, March 16, 2012

For the Win!!!!!!!!!!

For the first time since I had surgery I slept in a bed last night!!

Doesn't sound like much but believe me, it's a big deal. Slept well too.

Baby Steps. Today is gonna be a good day.


Gratuitous Picture for an Early Friday Morning-



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Wednesday Afternoon and all is Well...........

Yesterday was a very good day and today has been good.

There's actually a lot of cool things to tell ya about, except the new meds they started me on yesterday morning seem to be a bit to strong.

In other words, my brain is functioning about like a Cabbage. I see the Doc again tomorrow and hopefully He'll be able to cut back the dosage some.
As it is now, I just can't focus or keep me train of thought on the tracks!

Like I said, had some pretty cool things going on here in the last 24 hours or so that I wish I could share with Ya.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday-
This is sort of the effect going on right now-

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Whoa!! What the Heck Just Happened Here???????
With the warm weather and Sunshine, I been spending most of the day hanging out in the garage. Not really doing much, just hanging out and enjoying the day.

I'm pretty limited on what I can do yet so no big projects going on. Hell, I don't feel well enough to do to much yet.

All of a sudden, "TheBigBluePlasticMotorcycle" just - Fell Over!!
Nothing or nobody near it or anything.
It's been parked there in that same spot for a couple of months.

Weird. Now, it was on the sidestand and
the transmission was in Neutral. I try to not leave it in neutral just because of crap like this and I like to have it up on the Centerstand.

I can't always get that big beast up on the centerstand by myself, so it doesn't get there sometimes.
Don't know if it had been jostled and had the handlebars turned a few times to make it unstable or what.

But it was a heck of a shock!
Fortunately, TherapyBoy was here to wrestle it up off the floor for me or it would still be there. Darn nice to have a Big Strong Kid around for times like this!
We got it up on the centerstand and a cursory inspection doesn't show any big damage anywhere. I'll give it a thorough look see when I'm feeling better and not on drugs.

Gratuitous Picture for a Tuesday Afternoon-

Solar Oven. Great Idea.