Awful Knawful

Awful Knawful was my brother, Billy's, nickname. It was a play on Evel Knievel. Billy was as awesome on a bicycle as Evel Kneivel was on a motorcycle. He did stunts back in the 70's that others have just started doing in the last 5 to 10 years or so and they are using modern day bicycles that are built much better than the old "banana seat specials" that we used to have back then.

Billy was always building ramps both big and small. There was NEVER a neighborhood contest that he didn't win. He could outdo anybody on a bike. Probably his greatest stunt was when he would sail out over the riverbank. It was easily over 50 feet horizontally from the top of the bank out to the river and there was about a 50 foot vertical drop as well! There was about a 25 or 30 foot drop to the first bank that was about 10 foot wide and then there was a drop off again to the river. He would consistently sail out over the bank and slide his bike sideways down the second bank stopping right beside the river without ever getting his tires wet!

Others tried. All failed. Most would just kind of flip over the side of the first bank which resulted in a nasty head over bike roll to the first bank. Even more painful would be the flying out and landing solid on the first bank. (a true ballbuster move which brought chortles of glee from all who watched). The few who did manage to land exactly on the slope of the bank like Billy (he was the gold standard after all) would invariably careen into the river and then we had the tedious task of digging their bikes out of the sucking river mud. (these rescues had to be conducted in secrecy because we weren't allowed over the river bank afterall).

Anyway Long Live Awful Knawful!

The Last of My Living With Heart Disease Posts

This is the end of my series about living with heart disease. I hope it has been enlightening without being boring. I started the month with an absolutely dreadful picture of myself on a bad day on my bi-pap machine.

I had just had a really bad a-fib episode and I spent about the next 3 weeks on the machine for around 15 to 18 hours per day. I started feeling better last week. I am still on the machine too long but it is down to around 12 hours a day and that is overnight without a nap in the middle of the day. Although I desperately need that nap still I am trying to ween myself again and I am keeping busy.

So I end the month with a new picture of myself in my feeling better mode. Please note the artful placement of my hand to hide my double chin.

The EXACT Second I Realized I Was Old

t was in 1989. I had been watching the movie "Beaches" with my stepdaughters.

When it was over, Kandi looked at me and said, "Can you believe it, Bette Midler can really sing!!!"

She was absolutely incredulous when she said it.

I was absolutely speechless.

Steve Thompson Witnessed the Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster First Hand

Steve Thompson Witnessed the Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster first hand.

He lives in our building. We have had a couple of conversations since he moved in and that is how I found out he was from Logan, more specifically, Man, West Virginia. Today is the 40th. anniversary of the dam bursting which was owned by Pittston Coal Company. I wondered if perhaps he had lived there when the dam busted so I went and asked.

He is a quiet man. When I asked him if he remembered anything about it I could tell by the look in his eyes he remembered before he even spoke another word. He agreed to talk to me about it because he feels it is important that people remember one of the biggest mining disasters in U.S. history.

On February 26, 1972, 125 people were killed when the dam burst. At least 3 others were never found. He is always surprised when it comes up that people don’t know about it 40 years later.

“There has never been another accident of these proportions where 125 people drowned at one time American history. So how could they not know?”

He lived up on the hill in Amherstdale. Amherstdale is about halfway up the hollow between the dam bursting and the town of Man which is where the wall of water was headed until it met the Guyandotte River. In all there were 7 communities washed away that day.

Here is his first hand account;

It was around 5 o’clock in the morning and it was at the edge of night turning to dawn. There was just enough light to make out objects in the dim, rainy morning light. He had a cousin who liked to drink. His cousin came in the house and told Steve’s mom that he had just seen a cow floating down the creek. She didn’t pay much attention to him and he repeated it. She shrugged him off, telling him, “Go sleep it off.”

Steve was just curious enough that he had to go look. Sure enough when he looked down at the creek it was swollen with water and he saw a cow go by and then another and then another. He said at first the water was rushing toward Man in a smaller wave that filled the whole valley from the mountain on the one side to the other mountain on the other side.

Then all of a sudden he saw a 15 feet high wall of water coming from up the hollow. After the wall of water then he started to see whole houses, cars and even people. Everything imaginable was in that water as the black, sludgy wall of water slammed through the valley, stripping it clean. It left only deep, sucking river mud littered with debris in it’s wake.

He looked down the hill to his neighbor’s house. Paul Basham and his family lived there. Somehow Paul managed to get his wife and kids to safety. They had to run up the mountain as so many people did that day. Paul didn’t make it out of the house before the wall of water hit. Steve watched as Paul climbed on to the roof of his house as it was ripped from the foundation. By some miracle Paul rode on top his house as it was being shredded by the waves. He managed to grab a branch of a tree as the house passed under it. He had to stay in that tree all day because it took that long for the water to recede.

After the water passed everyone was in shock. There were no birds, no sounds of nature. Any animals he saw were in a panic. He couldn’t help. He could only watch helplessly as his friends and neighbors with everything they owned were washed away

. They had no power for 4 months after the flood. It took almost a year to get running water. Steve’s family was fortunate because they had a spring in their yard which the neighbors also used. That is until the state condemned it probably because of mine runoff but he doesn’t really know why. The government brought in trailers for people to live in. Hundreds of them were lined up and families were torn apart who had lived in neighborhoods for generations.

There was a class action settlement from Pittston Coal that paid $3000 to each person in the valley. Also there were many settlements of hundred’s of thousands of dollars to families who lost loved ones. Sometimes the whole family was dead. Many brothers and sisters and mothers and sons were buried together in any combination you can think of. Thousands of people were left homeless with sometimes not even the clothes on their backs because the water washed them away.

Pittston Coal still maintains to this day that it was an Act of God that caused the dam to burst – not shoddy construction.

The Last Time "I" Changed a Flat

I was living on my 100 acres and I had just finished mowing a field and taking care of my animals on a blistery, hot, summer day. I was going in the house to clean up and crash for the day when I happened to see that the tire on my car was about 1/2 deflated. I knew that it wouldn't take long for it to flatten the rest of the way so -

I went in the house and took a quick shower and put on a nice outfit and did my make-up and hair. I went out and got into my car and drove about a mile to the grocery store where I parked on the end of the parking lot right next to the road. I went around to my trunk and I threw my spare on the ground, then I threw the tire iron on the ground and I was bent over in the trunk TRYING to get the jack out when a very nice looking man stopped and asked if I needed help. OF COURSE I SAID YES!

As I was standing there talking to him while he changed my tire 3 more men stopped to ask if I needed help. I thanked them all while the first one changed my tire for me after which I thanked him profusely.

The only problem with the whole thing was that I REALLY wanted the 2nd. man to change my tire. But of course I couldn't be rude and send the first one away.

He saved my life and I don't even know who he was

I was being forced to rent a crappy room in an even crappier building. I didn't want to do it but I thought I had no choice given my situation with my money and my health. I was ready to hand over the first weeks rent when the landlord had to go and tend to some people he had kicked out of the building the week before.

I was waiting for him to come back when the man who lived in the room next ot me opened his door and whispered for me to come over. He cautiously looked for the landlord (who had just introduced us minutes before) and he hurriedly told me that no matter what I did not to rent a room! He said that the people the landlord was talking to were raising hell and were mad that he had kicked them out and I would be renting their old room.

I thanked him and I left without even saying goodbye to the landlord. The tennant who had just warned me retreated back into his room.

A week later there was a murder in that building.

A few days later the 3 people I had seen (hellraisers) were arrested for the murder.

They were convicted.

That man, whom I had never seen, and will never see again, more than likely saved my life.

It's NOT the Way to Go!

This post is about having sex when you have heart disease. The best advise is "proceed with caution".

You know the old joke about the man having sex with the beautiful blonde and he has a heart attack and the punchline is "What a way to go!"?

Well I can tell you from experience it is definitely NOT the way to go.

After being diagnosed with my heart problem, I had started to feel a little better so I called up my "friend with benefits". I invited him over and we were having our usual fun time nothing too strenuous mind you-just a good relaxing evening. When it came time for my "big moment" I did not think I was going to live through it. My heart had never pounded like that before ( or a better way to phrase it is, "my heart had never NOT pounded like that before) and once the "Big O" had kicked in there was no turning back!

By the third heartbeat I literally thought I was going to die! It seemed like an eternity between each beat and I thought each beat would literally be my last. The fear in me completely overrode anything else I was feeling. In fact it completely ruined my afterglow.

Afterward I was nauseous and had a terrible headache. Unfortunately for me that is probably the last time that I'll ever have sex. When I told my dr. about it(completely embarrassing but I needed to know) he could not believe that I had even attempted to engage in such activity. He told me that I was not supposed to be doing that in any way, shape or form. I asked him why nobody had told me. He just said that in my condition they thought that I knew better. So my advise is listen to your dr. if you know what is good for you!

Fortunately it is 5 years later...things have changed for the better.