Pat C Rendevous

I had the privilege to be involved with the training of Pat C Rendevous. She broke the world record for the greatest number of wins in a row by a greyhound. This record had been held in the Guinness Book of Records for 20 years when she broke it. She raced at the Palm Beach Kennel Club which is a track for good dogs but not the best. Unfortunately another greyhound came along a year later and broke her record, but he raced at a very cheap track.

She won 37 consecutive races in a row. By far the best race was number 32. It was the finals of a Stake's Race which was held so that all the best dogs in the country could be brought in to race against her. That way she would be the undisputed champion. She came around the far turn about 5 lengths behind "She Drops Bombs" the lead dog. It looked like there was no way that she could win. With one step to go to the finish line it looked like she shot a rocket out of her ass. With one stride she made up the whole length and crossed the finish line winning by a nose. It was the most incredible race that I had seen in my 13 years of greyhound racing and I guarantee you the will never be another finish like it.

I was not working in the kennel at the time of the stakes races. I worked there when she ran her first 3/8ths. race. I was picking up at the track that day. She ran 4th. When Johnny(the trainer) heard how she finished he lamented the fact that he had thought she would be a great 3/8ths. racer and he was going to pull her out. I stopped him. The reason she ran fourth was because she was confused when she went by the finish line the first time and she pulled up. This is common with dogs in their first 3/8ths. race because they are used to stopping at this point. When all the other dogs kept going, she took off after them and caught them one by one and passed them. She went from last to 4th. and ran an incredible race for any greyhound. She never made that mistake again and went on to be a champion.

They were offerred $100,000 the night she broke the record. They did not take it.

I just remembered that Rhonda was impossible to walk. The girl that picked her up after races before me used to just throw her in the truck because she didn't want to fool with her. Rhonda was as stubborn as a mule. I forced her to walk after she ran because there are a whole host of problems that can happen if you don't. I was not mean to her. I walked her by pulling the lead and singing "Help Me Rhonda" to her while I did it. She resisted the whole way and slowly but surely we built up to where she was at least walking a minimum distance that was good for her after the race.

click below to watch race that broke the world record.

March Highriser

Here is a copy of the March Highriser. The Lee Terrace Newsletter for March. There is a St. Patrick's Day Word Search on the back.

Macabre Blog (reprint)

I did this blog last November when I was in the middle of an episode with my heart that I should have gone to the emergency room for. It is the last post I will do in honor of "Go Red for Women" month.

I went into A fib last night.

I am still in A fib

so why am I blogging and not at the hospital

because I am never going back to thehospital

at leasst not consious

the pain isn't bad

the nausea is

it has been long enough that i can take a handfill of my medicine

same medicing they give me at the hospital

i can't get off my oxygen

its really a strange4 feeling to fade away

my heart is pounding so hard that I can feel my body twitch withit

interesting

time for bed and cpap and oxygen

same thing they would do at hospital but I don'tt have them poking and aggravating me

peaceful.

Prev: Up the

3 people in the past 3 days...

have asked me if I'm losing weight. I am. It is nice that people are starting to notice.

I have lost 26 lbs. since around Christmas. Of that 5 or 6 pounds is actual fat. The other 20 or so is all fluid. I carry alot of fluid because of my heart condition. Even though I have lost about 20 pounds or so of it there is still probably twice that on my body still.

Salt is my deadliest enemy! I try and try to stay away from it and it calls to me like it is my only friend in the desert. (sigh)

beanie boat

When we were kids we went on alot of vacations. Anytime we were in Florida we had a friend with a house in Kissimmee which is near Disney World and that is where we would stay. The house was on a canal and near a lake and one day while we were out playing we discovered the "beanie boat".

The beanie boat was little more than a raft. It was in the canal a short way from our house and me and Billy and Rhonda spent endless hours on that boat. (no I don't have any idea who owned it and from the state it was in I would say it was abandoned and we were lucky that it floated!) Nevertheless we floated up and down that canal like we were Tom Sawyer or somebody.

Our fun on the beanie boat stopped one day when Rhonda (she is the youngest by the way) was giving us a push into the canal because we were stuck in some reeds. She went from being knee deep in the water to barely holding on for dear life in one step! It was everything that me and Billy could do to drag her onto the boat and thank God she didn't let loose of the boat before we grabbed her! We would have NEVER found her in that brackish water and as stupid as we were we would have probably been diving in to find her and drowned ourselves. Our many hours of fun ended in one quick second and once we paddled to shore we never got on the beanie boat again!

After having lived in Florida for a few years I know now that we were lucky not to have been eaten by alligators too! Thankfully we always looked out for each other(when we weren't trying to kill each other in a brotherly and sisterly fashion! hehe). This is just one of the many things that I look back on and wonder why we weren't killed when we were kids.

thumbsuckers unite!

I would like to send out a message to all you thumbsuckers out there. Unfortunately most of you can't read yet. Anyway I can still remember the rage I used to feel as a pre-schooler when somebody would walk by and tell me to quit sucking my thumb or worse yet have the nerve to grab my hand and jerk my thumb out of my mouth! It made me more determined to suck away!

By the time I went into the first grade I could stick my tongue out while clenching my teeth together. A skill all my friends thought was really cool. (they didn't know I sucked my thumb because of course I didn't do it at school). Then of course my baby teeth fell out and all my permanent teeth came in beautifully. I never wore braces!

So to all you rude people stressing because your children are sucking their thumbs and trying all kinds of silly methods to stop it (like putting bad tasting stuff on the thumb - it doesn't work because the stuff sucks off in a matter of minutes!). Don't worry about it. At least if they quit before their permanent teeth come in they should be fine. Actually I sucked my thumb in my sleep until I was around 10 years old.

My mom tells me that she asked me when I turned 5 when I was going to quit sucking my thumb. I told her when I started school. She left me alone. I stopped.

Typical trip to the emergency room for me

The following blog is an example of one of my typical trips to the emergency room since I have developed heart failure. Thankfully I haven't been in 2 years although I definitely should have gone several times. I know the routine when I get there and except for shocking my heart I can do the samething for myself at home. This is just a reprint in honor of "Go Red for Women" month to raise awareness about heart disease.

Well I had to go back to the ER the other night and they kept me overnight. Basically it was the heat but it really messed with my heart. They gave me fluids, 12 potassium pills(10meq each whatever that is, but I know it is alot) and a magnesium IV that burned my whole arm. I was also introduced to the joys of morphine. I have always turned it down and I did that night too but they gave it to me anyway this time. It cured every problem I ever had and I spent half the night giggling to myself. I did not hallucinate which is why I kept turning it down. I thought it would make me hallucinate. I don't think I will ever turn it down again.

I have had 6 weeks of fun, doing whatever I wanted unless I was too tired. It was good to pretend I was normal again but 6 weeks is the usual amount of time that it takes me to wear myself out and end up in the emergency room. That has been the pattern of my life for 2 years now. The really sad part is apparently they cancelled my medicaid coverage. I thought when I got my disability that I wouldn't have this problem anymore. Oh well, I guess I will put it on my list of things that I can't do anything about and not worry about it.

I will call my dr. Monday. I am lucky to have him. He knows I pay will pay him as best as I can and he will see me without the medicaid. I need him to explain the results of all the tests that they ran. I am tired of them running tests and not giving me the results. They keep saving my life but I can't pry my test results out of them. The nurses just grunt or lie when you ask them a question and the doctors pretend that they don't understand English and smile for the 30 seconds that you see them.

One of my friends started complaining about the length of her stays in the hospital waiting room. I have never once had that problem. I walk in the front door (or arrive in an ambulance) and tell the front desk that I need help getting to the ER. They take one look at me and load me in a wheelchair and wisk me to the back. This time the ER must have been full because they brought a EKG machine out to the waiting room and checked me right there after they took my vitals. It wasn't too much longer I was in a bed in the ER. It took about 3 hours for them to get me to a bed upstairs. My EKG line was very squiggly and uneven this time, the worst I had ever seen it. I don't know what it means but I do know that it is supposed to be evenly spaced and uniform.