Seven West

A place where love knows no bounds. A place where courage comes in all different sizes. A place where new friends become family. A place where a small child feels another child s pain. A place where doctors become great friends. A place where the food is tasteless, except for the pizza. A place where the social workers, the doctors and nurses, the workers who clean the rooms, are all so very important, giving love and support. It is a place where you can meet at three in the morning and have coffee with another loving being. It is a place where the most devastating decisions are made, all in the name of love. It is a place where grown adults learn the greatest lessons of love from the bravest children in the world. It is also a place where children choose to go and be with their family ,as time as they know it, passes. It is a place where students of Penn State go to spread love, because WE ARE PENN STATE. It is a great place to laugh and smile, at what you see and hear, from wise old souls in young bodies. It is so strong, this love. Seven west is such a place.

What is there to say. I pray for Jazmine and her family. I pray over and over and over... I pray for Savannah. It seems all you can do is pray.

Captain Jed

Today the weather is beautiful. In one week we will be flying out of here. I'm getting pretty excited about seeing my nephew and his wife and their children. I know that we are going to have a good time. Kristin is a little frightened (not the right word) about the unknown, of traveling to the islands without Jed being with us... I do know that Jed would want us to go and have a fun, relaxing, laugh a lot, time. I know that he would be thrilled to see Kate and Russell, and their children. As usual the hard part will be getting there. I know that Jed loved the islands. Jed liked being on boats. Every year down at the river, Susquehanna yacht club, takes children from Hershey hospital, and takes them out on their boats. They fish and swim and cruise around in the boats. This really was started because of Jed. Dave Leiphart, who used to work with Kristin and I belongs to the yacht club. One day he said that the club would like to do something for the kids. He knew that Jed had been fighting Leukemia for some time. Kristin gave Dave the names of the people that he needed to talk to to get boating day started. It was and is a huge success. I think that it is going into its sixth year. The people from the yacht club are awesome. I think that Jed has been there three times. The first year we had a great guy take us around the lake. Unfortunately I don't remember his name. The next two times we went we rode in Daves boat. It is an awesome Bayliner boat. It is about 30 feet long with a cabin. New it would cost about $80,000. The first thing Dave did was ask Jed if he wanted to drive the boat. Jed, as always, had no fear what so ever. He got right behind the steering wheel and steered the boat. The funny part was Dave just left and went down in the cabin. Jed was all smiles. I was the one worried. I kept and eye out for anything we might hit. After about ten minutes I noticed that there was some logs floating in the lake right in front of us. They were about 200 yards ahead. I didn't tell Jed to turn the boat because I don't know the lake like Dave does. There is a lot of rocks in the lake. I finally told Dave that he should probably come up for a minute and take a look. He did and steered away from the logs. He said that we definitely did not want to run over stuff like that. After that he went back down. It was an awesome day. I know that Jed had a blast. Jed and Dave were the only ones who drove the boat that day. On the way back to land Jed wanted to run the boat faster. Dave had to tell him we couldn't, that it would not be that safe with all the other boats. Besides it cost a fortune to run any boat. A boat that size is crazy. The yacht club pays for everything. The last time Jed went was a couple of years ago. He could have gone every year but he said that sense there is only limited spots on the boat and he had already done it three times, that he wanted the other kids to do it and have fun. I know that he really enjoyed it. Thanks Dave and thanks to the all the people at the Susquehanna yacht club. You guys have made a lot of kids happy. Some of those children are not with us physically anymore. Anyway it won't be long until we will be boating again and Jed will be right there with us. Goodnight

I just want to frolic

So when I arrived at work today, my back was in overdrive as far as pain goes. I went to medical as soon as I got there. Of course the doctor I needed to see was at the other plant. I walked the quarter mile up to the soft-tail plant. When I arrived there the receptionist was pissed that the other receptionist did not call a ride for me. The doctor put me on restrictions and gave me a prescription for my back. As I was there as the receptionist call the drugstore (CVS), and workmans comp, and got everything squared away, so I could pick up my prescription after work. Of course when I got to the drugstore nothing was ready. This is 10 hours later, after the receptionist called. The pharmacist said that there was no record for me to pick up the prescription, but if I wanted to pay $100.00 dollars she would give me what I needed. I gave her the "how fricking incompetent she and workmans comp are and why should I have to pay for that". Of course she hears that speech about 20 times a day. It does not even faze her. I just want to be at the beach and frolic like Jed taught me. In the grand scheme of things it means nothing,( the prescription, the sore back). Goodnight. I did try to practice frolicking.

getting old

I will have to keep this short. Today is Monday, Nov.8,2010. Everything started out great. Rode my motorcycle at 5:30 a.m. It was about 30 degrees. Just the way I like it. My job today was to unload boxes of wheels and press bearings into them. When the boxes are empty, I put the rags that the wheels are wrapped in, back into the boxes that they came from. Them I stack the boxes three high. Each box is the size of a pallet and about two and a half feet tall. I had already stacked twenty boxes by 8:00. Anyway when I started to put the rags into box number 21 I got this intense pain in my lower back. My back has went out many times, over the years at work,. but this time was insane. I screamed "oh something real bad". This guy I work with, happen to be looking my way when it happened. He came running over and asked "if I was all right"? I could hardly speak. I could hardly breathe. I thought for sure that I was going to ride in the little ambulance that we have at work. My boss came over and asked what I wanted to do. I really could not do anything for about 5 minutes. Finally I was able to straighten up and after I started walking real slow, and little steps, my back started to get better. It still hurt but I was able to work most of the day before I went to medical. I have learned a long time ago that there is not a lot you can do for it. Moving seems to help the best. I am more worried about the morning. From past experience, I know that when I wake up I might not be able to move. We will see. Them on top of that my left hand and wrist has major pain. That started in Aug. So when I went to medical they made another report of that. This all just adds to the toothache I have. Growing old is awesome. I hate to complain but if anyone was to ask me how my day was, I would have to say it hurt. Anyway that is it. Goodnight and love to all my children (not soap opera ) and grandchildren.

Toy run

Today was the annual toy run for Hershey hospital. It is a motorcycle run from York, Pa to Hershey hospital. All the bikers pay $5.00 to register so they can ride to Hershey Hospital and give the kids toys and money. It really is an important ride because it lets the children at Hershey have a little bit of Christmas. The money also goes to the children. Jed liked the ride. He has rode in it with me before. The toys are usually pretty cool. Bikers are a generous bunch of people, especially when it comes to children. It is put on by the same group, that asked Jed to be the grand marshal, in the bike night parade, a couple of years ago . I could feel Jeds presence all day. I have taken this ride many times in the last eight years to see Jed at the hospital.There was 627 bikes in the ride today. As far as you could see there were bikes riding down the highway. It really is an impressive sight to see. When we got to Hershey I ran into Kristins cousin Keith. He was riding his motorcycle, so when I was about to leave I asked him if he wanted to ride back to Red Lion, the back way with me. So we rode along the river by three mile island. It was a great day to ride. It was about 48 degrees. Now it is time for bed. Jed I love you and miss you. Goodnight.

Time to vote

Today is the day ,that we as Americans, get to vote. You get to vote for whoever you think lied the best. Just kidding, kinda of maybe. I am always baffled why people, that have been in office for years, say that they are going to change this or that, if you will only vote them in for another term. I have to ask them " what the" f " have you been doing for that last years"? I am always confused why someone would pay 10s of millions of dollars for a job that pays very little, compared to what they spent. They will tell you so they can help the people. I would think that if they were to spend their 100s of millions of dollars on doing something good for the people that that would have a bigger impact. Of course I am not a politician nor wealthy, at least not in the sense of having a lot on money. I remember how excited Jed was when president Obama was elected. He didn't know exactly why. I think manly because our guy won. At the same time I don't think he liked to see anyone lose. I put my "I voted" sticker on Jeds bedroom door. Go vote for whoever. Goodnight. I love you Jed. I wish that.........

Happy Holloween for the most part

We made it through Halloween. Our first without Jed. It is very hard. Everyday is very hard without Jed physically being here. I wish I could say it gets better, but I don't see it. The worst part is not being able to do anything about it. We just keep waking up.... Now work is another matter. People that have been in my work area for the last 10 or so years ,have had to leave and go to the line. Today our supervisor tells us that we are going to start using causal workers in our area. Wait a minute, people are leaving our area because it is being disassembled, because we sold everything to another company. Talk about confusing. The quality of the product is at an all time low. The last time the quality was this bad was back in the 1960's. The company is hiring and outside source to find out why the product sucks. They will probably pay the firm $100,000 or more. Everyday just gets more amazing or confusing.. Whatever. Go giants! Goodnight.