Give Life Month

April is organ donation awareness month sometimes reffered to as Give Life month. Last week I attended an event at the state capitol. They use this gathering to honor donors and families of donors here in Georgia. It was a very moving and emotional ceremony. The following poem was read at the event.

To Remember Me - I will live forever Robert N. Test The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under four corners of a mattress located in a hospital; busily occupied with the living and the dying. At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.

When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the use of a machine. And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the bed of life, and let my body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman.

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.

Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.

Explore every corner of my brain.

Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday a speechless boy will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain agianst her window.

Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers grow.

If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weakness and all prejudice against my fellow man.

Give my sins to the devil.

Give my soul to God.

If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever.

Robert N. Test

Q

I love good BBQ. I love the smokey flavor. I love tomato and mustard based sauces. Every now and then I even like the Carolina vinegar style. I have even had white BBQ sauce and found it ok.

A few years ago, I learned that there is another style of sauce. I have only found it near where we live and that is the Worstershire based sauce. I dont mean using just a little worstershire for flavor (not that I like that either) but I am talking where it is the dominant ingredient of the sauce. Easily over 50+% of the sauce. I dont understand this nor do I really like it.

There used to be a BBQ place near our house but it is not there anymore. I went a few times but wasnt a big fan of it (despite the raves of locals) because of their Worstershire sauce. After I realized that they had other sauces but you just had to specify what you wanted (otherwise you got the worst sauce.... literally), I decided that it was decent que and went several times until it closed.

Last week I made ribs. I made my own rub and my own sauce. It was tomato based. Initially it was sweet to the taste but after you swallowed you had a nice little bite of spice and heat, but not too much. It was one of my favorite sauces I have ever made. MMmmmm. I am getting hungry now.

Lifelong Dream

Charlie Brown said it best: "There are three things in life that people like to
stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni clearing the ice."  

Last night I fullfilled a lifelong dream; I got to ride a Zamboni. You know,
the machine that resurfaces the ice at hockey games in between periods.
As a kid I would see Snoopy riding the Zamboni in the comics and I would
think "How coolwould that be?" Years later I was working at a record store
when one of the Mighty Ducks movies came out and I was given a
soundtrack to the movie. On that cassette was a song by the Gear Daddies
 entitled, "I want to drive the Zamboni." I loved that song and still know
all of the words.

I learned a few things 1) no drink holders on the Zamboni 2) You have to
 sign a 2 page release to ride 3)the front  part of the Zamboni holds the ice
that has been scraped up. When the Zamboni has done its job, it goes to
the back and hydraulics lift the "hood" so that the ice falls out into a bin
where it melts 4) they dont think it is a good idea to have a snowball fight
with the shaved ice.

The fact that the Thrashers won last night putting the playoffs within reach
 was just the icing on the cake. 

The Kids, Traveling, and the Captain

Several weeks ago the wife was out of town. Our two dogs normally follow her around whenever she is here but after that weekend, her dog is now officially a daddy's girl. When we are watching tv she hops up into my lap. When we go to bed she snuggles up to me for the night. And whenever we have thunder, it is her daddy that is able to protect her. I like having a little girl.

Last week the wife and I took a little vacation. We flew to Miami and rented a car to drive to Key West. Other than booking a place to stay, we made no plans. It was great to unwind and relax with no real schedule. We ate a lot of seafood and some cuban food. I had some key lime pie (wifey doesnt care for key lime) that was incredible. We found a great little place that makes a lot of different crepes and it became our breakfast place for the trip. On the way home we stopped in Key Largo for lunch with an old friend of mine and her fiancee (whom I had never met). The restaurant we met them at had tables set up on a beautiful beach overlooking the ocean while a guy played some steel drums. It was easy to see why some people go to the keys every year, or as my friend did, go for a vacation and never leave.

One of the things we did while in Key West was to go meet Captain Tony. Who is he you might ask. He is the imbodiment of every Jimmy Buffett song you have ever heard. As a matter of fact, go look at the lyrics for Last Mango in Paris and you will see that this particular song is all about him. Captain Tony is pushing 90. He has 13 kids ranging in age from 11 to 54. He was Mayor of Key West at one time. He allegedly made a living as a smuggler for a while. He also owns a bar that was the original location for Sloppy Joes for most of the time that Ernest Hemingway was drinking there while in Key West. We were just walking by and saw him in his bar and stopped by to take photos with him. My picture is kinda plain. The one with wifey he has a big smile.

While we were gone, we left the dogs with their usual sitter. They must have played hard while they were there as they slept all day Sunday after we picked them up.

Old Friend About to Move Across the Pond

Sunday I went to a goodbye party for a friend. I hadnt seen her in forever and it was good to see her and meet her husband before they move to England.

She hired me years ago and became like an older sister to me. She decided she wanted something new and packed up and moved to DC a couple of years after I had worked for her. She had no job lined up but it didnt take her long to find something. I always admired her for doing that. We have always stayed in touch and I used to see her when I was traveling to DC a lot.

I was always a little upset at my fellow males of the world since she was single for so long. Not that she needed a man to make her life complete or anything but you see a smart, beautiful, funny woman that isnt in a long term relationship and you wonder what is wrong with the men of this world. After meeting her husband, I know that he is the right man for her and was worth the wait.

He was born and raised in England. They met in Miami where they both were on business. He flew from London to DC to date her on weekends. Wow!!! He took a job transfer to Connencticut so that he could be a lot closer to her and see if it would work out and it did. Now they are moving to London for a few years. Bad news is I wont see her for a while but the good news is the wife and I have a reason to go to England and a place to stay. Maybe after I get a transplant we might go see them.

At her going away party, I also got to see someone else I had worked with. She is a stay at home mom with two beautiful daughters (5 and 2). Always great to catch up with old friends.