Welp, I'm back at it.

[shilala]

I got laid off on Wednesday. Had a major back episode, went to the ER a couple times and got tons of dope and needles and they got it under control. I got laid off because I've missed four or five days since going back to work cause when the back acts up I gotta respect it.

Being as none of the symptoms made any sense, I have to go back to the neurologist. The ER docs just kinda do whatever I ask them to do now. They say "What do you want us to do?" I tell them "Go in that little cupboard of yours, find the badassest elephant tranquilizers you got, pour me a double, and jam those needles in my ass."

See, before I broke my back, I was doctoring for joint and muscle problems that had existed for lots of years and were getting progressively worse to the point I didn't have any balance any more, and had to ice my knees, shoulders and elbows every day after ball practice (I have been coaching two girl's softball teams for the last 6 or 7 years.)

I got the joint pain problems ironed out thanks to Kerri doing some research and coercing me into changing my routine. I had drank caffeine-free diet pepsi almost exclusively. Turns out the aspartame was killing me. It has a specific chain of proteins that feeds stuff that exists in your joints naturally. That stuff is there to eat joint material that isn't supposed to be there, and to remove damaged tissue. Feed it too much and it eats stuff that's supposed to be there. Aspartame provides what it eats and makes it go wild. I've since cut out the aspartame and my joints are healing to the point where I'm better than I've been in 20 years.

Anyways...
While I was waiting for my back surgery, my neurologist told me I had MS. My grandpa had it and I had every symptom in the book. They ordered a bunch of tests on top of the hundred tests I already had.
I thought about it a couple days and told Kerri, "Ya know what, I don't have time to have MS right now. Let's get the back fixed and then I'll go have MS if need be."
So...
I just got scheduled for a Back MRI and a Brain MRI. The brain MRI will be the final say on the MS and the back MRI will allow me to talk them into going in and drilling out a foraminal notch that is giving me hell. (It's a hole where a big honkin' nerve passes through and it's too small and has scar tissue growing into it, along with bony growth from a healing fracture that runs through it.)
That problem might be a bit touchy surgery-wise and the doc keeps side-stepping the issue because the odds of me peeing in a bag forever is very real if he has one slip of the drill.

So...
Armed with my new joblessness, I've just started cleaning the shop. I'm going to finish up two humi projects that I started months ago. One is for Silverfox, the other for a brother at the old site.
I'm going to build some racks today, some boxes, and get back to work on a small thermoelectric desktop cooler that is the coolest cigar toy ever created.
I have about 10,000 ideas and inventions swimming around in my head and I'm going to work at them at light speed until God decides it's time for me to sit down for a bit.

While I'm at it, I hope you guys will continue to pray for my sorry ass, and if there is ANYTHING I can do to help any of you out, please let me know.
I'm a firm believer that I'm here for one reason, and that's to lift up the body of Christ and be of maximum help to God and His children.
Without that, I'm nothing. Worse yet, I'm left with nothing to do but be a general nuisance.
I love you all, and I can't begin to thank all of you for all you've done for me, all the support you've lent me, and all the love you've showered on me.
I'm gonna go get back to work and see if I can try make a dent in evening the score, even though I know it's not even remotely possible.