It's my birthday!!!!

I'm 39 today, and I feel every bit of those years. And unfortunately look them too. But that's OK. I'm slowly gaining my strength from being on methadone for 2 years. That's some nasty stuff.

Other than that just the same old situation. Not enough money but somehow we get by. Tucker has grown over 2 1/2" since March. And he's doing really good with his homeschool. He's reading good, his math is amazing. He's 5 and is already learning how to add and subtract negative numbers. He's learning the multiplication tables and is quite possibly smarter than me.

Kim's mom is doing good. Her knee surgery has helped her knee greatly and now she's getting up out of her wheelchair and walking around. That's great to see and it's improved her mood a lot.

Kim wrecked my car though. Nothing huge, just bumped a guy and dented the tags on the front of the car. But that poor car has been through hell and keeps running. It sure looks like it though. But my nickname in high school was "Crash" so for me to own a car that isn't all beat up is strange. It seems the uglier they are the better they run.

So anyway, again it's my birthday and Kim got me a cool pen. It's called an Embassy Pen and countycomm.com sells them. It's a very tough and rugged pen but unlike the "tactical" pens it doesn't have a sharp point for stabbing whoever pisses you off. I didn't want a weapon that writes, I just wanted a tough, rugged pen that won't break. I carry a thick hickory cane that, if need be, would be a fine way to protect myself. Although where I live I worry more about feral dogs than anything.

A couple of weeks ago we took Tucker to see Ray Stevens in concert down in Branson. THAT was a blast. He put on a hell of a show. You can tell he's still having fun and enjoys doing it. We had 4th row seats, in the center. Awesome seats. Tucker got a free T-shirt from the MC, he had seen Tucker before the show and talked to him. And as usual Tucker put on the charm. When he was searching the crowd he asked "Where's my little buddy?" and then saw Tucker and said "Here you go buddy". There weren't too many kids there, mostly older people.

All in all it was a great time. We really couldn't afford it but it ain't very often we splurge and we went for Tucker. I'm hoping to see Trans Siberian Orchestra later this year but I'm starting to doubt it. The Contour needs tires.

Oh well, it's had the same tires on it for 9 years so I reckon they've lasted a while. Although it's now officially Kim's car, her Mom was the one who drove it most. It's been a good car, I really can't complain about that. As much money trouble as we have it's nice to have cars that are generally reliable. Yeah they need maintenence from time to time but what car doesn't.

It's funny, my neighbor always tells me Ford sucks but I never mention that my Fords are always running while his Chevy's are broke down half the time. Goold ole GM, the best car company that our tax dollars can buy.

I think that's about it, I'm gonna get off of here so until next time....Bye!!!!

It's been an eventful month.

I've mentioned that I take methadone for pain. Well I had been tryin g to wean myself off of it and I went to fast. On 9-16-10 I had a "psychotic breakdown" from going off of it too fast. Another factor the Dr thinks may have helped caused it was the fact that just a week earlier the psychiatrist as VA put me back on wellbutrin. However, I was NOT told to start slow, taking just one pill a day. I just went back to my usual dose of 2 a day.

The Dr's think that the combination of those factors caused me to "flip out". I spent a week in the psyche unit at the VA hospital in Fayetteville AR so they could watch me. They also started the process of getting me off methadone. I'm now off of it and I'm feeling much better. I still have a lot of pain but it's not as intense and I'm also eating better than I have in 2 years.

I have lost 40 lbs in the last couple of years because of the way that the methadone took my appetite away. I'm eating like a horse again so that's good.

So anyway, word of advice...Don't mess with methadone and if you are on it, get off of it. But do it with a Doctors supervision.

Anyway, as usual, I'm outta here.

Until next time...Bye!!!!