Bag or Randomness for Monday, January 26, 2018

  • Somewhat recently DaughterGeeding did her presentation about my mother for her immigration project. Parents were encouraged to attend and hold the posterboard the students created as their child presented. There was no way I was going to miss it and while I’m always proud of her, this day will forever remain in my heart.
    • In case you are wondering why I work a sports coat, I didn’t want to draw any attention to my back brace and wanted the attention on her. Kids get distracted easily. The back brace is too uncomfortable to wear and adjust underneath my shirt but the sports coat helped alleviate those issues.
    • Students were encouraged to wear native attire, but since my mother made her own clothes, DaughterGeeding thought it would be neat to wear something my mother made and somewhat fit. I used to tease my mother about being short, and she’d retort by sticking five fingers in my face and firmly tell me, “I’m not short, I’m almost five foot.” I think Mom was four-feet-then-inches though she claimed to be an inch taller.
    • One common question the kids often asked each presenter and parent was how long of a plane ride it would take to reach their particular country.
    • Students were asked to bring in a native food or cuisine and everyone was encouraged to try everything. DaughterGeeding brought dragonfruit which had a “Product of Vietnam” sticker on it. Her teacher didn’t see the dragonfruit before it was cut up and thought it was sushi.
    • If you are interested in her presentation, the video is at the bottom of this post. She didn’t speak very loudly so it may be hard to hear her.
  • One of the nicest things someone has done for me during my recovery was to pick up lunch at Hutchin’s BBQ and then drive a half-hour to GeedingManor to deliver it and hand out with me for about an hour. All of this was done unprovoked.
  • Something else about my health which I find surprising is how much my resting heart rate has dropped since my surgery.
  • One of WifeGeeding’s friends asked how was I recovering and she basically said I’m doing alright but my energy level gets zapped pretty easily. Her friend, who is in the medical field (but I still take what she says with a grain of salt), said sometimes it can take up to six months to feel fully functional again in terms of energy level and concentration and mentioned something about postoperative cognitive disorder. The part I felt I identified with the most were these bullet points, and the second one was the reason why I took a break from blogging for so long:
    • Easily tired.
    • Inability to concentrate. For example, they cannot concentrate sufficiently to read a book or newspaper.
    • Memory dysfunction. For example, they have a reduced ability to remember things recently said or done.
    • Reduced ability to perform arithmetic. For example, they make mistakes with normal money transactions while shopping.
  • I’m a bit surprised at the commercial George P. Bush is using for his Land Commissioner re-election bit. It focuses a lot on his support for President Trump. Remember, his father, Jeb, didn’t exactly get along with Trump and his uncle and grandfather, the former presidents, didn’t vote for Trump. Furthermore, the commercial makes it a point to highlight he’s endorsed by Donald Trump Jr. That’s right, not the President, but his son. I can’t find the commercial on his campaign website otherwise I’d link to it.
    • Something else odd I found about his campaign – George P. Bush falsely describes himself as ‘retired’ Navy officer
      • This one stood out to me because using “retired” in the colloquial sense when referring to leaving the armed forces was a real stickler for my father who served for 28-years. It takes 20 years to actually retire from the armed forces. His campaign really should know better.
  • Louie Gohmert broke pledge to Charleston church that suffered mass shooting – Another Texas lawmaker, Sen. Ted Cruz (R), donated to the victims but fell short of his pledge.
  • Former Bears cornerback Charles Tillman is now an FBI agent
  • Former Slave, Two-time Olympian Joins The U.s. Air Force To Serve The Country That Gave Him So Many Opportunities
  • The Summer Olympic in Tokyo will feature the new sports of surfing, indoor rock climbing, and skateboarding.  Medals will be made out of recycled cell phones.

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3 Responses to Bag or Randomness for Monday, January 26, 2018

  1. John Mackovic says:

    That was a really neat presentation. DaughterGeeding did a great job.

  2. Bryan says:

    Great presentation! Sounded like many of the adults in the room were impressed by the collection of your mom’s keepsakes.

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