It was a short month, but a lot of stories to capture for memories...Another "Gal-entines" party with the girls at church...Visiting with Sam at the Vestavia church singing, we had met up with him at Culvers for supper. Always good for any visits with Sam. Magan was not able to join due to her being sick or having a rash for almost the whole month of February. I got to catch up with Julie Butler from Miss State at the singing as well...Davis had his first Robotics tournament of the year, and even tho he had to wake up at 4AM to meet up with the Wilsons to drive down, it looks like he had a great time with Ava, as those two were the whole team on that day...I saw the picture of Davis climbing the pole and Sam at the top of the doorway, and am asking for a photo recreation of this moment, as some point in the future...A random picture of Pam Huff getting old helped spark a funny conversation with me and Mom...And mom's latest wording for when she is late, "I was in the Grace Period". We all love that one.
So I captured one picture of Magan's crazy rash this month, as it really was something that was so weird during this month. This was a mad reaction to a penicillin like shot she had right before we went to Nashville at the end of January. She came home from that trip, and really was sick and had a head to toe rash for almost two full weeks. There were other pictures, but I think the one is enough to spark these memories. I know it was horrible for her. We are now into the month of March, and the new pains are in her thumbs and eyes. The kids and I are just hoping she makes it through the year, as it would be a bummer if she did not.
The card game "Five Crowns" reigned at our kitchen table this month, resulting in a lot of laughter, and new catch phases the kids make fun of me for like..."Dave, you gotta Go for the Glory" or "Com'n Ruby, its not rocket science". And one we make fun of Magan for..."What's the magic number"? And the king of the month was Sam. In one game I had everyone beat, and had Sam by almost 40 points going into the King round (last), and he played second...and in a hand of 13 cards, with ridiculous luck that only he could have, he had a lay down hand on his first play. Which let me have one play to get rid of as many points as I could...and I did get rid of many, but had to keep 42 points, letting Sam win by 2. And then on a night shortly after that, Sam was the clear leader until the last three rounds when Magan kept getting perfect hands, and Sam's point total slowly rose towards her in second place. And in the last round, Magan was able to go out early, and after Sam played, we counted the points and Magan won by 5, but then we had a Steve Harvey moment, where Sam realized he did not count correctly, and sure enough, he had actually won by 4. I think we caught the moment magan thought she won, but also when she realized she did not. But regardless, she is always happy with any moments with her Sammy.
And this was the month of my most bizarre and surreal moment of my working career. If you have already heard this story, skip this paragraph. I have a feeling this one will be told many times, and end up being one of those granddaddy stories that I just forget I have already told people many times. Just smile, I'm old, let me tell it again. I am sure by then you will be watching videos in the corner of your augmented reality glasses, and not paying attention to me anyway. ...So there I was flying on the corporate jet with the President of Southern Nuclear (Pete Sena) and CNO of Southern Nuclear (Rick Libra). I had flown with them the previous day to Dothan AL, and gotten stuck in the front seats with them on the plane. My manager got in the plane early, so she got into the back seats, then she turned back to Pete and told him to be easy on me with any Cyber Security questions, which I knew would spark some questions from these guys and it did. So I gave them the elevator speech about the status of our program. They both seemed to appreciate the brief statements, then they quickly disengaged with me and went back up to their level of company business, which is fine by me, I had my kindle book and went back down to my "regular" level.
The next day I flew with these same guys to Plant Hatch in Vidalia, so we had a slightly longer flight, but this time I got in the back of the plane with my manager Deidra. After getting up in the air, we pulled up the table in the back and started talking about playing cards. Really just jesting about playing cards, but I told them I did bring mine, which I have been using to practice some card tricks and sleight of hand tricks. I began shuffling as we were talking and began a card trick with Deidra. She was the perfect person for the trick talking it up the whole time that there was no way I could find her card, and of course, after a few moves that she made on her own, the card "happened" to be chosen. And after naming the card, her and another manager cheered the trick on. Which I thought was it, we went on to other conversations...then I got a tap on the shoulder. I turned to see the president of the company, and hear "Hey, we got 15 minutes before we land, I want to see the card trick". Here we go, I moved up to the front, while Rick Libra pulled up the table in front and began some of the most nervous shuffling I have ever done. But we went through the motions, and now with an audience in back all looking and watching, I again found his card and was able to name the card. Again there were cheers, but with the top 2 in the company smiling like kids, I just had to ask "Do you want to see another?" And they did, so I showed them the trick I learned from Chris Pratt on the Graham Norton show, and honestly told them where I found this trick and that it was only about the 4th time I had ever tried it (There are a few key areas where you may be able to spot the trick on this one, and I have not perfected these at all). But the trick worked well, and even with my nerves, they never saw the few trouble spots, and to finish this trick, I had to place 5 cards in Pete's hand (all that he had said were not his card) and slap them out of his hand. The trick works for me about 75% on this slap leaving the card he selected at the beginning in his hand, but it did not work on this day. But fortunately, his card did land face up at his foot...and still made for a pretty good trick. And there were more cheers from the back. But I ended my show here, and later telling others it still makes me smile...I love my job, and love what I get to do each day...but on this day, I was a just a kid doing card tricks on a corporate jet for the top guys in the company. How messed up was that? It could have easily been one of those overly cheesy scenes from a classic 80s movie, which is where I live in my inner mind.
I got my first crown on my tooth this month. It was a scary experience, as many people wanted to tell me all the gory details of this process and what I could expect. As I told Ruby about the experience, and that I had to get a shot, she told me "Yeah, they always tell me that it is like a mosquito bite, but they are wrong, it is like a million hornets". It went ok, and one month later, I am finally getting used to it a bit. But I did have a couple of weird experience while they applied the crown...1. They all left me in the room after the shot, to let things numb, and asked me if I wanted to change the TV or anything. I don't care much of what is on, I will watch about anything, so Friends was on, and I said this is fine. Well, apparently this was the episode where the girls take Chandler to a strip club. And I am just sitting there watching PG stripping when they walk back in. The remote was way over on the table, and well, anyway that was just awkward. They probably didn't even notice what was on, but it was weird. 2. When they were applying the permenant crown, they again left me to go get the Dentist, and while out, I heard a click of that crazy light they bend and pull down to your mouth. I looked up at the light, but then back to the TV (no friends on this day) when I heard another click. A glance back to the lights, nothing, and back to the TV. Then click click bang and the light plastic cover fell to hit me on the chest, then the light fixture fell right behind it hitting me on the chest. And of course, then the Dentist walks in to me holding parts of his light. "Your building is falling on me" I told him. And I guess these guys are all business, because just like with the strippers on tv, the dentist didn't think anything about the light falling on me...just moved it out of the way, and applied the crown.
Well Magan had even more smiles this month due to some wonderful nurses (Nurses, if reading this, I will send the checks in the mail). Her first was at a doctors appointment, where the young 23-year old nurse was asking her past questions and Magan had to tell her she had AFIB. The nurse said "WHAT! You are too young to have that!". Magan said "Yeah, and I've had it since I was 33". The nurse then even got surprised more and exclaimed "You are more than 33! No way, how old are you?" while she quickly scrolled back up to see that Magan was telling her the truth, she was 43. The nurse finished this exchange with "You look really young for your age! I bet people tell you all the time, don't they? You have great skin." And later in the month at a skin appointment with Davis, a separate older nurse asked if she was Davis' sister. "What, you can't be old enough to have had him". Seriously, if I ever meet either of these nurses, they get a big gift card from me.
And I know my hearing is slowly getting worse, hearing aids are definitely in my future. This month it was proven when I was helping Magan get ready for a photo session, and she had me plug in the sound machine to make sure the USB cable was working. I plugged it in and it was not working, so I went upstairs and got another to test it. Well it was not working either, so I called Magan over to see when she got the sound machine, it may have been old and need replaced. When she came over I was holding it and saying it would not work with either cable. She said "Honey, it is working right now". Which also happens in the bedroom, as in my old age apparently I have started snoring...she had to start running white noise on the alexa to help her sleep. She asked one night if it bothered me. I guess my answer was clear when I asked "Is what bothering me? Is it on?"
