Trip Report

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 How about that friends and neighbors, two posts in a row. I must be motivated or mayhap its sunspots. I really need to do this more often. I kinda like writing my shit down. 

        

                                                                                                                                                                               I've continued my experiments with psilocybin this year. 3 so far. First one was a half gram and it was a good trip. Lots of laughs and no fibro. I was practically fibro free for 2 days. The next time I dosed a full gram. Better trip and somewhat trippier. Again no fibro. Gone, zip, nada. Pretty amazing if you ask me. And if you do ask I will be happy to tell you. Wait I'm doing that now. Ha. Second time I was fibro free for another 2 maybe 2 and a half days. Very nice. Now to Sunday night. Went up to a gram and a half. Wow that was trippy indeed. Lots of colors and shadows moving in a cartoon fashion. Much better. I do love to trip. Again no fibro. No a trace. No bugs, no randoms, no voodoo pains and I had a lot of energy and my coordination was much better than usual. After the peak I kinda went into a state of mind that was pretty deep. Not as deep as I am looking for but part way there. I listened to some Allman Bros and I let myself go with the music. 22 minutes of closed eye after peak. Very nice and very meditative. Three and a half days later I'm feeling it wear off. Kinda grumpy today but thats fibro for ya. I probably wont trip again until the fest. We shall see how that goes.. Oh boy am I getting pumped up for that...

 

         I need to meditate more often. Not with the shrooms lol, those are for times when I want to trip and experiment with the medical benefits and meditate and all the above. Maybe hit up a small dose, half a gramish a couple times a month and go bigbang with a couple of grams or more every once in awhile. 

 I have found my magic elixir. Psilocybin works for me. Is it a placebo effect? I believe that it is not. I have read other testimony on it's healing abilities. Am I wrong for doing it this way? On my own without a doctors consent or even knowledge? Nope. If it's wrong for me to experiment with MY body to try to find help with MY pain on MY terms then I feel we need to take a huge step back. Thats how medicine was discovered in the first place right? The natives are right. The ancients knew about medicinal plants, fungus, trees, or teas. I feel it is time to trust the ancients. I feel if they didnt know what they were doing we humans may not be here at all. Kinda goofy but thats how I feel. If a mushroom will make me feel better so be it. If an herb will make me feel better so be it. If a chemical that someone else thinks will make me feel better and it does not and only  makes me sicker, then what the fuck would I want with that? Been down that road and it was very rough. I like my way much better. So does my wife, most important, and so do my sons. That is all the validation I need. The rest of society can kiss my not so hairy white ass. Dont like it? Suck it up cupcake, its my life and I'm not bothering anyone. Screw off. Right? 

  So I guess thats it for this time. I try to keep up with this is dos do me good to write shit down. Be kind to animals. Later dazz my friends keep it real...

 

Long time no see..

                                                                                                                                                                 Wow. another year since I last posted. I really need to do this more often like I was doing when I started this blog. Quick update first. I have been feeling pretty good and the fibro and the arthritis have been not terrible but not good either. The tinnitus. Well lets just say it's there. Always there. Never a break unless I stand next to those hugh amps the band uses and I dont go out that much anymore. IBS? Not bad and getting a little better as the days go by. Depression? Yea. Still there. PTSD. Oh yes it's there in a really big way and getting bigger all the time. I will discuss that one with you all at a later time. Lets see now. My youngest son Erik graduated high school the other day. Me be a proud Papa right now. Both of my children have graduated high school and my oldest, Kyle is a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy. Basically hes a certified nut, um nurse..lol. Erik has plans for the Navy also. I am so happy that they have done something for their future and have long range plans. I never had long range plans and pretty much took life as it came to me.
   Now I have some more great news. I caught up with a very close friend from my teenage years. Well much more than friend as she was my high school love. I say high school because she was in and I had left high school, but was still that age.We connected on Facebook and I talked on the phone recently with her. In 2 days we spent over 10 hours on the phone. It felt really wonderful to play catch up with her. Her name is Debbie. Such a beautiful name. I have always loved that name.
    Now for the hard part. Debbie popped up and my life almost fell apart, well not my life but my psyche certainly did. My emotions this past weekend have been all over the board. I have cried, I have laughed, I am happy and I am confused. I dont know why I'm confused I just am. I loved Debbie with all my heart when I was with her. I trusted her and I cherished her. I just didn't have work or an education so I couldn't treat her like I wanted to do or how she deserved to be treated. We both had rough childhoods and we both grew up in the same community. We trusted and as far I'm concerned I still trust her. With my life and my heart. I dont trust easy but you all know that already. We talked I cried, she might have also. I found her. I have been kinda looking for her for 35 years and now I have found her and I dont know what to do. I know what I have to do and I know what I have to remain. But I just dont know how to handle this. Debbie has the ball. I do not plan on doing something stoopid and leaving my wife or anything. That decision is in my wifes ball park.  That road has been pretty rocking more or less since i had my meltdowns and started flipping out. I got really angry at her for no other reason than me trying to wrap my mind around my disabilities. That was and is still pretty damn hard to do.I took my anger with myself out on my wife and I feel I may have fucked it all up between us. It doesnt feel the same anymore. I love my wife more than life but it doesnt feel right
  Poof! here comes Debbie. Wow what a rush. I'm already making mistakes with her. Why cant I just do something or be someone without fucking it all up?? That shit pisses me off. I could fuck up a wet dream. Yea, like I have had one of those in 40 years. Thing is i still love Debbie. She was my first love and she will always be my first love. I mentioned in a post a couple years back about a lady I met in treatment and we had an experience together and I said something about having more than one soulmate. I said I have 3. Here's the line up in order of my soul mates. Debbie, Martha, and that lady in treatment. Oh how I wish I could remember her name.                                                                                                                          At this point I will do everything I need to do to keep Debbie in my life. I can have her as a friend and I would be good with that. Thats not what I truly and honesty want but that is how it must be. I can love both. I have plenty of that to go around but I can only be with one. As much as I would want to be with Debbie, I am with Martha. That is the way it is. I can not, nor do I want to change that. Life is truly unfair. I will never get what i want and I kinda resigned myself to that one a very long time ago. Why would it be any different now? Never got want I needed or wanted as a child why would I think I'd get it as an adult?? It really pisses me off.                                                                                                                                                           Debbie still loves me maybe as she did then? i dont know. She told me she still loves me and I certainly believe her. Here we are back at life happens and it did not happen for us. Sometimes I wonder if I would have fucked up a relationship with Debbie as I have done with every other one I've ever had? Probably. Thats what i do best. Fuck up my relationships. Then I worked on fucking up my jobs. Mmm I must be a fuck up huh?? No I dont really feel that way about life in general, but I do feel that way about my relationships. Fuckity fuck fuck.  What do I do now Sonny??
 Page break.
 I know, but I dont know. I am going to a Deadhead fest first weekend in Jun. 7 days from now. I use these fests or at least this one as I only go to one a year besides this year I doing 2, to try to get my head on straight. I trip out on shrooms and I let my hair down and have a good time. I decided that this year will be the last year i will invite any of my current friends. I have festie friends and I will party like I did as a teenager and my festie friends can see that, not my home friends. My home friends dont need to see me that way. I never party myself to an out of control state but I dont want them to worry if I get a little too tripped out. That is what I'm there for and this year I am going for a grand event. I am looking for a spiritual event.I need an experience close to what I had in treatment. I have to set a different stage and a different state of mind but I will eventually find it. I probably wont cum in pants this time but hey, if that happens I'll take that too.
 I need this event really bad. It was an extremely rough winter for me. The weather decided to get all Wisconsin on us and it was bad. The weather kicked my ass in a big way. It was cold and brutal. Lots of storms and low pressure systems went through. The cold was the worst. I couldn't spend any time outside at all without have skin fire. 30 seconds outside in below zero temps sets any of my exposed skin on fire. I have been burned so I know how that feels. Fuck that shit. The weather is suppose to be great for the fest and I am getting pretty damn excited to go. I'm taking Erik and my good friend Kevin. It will be a great time as long as I can keep Kevins mind out of the past, yea like i dont have my own past demons to deal with, I will not go into that at anytime sorry. I keep my friends confidentiality.
  I may have fucked up a few days ago and I kinda off handily asked Debbie to the fest in Aug. My treat. I'm pretty sure we both misunderstood my intentions. I want to party and talk and hug and dance, I never really danced with her, and I dont do that very well either but it would be nice, and play catch up with Deb and I'm sure a 4 day music fest is simply not enough time.
 Wow, way to just ramble huh? I let a lot out in this one and I havent read it yet. Not sure I want to read it. I might edit it if I do. Kinda defeats the purpose of writing it down dont ch tink?? Mom never told me there would be days like this. Bullshit, she most certainly said there would be days like this. A lot of them. Thanks Mom, love you.                                                                                                                                                       I suppose.   I'm starting to get crabbers claw and typing is getting difficult.
     I really hope Deb can make the fest. I need to talk to her. Happy trails my friends. Its been a long strange trip indeed. see ya on the flip side.....

Psilocybin Fibro and Me

    Another long stretch between posts. I should post more often, but you know life kinda gets in the way. Today I am going to post about my experience with Magic Mushrooms or Psilocybin. First I shall run my disclaimer. Yes I know, Psilocybin is illegal, but so is cannabis. Yes I know Doctors do not like it when we self medicate. Do I care. Not one bit. I need to ask what the difference is between a Doc prescribing me a drug or me prescribing myself a drug? In my mind there is no difference at all. Do docs know more about drugs than I do. Most certainly. Do doc know more about my body and my pain than I do. Most certainly not!  What matters to me most would be my wife, my kids, my spirituality and my health. In that order. 
   On to business. Last year I went to an outdoor music fest for the first time in my life. 5 days of music and camping. I may not have covered this in my previous posts, but one of my vices would be that I just love to trip. I've tripped a lot when I was a teenager, but that was all kinds of acid. I didn't like the chemical feel of acid or the 3 day burn out that good acid gives for a hangover.            I tried Psilocybin when I was in the Navy and I was home on leave. It was great but I never had the chance to go again. There were 1 or 2 more acid trip and then I quit tripping. I didnt like the chemical feeling. Fast forward 35 years and here we are. So I got the opportunity to try Psilocybin ( here after known as "shrooms") again last year at the fest. Wow. I had a very nice non chemical contaminated mellow trip. Tripped twice for that matter. I tried something called psilocybin drops. Yea that was way to intense for me. So I tried regular shrooms a couple days later and that was exactly what I was looking for. I had a nice mellow body high kind of trip that didnt go on for ever.  
    A couple of days later i noticed that I wasnt having a whole lot of fibro pain. I had just spent 5 days and 4 nights partying with weather problems and a poor diet with little sleep. That alone should have kicked my ass all the way to the Land Down Under and back. Nope I was feeling pretty good. I thought about the shrooms and if maybe just maybe they had something to do with that. I did some research and discovered studies on psilocybin and major depression. I also found studies on psilocybin and PTSD. Both studies show promising results. I wont go into detail on these studies. You could look them up the same way I did. 
  On to this summer. I decided to find and obtain enough shrooms to do a complete study for myself. I have tripped 10 times this summer and every trip, although different in buzz and quality, I found the same results. During the trip there is no fibro pain at all.  The trip peak only goes for 3 to 5 hours then its on its way down. No chemical hangover, no pain, no tiredness aside from a slight lack of sleep. Even the IBS is calmed way down for a couple of days after I trip. That in itself is worth way more than what I paid for my shrooms. I would pay big money, and I have, to be free of constant pooping every single morning, no mater what I eat. Nothing helps. 
     So shrooms put the skids on IBS, at least for me. 
   Now I have to admit that the shrooms do very little for the arthritis or the tinnitus. The tinnitus does calm down some but not a lot. I can handle that too. There are no side effects except for a very small bout of intestinal grief, but hey I ate poison mushrooms so what else does one expect? Its not too bad just some cramping and very small amount of nausea. All I need to do is eat something and the nausea goes away. I guess that's common.  I havent gone over 2 grams yet but I may at a later time. I am still exploring this so I am going to take it kinda slow. 
    So does this make me a bad person or a "drug abuser"? No. I'm still the same person I was before, except for the fibro and all of its wonderful problems. A drug abuser? No. I most certainly do not abuse drugs. Mayhap in the eyes of our establishment type of people I am guilty of drug abuse. In the eyes of my spirit I am seeking relief and spiritual guidance. 
  Back to the shrooms. I do plan on some more experimenting before winter time hits. I like to trip outside.  When it gets cold I wont trip again until spring or whenever the weather warms enough to enjoy being outside. I also dont like to trip in the daytime. I'm more comfortable at night anyway so that only makes sense. 
 Ok so now I got that out. I trip and I smoke weed and I usually feel pretty good. I do not trip every day. More like once in awhile. I do smoke weed everyday though. So sue me. Maybe next time I'll talk about my efforts to bake some edibles. I'm learning, and I am way behind, but I am learning there are better ways to ingest weed than to smoke it. That my friends, I'll save for another day. In the meantime I shall sign out and see you on the flip flop.. Peace my friends.   
    

My? Fibro

I guess it's been a couple of months since I last posted an entry here. I have been feeling pretty good lately, well mostly anyways. My complaints are small and kinda minor so I won't go into them today. Today I will ramble about this fibro and arthritis thing a little. I noticed in some of my posts that I say things like " my fibro" or "my arthritis".  I decided a short while back that I would no longer, or at least, try to no longer call these problems mine. The way I am trying to look at it here is that I do not want any of these problems. I do not like it. I would not buy or even take these for free. Kinda like snow. I do not want it. So I am going to try to stop saying "my fibro" or "my arthritis", and try to say something more like "the fibro" instead. Why should I call it mine? I do not own it nor did I plan ahead to get it. It was not an impulse buy either.  
    It has cost me a lot since I've had it. You can read that in previous posts so I won't go over it again. I'm certainly not proud of having it. I would love to be able to leave it at the curb like a bag of nasty trash. Thats kinda how I look at it. It's just nasty trash. But I do not have to call it mine. Maybe that will make me feel a little better about this trash that I have. It makes no sense at all. I often wonder where it came from. Was it hereditary? Maybe. Was it stress? Maybe. Was it trauma? Could be. No matter were it came from the point is. I do not want this thing called fibro. Nor do I want the arthritis. I will try to stay mindful of calling them mine. Sorry guys you are not welcome in my body and I really wish you would go away. You don't have to go away mad, just go away.
   Now heres an interesting point. If I woke up tomorrow and the fibro was gone, would I notice? Probably not right away. The scary thing is, would I miss it? I would love to sit here and say no not a chance in hell would I miss it. But, what if I did? I know that if were to disappear overnight I certainly would not want it to come back. Remember its not mine.
   See you in the clearing at the end of the path... Peace.

Rambling....

Rambling thoughts. With the onset of the wonderful and amazing fibromyalgia I have noticed that my thoughts and thinking ramble on at an almost amazing speed. It's like I'm reading 16 books at the same time. I'm not even sure I can translate this to writing but I will try. Sometimes my mind will go from 0 to mach 97 in about 2 and a half nano seconds. And back. I get ideas or I think of something that needs to be done and in just a flash that thought will be gone. Zip Zap its gone and nowhere to be found. I really hate that too. I was told by my V.A. shrink that I have adult ADHD. There is a really good chance that I had ADHD as a child also. That would certainly explain a lot. I am not too sure I want to accept that though. I accepted the arthritis and the fibro. I have also accepted the PTS and the major depression. See I have alway considered myself to be a reasonably shit together kind of guy, but with the "fibro fog" having my shit together is becoming a really tough chore. Yes I said it is a chore, not something to enjoy. I hate the fog. I hate the scramble thoughts that rarely make any sense. I hate that I hate. I have fought that one for most of my life. The hate. I don't like the idea that I have hate in me. That, I know is never good. Yea I know I joke about it saying things like "yea I have hate but it keeps me warm in the winter". I do have a lot of love though. I know that the love I have will far outweigh the hate. Most times I don't even know why I have hate. I don't hate any one single person, no not even my step father. He's dead anyway so hating on him would be a waste of hate. Ha, did I really just write that? Even thinking about him is a waste of time and mental effort, yet there he is. Sometimes. I can not block it so I usually just let the thought run its course and try to distract myself. I am getting pretty good at that, distracting myself that is. You know that whole mind over matter thing. If you don't mind then it don't matter.  Hate. HATE. Hate. Such an offensive word. Kinda like that cu&% word, only not as bad. 
     It's a good thing, ya know, to learn to love. It took me a long time to learn that. It is amazing that one can learn to hate waaay faster than one can learn to love. Love. LOVE. Love. Yea that is much easier on the mind than HATE. It is even easier to say. I have a boat load of love. Way more than the hate I have. I try really hard to not be bitter about my problems. I understand that it is not my fault and there is really not much that can be done. I will not go the drug route again. That was a large source of hate. I hated having to take the drugs. I suppose I really didn't have to start taking meds but I was kinda desperate for some relief. I knew that I was taking a possibly dangerous path and I was right. The meds did a lot of damage. Maybe thats why I hate? Naw it's much deeper than that. I just wish I could figure out why I hate. Does any one really believe that we as humans will ever figure our selfs out? Probably not. That would be rather arrogant to even think that way.
    So hate sucks huge mastodon ass.
   I just re-read this and I realized that I rambled away from rambling thoughts to hate.  Imagine that. I guess that would be it. My not so single track mind went awol on me again. I shall close this one out and say later dazz my friends...

Fibro, Marijuana and Me

I feel that it is time for me to write about my experience with fibro and cannabis. First I'll give you a little run down on what I have. I have fibromyalgia. I also have osteoarthritis in most of my joints. The worst being in my fingers and hands. Everything I list has been diagnosed by a medical professional. Along with the fibro I have major depression, PTSD, anxiety problems, IBS, a minor case of Reynaulds  syndrome, loss of appetite, a little hypoglycemia, boy that ones fun. I have tinnitus (ringing in the ears) that simply will not stop. That is the worst. I can deal with most of the other crap but the ringing is the worst. That is a 24-7 thing. But then so is everything else. And my cholesterol is out of control unless I take statins.
   Ok on to the weed. I have been smoking most of my life. There were periods of time when I didn't smoke at all. Most of the time I smoked was mostly to get high and help me sleep. That has changed somewhat since I started having problems. It didn't take long for me to realize that smoking some weed seemed to help with a lot of these problems. It helps calm down the constant ache of arthritis. It helps with the fibro. I sleep better and it really does help with my anxiety. Smoking weed makes the IBS a little easier to live with. It does nothing for the Reynaulds. Nor does it do anything for the hypoglycemia, except when it helps my appetite. Kinda goes hand in hand with the hypoglycemia. Weed really helps a lot in helping me deal with the tinnitus. That shit gets really loud sometimes. Or theres a pressure change in my ears and that usually hurts like hell. My brother said once that the only reason I smoke weed for pain is it makes me forget about the pain. Well now, no shit? I don't care how it works, I just care that it does work. I'm sure that smoking weed does not make me forget about the pain. It's almost always there. What weed does do is make it so much easier to deal with it all. It does lessen the pain in my fingers and hands. Somewhat. I am not going to sit here and say that smoking weed takes all my pain and mental problems away. It does not do that. It does calm down the fibro, but when I'm in a serious flare it only makes it easier to deal with. I can suck it up a little better. The sensitivity to sound is much less when I smoke. The light sensitivity not so much, but I've always been a little sensitive to bright light. I have to wear really dark polarized sunglasses when I'm outside in any weather or I simply can not see well at all.I suppose that could have it's dangers but what can I do? stay inside all the time? Sorry not my cup of wine. I like being outside and I like being in touch with nature as much as I can anyway.
   Back to the weed. I'm pretty much an old school smoker. I smoke then I stop then I smoke some more and so and such forth. I don't get into all the different strains out there, way too confusing. I don't get into all the way cool stuff thats out there for weed connoisseurs. I just want for the pain to be gone, or liveable.  See I don't know anymore than anyone else as to why cannabis works for me and not other folks. If I knew the answer to that one, well you know how it goes. There is absolutely no way anyone will ever convince me that weed is bad for you. I have lived it, I have heard all the bad stuff that "they" want us to believe. You all know too. Gateway drug, It causes cancer and leg cramps. Not to mention murderous thoughts that wander through a potheads brain along with laziness and all that other bullshit. I say crap. It is all just a huge load of crap. I spent half a life time working my skinny little ass off. Not lazy. No cancer. I have never thought about killing or raping anyone. I have never thought about beating up drunks and wiggers either. I have never had thoughts of cheating on my wife or beating my kids. I love nature and all that it is. Well maybe except for the vampire bugs. Am I a hippie? Maybe so. But I take regular showers so that may disqualify me. Am I a redneck? Most definitely. My long hair does not cover my redneck. Ha. I am also very patriotic. I believe in my country but I doubt my government. I also do not trust or respect my government. Way too many lies over my lifetime from those folks.  I am a free spirit, my spirituality and my Constitution guarantees that. If I want to smoke weed then I am going to. I really don't care what the government says.
    I smoke weed. Does that make me a bad person. Probably not. Does that make me lazy. Sometimes. Does it make me forget to pay the light bill. No. I feel that I do better work when I have a slight buzz on. Helps keep me focused. I smoked weed while I was in the Navy. I smoked on an aircraft carriers at sea many times. I have smoked while driving a semi down the mountain. I wrecked one semi. Stone cold sober at the time I hit the black ice. That was a hell of a ride. I have never been arrested for anything after I got out of the Navy. I did take a couple of busts while in the Navy. Simple possession. I paid my fines and made some good friends while I was in the brig. Most of those were Marines. Great bunch of guys. Semper Fi Marines.
    So look around. See that guy in the suit? Yep he smokes weed at home and nobody knows. Come out of the closet and speak up. See that Doctor over there? Yea he smokes too. And that Judge. Weeds smokers are not all hippy looking hoodlums. Folks that smoke weed are all around you. Your childs teacher goes home after a hard day and gets a little buzz before bedtime. Problem? Nope. We own our own homes and have nice cars. I just bought a newer pick up. Really new but not brand new. I can't afford two brand new cars. Not all smokers live in the getto or a trailer park or the barrio. Yea I know there are some people who really should stay away from mind altering substances. That would include booze.  If you can't handle your high then you probably should not be getting high. Doesn't matter what the substance is.
   Well I think I should end this one. It is getting a tad long. And there's that thing with my hands that make this difficult. So in closing, I will say this. If your a friend or someone who knows me, but didn't know I smoke, well now it is out there and I feel better for it. Know me for what I am and not what I do. Have a great day and help some one today for free, you'll feel better for it. Thank you and good night.   

My Ghost Post

     First off let me make one thing perfectly clear. I do not believe in ghosts. Spirits in the Native American way maybe but not ghosts. This may be a pretty long post due to the back story and all that. My wife and I purchased this house in Dec 2004. Almost from the start I was hearing what sounded like whispering coming from the vents. I blew that off thinking some one was listening to a radio or CD player at a low volume. Many months went by and I still kept hearing voices coming from the vents. Very soft and distant sounding. I don't remember exactly the time line here but this is how thing played out. Our cat at the time died followed shortly by my brothers dog.  Both animals lived in this house both of them more or less died here. I mentioned the voices in the vents one time offhandedly at dinner. My oldest son looked at me and said "You hear the voices too?" Yea that was a little creepy but I didn't let on. Since then the voices have gone and come back numerous times.
       One time we had friends over and one of their sons was standing by the Ash tree in the backyard with his hands up in the air. He said he wanted "the old man" to pick him up. Yikes. Yea I got goosebumps on that one. No I still do not believe in ghosts. So on and off over these last 6 and a half years I have heard voices in the vents. Let me remind you that I have tinnitus ( ringing in my ears) all the time. I can not get away from it.         
          Ok now a couple of years or so ago is when I started to feel a cat jump up on the bed right after I get in to go to sleep. Oh yea we now have 2 cats and one large dog. The cat jumping up on the bed is very light footed. I really would rather not have a cat in bed with me as I am trying to go to sleep. After I'm asleep I dont care. They can sleep with us if they want. So when I feel the cat jump up on the bed I looked, and no cat. So I blew it off. Imagination right? This went on for a pretty long time so I would check and see just where the cats were before I went to bed. They were almost always sleeping some where else in the house.Then I said something to my wife about it in an offhanded kind of way. She looked at me and said You feel that too? Yep I sure do I said. Now we joke about the ghost cat in the house. I still do not believe in ghosts. So lately I have been hearing the voices again only now it's in the daytime. I take a nap almost every day and I turn down the TV so I won't listen instead of trying to sleep. Now the voices sound a little like a radio announcer at a distance. I can hear these voices over the ringing in my ears. No these voices are not talking to me directly. Just in case anyone is thinking that. I can't even make out words. Just soft and distant voices and I do not feel that they are talking to me.
     Ok now on to my dilemma. I have been seeing a shrink on and off for a couple of years. Actually I've seen 3 shrinks. I have not told any of them about the whispers in the vents.  I am treating at the VA for PTSD and major depression. I even filed a claim. I never told them mostly because the subject has never come up. But should I tell the good Doctor about the voices? You know how some of these guys can get. I am a serious gun collector and I shoot what I collect. I also smoke weed on a daily basis. I've talked about that here a couple times I think. But I can not help thinking that mentioning the voices may not be a good idea. I own guns and I smoke weed. Now I hear voices? Yea you tell me what the Doc might think. Should I say something or should I just let it ride? Good question and I do not have an answer.
        I know I'll get asked what the voices are saying to me. Well they are not saying anything to me. At least I don't think so. Just random mumbling. And I still don't believe in ghosts, mostly. Ha I know it is changing my view on ghosts. The damn cat was on our bed the other night. Walking all over the bed too. My wife told me she felt it too because she looked up, and yep no cat. I also looked and I saw the same thing. No cat. Both of the live cats were sleeping in the living room. I am starting to make it a habit to know where they are at when I go to bed. I can certainly tell the difference between the live cats and the ghost cat. The live cats are much heavier than the ghost cat and the ghost cats walks like a whisper. Martha and I both agree that the ghost cat is Smokey. The cat we had when we first moved in. Smokey was a rescue cat and she was large for a house cat. Bigger than either of the cats we have now. I liked Smokey. I cried a little when she died. I'll let her stay, she really liked this house. So I guess that's more or less it on the ghost thing. We know who they are and they really don't cause any trouble so as far as I am concerned they can stay. That is until I need a place to stay after I go to the clearing at the end of the path. I shall say later days my friends, who you gonna call???

Reflections

Today is just one of those kinda of days. The weather sucks, my fibro is reminding me in a big way that I am sick. My arthritis is also giving me a ton of grief. So I sit here lookig out the window at the cloudy ski and I started to go back in memory. I look back and see myself in my child hood. That sucked. I told you about it in breif a few posts ago. As an adult my life hasn't been the greatest but then again it hasn't been terrible either. I have fucked up a lot, but not too bad. I sorta made it through 2 years and 8 months of aircraft carrier duty without too many scares. None on the outside anyway. I drove big trucks for close to 15 years and never wrecked out except for a sideways trip through the median once when I slid off an icy interstate. Yea that was fun. You shouda been there. My shoulder is still screwed up from that one. That was over 15 years ago. So for the most part my life has been pretty good. More good than bad. See the thing is that now all the bad is starting to come back to the top. When I smell diesel fuel I am magically taken back in time to the flight deck. It doesn't take much of an input and poof there I am. A helicopter or the sound of a fighter jet off in the distance. I try to not let those thoughts in, but hey ya know it happens. I try to replace the bad thoughts with good ones but that doesnt always work. When I get to feeling lousy I always try to "suck it up". I am not always successful with that. I am getting better at handling it though. I think. I jumped at my wife the other day for pretty much no reason. I was feeling crappy and I let it get out. In short I did apologize and got on with the day or evening. We ended up going out and watching a new band. More on the band later.  I also thought of a new subject for me to blog about. Ghosts. Yep I did say that. And I will make an entirely new post on that subject. You may find it interesting, or maybe not. So until then I shall say,  Later days my friends. Smoke em if ya got em....

Random Thoughts

It's Sunday and it's also cloudy and drizzly. Day 2 of Wisconsin's deer season. I don't hunt nor do I care to learn. I feel that stage of my life passed me by. Do I regret not learning how to hunt? No. If people want to hunt that's fine with me. It's just not my cup of joe. I do have a nice little gun collection though. But that's just what it is. A collection. I collect older military weapons. I started with a couple old Russian bolt action rifles and it kinda keeps on going. If I find something a little different or old and not expensive then I will try to buy it. I have 6 rifles ranging from 22 ca. up to 7.62. My wife has a vintage shot gun and a derringer. The derringer is the only new gun Ive bought, more as a novelty and collectible than anything else. My youngest son has a deer rifle. I also have a revolver. An 80 year old Russian. All my firearms are in perfect working order too. I will not buy junk just because it is old. They have to go boom when you pull the trigger.
    Firing a large caliber firearm is pretty exciting. Not like, get my dick hard exciting but not like driving fast either. I can't explain it. I guess you either know or you don't. You need to fire one to find out I guess. I like to shoot. I like the feel of the gun and I like having my revolver on my belt. I really like it when I hit the target.     Shooting is kinda of an expensive hobby though. Thats one reason I like the old Russian stuff. Ammo is dirt cheap. Maybe it is time for me to buy a couple of older American military firearms. I would like to get an M-14 and or an M-1.  I prefer rifles over hand guns though. I don't know why. Maybe because I'm a better shot with a rifle. Maybe because rifles are just a tad safer than handguns. If you can say firearms are safe. And they are actually, it's the person behind it that is unsafe.  Every one needs a hobby right? I just happen to chose firearms and shooting. I used to build model cars but I guess I outgrew that.
   Shooting can be a ton of fun, but with the arthritis and the fibro pulling the trigger can be very painful. Not to mention the sound and the recoil. I know how to hold a rifle so the recoil really isn't too big a deal but I do feel it through my whole body. So I don't go out as much as I'd like. And now it's getting cold out so I will probably clean and oil all my firearms for the winter. That's the down side of shooting. Having to clean the firearm after shooing it. Tedious but kinda fun. A clean firearm is less likely to jam too. It is time once again to close out and sign out. Farewell my friends, until we meet again. Have a wonderful day..

Another Flare up

It's been awhile since I posted. Time seems to have grown wings or should I say jet engines. The months went by that fast.My trip went well. I have a lot of pics and memories. I had fun most of the time but I was battling with fibro pain and maybe some prescription drug problems. I quit all but one of my scrips. I do feel much better. Mostly. I've bee riding a flare up for 4 days now and that is making me just a little bummed out. I hate that. I want to do things and get ready for winter but, nooo I have to be sick. I try so hard to keep upbeat and not show my, just what the hell are we suppose to call this? It's not a disease. Syndrome sounds too much like a movie. Although sometimes, well all the time I wish it were a movie. Some cheesy sci-fi flick from the 60s.
     So I do my best to hide this. That is what is expected of me. I am suppose to be a "man".  I am suppose to do the "man up" thing. Ya know screw that. I hurt. All the time. Every waking moment. Sleeping ones to, I'm sure. It hurts to fix my tea in the morning. Damn it hurts to get out of bed, yet I do. I get out of bed and I do what I do. But that does not mean I don't hurt. It hurts to have my arms above my head. Reaching for something up high. It hurts to bend over. It hurts to walk the puppy. More ways than just physical too. It hurts to type this. But I do it. I do what I can. I tire very easy. But I try to keep going. When asked how I'm doing I almost always say I'm doing great or at least good. Even though I may be sick a hell or tired I still try to keep it hidden. I hate that.  Why should I have to hide anything?? I am an adult. But I still have to hide my feelings. My irritation with something is always misconstrued as severe anger. No. My illness or syndrome is misconstrued as laziness. Why? Are we as humans so afraid of some one that is not as healthy as the rest of the population?
     I made a comment one night at the bar about being disabled and not being able to do much except sit at home and smoke weed. So I get a really dirty look and a comment from a guy that went something like this. " You mean to tell me that you sit around all day smoking weed and collecting disability?"  I said "yea pretty much." He said why should his tax dollars go to support that. I said that for one thing his tax dollars have nothing to do with it. Two things. I worked all my life at hard labor kind of jobs and I paid my share of fica. Thats what I am collecting right now. Not your tax dollars. I did not comment on the fact that he had to weigh in at some where north of 300# plus he had a beer and was stuffing a very large and nasty looking garbage pizza in his face, while sucking on a cigarette . Just another redneck witch burner. It will be his turn sooner than he thinks. I have no room in my life for people like that. 
    So, because of that kind of attitude out there I no longer volunteer info on what is wrong with me or my body. I even try to derail the subject if it comes up. I will turn the conversation around to something other than my disability's. I have had to learn the same lesson over and over. I simply can not talk about what is bothering me or how I feel about certain subjects. Hence the blog I guess.  I have even told some people that I work for the US government and I can not talk about it. They laugh but I get a chance to change the subject. What ever works the best I guess. So I shall end this post because it's time to go get something for lunch.
       May we all meet in the clearing at the end of the path...