Road Trip + Comfort Food + Little House Roid Rage +

mental health MON

My mental health update

Road trips

• I've mentioned before that road trips seem to have a soothing effect on me. Last THU 2/26, I was in Lincoln for my weekly routine, helping Sarah w/my 2 grand-daughters while my son-in-law is deployed. I motored up to Fremont, NE, about 1 hr north of Lincoln, to visit a friend. He was my assistant principal & AD for many years. When I began my "sabbatical" from LHNE in NOV 2014, he became interim head administrator. He left LHNE at the end of last year in order to accept a Call to serve as principal of Trinity Lutheran School in Fremont. Not only was Greg a top-notch English teacher, assistant principal, AD, & coach, we became very good family friends, as well. But I digress.
• Besides a wonderful visit w/Greg, including a visit w/his better half, I got to tour his school, * I drove past Lake Wanahoo, a new feature since we moved from Lincoln to Hawaii to Norfolk. It's near Wahoo. The hwy now detours around Wahoo. Remember when Wahoo was the Home Office of the David Letterman Show? Even though we never regularly watched David Letterman, ** I always got a kick out of his Top 10 lists & frequently went to his web site just to check out the latest Top 10 list.
• I also saw a historical marker that I had never seen before, just outside Fremont next to the Platte River. The content explained how there used to be some pretty consequential Pawnee Villages located along the bluff. As I got back on the highway, I noticed a sign pointing toward "Pawnee Meadows." Hmmm. All these features made it a delightful road trip. ***

* Lois & I had been there over 20 years ago for a NE District Professional Workers' Conference.

** It was past our bedtime years before it became mandatory to become past our bedtime. In my case, it became age- & medication-related.

*** A little stress was involved. SEE below.

Reasons to Be Up

• Cluster headaches:  Since doubling the dose of one of the meds I take to prevent them, I haven't had a cluster headache since 2/7. This is significant, since this cycle began before Christmas break & had progressed to 2-3 headaches, most of them relatively minor, by early FEB. I'm still waiting to hear back from him, since the last time I contacted his nurse, I was told that my insurance was being contacted to approve a series of botox treatments. I'm hoping these injections [I assume it will be injections.] will also eliminate the bags around my eyes.
• PP:  [Did I just hear someone giggle? You are soooo immature.] From Lincoln Journal Star (2/17): "Planned Parenthood resolution passes. The House voted THU to make it easier for states to deny federal family-planning funds to groups such as PP that also perform abortions . . . " ["One small step for human-kind. One giant step for unborn baby-kind.]
• Lutheran High Northeast. Last month was the 20 year-anniversary of my move from Hawaii to Norfolk to help initiate the mission & ministry of LHNE. I did NOT experience any depressive episode, which I consider progress. I delight in the positive p.r. I see about the school,like the recent full page Tracking the Eagles feature in the Norfolk Daily News (2/2). It was a wonderful write-up about the Eagle Speech Team & their coach, Preston Sunderman.
• LHNE, Part 2. I am typing this on SUN 2/19. As I was browsing FB, I saw that our Silver Talons once again crushed the competition at the State competition & brought home championships in Class C2 Hip-Hop & Jazz. We are a juggernaut!
• Partisan pundits:  A recent editorial by Kent Warneke, editor of the NDH, highlighted the news that "In the coming days, readers of this page will be able to enjoy the writings of Charles Krauthammer & Rich Lowry . . . " [I agree w/Kent--I personal friend of mine & the reason my blog is posted on the NDN web site--when he continues to write, "I believe they're excellent additions to our lineup of columnists from the political right (as they are) & those who lean toward the left or middle ground."]

Reasons to Be Down . . . But Not Out!

• Road Trip continued . . . As I mentioned in a footnote above * on my way to Fremont last THU 2/16, I missed a turn-off. To my credit(?), I was listening to a Christian CD. Then, because I had entered the wrong address into the travel app on my phone, I took off on a jaunt to the opposite side of Fremont. By the time I ran into pretty much of a dead end [taking me closer to Norfolk than TLS, I surmised], I was humming "This is not where I belong." **
• I called my friend, who told me how to get to the school. I took me an extra 10-15 minutes to get there, & I missed one turn. This delayed our visit to Village Inn, where I had too many carbs. +
• Although I completed my on-line registration for retirement benefits in time to meet a deadline, there is paperwork that I need to sign & return before those benefits begin to be directly deposited into my bank account. Unfortunately, that paperwork had not arrived by the time I left town for Lincoln last FRI. This means I will most likely NOT receive a check in MAR. However, I was assured by my CPS rep that my benefits will be retroactive to MAR 1 & included in future benefit payments, most likely beginning in APR.
• I'm still on steroids to help prevent cluster headaches. I noted earlier that I haven't had a cluster headache since 2/7. That's the good news. The bad news? I STILL haven't noticed any changes to my physique, & I think I experienced a mild case of "roid rage" last FRI on my drive home from Lincoln. An oncoming car flashed its headlights at me under the mistaken perception that I had my brights on. I flashed mine back briefly. He STILL flashed me, so I waited until he was just a few car lengths from me & put my brights back on. That was not only a grumpy thing to do, it was also unchristian.

* SEE footnote under Road Trips, under My mental health update.

** Kudos to Building 429, a favorite CCM group. ***
*** If you are anti-CCM, please don't get your shorts into a knot. ****
**** I know this sounds snarky, but you often provoke me. *****
***** And I know that this comment is anything but mature.
+ I don't intentionally want my friend to sound cheap. I never gave him an opportunity to pick up the check. That's just the kind of guy I am.

• From Omaha World Herald, TV Q & A, (2/12):  "Q. My wife & I have been wondering what became of the little boy actor who played Albert on 'Little House on the Prairie.' Where is he now? A. He was Matthew Laborteaux while playing Alert Ingalls on the family on the family drama. These days he goes by Matthew Labyorteaux, his given name, & is 50 years old! According to the Internet Moview Database he works mainly as a voice actor in animated productions & video games."  [Sorry, Matthew. This is very uncharitable of me, but I couldn't care less about your career. The fact is, I remember how Lois & I--& for awhile her sister Anita--faithfully watched "Little House." It doesn't seem THAT long ago, but now I read that you are 50! That's at least mildly depressing.]

The Lord Is My Shepherd *

      "Just as sheep will blindly, habitually, stupidly follow one another along the same little trails until they become ruts that erode into gigantic gullies, so we humans cling to the same habits that we have seen ruin other lives. Turning to 'my own way' simply means doing what I want.It implies that I feel free to assert my own wishes & carry out my own ideas. And this I do in spite of every warning.
      "We read in Proverbs 14:12 & 16:25, 'There is a way which stems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.' In contracts to which Christ the Good Shepherd comes gently & says, 'I math way, the truth, & the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me' (John 14.6). 'I am come that they might have life, & that they might it more abundantly' (John 10:10).
      "The difficult point is that most of us don't want to come. We don't want to follow. We don't want to be led in the paths of righteousness. Somehow it goes against our grain. We actually prefer to turn to our own way even though it may take us straight into trouble."
      [MY COMMENTS:  I continue to quote from Phillip Keller's book. It may seem this would be more appropriate for my devotionals, but I include them in my mental health MON posts, because I worked my way through his book as part of my daily quiet time. My daily quiet time has been an incalculable part of my mental health "strategies."]

* Source:  A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, by Phillip Keller, (DayBreak Books), 1970.