Hills and hills of snow…there is a pile of it sitting in the front yard and in the back"at least four feet high! The icicles outside my bedroom window resemble saber teeth. One of them is at least three feet long. I like to watch them drip and I wonder what kind of music they would play, going drip, drip randomly "nature’s xylophone"God’s melody.  Watch the fluffy white snow dancing, changing direction as it floats around to the ground. 

Adventures in a wheelchair… on a cold brisk day, Jason went to meet his new internal medicine doctor.  This was an hour away to Spokane and in the same as building as his former primary physician.   My new doctor is a woman, a Romanian.  We spent 3 hours for this appointment"blood test, etc.  So we arrived home at 5:30pm, dark, and around 11 degrees, F.  We are praying the porch lift in the back works.  Here we go onto the lift, vrrrrrrm"stops right in the middle"circuit breaker blew.  New plan to get me inside the house.  Carry me into the house to my backup vent?  So I have the nurse take me to the front door as my mom runs to the neighbors to find help.   What good neighbors we have, Jerry and Jeff.  Before mom knew it, Jerry and Chad lifted me and the wheelchair onto the front porch.  Jeff came in for support.  Step by step, some grunting and I was safe up the stairs.  Quite the adventure in the wheelchair.  It was a good thing me and the wheelchair don’t have much weight.  The hydraulic fluid in the porch lift was probably freezing.  So, this was most likely the problem and the lift should work.  Hopefully this is only temporary.

Today we have almost two feet of snow and it is still coming down!

Jan.19.2008

Never experienced criticism before but I knew it would sooner or later.  Ah, woes and hurrahs of a published author!  Sometimes we can’t please everyone.   At first it was a downer, but I expected nonetheless.  What!  Buy my book and return it! Ok I’m done venting.  Thus we move on to better things.  I love writing!

“It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.”  -- Gustave Flaubert

If there were a place to be

Tis Ireland for me

She’s an enchanting dream

Rolling hills of green

A scent of floating mist

Where the Shannon flows

And a nightly castle glows

I really don’t know exactly where my fascination for Ireland came from. The music of the emerald isle has been an allure for me. There is something enchanting about Irish flutes and eerie bagpipes. This finds its way to the green landscape. I picture myself in Dublin town, listening to street musicians playing old folk tunes. It could be the fast beat of a fiddler or a slow Gaelic love song.

  Perhaps a Picture is a Clone of One's Self?

There must be thousands of me roaming around

You may find me in family photo albums

In unknown scrapbooks

I could be in jib-jab video

My face is on the back of two books

Other versions are in color

I can crop me in any shape

Ok this is enough of this madness

Jan.10, 2008

Good day to you all… Today I would like to share my thoughts on the Israeli/Palestinian roadmap to peace.  First of all, I’m all for peace in the Middle East. To have a region with no terrorism and conflict would be ideal.  The question is, how can the two sides compromise in order to implement peace?  Israel has already given up the Gaza Strip, with talks of giving the Palestinians the West Bank and the Golan Heights back to Syria. Where does this leave Israel?  More likely terrorist attacks to central Israel.

There will be more range for Katushya rockets which will then be able to reach larger populations.  So will the White House’s “Roadmap to Peace” become a success or a failure? It’s hard to know. I believe there will be a peace but a false peace.  If there is going to be true peace a few things have to happen.  Palestine has to sever its ties with all terrorist groups. It has to quit teaching their children to hate Israel and America. Perhaps Israel should be less apt to retaliate but they do have the right to defend themselves. So they compromise by giving the Palestinians the land they want.    Does then the violence cease, stay the same, or does it escalate?  Only history will tell.  There is always hope for the future.

Food for thought: How much are you willing to give up?  Would you give up half the USA to Mexico, or Alaska back to Russia?

This is Jason, good day to you all.  I will be myself, this is who I am.  Being born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy is not all who I am.  This wheelchair I sit in is not all who I am.  Yet, these two things are a part of my character.  Honesty, patience, quietness, thoughtful, good wits are some of my virtues.  I have a creative bug inside of me to write"to write poetry, to write fiction, and to share about real life.  Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy … was I given a bad deck of cards, many of them smiling jokers??  I am pondering this… of course I wish to walk around like everyone else… to live past 60.  Mostly I like who I am.  I like who God created. As they say “the grass is always greener on the other side.”  My character would be totally different without Duchenne.  Being positive is the name of the game.  Since I don’t have control over how I was born, I may as well not dwell but pursue a good quality of life.    

He was an ordinary man,

With an ordinary plan.

He was an ordinary herder of sheep;

God’s word he would always try to keep.

This was his ordinary life,

With his ordinary wife.

He woke to another ordinary day.

He gathered his sheep without delay;

His duty to supply the temple with lambs,

These were all white, no spots upon his exam.

The shepherd’s journey was very distant,

But his faith gave him persistence.

Far and wide he traveled with his flock,

Keeping an eye on it, like a hawk.

Soon upon a hill he could see the temple;

Though the walk would be simple;

It was getting late and his feet were tired.

Being close to dark, he built a warm fire;

It started out to be an ordinary night,

But the sky became blinding bright.

An angel of the Lord came

And the glorious Lord shone like a flame!

And there were other shepherds there;

Fear was in their wide-eyed stares

Good tidings the angels brought,

So no need to be distraught

A Savior, Christ the Lord is born

He is in a manger all adorned

Countless angels began to praise

The angels left them for heaven’s way

Beth-lehem the shepherds went--

At last the Messiah had been sent

It was no longer an ordinary day

Man it sure was a hot July, here in the inland northwest.  Settler's Day here has passsed. We didn't go this year, just too hot.  Well my garden has been producing quite a few zucchini.  Mom never made zucchini bread before and it was pretty good-- I told her to put in some cranberry sauce and she added raisins--yummy!!!  This was my first garden. It had snow peas, which are gone and some jalpeno peppers, zucchini and garlic.

It has been pretty hard for my church's congregation. We lost 2 elderly gentlemen--1 was a former pastor, Danny, he was in his mid 70's and the other was Mel, 80, who was 1 of many who found our church. So, we had a couple of  nice funerals. I always liked this verse and used it at my Dad's celebration of life -- "For me to live in Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).

Today is our annual church picnic out in the countryside at one of our church member's house. Looks like there will not be too much heat today. I will tell you the highlights next time.

Would like to know how your summer is doing.

Later and God Bless, Jay

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here and I hope you enjoy and/or get something out of this blog.

Later, Jay