Tag: Kurt Vonnegut

Writer’s Log – June 18, 2023 – USA Father’s Day

Posted in @jimmiekepler, American Poets, Authors, Baby Boomer Poets, Bible, Blessed, Blessing, Blog, Business, Businessperson, Christian Business, Christian Businessman, Christian Businessperson, Christian Businesswoman, Christian Living, Christian Love, Christian Poets, Christian Writers, coffee, Coffeehouse, Devotional, Devotions, Dr. Jim Kepler, Dr. Jimmie A. Kepler, Dr. Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Encouragement, Friends, Friendship, Happy, Hope, Inspirational, Inspire, J Kepler, J. Aaron Kepler, JA Kepler, Jim Kepler, Jimmie A. Kepler, Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Jimmie Aaron Kepler EdD, Jimmie Kepler, jimmiekepler.com, Journal, Life, Love, Male Poets, Memoir, Men Poets, Military Brat, Motivation, My Testimony, North American Poets, Patience, Peace, Plans, Poet, Poet's Life, Poets, Prayer, Prayers, Refuge, Rest, Southern Poets, Texas, Texas Poets, US Poets, Walking, Writer's Life, Writer's Log, Writers, WritingLeave a comment
Jim Kepler in straw hat at coffee house

Father’s Day

I hope this post finds you well. Today is Sunday, June 18, 2023, and it’s Father’s Day here in the United States. I received some lovely Father’s Day greetings from two of my three adult children via text, which was a nice surprise to start the day. The third is out of country and posted Father’s Day greeting from Lima, Peru.

Leg Pain

As usual, I took my morning prescriptions, but I’ve been experiencing some discomfort in my lower right leg for the past few months. The pain is below the knee and above the ankle on the front of the leg, and it seems to be getting worse lately.

I suspect it’s tendonitis caused by one of my heart medications. To see if the medication is indeed the culprit, I decided to stop taking it for a few days. I plan to reach out to my cardiologist’s office to discuss this issue further.

Joint Pain

On top of the leg pain, I’ve been dealing with joint pain throughout my body, which has been quite intense, ranking at an 8 or 9 on a scale of 1 to 10. Unfortunately, joint pain is another side effect of the medication I’ve been taking. 

Despite the discomfort, I’ve been trying my best to tolerate it, as my heart doctor suggested, because this medication has been effective in managing my high cholesterol and triglyceride levels. I’ve been on these medications since November last year, and with each passing day and month, the pain and side effects seem to worsen. In an attempt to find some relief, I’ve been regularly elevating and icing my leg four times a day.

Virgil Cane

Getting around has become quite challenging, and I find that I can’t walk without my trusty cane. I’ve given my cane a name—Virgil. It’s a bit of a nod to an old song called “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” by The Band and Joan Baez. Perhaps you remember it too if you’re around my age.

Despite these difficulties, I managed to get out of bed, get dressed, and take my medications. I drove to the coffee house, and there was a friendly tall blonde barista waiting to serve me a tall blonde roast coffee. I ordered my drink and settled down at the handicap table to do some morning writing before heading to church and my Bible fellowship class.

It still hot and humid outside but cool enough inside I I grabbed my hoodie to keep the chill away.

Grocery Shopping

In the afternoon, I plan to do some grocery shopping, catch up on my reading, maybe nap, and then participate in a water aerobics session in the pool. That’s pretty much the extent of my plans for the day.

Remember Your Father

I hope you’re having a wonderful day, and I look forward to hearing from you soon. Remember your father on this father’s day. If you still have him at least call or text and send your love. If he’s deceased reflect on the good memories. If you’re a dad, think of your children, that your wife for he gift of the children, and tank your heavenly Father for the gift of His son, Jesus.

Take care. I send my warm regards to everyone. Keep on smiling.

Writer’s Log – June 16, 2023

Posted in @jimmiekepler, American Poets, Authors, Baby Boomer Poets, Blog, Business, Businessperson, Christian Business, Christian Businessman, Christian Businessperson, Christian Businesswoman, Christian Living, Christian Love, Christian Poets, Christian Writers, coffee, Coffeehouse, Desires, Devotional, Devotions, Dr. Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Encouragement, Faith, Friends, Friendship, Hope, Inspirational, Inspire, J Kepler, J. Aaron Kepler, JA Kepler, Jim Kepler, Jimmie A. Kepler, Jimmie Aaron Kepler, Jimmie Aaron Kepler EdD, Jimmie Kepler, jimmiekepler.com, Journal, Joy, Life, Love, Male Poets, Memoir, Men Poets, Military Brat, Motivation, My Testimony, North American Poets, Patience, Peace, Plans, Poet, Poet's Life, Poets, Praise, Prayer, Prayers, Refuge, Rest, Southern Poets, Strength, Texas, Texas Poets, Trust, US Poets, Walking, Writer's Life, Writer's Log, Writers, WritingLeave a comment
Jim Kepler is a straw hat fedora at Starbucks

A Strange Record Heat

It’s Friday, June 16, 2023, and it’s hot. Dallas, Texas is where I call home. The heat index on Thursday was 109 F degrees. Thursday Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) tied a record. The dew point at DFW airport at 2 p.m. topped 80 degrees. The last time the dew point was this high was on June 14, 1997 (26 years ago). Wow! The dew point is how much water is in the air. The dew point plus temperature equals a misery index in my mind.

Slept Almost 12-Hours

Yesterday I slept for almost twelve hours. No, I didn’t stay up all night. My bedtime was just before eleven PM and I got up a few minutes before noon. I don’t know whether to say yea to me or what’s happening? Six out of seven nights a week, get eight hours of sleep and average eight hours a day almost every month. So, what’s up with staying in bed half the day?

After waking up, I took my RXs.

My daily devotional time followed The I jumped in the shower, and washing my hair.

Hair washing is a big deal with my to the shoulder blade’s length hair.

Drying the hair takes two to three hours if I let it air dry or ten to fifteen minutes with a blow dryer – which I hate using. I dressed, and it was time to dash out the door and take she who can’t be named on the Internet to lunch with a friend of ours. Both of the ladies and I have lost our spouses to death and cancer. We are all in the eighteen months to five years since our spouse passed time frame.

Lunch With Friends

We met a favorite Greek restaurant in Plano, Texas – Zorbas. I was there from just after 1 PM until I left at 5:30 to go to my Zoom meeting of the 540 Writing Community. The ladies retired to our friend’s house.

After the writing group meeting, I went to our lady friend’s house and visited for another hour.

They enjoyed their favorite adult beverage, made from grapes. I’m a teetotaler and abstain from alcoholic drink. Filling my designated drive role, I drove she who can’t be named on the Internet home before retiring for the evening.

Sleeping late yesterday got me the rest I needed. It did not do any walking or morning writing. As you might have noticed, no writer’s log for yesterday.

Value of Friends Reprised

On Wednesday, I wrote about the value of friends. I’m blessed to have three close male friends, and two other guy friends I know would drop whatever they’re doing if I need them.

As a sixty-nine years old widower, I’m blessed to have a girlfriend – she who can’t be named on the Internet as I call her as she doesn’t want me using her name, likeness or image on the open Internet. I share two other female friends with her. They are like sisters to me. I have a number of lady friends from my online line and local writing groups that from time to time check on me and I see in meetings or at conferences. Additionally, I have my three adult children and their families, plus my vast army of cousins, which I classify as family instead of friends. I am blessed to have these special people in my life. And, I always I room for one more.

Today – June 16th

This morning I got up, dressed, did my RXs, and devotional time and drove to Starbucks where I’m having coffee and writing. Walking at the air-conditioned mall later this morning is on the day’s agenda. We are expecting 100 + F degree weather for today and for at least the next ten days. So I try to walk.

I say try to walk as my right hip is causing me great pain. Watching a couple of videos by physical therapist Bob and Brad on YouTube, which show stretching exercises to help with hip pain, is my first step in resolving the problem. Should I call the rheumatologist and set up an appointment to get some relief? Taht is the question I’m debating.

Reading and a nap are in my afternoon plans. Tonight I am taking she who can’t be named to live community theater.

My rewrites of the recommended edits continue, but are going slow as my motivation is best described as procrastination, where I only do a chapter or two a day instead of knocking it all out in one or two marathon sessions.

And So It Goes

And so it goes.

Well, I wanted to end with “and so it goes” but as I typed the phrase I reflected on Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse-Five” and the phrase. I first read “Slaughterhouse-Five” in 1973, four years after its publication. I was a twenty-year-old university student. Agreeing with writer Salman Rushdie interpretation of the phrase used on Vonnegut’s writing – Rushdie says “so it goes” has become one way in which we verbally shrug our shoulders and accept what life gives us – I see the phrase as more than just accepting what life hands you.

Vonnegut does not use it for that purpose in “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

“So it goes” is not a way of accepting life but, rather, of facing death. It occurs in the text almost every single time someone dies, and only when death is evoked.

I use the phrase as a hybrid of the two, accepting life as it is as I march toward my inevitable death at its unknown future date.

And of course, the selfie is from today.