David Thorne is my hero!

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.19pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David,
Our records indicate that your account is overdue by the amount of $233.95. If you have already made this payment please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.37pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing I did of a spider instead. I value the drawing at $233.95 so trust that this settles the matter.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.07am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David,
Thankyou for contacting us. Unfortunately we are unable to accept drawings as payment and your account remains in arrears of $233.95. Please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.32am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
Can I have my drawing of a spider back then please.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.42am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear David,
You emailed the drawing to me. Do you want me to email it back to you?

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.56am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,

Yes please.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 12.14pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Attached

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 09.22am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Whose spider is that?

Dear Jane, Are you sure this drawing of a spider is the one I sent you? This spider only has seven legs and I do not feel I would have made such an elementary mistake when I drew it.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.03am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David, Yes it is the same drawing. I copied and pasted it from the email you sent me on the 8th. David your account is still overdue by the amount of $233.95. Please make this payment as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.05am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Automated Out of Office Response

Thankyou for contacting me. I am currently away on leave, traveling through time and will be returning last week.

Regards, David.

From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.08am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Hello, I am back and have read through your emails and accept that despite missing a leg, that drawing of a spider may indeed be the one I sent you. I realise with hindsight that it is possible you rejected the drawing of a spider due to this obvious limb ommission but did not point it out in an effort to avoid hurting my feelings. As such, I am sending you a revised drawing with the correct number of legs as full payment for any amount outstanding. I trust this will bring the matter to a conclusion.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 2.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David, As I have stated, we do not accept drawings in lei of money for accounts outstanding. We accept cheque, bank cheque, money order or cash. Please make a payment this week to avoid incurring any additional fees.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles

From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 3.17pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

I understand and will definately make a payment this week if I remember. As you have not accepted my second drawing as payment, please return the drawing to me as soon as possible. It was silly of me to assume I could provide you with something of completely no value whatsoever, waste your time and then attach such a large amount to it.

Regards, David.

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Tuesday 14 Oct 2008 11.18am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Attached

Back from a distance

I haven't written in a while. Reading back a bit, I seem to have been on a low swing of sorts. My Birthday was great. I had two beautiful students actually come to my house with a cake for me...no kidding... crazy kids :D My wife dropped the negativity. She seemed happy with the gift she got me, a fact that meant more to me than the gift itself. Although, it certainly is a nice little Ipod touch. WE had lobster rolls and my kids were happy for me. Nice all the way around. Its funny, after writing fairly regularly for a while, its difficult to pick it back up again, because its hard to know what to write about.

My back saga continues. I am still going to physical therapy (I just went today). But I feel a thousand times better. I am going to see the Neurosurgeon in august... I love physical therapy, even though it hurts a bit. I can't believe how much better I feel.

I am reading a book right now that is kind of capturing my mind in ways that I like and dislike. I am reading a book about Jack the Ripper, by Patricia Cornwell. She spent over a million of her own dollars to solve the case of who the heck the guy was, and I think, and she thinks, that she nailed it down to this artist, Walter Sickert. It is really interesting to read, but the accounts of the murders are so freaking greusome. I don't even like to let my mind go there... dismemberment, etc... I have learned a ton about serial killers. More than I want to know, but I can't seem to stop reading it. I have also learned a ton about prostitution, both now and in the early 1800's. It is truly an awful thing.

hmm. I guess that is it for now. I am back in the swing of things.

Tomorrow's my birthday... da da da da da...

Tomorrow I will be 38.

maybe....

My dating anniversary...

It came and went... no mention of it... nothing. I feel a bit strange writing about this knowing that a couple former students are reading this... but If I am not honest than what am I writing about anyway.

Sometimes, many times, marriage is so hard. Today, and the past few days, have been some of those. It is always hard in the beginning of the summer because I come home and intrude on Jenny's time alone. But man, I still hate it. We both knew it was our dating anniversary. Neither of us mentioned it once. Jenny pretty much said she hated the fact that my Birthday is coming up, and she didn't really want to buy me a gift. I told her not to and she said that she didn't want to feel guilty about not buying me one later. So, life goes on right?

There are these dark areas of marriage that no one talks about that are so friggin awful. You trust your whole well being to someone, and that is no small thing, and some times its not really worth it. But, I am in it for the long run. So I just duck and move forward, hoping that tomorrow looks better than today

I don't think I could, actually

Alright... fess up time. I just watched an episode of "So you Think You Can Dance." And, that is not the confession. :) I will watch that show, and it is fun to watch, I don't consider it serious dance... (and I have seen serious dance) but for what it is, it is fun to watch sometimes. Occasionally there will be a piece that strikes me as something to really think about. Here is the confession, I actually cried... not full blown cry, cry, but cried at a piece tonight. It was set to gravity, by Sara Bareilles, whom I am learning to like a lot, and was about addiction. It really moved me, the hardness of the dark figure behind this girl that struggled and gave and fell loose and rigid, something about the control, all of it seemed so genuine and dark.

I feel like that sometimes, tamed by everything around me, tied down by everything I've made. Maybe not addicted, but close, definitely out of control. I realized a few years ago that I have the capacity to not become involved in life. I am not talking about my failure to go skydiving here. I am saying that I can hide away and watch it all from a distance. I did so for years. It was during that time that I became lonely. Again, not on the surface, but way in. Even recently, I realized that I was letting everything slide away again. Not participating, smile, slide, walk away. It's like life as act I. I think that is the biggest danger I succumb to. And I do so regularly. I could live in my house, watch my kids grow old, and never leave or veer their course. Maybe not for the course of their entire lives, but for a day, sure, done that. I get so sad about it too. I fear that they are learning to do things on their own, not because they can, but because they have to. I sit and read, or use the computer, or do nothing, and they ask to me play with them (become involved with me Dad) and I don't. It actually happened in the beginning of today. I rallied after lunch, and cleaned the whole freaking house up because of it, but it was there. I don't really even know what that is. I just watch...

I hate that rigid thing that holds me here, ties me down to apathy (not apathy) uninvolvement, self centered, defensive, safe, and dying. I want so bad to let the world happen with me. To sync up with the way it turns and move with it. Like in that movie "Phenomenon" when John Travolta looks up at the trees swaying and sways with them and all of a sudden understands. I want to feel the surge of success in life... like a blood rush that feeds my decisions. I want to make decisions and not react. Yeah, to not react, but to move when it moves. That is what I want. I can think it, like a cool breeze, but I have never done it... too worried...too scared of failure. I am not talking about quitting my job, running naked through the streets of Rutland here. I am just talking about not being afraid, not second guessing everything, not being a slave to my finances and afraid to try something else as well.

I feel like I am holding on to a quickly spinning world for dear life sometimes.... most times... and my hands are sore, and my eyes are closed, but I will not let go.

db

Back in class

I had my first class of photography tonight. It was at the art museum. It was interesting and not so much at times. The most interesting aspect was the other people there with me... We were a very varied bunch of individuals. I sat next to a very introspective, non-verbal comic illustrator that didn't answer the prof's questions when asked except to reply that he drew comics. Next to him was a very old, bespectacled man in a three piece suit that worked somehow for the state. Next to him was a kind of bubbly sophomore in high school that was interested in starting a candle company online. Other people included another comic book creator that said two thing all night: "Hi", and "Do you want to see something creepy." He said both of those things to the professor who, to her own credit, took them in stride, and a couple of housewives.

The class itself was a mixture of things I already knew and things that are going to be incredibly useful to me. The class is on photoshop elements. I think I am going to like it, I just have to walk around a bit more than anyone else due to the pain in my shoulder. It is going away, just not entirely gone yet. I get to go see a neurosurgeon in August. I hope he tells me to go away. My back is getting better... he should.

I bought some really nice scallops today to cook tomorrow, almost ensuring that tomorrow is going to be a blue ribbon day!

in her fullness

I thought I would write about her today. She is 2 and is really 2. Here is what today was like with her, or as much as I can remember about it. She began the day by waking up at 8:00 and calling my name. I asked her if she wanted to get out, she grabbed her blanky, her baby, and the book she was looking at and stood up for me to take her out. I did and brought her into the living room. She has been doing this wonderful thing lately. She will spontaneously come up and scream "Daddy" and hug my leg. She also pulls on my hand till I bring it low enough for her to kiss and then she does so. That later bit developed during my whole hurt shoulder/back thing.

She turned on the tv, the stereo, switched the input on the tv to tv and followed that by asking for a show. I said no tv. Then she threw an earth shattering fit, screamed "MY TV!" and wound up being punished in the pack and play. And that is pretty much how the whole day is for Nora. She exists in two realities. One is the sweetest, cuddliest, big-eyed, big hug world, and the other makes me want to lock her in her closet all day long and take her out when it is time for bed. She hits Henry, tried to bite me today, she threw a piece of race track at Henry, threw her food off of the table, let the cats outside, sat on the cat until it yelped (do cats yelp) and ran, bent the antenna on a portable radio I have... this is today... and the list goes on. But, in between the fits of rage, she is so loving and sweet. I have to tell Henry over and over again that she doesn't fully know what she is doing.

Recently, when I was changing her, she said distinctly, " I have a big ass." and then she repeated it twice more. I was freaking out!! She said it almost every time we changed her for a couple of weeks. Jen started accusing me of telling her that! I couldn't figure out how on earth she would have heard that! It finally took Henry to tell me that she was saying "I have a big rash." And that is parenthood for you... sweet and sour and fraught with danger.

4th and finished

Well, independence has past, back to sublimiation. :) I photo'd and taped the weekend with the express purpose of making a movie to record it all. It was lots of fun, however, the beginning, during the fireworks, is pretty much just black. It is kind of annoying but not really because you get to hear Henry and Carter discussing fireworks. My little editing program lets me post things right to youtube... maybe I will try that..... right....now....

Well that was pointless. You tube only allows movies of less than ten minutes I guess. Wait.... maybe I could cut some stuff out of it...the dark parts...

I

Must

Try

Forget it.... I would have to cut out too many good parts.... Any way I got our B-B-Q in there and the parade and the fireworks. Henry and Nora walked away from the parade with more candy than I thought possible. Yesterday we went to Church, then out with friends to supper. Nice day... There is nothing planned for today. Jenny isn't working, obviously I am doing a big nothing, and its sunny out. All of the ingrediants for niceness, a big empty pitcher. It is almost 9:00 in the morning and we are making decisions about what to do today. Ideas= Old Sturbridge Village (Henry had new love for horse rides), the beach... hmm... must go for now.

I can feel it... I CAN FEEL IT!!

My strength returned in my arm today... I feel like Sampson or something. This is going to be short and sweet. I still was achey a bit, but I am starting to feel a whole lot better...

Today was a good day.

elbows, fingers and short women

I went back to the physical therapist today. I was over half an hour early... I have no idea how that happened. It was like I went through some hole in the time space continuum and got there in five minutes... at any rate. I watched a bit of tennis, which I actually really love, and then this tiny, blond woman came over and told me that she was going to be working with me today. She also told me her name, and I almost remembered it. So, she made me lie down on a heating pad, and that was really nice. Then she massaged my back. That started out really really nice. I have never had anyone that knew what they were doing do anything like that. It was so good in the beginning. Then things got bad. she started pressing really hard around my shoulder blades. And, then I felt what I thought was her superhumanly strong hands digging in under them. I just couldn't figure out how she could even have the power to do this!! I realized that she was working her elbow around my back. She described the feeling as intense. I describe the feeling as searing pain. At one point I had a muscle spasm that made my hand clench into a fist. At this, she giggled... GIGGLED... and said "Ooo a muscle spasm...we will have to work that out later." Then she proceeded to tell me that she was a certified massage therapist and was planning on working in some deep tissue massage into my nice calm regiment of physical therapy. Next time I am going to ask her where she keeps all the black leather stuff and chains...

Then I had traction. I am really hoping that this is working. I think it might be. Which is really exciting.

I went to the fireworks tonight. They were great.. even greater than that is the fact that Jenny seems to be making a new friend. She really needed someone other than me... preferably a girl. So, I was happy to go with their family. They have kids our kids age and she is a nurse... It is nice to see that happening. Henry loved the fireworks and Nora held her hands over her ears but didn't cry at all. :)

kill the messanger

So, I got a phone call today from some guy that I have never talked to before. He was from my doctor's office I guess. My Doctor's office is the most messed up place in the universe. I have no idea why my doctor, who is really good, chooses to reside there. So anyway, some guy told me that I have two bulging discs in my neck. How bad? What does that mean? Is it getting better or worse? ANY FREAKING OTHER QUESTION YOU CAN THINK OF?? No answer. "I can just read to you the note that your doctor left on their report." And, he referred me to a neurosurgeon. The one question he answered is that that doesn't necessarily mean that I am going to have surgery. They just want me to go and talk to a surgeon and he will be nice enough to make that appointment for me at UMass.

So, here is my hope: I go to the man who does operations on spines for a living and he says, I don't want to do my job on you because you don't need me. It would be like going to the gas station and the attendant looking at your car and saying, "Just keep going, you're all set without me." I really do hope this though. I was left hanging by my crappy doctor's office so I did the next best thing... I got on the Internet. It seems, from the 50 or so sites that I perused, that the most common treatment for this is not surgery but traction and stabilization with the purpose of relieving pain, with the addition of some medicines while the pain goes. Once the pain is gone the rest comes with time.

I have had the traction, and it was actually kind of nice, minus the weirdness of have some one put my head in a small padded machine and attempt to pull it out of my body slightly. I had visions of giant machines with wires attached to ropes and pulleys and guys in big casts with legs elevated. But the thing comes in a little cinched bag and is inflated with air. Really, it was kind of nice. I got to lay down for like fifteen minutes while this thing alleviated any sort of pain in my shoulder and arm. The pain in my arm comes and goes now and is very rarely severe. I slept through the night last night and woke this morning to just a little stiffness. All in all, pretty ok. I just want that surgeon to say the same...

survivorman....I am not...

If surviving means sleeping, than I failed... 3:38. This was a lot of fun. Hm.... how to account for this... I started out by turning out the lights, and playing these nature/night sounds I downloaded from itunes. They were great, primarily crickets. Nora wouldn't stop talking. She kept saying "Carrots are for rabbits.... and Henry would laugh and she would say it again... this happened for literally half an hour. I tried to sleep on the floor but my back was starting to hurt so I went to bed. I heard Nora say that she wanted to sleep with "Daddy." So, in she came. She got up in my bed for two minutes then wanted to sleep in the tent. She went back to the tent and said she wanted to sleep with me again and came back to my bed. The she went back to the tent. This whole thing repeated itself a few times. I finally went back to the tent because I knew that is what she really wanted. I stayed there until everyone fell asleep, turned off the crickets, and then went back to bed. I kinda thought that I would sleep through the night tonight... but it wasn't to be I guess.

I love my family...they are going to be, and are being, the best part of my life.

outside inside

Right now I am staring at a tent... fully set up in my living room. The kids are getting ready for an indoor campout...campin... idk but it is serious. We made smores and ate chicken on sticks we are going to go to sleep to the sounds of the night brought to use kindly by itunes.

I don't know how I could possibly survive this... ;)