Hi-ho Pokey! Away!

[rose]

Erica,

I know exactly what you mean, who knew there were so many oddballs (to put it nicely) out there, its like they come out of the woodwork!

For your entertainment, try going over to the People With ALS "PALS" forum page,and look for a thread titled Post things to cheer people up You will enjoy it. :smile:

 

[Zaphoon]

Erica,

Your account of the date with the screamer was funny. Screamers can be fun, too!

 

[BethU]

I came down to find him standing next to a vintage Jaguar. Interesting, I thought, and put my hand out to open the passenger door. He screamed - really screamed, like a woman being frightened - "DON"T TOUCH THE CAR! I just had it waxed!"

Oh, Lord ... you must have dated my first husband.

 

[perplexed]

Beth, you are too funny

If I could recall his name maybe we'd have a match but I don't remember him from a bar of soap... Some mean part of me hopes he has a need to read this forum and recognizes himself, but that's not nice and I'm ashamed.

On a medical note:
Still haven't heard from the neuro about my husband's 2nd (clean) single-fiber EMG Jan. 16th. I find this ludicrous. He still has no weakness, started with swallowing issues, and his voice sounds full of guck as he has constant saliva in his mouth and throat, but not weak. Would an increase in saliva/phlegm over a week be able to be put down to disease progression? The doctors found some tongue weakness but no atrophy anywhere and told him he didn't "currently" have the criteria for ALS but as his attending neuro hasn't called back, I'm asking the forum.

I'll try to think of other blind date stories - seem like a lifetime ago.

Anyone want to trade "weirdest jobs we've ever had" stories?

LOL to everyone,
Erica/perplexed

 

[perplexed]

PS to Beth

And I grew up with Citroens. The negative side was that there were only three in Amherst, New York (the local mechanic who fixed Citroens has clearly by now retired to a pretty house wherever he wanted), and the local police knew them all. As a teenager, I couldn't drive one mile over the speed limit, which, in hindsight, was an excellent thing.

OJ Simpson was still playing for the Buffalo Bills and I remember driving down Main Street in a coffee-coloured Citroen and meeting at a red light coming towards me a coffee-coloured man in a white Rolls. Now that was a picture.

And my parents, when first married, had a Sunbeam Talbot which looked lovely sitting on the city block as for 90% of its time it didn't work. Occasionally it would give them a break and go somewhere.

Now I drive a Subaru and miss the fun and elegance but love the reliability. God, that makes me feel old! Put on some lipstick and watch Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline in "French Kiss" for the slapstick scene in the hotel in Cannes and have a great day.
LOL,
E

 

[rose]

Erica,

I'm sorry you're still waiting to hear back from that neuro, this whole thing is such a puzzle, and I feel like you may be missing valuable time that could be spent starting treatment, if it is something that will respond. I know he's probably so tired of doctors and that whole scene, but have you considered asking for a referral to Johns Hopkins?

About cars and men...

My ex-husband when he was newly my "ex", advised me, urged me in fact to buy a used Renault. Anyone who knows anything about their reliability (which I obviously didn't and he did) would know that is the last car someone should buy. It had more problems, even scary electrical ones, brakes suddenly failing ones, you name it, its a miracle I survived the divorce just due to what I was driving.

and dates .... there was this guy I met at a car rental place, I was there because my Renault was once again not in running condition. (I am not kidding) He seemed nice and fairly normal, I went out with him maybe two or three times.

Then one morning I open up the newspaper.

Wait ~ back story ~ I was living in Pittsburgh (GO STEELERS!) but not a native of there, wasn't all that familiar with local history. SO, I open up the newspaper one morning ... and yes, I see that pattern here, local new,...news paper,...but actually this happened before the dentist and the poison dart episode by several months.

.... I open the newspaper, and there is a retrospective of the Pittsburgh Pirates cocaine scandal of 1985, that had taken place ten years before. My latest dating interest had his picture plastered right on the front page, with the 7 ball players as he was one of their drug dealers and had cut a deal and plead guilty to several felony counts.:-|

 

[BethU]

Perplexed ... Good Lord, I haven't heard of a Sunbeam for years! I worked for a foreign-car dealership in the 60s and 70s, and among their other disasters, they sold Sunbeams. Or rather, they tried to.

Our loaner car was a Sunbeam, and once when I was driving it down the street, someone coming at me did a double take and yelled out his window, "I thought Sunbeam was a mixer !" Well ... the mixer was a lot better made than the car! :-D What I remember best is the crazy shift pattern ... it was so wide and loose that you practically had to move the gear shift from the right passenger door to your own lap and from the dashboard to the back seat. I couldn't possibly have driven it with a male passenger in the front seat ... we would have been in love by the time we got where ever we were going. But you REALLY got a lot of right arm exercise!

I wonder if having driven a Sunbeam causes ALS ...

 

[crystalkk]

Rose,

I am laughing so hard, I can't catch my breath. You should write a book.

 

[lydia]

Beth, omg I can't stop laughing...."we would have been in love by the time we got where we were going" :-D:-D:-D

Rose, how about finding out your handsome new beau is the serial rapist hitting all the local campuses...? Try getting back in the saddle after that one...

Perplexed, Didn't know you were from around here. I live in Amherst now, right off Main. I wonder if the mechanic you wrote of is the same one we used for our volvo, at Universal Auto? A wonderful character, now retired, so his son runs the place. They were great to visit with; so much so that they would stop what they were doing and just plain chit-chat with you for 10, 20, 30 minutes....did this with everyone who came by. As you can imagine, it would take forever to get your car back!

Lydia

 

[rose]

Lydia,

See, this is why its probably good that we don't live closer together, can you imagine the combined karma? Could be interesting though. 8)

Re: the Sunbeam, I honestly don't remember that car, I remember the Corvair, learned to drive (stick no less) in a Pinto, remember the Pacer, the Duster (first car when married) the Javelin, Pontiac GTO ( wrecked one once ~ not badly though).... don't think I had the pleasure of a Sunbeam. Was it a British import by chance?

 

[rose]

OMG Beth, I just re-read your statement about the gear shift pattern! My question is, would that be a bad thing or not?

Crystal, I know, and in retrospect, I wouldn't trade any of it.

 

[BethU]

Yes, British.

How about the Borgward? Anyone still alive who remembers that fine piece of German engineering? (Actually it was a great car.)

And the Morgan (actually that's still around, I think.) GREAT classic British car. I could never drive it because I couldn't reach the gas pedal, and the seat wasn't adjustable. Ladies not invited, I take it. But a beauty of a little sports car. Looked like the early MGs only better.

As to shifting being a bad thing ... I think the danger to the passenger's delicate areas if you're downshifting in a hurry might take the bloom off the romance. :-D

 

[rose]

LOL yes, I get your drift Beth.

The Morgan I do know, in fact one of my last UK trips I was in Stratford-upon-avon and a guy pulled up in one at the hotel I was staying at. I got a picture of us together with the car, he said it was an "Aeromax" I just know it was very cool and shiny 8) Stratford is somewhere I intend to go again before the "monster" does too much more damage. (birthplace of Shakespeare, lots of swans and a butterfly park)

 

[JohnMc]

Rose

Yes the Sunbeam was from Britain. My first car was a '66 M.G. Midget. It was cute and fun, but not very well built. It was so small I could tap my cigarette ash out the right window as I drove.

 

[rose]

John,

I ALWAYS wanted that car, either the Midget or the Triumph. I was convinced my dad was going to get one for me (just like the horse I never got either LOL) Those cars were really tiny. Even the Mini is much larger than the original British version. There is a "classic" Mini in the showroom of the dealership where I take my Mini, and it looks like a toy compared to mine.