My Motorcycle Injuries

Sometimes I feel that I have far too much time on my hands. For what, you ask? Philosophical thinking, self reflection, and generally useless ponderings. I was thinking a few days ago about my life. Not in a big picture way, but rather in an "accident that occurred years ago" way. My thinking centered on the subject of "purpose". I sometimes feel that this accident of mine was more of a directed blessing, as opposed to a random and tragic event.  To explain...there are some positive things that would not have occurred without the accident. One of them involves heart health. I lost fifty pounds as a result of the accident's aftermath. I have a lot of heart related issues in my family history such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglycerides levels, mini strokes, etc. I feel that I would be in fairly bad shape with my heart at this stage in life if I had not lost the weight and started to monitor my heart health years ago after the accident. My blood...

I had the annual CT scan required to check the stent in my chest a few weeks ago. They called me a week later to let me know that there are no leaks and no movements involved with my stent and that my aorta won't be killing me this year (well, I added that last part). Yup, I am the poster child for stability when it comes to internal chest bleeding. I'll be back to the endocrinologist in a few weeks for blood work, an office visit, and a sonogram. It becomes a little frustrating as I continue to pay one copayment and deductible after another with all of the medical people involved with my healthcare. I sometimes feel as though I'm being taken advantage of by going through procedures and visits that cost the providers very little, but affect my personal budget in a big way. To be truthful, I'd drop every one of them if it wasn't for my desire to make my wife happy. She would freak out if I didn't continue to deal with all of the medical things that I've been ...

There are times when I consider the way that I operate in life now in comparison to the way that I did before the motorcycle accident and I’m truly astonished at the differences made by a single event in time. I guess it isn’t really a single event when I couple the accident with all of the things that have been necessary to recover from all of the injuries inflicted on my body. It has required a lot of attention and effort over the years and continues to dominate in certain ways to this day. Many of the changes in the way that I do things have nothing to do with my physical condition, but rather with the way that my thinking process has changed over time. The way in which I look at our finances is one of the things that has changed to a fairly large extent. I have always been responsible with our money (both of my parents worked as accountants and served as an example of conservative personal financial management). However, I have also allowed a degree of more liberal spending within ...