What Is Up With The DMV?

 

Just in case anyone thought I was ignoring them this week that wasn't the case! I was really busy with some legal problems for my upcoming trial and I'm FINALLY done with the incompetent DMV about my drivers license.

 

I know some of you heard about my problems with the DMV but with all of the budget cuts and other crap it's unbelievable how the DMV is operating in these times! Plus the fact they are getting away with it!

 

 

This is how the DMV acts!

 

Of course it's not just the DMV, the whole government is a horrible mess and along with our backward economy it's hard to keep up and keep your rights at the same time. In this cause I was trying after 41 years of having a good driving record with the DMV to keep my record and driving privileges after being taken to the hospital last July.

 

It should of been easy, at the time they had thought I had a seizure on the way to the hospital. (I was fighting for my life for God's sake!) After finding no reasons for me having seizures or any other problems before they released me they did tell me that for legal purposes they had to tell the DMV I had a seizure.

 

If things would of worked out the way they were suppose to, when I got the papers filled out by my doctor for the DMV it should of been over with. The Safety Division of the DMV didn't think that was good enough so they required me to have an eye and physical driving test. What’s funny is I had never had a driving test proper. I took Health & Safety in high school and Indiana didn’t require a physical driving test if you took and passed that class.

 

I went for the test and got a very young Asian man as my tester. He wasn't very friendly and made me nervous. Then I made the ONE stupid mistake I could of to fail the test immediately. When I made a left hand turn onto a street that was one way on one side my car tire went over the bumps on the yellow straight lines for a second. It was enough and he failed me.

No problem, I was told I could reschedule another. So I called and did so for Dec. 9th (which was the next week) so I thought I was lucky to be getting such an early appointment. I had called the DMV at their number like I was told so was I surprised! I went for the new drivers test and waited forever and finally they told me it wasn't in the computer so I didn't have a test to take.

I was so angry I had my roommate film me ranting about it in front of the DMV. I was going to get them. Gosh I was mad. They were careful not to say I was lying to them about calling the DMV for this, yet they WERE calling me a liar because they said I didn't speak to anyone or it would be in the computer. OMG!

Then I got another test date after that in the mail telling me to show up in Daly City which isn't the DMV I go to which is right by my house. I don't even know my way around Daly City. With that test date they also restricted my drivers license (which I was told wouldn't happen) to only being able to drive with someone over 24 years of age and only during the daylight. So I had to call and tell them I needed an appointment for San Mateo.

So I got my appointment in the mail for San Mateo but it wasn't until Feb. 24th at 8:45am, a long time to wait! This paperwork said my license was not restricted like I was told in the first place. Can you believe, much less follow this mess?

I was still driving my car and it's lucky I didn't get stopped because then I would of had to explain the DMV's paperwork to a cop. I can imagine how that would of went trying to explain the inefficacy of an agency that they have to back. 

I am now ecstatic because yesterday I got up and took  my test and passed it. They also said there were no restrictions on my license. (Hey, they are suppose to know.) Also I did really well! You can get up to 20 things wrong (unless it's a huge mistake) and my score was a low 5! I really am an excellent driver after all.

Before my test I was driving around the neighborhood and I was going through an intersection with two stop signs and two through streets. I had the right of way (it was sprinkling rain too) and a huge pick up truck (for any of you who read my dream blog) ran his stop sign and we almost had an accident. Luckily I put on my brakes gently (because it was slick) and I stopped right before I hit him. All he did was shrug his shoulders, laugh and take off. Leaving me to contemplate my upcoming drivers test and what would of happened to my test today if we had gotten in an accident.

I'm just glad this week is over and I'm done with anyone questioning me about driving my beloved car where ever I wish, anytime I wish! Our freedom to drive is only contingent to what the state we live in has to say about it and they are underfunded and understaffed. And most of them are idols besides.

 

 

It was a hectic experience but I'm done with it now and things should be back to normal and I can be online more. I have missed chatting with all my friends and my email needs to be cleaned out again, tee hee!

 

 Keep On Bloggin'!

Migraine And Migraine Art Drawn By Patients

Those of you that have experienced real migraines know that the terrible side effects can make normal functioning in daily life hard; if not impossible to deal with.

 

Classic migraines start with a warning sign called an aura. The aura often changes the way you see things. You may see flashing lights, or temporarily lose some of your vision, such as your side vision.

 

You may also feel muscle weakness on one side of your body. You may have trouble talking or feel depressed and irritable. You could feel restless.

 

Auras last about 15 to 30 minutes and may occur after, before or even overlap the pain of the migraine itself. The head pain of the migraine may occur on one side of the head or both sides.

 

Common migraines don't start with an aura. They last longer and interfere with daily activities more than classic migraines. Usually these are on one side of the head. The pain can last from 4 to 72 hours.

 

Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice In Wonderland had classic migraines. He also had a syndrome named after him because he suffered with a very rare type of migraine aura called, Alice In Wonderland Syndrome.

 

Now doctors are finding out that by looking at drawings done by patients having classic migraines they can learn a lot about these terrible head-aches and get an insight into what migraines might be like to each patient. The pictures are striking and speak for themselves.

 

---

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

---

 

Classic migraine art takes place during the aura which changes the way a patient see's and feels things. Doctors are continuing to study this type of art to better understand migraines and how patients feel when they have one. This way new and better migraine medicines are being made to relieve the side effects of auras and migraines.

 

Only 1% of us escape headaches altogether. 16 to 17% of people get a migraine headache sometime in their lives. There are over 20 million migraine attacks happening every day. Some migraines are mistaken for sinus headaches. (These numbers change each year.) People with migraines will look at these pictures with recognition, as they know how they suffer. I hope migraine patients get some relief from these studies that are being done.

 

  Keep On Bloggin'!

Understanding My Coma

Sometimes someone is so ill they are put into a coma to save their lives. That is what happened to me. They said I had two seizures before getting to the hospital (one in the ambulance) and my left lung was filled with vomit and had collapsed. I was spiking a high fever and phenomena was setting in. The Doctor's decided that a coma was the best way to save my life. I was put into a drug induced coma. Luckily I never needed a ventilator after they cleared my lung out. The important thing is the fact that I was put into a Coma and how it helped and effected me.

Someone who is in a coma is unconscious and will not respond to voices, loud sounds, or any sort of activity going on. Not even intense pain will bring forth a response. The person is still alive but the parts of the brain is functioning at a low level. It is working to keep your organs going and such. (Fingers crossed.) 

I can tell you from first hand experience that you can't hear people when in a coma like some believe you can. Reading to someone in a coma from a book is just for your own comfort not theirs. All I remember from being in my coma was my never ending, very strange dream that I had.

My dream was unlike any other dream I ever had while sleeping normally at night. The dream was probably based on my brain reacting to the seizures, fever and trauma. It was very eerie, not unlike being in Wonderland itself. I would of never known I had passed away nor that I had a had somewhere to go back to. I dreamed about people in my life, and some that weren't yet or at all. I wish I could of recorded the imagery it was very spacy kind of creepy yet very comforting. Then I woke up. I was totally freaked out until I realized I was awake.

My dream drove me to question what really happens when you die? If I would of passed away would I have dreamed until the very last brain cell gave out? And then what? For me, being so close to death was not an empty time where I couldn't remember and ever since then it's caused me to rethink my prior beliefs. But to what?

Then there's the way I have felt since being out of the coma and hospital. As soon as I came out of the coma and the doctors started telling me what happened it was hard to believe it was so serious because even with the tubes sticking out of every orifice and then some I felt surprisingly well. I even left the hospital faster then they wanted me to. I really shocked my doctors especially since they still can't find out what caused all this to happen!

 

I remember reading stories about coma patients who claimed that being in a coma 'reset' their brains and bodies in a new way that hadn't been expected. I felt this way too and after having people who knew me well tell me I was like a 'new person' I decided to look into this. Unfortunately for me I couldn't find much. Most of the articles were just about comas and were all very similar. People awaking from comas did not feel this way, often having to relearn even the most basic of functions. I had been extremely lucky!

 

 

People may emerge from a coma with a combination of physical, intellectual and psychological difficulties that need special attention. Recovery usually occurs gradually....patients acquire more and more ability to respond. Some patients never progress beyond very basic responses, but some can recover full awareness. Regaining consciousness is not instant: in the first days, patients are only awake for a few minutes, and duration of that time awake gradually increases. In reality, the coma patient awakes sometimes in a profound state of confusion, not knowing how they got there and sometimes suffering from the inability to articulate any speech, and with many other disabilities.

 

 

This is unlike the situation in my life where I awoke from my coma and was instantly able to continue my normal life. When I woke up I was up for good and didn't relapse back into unconsciousness. I was very blessed and haven't doubted that for a second since. I was anxious to walk, speak and do everything I could to go home from the hospital. The doctors where very surprised at my state after being on death's door. I was not confused in the beginning but I couldn't remember anything that happened to me and had to be told what transpired that week and why I was at the hospital.

  

This is a statistic that really freaked me out! The most common cause of death for a person in a vegetative state is secondary infection such as pneumonia which can occur in patients who lie still for extended periods. For me I got pneumonia right away from swallowing my vomit and an ultra high fever so I was very lucky I had the best staff working on me at Kaiser. They saved my life.   

So what I did find out after researching this is that I'm a lucky person to have come out of it like I did. It was very hard on my body and I took a month to recover from all of it fully. Even the day after I came home I felt so much better than I had in years! I couldn't put my finger on it but when other's noticed it too it confirmed what I had thought had happened. I was somehow a new person! I even looked better and I couldn't believe it.! A lot of my old pain was gone and my wrist I pinched a nerve in before had healed! The numbness was gone and I could touch type again. It was like a miracle! I felt so well that I was being more active than ever before this happened to me! What a great feeling!

 

From what I could tell the odds had been stacked against me. The fact that I didn't go into a coma on my own and they induced one is like arguing apples and oranges. A coma is a coma and they are very dangerous. I had several medical problems that alone could of killed me, but no. I had my dream during these goings on that helped me out a great deal. I think it helped several things for me. I know that the coma reset my brain not unlike an electrical circuit can be reset and in this case it helped me. Everyone knows the brain runs on electrical impulses. I can guess that shock therapy probably works on the brain this way as well. I do feel the two day Coma helped send me to a time before some of my injuries, before I felt so bad, it went back to a happier mental pattern in my life and all I can say is I'm super lucky and it's very awesome! I am thankful to God that I'm not learning how to tie my shoes again or walk. I am truly blessed and will not squander this new chance I have been given!

 

Keep On Bloggin'!

Rolling Through The Bay

Scott Weaver 49, does a lot of things in his spare time. He juggles, is great with a Frisbee, has a family and worked full time as a supermarket produce manager. Although it's hard to believe he has any time to spare an accident opened up 900 hours more for him to pursue his hobby of making abstract structures made out of toothpicks.  

 

A box of 750 toothpicks only costs 99 cents.

Thirty-four years ago, the Rohnert Park resident began gluing the tiny sticks together to form different objects.Then he started rolling tennis balls around inside of them. Because of his long time love for San Francisco he started with a model of the Golden Gate Bridge and went on to Lombard Street. Included in his family is his wife Rochelle, his son Tyler, and his 4 Great Danes.

Weaver is a fifth-generation Bay Area resident that grew up in Marin County but visited the city often to go to his grandmother's home in the Richmond District for the holidays.

Weaver grew up around an alcoholic father and it wasn't long before he also became an alcoholic. But he proudly says he's been sober for more than a decade now, with help from Alcoholics Anonymous.

About a year and a half ago, he was running near San Francisco's Marina Green when he blew out his left knee. Limping to the finish he had three surgeries to try and fix it and was forced to take a temporary leave from his job at the supermarket. This gave him the extra time he needed to build his masterpiece, Rolling Through The Bay.

Using over a million toothpicks, three thousand hours later Weaver's dream has grown into a massive piece-de-resistance that includes every major landmark of the city that inspired it and then some. Even the toothpicks themselves have meaning. He has implemented parts of his life in the model including toothpicks thrown at his wedding instead of rice and numerous AA emblems to name a few. Friends have brought him toothpicks from all over the world that he used in the making of Rolling Through The Bay.

Here is Scott at his home talking about his unique one of a kind model of San Francisco showing all the different (tennis ball) tours in the city. His model is very detailed and you must try and see it in person to see just how awesome his work is

 Scott Weaver's 'Rolling Through The Bay'

Rolling through the Bay has survived four homes, an earthquake, and Trooper, one of Weaver's four Great Danes who once obliterated Fisherman's Wharf with a swipe of his tail.

His sculpture has already dazzled crowds at the Sonoma County Fair and will be on display at the state fair come August.

Rolling Through the Bay is 9 feet tall, 7 feet wide and 2 feet deep. It sports four tennis ball tracks with more than a dozen entry points for each tour of the city. 

Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum, offered $40,000 to buy it and he rejected it. Scott wants to find a home for it in San Francisco some day, but not yet. He still adds on to it and doesn't feel like parting with it as of yet. I don't blame him! It's a lifetime of work and memories of his life living in a unique city like San Francisco.

If you wish to see more of Scott's work do a search for him on YouTube. He is always adding onto his work and doing new things. Wait until you see his hats!

Keep On Bloggin'!

Eric Alan Grohe-An Amazing Artist

 

Eric Alan Grohe was born in New York City in 1944. He is currently residing just north of Seattle, Washington. His career began as a graphic designer and illustrator in Seattle in 1961.

 

In 1973, he was asked to design graphics for Expo’74 in Spokane, Washington. At this time, he began receiving commissions for his artwork, which have continued to grow in scope and size, leading to today’s large-scale trompe l’oeil murals.

 

Throughout his 43-year career as a professional artist, Grohe has received national recognition for his work, which is now focused on painting figurative and architectural murals for clients throughout the country. His murals are vividly realistic murals and facades turning ordinary architecture into enigmatic works of art.

 

Here is a website about him and his work if you want to know even more about this amazing artist, his plans and his goals: http://jsmagic.net/whatseric/

Here are some shots of his awesome work. Before, during, after and close ups of his work process. This man does a great job of taking a flat (sometimes eyesore) surface of a building and making it magic! Not only that, but I would say he's also a great "Green Artist" of our times as he saves structures that are already there and makes them into things of beauty.

It doesn't matter what it looked like before Eric Grohe gets his hands on it. It's now beautiful, dimensional and a changed landscape to behold. His shadowing is perfect. It's hard to tell what is in one of his murals and what isn't and I love artists who can pull that off! Let's take a more detailed look as we see some examples of his various works. As you go through these you will also get an idea of the scope of these projects. 

Architectural Cornerstone Square

 

 

Cornerstone Square, OSES

 

 

 

 

Cornerstone Square, Parking Facility

 

 

 

 

 

 

Corporate American Hop Museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dedication

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In the Beginning God Created

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Miller Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Niagara

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serenity Road

 

 

 

 

 

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 Private Malaysia

 

      

 

 

 

 

The Light

 

 

 

 

 

 

Public 55 Diamond Court

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paths of Promise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you like his work? This is just some of what he's done. If you do a search for Eric Alan Grohe on YouTube he has video's about his work and career there to see.

 

I can’t get over how real his work looks! Some of those painted people look just like they’re standing there and the vines on the side of that building look like you could water them. That car in the garage looks so real you could drive it! His painting is like magic and I hope you enjoyed it.

 

  Keep On Bloggin'!