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What's Your Ice Cream Melts Story ?
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Written by Pernell R. Rodocker
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Wednesday, 09 February 2011 18:26 |
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Approaching life as a soon to be senior I am facing a reality never before faced by a man that started life with love and a family of many children. The baby of six children in a family that bordered on dysfunctional, I have taken the best of an early life and given that best to my own family. Having raised three boys and a girl with the girl of my dreams and the love of my life we are facing our 28th anniversary and I am slowly moving into the beginning of life as a senior.
It started two years ago when I began receiving notices in the mail to join the AARP. I wasn’t even thinking about becoming a senior. As I do most junk mail, I tossed the notices into the burn pile. I joked about it with my wife and children. Now at 49 and only a few months away from 50, I am thinking a little more real about becoming a senior. When I was a child I never really thought about becoming a man. Just making it to high school was a dream. Once there I only thought about graduating. I never thought much of what life was about or where it would lead me. I dreamed of finding love and getting married and starting a family. Love found me. I was 21, divorced after one year and make a decision to never be hurt again. I would never look for love again. I was playing pool and smoking a cigarette at the recreation hall in the mobile home park where I was renting a room from people I had met while attending rehab. Yes, I said it… “Rehab”. I hadn’t noticed that some young girls that had been swimming at the parks pool were watching me. I was more content to play pool than to get involved in something that would only hurt me more.
Let me back up a minute. When I was 14 I worked to earn some money and I got to know a girl in my neighborhood. I took her to dinner and a movie. This was my first and only date as a young teenager. When we got home I was informed by her that her 21 year old boyfriend was coming into town the next day and she wanted me to meet him. I was devastated and went home and cried in my pillow all night. That caused me so much pain that I never dated a girl again until I was 18. I had graduated high school and ended up meeting a girl through the CB Radio. For many of you younger people I suggest you watch “The Dukes of Hazzard”. I later discovered that this girl was from a dysfunctional family that seemed to be engulfed in male relationship problems. Not to mention that her father had died while she was an impressionable 16-year-old girl. Herself, mother and grandmother seemed to constantly feed into the relational problems from men. At our wedding, the many attendees had knowledge of something that I didn’t. Of the roughly 100 or more people that came to our wedding, only one person in all the photos ever smiled, me! As I later learned that my wife had several “problems” I will only name two. She was both anorexic and bulimic. After about six months of marriage I suggested that we move to another state. She would not come with me. I was hoping to get a life started and have her come up later. She decided that she would stay with her mother instead. When things turned belly up in the early 80’s, I came back to Florida and said all things were my fault. I even got on my knees and asked for us to start over. She said no. I ended up paying for our divorce. That was the best 400 dollars I ever spent in my entire life. I even had the judge give her back her maiden name. Now lets go back to that February after the divorce was final.
Living in the mobile home park was a step in my life that changed it forever! When I got home after playing pool a friend came to me and gave me a phone number to a 17 year old girl that had seen me playing pool at the recreation hall. I called her later. We spoke on the phone for almost four hours. I told her of my past and my divorce. She seemed to listen with much compassion and interest. When she spoke to her parents of me she made sure to mention the fact that her parents were at least 7 years apart in age. We were only four and a half years apart. Being 21 and divorced and interested in a 17 year-old girl I had some second thoughts. But something happened that had never happened to me before. Someone was interested in me! Someone paid attention to me! There is so much more to this story and the 28 years of love and hardships that we endured. We trusted and believed in a God that would always provide. To shorten this part of the story I will say that everyone we encountered said we would never last! When she turned 18 we married. Nine months later her mother was counting the down the due date to determine why we married. To her surprise our first-born son was born nine months to the date of our marriage. Three boys and a girl later we encountered all the things a family encounters while raising a family. After twenty years I ran away from home for a few months. It was all the alpha male teen stuff going on and the boys were running mom and the house and dad never had a chance. Our daughter was approaching her first menstrual cycle also. In all our years of marriage I can honestly say that I have never cheated on my wife and I never will. I came back home from living in another state with my brother and decided to make it all work out no matter what. At that time our boys were finding out what it was to become men and our daughter was finding out what it was to control both boys and men with her talents. She soon became part of the legal system and continued through her adult life. She now resides in prison for a three-year term. Our boys have grown and met loves of their lives. Two are married and one has given us two beautiful grandchildren. We are expecting our third from our other son’s girlfriend. We have lived through the large home and the new cars and all the bills. We have gone from 65k a year to 21k a year and now reside at around 31 to 40k a year depending on whether or not I get overtime. Our credit is shot and we are constantly getting a summons or at least threats of lawsuits from non-secured debt collecting agencies.
As a budding senior to be, I have started to realize that age is a one-way street. It only goes one way and has only one stop sign along the way. A few months ago I was rotating the tires on my wife’s van. I only got one done when my back went out. I spent four weeks on therapy and out of work. I thank God that I got a job with some kind of future. I spent most of my life driving trucks as a deliveryman. The wife and I spent ten years as at home daycare providers. That was our financially good years. Today I work for the state. We rent now in another state as we followed the grandchildren so my wife’s motherly nurturing could be nurtured. We have an empty nest. My wife is torn between two states and her children being separated. She has been an intricate part of our two grandchildren’s lives. Now soon we will have a third in Florida. Going from state to state wears her thin. Her boys pay her way. She struggles with her own separation anxiety. Soon our son and his family will move away again. A military man, he seeks advancement and will traverse the United States to achieve it. He will take our grandchildren with him and his wife. We will be left to reside in this state and my wife will then travel through half the United States to only visit her beloved grandchildren. I will be left to fend for myself while she is away. I don’t mind her going because her nurturing and love needs to be used on the children she loves.
Since she was a Girl Scout she has been raising children. Her sister’s children became her first charges. While her sister gallivanted and partied, her parents and she raised her nephew and niece for many years. When the father took her nephew, she was devastated. She grew up always loving children and filled her life with them. Her life was full of joy when we were married and started having children of our own. After the three boys were born my wife got her tubes tied due to three cesarean births. She went through a few years of depression. Then our daughter was born to her other sister. At that time we had begun doing childcare. We finally adopted our daughter when she was three. My wife and I loved and raised many children through our home childcare. In most cases I was the only male figure for many of the children that passed through our home.
This is just a small amount of our lives to be shared with you at this time. As I said before I am now facing becoming a senior. At forty-nine I am starting to realize that this job I now hold I had better keep. For a man progressing in years there are many that are younger and smarter that will take away the jobs for the older. I may only be turning 50 but I am realizing that my back isn’t as strong as it was. I can’t sit for long periods of time because of compressed disks. At 45 I got my first pair of glasses. I need more teeth pulled and a full upper denture. I may be healthy and still have all my hair and even look good, but that could all change in an instant and I could be facing years of disability or even death.
Come with me during this adventure and for those of you that are seniors come and reminisce. For those of you thinking that the world is your cake… eat it while you can and lick the frosting from your fingers. Just remember that someday even you will receive notices to join the AARP.
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What's Your Ice Cream Melts Story ?
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Written by Pernell R. Rodocker
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Wednesday, 15 December 2010 23:11 |
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What is success?
There are many schemes out where we can find them and we lose more of who we are. We waste money, time and effort on things that will not give us the satisfaction that we are looking for. Success is more than money, notoriety or advancement. Success is something that we must make our lifestyle.
Are you depressed? Do you feel as though there is no hope for success or happiness? Do you have direction in your life? Do you hurt emotionally and feel as though no one knows what you are going through? These 7 steps to success when applied in your life will help to guide you and lift you up so you can feel better and have the happiness and direction for success that you have been looking for all your life.
My Thoughts: 7 Steps To Success:
STEP ONE:
In this first step I would like to first examine what Loyalty and Commitment are. The definition from any online dictionary is as follows:
Loyalty: Constant, dedicated, devoted, faithful, steadfast and true.
Commitment: To be obligated or emotionally impelled, consistency, dedication, devotion, faithfulness.
Loyal and Commitment:
In this first step a decision is to be made to become obligated to your own success! Are you willing to make a conscious decision to be devoted and faithful and to be consistent, to your own success?
If you have answered no, then discard this at all costs… If you have answered yes, then lets you and I embark on this together! Let these 7 steps to success be a guide to show you how to become a success in your own eyes, heart and life.
There are a few things that must be figured out as we begin on this path to success. Take out a notebook and a pencil or pen. You may find it best to get a new composition book like the ones you may have used in school. Title the first page: What I Always Thought Success Was. Now place a number one in the left column. Think and ask yourself that title question. What is success to you now, at this time or in the past? I don’t want you to think about what your mom or dad said success was. I don’t want you to think about what you have not achieved. I want you to write down as many things as possible. What is success? Your list may be one or two things or it may be many things. After you have made your list put a check mark by the ones that you have achieved. Now I want you to make another page and title it: What I Want To Be Successful With Now. Put a number one in the left column and make a list of what you want to achieve now. Take a moment and ponder on the two lists. Are they the same? Are they vastly different? Now take another page and title it: What I Have Learned Success Is. Leave this page blank. You will return to this page in the future.
The first page is the way you have learned to think. This page may be also the way you have learned to live your life. The second page may be a set of goals that you feel is beyond your reach. I’m sure many of us believe that being successful is all about how much we have in our savings account or how many toys we have or how far we are ahead of the next person. Many people define success that way. It has been beat into our heads over and over again through commercials and advertisements. The media’s definition of success is way beyond middle class and way beyond the not so beautiful people. I have never been able to fit into the media’s strict configuration of success. If you have made a commitment to go through with this book, My Seven Steps To Success, then you have also felt this way.
Having now made a decision to be committed to your success you need to think about that second page. What do you think will make you successful in those areas? Lets first think about making yourself a success before you think about those. Making your success the most important thing in your life is a must. Become a specialist of your own success! Become a specialist of you! It’s like a doctor becoming a specialist in one certain field or another.
Setting goals is a good start. But you must be realistic. I suggest that you never set a time limit for achievement. Don’t say that you will be a success by the time you are 29 or 40 etc… Success is a lifestyle. It is a constant daily achievement that we learn to live and breathe as each day presents itself to us. Time is a matter of thought. We base our whole lives on time. But step out into a timeless adventure that will daily embrace you and lead you further onto that path that is your own success. Remember, you and I are the only people that care whether or not you are successful in life. These Seven Steps To Success and your decision to be successful will give you confidence and great comfort as you make your way to your success and you will find that happiness will become a companion that will walk with you all the way.
Do you want to be successful? Make these Seven Steps to Success that are ‘My Seven Steps To Success’, YOUR Seven Steps To Success…
(Pernell R. Rodocker)
If you wish to continue and learn about the other steps then I need to hear from you. Please comment that you would like to know the next step and if there is enough response then I will post another step. Once this is completed please tell me of your success stories as they begin and let me follow through with you as you embark on your journey to success!
Who is Pernell R. Rodocker? You have a search engine. My life is all over the Internet. I am a poet and I write short stories as well. I have lived life for almost 50 years. Most of my advice and truths come from experience. How else do we learn? We learn from experimentation and failure. Lets take the time to learn from our mistakes and help others… Who more should be listened to? A man with a doctorate that has never experienced life or a man who has lived life and learned that each day is an adventure waiting to happen?
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Facebook Addiction
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Written by Nnamdi Godson Osuagwu
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Friday, 29 October 2010 16:27 |
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The story below is a tragic case of Facebook Addiction gone wrong. My heart goes out to this child's family.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A north Florida mother has pleaded guilty to shaking her baby to death after the boy's crying interrupted her game on Facebook.
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Facebook Addiction
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Written by Nnamdi Godson Osuagwu
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Wednesday, 25 August 2010 13:23 |
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Three teenagers have been killed in the past 10 days in a southwestern Colombian town, with their names appearing on a “kill list” of 69 names posted on Facebook.
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What's Your Ice Cream Melts Story ?
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Written by Nnamdi Godson Osuagwu
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Thursday, 10 June 2010 00:17 |
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A scientist comes up with a cure for “Playboy” rodents in the National Geographic Video below:
Only in America .... Ice Cream Melts LOL
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Facebook Addiction
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Written by RU ethics
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Wednesday, 14 April 2010 15:10 |
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Social networking has been around for centuries, before technology and the Internet. Business cards, flyers, TV commercials, banners, and social events were the only available tools people used to network themselves. Photos were actually tangible, and status updates were exchanged in normal conversation with friends and family.
The obsession we know now as Facebook has taken these tools and magnified them by an infinite number. Digital photography allows users to broadcast pictures all over the globe to others, as well as their profile including their job, interests, status updates, wall comments made by friends and family, and much more. The possibilities are endless.
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Facebook Addiction
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Written by Nnamdi Godson Osuagwu
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Saturday, 03 April 2010 23:56 |
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A few months ago, I received a random email from Anna, a 2nd year student from Our Lady of Fatima University in the Philippines, asking for help on her thesis paper. Her thesis topic was the effects of social networking addiction to adolescents. She found me while researching facebook addiction and came across my book, "Facebook Addiction: The Life & Times of Social Networking Addicts." Her search landed her on our publishing company, IceCreamMelts.com.
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Facebook Addiction
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Written by Paul Aaron
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Sunday, 21 March 2010 23:06 |
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This is Paul Aaron, social networking addict. After deactivating my Facebook and Twitter accounts Saturday morning, I was depressed all day, but now it's Sunday night and I feel great. I really have to watch it. Opening my Narcotics Anonymous book tonight, the first thing I read was, "The disease of addiction can manifest itself in a variety of mental obsessions and compulsive actions that have nothing to do with drugs" (It Works How and Why, p. 14). We can smirk, shrug, or roll our eyes all we want, but when something like Facebook takes over a person's life, Facebook is winning, not the person obsessed by it. There's nothing wrong with Facebook. It's how we use it. So if any of you are using Facebook--or any other social networking connection--to change the way you feel, ask yourself if you'd feel just as good without it in your life. If not, you have a problem, and the first step is admitting it.
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Facebook Addiction
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Written by Paul Aaron
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Saturday, 20 March 2010 05:06 |
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I'm Paul Aaron, and I'm a social networking addict. And instead of getting on Facebook first thing this morning, I'm grateful that I downloaded N. G. Osugwu's book, Facebook Addiction: The Life and Times of Social Networking Addicts. It was available through the Amazon Kindle application for iPhone.
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Facebook Addiction
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Written by Nnamdi Godson Osuagwu
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Thursday, 18 March 2010 18:00 |
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We have all heard about the popular Facebook Game, Mafia Wars, but how many have heard of Facebook leading to the capture of a suspected real life Mafia Kingpin?
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