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Danny Hanning of The Other Shoe - May 6th, 2014[/caption].
Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Today, Saturday, is a great day for all of you, My Dear Readers, to catch up. Catch up on reading all the great articles that I have written, and published, right here at The Other Shoe over the past seven days. I know that a great may of you do not have the ‘free time’ to read my articles (and storied) during the workweek. That is THE reason I (originally) created ‘A Week in Review’ and why (today) I continue to write and publish this weekly review.
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For my blog, and all of you My Dear Readers, it has been a ‘good’ and productive week. Including this article I have written and published seven articles in seven days. Now, I have read comments that ‘that really isn’t all that much writing…’ Rest assured when I tell you that is a good deal of writing! Not just anyone can sit behind a keyboard and, in just seven days, produce more than seventy pages of; stories, articles; on Space Exploration, Hubble images from far-flung universes, current affairs and international news, political logjams’ and achievements, and a horror story.
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‘The Horror in Smithville’ (alone) is well over 95 pages in length, 220, 000 characters and 50,000 words. Each, and every, ‘A Week in Review’ is over ten pages long and contains nearly a dozen links to other content. As well, My Dear Readers, it is not just the writing. During the week I research many topics, sift through dozens of images (for ‘Lost in Space’ and ‘The Mars Report’), and work and rework political articles in an effort to be as factually correct as possible and to try to not offend ANY of my readers.
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Please do not get me ‘wrong’, I am not complaining… I am just explaining. The work I do is very tiring and, more times than not, makes my pain condition worse never better. Yet, I do not know what I would do with my time if I wasn’t working on these articles, stories and reviews. I just love the work I do here at The Other Shoe. The pain I experience, the physical limitations I have and the declining nature of my disease state causes a great deal of depression. I take ‘medications’ for my depression, but the one thing that works better than any/all my anti-depression medications? A single; comment, question, ‘Like’, ‘Share’ and/or ‘Kudos’ on any of the articles I write and publish each week.
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Every time I go to the primary location for my blog (www.theothershoe.blog.com) and see the counter has gone above 50!?! I am just ecstatic! To think that more than fifty people, in the last week, have come to my blog and looked at or read my work? Makes me feel like I just might be able to make a difference in the world I live in, still! That I might, still, be able to make people laugh! And, to think for just a moment… just a single moment that my words light help another person see and issue through the eyes of another? THAT gives my life new meaning!
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So, you now have a better idea just why it is I do all this writing and publishing. I want to help to inform and entertain people; family, friends, loved ones and all my followers here at The Other Shoe and Facebook. Yes… and someday…of course… I would just love to have something of my own to be published in a book or magazine! That will always be the dream, My Dear Readers!
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Now that I have shared a little of what drives me, and keeps me writing and publishing every week. It is time for another edition of ‘A Week in Review’.
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- Notes From Behind the Keyboard – June 16th, 2014: “Yet, today was different. I was extremely panicked upon waking and asked Allen to “turn on the lights… something is wrong!” Much to my chagrin, and Allen’s surprise, when he turned on the lights he discovered that my lips were blue… as was much of my facial complexion. So much so that Allen (usually stoic… almost indifferent) actually gasped when he looked at my face, with the light turned on. Allen then informed me “Danny… I think you stopped breathing. I heard you gasping, again, and I got up to wake you up.” Allen is visibly… shaken; this gave me the chills because Allen just doesn’t show emotions, like, ever.” To this day I have NO idea just what is going on with me at night. Allen has worked every single day since that hospital visit, I hope that soon he can help me get to the doctor I as given a referral. Barring that, I just sleep as light as I can… and (most of the time) sleep with one eye open. Allen is not sleeping very heavy, either. In just the past two nights I have had three bouts of the ‘gasping while sleeping’ and BOTH time Allen awoke quickly and came right over to my bed to check on me! I simply do not know what I would do without Allen. I not only love him more than anyone or anything in the world… I trust him with my very life! This was NOT a good way to start the week… and, looking back, I am really surprised that I manage to finish seven articles in the same week Monday started this way!
- Lost In Space – Tour of Our Solar System – #2 Venus : “Venus is known as the ‘Sister Planet’ of Earth. This is due to the fact that Venus is closest to Earth in; size, orbit of the sun, gravity and bulk composition. Venus orbits the sun in just 224.7 days. Now, most planets in our solar system rotate, on their axis, in an anti-clockwise direction, also known as a retrograde rotation or ‘orbit’. Further, Venus rotates the slowest of all the planets taking a full 243 Earth Days to complete on rotation. That means that a single day on Venus would last 243 days.” Well, My Dear Readers, this ‘Solar System Tour’ is being very well received by you! It is a lot of work, every week. Sorting through dozens of pages of images, picking which images I think will go best with the article. Downloading the images on to my computer, then resizing the images so they ‘fit’ on the blog page, uploading the images to my blog, then adding them to the text of the article. There is, also, writing of the dozen of so pages of information, news, and background information on each of the planets. However, you would not believe just how much I am LEARNING while I am writing and publishing this ‘Tour of OUR Solar System’! Next week… MARS!
- The Mars Report – June 18th, 2014 : “On April 18th 2014 Opportunity managed to get some great landscape images of Endeavour Crater Rim from ‘Murray Ridge’. You, My Dear Readers, are very fortunate in that I have downloaded, and am going to share, two different versions of this wonderful landscape image. The difference between the two images is that one (the first) is in ‘True Color’. Meaning, in natural daylight on the Martian surface, the image has been enhanced for better viewing. The second image is done in what is called ‘False Color’. This means that the good people at NASA/JPL have done their best to reproduce the image in ‘Natural Earth Light’. So, if we were to ‘see’ this landscape on Earth, the second image is how it would look here in Earth light.” When I started writing the very first edition of ‘The Mars Report’ (I must admit) I had NO idea that I would still be writing and publishing this series three years later. I started this series with Opportunity and Spirit rovers. Took a bit of a break when Spirit ‘died’, then came back to this series with renewed vigor when Curiosity landed at ‘Bradbury Landing’! Now, each and every week I really look forward to going to the NASA/JPL web site and scouring the site for new and interesting images. Sometimes the number of images are few, but some real science has happened, since the last article. I have a ‘Good Feeling’ about this series, now. I have a feeling that I will be writing and publishing this series when we celebrate the Second 500 articles!
- Notes from Behind the Keyboard – June 19th, 2014 : “Since my neurosurgeon did not order the correct number of bone graft pieces prior to surgery, one or more bone grafts were not properly prepared prior to implantation into my neck. As seen in follow-up X-Rays the “bone grafts did not fully knit” the my bones. This is the reason that, now, seven years later I still have popping, and grinding sounds coming from my cervical spine, shooting pains in; my upper chest, face, upper left arm, lower left arm, left hand. What this means is that the bone grafts never “completely knit” with the surrounding bone (mine), that the structure is not solid and “durable”.” Long story short? (TOO LATE!) My neurosurgeon underestimated the extend of damage my degenerative disc disease had actually caused to my cervical spine, discs and nerve roots. This caused him to enter the OR less prepared than he need to be, and more overwhelmed by the severity of my condition. Combine that with an untrained vendor representative from the ‘Bone Growth Stimulation’ device and (unknown at the time) a severely diminished level of Vitamin ‘D’ in my blood stream? = Poorly knit bones, unstable construct resulting in spinal stenosis, more nerve root damage and possible growing pressure on my spinal cord. The last neurosurgeon I had a consult with, told me that ‘your condition will, likely, NEVER improve… you will spend the rest of your life on pain medications… you will loose more and more bodily functions until you will be unable to walk, use the bathroom, take a bath or brush your teeth without assistance…” That is NOT my image of what one’s ‘Golden Years’ should be like. I have no choice; I just pray and work hard so that just maybe I will earn enough money to make this terrible future more bearable.
- The Horror in Smithville – REVIEW – First Eleven Episodes: “Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. I would like to extend a deep and heartfelt “Welcome!” to everyone! To this, the third review of ‘The Horror in Smithville’. Today I am here to present; a short introduction, a little teaser, and a link to all of the First ELEVEN Episodes of this wonderful tale. Now, if you are just now joining the ranks of My Dear Readers, you might not know that this is my very first venture into the genre of horror. I have chosen to make this first, a story for young people. However, from what I am hearing (from many of you, My Dear Readers) is that this tale is enjoyed by adults and young adults, alike.” Twice a month I will publish another review, just like this one. This will enable people ‘new’ to the blog and this story a quick and easy way to catch up with the story. My Dear Readers, HONESTLY… when I started this episodic horror story? I NEVER imaged that so many people, from all over the world, would enjoy it SO much! As well, this story has… GROWN on me. Timmy and Archer have GROWN on me… and this whole story just keep getting bigger and bigger in my mind and in my heart. I am, already, ‘seeing’ more and more books! I can see this one story ending… then US returning to Timmy and Archer just a couple or a few years down the line, for yet another adventure in their alternate world! A couple of things… I am still working on the name of the other world. Two, the Latin in this story is giving me FITS! I have not ‘used’ Latin since High School. I used to be fairly versed in the Latin… not anymore. Just as soon as possible I WILL have all the Latin worked out for the; spells, enchants, and ceremonies. My Dear Readers, I want you to know that I am having a WONDERFUL time bringing this horror story to you, and yours!
- News From Around the World – June 19th, 2014 : “Now, let us proceed with this edition of “News from Around the World’. Today were are going to drop by L.A., Spain, Washington state, and Washington D.C. for a jaunty romp through the headlines. Every week I rummage through headlines to find some of the stories not covered by the network news, and a new take on some that were. Honestly, there were more stories to cover this week, than I had time to properly prepare the article. So, let’s jump right in and get our feet wet!” This is another article series that I started on a lark, which has managed to work its way into the rotation as a ‘regular’. It was worked its way into my mind and into my heart. This is another way for me to share some of my humanist views, without getting all political. Don’t get me wrong! I very much enjoy politics. However, at this point in time politics is being used all to often to DIVIDE people. Therefore, I am doing my best to address POLICY and leaving POLITICS off to the side! Thank you Kathye Warfiedl Rogers for YOUR input on that, it was instrumental in me finding a way to have a voice on policy without upsetting the people I respect and love! Thank you!
- The Horror in Smithville – Part TWELVE! : “The adventures of Timmy and Archer are as real, and come from my own personal experiences, as any thing I have ever written. There are moments, several of them, which you will be reading today that were literally taken out of my memories as a young man. As an extra special treat, for everyone out there from Pearland Texas, (and everyone that has known me and my scholastic life) there is a very special ‘Guest Appearance’ in today’s episode by someone we all dearly loved.” It is with GREAT pride that I present to you, My Dear Readers, THIS the 12th episode of my wonderfully entertaining FIRST venture into the Horror Genre; “The Horror in Smithville’! With each and every passing week, I am continually amazed at what situations Timmy and Archer get themselves involved… then, just how they manage to extricate their happy butts! I refuse to tell you anything from this episode! There is just no way I can share… without ruining the suspense and thrills that are this episode. However, I will tell you that I have included (in this episode) a Very Special ‘Guest Appearance’ by someone that everybody knew and respected back in Pearland, Texas. I am very proud that he is making an appearance in this story! I REALLY hope that EVERYONE that I know, from Pearland, makes the time to come and read this episode and see ‘who’ it is that I picked for this Special ‘Guest Appearance’. Thanks!
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That, My Dear Readers, brings us to the end of another edition of ‘A Week IN Review’ right here at ‘The Other Shoe’! I am thrilled to have managed to write and publish another full week of seven articles in seven days. I really hope that everyone takes the time... makes the time to look over all of these fine works. To; look at the pictures, enjoy the stories, be challenged by the information and view into the lives and worlds of others.
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Yet, if I had but one wish? I would be to do all this work… and be more comfortable, in less pain, get more sleep, and have the means to enjoy the life I have… left. I refuse to beg for that which would make my life more livable. What little I have I thank God for his kindness in giving. I work just as hard as I possibly can, with the physical and neurological limitations I now experience. I do my best to keep my pain out of mind, and be thankful for every moment of life I have left.
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If I may? I would please, My Dear Readers, ask (respectfully) would you please ‘SHARE’? Share my work on Facebook. Share my posts on Facebook or My Space or Pinintrest or Tumblr. I do NOT do this out of vanity. Rather I do this because I DO believe that my work… is enjoyable and I have a genuine desire to entertain! As well, the more people my stories reach? The more likely it is that… someday I might be able to help to financially support myself!
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I am, physically, unable to return to work. As my last neurosurgeon told me and documented? It is completely unlikely that I will ever be able to return to the work force. That my condition will only worsen, and that in the coming years… I will loose more and more physical abilities, and neurological abilities. (I will feel less, have les control over my body) I would just like it if I was in a better financial position… when that happens. I think that any/all Americans would want the same for themselves and their loved ones.
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My Dear Readers, that brings us to the end of the week, the end of this article, and the end of another full week here at The Other Shoe!
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Adieu!
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Thank YOU!
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