Saturday,  Oct. 24, 2009,  Nashville, TN., 4:52 p.m., D.S.T.~

Dear Journal~

Johnathon here.  I am so bored, I don't know what to do.  Somehow picking lint from my belly button or watching the paint peel from the walls sounds more exciting than my life lately!  LOL  I mean, seriously!  Not much for a kid in my position to do.

Don't get out nearly as much like I used to; this darn swine flu scare certainly isn't helping.  I am not sick with it, thank the Lord, but the swine flu has already hit several members of my family, and I'm scared I will get it next.  Other family members had the ordinary flu, but swine or not, flu is flu, and when it gets bad enough to pop someone in the hospital, then you're talkin' bad news!

Whenever I have to go out, I have to bundle up in a million coats (I get chilled so easily:  no meat on my bones!), wear a scarf loosely around my neck, and wear a protective mask, so I end up looking like a surgeon going out in a megablizzard!  LOL  It's crazy!!

I have already had my flu shots (both for the swine and the regular flu), but as precarious as my health is, I have to be extremely careful or else I might end up in Heaven earlier than I expected!  Not that it's a bad thing to see Jesus face to face, but I would like to stay on Earth a little bit longer if God sees to it!  :)

I've been having school here at home.  A teacher who works with homebound kids comes and lets me do my lessons three times a week (the other two days I go to the campus).  I don't mind Miss Mae, but I do miss seeing my friends (not to mention, most of my teachers) at Donelson High!!  It's not the same being taught at home!

If it were not for the darn swine flu, I'd be going to school like anyone else; it was daddy and mom's decision to have me have school at home.  My health is just too fragile; I have no control over it.  It's really a pain in the you-know-where!!

I don't write in here nearly as often as I used to.  One thing, it's getting harder for me to control my hands; it's a constant battle to hold onto things to where I am not dropping everything everytime I pick something up!  I've broken more jars of jelly all over the kitchen floor or knocked things over with my arm or my chair!!  It's embarrassing!  Or I drop my silverware, and I end up having to be handfed like a baby!  It's humiliating!!

Then I have my breathing to worry about.  I already breathe with a trache tube in my throat (which, in kind, is hooked up to a vent); I can talk, but I get winded, so I don't talk as much as I would like.  Maybe that's a good thing??  (Never was a big talker; now I have reason not to talk your head off!  LOL)  I can get pneumonia (or some other respiratory illness) just like that.  I have to get suctioned several times a day (that hurts!!), not to mention, pounded on my chest, back, and sides, like I was a ketchup bottle or something. 

I am a mess, let me tell you!!

Other than that, I am in great shape!  LOL

Next week (Saturday, a week from today) is our Harvest Festival.  I might be doing sign language while my family sings (kinda hard to sing with a trache and a vent tube!) (that's a giant pain!!); I will also be helping out with any deaf people that may come, talk to them about Jesus, other things, encourage them to have a good time.  It's going to be fun; the festival is going to be held over a period of two days; the festival organizers are expecting record crowds of ten thousand people or more.  It's our second or third one (can't remember!).

I just hope the weather co-operates!!

I am still seeing Rebekkah Cohen.  She is doing great, as is her mother.  (Her mom has Frederich's ataxia.)  I pray their health continues to hold out.  The little ones keep both of them hopping!

Speaking of babies, Kendra is pregnant again.  Twins.  The doctor's thinking girls, but personally, I hope (and pray) it's two boys!!  :)

Church is becoming a beehive of activity:  choir practices/practices for our upcoming Christmas Cantata (I will be participating again this year; doing the sign language for the hearing impaired guests or members of the congregation), feding the homeless/poor, as well as our Veterans (we do this again on Thanksgiving Day and on Christmas Day), our Harvest Festival next weekend, etc.  Our church body has exploded in growth:  we now have over 2,500 members easily.

A few Sundays ago, you wouldn't have known that:  over half of the people were out with the flu or they had other issues/commitments that prevented them from coming to church.

There were a lot of empty seats that day.

The weather here is cooling off considerably:  some nights have been downright chilly, with temps dipping into the lower 30's.  We even had some nights of frost, and last week, we had a killing freeze.  So mama's plants are now history.  (She's outside now, as are some of the kids, getting rid of the weeds and dead things in our yard.  They've been out there a good part of the day.)

They should be done within the hour; it will be getting dark before 7:30 now; the days will only continue to get shorter until Old Man Winter arrives on December 21 or 22.

Not to mention, colder.  Weather experts are saying it will be snowy and colder than normal here in the Tennessee Valley.

I am so disappointed in the Tennessee Titans, our pro football team:  they haven't won a game all season!  They're doing terrible!!  As for the Vols, right now, there's ten minutes left in the game; they are playing Alabama, and they're losing by a touchdown, 9-3.  Hopefully Tennessee will get their act together and manage to squeak out a win; I would love to see them be on the winning end!!  (I listen to the game every week if I can.)

I am a huge football fanatic!  Always have loved football, ever since I was a little kid barely out of diapers!

Well, we are going to be eating supper soon, so I will help mama with the table-setting.  I will write in here again when I can, when my MD isn't pulling its stupid tricks again!  Until then, this is Johnathon saying so long and God bless; continue to pray for me, pray for strength and not to get this darn flu!!  That's the LAST thing I need!!  Thanks in advance!

~As always, your friend, Johnathon.  :)