A couple of house cleaning duties: yes I really did have surgery, on my left rotator cuff. I’m back to work, but Mother Nature has a way of getting even with us all. Over the years I’ve had a number of different surgeries, remember, I used to be a pretty good football player. I’d be down from the anesthesia for a day at longest, and pretty much back on my feet with 5 to 7 days. Once I had my knee cut open as opposed to “scoped,” and it took maybe a month to get back to normal. I suspect because I am now 52 instead of 25, my recovery is taking much, much longer. At least that is what the physical therapists are telling me. “You’ll be back to normal in no time,” is the usual response. From what I can best tell, “no time” might just be as long as 2 to 3 months. Such is life.
This will be the last comment from me on April’s election, I promise. A number of my friends have approached me and said, “sure, I voted for you, but Democrats just can’t win in St. Charles. If you want to have any political future in St. Charles you are going to have to change to Republican.” I guess some of my friends just don’t know me as well as they should. I believe the philosophy of the Democratic Party – I cannot go against what I believe in just to get elected. That’s just not me! My recent on the job injury (I fell on the ice at school on February 15) makes me an even stronger Democrat. As I mentioned, it seems I am going to have to have months of physical therapy to get my shoulder back to par. I’m on light duty at school so I pretty much simply file papers and answer the phones – busy work, if you will. Originally I had my therapies scheduled during school hours – after all, it was a work related injury, why not use work time?
Well, as it was explained to me, one of the first pieces of legislation our boy governor pushed for was Workman’s Compensation reform. The legislation and reform require that if injured on the job you must go to any and all therapy AFTER work hours! As I explained to the insurance company, “ I pick my kids up from school; my wife doesn’t get off work until 6 p.m. – how am I to juggle that?” “Not our problem,” is all they could say. I pretty much plan my days, weeks and months from August until May – lining up after school care, working around my kid’s baseball, softball, soccer, volleyball, basketball and football games. Any regular reader of this column knows how hectic my schedule is! “If you miss therapy it simply tells us you don’t care about receiving the proper medical attention. Be there or else!” The last sentence is not an embellishment – that is precisely what they said. “Be there or else.” So much for trying to get me to go to the other side. The policies of republican’s have directly had a negative impact on my family. They talk about things such as “family values,” – Bull! “Be there or else!”
This is not meant to be mean spirited, nor written out of anger; rather it is just an unscientific observation. I can see our boy governor following in the same “family value” footsteps of his father. For those of you who know not what I am talking about, do your own research. The Blunt boys don’t always allow their brain to do their thinking for them. As promised, that’s it for politics.
Amateur sports, which include youth sports, are thriving here in beautiful St. Charles County. The RiverCity Rage have dropped three contests in a row to lower their record to 5-3. On the surface such might seem to be a problem, but I’m not so sure. The past two seasons the Rage have entered the playoffs with the best record in the league; only to loose in the first round of the playoffs. Hopefully the boys will make the necessary adjustments to go a little deeper in the playoffs. Only problem I see is they may not get home field advantage. Time will tell. Presently the Rage are battling Lexington for the top sop in the eastern division of United Indoor Football League. The Rage travel two weeks, and take a week off with a bye week before returning to Family Arena on Saturday, June 2nd to take on the same Ohio Valley Greyhounds that beat them Saturday.
The River City Rascals are looking forward to their home opener on Friday, May 25, as they entertain the Evansville Otters. I know I say it every year, but it warrants repeating: if you like baseball, the Rascals might just be the best kept family value entertainment value. Never have I heard some leave the ball park and say a bad thing about their experience – only positive comments.
