The Espy’s

[GabyKeepsMeWarm]

Steve Gleason…

I had to look it up to know who this person is.

He’s had a helluva ride….

We ALL take our health for granted. It’s just how we’re built. When the parts are working, there’s no reason to put the car into a shop to find out what’s wrong.

This country has a lot of problems, and I wish health care was a priority.

My mother grew up in southern Kansas, farm country…. She went to nursing school, graduated and had a couple years working with doctors and she decided these doctors were assholes…. My mother would rarely use that language, but she got one of her close nursing friends to basically say : **** these Wichita assholes.

They went to Rochester, MN to get trained as anesthetists. It was the the early 60’s, and mom and her buddy went through every winter shit of starting the car to make sure it would run, so they could get to class in time.

My mother worked for over 45 years as a nurse, a CRNA, etc…. She loved her job and she was great at it. She’s 82 now, and I bet she’d be better at nursing than half the weirdos doing it now who could barely pass their boards…

I was working on maybe season 3 or 4 of Orange is the New Black, and we were shooting up in Orangeberg, whatever place off the river, and I offered to take a few people down to the city in my car(company car), they all obliged! Beats the van ride and subsequent trains.

And it happened to be Espy’s night. I handed out a few car bar beers, and we listened to the radio, when the speech for good ol Jimmy V came up…. The car was in silence for 15 minutes…. “Don’t ever give up…”

Sobs from the backseat as we got into NYC near Astoria, Queens…. “Why did that happen Tom?” “Why didn’t I hear about this before now?!?” “That was amazing Tom, who was that guy?” These young ladies had no idea, but were so moved hearing his speech over the radio…. That’s a win.

That’s a good car ride. Laugh, cry, be in thought, work, and that’s a solid day.

I highly recommend the ESPN story on Valvano and the NC State team. It’s a great juxtaposition of that magical NC State team to Jimmy V’s incredible charisma and magic that he had.

Sorry for the long story, but sometimes I have a few things to say…