Hi all,
I finally made it.  It took a email from Firechief and a temporary
fail-to-connect to my server, but here it is:

I live in Columbia, SC, on the Northeast side.  I was in the Air
National Guard here for about 8 years after three years in
the Navy Reserve in Los Angeles and Ann Arbor, Michigan.  I was in
aviation electronics in the Navy and the ANG.
I was out for a while from the ANG and then when I went back in - no
openings in electronics, so they put me in Munitions which was
extremely interesting and very helpful in my civilian job as I was a
tooling design engineer at the FN machine gun factory, here in
Columbia.  I just retired after 25 years (actual anniversary date
would have been in November, but I had some seizures in January and,
since the law wouldn't allow me to drive for six months and it would
have been difficult to get a ride to work, I went on medical leave for
three months and then retired.  I had a fantastic retirement dinner.  

They thought at work that I had had a stroke because my speech was
very slurred and my walk very wobbly.  Funny thing is, it didn't feel
that way to me! so I had no idea that anything was wrong.  The doctors
had a CAT scan, MRI, and EEG done.  They showed no damage from a
stroke, but did show that I had had the seizures.  They didn't know
why, but I had a good idea.  My youngest son was sent to Kuwait a week
before Christmas and also in December, my middle son was the victim of
an armed robbery.  Three men with sweat shirts and a gun accosted him
in his driveway and made him drive to his bank.  Since he didn't want
his fiancee coming out and possibly getting raped, he did everything
they said to do.  At the bank, they emptied his checking account which
was less than the maximum allowed in one day to be withdrawn.  So they
told him to put it in again and get the rest.  He cheerfully did that,
knowing the account was empty and the machine would eat the card!
Then they drove him out into the country somewhere on a dirt road
(near a freeway, as it turned out), told him to take off all his
clothes and shoes and socks and start running through the woods.  He
did so, but was sure he would get a bullet in the back.  They didn't
shoot, thank God, and he ran and came to the fence on a freeway.  He
was able to climb over and a truck driver saw him and had a spare pair
of pants.  He took him to a service station and they called the
police.  So, at 7:30, I get a call from him (he is 34 years old, but
I'm still Mommy when things like that happen).  He said, "First of
all, Mom, I'm all right!"  Well, being a parent, my first thought is
"all right from what?"  He had a lot of scratches and a little bit of
exposure (it was about 35-40 degrees), but, fortunately, didn't run
through any glass or metal.  The people at Emergency gave him a phone
number of a person experienced in post traumatic problems and he's
been going to him.  He coped with it quite well.
Anyhow, to continue the reason behind the seizures, I also had a big
work load as I was the only tooling designer they had - I did tools,
gages, and fixtures.  They had hired a coop student full time (coop
means they come to work part time while going to school) and he was
very intelligent and quick.  He picked up on things very quickly.  I
had already started training him to take over in November so I felt
comfortable turning it all over to him.

As to my health, I have arthritis in both knees, shoulders, and wrists
(which isn't surprising, considering 40 years on a drafting board!)  I
also have two pinched nerves in my back.  They aren't too bad unless I
do a lot of standing and calm down as soon as I get off my feet.  I
thank a pain specialist for the improvement I have in it.  I had
carpal tunnel in both wrists from trying to turn on (with the right
hand) a hose faucet;  the left one was caused by turning the blasted
thing off.  I could feel both wrists straining.  Luckily, they weren't
from the work at the computer as I did all my work on CAD on the
computer.  Then, last year, I also had implants put in my lower jaw -
they had to first do some bone grafting so I spent a lot of last year
in pain in various areas.  I think what I had in January was a nervous
breakdown.  My brain said enough is enough.  I will be 67 in October,
but am told I only look about 50+.

I am sure enjoying retirement.  I just started the Hyalgan shots in my
right knee last week.  I will have the second on Wednesday and the
third the following week.  I decided to try the shots because my
orthopedic doctor said the next step on fixing the pain in my knees
would be a TKR.  He did my mother's (at the age of 87!) last year.  I
also have neuropathy in both legs and feet (treated by Neuronton four
times a day) and essential tremor in left hand (treated by Xanax four
times a day).  I get cramps in both legs (avoided by B-100, Quinine,
and tonic water (2 ounces) a day).  As long as I take all the
medicines, I sail merrily along.  I am on Celebrex, 200 mg, twice a
day, for the arthritis.  I am also on Zoloft for depression.  I asked
my general practice doctor if there was anything on the list that he
thought I could get off (oh, also am taking Nexium and Gaviscon for
ulcers - which I didn't have on Bextra, darn, darn, darn) and he said
he didn't see anything, but I could see what happened if I cut back on
one of them at a time.  I did and symptoms all came back.  So, as long
as I don't get any side effects I can't handle, will stay on the
current list.  Surprisingly, the one effect from the seizures that I
didn't expect was a change in my vision - enough to require new
glasses.  Now, it is going back to what it was before, which means new
glasses again!  Oh, well.

Didn't mean to rattle on, but a little more personal information.
My youngest son is back from Kuwait and will be the head of security
on the Constitution (Old Ironsides) in Boston harbor.  He was in the
security department there before he went to Kuwait.  Thank goodness
for email, I heard from him a lot more often than I would have with
snail mail.

My husband, who died in 1994, was in the Marines for ten years and
then joined the Army from which he retired in 1975.  He was a
photographer.  He also taught it at the local community college.  They
made lots of trips to the zoo, etc.  After he died, I was cleaning out
his pictures.  He had 35 different poses of giraffes, 50 of an eagle
behind glass, etc!  

My mother lives with me and does all the driving for right now.  She
is 88 and just as alert and capable as she can be.  She also has
arthritis, but still manages to get around quite well.  July 25th,
car, here I come.

Anyhow, see y'all on A.S.A.
Loujean

Navy1
Retired for two months and love it, especially
those two hour breakfasts with the newspaper.
Throw that FISH out and put in an S to email me.