LASER WORLD-A Work Of Wonder

It's was 11:00 o'clock in the morning when I entered the Fresno Surgical hospital and the friendly front-desk assistant ask me for my I.D and medical insurance information.  In the past 2 weeks, I've been complaining about seeing a strong glare from both of my eyes and I was afraid that my cataracts had retuned again, which had permanently damaged my left eye with a few blind spots, but now the situation has gone worse because I couldn't make out the words anymore in my Business-10 textbook and I reluctantly had to switch back to my reading glasses.  "You have a smudge on your lens..Cruz" said Dr. Remington, a renown specialized Ophthalmologist from the California Eye Institute...and yes...he accepts Medicare!  then he said, "Let's set up an appointment to clear them up...you'll see a lot better."

I didn't have a clue what took place in a eye-lens cleanse, but to be quite frankly, I was a little jittery about the entire process especially when it comes to a laser beam being shot up inside my eyeballs.  Well, there I was sitting in the patient's chair with my chin pressed against the end of a laser telescopic camera.  "Is this going to burn?" I asked thinking that a long beam of light was going to  penetrate my eyeball like some Star-Trek movie.  "Not a bit" said Dr. Remington "This will only take a few minutes." "A few minutes!" I thought, "What's he talking about?...this is laser surgery not a damm haircut!"  Then suddenly I heard a few crackling noises like the sound of a Police taser gun, but at a lower tone and after a few zaps..here and there...I was all done.  Besides seeing a few floaters hanging around in my vision sight, which is routine after these type of surgeries, I was perfectly fine and actually this whole eye-lens cleaning procedure was entirely painless.  In fact, by the time I got home, which was only 10 minutes away, I was able to see through walls and buildings, in fact, the combination to the Wells Fargo safe is...Ahhh...just kidding...but anyway my right eye went back to 20/20 vision and I was even able to see out of my damaged left eye!  You ask..was I able to read my Business-10 textbook when I got home?  Well.. now I'm teaching the class...what does that tell you!

Laser ( Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation) technology has come a long way since co-inventer Arthur Schawlow first worked on a concentrated beam of light in 1960, where a patent war between several participating inventors including Schawlow occurred that took over thirty years to resolve because they were all aware of its money-making potential, and now the world of laser technology has spread throughout the entire world in almost every aspect of human production.  From revolutionizing the communication realm with the help of fiber optics came the invention of the computer where modern laser technology have connected us to the internet-network and TV channels.  Laser technology has also improved the commerce and entertainment market with the supermarket checkout scanners, CD's, DVD's, laser printers and security holograms on credit cards, but the biggest breakthrough of modern laser is the benefit of pain free eye-surgery. which has greatly induced the needs of general anesthesia and invasive eye surgery.

In fact, laser eye surgery has become such a precise and specialized medical field that it's end results of miracle cures have been broken down into several isolated categories, for instance, Beley-Femtosecond laser treatment, which is used to reshape the cornea tissue and improve eye-vision.  Lasiks laser treatment used to correct near and far sightedness. Laser Thermal Keratoplasty treatment-for far-sighted vision.

Recently, advanced science have made new discoveries with the aid of laser technology, for instance, the studies of atomic physics and chemistry where laser beams act like "optical tweezers" to manipulate biological samples such as red blood cells and microorganisms.  What seems so very hard to believe is the successful advanced stages between the ancient testing of the very first laser ray of the 1960's to the current role of painless eye surgery, which in reality has only been a very short path of 56 progressive years, but to what extent is to become of human technology in the next 50 years?  Will there still be a dominant market of a Laser World or will there be another creator such as Arthur Schawlow in the near future with the next invention of human miracles like...uhh... maybe... perhaps...Time-Travel?  Hmm...it makes me wonder!

A HABIT WORTH KICKING!

It's a no-brainer to know that the cell phone has advanced our world of communication technology, which among its many purposes are made for emergency situations, for our music pleasure, to download movies and video games, easy access to the internet, and the list goes on and on.  Unfortunately the downfall of using the cell phone is.....We Cannot Keep Our Children Off Of Them!!  They use them during driving, dinner-time, going to the restroom, work-time, church sessions and even in the classroom if they can get away with it.  So what are we showing our next generation...I realized that it seems nearly impossible to stop this addiction from continuing, but I personally feel that this fiasco is totally out of control.  So what can we do about it? Should we start balancing our child's life by monitoring their usage obsession, which includes ourselves? (yea..I've seen you on Facebook)
I've heard stories of families, who are doing their part in combating this serious issue, for example,  collecting cell phones from family members during dinner time and getting their couch potato kids involved in local sports and outdoor activities, but this on-going dilemma also needs out-of-home attention like from our local law enforcement by giving very expensive fines to cell phone drivers, and from our workplaces where a job-candidate is asked to watch a short training film on policies against cell phone usage while working, which also includes internet surfing, and then afterwards follow up by making them sign a contract before being consider for hire, where progressive deductions are made to their payroll checks every time they are seen conducting non-work related business on their cellphone and I'm sure there are other great ideas out there if we all put our heads together, but something has to be done!  Before we have a drastic increase in the death tolls of future doctors, scientists, engineers and school teachers due to cell phone driving accidents, but then again human technology is consistently changing and quickly advancing day-by-day where cars will drive by themselves and man-like cyborgs will replace human labor...let's just hope many human lives are not sacrificed to get there!

ANSWERING TO THE SINS OF WAR

A 9-year bombing campaign on Northern Laos to block supplies from entering Vietnam during the war left approximately tens of millions of unexploded bombs on it's land, which had killed many of its native citizens including children.  Today, President Obama announced that $90 million dollars will be sent to the country of Laos for the following three years to several pre-existing organizations to clean up or dis-assemble the bombs. www.worldatlas.com/as/la/where-is-laos.html

With our economy in constant up-and-down turmoil my question is??
Although the cause of this humanitarian project is applaudable are there any other reason we are being so generous from increasing a $5-million dollar fund to $90 million?  Does it have to do with North Korea?  If not then should we charge the country of Japan for the damages done in Pearl Harbor and should we do the same for Hiroshima? Or are these the circumstances that lie behind the sins of war?  Then why pay the $90 million to Laos?  After all our country been in constant, foreign and domestic, battles since the founding of our fore-fathers.  Who pays for those damages? Should it be charged toward the ones who started it? What about 9/11?...Iraq?...The fight against ISIS?  Who pays for that? *Note-A international civil lawsuit paid a large amount of money to the survivors of the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. and 58 French servicemen.  Should we start keeping a tab? boingboing.net/2016/.../watch-president-obama-visit-la.html Boing Boing
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37286520

GOD HAS TAKEN TWO ANGELS TO HIS KINGDOM.

SISTER MARGARET HELD & PAULA MERRILL

SISTERS OF CHARITY OF NAZARETH
www.usatoday.com/videos/news/nation/2016/08/25/89374626/

A FRUSTRATED MUTT

A young animal lover picks up a stray dog on his way home from work. After being fed and bathe, the stray canine curls up by his new master’s feet, who was sitting on the living room couch. The young man reaches down and scratches him on the back of his head, “Do you want to meet your roommate, Sylvester, my cat?” said the young Lad. The dog snarled in anger, jumped on the couch and grabbed the owner by the collar of his shirt.

“Now listen here,” said the Mutt “I’m only going to repeat this once.
I am just...a DOG...ok..plain and simple.
What pedigree am I...are you kidding?
I never knew my Father...my Mother...huh..she was the main reason why humans refer to female canines as bitches!
I have brothers and sisters of every breed, color and origin.
Man!....I don’t even have a name!
I’ve humped everything from a worn out rubber tire to a empty bottle of Mrs. Butterworth.
I’ve spawned hundreds of pups, who I’ll never claim or support...hell...with my looks I was lucky to get the piece of ass!
My nose is so trashed from sniffing human butts, now everything smells like farts to me.
Like I said...I’m just...a dumbass old DOG...ok...nothin else!
I’ve eaten everything from dried up snot to shit-stained boxer shorts...you don’t even want to know where I’ve drank water from.
My body is so full of fungus even ringworms are afraid to invade my body.
I will not fetch your damm slippers...I will not bring your morning paper...I will not play with your spoiled rotten kids and forget about buddying up with the frickin cat...hell...he’ll be too busy getting the blame for all the crap I’ll be leaving on your living room carpet!
Protect your house you say!...yeah right...like that’s going to happen. Shit...for the right price..I’ll even provide the crook with the combination to your gun safe.
Like I said...I’m just a dirty, filthy, smelly, grimy, nasty, perverted old DOG! That’s it!...ok!...got it!...get it!...GOOD!
Well...now that we cleared that up...why don’t you get your fat ass over to the fridge and fetch me a brewski...asshole...the game is about to start and I got ten bucks riding on the Raiders! 

MY GUARDIAN ANGEL

                                                                             

In the early 1990’s, I was on patrol when I heard dispatch send a emergency vehicle to my mother’s residence for a bleeding victim, so I quickly activated my overhead lights and responded there even though it wasn’t my call.  When I arrived, I saw several fire trucks parked upfront and, as I rushed inside, I noticed my Mother and my sister, Mari, in tears and staring down the hallway toward the main restroom.  I asked them what was going on, but they were too emotionally traumatized to answer me, but then I noticed several firemen crowding the restroom and had formed a semi-circle around a little girl, who was sitting on the restroom counter, and I immediately recognized her as my 3-year old niece Olivia or as I like to call her my little “Oli.”

  

She didn’t have on a shirt and there were dry blood stains on her chest and belly, so I made my way through the crowd to see what was happening with her and I asked one of the firemen, who indicated that she was bleeding profusely from her nostrils, but they were able to stop it by applying pressure to the bridge of her nose with a ice pack.  I could tell Olivia was feeling a little intimidated by the firemen because her little body was quivering and she immediately reached out to me when she saw me.  “Come here..mama” I said as I scooped her up in my arms much to the amazement of the firemen because they had no idea that I was related to her and I brought her over to the safety comforts of my Mother and my sister.

  

After years of medical appointments and extensive examinations, the doctors diagnosed Olivia with advanced stages of cancer and in urgent need of a new liver.  One day, I found her laying on my Mother’s bed and she seemed to be very deep in thought, so I sat next to her and started to gently massage her back, at the same time, silently praying for my magic fingers to work out a miracle and perhaps make her disease disappear from her tiny body into the thin blue air. “What’s wrong baby?”  I asked her.  “Oh nothing” she sadly replied, but I knew she was not being totally truthful with me as if she actually knew what was really wrong with her despite her very young age.

Unfortunately, my magical fingers didn’t work, but my prayers did and Olivia received a new liver at the sacrifice of another child, who died in a fatal auto accident.  At least the child’s life was not taken in vain nor a total tragedy because Olivia was able to continue a healthy active life and even graduated from high school where she excelled in the arts and crafts and even planned to pursue her skills professionally. 

  

Then on December 29, 2012 at approximately three o’clock in the morning,  I was spending the night at my sister’s house because my family had gone on a long trip to New Mexico and there was a sudden knock on the front door.  There stood a Highway Patrol Officer and Deputy John Bautista, an Officer I worked with before, and they were asking my sister if Olivia was her daughter.  When she asked why, the Highway Officer simply replied, “She’s been killed in a car accident.” I didn’t know how to react....I just stood there in silence and in shock while my sister, her husband and my nephew embraced each other in grief and wept uncontrollably.  I suddenly remembered about my daughter, Rosita, who usually hung around with Olivia and I nervously asked Bautista of her welfare where he told me that she had been transported to Community hospital by helicopter, but was in stable condition.  I had to break the sad news to my poor wife, who traveled 25 non-stop hours to be by her daughter’s side while they surgically implanted 5 steel rods and 50 screws on her back, which eventually gave me some relief because I knew ultimately she would be alright especially with the soothing support of a strong family, but as for my little “Oli” she was gone...her beautiful smile...her charismatic personality...her talented skills...gone...forever!  She was only 19 years old.

Several years have gone and Olivia’s family and close friends managed to resume life without her, but I know deep in my soul that my mother’s and sister’s heart slowly deteriorated a small piece at a time as the days went on. Then on December 28, 2015, I was feeling a little groggy after kidney dialysis and was involved in a vehicle accident where I collapsed on the center console and blood started to overspill from my mouth because I had damaged one of my lungs.  I couldn’t feel my arms and legs and, at that point, I lost my will to live because I didn’t want to further face life as a paraplegic, but as I was about to let go, I heard a familiar voice call out my name.  “Cruzy”  

I opened my eyes and saw a beautiful transparent angel all dressed in white....it was my beloved Olivia!  She had her hands clasped together and was on her knees facing the opposite direction on the passenger seat as if she was praying to God to spare this loser’s life.  The next thing I know, I was in the back of an ambulance overhearing the paramedic giving out my vitals on his cell phone.  I struggled to tell him just to let me die, but I guess he must of taken a extra shot of male testosterone because he replied in a loud scruffy voice “Not on my watch!” 

  

Needless to say, I survived the accident and started to walk again with the help of my father’s walker....my miracle baby had saved me!  It is very personally painful for me to write this story, but I feel for those, who cared and loved Olivia, as much as I do, deserve the right to read this. They say that the dead are soon forgotten, but I make one promise...mija...I’ll never forget you.  Every night I pray to God for two favors after I die and that is to protect my grandchildren out of harm’s way and to meet Olivia, so that I can scoop her in my arms once again and tell her how much I really missed her. My dear little “Oli” I’ll always think of you until the good Lord decides to expire my time here on earth and beyond.  Reluctantly, I have to leave now and lead my family away from a much pretentious world, so I bid you good-bye until I see you again..mama....I love you so very much and thank-you....My Guardian Angel. 

  

TRUE FUNNY STORY WITH LOCAL POLICE DEPT.

A veteran Police Officer responds to a 911-call at the local McDonalds restaurant.  Upon his arrival, he observes a elderly lady arguing with a McDonald's employee at the Drive-Tru window.

"What seems to be the problem?" asked the Officer.

The employee rolls his eyes up, "You are not going to believe this Officer, she's filing a complaint against me because I forgot to include the fries with her extra value meal and accusing me of committing a misdemeanor

"He committed a crime!" cried the elderly lady, "I paid him for a extra value meal, which includes French fries, but I only received the cheeseburger."

The Police Officer examined the contents inside the McDonalds bag for several minutes, "I'm afraid the gentleman is right," sighs the Officer "No misdemeanor has been committed here."

The employee lets out a sarcastic laugh, "Of course not, I told her so, it wasn't necessary to call the Police.  I'm sorry she wasted your time...Officer."

"Nope, like I said, no misdemeanor has been committed here," said the Officer as he pulls out his handcuffs and faces the employee.  " In fact, you actually committed a felony.....you also left out the ketchup!"