I grew up in a staunchly religious family; a Southern Baptist family to be exact. When I was about ten-years-old I was told that Satan was working through rock and roll bands and that rock and roll was filled with subliminal messaging. Subliminal messaging would turn our nation’s youth into devil-worshiping hooligans and imperil the very souls of those who listened to it. Among the worst...
My wife and I were at a Payless shoe store near downtown Orlando yesterday. Carey complains she never has enough shoes and wanted to buy some cute little loafers that she could beat up and wear during the warm summer months. I know better than to argue when she says she doesn’t have enough shoes, even though I can’t even walk into our closet because of the herd of shoes that live...
My son’s car broke down last Sunday – in a very inconvenient spot. Those of you familiar with Orlando will understand when I tell you where be broke down. Matthew was on his way to pick up my father – so they could go to the Orlando Science Center and the Taylor Guitar exhibit that was showing there. On his way to pick up my dad, on SR 408 (also called the East-West...
My mom was a great cook. She loved to cook for the entire family and we had some really great food traditions. One of my favorite dishes mom made was her holiday Buckeyes, a great snack to pop in your mouth to curb the hunger beast. Most of my mom’s recipes came from her mother. I remember, every time I visited my grandmother a sa kid, she would bake or cook one of the “Hicks...
We buried my mom today. I write as a cathartic release, a way to deal with the emotions that threaten to consume me. I am not sure what I am trying to say in this blog, it is very stream-of-conscience, but I need to talk about my mom. I can’t NOT do this, so here it is. My mom died seven days ago and it still feels surreal to me. Nothing in life prepares you for laying your mother to...
At 12:21pm today my mom, Charlene Delores Sparks, passed away peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by her children and loved ones at Florida Hospital, Celebration Health near Orlando, Florida. She was 62 years, 9 months, and 8 days old. I am not going to type an emotional blog here – not yet, maybe never. Many of you read my blog for facts about my moms condition and this is, for obvious...
As you know, mom has been battling a septic fungal infection for a few weeks now. That infection has prevented her from recovering completely and has stopped the surgeons from finishing her skin grafts so she can go home. The infection is extremely difficult to control. Fungal infections are notoriously hard to fight because, as I said in my last blog, they so closely resemble a normal human...
I blogged the day before yesterday about how well Mom was doing. Her fever was under control and her bacterial infection was under control. Mom was awake, in pain, but communicating with me and she was looking better than she had for weeks. Her vital signs were stable and she was almost ready to get the skin graft on her belly that would allow her to finally heal and recover so she could go...
This post won’t be terribly long. It’s been a while since I updated everyone on mom’s status. There really hasn’t ben a lot to tell until now. Mom has been in ICU for over two months now. If you remember from my last post, Mom suffered a setback when the vac on her belly, meant to help close the wound, caused a rupture in her intestines. She was doing great until that...
My son, Christopher, is extremely tech savvy. At 13-years-of-age: He’s very proficient with DOS batch programming. he’s already written multiple programs in VB.NET and in Visual Studio. He’s made a small side business of modifying XBox controllers, soldering on special chips and buttons to allow for rapid fire and different modes in different games. He routinely re-installs...
Ron Sparks is a technology professional, science fiction and fantasy author and poet living in Zurich, Switzerland. His latest book "ONI: Satellite Earth Series Book 1" is available on Amazon.com.