My Dad
I'm embarrassed to say my first thought was that of relief when my mother called to say that he was dead. It had been five long years and I was completely exhausted trying to deal with him. Finally, it was over. In the last few weeks, his health had worsened, so I had called the nursing home that Sunday morning and asked the supervisor if I should drive the 130 miles to see him. She said he wasn't doing very well, but that he seemed to have nine lives; one minute he was at death's door, and the next he was sitting in the recreation room having another cigarette. It's a good thing I didn't make the trip, because less than an hour later, my mom called to say it was over.
I remember when I first noticed that there was something wrong with Dad. I lived only about a mile away from my parents, and I walked over a couple of times a week to visit. That particular day as I walked up the driveway toward the back door, he stepped out of the garage and whispered in a secretive voice that he needed to talk to me. He was concerned that his backyard neighbors were growing marijuana behind their garage and he insisted that I come with him to take a look. Their fence was less than a foot away from the back of their garage, and it was apparent to me that there wasn't enough room for them to mow behind it. In the meantime, my brother showed up, and we both assured Dad that having grown up in the 1970s made us somewhat experts on marijuana and this wasn't it; it was just weeds! We thought we'd heard the end of it until my mom called the next day to tell me that he'd gone out during the middle of the night with a flashlight to take clippings off of the offending plants and had taken them to the police department for identification. They assured him they were just weeds, but thanked him for being such a good citizen.
It was a short time later that I remarried and moved 130 miles away.
With dental, digestive, and other corporal problems such as diabetes and obesity proliferating in the United States, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of unhealthy foods. Some ingredients that had previously been deemed harmless and have been in use for decades have recently been proved to be harmful and even potentially lethal. Thus, scientists, nutritionists, and food manufacturers are becoming more concerned about detrimental eating habits originating from the consumption of damaging ingredients that are copious in foods. A greater concern, however, is that these ingredients can still be found in a variety of food products and have yet to be withdrawn from grocery shelves. It is difficult to conceive that such toxic ingredients as high fructose corn syrup can still be found in a plethora of foods and drinks, even after multiple experiments that have proven that high fructose corn syrup is severely detrimental to the human body and the usage of HFCS, instead of diminishing, has dramatically augmented over the decades.
However due to globalization, import and export viruses is more easily transmitted. Over the past century the global community especially Asian has been affected with new strains of the influenza virus. The changes in the virus can occur in two ways “antigenic drift” which are gradual changes in the virus over time. This change produces new strains that the antibody may not recognize. “Antigenic shift” On the other is a sudden change in the influenza virus which ‘’ results in a new influenza A subtype or a virus with a hemagglutinin or a hemagglutinin and neuraminidase combination that has emerged from an animal population,” as seen with H5N1 virus. This change leaves people defenseless against this new virus. (CDC, 2013) Currently there is no vaccine to combat all strains therefore “Planning and preparedness for implementing mitigation strategies during a pandemic requires participation by all levels o...
The lobbyists of the corn industry have introduced HFCS as a healthier version of sugar with fewer calories, but this is simply not true. To understand t...
National Center for Manufacturing Sciences. (2004, August 11). Environmental Roadmapping Initiative. Retrieved October 14, 2011, from Plastics Impacts, Risks and Regulations: http://ecm.ncms.org/ERI/new/IRRPlastics.htm
I figured someone had passed away, but I didn't think much of it. My father spoke to me in a very calm and soft voice with tears in his eyes. In between his words you could hear the hurt. He told me that my godmother had passed away. I sat there not knowing what to say, but could feel the hurt overwhelm me.
In writing about an important person in my life, there are a number of people that I could discuss. But, I feel that the person who is very special to me and one who has been the most influential, is my dad.
Today’s unprecedented technological advancement has accelerated the pace at which everyone is living. Time becomes a limited resource that every person tries to make the most use of. Therefore, convenience is the major quality highly valued in today’s world. Plastics strongly demonstrate such quality; plastics are light-weighted and disposable. Consequently, the use of plastics is prevalent, from simple objects, such as bags and bottles, to more complex components, such as computer boards. The benefits of plastics are countless; for instance, plastics are disposable and waterproof. However, many critics have raised questions regarding the threats posed by phenomenal plastics. What are the downsides of plastics? How should we cope with the plastic pollution around the globe? Susan Beraza has the answers to
There are six classifications of plastics, each assigned a number. Numbers 1 and 2 are commonly recycled, 4 is recycled less, and the others are generally not recycled. The first is polyethylene terephthalate (PET).[2] PET is commonly used in making liquid containers such as plastic soda and water bottles and has many other applications.[1] Recycled PET also has many applications, including textiles, sheets for tapes, and the bottle market.[2] The second type of plastic is high-density polyethylene (HDPE). HDPE is used in milk, detergent, and oil bottles and plastic bags. It is crushed into flakes and washed, then dried and shaped into pellets. Some uses for recycled HDPE are trash cans, flower pots, lumber, and other non-food applications.[2] The third type of plastic is vinyl or poly vinyl chloride (PVC). Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is the fourth type of plastic, and is used in many plastic bags and shrink wraps. It has the same chemical makeup as HDPE but is less dense and more flexible. Recycled LDPE is used for plastic trash bangs and grocery sacks and plastic lumber, as well as several other applications.[2] The fifth type of plastic is polypropylene (PP), which is used in food wrap, some carpets, and bottle tops. P...
As a child, family was very important to me. My parents made it very clear that the people in your family are the people that are going to be on your side for the rest of your life. My parents were young when they had me so they needed some extra help. Although they did everything in their power to make sure their work schedules were set so that somebody would always be at home to watch me, that just wasn 't always possible. When in doubt, my granny would always come through. I began to build a very strong bond with her being that she was one of my main care takers. Over the years my parents started to figure things out so they no longer needed grannies help. But this is not what I wanted. Instead of
A guilty feeling surged through me as I snuck out of church early, but I could not wait any longer to show my friend, Jonathan, my new Chevrolet Cavalier. As I raced out of the parking lot, I heard ambulance sirens in the distance, and I felt a weird feeling in the pit of my stomach as if butterflies were fluttering around trying to get out. I paid the feeling no mind as I merged onto the interstate at Gray and headed toward Johnson City. Little did I know those sirens would change my life forever.
Many children build a relationship with their father that is unbreakable but some children don’t build one with their father at all. Family relationships play a big role in the lives of a child. The poems Daddy, The Gift, and Future Connected By all show significant signs of how the father and child relationships are developed. The poems show examples of how the child feels about the father, what kind of role model the father is and if the family is dysfunctional or functional.
As a child, life was great for me. I spent my days being a hyperactive boy, running around and causing general chaos on my two sisters, Kelly and Libby. The world I lived in was a stress free world, I had not had many difficult experiences growing up. Life was beautiful for me, until a tragedy struck my family.
... members I found a way out of the sadness and focused on the happiness of how my uncle did not have to suffer anymore and that he was finally pain free from everything. My uncle was a very loving man and although he did not have much, he always found a way to give everyone a gift on their birthday and Christmas. Although he will be missed greatly I know he is always with me and my family in everywhere we go and in everything we do. I know thinking about death is a scary thing, but the truth is that it happens every day of our lives. The only thing that matters is how you choose to spend the time while you still have it. You should never let a minute go to waste because tomorrow is never promised and you want to cherish every moment while you have it. I will never forget my uncle and all he stood for he was a great loving man who will always be missed greatly.
Every day, I see children going places, enjoying themselves with their dad. All of my friends have dads that are active in their lives. Sometimes they rant to me about how their dad was, "doing the most," about a certain grade average they have in a class, the way they dressed, or even telling them they were not able to talk to a certain guy. Yet they fail to realize that their dad is only fulfilling his duty as to being their father. He "does the most" only because he cares for their well-being and wants the best for them. The definition I have for the word "father" is a person who is present for their child's life and is a leader for their family.
My father has had the biggest impact on my life because he helps me with everything that I need no matter what it is. During the summer time he is outside most of the time welding making continuous fence and pouring concrete into the post holes were a t-shirt with a bunch of small holes in it from the sparks burning though. He always has a hat on but he won't be wearing a hat when it's hot outside and he’ll take his shirt and rub the sweat off of his face.