Oh sweet jesus Doc------ You are gonna be his new FAVORITE person!! Picture this- Smokey dancin' around the house singin--- "I'm Superman, I'm all man, I'm fine, I got b@lls" LOLOLOL
Ras- Broken neck is long story. Smokey(and I) were raised in very impoverished conditions. I think we all understand that the poor were and are marginalized in our society. The broken neck happened when he was a young child. He was sent home from hospital without it being diagnosed- he was also sent home from hospital with a broken leg another time. His odontoid process was fractured(between C1 and C2, base of scull) when he fell out of a tree. As the years went by the break became more and more unstable. He had for years had some neurological deficits but we blew them off as other things(arthritis, etc). The break was finally discovered when he started having terrible headaches and was saying it felt as if his head was going to fall off. That's when we also found out that all his little "quirks" were neuro deficits. Like- He kind of throws one leg when he walks, he has no balance, has problems opening bottles and bags due to numbness in his hands, etc. The neurosurgeon took bone from his hip and used it to create the fusion to stabilize the break. Had to be done as even falling off of a curb could have left him paralized or dead. So Ras? Please try to understand why we live for today- there is never a promise for there to be a tomorrow. I'm sorry I barked at you though- I was in the middle of a bad plumbing problem and should not have posted at that time. Your opinion is just as valid as mine- I understand yours, even if you don't understand mine how about we agree to disagree and go back to being our usual fun smartass selves??