James Woosley’s Blog

Warning: Sad content below:

I don’t even really know what to write, so I’ll just tell the story and be done with it.

Around 3:30 am this morning our Golden Retriever George was barking outside, so my wife Heather got up to let him and Max, our Pug, in for the night. A few minutes later she came back to the bedroom and told me that something was wrong with Max.

He didn’t come in with George. At first she thought he had gotten outside the fence, but then she found him. He was curled up and not moving, and his breathing was shallow.

We brought him in and laid him on a blanket on the couch. Then we noticed the blood around his rear end. Something very bad had happened.

She rushed him to an emergency vet, but the odds of helping him were slim. She made the decision to put him to sleep.

We still don’t know exactly what happened. The vet initially thought it was some kind of anemia or rat poison, but we just don’t know. They are sending some tissue and blood samples to be analyzed. George is fine so far, but a bit lonely now.

I wasn’t very close with Max. He was just three years old, and I’ve been on the road since we got him. We never really bonded. But Heather did. He was her little dog. He helped ease some of the pain when we lost a child due to a tubal pregnancy in 2002.

Max had a sweet personality, and he was George’s best friend. He was the little dog always dancing around his feet and nipping at his tail.

Max will be missed.

My wife and I adopted our son Ian last year from Taiwan. It’s been quite an adventure, and you can review the entire story here. Ian is now two and a half, but still not talking much (though he can scream and screech with the best of them).

We initially blamed the lack of words on the change in languages (we got him when he was ten months old). But as time went on, we suspected the problem was more complex. It didn’t seem to be learning disability as he is very clever and bright. I thought about autism for a bit, but that was quickly ruled out. It turns out he just can’t hear very well (which also explains the decibel levels he reaches in anger).

After many tests and doctors (the first of whom said the loss was severe), we now know for sure that he has a mild-to-moderate hearing loss in both ears. And on Wednesday he received his hearing aids.

He did great the first day, but since then he doesn’t want to wear them for very long. It’ll be quite an adjustment, but his doctor assures us that once he realizes that he can hear better with them, he’ll want to wear them.

His near future holds speech therapy and when he turns three, a special preschool to help him catchup developmentally. But he’ll be fine and once he does get caught-up, I think he’ll quickly get ahead. Of course, I’m a biased dad!

So what caused this hearing loss? We jokingly say he caused it himself by being so loud (it really is hard to believe!). But the likely cause is either genetics or the severe fever he had when he was a month old in Taiwan. It could be a combination, but we don’t really know.

The good news is that we’re able to help him where his birth family may not have been able to. But it’s not cheap. Almost no medical insurance covers hearing aids, and ours doesn’t cover the testing. The original doctors recommended aids costing $4-5000+ dollars. The new doctors (who specialize in children), were able to cut that in half.

And for all those Dave Ramsey/FPU types out there, no we didn’t have to put it on a credit card! I was afraid that was my only option for a while, but between stopping the debt snowball and the price cut, we were able to make it. Prayer really works! And as an extra blessing, the day before the appointment we got a check in the mail from our bank saying we had overpaid our escrow and were getting a $300 refund.

We messed up in September and bought a van we shouldn’t have (because we borrowed money). I regret that now, and have vowed it would the last time I borrow money (except for a modest mortgage if we ever move). Taking care of my family may be the only other exception. But God found a way for us not to have to do that this time. I’m hopeful that we’ll get out of debt and build up our savings enough that I never break that vow.

If all goes well in 2007 we’ll be debt free! And with the hearing aids and help, big sister Anna will have some competition when it comes to non-stop talking!

Ah, the joy of a entire week off and only having to burn three days of vacation. Now that’s something to be thankful for!

But much like every other week I take off, it’s filled with wasted time and emergencies keeping me from my planned tasks around the house.

Sunday night, my wife had to go to the ER for a kidney stone. She’s better now, but it was painful and horrible. I’m thankful she’s okay and I’m happy to have been here to help. But I lost three whole days playing stay at home dad. Bummer.

Okay, that sounds really selfish. Honestly, it is. I truly am glad to have helped out. It’s just that I work away from home so much, I still have unpacked boxes from our move more than five years ago. I’ve lost my office to my son, so my office is now the corner of a multi-purpose room in the back of the house. Yeah, I’m definitely feeling selfish this week.

So let’s do the cheesy Thanksgiving thing and list some of the things that I’m thankful for:

• Jesus Christ and His Sacrifice for us all
• My Family, whom I love
• My Job, which I enjoy and am good at
• Dear Friends from the past whom I don’t keep in touch with enough
• This blog, for making me realize some things are simply more important than a little time off

A great life is one lived in service to others. I’m okay with the service and happy to do it, I just don’t always have the best attitude in the moment. But afterwards, I can appreciate the sacrifice and be glad that I’ve done it. The effects of that service almost always outweighs the boxes that remain unpacked.

Hope you had your fill of turkey this year!

Time for one of my favorite cool tools…CutePDF.

The PDF document format (Portable Document Format) was created by Adobe and is a great way to store and share information. The files can generally not be edited, so you can easily control both the content and layout yet share the files with users on multiple computer systems without any special expensive software (just a PDF reader).

Here are some of the things I like to use them for:

• Tax Returns — Using most tax software and even the fill-in forms available from many state governments, you can do your taxes, get the math done automatically, and print a legible return. I’m horrible in storing paper files, but great with the electronic ones. So every year when I do my taxes, I simply print my returns to PDF and I always have easy access to past returns!
• Online Receipts — I don’t do a ton of shopping online, but when I do, I always make sure to print the online receipt to PDF. I don’t have to keep the paper, but I have all the data I need to remember the purchase or process a return. This is also nice when you don’t have a printer available.
• News Articles — A lot of times when I’m surfing the net, I’ll run across an article I want to keep forever. And since articles sometimes disappear from the original owner’s site, I’ll just save it as a PDF and it’s mine whenever I need it. It’s also great for storing articles to read later when you’re not online (very helpful when I was flying every week).
• Complex Screenshots — Sometimes you need to take a screenshot of a web page or something and MS Paint just can’t handle it (like the page scrolls more than your screen can handle). There are specific programs that do that well, but sometimes a simple PDF is good enough.

CutePDF is a free program that sets up a printer on your computer. Whenever you have a document or web page that you want to turn into a PDF, you simply print it to the CutePDF printer. It then prompts you for a file name and location. Instant PDF!

It’s a rare occurrence when I can’t create a PDF I want, and the format should be good no matter what computer I’m using and will likely be usable good for decades to come (unlike your operating system).

Later, I’ll share a tool that lets you split and combine different PDF files…

Okay, so yesterday’s post wasn’t the best start to the whole “40 days” thing. But I’ve got a good one tonight!

In September it was announced that a group of investors including Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wanted to build a racing complex in South Alabama. At first, I was excited. It sounded like NASCAR was going to be close enough that I could spend a weekend at the races and sleep in my own bed every night.

Then I heard that one of the proposed locations is in Pritchard/Saraland. Now I was a little concerned because Saraland is home. But, it’s still pretty cool.

Then I saw the map on their website: AlabamaMotorsportsPark.com.

FLASH: There is now only one site plan remaining on their web page…the one in Baldwin county is gone, and the Pritchard site stands alone. I only noticed that in the last few minutes…could the announcement be eminent?

I could tell they used Google maps (or at least the same satellite photos) to describe the site. I searched out my house, then compared the pictures. Want to see the map?

My house is a mere 6000 feet from the center of the track. Let’s get ready to rumble!

This is exciting news for our area, and I’m still excited about it. But what will it mean for my neighborhood? What will the noise be like? What will the traffic be like? Will this raise or lower my home’s value? Will I dread the roar of the engines over 100 nights a year (as is proposed)?

I feel bad for my dear Adult Bible Fellowship leaders (read Sunday School teachers) who literally live across the street from the facility. They sacrificed for years in a very small house, and then later built their custom dream home which they designed and built themselves. They sadly may be all but forced to move. I pray the best for them and others too close to it, as I wonder if maybe we’re too close to it too.

On top of that, our church is within thousands of feet of the proposed entrance to the complex.

So we sit and wait for the final results and construction to start. I didn’t know there was only one site left when I started this post. I’d expect the announcement is tomorrow.

BONUS: It’s been the buzz now for a few weeks around town, and last Sunday I heard a rumor that Dale Jr. is building a home somewhere out on Celeste Road (I-65 exit 15 and go west) to include helicopter pad. It’s just a rumor, but I haven’t seen anything else on the internet about it, so maybe this is a scoop for me.

[I guess all those years of journalism in high school and college don’t fade the desire to get the scoop! Still, it’s just a rumor and even if it’s true, I don’t exactly expect to be Junior’s new best friend.]