Matt's Absolutley Beautifful, But Not Perfect, Test Site

The things that I have heard about strokes is that they’re always getting them when you’re 55 or older. So since I was 32, I was way ahead of my time. Damn…

Anyway, I was getting the mail. Tyler said he’d grab it, as he saw me drop it once, but I was adamant I’d get it. So got mail, I walked back to the front door, turned the handle, opened it up, and I fell into the house.

Now…I was totally out of it, at this point. The next 48–72 hours, I’m guessing, I do remember (at this point, all regarding me and my memory from here on out) hauling myself into the house and in front of the fireplace.

My girlfriend came home and called 911, who sent the EMTs. Then they were gone, but I was still left there on the floor. Something wasn’t right here. 4 AM came, my girlfriend and Tyler came down to take me to the bathroom to take a leak and back to the floor. The EMTs show up at 7 AM, one says, “You know, we didn’t check him for a stroke.”

I found one thanks to my good friend Andrew Boudreau (Esky), ‘Teams deas’
I wonder if there is anyone else that I need to get back…

No, you didn’t…anyway, I spent 8 weeks at HSHS St. Vincent Hospital, and I spent 10 weeks at Green Bay Health Services (that room has to be bull because mine was anything but that.) Then I spent another 3 weeks back at HSHS because I also had a Left Aortic Valve replacement, which left me with 1 set of scars, kind of big, 2 at the bottom and one big incision that runs down the middle of your chest.

So after that fun little start to the year, it’s now June, and I am hot as hell. That’s about all I can think of right now. So some stuff happened. We broke up, Tyler and my girlfriend, I moved back home, 1/6 happened, and then I must have moved because now I’m living at my own place and pot has replaced alcohol.

Shout out to my boy Alex and Monica for getting married, too!

Let me just say…what a life changer, pot was. It was if alcohol was god and pot was a hippie. Pot would win all day because god doesn’t exist and you, the hippie, are the atheist.

Where was I going with this…Oh, yeah.

So I was living at Mill Trace (I still get the name wrong after all these years, what is it called now?) living at apartment A. Was sitting, smoking pot, reading the Horus Heresy, going to all of my appointments, life is great, right? Well…not quite. I was still living in Ironwood, my people in Green Bay needed me!~

Or something like that. I had one doctor appointment that told me my natural valve pig heart wasn’t doing too good and needed it replaced. This was 2023, 4 years ago. I thought about it, thought about pushing it off as long as I can…but no, let’s just do it. So I got it done that year.

So after the surgery, still in the ICU, and my phone rings. A Green Bay area code. I waited, of course, to call them back. I would wait until I’d get into my real bed, because I was all hooked up to stuff like to pee and something that’s obviously not meant to make it breathe under my stomach. Fun stuff, let me tell you.

So I got the call, that I missed out on the first one that opens up, but I’ve got the next one. I’m pumped. I still have a week and a half yet in recovery, but after that I’m back!

Eh…or so I thought.

I’m meeting up with some old friends. Go to Legend Larry’s for some wings, hit up the new place at Robyn’s Nest, got to eat a few more places I’ve been missing. One thing was Cheesesteak Rebellion. Opened the second I left.

This was the best cheesesteak I’ve had, ever. Plus, it had Star Wars. How could I not love it? I got a sweatshirt in my closet, it was that good.

It made me overlook the fact that I had someone pounding on my door in January.

Lovely fellow.

Football season ended and just like that…so did my friends. Now, knowing me, I’ve always been a bit shy when meeting new people. I’ve always had to have an in to talking with them like school, work, bar, neighbors. Here I didn’t have any. So I started digging on things to do. I liked comic books, so I went with that to start.

So after getting the hang of Tuesdays at Powers Comics, I tried Magic the Gathering. Spent a lot of money and…yeah, didn’t get it quite yet. More on that coming up.

So it’s July, I think it was after the Republican convention. I’m not sure, but what I do know, is that, “I wonder if any of my friends lean Democrat or Republican.”

So I went out and found a few who, I thought, were on both sides.

My Democrat friends happily answered, “Democrat, why?”

My Republicans answered…oh who am I joking! No answer.

My response was? “Holy shit, I learned something today! My memory is coming back!” Then came the headache, which I thought was a post-stroke type of thing. Now, thankfully, I think it’s helping…if that makes sense. I gained some memory back with a mountain of pain. Write that down.

So from there, after about 2 days or so, I started thinking…and knew I didn’t want to be here anymore. My lease was up at the end of September, and it was just about that time. I started making some calls, I don’t know to who, but they got it done. Head out of my place on Friday, I sign the new place, all done and ready to go! Got my comics that need to be shipped out 2 months in advance, I’ll just send them there.

Just one question remains…what’s left to do in Green Bay?

Packer game and a concert. Duh.

So I’m back in Hurley, it’s not bad. I mean…there’s this? If you’re into that kinda crap.

So I’m back in town, and boy is it a different feeling. I’ve been a part of 3 protests, the latest one grabbing 400~ protests (13~ nationwide.) Magic the Gathering i got the hang of, I’m meeting people, learning their names, I know my true friends are, making new ones and still going to Suffolk Street Eatery, as always.

So it was around May I had another epiphany, but I started getting the itch to try programming. I just figure I got some time, why not? So I got ‘Javascript & Jquery.’ Someone can help me out if it’s the right thing, looks like programming to me.

I also picked up ‘WordPress’ because, why not. They were both around $5-10 dollars, can’t hurt.

As I was waiting for those to ship, early June at the latests, I was going to read a bit.

Out of the 3, to me, ‘Careless People’ took me away. Sarah Wynn-Williams is a treasure to have, as well as a lot of these authors, and I am completely grateful.

‘Mindf*ck’ is another one will blow you away with Cambridge Analytica and Fox “news.”

“A Generation of Sociopaths” is one I was waiting to read as I sort of knew, and there were parts that I didn’t have a clue on. What I found might shock you. We were going in it with guns blazing, looking like we could win this…then you got the first bit of boomer mentality. If you watched ‘South Park’ back in the day, you get the story now. Which one got the best rides in Vietnam, kind of thing. They took women, married them and got them home when the war is finished. Stuff like that.

There’s much more to tell you, but after reading that? Doesn’t make me want to shake their hand after reading that. Prove me wrong.

After reading 3 books of non-fiction, I was looking to get back into fiction for the time being. So I chose ‘Fairy Tale’ by Stephen King. I mean, here’s another one where you just wonder, “Where am I!!” It’s so, so good. Highly recommended from me.

Finally, I got the programming books in, I plop them on my desk for the time being. I’ll get to them. I finally did and decided, ‘I’ll do WordPress. See if I can do it.’ So I go down to read it, and it’s way too easy, is it? Only find one way. I took one look at it and realized that this is what I did in 2001. Surely everyone did that, right? Nope, I guess not.

Oh, don’t you know that some people have ADD or ADHD get cured by getting paralyzed? I learned that the hard way. It’s so much clearer! I actually listened outside to the birds. I don’t remember the last time I went out and listened.

There’s more coming out now, oh boy…