I think it is kind of sad that most of the time we need something to happen before we truly appreciate life. I was at my parents house last night and they were watching Live For The Moment, the “reality show” special that CBS aired about a man that has ALS and was given the opportunity to live out his wildest dreams before his time is up. I am not a super emotional person,  but I will admit that I did tear up a little bit watching the show. Sometimes it takes seeing something like that to remind me that I should be living every moment like its my last. I think it’s a little sad that we have to be reminded of things sometimes to realize that we are taking things for granted, myself included. Sometimes I take for granted that I can walk just fine, even though I have a prosthetic, then I see someone missing a limb that can’t afford a prosthetic or that can’t be fitted with one for whatever reason and all of a sudden I realize how much I take for granted.

Reading the article below about all of the people that have lost limbs in the earthquake in Haiti is one of those reminders. It makes me very thankful for what I have, and sad at the same time that there are people in that situation. I was reading another article today about a company that was asking for people to donate old prosthetic limbs to be sent to Haiti because the demand for prosthetics over there is going to be so high. I think I will dig out a couple of my old legs this weekend and see if I can find a place to drop them off. It’s the very least I can do with what all that I have been blessed with at the moment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35103003/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

 Hope you all have a good safe weekend, and don’t forget to live like you were dying!

Did you hear the one about the guy with no thumbprints? Reading failblog today and saw this one about a guy that couldn’t cash a check because he had prosthetic hands and thus no thumbprints. The fact that they wouldn’t go ahead and cash a check for the guy is extremely lame, and really just makes them look bad. It does make for humorous internet content though so the situation isn’t all bad.

Not to make light of this guys situation, because I know it can be frustrating not being able to provide thumbprints. I imagine it would especially frustrating when you are trying to get money out of the bank, because banks can be frustrating enough as it is. As a person that used to work for one, I know all to well how frustrating they can be. No offense meant to any of my friends that still work at a bank, you know what I am saying. Back to the thumbprint thing though, it can be frustrating. It can also be humorous. In the last year or two I have had to have finger prints taken a couple of times (all for perfectly legal reasons) and each time it was an experience for everyone involved. The lady at the DMV wasn’t really sure what to do. She asked me which finger was my thumb, and apparently “take your pick” was not the answer she was expecting from me. I just politely reminded her that she was supposed to be the one that new what she was doing and I really didn’t care which one she called my thumb. I personally thought there was no right or wrong answer to the question, and even of there were a right or wrong answer I only have the two so you have a 50/50 chance at getting it right. She still didn’t want to venture a guess so I just went with the one on the inside since we both agreed that’s where here thumbs resided. The guy at the sheriffs office that took my fingerprints had more of a sense of humor than the DMV lady, and had obviously finger printed people with missing digits before. He knew which one to classify as my thumb, but the finger print card has 5 spots, one for each finger and they are labeled, and we decided after the thumb we would call the other one my ring finger. Forgive me for getting off on a rabbit trail here for a second, and I know I have already told you to be patient, but talking about ring fingers reminded me of another story altogether…remind me to tell you that one later. Not that I have ever worn a ring on either finger on any kind of a regular basis, we still decided that would be my ring finger and he marked amputee on the three remaining spots. In both cases, I tried to make the situation a little easier on the people having to finger print me, because I can only imagine that it might be a little awkward for them. I know it was for DMV lady. Sadly my attempt at humor did not make it easier on her. She still seemed like she would have rather been anywhere else but there. Oh well, not everyone appreciates that I save them work by not having to print all those extra fingers!

I can’t really speak for myself, but I would think that any red-blooded american boy with a prosthetic leg has at one time or another dreamed about having an AR-15 as a prosthetic. I know I have. Granted I would never look as good in one as Rose McGowan in Planet Terror but a boy can dream right? I thought this list of 13  prosthetics was pretty interesting. Of course if weapons as prosthetics were a choice, I would always take a chainsaw hand like Bruce Campbell in the Evil Dead series because, well its a chanisaw hand and who wouldnt want that?