Wednesday, February 4, 2009

WCSH has heart-warming story

We awoke this morning to a little snow that fell overnight. There’s not a whole lot out there, but there is enough to cause a little clean up activity. Wife Gator has pleaded with me not to go out on the tractor until I get the doctor’s go-ahead. The discharge nurse over the weekend said she thought driving the machine as long as the controls weren’t over my shoulder would be OK. Naturally I accepted that as permission.

WG, however, says she doesn’t want me to take any chances on damaging the wound area until it is much closer to being healed. I explained that would leave all the cleanup to her and she said that would be better than my developing complications. She has done a great job getting me this far so I don’t want to go against her wishes. I’ll wait until after the follow up visit with my heart doctor.

It is so nice being able to print anytime from anywhere with any of three active computers. Since he was in the neighborhood for another reason, my Fearless Friend dropped by yesterday and together we set up two of my three computers in service to print through the wireless network.

In all fairness to the printer, it was extremely easy to get running. It took about five minutes to effortlessly set up the printer itself. It asked how I wanted to set it up. I chose wireless network. It then searched and quickly found my home network. It wanted me to enter my passkey which would give it access to the network. The printer told me it was successfully connected to my network.

I had to use a software CD on each computer to actually get the computer to find the printer, but that was an easy task, too; but it did take some time with all those pesky questions about other software it wanted to install. Nevertheless, it was an easy install.

I’ve never had a printer that could print as fast as this one. The colors on the test picture were beautiful. I printed a four page document in less than 10 seconds. My old printer would have taken six or seven minutes to print those four pages.

Between pauses to answer the software questions FF and I talked about his cataract surgery. He gave a guest post a week ago describing the event, but his description yesterday and because he could answer my questions immediately painted a completely new picture. I must say cataract surgery is an operation that anyone who needs one should not fear. His second eye will be corrected Thursday.

That concludes the saga of the printer. I already wish I had done it long ago.

WCSH-TV had a wonderful, eye-dampening story on its morning news today. It was a fantastic story about a young man with Downs’s Syndrome getting his chance to play a little basketball for his high school team. Patrick Thibideau is a senior at Greely High School in Cumberland. He’s been involved as a manager for the basketball team for several years.

Patrick loves the game of basketball and has practiced drills during team practice, but has never had a chance to play. On Senior Night, the coach, Edited at 8 AM, thanks to Mrs. FF (comment below) and FF via e-mail to add coach's name: Ken Marks (I had forgotten it for original post), decided that Patrick should get a chance to play in a game he loves so much.

There was a simple problem: one of the starters would have to sacrifice his start to make room for Patrick. Another Greely hero stepped forward and Sam Thompson gave Patrick his chance.

There was another problem. Patrick’s dad, Perry Thibideau, had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital. The doctors were told of the situation and they let the dad out long enough to see his son play in the “big game.” Mr. Thibideau returned to the hospital after the game but is expected to be discharged today.

Mom and dad had the opportunity the parents of all the senior players had: spend a moment in a picture session at center court with their son.

Then the game started and, probably being very nervous in his first and possibly only game, Patrick missed his first shot. Determined, the young man had another chance a few minutes later and, as they say, it was all net. A three-pointer at that. He returned to the bench and will continue his duties as manager for the rest of the season. But what a night it was for a good, dedicated kid with a disability but determination!

It was also a great night for a dedicated coach and a wonderful young man who made a sacrifice for Patrick to play. And kudos to Channel Six for giving us the opportunity to share this wonderful story.

GiM

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The coach is a young man we knew as a child in Farmington, Ken Marks. He is from a wonderful family. His parents were in the education field along with the rest of us. It is nice to see those children grow into responsible adults and be able to join the rest of the team to give that young man and his family a "Night to Remember!" Congratulations to Channel 6 for a " Good News" story.
Glad that you are home, and everything is going as expected.
Mrs. FF

GiM said...

Thank you, Mrs. FF. I've edited the post to add his name. I'm happy the coach and his family has touched you folks, too.