I took a great risk quiting the City after eight years. For a municipality they had what by today's standards would be considered great benefits. Some perks were: Unlimited sick-time accumulation which could be cashed in on retirement; a generous vacation accumulation system that allowed one to save more up than most work places without losing it; Monday thru Friday hours usually ending around 2:30 in the afternoons; and, around 10 holidays with a couple of personal holidays above normal vacation time. Because I never called in sick in eight years, and I rationed my vacation time, I left with a large bonus.
But I wanted to run my own thing. Remember I grew up on a family run farm. Dad had died in 1988 of cancer at only 70 years old. He was young by today's standards. It caused me to reflect on wasted opportunities. Ironically, a lawn service requires some of the same hours as farming - nice going Bob. I enjoyed the freedom it gave me, especially after I quit the city. I still had all my cohorts that would help me from time to time. They were all seasoned city workers and knew their trade well.
At the end of my first year on my own a bomb dropped on my head. I acquired Meningitis. It was misdiagnosed at first because it was unheard of in 1990. It was an old-world illness, but was making a come back. A friend of mine got Tuberculosis as well a couple years before - another old-world illness making a come back. It was only luck that I retreated for a second opinion to the Veterans' Hospital (VA) for help. The Doc had been overseas at one time and knew of such awful sicknesses. He diagnosed me before I hit the cot. After spending three weeks in the VA, I thought hard about the coming Spring.
Then a second bomb hit me just a few weeks after the first. The Meningitis had so weakened my immune system, I acquired Thrombosis (abnormal blood clotting). Again this condition was also misdiagnosed. Again I had retreated to the Dallas VA for a second opinion - but it was too late. I spent almost a month in the hospital. This condition would then plague me for years. Doctors for years were always blaming me. They always asked, "What are you doing to cause this?" In those days it was thought a young man in his early thirties just could not get blood clots. Eventually, years later at the University of Wisconsin Hospital, a Doc determined it was a genetic condition - it was not my fault. Poetically, the medication to battle the condition was developed at UW-Madison, Wisconsin just down the street from the hospital.
But back in that VA hospital in Dallas, I remember looking out the window from an upper floor when I could finally get up and walk, a tumble weed rolled across the parking lot. A few days earlier a VA Doc had told me I would die and to say good bye to my wife - something I would have to do a couple more times over the years until the condition was correctly diagnosed. The pain of clotting is indescribable. Think of the worst cramp you ever had - then imagine it all over your body for 36 hours. Pain killer has no affect. When I realized I would make it and saw that tumble weed, I made my mind up then to return to Wisconsin. Life was too short - Texas would never be home. And in retrospect, my home hospital did finally zero in on the clotting condition - that condition that has killed me at least three times and then some. It is unclear why I survived not once but several times, what has so handily killed so many other unsuspecting people after just one clotting episode. Dan Blocker (Hoss) of television Bonanza fame died of blood clots back before they had a good grip on the illness.
I spent the remaining summer of 1991 working alone with a trimmed down customer base. It took me a year and a half to get just part of my strength back. I remember spending many hours resting and listening to updates of Gulf War I on the radio. Who would have imagined I would go to Iraq twice 15 years later - and with a correctly managed clotting condition too-boot. The next spring of 1992 Heide and I packed up and moved home to Wisconsin.
I had learned a great deal running my little business. It resurrected some knowledge I already had from working on a farm since 12 years old. I learned the toll a small, long-hours-per-day, seven-day-a-week small business can take on a family. I was reintroduced to what I remembered from the farm as long days and handling a budget where by the end of the day, everyone gets their payment but you. I learned how to make things work; how to fix anything; how to guide my workers into getting along; how to turn down problematic projects; how to delegate; how to see sincere workers and rely on them; I learned what my own limitations were; I learned that I was indeed mortal; and, I learned to rely on myself - something I would use again while doing media projects years later in Iraq during our second war there.
Wisconsin military service person of the week
Army Specialist Paul J. Sturino, 21 of Rice Lake died on Monday, September 22, 2003 while serving south of Mosul, Iraq. He was in Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 320 Field Artillery Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Paul was originally with a tank unit based in Lawton, Oklahoma and then transferred to the 101st Airborne in Fort Campbell, Kentucky to be a paratrooper. He went to Iraq in March 2003. The Journal Sentinel went on to say Sturino had re-enlisted in the 101st for another year but his tour of duty was also extended due to the war. He graduated from Rice Lake High School in 1999 and was on the wrestling team. He also attended Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College. Survivors in Sturino's family include mother Chris Wetzel and father Dino Sturino; brother Alonzo Sturino; sister Amy Sturino; grandparents Arnold and Marilyn Peer; and, grandmother Gloria Sturino. Army Specialist Paul Sturino was the fourth Wisconsin military service person to die in the Iraq war.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
84,040 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,285 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,079 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
500 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
312 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
305 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
30,112 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1,964 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
90 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
127 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
15 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
