Nucksy's Daily Teleincision

Well, 2006 is about to come to an end in a little less than three hours. Thank goodness!!! This has been a tough year. It all started with a drunken Jagermeister induced haze the week after New Year's 2006 and went downhill from there. In between, I lost 2 jobs and my grandmother passed away. The last 3 and a half years have been difficult. I feel like 2007 will be a very good year for me. If it is not, then I am always prepared to ride out the storm until smoother water appears. Happy New Years to everyone!!!!!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!!!!

The All Blacks - A Rugby team from New Zealand doing the Maori Haka dance - This would psych me out!!!!

Well, my grandmother has been gone for almost 2 months and things in my life are starting to get back into some sense of normalcy. I have seen tons of movies in the last couple of months and thought that I would share my reviews of them with you. I will write them in more than one entry to make digestion a little easier. I will be writing some more serious stuff after I finish these. The first movie that we look at is "The Longest Yard." I was not impressed. This movie is nothing more than an exact copy of the original, which is a great movie. I am not a big Adam Sandler fan, so that probably doesn't help any. I am not going to talk about this anymore. The next movie is "Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy." This movie stars the always funny Will Ferrell as the title character. While this is not as funny as some o f his other movies, it is still worth watching and has more than its share of laugh out loud moments including a scene ab...

It has been a month since my grandmother passed away. I will be posting a new series of blog entries in the next couple of days. I am alive......

FRANCES OMEGA NUCKOLLS, 82, died on Monday, 10/9/2006, after a long illness. She was a retired nursery worker for West Frayser Baptist Church. She enjoyed making crafts of all kinds, sharing these as gifts, and selling them for decades at many local shows. She was a loving mother and grandmother and who will be greatly missed by all her friends and relatives. She was a valued and long time member of West Frayser Baptist Church. She was preceded in death by her husband of 42 years, Edward H. "Buddy" Nuckolls, and also preceded by brothers, Leo Smith of Bolivar, TN., Curtis Willoughby of Badin Lake, NC., and a sister, Earline Villines, of Nashville, TN., She is survived by brothers, Elvin Willoughby and Frank Willoughby of Toone, TN., and Willard Smith of Bolivar, TN. She is also survived by a son, Lawrence E. "Larry" Nuckolls, of Memphis, TN., a daughter, Patricia L...Pat.. Wright of Pinehurst, NC., and four grandchildren. Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m., Friday, Oc...

My Granny will be buried on Saturday, with Visitation on Friday night from 6-8 at Memory Hill Gardens on Germantown Parkway. We picked out our suits yesterday, and cried a lot. This is very tough. Here are some lyrics that sum up how I feel. They are from a song by Collin Raye "Love, Me." If you get there before I do, don't give up on me. I'll meet you when my chores are through; I don't know how long I'll be. But I'm not gonna let you down, darling wait and see. And between now and then, till I see you again, I'll be loving you. Love, me.

My granny just passed away. Please remember me and my family in your prayers.

Today about sums up the way that life is going at the moment. I called to see if they would be mailing my check or if I would have to pick it up......of course I had to go all of the way out there to get it. Here's the catch.....I could not get it until 4:30. I don't know why that is just the way that they do it. I had just enough gas and time to get there at about 5:00 and get my check. It would be nice if the story ended there, but of course there is more. I went to the BP first to get some gas. Neither of my cards would work. I knew that I had 13.00 in my PayPal account so it should not have been a problem. I went inside....no dice. Next, I travel to Costco across the street. You have to be a member to use their pumps, so again no deal. By now I am freaking out but I see Kroger and hope to all that is holy that it will work there. It did not work at the pump, but did work when the cashier ran my PayPal card. As I am waiting, I get a call from my debit card company about som...

I spoke to my Dad this afternoon and he said that the neurologist diagnosed Granny with Binswanger's Disease. Here is a definition of it: Binswanger's disease, sometimes referred to as subcortical dementia, is a rare form of dementia characterized by cerebrovascular lesions in the deep white-matter of the brain, loss of memory and cognition, and mood changes. Patients usually show signs of abnormal blood pressure, stroke, blood abnormalities, disease of the large blood vessels in the neck, and disease of the heart valves. Other prominent features of the disease include urinary incontinence, difficulty walking, clumsiness, slowness of conduct, lack of facial expression, and speech difficulty. These symptoms, which tend to begin after the age of 60, are not always present in all patients and may sometimes appear only as a passing phase. The prognosis is not good. He said she is basically in a waking coma at the moment, although not quite completely there. Her heart is going to st...

Just when it looked like that the sea was calming down, a storm came in. My grandmother does not have long to go. My Dad flew to North Carolina today to be with her. She is in ICU and also on a ventilator. I quit my job on Thursday morning because I could not concentrate and also because I knew that I was going to incur a third attendance incident before my 30 days was over. I am going to reapply in 30 days and hopefully be rehired. My supervisor said that he would recommend me for rehire. I hope that my Granny gives up. I think that she has suffered enough. I did not want to see her like this so I did not go with Dad. I will miss her a great deal but I have no doubt where she will be the moment she leaves this world. She will be with my Grandfather and her relatives and be waiting for me on the other side. I am so very thankful that I got to live with her and spend more time with her than I ever would otherwise. I am still kind of sick with the sinus crud so I am going to take...

Today was a much better day at work. It did not start out too well, as I woke up feeling sick this morning. I thought that I had shaken this crud but apparently I had not. Anyway, I gutted it out. I had no choice, unless I wanted to be unemployed. I made it to lunch and was able to pick up some DayQuil at Walgreen's. I felt better than I had in days. Today was the first day at work that I was relaxed and just did my calls. I am really getting the hang of it and sense that my first order will be soon. I was able to get a polo shirt and a t-shirt from My Coke Rewards for the points that I saved. I hope that the polo fits. If it doesn't I will sell it on eBay. I finally got a haircut today. I was starting to look like a woolly mammoth. I did not get it cut short like I normally do. I am proud of my thick hair and think I look better with it grown out. Well, there is a bottle of Tylenol Severe Cold and 11 hours of sleep calling my name. I gotta be fresh for work in th...

Today I got my first check at work. $202.25!!! It was immediately down to $40.00! Oh well, at least I am back to paying my bills again. I felt better today and I am hopefully getting over whatever crud I had over the weekend. I still do not have a sale, and now only have 16 days until I get a clean attendance slate. I am trying not to get frustrated, but it is hard since I have never done this before. Please continue to pray for me. My grandmother had 4 liters of fluid drained off of her belly yesterday. She is wasting away. Her dementia is getting worst and she has no idea that she is sick. It is one of the hardest things to watch someone you love just suffer and not be able to do anything about it. My Dad is taking it especially hard. I remain hopeful about the future, I think that things are going to work out on all fronts of my life. I would love to meet some new people to do things with, but one thing at a time. I need to get this job thing going. Well, the Steelers are o...

On Friday I went to work actually feeling OK. When I got there I only lasted 1 hour before I had to go home. I have rested some over the past two days, and I am feeling about 70%. That is way better than the 10% I was at on Friday. I only have one more strike in the next 17 days and I lose my job, so please pray that I am not late of get sick or anything else happens. I get a clean slate again after 30 days. I love my job and would hate to lose it. I would usually work sick, but I could not hold up my head because I was so weak. Yesterday Dad and I went to the Cooper-Young Festival. It was OK. I thought it was just an overpriced flea market. We did get to go to the Memphis Pizza Cafe in Overton Square for lunch, one of my old hangouts from the old Riverkings days. It was top notch as always. eBay has really spoiled me from just enjoying shopping. I am always thinking - Can I sell that? The Tigers blew it last night. They were up 20-7 and ended up losing 35-20. They basical...

Well, today started like any other day at work. It did not end well, however. I have some sort of sinus crud mixed with stomach yuckiness. I tried to gut it out and make the entire day at work, but I could only make it a half day. I was sweating and just could not hardly hold up my head. Please pray that I do not get two more attendance incidents in the next 20 days or I will lose my job! I definitely do not want that to happen. I am feeling more comfortable and was doing well today until I started feeling bad. I am planning on going in tomorrow, regardless of how I feel. Nucksy

Well, I continue to grind it out at work. I am working hard on my sales pitch and my voice on the phone. I especially needed to work on speaking up, and I seem to be getting that. I have not yet gotten an order but I came very close to it. Please pray that I continue to work hard and learn. I am going to get it!! Well, I am tired. You would not think that it would be so tiring talking on the phone all day, but it is. Nucksy

What a great weekend! It started on Friday with a much better day at work. I am looking forward to learning my job. I think that I am going to be really good at it. It is going to take time and a lot of work and dedication, but I think that the rewards will be great. On Saturday I had quite a busy day. It started with a visit to the yearly Greekfest at the Greek Orthodox church in Bartlett. Greek food is some of my favorite. The food and the music was wonderful. Also, the church is very beautiful on the inside. Later in the day it was time for the first home game for the Tigers against UT-Chattanooga. Justin and Dad also went to the game, and we had a great time. The Tigers won 33-14. although they looked a little flat. One interesting thing is that the police inside the stadium were carrying M-16s and the bomb squad was outside. I don't know if it was a drill or what, but it made me uncomfortable. It will be three weeks until the next game against Tennessee. Should b...

Well, today was a little less pleasant than the first two days at work. It was my first day on the phones and what an eye opener. Please pray for me in the next couple of weeks. I am going to bed to get some rest for tomorrow. Nucksy

Well, today began my second day at Mid-American Specialties, or as I like to call it: The greatest place I have ever worked. The commute again was a pleasure, but not as painful as yesterday. More training today including role playing. All of this is preparing me to began live on the phone tomorrow afternoon, so please pray for me. I am a little nervous but the training has been outstanding. I met my supervisor today, DeWayne Gunn or Rowdy Rebel as he is known at work. He is a huge Ole Miss fan that calls the sports talk stations here a lot. He is also a heck of a nice guy and the only supervisor of people in my training class that introduced himself. On to the kooky events of the day. The Survivor contest continued today and I was nominated by my tribe, The Wailers, to participate in a belching contest. I did not win. No one did that well. After work, we had a tribe meeting to discuss our tribe flag and our t-shirts. We are going with a Bob Marley type theme. It was my secon...

Well, today I began my new job at Mid-American Specialities. To say that the day was surreal would be an understatement. I woke up at 6:15(ugh, that hurt) and left for work at about 6:50, as I needed to be there at 7:45. I do not think that I had been conscious at that hour for a long time. I really did not have much trouble getting up and going. It was probably the adrenaline and excitement. The commute was a joy, as usual. The interstate in Memphis is a hellish way to travel. If there is a wreck on the shoulder, it causes all sorts of havoc. By the time I got to the office, my Bacon Egg and Cheese bagel was cold but it never tasted so sweet. We had a sales meeting first thing this morning that was to set the tone for the entire mood of the day. The owners two dogs, Abby and Hercules, parade around looking for attention. I work at a place where there are animals!!! Oh yes, and then there are dogs too! Well, today started a sales conttest with a Survivor theme. We are broke...

James Blake paid tribute to Andre Agassi in his last match. He wore the old school Andre outfit including the spandex shorts. Kudos to him for paying tribute to Andre's last tournament.

I had my interview at 12:30 p.m. this afternoon, maybe I should say interviews. Man, I hate the whole process of looking for a job and then talking about yourself. I have never been very good at it. Let me give a brief synopsis of what happened..... I arrived about 30 minutes early because I had no idea of how long it would take to get to the place, even though I had a map from Mapquest. Mid-American Specialties is located near Germantown and Southwind golf course and I am near the river, so it is a long drive. It is mostly interstate so that it good. There is a map on their website at www.midamericanspecialties.com After filling out my application, I was introduced to one of the sales managers named Tim. He took me out and let me listen to one of the sales peeps taking calls. That was no big deal. The place looked cool and had a bunch of younger people and was casual. So far , so good. Several minutes later he came to get me and took me to where the less experienced people...

Well, I have a job interview at 12:30 tomorrow at Mid-American Specialties. You can check out information on the company at their web site, http://www.midamericanspecialties.com Also, this is Andre Agassi's last tennis tournament(U.S. Open). Man, do I feel old. He has always been one of my favorite tennis players. He is a very classy player and person and I know that the world of sports will miss him. I hope that he does well once he is retired. Hopefully, I will have good news tomorrow. Nucksy

Is it that time already? College football season is right around the corner, and I had the chance to go to Tiger Fan Fest yesterday at the Liberty Bowl. I got lots of autographs and also had the chance to get my picture taken with Tommy West and Carlton Robinzine, who went to my high scho ol. A very enjoyable afternoon. Coming in the next couple of days: More movie reviews and an update on the last couple of months including my grandmother moving to a nursing home in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

He died 29 years ago.....but will always live on through his music and movies(one of my guilty pleasures). This is the way that I choose to remember Elvis. The '68 comeback Elvis is my favorite of all. It is before he began to spiral out of control and still looked young and vibrant.

Here are some pictures of former U of M Tigers DeAngelo Williams and Stephen Gostkowski in their NFL uniforms! Way to go guys!!!

Well, during this last couple of weeks, I have seen a bunch of movies. Some on DVD and some at the theater. Without further adieu, let me share my opinion with you on all of them - the good and the bad!!!! I will begin with "Shaun of the Dead" a hilarious movie that is a British romantic comedy with a twist - it is also a zombie movie. I had caught bits and pieces of it before but had never seen the entire movie. It was great!!! Very funny!!! I like british humor so I figured that I would like it. I recommend it to anyone. The next movie that I got the chance to see was "Inside Man" starring Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. This movie was excellent and kept you guessing up until the very end. I am a big fan of the psychological thriller genre of film and this movie was no exception. I thought that Jodie Foster's performance was less than stellar but it was not enough to dampen the rest of the movie. If you get a chance to see it, do. Next on our list of cinemat...

It's been a while since I last posted because I have been so busy. More on that in my next post. I thought that I would share my thoughts on the last three movies that I had the pleasure of watching. I will begin with the most recent flick and work my way back. I'll begin with a movie that I went to on Monday night, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." This movie was fantastic! It picks up where the first left off and is action packed throughout. Johnny Depp's character Captain Jack Sparrow steals the show again. He is one of my favorite actors, and shows a versatility few in Hollywood possess. The movie is long at about 2.5 hours but I never got bored. The story never bogged down and the ending prepares you for the next chapter that is due in May 2007. I would recommend this film to anyone. I also like it because you could bring kids to see it. That is not the case of the second movie that I saw, "Grandma's Boy." This movie is raunchy, ...

Well, I have been pretty busy since the last time I posted a blog entry. An update on my grandmother: She is doing many times better than she was when we took her to the hospital on Sunday. It looks like she will even be coming home on Tuesday or Wednesday. Thanks to all that have been praying for her. I told you that he listens!!!! Please continue as she will have some rehab once she gets out. She is anxious to return home so that she can catch up on her Walker, Texas Ranger rereuns!!! =) I have been spending a lot of time at the hospital and giving my Dad a shoulder to lean on. My aunt came in from N orth Carolina for a couple of days to check on my grandmother. I also defrosted the freezer and organized the food closets. They were out of control. I threw some things out in the garbage that may smell worse than anything I have smelled in my life. Now to two movies that I caught this week......The first is "The Break-Up" starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston...

The last 24 hours have been pretty eventful. It has been an eventful past 10 days or so, so why should today be any different. My grandmother, or Granny Nuckolls as I call her, is in the hospital. My Dad had to call an ambulance last night because she had fallen about 12 times in the last several days. She suffers from COPD in her lungs and also from cirrhosis of the liver. That weakens her immune system along with the fact that she is 82 years old. Well, after an all day odyssey at Methodist North, here is the picture as it stands. She has what they think is pneumonia, a possible blod clot in her lung, and weakened kidneys due to dehydration. Please pray for our family. It works, trust me. He listens! I think that she will pull out of this, but this is the sickest that she has been. This coupled with other recent events has put a strain on me and my Dad. I cried some last night because I was afraid that we were going to lose her. We are going back tomorrow to sit with her. ...

Well, yesterday was a good day for me. I met my friend Mitch at Hooter's for lunch. Doesn't sound like much does it? Well, it is a big deal. He is like a brother to me, and in January I made a rude remark to his wife. Yeah, you guessed it, I was drunk. It was Jagermeister that night. 15 shots in about an hour!! Stupid! Anyway, we have not spoken much less seen each other since then. I did not know what to expect when I got there and I was nervous to say the least. When I got there, it was as if time had never passed. Also, my other friend Mike was having to be a go-between during this time. I know that this will be a relief to him. On an aside, Hooter's has a really good steak sandwich. That is what I had along with sweet tea. I explained about my job and everything that had happened the week before and that I would no longer be drinking. Well, we are friends again. I have to say that I am very happy especially with all that has been going on lately. I do not think...

Well, my credit score is actually into the fair range at 632!!! I have decided to take a divorce recovery class soon and start going to therapy. I should have been doing that as soon as I was divorced 2 1/2 years ago, but sometimes I am just to blind to see how bad things are. My Dad thinks that I should start going to AA but I am convinced that this incident is enough to keep me from drinking. We shall see. I believe in myself and that is the important thing.

Well, I have had a couple of days to reflect and collect more information about the events of June 3rd at the Memphis Zoo. The picture gets uglier as I hear more and more of it. I met up with one of my ex-coworkers yesterday to return my shirts and badge and he told me some of what happened. He said to me, ".....You are a scary drunk...." Apparently in all of my drunken haze, I sucker punched a salesperson's husband. I never even met the guy. He did not do anything to me, he was just there at the wrong time. Luckily, he was not hurt and is not going to press charges against me. He just wondered what the hell I was doing. Also, the zoo bike patrol were chasing after me but did not catch up to me. I vaguely remember someone yelling at me to come back but I kept on going. More to come........ Nucksy

Well, the fallout from Saturday's company outing at the zoo continues.......Today I lost my job. Several people complained that I was touching them in inappropriate ways. I honestly do not remember much of what happened that night but promise myself that I will never drink again.....ever. It looks so cool on the commercials, but they should show you what really happens. I do not consider myself an alcoholic but found this on the net and I think it pertains to me..... It's possible to have a problem with alcohol, but not display all the characteristics of alcoholism. This is known as "alcohol abuse," which means you engage in excessive drinking that results in health or social problems, but you aren't dependent on alcohol and haven't fully lost control over the use of alcohol. Well, that is all for now. I will write more later. I was doing so well. Over a year at this job and no problems. Well, everything happens for a reason and this was to show me that drink...

On Saturday night I did something really stupid which I will not write about at the moment. Let me just say that it involved drinking and it is the end of my drinking days. I obviously have a problem with controlling myself when drinking and I do not know when to stop when I start. I am just glad that I am OK. I am about to turn 31 and this has just really shaken me up and gotten me to look at myself and what I am doing with my life. I took 2 days off of work to clear my head. I will write more in the next couple of days about what happened.