GRANDPA JIM: Recent Episodes
James Stordahl
Iowa grandfather, who has been living a Bipolar-2 life for more than 50 years. Learning to manage racing thoughts and gaining the life's experience of onboarding more than 50 jobs in his lifetime. A mental health advocate; retired US Postmaster, retired US Army, recent school bus driver talks about living in a coronavirus world.
Keep the calendar open. Find your fishing gear. Uncover the boat and fill th trailer tires. Visit the liquor store. Get off work early to beat the rush.
So many things to remember. The pressure is on. Timing.
Your Dad expects you at a certain time and to be ready for any type of weather. Breakfast is bacon and eggs at 4:30 AM, or "O-dark-thirty as we said in the Navy.
How long can we ignore the growing mental health crises?
We remain trapped in the mindset that it will be OK. There remains a delusion of invincibility. Ignoring the need to be vaccinated is ignorance. Fatalism can get a foothold when we are just trying to "get-by".
Climate legislation is on life support as Earth cooks.
Who can find daycare?
Haste makes waste.
Many examples have shown that when you do things quickly, without planning, mistakes are made.
New podcast: MEET BIPOLAR DAD
Mental health advocate joining the chorus of more people speaking out about the vaccination campaign.
More than just the "flu", COVID-19 continues to wreak health havoc in people of all ages.
Isolation, disrupted routines, loneliness, stress, anxiety and fear continues to climb as the pandemic continues. 55% of respondents report an increase in mental health issues.
We are not ready for this next challenge.
Murder and mayhem in my old home state. Terrible news. Burning, looting and scared citizens.
I wrote about this effect in my last book, self-published on Amazon: "The KMA Syndrome".
The policeman in the video showed he did not care, the rioters are showing that they don't care, and the agitators from outside the Twin Cities are showing that they don't care...about anything other than their OWN agenda.
It is sad, frightening and anarchy. The virus already has us scared...now what?
Reading from the Des Moines Register columnist, Rekha Basu.
VP Pence and Iowa Gov. Reynolds are pushing an to open churches and keep the meatpacking plants running.
This podcast explains why that is a poor idea.
By culture and tradition, Iowans are meat and potato people. Landlocked with a short growing season, seafood and produce are hard to come by, especially if money is tight. Inexpensive processed and fast food has become the mainstay for people of all ethnicities who are to exhausted to cook after work, so malnutrition is rampant.
Exhaustion and stress mean less exercise and less sleep. This is the perfect recipe for obesity, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes -- the top three "pre-existing conditions" that increase the risk of death from COVID-19.
Anxiety an depression are rising. The U.S. is ill-prepared, with some clinics already on the brink of collapse. Isolation and economic upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are already resulting in a sharp spike in people seeking mental health help.
From Iowa, Jobs Webinar, Part 2 -- again, under 20 minutes.
I include a reading from NE Iowa hourly worker, losing her job, as the result of Wall Street.
Major changes are demanded, before returning to work. Let's keep our eye on the ball, folks.
Within three weeks the 'rosy' unemployment picture and jobs story has went to hell.
Slow response time and disinformation has the entire nation confused and scared.
In keeping with the game plan of 15-minute podcasts, here is my first of three stories about how the virus has hit the heartland.
It is now likely that the majority of Americans will get the coronavirus.
Slowing it down is crucial, because our healthcare system has limited resources.
We only have about a million hospital beds in America. We have well under a million ventilators. If millions of Americans get sick enough to need treatment, we will have a calamity on our hands. What will happen is a form of battlefield triage, where the doctors focus on trying to treat the young and allow the older people to die.
It is already happening in Italy, where people over 65 are being left alone on hospital gurneys to suffocate to death from pneumonia. They basically drown in their own sputum!
New book by Peggy Orenstein -- "Boys & Sex: Young men on hookups, love, porn, consent and navigating the 'new' masculinity".
Two years research brings alarming new insight to the chasm that has grown between boys and girls. It has also uncovered the trend that I see every day as a school bus driver. Boys do not know how to talk to girls. And that silence is becoming a problem.
Evidence is showing that boys are growing up to become young men that not only learn to NOT feel, they cannot identify their emotions.
Are you starting to think about the low-information electorate?
Could this be a reason?
OPINION
From Fern Kupfer, retired English professor and author of "Before and After Zachariah"
jimthebusdriver shares a Holiday letter from the Des Moines Register Opinion page.
Seven days of adventure with BoundlessProductions.TV.
Followed through with a random call from the Iowa Department of Economic Development. I was in the database for acting, but also for transportation skills. I was hired by Boundless Production, in London, to serve as scouting guide and RV driver for the production of a segment of a TV production called, "Are you smarter than..."
First a three member scouting mission and then a three-day shooting event with a crew of 12 and three TV talent.
Reading an article from the Des Moines Register, by Mark Flatten. He is the national investigative journalist at the Goldwater Institute. He is the author of an investigative report highlighting how state certificate of need laws are hurting mental health patients.
He can be reached at mflatten@goldwaterinstitute.org.
I also read from my self-published book: The KMA Syndrome, available on Amazon.
We all grow older.
There is only one alternative.
The Des Moines Register has printed an OP/ED by John and Terri Hale, who own The Hale Group, an advocacy, consulting and communications firm focused on aging and caregiving issues.
I add my Two Cents worth.
Born and raised in a small Minnesota farming community, attending and being value programmed inside the Lutheran Church, I gave little thought to what "other" churches were doing.
There was an early discussion in my small number of close friends, when one of my classmates started carrying a Bible and switch from the Lutheran Church to the Methodist Church. He had found his way, long before any of us, and has since lived a good life as a Methodist minister.
The gossip around the Catholic Church has risen to a loud shout. Good reporting hitting the social networks has unveiled a very dark not-so-secret.
I read aloud from a recent OP-ED, by Washington Post columnist Marc A. Thiessen.
Three thoughts following great trip to Colorado. A "dream" state that makes arthritis disappear!
1.) In 25 years, the people over age 60 will be one in six.
2.) Iowa's 'appointed' and unqualified Gov. gives Medicaid insurers big raise.
3.) Catholic Church had "playbook" for hiding sex abuse.
Amazon #Scatterbrain #TheKMAsyndrome
Reading from my book SCATTERBRAIN (Amazon).
Talking about the warm Iowa summer weather.
Talking about our little pet dog, Bailey.
Encouraging anyone struggling with mental illness to reach out and share.
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem!
Thanks to a "spare" 401K, I was able to afford a great late summer vacation to Colorado.
Just as I was feeling pretty good about my retired life, the school year started again and I was right back in the bus. And then I read a financial article in the Des Moines Register..."Financial regrets of baby boomers"...
Listen to this...
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Every month needs to have this effort. Awareness is key. Bipolar disease is a severe mood diorder bookended by both mania and depression. Just 14% of teens with any mental disorder are on medication.
One out of ten children live with a serious mental or emotional disorder. One in four adults (58 million Americans) show symptoms of a mental health disorder every year.
Listen to this podcast for information that you need to know. If you are in the Des Moines area, on Monday, May 22nd, stop in to the Ankeny Library at 7pm for my "talk" on living withn bipolar disorder.
The Internet is ablaze with clever comments about April 1st...April Fools' Dad.
They are saying that no amount of joking or misinformation can compete with what is going on in real life politics.
Can you beleive what is being uncovered? I can! And I am very concerned about the lack of action with those elected to govern this country. Is everybody too afraid of losing their jobs?
'Are we living in Nazi German?' (Des Moines Register Editorial)
Never thought I would be reading and writing about this in my lifetime.
My Dad came back (physically and mentally changed forever) from WWII.
This should only be a discussion in history books. What is happening to our country?
Is it the dawn of the New Civil War?
The director of national intelligence released a 25-page declassified version of its report into allege3d Russian hacking during the 2016 cappaign, concluding that the intent of the operation was to help get Donald Trump elected President. This is NOT a movie script...this is real.
"Loneliness is personal, and it is also political," Olivia Laing wrote in The Lonely City, one of the finest books of the year. Half a century earlier, Hannah Arendt examined those peculiar parallel dimensions of loneliness as a profoundly personal anquish and an indispensible currency of our political life in her intellectual debut, the incisive and astonishingly timely 1951 classic The Origins of Totalitarianism.
In 2016, less than 50% of eligible voters came to the polls. More than 57% of that minority voted for 7 candidates other than Mr. Trump. Then popular vote was won by Mrs. Clinton by more than 3 million votes.
People in the US have lost contact with each other. They have lost contact with their fellow man and the reality around them. We are in big trouble!
My trip down "Bipolar Lane" started more than 50 years ago. I am now recognizing that a member of our tribe is headed for the White House.
Not to be fearful is the task, mental health is just a "stigma" hurdle away from being daily discussion matters. Forget stocks and who is getting rich (not you and me), we need to focus on survival!
You need to learn how to listen and heed "Trump Speak".
What I do best is "telling" the bipolar story -- from raising a daughter with BD -- to my own personal journey. My four books are on Amazon (Bipolar Dad; Scatterbrain; Bits&Pieces and Straggler). And I think you will gain comfort from this Podcast in the months to come.
"Ladies and Gentleman, Boys and Girls of all ages" -- step right up and listen to the wonderful news that has come to town:)))))
Beware of the Holiday sinkholes!
Prepare yourself for stress and possible depression.
Beware the Trump Trap.
Focus on your own orbit, yourself, family, life.
The mental health debate continues with little action to support it. More than 40 million Americans have a mental health condition. More than 6 million suffer with bipolar disorder.
Sex discrimination?
It is still happening. Retaliation, job discrimination, a manager acting as if he is above the Law. A hostile work environment. This rude behavior will no cost the city of West Des Moines, $1.9 million.
What are we going to do in 2017 when rude and abusive behavior becomes the "norm" in the workplace?
The daily news continues to show that our country has changed. Less than half of less than half of the eligible voters has given us turmoil. in Iowa, we have a Republican Governor that has made a mess of our health care system. I fear for my grandchildren!
Today, Saturday, September 10, 2016, is World Suicide Prevention Day.
I have chosen to accept the challenge of talking about this subject on social media. My drive is to help others that may have the "dark" thoughts of ending their life.
I recall my two times where I thought about suicide. And I also am driven by the memory of when I was in the presence of two suicides attempts.
Back to school problems? Oh, yessirree!
This is my sixth year as a school bus driver and I have always asked why I like the job. I must say it is the constant challenge and disruptions to the status quo. This year is no different.
Our neighbors to the west, Waukee, Norwalk and Johnston all made it on the nightly TV news and the Des Moines Register.
More students, new managers, loss of benefits, upset parents and school staff SURPRISED by it all--no problem, we got it:)))
Here we go, two-for-one. We just got back from a 3-day in-state visit to a daughter. It was more than a 4-hour drive, so for some, this could have been more than an in-state effort.
Still climbing out of the fear-of-flying panic that gripped me this past week, after receiving tickets from my sister to come visit her in Alaska.
Grandson therapy worked it's magic. So this episode will be included in both my Podcasts -- Bipolar Dad and Bus Biz. I am quoting George Carlin, my all-time favorite for saying it like it is!
My "Fear of Flying" just cost me a trip to Alaska. To make matters more intense, the plane tickets were a gift from my younger sister. She wanted her older brother to come visit.
This episode of "Bipolar Dad" talks about the symptoms of "Fear of Flying". These are only words from a guy who has had his life altered with this mental phobia that causes all sorts of physical and psychological disruption.
The RNC is rolling out the newest edition today. Let's hope the view gets better than what was displayed on "60 Minutes", last night.
I was humming the tune, "There's a hole in the bucket, Dear Liza", as I was walking back home with my morning cup of Caribou coffee. As I stepped across a stream of water running down the gutter. It was clean water leaking from an apartment complex...probably the pool leaking again, like last year.
The leak was started last Thursday and was still running this Monday morning. Five days of hundreds of gallons of fresh water running down the drain. Five days before anyone appears to try to stop the leak. I know this might be small to some people, but I was thinking that these many gallons of water could have saved people in some parts of our world.
Then I moved on to the shootings around our country. Why is this happening? Is there a hole in the bucket? A lack of discipline? Are we raising kids that cannot control their anger? Because the past few shooters were veterans, is this an example of a 'leak' in the system that should be taking care of the veterans?
Then I read that 20 military A DAY are committing suicide! There's a hole in the bucket!!
Yesterdays crime at the dog park did not stop us from hitting the trails again today. We met some nice people and had some good exercise.
Today's topic is about Bipolar Memoirs. There are a few of them. I have four short books out, on Amazon (Bipolar Dad; Scatterbrain; Bits&Pieces and Straggler). And I will have more. Journaling is very good therapy. It is like digging up the old 'stuff' and dealing with it.
Today I am re4ading from an article from The Guardian, written by Darian Leader -- about taking the humane approach of working with a manic depressive population and letting them come to terms, however slowly, and however painfully--with their past.
It is always sad (and heartbreaking) when tragedy strikes and you discover, after the fact, that the evil person involved was an out-of-control youth with a disturbing background.
Like the Orlando killer, Omar Mateen. He was disciplined dozens of times for unruly and aggressive behavior. He has constant outbursts and classroom disruptions. He could not conform to classroom and school rules. He was verbally abusive, rude and aggressive and yelled obscenities as a third-fourth-and-fifth grader.
The lack of discipline in the schools helped develop a monster.
We wait a long time for great weather like we are currently enjoying great weather in central Iowa. I feel bad for the other parts of the country with flooding, tornadoes and forest fires. The central states appear to have escaped the "bad" weather.
Last night, we watched granddaughter Halle perform three times during Nicole's School of Dance Spring Recital, in Ames. Lots of makeup, hair done up in tight buns and many colorful costumes. The music was loud and made you tap your toes. My question? Where were all the boyfriends? Where are the jocks and the other athletes and the cousins and uncles and brothers. This dance recital was the culmination of a lot of practice and the physical beauty that is modern dance was on display. What a show it was!!!
Today's BIPOLAR DAD report is reading from the online article from a website called "The Mighty". They have asked many people who struggle with BD and they have listed the 23 things about bipolar disorder nobody talks about.
This Bipolar-2 guy woke up today feeling very reverent--mostly due to the fact that this is Memorial Day 2016.When my time came, I tried to muster the right patriotism -- but Vietnam NEVER seemed like a good idea! And history shows it was a terrible decision with disastrous results. This country has never recovered from the decisions and actions taken concerning Vietnam.
This day gets confused with the school year ending, and going up north to the cabin, or getting the boat out on the lake. There are lots of gatherings and lots of flags waving and LOTS and LOTS of alcohol consumption. Oh, that's right--Memorial Day is for picnics and drinking, right?
Today I remember my grandfather, who drove an ambulance in WWI -- coming home with images so horrible he never forgot. Then there was my Dad, volunteering for WWII -- fighting in Germany as an infantryman -- and never really coming home in one piece -- going to his grave with chunks of a German bridge imbedded in his back. Then there was this bipolar guy, who could not make up his mind and went to two boot camps, and joined two military branches to help make up his mind.
A little nasally today after four weeks of bronchitis and some increasingly strong medicine that makes me tired. It is a 70-degree SUNDAY in central Iowa and a Jehovah Witness just knocked on the door to see if we would like to hear the word. On Sunday? Door-to-door? Well, anyway we got some new reading material.
USA TODAY had a review of a new Netflix series. They have titled the story as "Mixing laughs with mental illness." Stand-up comedian Maria Bamford has mined her struggles with mental illness for meta-sitcom Lady Dynamite, now streaming on Netflix.
Stress can trigger episodes of mania and depression in people with bipolar disorder, so keeping it under control is extremely important. Know your limits, both at home and at work or school. Don't take on more than you can handle and take time to yourself if you're feeling overwhelmed.
Starting off with comments from Harvey MacKay as he writes in his weekly column about verbal communications. I segue into reading from my first book "Bipolar Dad", after current day comments about how I still get upset and confused by poor communications
The Drake relays are over and the Pella Tulip Festival is next week. The downtown Farmer's Market starts next Saturday and the buses are going all over town with teams. Here is another excerpt from "Straggler".