“Try it and see what happens”

—26&1/2 years ago, Yr Fthfl Srvnt had a stroke. It was caused by a patent foramen ovale (“PAY-tint four-AY-min oh-VAL-eee”), long ago repaired = open-heart surgery.
It didn't kill me — it could have. At first I was paralyzed on my left side, but now I have that all back. I can pass for never having had a stroke.
Minor detriments remain: I lost nine years of classical piano training; I no longer can hold a tune. My speech center was killed, so now something else is doing it. And it wasn't designed for speech, which means I have slight aphasia: difficulty getting words out.
I no longer can line-draw, and my keyboarding is spastic. It got worse as I got older.
My balance also seems to be failing.
Thankfully, I can still write. What a joy it was to find I could still do that when I was discharged from the hospital.
Apparently there is still quite a lot of gray-matter left. And it's covering for what was killed.
Some of that was luck, but as far as I'm concerned my brain re-wired almost immediately; mainly because I refused to be invalid = I inadvertently worked quickly.
My advice to other stroke victims is “get cracking.” By doing that you’re rewiring your brain to do what the killed part did. —And you gotta be quick about it.
My long ago advice to another stroke victim was “if you think you can do it, you probably can.”
I was cross country skiing within weeks of my stroke. “Miraculous,” I was told, but “I used to be able to cross-country ski.”
“I used to be able to tie my shoes; here, let me try it!”
My wife's mother, who died a few years ago at age 100, came up from FL to help me. But no help for this kid, especially not from someone who growled at me first visit.
The other day I got an e-mail from a Regional-Transit bus driver retired like me. It had a video about Thomas Edison, and I thought it really good. I wanted to put it on my Facebook, but had no idea how.
I forwarded that e-mail to someone who I thought might know how to do it. But then I decided to “try it and see what happens.”
In other words, what marbles remain decided to “think about it.” Let's see here, how about if I download the video, then crank it onto FB? “Try it and see what happens!”
Everything I know about ‘pyootering, driving my iPhone, etc, is self-taught. The only class I ever took was in Microsoft “Excel,” and I was one of only two in the class; night-school by my local school-district. The other girl was completely befuddled; she’d probably been assigned by her office-manager.
Stroke or not I wanted answers, and I drove that instructor nuts. He gave me hints so I could better drive “Excel” at home.
And now with my wife gone, I'm more inclined to “try it and see what happens.”
That is: “think about it,” and by so doing come up with an experiment = guile-and-cunning baby!
I mouse-clicked the video attachment, saving it to my download folder. Then I fired up Facebook, to try adding the video attachment.
SHA-ZAMM! It worked! That video is on my Facebook, and I'm amazed.
But it’s the old waazoo: “try it and see what happens!”
Apparently enough marbles are left.

• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. My stroke ended that. I retired on medical-disability, but I recovered well enough to return to work at a newspaper; I retired from that almost 15 years ago.
• My wife died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I still miss her. BEST friend I ever had, and after my childhood I needed one. She actually liked me.
• At the Messenger newspaper I was told “thinkin’ is dangerous.”