Monday, February 25, 2013

Heading South

The next big trip begins this Friday.  Follow us daily as we trek through Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

The first big stop is scheduled for Oklahoma City where we will visit the Alfred Murrah Memorial Site, then possibly go to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, so long as we get approval.  (Requires two votes.)

Stay tuned!

Sunday, February 24, 2013

a sorrowful weekend on the journey

It was one of  those weekends you're glad to have completed in many ways.  Friday night we attended a visitation for a 23-year-old who died of an overdose.  He's been struggling with the drugs and though he had been clean for a month, the addiction was more powerful than he.  His parents are wonderful people and there seems to be a huge disconnect between their situation and his, which doesn't make anything easier for them.  But it is what it is.

Saturday morning we went to visit our friend Joan, who has ALS and is in her final weeks or months.  We first knew of her problem in the summer of 2011, when she had problems with moving one leg.  On Saturday she was in full recliner mode with attached c-pap to assist with her breathing.  Covered with blankets so only her head was visible, she never made any movement except for turning her head side to side.

She was able to speak, but continually paused to grasp oxygen from the c-pap before continuing her conversation.  Her conversation is lucid and the normal perceptive Joan is still there.  We know she's keeping up with her hometown (Rochester) news because she had seen the obituary for my Uncle Kermit, and asked if he was a relative.  And then she asked about our plans and experiences in retirement.

She's an avid golfer and bowler, lawyer and CPA, most recently working as a trust officer in a large national bank.  And now this.  If there was any good news it lay in zero discussion of the inevitable, instead with discussion of the remodeling they had done, the studies their girls are engaged in, and some thoughts of the future.  The closest we got to anything sorrowful was when he said, "There won't be any travel anymore."

Life.  It comes full circle.