Much better!!

Rain

It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an
appointment at 9:00 am.
 

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I
was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to
the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health.

He told me that she had been therefor a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.

He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every
morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?'

He smiled as he
patted my hand and said,
'She doesn't
know me, but I still know who she is.'
I had to hold back
tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought,

'That is the kind of love I want in my life.'

True love is neither physical, nor romantic.
True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.
With all the jokes
and fun that are in e-mails, sometimes there is one that comes along that has an important message.. This one I thought I could share with you.

The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

I hope you share this with someone you care about. I just did.
'Life isn't about
how to survive the storm,

But how to dance in the
rain.'

 

 

We are all getting
Older

My life, such as it is.....

Here I am, sitting in my bedroom (sleeper) parked at the Pilot Travel Center in Laramie, Wyoming. I tend to forget that I have lived a most unusual life. In the view of the corporate world, I am a failure. Climb the ladder? I never even looked for it! Although I am that rolling stone I am happy and satisfied with what I have done. There are times in my life I wish I had not had or done, but yet even the bad times helped to create the good times.

Growing up on our family farm gave me the ability to work. My imagination helped me realize I could do "other" things. Even though changes were scary, I could never have simply stayed the same in the same place. I wanted each day to bring new challenges and opportunities. As soon as I figured out that I could be something other than a farmer I changed. I spent several years as a police officer, several more driving dump and log trucks in the coastal islands of southeast Alaska; more again as a director in a nursing home, one as a school janitor, another running a carpet cleaning business. Spent a year driving long haul in the late 80's, and the longest (12 years) as an industrial weigh scale technician. Spent another 10 years as a volunteer fireman and several of those years as an EMT. Now, do not get me wrong! This is not my greatest accomplishments.

That would be our children. Of course, anyone who has raised kids knows the most wonderful and the most dreadful times of life. We know the heartache of loosing a child at birth, and the thrill of knowing our kids have become wonderful adults. A great help in this was our religious beliefs that focused on the family, not the world.

Our world today wonders why we have such trouble with our children, why our economy is in shambles, why our crime rates are so huge. It really is quite simple. We have pulled away from "the family", have stripped "God" from our buildings, our homes. It is not so much a belief in a religion, or a God; it is the beliefs that these religions espouse; that of family, sacrifice, giving rather than receiving, loving your neighbor as you love yourself. We have become a selfish people in our utopia of life. If one were to study and understand the history of humans we would know what always happens when we get fat and sassy. Always....happens!

Think on this....in a few years the children of our nation will be our leaders. Are you satisfied that they will be ready for this? Have we trained them to understand, to be compassionate leaders? Have the TV, the video games, the cell phones helped them to learn to socialize and interact together in such a way as to lead a nation? Have our kids learned to act on their own, or do they simply react to their surroundings? Have they been taught to be responsible for their actions, or have we, over and over, taught them to look for excuses, to blame "someone else"? Think about it.......

So let's end this on a lighter note. Here I am, back driving long haul all over the United States. Although I would rather be at home more, especially now that I have a girl friend (easy, it will stay that way for quite some time!) I love driving these large trucks, and once again constantly changing all the time. My life! I think I'll keep it.....

That's the way it is.....

Does anyone ever wonder who helps the person who helps everyone else?

Class Reunion; A Great Time!

In the summer of 2007 Wilder Idaho had a 5 class reunion at our small park. We had a bunch of people show up from the classes of '71 thru '75 and it was a great time! I was not suprised that we didn't get a photo of everyone together; the classes tended to group together and no one thought of it. This first one is of my class:

 

Now, this was not the usual look we had; we were not the most attentive bunch and it took a bit to get us this way. This is more like us:

 

Now, my class was always one to be on the move and busy with stuff, usual stuff that would get us in trouble. Not much different here as all the other classes sat around in chairs and casually talked over the good old days. Not us guys! We stood in a circle and laughed and roared and told stories for quite some time!

There were a total of 24 that graduated in my class. Wilder is a city of approx. 1400 people, a farming community. The ones that showed up, especially the guys, were most definitely the movers and shakers of my class (um, again that means the ones that got into the most trouble!).

This next photo was the the ones who stuck around to the bitter end. It was really a wonderful time, I moved around and talked with most all that were there. It is so funny, I was in the class of '75 and back then most of these people would not have given me the time of day but on this day we were all equal and so happy to see each other! We will do this again!

One of those down times

 Sitting in central Tennessee in the middle of an ice storm, not able to get down the road toward home. Of course I really don't have my own home any more as I kinda screwed that one up, too. I've always figured I was a pretty good sort of guy. So why is it I cannot find the right women to be with forever? I've tried 3 times. I always thought those people who have been married/divorced multiple times had something wrong with them. Maybe I was right.

Good Times, Bad Times....

(reposted due to a problem with the original)

At the moment I am sitting in the Portland Airport waiting for my connecting flight to Eugene. This has been the worst week+ of my life; my daughter, Jesse, lost her husband Joshua in Afghanistan on January 3rd. Their daughter, Kadence, is just  15 months old. I am on my way to Joshua’s funeral in Roseburg, OR. As a father, how do you help a daughter who has lost the love of her life after less than 2 years of marriage? Their marriage had just gotten to that wonderful stage where both were losing the “single” attitude and melding into a truly wonderful family. I do not blame Joshua for his choices, he was Army when he and Jesse re-found each other. I am so grateful for Josh and all those who truly put it all on the line to defend what we all enjoy each day. He is a hero and we must remember that always.

My daughter is doing much better than I could have hoped. She knows her future is now nothing of what they had planned, but is ready to make the changes necessary to carry on. There will be those times when the burden will almost seem to much, but she knows this and has had the training to continue on at those times. So I guess I have already answered my question; what is a father to do? I have already done it with the upbringing we gave her. Now I can just be that support at times she needs me, and know she is strong and will prevail.

Family and Friends; They make the difference!

In this world it is so easy to find fault, to complain, to be angry. When horrible things happen you just want to strike out, to punish someone for the wrongs done. But then, out of the bad things come good things. This is a photo tribute to friends and family who have stepped up to make the difference in our family tragedy. Without them this would have been unbearable, but when you are surrounded by so much love you can prevail.....

This is, of course, just a few of the people who helped us with being there, but dozens if not hundreds of others helped in bringing an overload of food to us, babysitting and simply emailing, phoning or writing to give us support.

Thank you all so much!