DAV Ride

One of the things I missed this last job was riding the bike. I didn't have a good way to haul it (working on that), so it didn't go along. Eight weeks with no scoot, sucks!

Howsomever, I am riding a lot more and have located the Facebook site that allows me to find out who is riding where.

Saturday the local DAV was having a fund raiser, a poker run from a local bike shop to a local dealership, via the scenic route.

TLOML didn't care to ride so I asked the youngest to ride, as a healing for a difficult time. She agreed and after getting her up early, for a Saturday, we went for breakfast and then signed up for the day.

The total was about 116 miles with an eclectic group of folks that only have one thing in common, motorcycles.

I didn't win anything, at least I don't think so, we didn't hang around to see. We were tired, sunburned, and ready to go home, so I gave my tickets to someone who would donate anything I won back to the fundraiser and called it a day.

Now it's time to check on the next one

The Elephant in the Room

I went to say good by to a friend today. She is the sister I always wanted, and tells me I am the brother she never had. Very high praise indeed.

She is the person who, as far as I know, has never done a bad thing to anyone. I have known her for thirty years, and will miss her for as long as I live.

She moved away several years ago and I lost track. A time or two I would run into mutual friends who would give me up dates. Like most people I was so busy trying to live that I lost touch with the very best people I know.

One friend told me she had developed breast cancer and another told me she was in remission. I didn't even know where to start looking to find her.

Just past the end of my nose would have been a start, but I was so busy.

While Christmas shopping I ran into a mutual friend who knew what was going on, the lady told me that she has bone cancer, that has spread to her brain.

TLOML and I resolved that I should visit and be quick about it, for that chance once lost could not be recovered. I called a friend today to start tracking her down, and found she was visiting her old home near here. I made a call and as quick as I could drove to where she was.

I held the speed down to something under a hundred. There was no reason to hurry, but I wanted to have as much time with her as I could. Walking in was as hard as anything I have done in a long time.

Manly image and expectations be damned. I wanted to be strong for her, well, I blew that one out my whatever. After a litte while I calmed down enough to feel her acceptance of her fate. She was not bitter or afraid. I hope that when my time comes I can muster one tenth of the grace she wears like a crown.

We visited for about four hours and I held her hand the whole time. We talked and laughed about all our old friends and things we had done. We spent our time catching up on all the things I had missed.

We talked about everything except the elephant in the room.

When I finally had to say good bye, and it was a final farewell, for I know I will never see her in this life again, we gently touched the subject.

I kissed her forehead and her hand and told her that I loved her and would miss her forever.

An angel will soon leave us and the world will be a poorer place with out her.

Fallen Heroes

When I bought my bike last year I thought I might do something in opposition to the over publicized, protected speech of a group of religious nut jobs. I would be willing to test the righteousness of their claims with trial by combat, even though that is a little out of style.
I finally decided on the Patriot Guard. I signed up and never got a notification of a need in the area.

That all changed yesterday.

I am now a member of the Red Knights, who rode escort for an area firefighter who was killed in Iraq. We were told there was a very slight chance some of those nut jobs might show up to spread their hatred. No one wanted to miss that.

Luckily, none showed their ugly faces. I did get to see the out pouring of emotion by my entire community for a firefighter, by people who didn’t even know him.

It was said by one of the Patriot Guard Riders, “the fire service really knows how to send off one of their own.” Several of these men rode hundreds of miles to stand with us. We appreciated them very much.

The forecast was suitably gloomy to fit the occasion, a soft rain becoming a downpour occasionally. The local departments raised a forty foot American Flag between two tower trucks on the road in front of the church. A dozen pieces of apparatus joined the escort. Every branch of the military was amply represented. The officers and men of his unit made certain that one drop of rain would not touch the widow or her family. The flag line and honor guard stood uncomplaining, in the rain, for three hours, to do honor to our brother. The police made sure the procession was not delayed.

The local people stood by the road, in the rain, and held American Flags, to show their respect for a man they had never met. They stopped their cars and got out to wave tiny dash board flags, and hold their hands over their hearts.

The family was visibly moved by the honor done their loved one.

The graveside service, in our National Cemetery, included full military honors, the bagpipe corps, and the ringing of the bell for his “last call”.

Thank God for the rain, or a lot of tough guys would have tarnished their image.

Just when you think things can't get worse......

Then they get terrible.

My mother in law has dementia, to me one of the most cruel of malady's. Your loved one slips away a little at a time, until the shell that's left is an object of pity, that doesn't know you anymore. The love of my life has been adjusting to that reality for a year or so now, not easy but doable.

A week or so ago the motherinlaws vitals dropped almost out of sight, she was recovering in the ICU with some testing, when someone did a CT looking for a stroke, and found a tumor the size of a tennis ball in her frontal lobe.

With that news, we basically threw everything down and ran for home. I put TLOML on a plane in Portland, Oregon at 17:30 on the sixteenth and ran for home. 3200 miles, in four days.

The MIL is losing body functions at a rate slowed by steroids and cushioned by dilantin.

The Love of my life is now trying to prepare herself, no hope there, and is wound tighter than a spring. There is some doubt if the MIL will make into the new week.

Amazingly enough, she is awake all night and sleeps all day. She is hard to wake, but manages with some help. Today they woke her and dressed her and put her in a wheel chair, when I walked in the room she recognised me.

It absolutely broke my heart

It's the only time that I could hug her and kiss her face, previously she did not react well to affection from me. Sadly that was never a big problem.

We had all the youngest there for pictures, it wasn't planned, it just happened. The tiniest came all the way from Japan with her mother (of course).

The MIL looks better than a lot of the residents, but we know it's drugs and can't last.

TLOML has been to fun places like the Funeral home to make arrangements in advance of the event, probably a good idea. It seems to be a little unsettling though.

What do you do with this?

I guess we will muddle through, it's not like we have a choice.

If there is a plus side to this, it would be that it will be quicker than dementia and, in a sense, cleaner.

Sad, but that's the best you can make of it.

First ever award

I was grinding through my e-mail, because I've been away for a couple of months, and found that Brigid, of Mausers and Muffins fame has granted me an award.

The much coveted "Duck Tape" award.

I guess it's because I "fix" nuclear power plants, as well as everthing else that gets dropped in my lap.

I feel,,,,, different,,,,,special,,,,,

ducky!