4th of July

Summer. It is passing us by, but I have been doing the fun things. Yes, it's been interesting. Adriane, spoke about the family reunion on the Fourth of July. Lots of great people, interesting careers, lifestyles, children and good food for all. It was just part of the day though, we did a family burial of my uncle in the morning and a wedding reception in the late afternoon. I take about the burial first. I know it sounds kinda different, but we have done it before. We have two family pastors, so we are able to this in house so to speak. It personal family time. Time with brothers, cousins, aunts, and my uncle and then we all go to the family reunion soon afterward...

After the food at the reunion and some great fellowship we took off for the wedding reception. I wouldn't disagree with you if you thought it was too much for one day, but we went anyway. It was for my best friends daughter, who had a previous civil ceremony before the birth of their son and was now was having a real wedding a year later. Lots of people having a good time, more food, just what we needed and our friends. Nothing against the reunion, but we have been for 15 straight years and this wedding was once in a lifetime. It was a no brainer. I will tell you though, it was a long mental day with a variety of emotions for sure. I was just drained.... Once again I went back to work to rest up from my day off. Not really, but mentally yes. Stick around and we'll talk about some more July events

Helmets?

Well, it happened again. Two evenings ago the fire department rescue went to a four wheeler accident in the wood with an unconscious male. We get there and the guy is a fire department member and he is laying in a ditch just moaning with blood all over his head. His son and a friend had been involved too. He had been thrown off the four wheeler, his passenger had landed on him, of course neither had helmets on.... We covered the hole in his head and loaded hi into the helicopter for a ride to the hospital. It was really kind of weird, I putting someone else in that bird..
It would still be nice to ride in one someday remember though, alert, upright and sitting in a seat.
Ended up a bunch of staples patching up his head, a few stitches got put in his hand and arms. He's real stiff too, but in a few days I think he will be out of the hospital. He's alive though,which is a great thing. Your always hearing about graduating seniors getting hurt or worse yet killed in car accidents. These two boys are good kids that I think just got a eye opening experience. I know that no one could have told them to be careful in stuff and it would have sunk in. This experience got their attention.
I heard, that when his wife got into the to the hospital room with him and the doctor and she read him the riot act. The helmet issue, the injuring their sons friend, the hospital, all of it. I heard the doctor was just speechless. It's kinda humorous I guess, but she was just dealing with the situation in her way, I guess. Remember my goal for 2008? Don't hit my head again... It seems like a good goal to me.

Community

Community is a great thing. Today we went to a benefit for a town resident that has cancer. It was a time to feel good about the town that we live in and the people that we surround ourselves with daily. I believe that there was over 600 people there for a chicken dinner, raffles, music and fellowship with their neighbors. He has four daughters who have husbands and there is some grandchildren involved too. The whole family had team Gerry tee shirts on, which was cool because you could tell who was related. Everything was run by the family, except the bar tending, the music and the food preparation. The fire department cooked all the chicken, another good bonding experience too. I was thinking, about it while I was eating my chicken, it has got to be overwhelming gratitude toward all the people there. Your family, the people helping out and the people partaking in the food, music and fun. I know for me, some of these people were there for me and I appreciate that and I needed to be there for them today. I helped cook the chicken in the am, we paid to eat and then we helped serve food to everyone else. Of course, no one knows God's plan for Gerry, but still today's events were a real feel good time for all.

Memories

Life has day's that are good for different reasons. You don't always know how you are going to deal mentally with the challenging moments either. Today we had a memorial service for my uncle and I didn't know how it would be for all of us dealing with the situation. From the get go I made sure to keep perspective on the age of my uncle, (86) and that he had lived a great and fulfilling life. There were cousins, an uncle, nieces and nephew's, lots of friends and neighbors of my uncle, all celebrating his life. Throughout the whole service I drew strength from being in the company of my wife, children and our extended family. Our family had always sat in the same place in the church and today was no exception. I had a proud moment when my two older sons and their girl friends joined us. It was cool to have a pew full... The whole thing was SPECIAL, the singing, the music, and the reflections of their time spent with my uncle. I thought about my parents through the whole thing. How would they have felt about the service and what they might have presented too. I felt great about the whole thing. All the siblings that had preceded I am sure were standing with Bernard today too. So many people asked how I was doing. My normal response is "I am happy to be here and I'm doing great"and I truly believe it.
It's going to be a intense weekend for sure. This memorial service and the reception following on Saturday and on Sunday we are going to a benefit for another town resident who has cancer. I wrote about the "pie lady" before, its her father. (See late last year) Stay tuned and I'll tell you how it went.

hospital part2

We were talking about my uncle, who's now in the hospital. We went there later that day for support. Maybe there's support/strength in numbers, I think there was 8 people sitting around waiting for report of the progress of the clot removal. There was an obstruction in the carotid artery, so they couldn't get to the one in the brain. I told you before that I am comfortable in that hospital for some reason. Even if the situation is not great, for some reason it's been a good place for me. Another day later, I stopped by again in the ICU and I think I almost needed a number to get in the room, I was person 11. He's still under sedation with some brain swelling and a little temp. Nobody knows what the future will bring and we are keeping all of the parties involved in our prayers.... I think it has been a little comforting for all my cousins to see me there when most of them visited me when I was laying in that bed not knowing they were there. It's been good for me just to see what the situation, the room, and the people must have looked like. It's almost deja vu and I'm sitting there watching what's going on. I feel I have it together for now, but life throws some stuff at you for sure.

Rescue

I don't know how to address the web, but maybe "the world" might be good. Yesterday morning, a fire department experience again became part of my life experiences again. The pager went off again and listening to the address, we were on our way to my uncle and aunt's house. We get there, the front door is wide open, a neighbor is in the house and I find my uncle on the floor in the bedroom breathing but not moving or talking. The neighbor said she wasn't ever so happy to see someone. Other firemen began rolling in each doing his or her thing, more or less the same procedure we've done many times before, but this time it was my uncle... You still need to do what you are trained to do whether or not you know the person or not. We moved him to the backboard, he indicated he wasn't comfortable there and we moved him up to a chair. He was still not talking and it was beginning to look like a stroke... The ambulance crew arrived, did their thing, and suggested they go to a city hospital, then rolled out. We did everything we can and or know how to do, but to many times you think is it enough? Realistically I think he made it to the hospital in an hour and a half, not bad for a group of trained volunteers with a hospital thirty miles away. I talk about the hospital experience tomorrow.

The fence

The tree saga continues.... We had a great idea after the county got rid of the trees in front of our house to put up a fence. We hired a tree service to grind the stumps again seemed like a good idea. It looked like he did a good job when he took them down a foot more than the diameter of the stump. Well then we cleaned up the mess and took a tractor mounted rototiller to the whole area to smooth out our lawn. Well now you couldn't see where exactly the trees had been which presented a problem. We started digging a hole for the first fence and what do you know a root... Well I cleaned it up alittle then took a chainsaw to the root in the ground. I didn't now what else to do. The root ended up being about 8-10 inches around after I cut a hunk out of it. That took a couple of hours for one hole, too long and I was tired. The next day we did a couple three more, then the next problem presented itself. In the fifth hole about a foot down we ran into a piece of concrete on the road side of stumps. Were did that come from??? My brothers have an air compressor and a jack hammer, so we broke that up. It looked like a curb that was about two feet down from the road level. It had to have been there more than 50 years. I didn't want to believe it then we moved on to the last hole. And you guessed it about a foot down under the dirt concrete again. It was beginning to get old you know. Jack hammer again and some small pieces of root and we got the last one done. Three days to put up a rail fence the length of our house, a good thing I wasn't getting paid by the hole. Well I will still win over the tree that got me next winter when the pieces of wood from it heat our house. The new fence did make a nice mother's day present..