On A Personal Note..

This past weekend was a good one for me. I attended my Half Sister's wedding and reception on Saturday afternoon and evening. The happy couple (Donald and Erica) will have a wonderful honeymoon in Paris. I had lots of fun catching up with family members that I had not seen in as much as 30 years! Had a few drinks, and even danced a little bit too! But not too much, living with heart failure can really be a bummer sometimes. I had a lot of fun regardless.

It was good also to visit with my Dad a little bit. He had a really good time at the reception, we will eventually download the video from youtube and post it here!

I also got to visit with my Mother at her house. I had not been there in almost two years. It was a very nice visit. (she even remembered to not smoke in the house while I was there!) I do wish that she could kick that habit. I am sure that she will soon because she is retiring this year. She only is going to go back for 28 days when school starts and then she is done. 29 years after she started, and a Masters degree plus 16 credits later, she is retiring with a very good pension for a teacher. She told me that she will receive only $200 less per month than she now gets for working! That is pretty darn good if you ask me. She is truly the last of a dying breed; hard workers that earned a defined benefit from a government entity.

However, the very best part of the weekend for me personally was that I got to catch up with my best friend Scott, whom I had not seen in over three years. We went out for a bite to eat for lunch on Sunday at Arthur Treachers. I got out of the car and walked over to the door of his pickup truck as he got out and I reached out to shake his hand and he grabbed my shoulder with his left hand and pulled me close for a hug. I responded in kind immediately, and we started talking about everything as if it were just yesterday when we last got together.

Like two chatty Kathy's we went on for about a two hour piece of time as we polished off our lunches together. We talked about how the economy and the landlord for his business were forcing him to close the doors for good after 18 years. It was just him and I that started it back then. I was his second employee, the first besides him. He looked good, but told me that he was stressed and burdened by the overwhelming struggle to keep the doors open at his shop. He has determined that he will be out of the building for good within 3 weeks.

But as one door shuts, another one invariably opens within view. He has good ideas all the time, and he is seeking out patents for some of them. That will help produce royalty income for him as he transitions into different income producing ventures.

I was glad to hear all of that especially since he hasn't been sleeping well or eating right of late. He is already handicapped by physical disabilities with plates in his head and rods and screws in his lower back, and a buggered up right knee (he was beaten severely and left for dead by five gang members five years ago this month). The cartilage of his right knee was destroyed and the entire meniscus had to be removed. So that knee is bone on bone and is a constant source of pain to him. Still he refuses to take anything stronger than over the counter Alieve for pain because he does not want to become dependent upon or addicted to pain pills, in addition to having drug allergies. So, like me on the dance floor, we both have to pace ourselves for the long haul of getting through each day.

He showed me pictures on his blackberry of all his MRI's and Xrays of all the hardware that he has in his body. I told him that when I got off the phone with his wife Tracy, the day that she told me what happened to him, I just cried for a while, and then I prayed for them. For him, his wife and their two girls I prayed every day till he returned home from the hospital. He thanked me for the sentiment. I just could not imagine loosing a loving husband, a doting father and a best friend in that way.

It was a very good visit. I will not wait so long before going to see him again. And he would like to come and visit us here in Michigan soon as well. It just does so much good for the soul to really connect with a good (especially a "best") friend every so often. Life only gives you a handful of them if you are lucky so they are very precious indeed! May God continue to bless you and your family until our next visit Scott.

Love, David.