Life and times of a father in America

My father died when I was 10 years old. A few years later my mother remarried Terry Morton. Through many highs and lows in our life we were bitter rivals and eventually friends. We have visited Disneyland and Las Vegas. Together we sang in the church choir, and as a family we traveled and shared our testimony in song at many churches. You can read in my last post a little more, but recently Dad had both his hips replaced. The first one took 2 years to heal due to complications. The second was doing great when he was rushed to the hospital after a fall. Unrelated to the fall he stopped breathing, and shortly after that his heart stopped. Sunday he was declared dead, and this Sunday we are having the memorial service. He had an infection that was unknown that basically poisoned him. He would have died even if he hadn't had fallen. Now my mother is facing the reality that she will probably lose the house. Without Dad's disability she doesn't have enought to pay the m...

Personal update: For those that don't know it, my step-father has been going through an ordeal recently. Over the years he has been a national champion diver, played professional football, been in the Navy, and worked as a fireman. Among the physical problems that have manifested themselves, an x-ray found a broken neck that had healed incorrectly (a broken neck that was never diagnosed or treated), knee surgery, back surgery, and both hips have been replaced. While trim and fit in his youth, he has been well into the obese category for years. Standard lifetime of a hip replacement is 10-15 years, with increased wear and tear with increased weight. One hip has already been replaced twice, the other only once, and now they are both going bad again. The first hip replacement began a little over a year ago, and resulted in problem after problem. I don't remember everything in the correct order but: Staff infection, stabbed in the hip with a dirty needle, kidneys shut down ca...

September 21, 1996 I married Harmony Dawn Walker. That means that yesterday we celebrated our 13th Anniversary. I would love to sit here and brag about surpassing the national average of years married before a divorce. I would to expound on how 13 as a traditionally unlucky number is a significant number to survive. But lets face it, we are not of this world. Our standards for marriage are established by God and listed in the Bible. 13 years is no big deal to remain married, divorce is simply not an option. 13 is a number given to us by the dominions of hell to be afraid of. Any little foothold given to them leads to trouble. I for a foot in for a mile with satan. Happy Anniversary Harmony. I love you, and thank you for always being there and taking care of the kids. Thank you for stepping up and seeking a job. Tonight is your first night on the job, and right now you are training. I am home with the kids and remembering all the wonderful years together. I remember our wed...

I sit and read the Texan Adventure and listen to Noelle try to convince herself that 90 is an acceptable temperature. Yesterday we packed the kids up, I was expecting a warm 80 degrees, and headed to the beach. It was breaking 70 when we left the house. All 4 of us were in t-shirts and shorts. 2 hours of driving, and we hit an overcast Washington coast. The van told us it was 61 degrees. OK, we lost the shorts, and put on pants, but 61 is still warm enough to run around, play in the sand, look for pretty rocks and shells. Evie could not get enough of the water. She just loved how the tide going back out made her dizzy. Sam wasn't into the wet as much, but loved finding shells everywhere. Evie napped for the 2 hour trip back home, where it was back up at 72. Overall a great family outing, and we found a beach we really like.

Noon - I went to lunch as usual. Enjoyed some spaghetti leftovers and an apple. Continued to read my book. 12:30 - the light show began. A little spot of brite light in the middle of my left eye that slowely expands until it becomes a ring of light. Eventually it expands beyond my periphial vision, but that can take a full hour by which time.... Nausea kicks in, leading to tension in the neck and shoulders. And last, but definately not least, the throbbing migraine headache follows, making sure I am as miserable as can be while trying to survive the second half of the day.

Wednesday after work I made my way home, helped Harmony finish loading the van, and hit the road. We arrived in Hillsboro between close to 8 PM, and soon after attempted to put the kids to bed. Thursday morning we woke at around 6 AM, and after breakfast hit the road heading over to Chuck and Shari's house to hook up with Jacob and Talia. A little before 8 we all hit the road. After pretty much 8 hours straight of driving, enjoying sandwiches on the road, we arrived in Sagle , ID. The story goes that the people of Sagle wanted to name their town Eagle, but Eagle, ID already existed. Thursday night, we took about 4 hours packing and organizing the house before collapsing in bed. Friday morning we woke up and headed into town for breakfast and to collect the truck. Jacob and Talia chose to use Budget rentals to save a little money. Technically a commercial truck, a higher bed in back, just not as clean as a U-Haul, and the customer service was lacking a little. But a large...