Yesterday was Monday, June 19, 2012 - day 26,145. We attended another funeral yesterday, the second one in five days. The funeral was for LaVern Rickels, the other grandfather of our two grandchildren, Wesley Rickels and Ellyn Rickels Wilkerson. Lavern's son Dean was married to our daughter Carron, from 1987 to 1995. They produced two chidren in those seven years named Wesley and Ellyn. LaVern was a lifelong farmer in Jones County, Iowa. He loved farming and that is all he did his whole life. LaVern had a stroke a year ago and was on life support all that time being fed through a tude into his stomach. He never swallowed a bite of food in a year. LaVern was 87 years old - he died the same day (June 14, 2012) my brother Chuck was buried. One story worth telling is the night of the rehearsal dinner for Dean and Carron on May 1, 1987. The dinner was held in the basement at their farm house, about three miles from Anamosa. When my minister brother Paul arrived at the farm house he and his wife Nellie stepped out of their car and Nellie said, "What is that smell?" I told her it was the smell of money. She looked at me with a confused look on her face and I said, "LaVern and Marion raise hogs and that smell is from hog manure, and they make money when they sell those hogs." She accepted that and didn't say anything more about the smell, she understood what I was saying.
Grandson Wesley, who is in the Air Force in New Jersey, drove all the way to Anamosa for the funeral He was one of the pall bearers. Granddaughter Ellyn couldn't make it as she is in Wyoming on an Iowa State internship assisting a grad student from Iowa State - they are looking for shale oil in the mountains of Wyoming. Ellyn is assisting her and next yeart she will be doing what the grad lady is doing this year.
LaVern was a good man. He was the epitome of a hardworking Iowa farmer. He was content in life to do what he loved and never complained or put other people down. After Carron and Dean divorced in 1995 we remained friends with LaVern and Marion. I'm going to miss LaVern.
Today is Tuesday, June 20, 2012 - another day of heat and humidity. And I'm grateful that I'm still HIV positive.
This morning I did yoga, lifted weights and walked 45 minutes = 2.5 miles for a June total of 31.6 miles. My weight shot up to 163,8 miles - I've been going to too many funerals and eating more than I normally do.
Today we are packing our suitcases - we are heading to Denmark tomorrow to attend granddaughter Alexandra's high school graduation. In Denmark they call their high schools "gymnasiums." We are staying until July 9th. On the flight over we go Cedar Rapids to Chicago, Chicago to London Heathrow, and then to Copenhagen. On the flight home we go Copenhagen to Helsinki, Helsinki to Chicago and then to Cedar Rapids. Ruth Ann and I aren't in love with 8-9 hour flights because our butts start to ache after a couple of hours and we both have a hard time sleeping on an airplane. It is hard to sleep when your butt is hurting and it is quite inconvenient to walk on a plane.. So Pete and Ruth Ann will just have to "suck-it-up." It will be fun over there - the Danes really know how to party.
I hate to see what my weight will be when we return.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment