2000-10-14 - 19:42 MDT

October 14, 2000

Loose Ends

A day of errands, we went down and made our reservations to fly to Eugene, Oregon to spend Christmas with our daughter and her family, took a pleasant exercise walk in the park, made a stop at the Family Dollar store - mostly for paper goods which are usually cheaper there, had a nice lunch out, made a few other stops too -- backtracking to cover the stops we had forgotten.

Our last stop was at the Sooper Market near us for me to really splurge and buy a Lotto ticket covering ten plays -- same numbers -- ten bucks -- about a month's worth. Wow -- what a big spender ! High roller, already.

While there I ran into my cousin who lives not far from us. I had tried unsuccessfully to find his condo some time ago, because stupid here, the one in my body -- was looking on the wrong side of the street. Consequently, he led us there and we visited him for a short time. Not wanting to impose by staying too long. Soon though we will call him and go by for a nice one.

He is six months older than I am and in about the same shape I am in, but for different reasons. He unfortunately is carrying a portable oxygen tank with him and becomes exhausted and out of breath quicker than I do.

He has one sister here in town and two who live out of state, the one in town is the youngest of the four and the two out of state are the oldest. The oldest recently had a stroke but is making a good recovery and just moved in with a daughter -- which makes the family feel better, she is eighty-three or more now and gets around on an electric scooter.

Now is the time of life for us to draw closer to each other. Jeepers we all have outlived most of the people we knew in our childhood. When there is a gathering, about fifty million pictures are passed around. Great fun to get them all sorted out at the end of the visit.

A year or so ago we attended the eightieth birthday party of his sister who is just a bit older than him. She is the one I was in love with, puppy love struck, worshipped silently from afar, with the knowlege that cousins in our family don't marry each other -- besides I was no competition as her suitors had me beat all ways. She had a wonderful marriage, raised some great kids and has been a widow now for quite some time. The oldest cousin has been a widow for a great span of time.

Here now Bastion, quit swinging from the branches of the family tree -- put the bananas down -- everyone knows you are a throwback from way before when, so quit dragging your knuckles on the ground and pay attention.

Today has been a good day, accomplished a little bit, had a nice visit and got supremely tired. So, in parting Bastion has to tuck in all the loose ends.

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