Every cloud

I spent an hour before sunrise this morning writing a post. I intended to tangentially mention our local Farmers' Day celebration which occurred on the day after my last post. I started to 'splain the history of the event and to touch on some of the differences between the 1922 (first) edition and the 2018 version.

Before I knew it, and without half trying, I spewed forth a dozen fat paragraphs dripping with sarcasm and negativity. Where the heck did that come from? My basic theme appears to have been that the olden days were golden days and these modern times are worthless and completely filled with suckage. Again, where did that come from? Sheesh!

The experience left me feeling all mean and grumpy, despite the fact that it was a beautiful morning -- warm and sunny and calm -- following hard on the heels of our first winter storm and cold snap which was chilly (8 degrees) and snowy and blustery. This morning was the kind of morning you want to cherish, but I'd twisted myself into a seething mess.

Fortunately, there's an app for that. I went out and exercised, and though it was a struggle at first, the beauty of the day and the efforts of my not-yet-dead body eventually worked their magic. I did five miles -- including running (for certain values of running) 100 flights of underpass/viaduct stairs, in just under an hour.



The combination blew most of the yuck out of my system and reminded me just how fortunate and blessed I am.

Why does this strike my funny bone?

As I was running steps I got a text from my Dad, saying that as long as I was wasting time exercising I might as well pick up a Kimball newspaper for him.

As you may recall, Dad is battling liver disease and doesn't exactly have a happy prognosis or an easy path forward. But he can still crack a good joke and take the piss out of young whipersnappers and their silly exercise rituals. That's a very good thing indeed.

The day after Farmers' Day, things weren't looking so good for him. On Sunday morning, September 30, he took a tumble down the basement stairs. How he survived that fall has us all scratching our heads. It was a severe shock to his disease-weakened body. Lots of scrapes and bruising, though thankfully no broken bones. Nevertheless it put him in a hospital bed overnight and recovering from that fall has been a trial and a challenge. But he's doing it. Seem's he's tougher and stronger than any of us -- including the doctors -- believed. He's still very sick, but his future may not be quite as dark as predicted or feared.

In the ER

Skin tears

Hospital coffee

From the top

To the bottom

It's been a very busy time since September 30, a very hard time, but also a very good time.