Special Phone Call...and look at Ryan's Rose now

Got a special phone call this morning from an old friend, a Marine veteran who knew my father. Old memories came spilling out, sweet memories, childhood memories...love has to be a function of quantum particles because we felt it from halfway around the world.

I realized I had not yet posted the final picture of the completely open first bloom from Ryan's Rose. Here's the brief story of Ryan's Rose, and here is Ryan's Desert Peace:

Semper fi

Giving the Old Man a proper send off...no new blogs for a little while

On board ship, the captain is affectionately called the Old Man. Yesterday, we gave the Old Man a right proper send off, quiet and conservative, just like he was.

I'm sitting here in late afternoon shadowed silence surrounded by the fragrance of lilies. We gathered some yesterday from the family spray on the coffin before it was interred. White lilies, the entire spray was white lilies.

There were around 300 people all totaled who came to the viewing by my estimate, 400 by libchik's estimate (the viewing was one hour before the funeral itself). By the time the Reading of the Names began, there were still about 225 people seated in the chapel by the estimate of the funeral director. I know of some of my extremely elderly relatives plus a number of working friends who had to leave and couldn't or didn't stay for the funeral itself. There were probably some 75 or 100 people or so at the graveside funeral service portion. I wasn't where I could get a good look.

My cousin the televangelist gave the funeral sermon when we got to the grave site. His message was inspired. The scripture he based his message on is commonly used at funerals:

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from
the body, and to be present with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:8

He was working hard not to cry.

Libchik drove my mother, aikichik and me at the head of the funeral procession. My younguns are strong, brave girls. They loved my daddy and he loved them.

When Daddy died last Friday, Mom and the hospice nurse were at his side, I was at his feet, and my girls were behind us. He was in absolutely no pain. He was in breathing distress and was on oxygen, but over and over and over Mom and the nurse asked him if he was hurting, if he had any pain because they were ready to give him his pain meds and repeatedly he told them no, he wasn't hurting at all. Several weeks ago when his pain stopped, it never really came back. He took some of the pain meds for a day or two but quit because he wasn't really in pain. What a blessing for a man as desperately eaten up with cancer as he was.

He was lucid and awake until right at the end. He just breathed his last and expired.

May God grant us all such a peaceful death.

No new blogs for a little while. Not sure how long it'll take us to get back on our feet. Aikichik just brought in yet more flowers that my next door neighbor carried over. It may take a week or more, may only take a couple of days.

Your prayers and good thoughts have held us up these months that we could barely stand. We know how much you did for Daddy because we could see it with our eyes. I felt your arms around me many times. Thank you, more than I can say, thank you.

I love you all so, so much.

Grandpa Rudy Died

Hi Everyone,

I promise this will be short. We wanted to let ya'll know that my grandpa died this morning. He had been battling prostate cancer for 18 years. He had as peaceful a death as anyone could ask for. He wasn't in any pain.

The funeral will be Monday, May 19th, at 2pm atTuscaloosa Memorial Park.

Obviously, it may be a few days before we post anything else. Thank ya'll for all of your thoughts and prayers. They mean more to my family and me than words can express.

Tranquility to Your Female Parental-type Unit

Hi everyone,

My name is Libchik. I’ll be filling in for mom for a while. She went yesterday and had her first round of vestibular therapy at the Lakeshore Clinic. I must say, she seems in better spirits than I’ve seen her in quite awhile despite what she went through yesterday.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I guess I should better introduce myself. I’m the Elder Assistant Offspring. I’m 21 (woo-hoo) and am currently a Junior at UAB. I’m studying History and International studies in order to become a librarian. I’d absolutely love to be the director of a library. I currently work in one and daily see the few things that I personally think could and should be changed in order to make things run more smoothly.

We are currently working to tag all of our media collection (DVDs and CDs) with RFID tags (which stands for Radio Frequency ID). It really is a pain to convert them all. We stay late, after closing, on Sundays in order to tag a certain portion of the collection. Then, when the Circulation Department checks media items in, they have to check each item to see whether or not it has a little silver dot on the back. If it does, then it has already been tagged and is ready to go out on the shelves. If it doesn’t have a dot, then it has to go into a plastic bin where it waits until someone in the fiction department comes and puts the tag on them.

Once the tag has been put on, we use a silver sharpie to put the dots on the back of the program notes or art covers and then have to encode the tag with the barcode of the item. Supposedly this process will help cut down theft and make it much faster and easier to check the media items in. No offense to my fellow librarians, or anyone who worked/s in Circulation, but they don’t really need to speed up the process. Despite the amount of griping I do, I really do love my job. I’m just not crazy about some of the people I work with.

In my infinite spare time (ha ha) I read mostly and listen to a lot of music. I’m one of those people who are passionate about music without actually taking part in it. Sure I sing along with my iPod but I don’t do much more than that. I love all kinds of music but I mostly listen to rock and alternative. My friend has an interesting theory about music. He thinks that the best way to tell whether or not a CD is really worth owning is by listening to track four on that CD. If that track is good then, according to his theory, the entire CD will be good; however, I have not tried out this theory so I don’t know how valid it may be. Nevertheless, it’s interesting.

As I said earlier, I love to read, which I guess is a good thing because I work in a library!! I’m currently reading The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephan R. Donaldson. This is the third time I’ve read this, I think. It’s freaking awesome! It’s one of the very few science fiction books that I actually enjoy. Most of them are just too far out there for me, but this one is written well enough so that even though its not so believable it’s still appealing.

I think that’s all I’ve got for now. If you’re still here, thanks. I’ve never done a blog before so I’m kinda concerned about the readability of it. But I promise to keep trying!!

Peace!

Honeysuckle, Family Dynamics and New Blog in the Works

The yard is a waterfall of honeysuckle. The smell is everywhere. When I close my eyes and breathe, it comes into me like a waterfall too. It's all over the place. Couldn't get a representative pic of it try as I might. There is a representative pic of me at the end of this article though. XD

Here it is--our first Desert Peace rose of the season. Sorry about the blur--still taking pics with my cell phone. Many of you know the story of Ryan's Rose. We planted this in honor of one of Elder Assistant Offspring's best friends who was KIA in Iraq April 15, 2006. Pvt Ryan Winslow USMC had been there three weeks when his vehicle hit an IED. The Desert Peace variety of rose was developed after the first Gulf War.

Been dealing with some family dynamics for the last week. Never fun but always necessary. Better to get them solved if possible. As you all know, stress is a trigger for all my things that need attention. Libchik (Elder Assistant Offspring who has helped me deal with all this along with Younger Assistant Offspring aikichik) told me yesterday I looked completely shot. I'm worn to a frazzle and need to rest, love my girls, and gather energy.

I've got a new column in the works about migraines and healing with crystals. I hope to secure a personal interview and permission to reprint a section from a great book to make this column a useful one for us migraineurs who are ready to reduce what we swallow and instead, put more things on our skin for our health [ha! already snitched something from this great book! :)] I hope to have this column posted on or before Friday 5/23.

Look for posts from libchik and aikichik in the meantime.

Love you all.

How do You Do It? Diana Lee's Migraine Blog Carnival!

Can you exercise during a migraine? I can't! XD Well, there is a certain exertional activity I can engage in but I'm not at liberty to so indulge and it doesn't really count as aerobic anyway, sadly.

Diana Lee conducts the Migraine Blog Carnival each month, covering important topics for migraineurs and those around them. "Migraines & Exercise: How do you remain active" is the topic for May. Entries are due this Friday, May 9th.

The April Carnival will be posted next Monday May 12th at Atomic City.

Here are Diana's own words from her blog Somebody Heal Me (link also left):

"If you're unfamiliar with the concept of a blog carnival and would like to learn more, visit this link: Blog Carnival. You can get more information about the carnival at this link: Headache & Migraine Blog Carnival."

Form for submission is on Diana's site or you can email her directly.

Exercise and migraine! Gads.... hmmm...

The Collegiate Church of St. Matthew or New Offering to the Green Man

Today is the first day of the rest of your life,
Start it right with Total!

Old TV commercial for Total breakfast cereal. It’s true though.

I’m settling into my new life. My brain is slowly processing my old life. I had a dream that I was tricked into going back to work for Uncle Sam. I had a dream that I was completely well.

In my waking hours, I read. I keep an ear out for my father. I talk to my Assistant Offspring. This time of year I watch the weather. We’re getting ready for Younger Assistant Offspring’s high school graduation.

One thing I rarely do any time of year is write poetry. You’ll see why in a minute. This morning I did something unusual besides write odd poetry, something I haven’t done in many years: I let the rain of a thunderstorm fall on me. With rain in my hair I sat on my porch, my breath frosting from the chill of the thunderstorm downdraft, and wrote a poem.

The Green Man is a symbol of renaissance and rebirth. Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, most correctly called the Collegiate Church of St. Matthew, contains more than 110 carvings of the Green Man. It has for many years been a dream of mine to visit the crumbling Rosslyn Chapel to count the Green Men carvings.

In three months, the small mountain on which I live will be dry and dusty and brown. Due to all the turmoil in the world, I may never achieve my dream of visiting Rosslyn Chapel and counting all the Green Men carvings.

But until then I dream of Green Man, and of falling rain, here in the reborn Spring of the year and my new life.

Green Man #1

The temperature went down, just one degree,
And up went the dewpoint just one degree.
I could no longer see.

Gently float the leaves down and they touch me,
Wet leaves, green leaves, on my naked skin please let me breathe now..

“Breathe now...

breathe now...”

His mind sets mine on fire and I desire.

His finger holds the burning of the sun,
Where only just of late he’s touched my glistening.
The Green Man lifts me up, strikes me with lightning,
And as I fall to earth, I do so fighting.

Everything is lovely green in rain,
Glints and glimmers, glistening green, in rain.
Come rain, come rain, come rain.