A Large Gap In Time...

I apologize for the gap in time. It's a long story with gory details. I've been in and out of the hospital, suffered through 3 major operations and have been trying to recvover ever since. Today, I sent out this massive e-mail and then thought, "Why didn't I just blog it?" So, here it is. I will try to stay more current, now that I have a bit more energy and am recovering...

What has been an otherwise bland, mixed review kind of a day, ended up with a couple of uplifting, mood altering events of sorts...

To begin, I received a telephone call from a friend and former scuba diving partner (I was going to say "old" scuba diving partner, but Tony is younger than I am!!). Tony and I go way back, actually to the insurance office days. Early on, we discovered a mutual interest, scuba diving. Before we knew it, we were spending weekends traveling around the Midwest together hitting every dive spot we could find. We made a few trips to Bull Shoals Arkansas, Blue Eye Missouri. Although we could swap stories, we never made it together to any of the more attractive, clear water locations; the Bahamas', Cozumel.

Tony was one of the few, that I was ever comfortable with as a dive partner. We seemed to have this uncanny ability to communicate under water that I hadn't experienced with many other divers. Eventually, I was even invited to assist Tony with his weekend Scuba classes, where he acted as an instructor at both at the YMCA and College of St. Mary. The experience gave me the opportunity to socialize with new people, get the gear wet in the middle of winter, and keep some of the skills honed...

As is the case with so many relationships, time and other responsibilities overshadowed the extracurricular scuba outings, and after four or five summers, our outings faded away. We managed to kept in touch from time to time; the ocasional telephone call, Christmas and birthday cards. A shared lunch in the middle of town. But even those get together's slowly faded away.

Anyway, Tony said he was in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by just to visit. It was great seeing him, as we agreed it had been a couple of years since our last reunion. Instead of just a "...stop in and say hello visit, Tony stayed for two and a half hours as we did our catching up... So what started out as another solitary confinement kind of day, ended up with several hours of welcome company and a friendly face.

I was set to watch the game of the North Carolina/LSU College World Series being held here in town, when the skies opened up and we became inundated with a real downpour. Lightning, wind, the whole bit. Like many other parts of the Midwest, it's not as if we need the rain, but it's here. So, instead of watching the game, I figured to spend some time at the computer.

I know I've told everyone about my friend Amanda. Just in case though, she the artist http://www.amandakoh.com who now lives in Washington State. Anyway, when I first advertised the three pieces of art I had for sale, Amanda must have forwarded the ad to everyone she knew. In turn, it got passed along to others. I was contacted by a man named John, who eventually bought "Cougar In the Snow". John, after visiting my web site, sent me the web site of another friend of his saying that Rita and I shared an interest in rusty old automobiles. With nothing but time, I spent quite a bit of time on her web site/blog and eventually wrote her a letter about our shared interest. In the return mail, Rita sent a photograph of an old red pick-up she'd taken. With her permission, I downloaded the picture and commenced to playing with it. A few days later, I returned the now altered photograph via e-mail. This afternoon, I received this, in my e-mail: http://oldcars.wordpress.com . I hope that you spend a little more time in her blog than just the article about me, and perhaps even visit some of the links she has on her site. All of her articles are well written and will hold your attention. Once I started, I spent I don't know how many hours browsing around. but then, I'm into "twisted metal" (as Rita appropriately calls it).

I don't know. I was just excited and re-energized after reading everything she'd written. Oh, and be sure to click on the "before and after" pictures in her article.

So, I apologize for the length of the letter, but it ended up being a pleasant day for me. One I've needed for awhile. Since there's no baseball tonight, I figured I'd catch up!