"That's Gotta Hurt."

What hurts, Mike?

Well, calm down and I will tell you. My beloved grandpa, all 87+ years of him, was involved in a bit of a fender bender last week and had to be air-lifted to the hospital! He was in the ICU for a couple of days but eventually was stabilized and moved to his own room. We went and visited him Sunday and boy, it wasn't pretty. He had wires connected to him and was kind of bandaged up. Plus, he didn't look like he was having the best time. Then again, who would, right? He kept his spirits up though. I thought it was just going to be the four of us and my sister. Then my aunt showed up. Then my uncle and my grandma showed up! Kind of a family reunion of sorts. But it was a real nice time all things considered. Zach and Emmy were really good. They looked out the window since we were on the 6th floor and looked for "banana cars" which is their new word for yellow cars. I don't have a lot of memories of Grandpa that are really specific to just me, which is kind of a shame. He was never one to share his feelings much, which I guess was the style back then. There was one day, though.

It was in May 2007, and I had a day off because I had to work that Saturday. Since I was kind of in his neighborhood, I decided to stop by and visit. Now, bear in mind, it seems like every time I tried to pay an unexpected visit, no one was home. There were like three or four visits in a row where I would leave a note and go back home. But, being the eternal optimist that I am, I kept going back and trying. Well this time, his car was actually there! Grandma was visiting her family in Venezuela so I knew she wouldn't be there. So I go and knock on the door…no answer. I knock again…no answer. The feelings of dejection start to creep back in again. Then, I see him come out of his garage and go to the mailbox. So I'm standing there, waiting, watching him go through the mail. About seven minutes pass, as now he is looking at the new phone book he got. Then, miraculously, he glances over and sees my car, then starts looking around. I'm just standing over there watching him look for me, and started laughing. Then he hears me THEN he finally sees me. We talked about different things and I learned some things about his life that I had no idea about. Nothing bad, mind you. Maybe I'll share it someday.

It rained HARD last weekend! It started Friday and did not end until Monday! I know we had to have set some kind of record. I always feel bad for the people who own homes along some kind of creek or riverbank because their backyard ends up crumbling and washing away. There is this one woman whose house always shows up on the news because her backyard ends up sinking a lot during these rainfests. She has this black iron fence that on sturdier ground would be very tough to get past but the ground collapsing literally has pulled the fence and it looks like a bunch of toothpicks connected by a string. The city did end up building a retaining wall along that creek so hopefully nothing bad happened this time. But it sure isn't fun being at the mercy of Mother Nature.

We could see rivers coming from people's yards PLUS it rained more on Wednesday! Hopefully this isn't God's way of cleansing the earth just like he did with that Noah fella.