Friday 4-2-10

It's Good Friday and many of us are not having to work today, or the young ones don't have school. I always remember this time as exciting because it meant two more days and all the Easter candy you can find. However, I also remember the deal with the rain etc. from twelve noon until three. The time that Christ suffered and finally died on the cross. We were to spend some time reflecting on that during those three hours. As a kid, maybe 12 years old or so, I was old enough to see why we were to do that, but not sure how the hell God was able to control the weather all over the world so it was rainy during that time. I can still remember the Good Friday when it was just beautiful the entire day. It was that year that I realized that the important thing about the day was not the weather, but that we were to reflect on what happen that day and how it now effects our lives today.

After I wrote my blog. yesterday, I started to reflect on who had come back into my live in the past year and how that has affected my life. Yesterday alone I heard from an old college friend that I have not heard from in over a year. His life is again all upside down because he is going through a very bad divorce. As we talked about how I was etc. it was apparent he had bigger issues at this time than I did. He did want to know about my situation, but what I got out of it was how I could give him some sound advice about his own life. He has tried to live with an drunk for the past 18 years. He was never a heavy drinker, but in order to cope, he started drinking with her. Thank God he did make it back to church and was able to realize that sometimes the best and only way to cope with a drunk is to leave them. After about an hour we both felt sooo good about having this time to talk. It used to always be that we would talk, but since I did not want to get involved with the two of them, we have not seen each other for about six years. We now plan to see each other this summer. If it were not for both of our problems, we would not have communicated this season.

I also talked to an old old classmate, we went to kindergarten together. We were talking because her brother was out West to see her and fell and broke his hip. I was calling to see if he was doing OK. As it turned out he had been unemployed for a few months back in NC and came to help her fix up her house for some extra money. As it turned out, his friend told him to get food stamps since he was not receiving any income. When he went to do so, the lady at the agency said he should apply for Medicaid at the same time. He was just 60 and was lucky he decided to do so. He is a very proud man, but realized he had no insurance and could not take the risk of going without coverage. Had he not done that, he would have been on the hook for the $40,000.00 hospital stay plus the recovery cost. They actually made him leave the hospital and put him on a plain back to NC because Medicaid covered the cost of an accident, but nothing more. In order to get coverage, he had to be in NC. So even though I'm not for the Health Care issue, I do see how it can rune someone who has no coverage.

I also heard from a high school friend who has it all. His father was the largest independent oil distributor in the Midwest. He has two very large ranches in Montana and Arizona, yet he calls me each week to see how I am. He has also had cancer, and is now trying to recover from a crushed lag that he suffered some five years ago. A mule rolled over on his leg and he would have die if he had not mustered the strength to crawl over a half mile to a road that was actually his drive way so to speak, 26 miles long. As it turned out there were some neighbors, from 30 miles away, that just happened to have gone out for a evening ride, that found him. The leg was smashed in 12 places and he has had to have it redone three different times. The last of it, is his ankle, he has been in a cast for the past four months, and has been unable to ride his horses or mules. He called to let me know he was feeling better and felt he was going to be able to get back on the golf course soon. When he was recovering from prostate cancer, I did call him also, but never once a week. At best once a month, when he fell of the mule, I also checked on him, but again once a month or so. But this guy, one of the hardest, toughest guys alive, checks on me once a week. How does a guy like me get so lucky. Yes, I've got cancer, and they say there is no cure, but I have felt so lucky this past week, that I really feel alive and happy to have so many wonderful friends. Thanks to all of you who constantely check on me. I love you all. Tom