Another Trip Around The Sun

Well I made it through another trip around the sun. As usual, the trip was not a total bowl of cherries. There were high point and lows points. There was again one constant on this journey and that was of course not having Jennifer with me.

I know I am not the only person that has this issue. This past week I attended a fundraising event that a high school classmate and friend has been doing for the past 5 years. She and her husband lost their oldest daughter in a automobile accident due to a distracted driver in the other vehicle.

I know they suffer the same feelings and pain that I do, and would give anything to have their daughter back with them.

Their daughter obviously was a well liked member of her community, as many of the attendees at the event were her friends who have been participating/attending for the five years they have been holding the event.

The event starts with a ATV ride (something their daughter enjoyed doing) around the Georgetown Lake area and then they have a dinner with raffles, 50/50 and silent auction items after the ride. The funds generated are used for scholarships for young ladies looking to further their education and make difference in their community. It is called the Chloe Worl Scholarship fund.

The whole scenario around Chloe’s death is tragic. Montana is one of the only states in the country that does not have a law against distracted driving. The lady that hit her head on on a two lane road in Montana was texting while driving, with her small children in the back of here car. Chloe’s parents have been working tirelessly to get a distracted driving law in place in Montana. It looked like they were going to accomplish that during the last legislative session but the dumb ass politicians in the legislature shot it down at the last minute when it finally got to the floor for a vote. They are continuing to work and will hopefully get in through this next session. For them I pray the politicians get their heads out of their asses and get it done.

The lady who hit Chloe was found guilty in a court of law and was given a 10 year suspended sentence and 400 hours of community service, plus some other BS requirements. I did not ask Chloe’s parents about the status this year, but the last time I had talked to them the lady had not completed one hour of that service.

The law will not bring back their daughter, but will hopefully prevent some other parents from having to suffer the loss of their child and give them some closure.

Sunday we had a nice family dinner to celebrate my birthday. The Galbavy’s came over and we had a nice roast beef, mashed potato and gravy, steam green beans and some delicious Rosemary Bread (courtesy of Renee Ashby) dinner. Dessert was Cherry pie and ice cream! The Galbavy’s brought uncle Joe a bottle of Penelton Whiskey and a bottle of hot sauce. The bottle is in the shape of a hand grenade (so must be pretty hot). I will take that back to Mesquite to try, since no one here likes hot sauce that much.

Today, Mom and I are going in to town to get haircuts and then we are going to have a late lunch. We are going to meet Elaine and Jim, Jeanne and Rob, and Colleen for lunch at the Back Nine restaurant at the municipal golf course. So should be a nice day.

This summer has been a hot one by Montana standards. The folks in Mesquite would kill to have temps in the 80’s-90’s. However for folks up here it has been warm. The only saving grace is that temps drop at night up here. So the mornings are pretty damn hard to beat.

Well I better get a move on. I need to go start watering the yard. Looks like we are going to have another Smokey hot day. We are still getting smoke from fires in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and a few fires that have started up in Montana. If we don’t get some rain here, there will be fires in our area as well. Unfortunately there is no significant moisture forecasted for us and sadly some lightning and thunder storms possible. We had a couple of a lightning storms last Thursday and Wednesday. Thursday’s was a long one it lasted about 2 hours and put out some impressive bolts.

Well enough for today. Let the next trip around the Sun begin. If I complete this next one, it will be a milestone and I will reach the big 60.

D