Happy 80th Mom!

Today is my Mom’s 80th Birthday. We will be having a little gathering of family friends and neighbors to celebrate the day starting around noon. It is not going to be anything fancy just some light appetizers with cake and ice cream and visiting. If you are in the neighborhood stop on in!

A lot of people have been asking how Mom is doing. She is doing well, she is hurting like any of us who has lost their spouse is doing, but having the stress of not having to make the extremely tough decision to place Dad in a rest home off her shoulders and knowing that he is in a better place free from his pain and confinement to a wheel chair has comforted her.

Like I have said before, there are so many things that are worse than dieing. Don’t misunderstand me both Mom and I would give anything to have both Jennifer and Dad back with us, but knowing they are no longer suffering is much better than having to see them in pain and misery and not being able to truly enjoy life is so much worse.

My heart breaks when I realize how many people I know that have spouses or loved ones who are suffering from various types of conditions or illnesses and to see the toll it is taking on them. I saw an old classmate and friend at the store yesterday whose wife is suffering from early onset dementia. I stopped to talk with them and she just wandered off almost like a zombie. We were able to visit briefly and were in the produce section of the store so he was able to keep a eye on her and do a bit of visiting, but you could tell he was stressed and concerned at the same time. He said her mental condition has worsened significantly but physically she is fine.

Jennifer’s Mom used to say if you could take your troubles and hang them on a tree and then pick someone else’s troubles you would likely just go pick your own back off the tree. There is a lot of truth in that. Like I said before we all get dealt the cards we get to play, we may not like them, but they are ours. You just have to pick them up and play them the best you can.

It’s these times of family gatherings and events that I miss Jennifer and now Dad the most. I will even miss Mr Obvious (my pet nickname for Dad) telling us what we should or should not be doing as we prepare for today’s gathering.

We have been having some wierd weather for here. It has been warmer than normal and then in the late afternoons early evenings we have been having some Thunderstorms. Thursday evening parts of Butte got pummeled with heavy downpours and large hail and other parts of town did not get a drop of precipitation. Here in Elk Park we had a brief downpour, but it was just enough to knock the dust down. Last night we got more of a soaking type rain and I hope we get more of those in the next few days. The weather has made for some pretty sunrises and sunsets. The photo below is at Sunset on Wednesday evening.

The interesting thing is this photo is taken looking to the East and not the West. It is from the folk’s back patio. The colors were beautiful and the photo really does not do it Justice.

Anyway, we will take the precipitation in any form we can get it. It will hopefully keep us from breathing smoke later this summer. I guess there was a lightning caused fire not far from us yesterday. We had a helicopter with a water bucket dangling below it fly over the house yesterday morning and it must of helped get in under control because we saw it returning to Butte about a hour later. We could not see any smoke, so they must have caught it early. Hopefully the rain we got last night put out any hotspots they may have had around it.

This morning we are in a fog bank. Can’t even see the mountains! However, it also still dark and just starting to get light out.

Well I better get a move on and jump in the shower, we got a few last minute things to do. We need to get some ice from our neighbor (they have a industrial ice machine) and go pick up Mom’s Birthday cake.