Photo Request. Astronomical Events, and Great Friends

I am working on collecting photos of Jennifer that would be used during her Memorial Services. So, if you have any that you would be willing to share, please feel free to e-mail, text digital copies to me. I can't guarantee they will all make it into the memorial service presentations, but I would certainly welcome any that you would be willing to share. She pretty much tried to shy away from cameras in the latter part of her life.

This morning, I did have a good laugh. The laugh was that I was up early and figured I would go outside and sit on our patio to watch the Perseids Meteor shower. I go out and there are a few clouds, but I could see some stars, so I see one small faint meteor, and then the clouds rolled in and really could not see of the sky.

This caused me to laugh, because Jennifer and I just did not seem to have good luck with astronomical events.

Back in 2017 right after we retired, we made our first retirement road trip to go see the Solar eclipse. We drove from Boerne to Edmond, Oklahoma and spent the night visiting our good friends Dale and Lorie Malody and also got a nice visit in with Greg and Kelly Dykes, we then hit the road north and thought we head towards Saint Joseph, Missouri which was supposed to be a great place to catch the eclipse.

We really did not have a plan, we were retired, had no boundaries and could do whatever we damn well pleased. Well, we found online information that they were going to have an eclipse viewing event that sounded fun at the Amelia Earhart Memorial Airport in Hutchison, Kansas. So that became our destination, we get to Hutchison and find the airport and park and get into the airport grounds thinking we are going to have a great view of the eclipse. The good lord had another plan. As we were driving to the airport, we could see storm clouds off in the distance but were hoping they would break up or not reach us before the eclipse. Well guess what, it clouded up right on top of us about 30 minutes before the eclipse was forecasted to start. We said screw it, let's go and started driving out of Hutchison. Well, the sky got dark, and we pulled into a Walmart parking lot and got out of the car and the clouds parted just enough that we could see the last little bit of the eclipse.

Last year there was going to be a lunar eclipse, here in Mesquite. We stay up late and then got in the car and drove out of town towards the dump. We did this to get away from all of the lights in town. What happens, the damn clouds roll in and we could not even see the moon, let alone the lunar eclipse. So, we said screw it and drove home.

This morning when the clouds rolled in, and I couldn't see the meteors I realized that I had kept our streak of missing astronomical events alive and well and just had a good laugh about it. I felt Jennifer by my side laughing about it as well. So of course, this was followed by a good cry.

The last few days has had me reflecting on many things and one is the great friends that Jennifer and I had during our years together (Another important blessing that I inadvertently forgot to mention yesterday).

As I have stated Jennifer and I went pretty much all the way thru our schooling together, so we had the pleasure of having lifelong friends from that, we also had the pleasure of working together and developing the same type of friendships with co-workers. We moved here to Mesquite and were making new friends together here.

Like I said she left me in good hands. I have heard from many of our good friends from school, and work and greatly appreciate that. Our friends here in Mesquite have been so supportive and looking out for me and keeping me in good spirts. People have been brining me dinner meals and some of them had me over to play cards last evening, I brought a bottle of Champagne to toast Jennifer and our 34 years together. I greatly appreciated them joining me in that toast.

I know some people have difficulty in finding words to say to someone in my boat. Just know that the fact you are there and passing on condolences means a great deal. There are no words that will change the situation. It is what it is, and these are the cards I was dealt, they were outstanding cards for 34 years. I went all in and just got beat on the damn river card.

Enough rambling for today.

For me this blog has been very therapeutic and is helping me to try and come to terms with the new chapter in my life. If you are still following the blog, I hope it is helping you as well and thank you for your love and support.