Whoa! Didja get the numbers off that truck?!?

2001-08-20 - 5:49 a.m.

Well last weekend was the Last Weekend of the Summer. That must be why I was walking around in kind of a blue funk yesterday. That, and I missed seeing my intended yesterday morning. Her weekends are getting more and more busy.

This is the last week my kids will be here at my house for the summer. It doesn't seem much like summer with all the cool weather we've been having. It always affects me.

This time last year we drove out to Arizona to see my dad for the last time. He had cancer, lymphoma; The Big C as he called it. They were treating it with radiation, but I knew it was my last chance to see him alive. He knew it too.

So we got in the Intrepid and drove for two days. We spent two days, and drove back for two days. It was an incredible experience for me and I know it made a mark on the kids. It sure was an somber thing that Sunday night, closing the door after saying goodbye to my dad, shaking his left hand in the customary way. That was it, we all knew it, but we all acted just like it was another farewell.

Even though the drive was hellishly long, I wouldn't trade it for anything. D and D and me got to experience it all together: The McDonalds in Texas with the texas shaped sink; the eternal New Mexico sky; driving into the Colorado mountains where the road looked more like a Playstation driving game than reality (10 hours on the road will do that to ya.) And for me, hearing my father say he was tired of fighting and just wanted to die.

And he did a few weeks later. I didn't go to the memorial service, I was tapped out. I did write something and they read it at the service. Not a dry eye in the place but I think they were pre-disposed to that kind of thing.

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